Nov 2, 20213 min read

Inclination Inspiration

Inclinations and standing kicks! Inclinations can be very challenging to learn but once you get the hang of them, they are a great addition to your flexibility routine.

~Inclination inspiration beginnings~

Okay, quick story...so inclination inspiration began with my Instagram live classes during the pandemic. One class, I was forewarning everyone that we were going to be doing inclinations the following class. I wanted to have a fun, alliteration phrase for inclinations and I started asking people for suggestions. And everyone had amazing ideas! After many different phrases were thrown around, someone suggested "Inclination Inspiration", and I was obsessed! So now, whenever I tell one of my students we are going to do inclinations, I always think in my head, inclination inspiration. Anywho, I thought the history of inclination inspiration was important!

~What are inclinations used for?~

Inclinations are technically a body skill in rhythmic gymnastics. Inclinations can be done to the side or front, and traditionally are done without hands. However, they are a great exercise to help with improving flexibility. When practicing inclinations, there is a huge emphasis on leaning the entire body one direction, while the hips go in the opposite direction. This idea of leaning can sometimes be hard to understand. Usually when coaching people, I have to give the cue "keep leaning" multiple times. But once the concept of leaning is understood, the inclinations become much more doable.

~Push the hips forward~

So as I mentioned above, "leaning" is a very important part of inclination. However, as you lean one direction, you have to think about pushing the hips out to the other direction. Looking at the picture of me to the left, you can see how my hips are pushing to the right as I am pulling my leg to the left. There are two reasons for doing this: the first is balance, and the second is to create an oversplit of the legs (as you can see in the photo). And that is why inclination is such a great tool to use in flexibility training: we can practice oversplit, without any apparatus and it helps us work on our active oversplit! yay!

~"I cannot push my hips and lean though!"~

No worries! Inclinations are very hard and there are some variations of inclination you can do. In the video I posted on my Vimeo account, I explain where to hold your leg, depending on where your flexibility level is. Another wonderful part about inclinations is you can do drills for them on the knee. So if balance is super difficult for you, you can practice the inclination on the knee, up against the wall. I go over so many different drills for these in the video I posted. The only thing about the knee/wall inclination that is difficult, is you really have to lean. So if the leaning concept is hard to understand standing, doing inclinations from the knee might make it even more challenging. So I say, try inclinations standing first, and then if they make sense, then you can do them from the knee.

~Examples of front and side inclinations~

Here you can see examples of front and side inclination against the wall. Notice how in each photo I am leaning and pushing my hips in the opposite direction of the lean.