6. Learning and Teaching Being in Ropes – Muscle and Position Work in Suspension

I hear people saying that you have to be particularly strong, light, young or flexible for being suspended. My experiences with the rope community as well as the pictures of rope practice that people post online prove to me on a regular basis that this is just bogus. I have a lot less rope suspension experiences than many people who are almost twice my age or weight, or are half my strength, or have a much more limited flexibility than me. For sure, there are things that some bodies can do and others not, but if the goal of being in rope is to feel good rather than to produce a certain physical position, it is maybe not so important whether or not a rope bottom can do a full split. And anyways, if you have a body that doesn’t allow you to let’s say put your arms behind your back because of longterm injuries, there are a thousand other ways you could get tied. However, there also other kinds of physical and mental blocks than injuries, and many of them can change with a bit of practice if that is what you want.

TRAINING OUTSIDE OF ROPES
If your goal is to increase your physical capabilities in ropes, other kinds of training can definitely be useful, but non necessarily the same training for everybody.
– Core strength is very useful almost no matter who you are, but take care to give both the frontside and the backside of the body some love. I know people who hurt their backs because they have too strong stomach muscles or vice versa.
– If you are very stiff, doing different types of yoga or stretching can be good. But stretching is a complicated matter. Even the experts don’t agree. After discussions online and with fellow dancers, this is what I would consider a non controversial opinion:

• Listen to your body. Being in a stretch should feel less and less painful, not the opposite. And it should happen rather quickly – if the strain or effort doesn’t recede after half a minute, you are under risk of creating scar tissue that will make you less flexible, not more.
• A stretch is not per se a relaxing practice. Just like an elastic band, the muscle keeps pulling together when you stretch it (they call it the stretch reflex), and will contract when you let go of the stretch. Thus, to try and resolve an issue of stiffness and pain through stretching is not always a good idea. If that is what you are after, try mobilizing with more softness and ease.
• When you stretch with a maximum relaxation in the muscles, you put stress on the connective tissues (the tendons, fascia, and ligaments). There, you don’t have sensory nerves in the same way as in the muscles. This means that you have less possibility to recognize when you do things that can be harmful to you, and you have to be extra careful not to stretch your joints out of place. If you do, you raise the risk of permanent injuries. A typical example of what is not a good idea would be to stretch in ways that pull the knee joint out of its position. The knee joint has more flexibility than a door hinge, but it is actually constructed to fold, not to rotate (whereas for example the hip joint is made to rotate). When you hear yoga or ballet teachers telling you to fold your knee so that it points over your big toe (not inside or outside of it) this is what it is about. Examples of stretch practices where you aim for connective tissues would be yin yoga (you work with a cold body, often letting body weight pull you gradually deeper into stretches) and bikram/hot yoga (you work in such a warm environment that it makes your muscles become soft and wobbly). Especially bikram can be a very pushy practice, where you are told to transgress your own limits rather than being aware of them. If you are into that, make sure you know why you want to do it and how you can protect yourself.
• If you are naturally very flexible in some or all of your joints, risks are that you are hypermobile. You can hurt yourself permanently if you hang in your joints and work on the maximum of your flexibility, even though you feel no pain right now. If you suspect that you are hypermobile in some or several joints, check it up with someone who knows (like a good chiropractor or body therapist) and maybe get some personal advice on how you can train and stretch safely. To to build strength around the joints so that you can hold them in place with the help of your muscles can be one way.

– When it comes to good warm-ups for rope work, there is no specific point in doing stretches or core unless you fancy that. Anything that gets you a little bit warm in muscles and articulations and makes you aware of your present state of body is equally good: jump, roll, dance, box. What you should most of all be interested in warming is your sense of how you (body and mind) are that specific day and hour. Where are you strong? Where are you sensitive? But there are also more technical benefits. When you move, you get the muscles going so that they can protect your articulations. You also often kick some adrenaline and endorfine into the system, which can enhance the experience of being in ropes.

GENERAL ADVICE ON MUSCLE WORK IN SUSPENSION
I think there is much more to say about this, but this is what I think I know:
– Generally, you want to find a way to streamline your body with the ropes, make the force of the body follow the force of the ropes, rather than pushing against them – that will only make it harder. This is not the same thing as relaxing into the ropes. Maybe the image of diving is useful here. When you dive, you want your body to make the least possible resistance against the water. If you push against it or relax completely, the motion is stopped. So active but streamlined muscles is a good idea, especially for the parts of your body that effect your breathing a lot. With arms and legs you can try more pushing if you want to go for a little swim and create motion, rotation and so on.
– If you are up and floating and have a what-the-fuck-am-I-doing-moment, try out how you can move in the suspension, what lines you can support on or direct your weight against without the help of the person who tied you, what muscle groups you can activate and how they change the pressure and breathing in your body. Generally, you can do a lot of things with core, but also with feet, neck, hips…
– If you are in a suspension where you can move a bit, vary between tension and relaxation, don’t get stuck in tensing one muscle group unless you are completely sure that you are depending on that.
– If a position is extremely restricting and does not allow for movement, don’t struggle, just breath and streamline for all that you are worth.

SPECIFIC ADVICE ON MUSCLE WORK IN SUSPENSION
I only have two examples of this so far, but I am looking forward to developing more in the future!

Facedown
Keep breathing? How? I have got a lot of weight on my lungs here…
– Keep your chin up, your throat exposed. It will keep your airways open.
– Relax your belly and lower back. It will make more space in the lower part of your lungs and allows your diaphragm to work propery. However, it will also direct more pressure towards your lower back. If this becomes tiring, try alternating between that and activating lower back and belly, lifting the body up a bit with core and maybe pushing from feet/legs.
And what about the streamlining?
– Start to open your chest already when you are getting tied – don’t let your shoulders hang inwards but tuck them back in a position that follows the ropes. You don’t have to arch back maximum, just give it a clear direction. Once you are up, your position will depend a bit on how your body works. My shoulders don’t move backwards so much, so for me it is a good idea to relax the arms, let the shoulders follow the ropes towards my back and strive forward with my chest. I don’t lock my arms with the thumbs – I keep one hand inside and one hand outside. If, on the other hand, you have very flexible shoulders, it can be good to regulate to what degree your arms follow the ropes backwards. Try being muscularly active in your scapular area (so, it is not the same thing as arms pushing against the ropes.  but note that scapular activity can inflict on your capacity of using the back of your lungs) or controlling the position by locking the arms with the thumbs a bit. Also, you might need help with finding a TK that doesn’t push too hard on your joints.

Upside down
– Breathing: again, keep your chin up (or down, as it were) and expose the throat. You can of course vary this, but if you get dizzy, don’t try to push upwards with your head and chin, look at the floor instead.
– Weight distribution: Don’t relax completely. It will most likely make the ropes more painful and most of all it will pull a lot on your joints. Create torsion and a light tension where you can: In knee joints, hip joints, spine or shoulders (opening them and arching back can help both weight distribution and breathing). You don’t have to use force, but look for what positions you can be in that are muscularly active.

This is all I have for now.
I hope this series of posts can spark good inspiration, discussion and rope!