Rafting!

 Looks fun, right?!

Well, a few members of the NYSSSA faculty and I went rafting on the Sacandaga River today!  It was a wonderful way to spend the sunny day while getting quite the workout.  (Sadly, that's not us in the above photo as you get totally soaked when doing this activity and the camera would not have made the trip out of the river alive....)

Eddie, Marisa (me), Adrian and Erika

all ventured out in our PFV's (personal flotation devices) and rafted down 3.5 miles on the river.  We experienced some pretty decent rapids as well as calm parts of the river that we quite relaxing.  The best part of our day was that while we we able to enjoy the most incredible scenic landscape around us, we got our workout in without even thinking about it.  Here's how it went.....

Before we got into the water, we were climbing up and down hills (engaging our hamstrings) and carrying the raft.  Once we got into the raft we were instructed to "all front" or "all back"; this meant we used the paddles to row in various directions and worked our arms with the challenging natural resistance of fast moving water.  As the raft moved along in an unpredictable pathway, you were forced to engage your core THE ENTIRE TIME or else you could fall out.  I had to stabilize my pelvis and I felt the engagement of my entire stomach area. 

At one point, we got out of the raft and I swam for a good 10 minutes (!) around the vast river -- mostly like a frog with my arms and legs resembling the breast stroke (while on my back and then flipping onto my stomach.)  I was able to increase the range of motion in my hips and my shoulders, which are two of my most tight areas, with a safe low resistance of the calm water.  This is a major challenge for me while standing vertically in a dance class, so I took advantage of this moment!  Getting back into the raft took several tries as you had to hoist yourself back up.   All the while we were laughing, sweating, getting soaked, and taking care of our bodies in a fun and new way -- different from taking a dance class or hitting the gym.  It was incredible to be surrounded by inspirational sights and to have a sense of accomplishment by the end of the day.

Take a look at some of what we saw....

 

Sometimes all you need is a change of venue to spice up your workout and to motivate you in a new way.  This week, why not see how creative you can be, especially while we have such nice weather.  Playing frisbee, hiking in the woods, running in the park, climbing trees, walking to your destination instead of driving there, swimming.... the list goes on and on.  As long as you are moving your body in an active way -- it counts!  (And ending the day with an ice cream treat also helps - that's what we did!)

So.... anyone have a great outdoor activity story to share while motivating our next workout?  

Some more on a current topic...

I wanted to clarify something I wrote about two days ago, following my conversation with a few students regarding how bodies look, vs. how healthy a body really is.  I mentioned a newly coined term of "skinny fat" and after being asked a few questions about it, thought I'd share a little more information. 

In the past, doctors and health professionals have promoted that staying thin and having a low body weight would keep you healthy, but new research shows that this isn't the case.  The Mayo Clinic (in study titled: Hidden fat impacts millions of Americans) now states that total body composition is more important than your overall scale weight -- that "normal weight obesity" or "skinny fat" is becoming more common.  Lead researchers who collected this data believe that even thin people could be suffering from health problems, and that you don't have to appear "fat" to have a high percent of body fat.  Each body has different bone mass and weight of organs, so one must consider blood sugar levels, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure along with other factors. 

So......what's the major point I am trying to stress to our students this summer through this topic?  That it isn't only what a person looks like on the outside that determines their overall heath. The same way that you can't judge a book by it's cover, a person's looks can be deceiving.  I am hoping to empower our students with knowledge, primarily preventative health information, as well as tools to investigate their own body's needs, to do as much as they can to maintain an active and healthy lifestyle.   

Common Dance Injuries

At the end of week one of our four week program, students are already beginning to feel their bodies reacting to the intense curriculum of daily technique, composition and repertory classes.  Muscles are sore, bodies are tight, and exhaustion is setting in.... it's important to keep up our preventative health practices as week two will be here before we know it.  

A great article from Dance Teacher Magazine highlights 10 common dance injuries -- several we have already discussed in class this week, along with a few more we should be aware of.

The first injury discussed, neck strain, is definitely one that the students are facing here at NYSSSA while in repertory class with Erika Pujic.  The fast paced direction and focus changes, primarily with movement of the head, are causing muscles to pull outside of their comfort zones.  It's important to keep the head supported by elongating the neck and spine through actions of flexion, hyperextension, rotation and lateral flexion.  

