​You know stretching important. It gives you the muscle flexibility to perform your daily activities with ease, such as getting out of bed, lifting your child, doing yard work or house cleaning. It also reduces stress, improves posture and decreases injuries. And seeing as flexibility deteriorates with age, it’s important to keep working at it.
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The good news is that stretching is one of the most rewarding activities because you can see results fairly quickly. If at the start you could only bend as far down as your knees, by the end of the first week you might see your fingers reaching an inch or two lower. Eventually you will be showing everyone how comfortably you can touch your toes, or clasp your hands behind your back, or even do the splits! 

So here are some tips to help you get your ‘pretzel’ on:

Acrobatics can add that special spice to your dance routine and it is sure to get the audience’s attention. But tumble the wrong way and you risk serious injury. This is where proper technique comes in.
 
“I’ve seen too many dancers with compression injuries, ACL tears and serious sprains,” says Everett Woods, founder and coach at Core Training Gymnastics Centre in Richmond Hill, “Many dancers don’t anticipate the pressure of the landings on the dance floor.” Woods explains that having the ability to create power while performing the skills and to absorb energy during landings is important. Not to mention having spatial awareness to see the point of contact – where their hands and feet belong.   
 
One of the most desired and difficult moves for our dancers is the aerial (essentially a cartwheel in the air), where dancers have to build enough drive to lift off the ground while thrusting their back leg up over their bodies and pushing through their toes on the front. And they have to do it with style. It’s no small task. First they have to overcome the fear of falling face first on the hard ground. Then they need the coordination and physical preparedness to see it through. And finally, there’s the artistry to think about.
 
Once dancers can master the right technique, they’ll start seeing benefits all around. “Our students have said that their tumbling & core training has actually made them better dancers, cheerleaders and skaters. They strengthened the right muscles and worked on controlling their centre, which now helps them jump much higher than before.” While tumbling alone won’t make up for poor dance technique, it can sure give you the ‘wow’ factor.
 
Contact Core Training Gymnastics Centre for information on our Acro Tumbling Classes for dancers, cheerleaders and skaters.