Active Bottoming

In this series you'll find different videos, including movement-in-rope exercises suited to lab-style explorations and physical aftercare, designed to help you:

• Understand what "active bottoming" might entail in these common positions of facedown and torsion suspensions.

• Develop a sense of when your body is safer/less safe in these positions.

• Understand what skills you can develop or utilize, in some situations, to protect the health of your body in these strenuous positions (during and after a session).

• Help riggers to have a clearer sense of when a body is in a more or less compromised and challenging position in these types of suspensions.

• Help riggers to develop a clearer sense of how to balance stressful positions and put their bottoms into easier or harder variations of these positions.
  

The point is not that all of your suspension experiences here on out should achieve these sensations of balance and alignment. Rather these are exercises intended to build body awareness. You might find that they help you understand what small adjustments you can ask for to make positions more sustainable or give you a better sense of what micro-adjustments you can make yourself.

For the Facedown Exploration video:

• Explore first how you tend to be lifted into the position, and then how it feels to be lifted into the position maintaining a more aligned and engaged open-hip position.

• Explore pelvic tilt and low back release, in proper alignment, at various levels, noticing when these subtle movements are more/less accessible to you.

• If possible, attempt this on both a ring and bamboo. If bamboo is not available, explore the difference between being very close to the ring (short lines and wide angle) and very close to the floor (long lines and small angle).

• Finally, notice if it's possible for you to both be in an aligned hip position and in a balanced facedown shape. Some folks with lots of tightness in this position in their hips might not be able to maintain alignment *and* be lifted into a balanced position (such that the weight of the torso is evenly/comfortably distributed between top and bottom wraps).
  

Please feel free to use any other harness as an alternative to the TK while practicing these exercises if it is safer and more comfortable for you or your partner.

* Captions available for this series: English