Yes, working in the back angle of the shoulders, the skin the cat, is fairly strength based. Pike active flexibility and compression are also important for stacking the limbs of the body to use our muscles as efficiently as we can. For bodies who have a lower center of gravity in the hips, the skin the cat can feel exciting. Working to strengthen the back and shoulder power to move the hips can be key.
Exercises that may help you find the connection and how to build strength:
shoulder shrugs in arrow/pencil (elbows straight): really testing the ability to move the hips up and down from the vertical shoulder mobility
shoulder shrugs in pike (elbows straight): only curving the back to the point where you can pull the chest back through to be between the biceps (often in the skin the cat, once the upper back curves, if we don’t have the power to straighten again, we can feel stuck)
small skin the cat rocks: starting in pike, keep the back/chest open/long, moving the hips past the wrists to a point where you still have control, then initiating the shift back to neutral pike from the chest. once these feel pretty good, go to the skin the cat, hold for a count of 3-5/longer (to mimic taking the leg wraps off) and then find that same pull to bring the hips center.
Once the shoulders and back ‘relaxes’ in the skin the cat, it can be pretty tough coming back!!
Keep us posted!