All-Star Stretching: Learned Something Today I Wanted To Share...

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John Butler

Cheer Parent
Dec 27, 2010
371
2,335
To all my fierceboard friends, families and athletes:

Today we took my youngest daughter to a PT Dr. to take a look at her back. She was having some pain in her lower back and being that I have lived with lower back pain most of my life from years of springboard & platform diving stress, I wanted to make sure my little one was OK.

The Dr. we met with was very good and very thorough. He took the time to explain his findings after examining an X-ray of my daughter's lower back and pelvis area. What he shared was quite surprising and I felt something that was extremely important to share, especially since my other daughter Gabi is looked up to quite a bit for her flexibility.

It seems that my younger daughter Amanda has been putting undo stress on her lower back and hips because she has been working her flexibility too much on ONE SIDE ONLY. Basically, in her quest to get more back, shoulder and leg flexibility for her scorpion and other flying positions, she has really been working on stretching on the side where she pulls her positions, but has not been spending equal time in stretching the other side as well. Apparently, this lack of stretching the other side has created a little bit of extra curve in her spine which he was concerned about. His suggestion was that she make sure she spend the time to equally stretch both sides.

He also said that the scorpion body position is not a natural stretched position for the back and hips, thus it is very important that you are careful when stretching in this specific position (not that most don't already know that, but worth sharing none-the-less).

Anyway, I just felt like it would be important to share this. I know that more and more as the sport continues to grow girls are working really hard on getting those body positions and I felt like it was important to share this to anyone who might read it to prevent bad hips and lower backs later in life for many of our young ladies who are so dedicated to this sport.

Good luck to all this season and thanks for listening!!

PS. He recommended a book called "Wharton Book of Stretching" as an excellent resource on proper stretching techniques.
 
I tell all the flyers I know to stretch both sides like you would be pulling all the elements on opposite leg.
 
Just in case you're ever on the opposite side of a pyramid or do a tick tock or something...this will be helpful. Irks me when I see bad right leg stretches.
 
Thank you so much for sharing. My CP has moved on to harder stunts this year since she's on a youth team and has been stretching a lot on the left leg since she is so dominant on the "wrong leg". I will make sure she gives them equal time. This certainly can't hurt her pyramid positions, tumbling and jumps anyway! Thanks John - hope Amanda's back feels better soon.
 
Thank you John! VIP info!! This is also true for muscles in the body. My daughter was evaluated and told that her right side of her body was 2x stronger than the left due to tumbling...It makes sense when you roundoff the same direction over and over and twist the same diection over and over. She now goes twice a week for physical training that works on pylo, core and strength paying pasrticular attention to the weaker side to catch it up.
 
To all my fierceboard friends, families and athletes:

Today we took my youngest daughter to a PT Dr. to take a look at her back. She was having some pain in her lower back and being that I have lived with lower back pain most of my life from years of springboard & platform diving stress, I wanted to make sure my little one was OK.

The Dr. we met with was very good and very thorough. He took the time to explain his findings after examining an X-ray of my daughter's lower back and pelvis area. What he shared was quite surprising and I felt something that was extremely important to share, especially since my other daughter Gabi is looked up to quite a bit for her flexibility.

It seems that my younger daughter Amanda has been putting undo stress on her lower back and hips because she has been working her flexibility too much on ONE SIDE ONLY. Basically, in her quest to get more back, shoulder and leg flexibility for her scorpion and other flying positions, she has really been working on stretching on the side where she pulls her positions, but has not been spending equal time in stretching the other side as well. Apparently, this lack of stretching the other side has created a little bit of extra curve in her spine which he was concerned about. His suggestion was that she make sure she spend the time to equally stretch both sides.

He also said that the scorpion body position is not a natural stretched position for the back and hips, thus it is very important that you are careful when stretching in this specific position (not that most don't already know that, but worth sharing none-the-less).

Anyway, I just felt like it would be important to share this. I know that more and more as the sport continues to grow girls are working really hard on getting those body positions and I felt like it was important to share this to anyone who might read it to prevent bad hips and lower backs later in life for many of our young ladies who are so dedicated to this sport.

Good luck to all this season and thanks for listening!!

PS. He recommended a book called "Wharton Book of Stretching" as an excellent resource on proper stretching techniques.


great post, also I just wanted to say i was your 1,000th shimmy! :)
 
Thank you John! VIP info!! This is also true for muscles in the body. My daughter was evaluated and told that her right side of her body was 2x stronger than the left due to tumbling...It makes sense when you roundoff the same direction over and over and twist the same diection over and over. She now goes twice a week for physical training that works on pylo, core and strength paying pasrticular attention to the weaker side to catch it up.
Great info!! Thanks for sharing!
 
i deffinitely need to stretch both sides. thank you so much for the post! i hurt my back a while ago and only the bad side of my back got hurt because its way less flexible then the other side. i need to find this book lol
 
I always tell flyers (especially my new ones) to make sure they stretch both sides. It not only helps for pyramids ect, but will evenly strengthen their back.
 
Thank you so much for posting this! One of my flyers developed mystery lower back/leg pain in the right side out of nowhere. She went to the doctor and had her back and pelvis x-rayed and they found the same thing however didn't know what had caused it or what they were going to do about it and thought maybe it was just a growing thing! After reading your post I suggested this could be the cause and it just made so much sense to all concerned! My flyer does stretch both sides of her body but not to the the same extent/extreme as her left leg. Thanks so much once again.
 
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