The MOVEMENT Movement: Episode 163: A Contorted Approach to Fitness?

Episode 163: A Contorted Approach to Fitness?

Mar 8, 2023

A Contorted Approach to Fitness?

– The MOVEMENT Movement with Steven Sashen Episode 163 with Kristina Canizares

Kristina became a flexibility coach after her own work healing herself from injury and illness. While she had always been flexible, she did not start training contortion until she was 31, about 20 years behind the recommended age.
Throughout most of her 20s, she had struggled with serious health problems and dance and movement became an integral part of her healing. In contortion, she found a physical practice that was as mentally and emotionally challenging as it was physically demanding. She fell in love with the way that flexibility training opens both body and mind.
For five years she trained with renowned Mongolian contortionist Serchmaa Byamba at San Francisco Circus Center. Despite her advanced age, she was able to perform a contortion table act both as a duet with Serchmaa and as a soloist. She accompanied Serchmaa to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to train and learn more about the history and traditions of this beautiful art form.
However the rigors of full-time training began to take their toll, and by 2010 Kristina was suffering from multiple injuries that made her unable to continue. Doctors told her that she would need surgery, and her contortion days were over. After so many years of battling physical limitations in her 20s, Kristina was unable to accept this diagnosis and began searching for other options.
She discovered that the intense stretching had weakened her muscles and connective tissue, resulting in instability and pain. She began to work with a physical therapist to strengthen overstretched muscles and regain her strength.
She earned her Pilates certification through Body Arts and Sciences and applied that knowledge to her own training. Within a year she was performing again, and actually able to achieve movements that had always been too difficult before.
This method formed the foundation for Fit & Bendy. Kristina found that the methods that helped her recovery also helped her flexibility students at Cirque School LA where she founded the contortion and flexibility programs. In 2013 Kristina released her first DVD, Get Bent, and went into private practice.
Since then she has taught thousands of students all over the world and has continued to expand her knowledge of the body, by studying methods including the targeted strengthening practice of Muscle Activation Technique, and the physical therapy techniques of Integrated Kinetic Neurology.

Kristina coaches a wide variety of humans from celebrity performers and elite athletes to those recovering from injury and trauma.