3 Simple Ways to Promote Healthy Flexibility: Horton Technique Edition
Flexibility is essential to good health for everyone – not just for dancers! Improved flexibility can help minimize injuries, reduce pain, improve posture and balance, boost your mood, and enhance your overall quality of life.
Are you looking for ways to increase flexibility in your daily life? If yes, start with these three simple exercises that Tawny Chapman, OC Music & Dance’s Chair of Dance, has derived from her Horton Technique class. Horton Technique is a classical modern dance technique that “constructs some of the best human skyscrapers in the dance world” as it “produces a long-muscled, powerhouse dancer–something not easily toppled.” 1
Give these exercises a try! Then let us know down below in the comments how you feel afterward!
VIDEO TUTORIAL: Check out our tutorial reel on Instagram and follow along as Tawny demonstrates three Horton Technique inspired exercises.
1. Roll Down at the Wall
Stand tall with your back against a wall, feet in a parallel position and shoulder width apart, and arms by your side. Take a big deep breath in through the nose. As you exhale, drop your chin to your chest and slowly peel your spine away from the wall, rolling down sequentially through the spine. Take your time and continue folding forward at your hips until you feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Hold this position for 15 seconds while taking three deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. When you are ready, return to standing by reversing the motion. Take your time allowing the muscles in the lower, middle, and upper back to elongate as you stack each vertebra back up to vertical. Repeat three times slowly.
2. Deep Forward Lunge Stretch
Take a step forward onto a naturally turned out leg lifting your back heel off the floor. Slowly bend your front knee keeping your patella stacked vertically over your big and index toes. Maintaining a straight back leg, slide the ball of the foot backward and bring both palms flat to the floor on either side of the front leg. Relax your shoulders while driving the hips down and forward until you feel a stretch in the front of your rear hip. Hold for 30 seconds. For a bonus hamstring stretch, press the front leg to straight and hold for a few deep breaths. Repeat on the opposite side.
3. Seated Egyptian Twist
Sit upright in a chair with your feet firmly planted on the floor in front of you. Extend the arms sideways with elbows bent upwards at a 90-degree angle with the palms facing the head. Inhale. As you exhale, spiral the head, arms, shoulders, and torso in one direction. Resist the twisting action by keeping the feet, knees, and hips facing directly forward. Slowly return to the center. Repeat to the opposite side.
BONUS: SUPINE EGYPTIAN TWIST
For a more passive spine opening stretch, lay on your back with your knees bent into your chest and arms in an Egyptian position. Allow the knees to fall to one side. Hold for four deep breaths, then repeat on the opposite side.
