hi everyone it’s kino i’m here at the juventu center in berlin and today’s clip is going to be about hyper extended elbows a lot of people have been asking me what to do when the elbow is hyper extended i know this from first hand experience one of the things that often goes on with hyperextension is over over time if you you know put a lot of weight on a hyper-extended joint you can wear away the joint tissues and harm the joint capsule and ultimately wear around wear down the cartilage really supports and holds the joint together so my elbows hyperextend now if you don’t have hyper extended elbows or joints this is not something you need to worry about but a good way to test to see if your elbows hyper extend is if you just straighten your arm out and if you’re able to really push the elbow joint out and then let that let the hand go forward that would be a good example of hyperextensions when the hand goes down you can see that the elbow is no longer straight but it’s a little kinked out to the side and that smile of the elbow points outward now you don’t want to ever weight on your arm when it’s in this position otherwise you can wear down the cartilage around the elbow joint and it also really doesn’t build a good connection to the ground through the hands so what you want to do if you’re working with hyperextension is you want to focus on balance the opposing forces that work in your arm hyperextension usually is involved in an external spiral or an external reach for example when the elbows turn outward like that it’s almost like the energy is rising up the spine and spiraling outward so you can kind of see that when i put my hands on the ground in order to hyperextend the weight has to be a little bit more into the pinky finger and then that allows the elbow to hyperextent again that’s not something you would want to do so instead of just trying to correct by positioning the elbow in like a lock down format what i found is that in order to work with hyperextension you have to balance that external energy with an internal spiral so that we’re an internal reach and the way to do that is to reach forward through the index finger so for example if the hand is on the ground to balance hyperextension and instead of just like you know positioning the elbow in a certain place instead of following the external spiral what we want to do is press weight forward into the index finger and that will bring the shoulder a little bit forward and the elbow a little bit forward and once you can feel the balance between the external reach and the internal reach the external energy and the internal focus that will automatically position your elbow in the right position and combat hyperextension i’ll show you what that looks like when you’re standing on the hands and knees right so if you’re preparing hair to balance on your arms or handstand this is kind of what hyperextension comes in so hyper extended elbows kind of look like that and again it’s not a weight-bearing position over time it’s not how you want to use your arms you can see how all of my energy is kind of going towards the outside so working the external energy right now so in order to balance that i’m going to grip with my fingertips a little then i’m going to press into the base of the index finger and that immediately turns the elbow joint forward there’s a plane that’s created through the bottom of the wrist once you find that perfect balance between the external spiral and the internal spiral the smile of the elbow will point forward approximately 45 degrees out of that plane of the wrist that’s created right here and this is a wonderful way to work with hyperextension because rather than you know saying you have to micro bend here or you have to lock the elbow or unlock the elbow you focus on the flow of energy in the body and when that happens you not only work with healing and energy flow but you also work with really healthy alignment in the body just to go over that one more time if you have hyper extended elbows instead of following that external reach and just hanging on the joint you want to keep some bit of the external reach but balance that by gripping the fingertips spiraling your energy inward pressing to the base of the index finger and letting the elbow joint spin forward approximately 45 degrees and this will take you out of that locked elbow position your joints will need to be supported by the muscular work of your deltoid your deltoid up here your biceps and all of the connective tissue around the elbows if you have hyperextended elbows or hyperextended joints it’s really hard not to hyperextend but over time this will really help you build you know more health and safety really in your joints and keep the longevity of your practice and the stability of your practice long term thanks so much for watching Video source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gtd36Xu26I
