It depends :)) when the butt is sticking out (ie knees are pointing up to the ceiling), we are in a straddle stretch. If you were to put your hands on blocks or the floor in front of you and bring butt in line with legs as you rotate the knees forward, you'd be in a middle split stretch. BOTH are beneficial, so I'd recommend staying in that straddle a bit longer, placing hands on blocks or the floor and moving the butt back and forth, letting the hips rotate as you move to see if there's a position that feels like it needs more attention!

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eriggs010@gmail.com yayyyy so happy to hear this update!! thanks for posting!

Ahhh yes I saw this picture come through Lenka! Glad you asked this question. It does look like the shoulders are a little internally rotated, which might be causing a pinching or "pain" sensation. Even if you have to bring your chest back away from the wall, I'd love to have you try doing little inwards and outwards rotation of the shoulder blade to see if the external rotation feels better. If this doesn't make sense, let me know, I can film a quick video next time I backbend. Also make sure, you're pushing your shoulders gently up towards your ears. I think it might be less of a flexibility issue and more of a alignment tweak.

Regardless if I'm doing a pole, flexibility, or gym session, I love to spend a quick 3-5 minutes of my fav 3 core stabilization exercises that I talk through in the attached video. Our core is involved in EVERYTHING, so for me personally, this feels really good to do before any type of movement. If I'm doing gym afterwards, I'll normally dive right into the workout and do a round of light weight before each superset to warm up the exact muscles I'm about to use.

If I'm doing pole, it's totally depending on what I plan to do.. if it's something that I'm very comfortable, I'll do a quick 3ish minutes of standing dynamic shoulder & wrist drills + 3-5 minutes lunging sequence for hammies, inner thighs, and hips. If I'm doing something very intense for my body, I will take 30 or even 45 minutes to prepare with active flexibility drills.

If I'm doing just flexibility, I'll spend at least 15-20 minutes on those 3 core stabilization exercises (or variations of them) and then go from there.

hahaha your warm ups 🫣 cracking up over here Vanessa!! Thank you always for sharing (even if you know it's going to make me cry just a little) LOL

Thank you for sharing ailessia@hotmail.com!!

Thanks for sharing this Lenka SAMUELY!! Oh I love this idea!! Are you thinking like a live class via zoom or a prerecorded class? If I were to do this, do you have any requests on the move or focus of the class and how long the class should be, 1 hour?

Vanessa hahah with how protective I am and with how much I care about all my pole babes out there, I should probably add a safety paragraph for a fireman spin 🤣

Susan Papp Mlodzienski lolol 😂 have you tried it before by chance? Are you comfortable with reiko mount?