Students: take a look a the article and comment on your experiences with these injuries or if you are experiencing any of these this summer?  What can you do to prevent them from happening?     

Day 5 - Body Types, Bones and Muscles

We started class with a discussion on three body types: ectomorph, mesomorph, and endomorph.  Each of these three body types have specific physiological and structural characteristics, movement strengths and limitations, which will help us to further narrow our conditioning needs.  Each body is different and no two people will have the same nutritional, strength training, endurance building, etc program -- and that's good!  The same way that we all have our own personal style, our bodies are unique and reflect who we are, the way we like to move and how our bodies react in various situations.  Many students realized they are not simply one type of body, but they reflect two or even all three.  

We studied bones and muscles today too -- and yes, Mr. Sam was there!!

We investigated bones and muscles and began to discuss the kind of conditioning we'll need for each of our muscles and the actions they can perform. More to come on this topic next week.... 

The students took the last 15 minutes of our class to compile a brief collection of important things they have learned about their body this week, and practical applications that we've already learned -- and I have a big homework assignment this weekend... to look through those and help the students to get started on their personal conditioning plans. 

A final thought: one of my most interesting moments today was a quick chat with a few students about how people are so into what their bodies "look" like, that sometimes it doesn't truly reflect a person's fitness ability or overall health.  A new trend of "skinny fat" shows that people who look thin (and are often a desirable body image viewed by others) are really not the healthiest of people -- and someone who may look thick or larger in size, may actually be in great health.  Based on our skeletal structure, our body type, family history and so many other experiences, we are each different and unique and we must simply find out how to maintain OUR best personal health to stay active and injury free. 

DAY 3 -- Chain Reactions in the Body

Last night I took a look at all of the documents the students completed up to this point (skeletal posture, muscular imbalances, heart rate, visioning questions toward goal setting....) and was able to see many trends and similarities among them.  Most students face issues of tight hip flexors, pronated (rolled in) ankle bones, lack of flexibility, and low endurance.  Most of their goals surround these challenges.  We began our class today by talking about three common chain reactions that occur in the body.  Sally Sevey Fitt does a wonderful job, in her book titled Dance Kinesiology, of going step by step to show how these chains occur and what kind of impact there is on other body parts.  We discussed three:

1. Pronation of the tarsus (ankle bone)
2. Leg length difference (leading to scoliosis)
3. Tight hip flexors

As you can imagine, most students in our group (and most dancers in the field) experience resulting pain from one or more of these.  I think the students were surprised to see how a deviation in the ankle can affect the upper spine, or how a tight hip flexor can relate to hyperextension of the knee.  The pain we feel is not often the site of the problem.  

We took a look at how to strengthen and stretch these common pain spots and the muscles that tend to tense up or bulk (low back, quadriceps, gluteus maximus....) and we used a foam roller and some tennis balls to help create pressure on specific muscles. 

The pressure of rolling on a foam roller or tennis ball will help to increase blood flood and generate healing at the muscle site.  It may be painful (!) but it is worth it to keep the muscles from bulking or getting too tense to be able to move without pain or strain, especially while dancing.

For dancers, and runners/athletes, the I-T (ilio-tibial) band is one of the trouble spots.  It is a large connective tissue that runs along the side of the leg from the hip to the knee.  Any kind of movement uses this part of the body and it's important to take time to roll out the I-T band.  It can even cause knee pain. 

 We spent time doing a deep stretch for our hip flexors: on one knee while tucking the pelvis and shifting slightly forward -- you can drop your chin to your chest for an added stretch.  We massaged our calves while discussing proper care for achilles tendonitits, and did strengthening exercises for our hamstrings: laying on our back with feet flat on the floor, lift the pelvis up to the sky with either two feet on the floor or with one foot reaching straight up to the ceiling -- you can place your feet on a chair or physioball for added difficulty.

We are beginning to see that each body is different and has various challenges, strengths and conditioning needs.  The students were sent home with information on three body types and tomorrow we will take a look at the needs for each type of body, and how we can use this information to enhance our conditioning goals.   

DAY 2 -- Postural Assessments

The students learned a long list of new vocabulary words today, including anterior and posterior, superior and inferior, lateral and medial, to name a few.  We learned three planes and the various body actions to do while inside of those planes:

• Sagittal -- flexion, extension, hyperextension
• