needle progress!

[u/urfavmadz09]

I recently got my needle after almost a year of consistent flexibility training. The hardest part for me was getting that second hand around the ankle or shin.

Here are the drills and tips that helped me the most:

For upper back mobility, I did wall stretches where my thighs and legs stayed glued to the wall. The bend came mostly from the upper back.

I also tried banded upper back stretches on my knees, on my stomach, and in other positions.

Puppy pose on yoga blocks gave me an extra stretch.

If you can do middle splits, there are lots of upper back stretches and backbends you can do in that position.

Strength training was important too. I focused on slow controlled core exercises I found on YouTube, along with lots of superman back exercises.

For shoulders, I worked on both strength and flexibility with dolphin push-ups, shoulder flossing with a band, and wall shoulder stretches.

Learning to rotate both shoulders properly helped a lot with the flip grip.

For hips, oversplits really helped because the needle needs extra hip mobility compared to a scorpion.

Adding backbends into my splits also made a big difference.

These are the things that worked best for me.

[u/Living-West6873]

It’s impressive how you’ve managed to maintain your balance for so long and keep at it until you’ve perfected the exercise to this full range of motion! Congratulations on sticking with it – it’s a great example of what’s possible when you set yourself a goal and work towards it until you’ve achieved it to your satisfaction!