Can you lick your elbow? We're willing to bet Allison Schieler, a 25-year-old professional contortionist from Brooklyn, can. Schieler's flexibility is way more impressive than this childhood test.
She can actually touch her head to her butt... and she makes it look easy (kind of).
Cosmopolitan posted a video of Schieler's routines to Facebook, and we're obsessed.
Probably one of the most impressive things, other than her ability to twist her body into shapes we didn't know a body could make, is that she never had any formal training. Schieler is naturally flexible, she told Cosmo, and has been practicing as a contortionist since she was a kid. She learned from videos such as the ones she posts to her own Instagram page now, as well as from footage of circus performers.
AdvertisementADVERTISEMENT
Though she has plenty of natural talent, Schieler trains hard to keep up the strength she needs to perform.
"I'm extremely proud of my contortion handstand variations, which have come a long way since I started training," she told Cosmo.
She told Cosmo that she loves performing, but — in case you were wondering — things do sometimes get awkward.
"I'm also pretty sure I had a lip slip performing a pole set in a very tiny costume once," she said. "I like to pretend that never happened."
Awkward moments or not, being a contortionist seems pretty amazing to us. Not to mention, beautiful. Some of Schieler's poses are downright striking.
Needless to say, Schieler just gained several new fans.