What's Changed About the Way I Coach Flexibility

Forwarded this in an email? Subscribe for all things bendy here:

This coming January, as I set off to Mexico to teach the Circus For Life: Aerial Serpent retreat, I will be celebrating 17 years of coaching.

When I first started as the contortion coach at Cirque School LA it was a side hustle to make a little extra money while I focused on performing. Over the years my passion and focus on coaching kept growing and expanding, as did my knowledge base.

For the first 10 years my approach was very grounded in circus training. I was emulating so much of what I learned from my incredible coach Serchmaa Byamba and trying to understand the mechanics of splits, backbends, and inversions for performance. I earned my Pilates certification in 2013 and that brought in a new emphasis on alignment and core strength, but it wasn’t until I started to learn about the nervous system's role in movement that my approach to coaching really changed.

Light Bulbs: Wiring = Muscles: Nervous System

I had a eureka moment in a workshop with Blair Ferguson at Ventura Training and Athletics in Muscle Activation Technique. This is a targeted approach to strength training that recognizes the relationship between proprioception and neuromuscular communication and the ability to actually use a muscle.

Blair’s description of this relationship really stuck with me and I still use it all the time:

As soon as this explosive nugget of knowledge hit my brain my approach to coaching began to change. I become less focused on skill development and more focused on the underlying functionality of the body. I started to see how so many of us, especially those of us with Adult Onset Circus Obsession (AOCO), are blocked in our quest for greater skill by our pre-existing neuromuscular habits.

Flexibility Requires Neuromuscular Relationships

Since my discovery of the neuromuscular component of strength training I have become obsessed with figuring out how this applies to flexibility and mobility. I haven’t found a lot of readily available information, but I have learned from places like Integrated Kinetic Neurology and the Postural Restoration Institute and applied that learning to the practices and pursuits of flexibility training.

Over the years, this ongoing education and exploration has changed how I coach, the types of exercises I favor, and who tends to come to me for coaching. Here are a few ways that that shift has manifested:

1. I no longer emphasize passive static stretches like splits and hanging backbends. They may be an end result of training but they aren’t a big part of the training process

2. I am constantly searching for the places that are chronically tight or chronically inaccessible and asking if these are failures to communicate within the neuromuscular system

3. My motto for my own training and for my clients is “no range I can’t control,” elevating neuromuscular control over getting deeper faster

4. Working harder often undermines actual progress by skipping over the small but vitally important process of feeling and balancing your muscles and joints

5. These principals and practices are useful at any level, not just for folks who are trying to sit on their own heads. They apply to professional circus performers and people recovering from injuries and folks with chronic pain. They work for any physical goal from standing up from a chair to doing a chest stand.

This new approach is humbling at times. As I work back towards advanced back bending (my goal for 2026 is to get my contortion handstand back) using this new approach I have to be satisfied with doing exercises that are, for the most part, wildly unimpressive. They are somehow simultaneously challenging and extremely effective while being utterly un-instagramable. I’m not doing the stuff that I’m good at, I’m focusing where I need it most.

While many fitness training programs allow us to just turn off our brains and follow a set of instructions, building a neuromuscular relationship requires presence and adaptation. Our inner workings are all different and we are responsible for noticing and responding to our own bodies. This makes my training new and exciting every day.

For me personally this has been wildly inspiring and has elevated my learning and coaching experience to be a real joy. I’m so damned excited about how bodies work, what we are capable of doing, and how much room there is for adaptations if we stay curious and do the deeper work.

Looking forward, I’m exploring new ways to bring my work to those who are interested once I’m done with tour. Lots to come in 2026, kicking it off with Aerial Serpent, a retreat in Mexico from Jan 10-17 that I am co-teaching with creativity coach Rachel Strickland. This retreat will offer folks (not just aerialists, this is applicable to any movement-based artists) tools to physically and creatively stay vital, productive, and healthy. I’m going to be throwing a huge amount of juicy stuff into my curriculum that I’ve been developing over the past years!

If you want to learn more about the retreat, which takes place at a gorgeous circus facility near Puerto Escondido, click that silly button right there.

As always, I love hearing from you and I reply to every email I get even if it takes me a while. I’d love to hear from you and know your comments, questions, and musings.

Happy Bendings,
Kristina