Forums > Beginner Poi Moves > Warming Up- Anyone do it?

Posted: 27th Jul 2009
How about poi as a means of warming up for other things? A really flowy big stretchy stlye spin before a yoga class is the best. Anyone?

Don't mind me, just passing through.

Posted: 20th Aug 2009
12 oz. curls

haha

Posted: 24th Sep 2009
Hey guys - a lurker making his first post here. Just to add my story to this topic.

I injured my elbow doing poi almost six months ago and it's still not better (sob). I'd been practicing for hours a day in my first four months of learning, and like many people, usually didn't do much in the way of warm up. I thought it must be pretty hard to injure yourself spinning some socks around.

That day i'd just learned a 360 waistwrap weave turn, you know the kind where one arm is in its most extreme position behind the back into front wall plane. Later that day I jumped straight into that move from cold and pulled my elbow instantly. Didn't think it was too serious at first, and even (stupidly) spun a little the next day. Then the pain really came and I went to the doctor who said it was slightly dislocated and sprained. He popped the joint back in place and said it may take a few months to heal.

Won't bore you with all the details, but while my elbow is not very painful now (6 months later), it's still not fully healed, can't comfortably outstretch my arm to straight position, soft tissue damage in the joint apparently. I'm starting a new course of physio now (more ultrasound and TENS) so fingers crossed for return to spinning form in the nearish future.

I'm sure all fellow addicts can imagine the knuckle-knawing frustration of not being able to spin (not with two poi anyway). Almost wish I could stop myself watching all the inspiring videos that make me want to practice, but that's not going to happen. Oh well, at least my non-injured arm is getting pretty good at poi now

Moral of the story.. as previous posters said, warm up with *at least* the easy, gentle moves before doing any stuff that's harder on your body. Take it easy, happy spinning.

EDITED_BY: Nightherons (1253953214)

Posted: 28th Nov 2009
Hey all, this is an old post but it caught my attention. I'm not an expert but I've been doing a lot of reading on stretching lately.

There's really three things you need to warm up, your muscles, tendons and joints. Without warming all of those up you could be doing short term damage (pulling a muscle or injury) or even long term damage (joint pain, arthritis, or injuries that don't heal correctly). So I keep this short I'm going to post 3 links that will help.

1. Some information on joint lubrication. There's probably better resources out there but it explains what some long term damage can be.
2. Nick from PlayPoi with Physiotherapist Jamie Dunnett. This is from Nicks DVD The Scales of Poi. He was kind enough to post it and it's an amazing resource (25 min long).
3. Flexability! I had gotten this link from other topics on the forum. There's a ton of information here including why you should warm your body up before stretching, why you should do dynamic stretching before your activity, and why you should do passive stretching at the end. Read all 3 pages!

Those spots are where I got most of my information. I've been doing yoga for several months, but I couldn't figure out why I haven't been getting much flexability. Once I read the TricksTutorials information I remembered that I had gained more flexability in 3 months of karate then I did in 3 months of yoga, and I now know why.

A lot of what we do is repetitive motion also, which gives you a greater risk of injury. You may not be doing it 8 hours a day like people that work on computers, but carple tunnel syndrom and eye strain aren't much different then spinning injuries. They're all preventable if you take care of yourself, warm up, and listen to your body. If you're straining to get your hand across your back for a BTB weave take a month to work on flexability instead of hurting yourself to learn a new move.

Faolan

Posted: 28th Nov 2009
Nice resources.

Thanks.

'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland