Exercises For The Upper Back And Shoulders. Part 1.

Since the shoulder complex is attached to the upper back, exercises that target the upper back can benefit the shoulders as well.

Setting the shoulders in proper alignment is an important first step. Here is a link to a tutorial to help.

Opening The Front Of The Shoulders.


Now for the exercises. Following the photos is a video tutorial, so if you don't want to go through the pictorial walk through you can scroll on down to the video.

Exercise #1

Laying prone on the ground or a yoga mat, lengthen through the body. Legs are in parallel, lengthen along the tops of the feet. Fore arms are on either side of the body. Core is braced, glutes engaged, and there is a little squeeze (or engagement) in the hamstrings.

Inhale as the shoulders lift and lengthen away from the mat, staying long through the back of the neck.

Exhale as the shoulders lower back down to the mat.

Repeat 4 more times for a total of 5 sets.

Exercise #2

Place the hands hand over hand underneath the forehead.

Inhale as the shoulders, upper back and arms lift away from the mat.

Exhale as you lower back down to the mat. Repeat 2 or 3 more times. You should start to feel the exercise into your lats.

Exercises #3

Inhale as you lift the upper back and shoulders.

Exhale as you straighten the arms diagonally from the shoulders.

Inhale as the arms come back in.

Exhale as you lower back down to the mat.

Repeat 2 or 3 more times.

Finish with Child's Pose as a recovery stretch. Below is a picture of the stretch. The one I do in the video is a terrible example!

Image source.

Here is a video tutorial with a variation that uses a resistance band.

Thanks for hanging out and watching!

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~Erin

DIY Exercises For At Home Or Away.

I'm removed from my gym for a few days. But no matter. There are exercises that can easily be done at home! Here are some of my favorites! Just click on the links.

Image source.

Dog-Split Yoga Series.
I love this one and it is a killer as well as a great strength build.


Image source.

Awesome Abs!
I used this series for both dancers in core training and for fitness classes. I love it. My sixteen year old even kicks it out now and again. So if your visiting with family see if you can get some loved ones to do it with you! I promise there will be camaraderie and laughter!



Image source.
Pilates Swim And Grasshopper.
Once your body is warmed up with Dog-Split or Awesome Abs, then this is a really good one for core, glute and hamstring work.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~Erin

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Exercises For Good Posture.

Today's post is a reconstruction of a series of posts I did about a year and a half ago. 

To see the original posts you can click on the following links:

Exercise #1.

Exercise #2.

Exercise #3.

Or, you can see a version of them below.

Having good posture is important. Not only can good posture make you look younger, thinner and more confident, it can make you feel better. Better circulation, better breathing and better functional movement.

What better time than the approach of a new year, although anytime is a good time for better posture!


Exercise #1;

Laying down on your back on the floor (the most reliable hard surface usually) with knees bent, place your feet about hip width apart.

Feel your neck relax and feel lengthening through the back of the neck without jamming the chin into the chest.

Next, gently press the backs of the shoulder blades against the floor. You want to feel as much of the blades against the floor, without squeezing them together. Rather, feel the space between the shoulder blades expand, being careful to not allow the front of the shoulders to hunch in towards the chest.

As you maintain this neck and shoulder alignment, create space between the shoulders and the ears. I have heard it described once as if you are sliding your shoulder blades into your back pockets. 

Keep the majority of focus, for now, on the neck and shoulder area. Gently pulling the bellybutton towards the spine will help stabilize the rest of the body. Allow your hips and legs to stay relaxed, as if melting into the ground.

Once you have dialed all of these cues in, maintain this alignment for 4-6 focused and deep breaths. Release by bringing your thighs to your chest and hugging your legs. You can add gentle rocking side to side for a gentle massage. Or take a break by simply letting your entire body to rest and reflect for a moment. Then redial all of the above cues back into your body and begin again.

Repeat this exercise 3-5 times, or as desired, a few times a week or even daily.

An exercise like the one above can help train awareness of one's posture, and awareness is the first step.

Exercise #2.
We will move to the backs of our shoulders. They should be relaxed and spread as flat as possible, being sure to listen to your body for signs of pain, on the floor. Visualize lacing up the front of your rib cage, while allowing the back of the rib cage to melt into the floor.

We now journey to our hip and pelvic region. Our back is in a neutral position when the natural lumbar curve (the curve of our lower back) is present. By tilting the pelvis towards the ribs we flatten out that curve, creating an elongated spine. Then release and go back the neutral spine position. That is one set. You can do repetitions at a medium tempo, or hold the tilt portion for longer before releasing. Keep the focus on the pelvis and keep the work out of the legs.

As you work between the two pelvic tilt positions engage the core by pulling the belly button to the spine.

Quick, check in with the shoulders and ribs!

Exercise #3.

Let's run through some alignment principles;

neck relaxed.

back of the shoulders and ribcage are "melting" in to the floor.

front of the ribs are "sewn" shut.

belly button pulled to the spine (belly button to spine will be on the more intense muscle engagement for these exercises. "Standby" mode would be to simply brace the muscles of the torso as if bracing to be patted on the belly, or God forbid, punched in the stomach).

natural curve of the lumbar (small of the back) is present, but not exaggerated.

knees lined up with both the hips and feet (knees are not touching).

weight is distributed evenly through the feet.

Next we are going to challenge this position by incorporating arm movement.

Inhale as your arms extend towards the ceiling.




 Exhale as your arms reach overhead, careful to not let the ribs pop open, or the pelvis tilt away which would increase the lumbar curve and stress the lower back.




Inhale as you reach the arms back up to the ceiling.



Exhale as you bring them down along side your body.



You can further increase the challenge by doing this arm exercise in a seated position.

Starting with your right arm, reach it in front of you.



Be sure to keep your shoulders square and away from the ears. Ribs are securely fastened in front. Abs engage.

Maintaining the alignment in the torso, slowly reach the arm overhead. Keeping the focus on alignment. As soon as proper alignment is compromise, readjust the arm and secure proper alignment.



Be sure to do an equal amount on each arm.

Now you can try both arms together.

Don't let this happen...



Ribs are popped. Lumbar curve is exaggerated. Core is not engaged. Yikes!

Keep that alignment...



Take some time to get that posture aligned for 2014!

Thanks for hanging out.

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~Erin.

Technique On A Tuesday; Stabilizing The "Standing" Hip {and a really good hip warm-up}.

So instead of Technique Tuesdays I'm adopting the name "Technique On A Tuesday" due to the fact that I seem to manage every other Tuesday, or so. Perhaps if I can manage to get a post up more consistently I'll go back to the former and drop the latter. But for now, I like it.

On to today's post.

 Stabilizing The Standing Hip. First, a quick and basic primer on what parts of the glutes do. The gluteus maximus gives us that booty popping shape (when trained to do so) and it works to bring the torso back into an erect position (coming from stooping or leaning forward). The gluteus medius has a hand in the outward rotation of the hip (turn-out). The glutes, in all their parts, are much more complex. But that is a basic overview.

In this photo I am letting the hip of the "working" or "gesture" leg (the one lifted in passe), namely the gluteus maximus, do most of the lifting. This causes the hip of the "standing" or support leg to essentially disengage, or not fire up in a way to stay stable. I can certainly hang out and find some semblance of balancing. But if I were to add any type of challenge, rising onto the ball of the standing foot, a jump, pivot of the heel or a turn, I would most likely fall out of the position.

In this picture I have engaged the supporting hip. The difference is subtle but vital. Here I have "quieted" the gluteus maximus of the passe leg and fired up the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius of the support leg. The gluteus medius of the passe leg is also more engaged than in the previous photo. Of course, all the muscles of the both legs are working. Each doing their specific job.

Some of the ways I have described this is to think of the hips as a type writer roller (yeah, I know not all age groups will know what I'm talking about). If your type writer roller is at an angle then your type writer is busted. To fix it it you must keep your roll level.

I have also jokingly asked what a student would do with their glutes on their supporting side if they knew I was coming in with a punch right to that area. That usually increases the engagement of the muscles.

A couple of good exercises to practice this, and some great hip warm-ups;

Here are a couple of exercises that emphasize pinning and stabilizing the supporting hip as well as the supporting side of the body.

I use these when I teach mat Pilates as a warm-up for both the hips and the concept of firing up the supporting side.

Passe Hip Circles.


Start with legs parallel, knees facing ceiling and toes pointed. Arms are alongside the body.

Engage the core as you draw the right knee up.

Pin the supporting side, or base side, of the body to the floor or mat. This requires an effort along the entire side of the supporting side of the body, especially in the core region (I like to call this area "nipple to kneecap").

Then lengthen the leg to its start position.

Do about 5 sets. Inhale as you draw the knee up and out. Exhale as you lengthen.

Do 5 sets in reverse.

Inhale as the knee draws to passe. Exhale as the leg lengthens.

Be sure to do the other side in equal amounts.

Table-Top Leg, Across and Side.


Bring the right leg to a table-top position.

Inhale as the leg crosses the mid-line of the body. Keep the back of the pelvis pinned to the mat. Don't loose control and fall over to the left.

Exhale as the leg opens to the right side. Keep the left, or base side, of the body pinned to the floor or mat. Don't let the body fall with the leg.

Do about 5 sets. Be sure and do the other side in equal amounts.

I love these exercise as they illustrated the importance of the supporting side, and they are great warm-ups for the hips.



Let's hear it for my crack-shot photographer! ( My 12 year old son, Neil).

Thank for hanging out! If you like what you see, subscribe at the top!

Enjoy the dance that is life!

~ Erin

Stuff I've Been Working On.

Here's a video of a dance I've been working on in my Teen/Adult Lyrical class.

As soon as I heard Katy Perry's "Wide Awake" I fell in love with it and knew I had to use it for something.

Each week I try to add a bit more choreography while also cleaning up and trouble shooting steps I've already set.

Its a fun process. That is, when I don't have a deadline, like an upcoming performance date.

Ballet-Fit is another class that I teach. It is designed for the beginning teen or adult dance student, while also providing challenges for participants with previous dance training. I've always loved teaching beginning adult dancers. Over the last year or so I've been trying to really hone a class format that combines some classical ballet technique with a more action/fitness oriented movement vocabulary. For the last couple of months this is how I've been structuring it;

A little bit of pilates

A fair amount of Balletone: Sole Synthesis

Some classical ballet barre technique

Stretching and core

Because some people want "this" and others want "that" and others are fine with "this or that" and I want people who are going to be delighted to show up each week, I've had a few  hair-pulling moments trying pin down an exact format. While I don't want to lock myself into one style or vocabulary, I do want something that will have some consistency and familiarity (not reinventing the wheel every other week) that will also keep things exciting and effective.

I had posted a query on facebook a month or so ago in hopes of feedback;

Dancers, dance and fitness enthusiasts and anyone whose ever had an interest in ballet training, or not, really an interest in any kind of dance. I would love to get some feedback and opinions on something. For years I have taught various adult ballet classes. Over the last year or so I have brought in more strength training concepts into my dance instruction as well as of more recently the Ballet...

one format. Balletone combines fitness, ballet training techniques, pilates and yoga.
Okay, here's where I need feedback;
I would like to get a feel for what people are generally more interested in when looking for an intro to ballet technique training and concepts as a form of exercise.

A). More traditional ballet format; barre, centre, diag. across the floor work.
or
B). A more mid-intensity dance-fitness related program (like Balletone). Basically a less traditional approach than classical technique. No barre, everything done in the center.

Along with facebook, I've been asking colleagues and friends as well as current students. I've gotten some great feedback. The conversations always lead to revelations as well, which are always beneficial.

 

The last couple of weeks I have really focused on combining core elements from pilates, classical ballet barre techniques (not to toot my horn, but I've got some killer barre routines!) and some center combos related to Balletone to "test-drive" what was worked on at the barre.

 

The class I taught last night felt like the first step to really honing in on what I envision.

 

I started off with some pilates mat work that focused on alignment principles.

Then I used a few ballet barre combinations that related to those principles.

The final portion of the class was using some Balletone segments to challenge what we had worked on, but at a slightly faster pace. Sometimes the body just needs to move!

 

I was fortunate enough to have a great conversation with my participants afterwards. I talked a bit about the methods to my madness, and they gave me some great feedback.

 

We all agreed that nobody wants to be in "tendu hell" (the practice of only focusing on the technique of one step, for a really long time, until the students' eyes glaze over and their will to live is considerably diminished).

 

They shared with me what they felt was challenging and also where they felt they had improved from previous classes. Very valuable information to me!

 

So, I'm still knocking around in my ol' brain pan exactly how I want to structure my Ballet-Fit class. This I do know; it will never bore me, and the challenge will always keep me striving for newer and better ways to make the principles of dance training accessible, effective and fun. I love that!

 

Thanks for reading. I would love to get feedback on any of the subjects above. Leave a comment or visit my DanceFitErin facebook page. Be sure to click on the "like" button while you're there!

 

Enjoy the dance that is life!

 

 

Taught My First Balletone Class...

...last week. What is normally a teen/adult beginning Ballet class w/ an emphasis on fitness that I teach on Wednesday evenings, got a make over as a Balletone: Sole Synthesis class.

What is Balletone?

It is a fitness program that uses dance-conditioning methods of ballet training, as well as principles from pilates and yoga to build strength, flexibility, core strength and cardiovascular conditioning.

Here's a video snippet with the owner of Balletone, Shannon Fable.

So that's a little of what it is. How is it different from some of the formats or movement methods that it incorporates?

Ballet;
Balletone is done in the center of the room, no barre exercises, where as a traditional ballet class would employ both. In ballet training there is a great deal more verbal explanation, demonstration of a combo, execution of the combo by students, then back to more explanations and demos. Stopping and starting. Because many aspects of ballet technique can be somewhat challenging and precise, time is needed to adequately explain. That's not necessarily a negative, at least I don't see it that way. Its just a reality, one that has to be weighted against what one's goals are.

Balletone utilizes many of the foundations of ballet; maintaining proper alignment while executing plies, tendus, lifting the leg front, side or back (arabesque) in a turned out position, passes and lunges. As well as engaging multiple muscle groups in a sustained, lengthening manor, coupled with full range arm movements. All while staying in constant motion. That's why it great for seasoned dancers too!

Pilates;
Balletone is off the mat. It is started from a standing position. Barefoot training and awareness is an important aspect of the Balletone program, regardless of which format (Sole Synthesis, Standing Flow, etc.). Keeping control of the core, while sustaining the recruitment of engaged muscles through movements is a key concept in pilates. This key concept shines in Balletone!

Yoga;
I've taken just enough yoga to know that it is no joke when it comes to strength, control, flexibility, physical and mental endurance! I'm falling madly in love with it! There seems to be an endless supply of challenges gracefully and politely waiting for me to peel back the layers of. While at the same time providing me with an opportunity for introspective thought in both body and mind, and a chance to replenish. Whew, yoga and I just had a moment...

In the Balletone: Sole Synthesis format, the yoga-inspired movement sequences provide a shift in movement and intensity, but not a rest. An important opportunity is provided to stretch and further internalise to prepare for the next set of challenges.

Cardio;
 You are constantly moving at a low-impact, mid-range intensity (hills and valleys of exertion) throughout a Balletone workout. Mid-range cardio is a cardio intensity level often overlooked.Think something between a brisk walk and a Zumba class. Invigorating as well as challenging.

What kind of footwear does one wear for Balletone? None!

Interested? If you are in the Chico, Ca. area come check out my Wednesday 6:30pm Ballet-Fit class (perhaps soon to be Balletone exclusively) at Kinetics Academy of Dance.

Thanks for reading.

Enjoy the dance that is life!