Welcome to Virtual Flex - the online studio for your movement education

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What is an outside leg?

An inverted trick where the back of your knee of your outside leg is your main grip point, other grip points in this trick are the back of the inside shoulder and up the side of torso. Greater tension is created by extending through your spine and inside hip, pushing your inside shoulder into the pole, squeezing the hamstring of your outside leg and being in the correct position. The inside leg (back leg) can be in a variety of positions to create other tricks but I recommend students learning with the inside straight and slightly turned out at the knee and have this be your go-to for your muscle memory, some people will say this is purely an aesthetic choice and while that is technically true I believe teaching it this way results in greater intention in the shape as well as sharper lines, but once you’re confident in this trick you can technically do whatever you want with your back leg.

Problem: I never feel like I have grip behind my knee. I feel like I will fall if I let my hands go.

Problem: I struggle to get my hips up when I invert into an outside leg, my hands get stuck under my knee or I don’t have a very good knee grip because my timing is off.

Problem: Can you do an aerial invert without inverting?

Yes actually, if you consider an aerial invert to be getting your ass upside-down while in the air (as opposed to an aerial straddle, I like to give them different definitions for a variety of reasons). This is why I have such a focus on teaching the showgirl - ice skater - showgirl sequence in pre-intermediate. I would love it if you could handle this sequence AND aerial straddle, but one or the other is generally going to work for people initially. Let me know if you have any questions after watching this video. You can ask questions in the question box at the bottom of this page.

Problem: Can you do an outside leg from a crucifix instead of from a straddle/chopper?

Yes! Its a little trickier to get a good outside leg hang from a crucifix, its definitely much simpler from a straddle, but with a little careful technique it can be done. I recommend this an option to pre-intermediate students because I would like them to have an introduction to leg hangs but I don’t want them working on their straddle if they are not ready for it because it can really mess up their invert form if they start trying straddles too early.

Watched all of the videos above and they are starting to make sense? Try out the pre-intermediate combo below. If you have never done these tricks before make sure you learning them in detail with an instructor first because there are lots of little things you might miss. Please imagine these combo videos have music, I ran out of time lol.

Happy to send video feedback to the whatsapp/online clients. Also happy to book a private on zoom if you have a home pole.

The combo below is genie - martini- showgirl - ice skater.. Let me know how you go!

Advanced drills for straddles and outside leg hang

Advanced drills for straddle and outside leg hang