Page 62 of Salto

That was it.

No awkwardness. No questions I didn't want to answer.

He walked toward the center of the floor.

“All right. Kick up to handstand.”

I obeyed, quickly kicking up into what was probably the most basic skill in all of gymnastics. But it was in everything. The literal foundation of so much of what I did.

His hands clasped my calves.

“We are going to start out small. I am going to slowly lower you down to a plank position. Stay tight.”

I held a tight handstand hold, and then he lowered me inch by inch. My body tightened the way it normally did, nothing out of the ordinary for me. Not really painful. Just a familiar small twinge, but it was barely noticeable.

His hand fell to my lower back.

“You’re overcompensating.”

The warmth of his palm landed exactly where my body had instinctively tensed.

My eyes widened.

“I need you to relax this spot a little. Think about tightening the muscles around the pain, not where the pain is.”

It had taken him all of two seconds to find where I'd been guarding.

“We'll repeat this until you naturally tighten your body with equal distribution.”

He guided my legs back to vertical before slowly lowering me again.

We did this exercise probably eight or nine times. By the ninth attempt, I started to feel where I naturally tightened and needed to relax.

“Take a breather.” He let me kick out of the handstand, and I rolled out my shoulders before wiping a bead of sweat from my brow.

Without saying anything else, he crossed the room to the speaker sitting in the corner and turned on some quiet music.

Easy-listening pop started playing, softening the silence.

Thank goodness.

When he came back over, he gestured to the floor again.

“All right, let’s try a press. Start on the floor.”

I got down into a straddle. He stepped in front of me, then reached down and placed his hands on my hips, guiding me upward as I pressed, lifting my legs into a handstand.

“Pain?” he asked.

“Just a little in my abdomen.”

“Engage around the pain.”

It sort of made sense when he said engage. But it also was easier said than done.

I lowered back down into a straddle and then immediately pressed into another handstand.

And another.