Lauren Kehl is a Seattle-based aerial coach, Pilates instructor, and GYROTONIC® trainer known for her technical expertise and innovative approach to coaching. She began her aerial training in 2008 and has been coaching for over 15 years, dedicating her career to refining technique and advancing coaching methodologies.As a curriculum developer and co-leader of the teacher training program at Versatile Arts, Lauren specializes in mentoring other coaches, helping them build a strong foundation in biomechanics, progressions, and student-centered teaching strategies. She has developed Movement First Aerial, her own methodology that focuses on understanding foundational movement patterns to create strength, efficiency, and artistry in the air.Lauren works with students of every level, tailoring her teaching to meet individual needs while fostering growth and confidence. Her approach blends aerial arts with Pilates and The GYROTONIC® Method, creating a holistic foundation for strength, flexibility, and injury prevention.Her work is a trusted resource for aerial instructors and students alike, providing tools to deepen technical understanding and refine their practice. Learn more about Lauren and her resources at laurenkehl.com.
Do you squeeze?
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Hey Reader, Here's something I've been thinking about a lot: How pre-squeezing your lats might be holding you back from your straight arm skills. I know, you’re probably wondering what the hell I’m even talking about. Let’s discuss! Pre-squeezing a muscle is when you engage, or contract, a muscle before you do an exercise that uses that muscle. For example, if you were going to do something like a glute bridge, this means you would squeeze your glutes before lifting into the bridge. This can be a helpful technique, particularly if you’ve lost neurological connection and sensation in the target area. Pre-squeezing is a way to help you start to reconnect your brain and nervous system to the area that it’s disconnected from. Basically, it’s a way to remind your body that a certain part of your body exists and has a job to do. But it is ABSOLUTELY something that you can overdo. And if there is one thing that I know about aerialists and pole dancers, it’s that if they CAN over do something, they absolutely WILL. Y’all really want to do everything at 200% all day, every day! Pre-squeezing excessively can lead to muscle gripping, which is not great because our muscles need to relax sometimes, and other less than ideal things like dysfunctional movement patterns. “Engage your core” is a great example of this. Lots of people hear this cue and proceed to squeeze their abdominals. But if you’re squeezing your abdominals as hard as you can and then asking them to do something, like help lift your butt over your head, they may not have enough juice to do that well because they’re using it all up already just by squeezing. It also makes it a lot harder for them to get long, so if you squeeze your abdominals and then try to do something like a back bend, it might end up being really hard to keep the squeeze and bend at the same time. And then you might end up releasing them altogether, instead of allowing them to lengthen under load, which is what you really want. And if you're always squeezing your abs, you might end up creating a whole host of other issues around how they engage! It’s just not really the way our bodies were designed to work! Does your cat think “engage core!” before they jump onto the counter to try to steal your dinner? No! They just jump, and their muscles know what to do! Okay, so what does this have to do with your lats and your straight arm skills? This is going to be particularly problematic for inverting because one of the things that the lats help with is spinal extension. When you pre-squeeze your lats, it might be pulling you out of spinal flexion and towards a back arch, and that is the LAST thing you want when you’re working on inversions! This pre-squeeze is also telling your lats what length they should be, which is whatever length they are in the squeeze. That’s going to make it super hard for them to shorten or lengthen when they need to as you’re going through your inversion. When we’re hanging from straight arms, our lats should be in their most lengthened position. As we lift the body, and bring it to the arms, the lats contract concentrically and get shorter. As the body lowers, the lats lengthen under load, the eccentric contraction. Wondering if you’re pre-squeezing? Try this! You should do this where you can watch yourself in a mirror, or film yourself. Anchor a band and lay down with your head pointing at the anchor. If it looks something like this: You’re probably pre-squeezing your lats! Something like this: Is a bit more functional. I think about letting my arm come around the side of my body, and pushing my armpit up towards my hand as it’s lifting, which sounds weird to say but might actually make sense when you do it. You might also start to notice yourself squeezing once you’re paying attention to it, so see if you can just get that shit to relax a bit and notice how it changes your movement! Remember, less is more when you’re working on re-patterning movement! If you do this with the stiffest band available, you’ll probably end up reinforcing what you’re already doing! Find a light enough resistance that you can actually change the way you’re moving while still having resistance to give you feedback. If you love my brand of nerd shit, Aerial for Nerds is coming back soon! And this time I'm offering a sweet early bird discount, but only if you're on the waitlist! And if you used to be on the waitlist, you should make sure you're on the new one, sign up here! Love, Lauren |
Lauren Kehl Aerial Fitness
Lauren Kehl is a Seattle-based aerial coach, Pilates instructor, and GYROTONIC® trainer known for her technical expertise and innovative approach to coaching. She began her aerial training in 2008 and has been coaching for over 15 years, dedicating her career to refining technique and advancing coaching methodologies.As a curriculum developer and co-leader of the teacher training program at Versatile Arts, Lauren specializes in mentoring other coaches, helping them build a strong foundation in biomechanics, progressions, and student-centered teaching strategies. She has developed Movement First Aerial, her own methodology that focuses on understanding foundational movement patterns to create strength, efficiency, and artistry in the air.Lauren works with students of every level, tailoring her teaching to meet individual needs while fostering growth and confidence. Her approach blends aerial arts with Pilates and The GYROTONIC® Method, creating a holistic foundation for strength, flexibility, and injury prevention.Her work is a trusted resource for aerial instructors and students alike, providing tools to deepen technical understanding and refine their practice. Learn more about Lauren and her resources at laurenkehl.com.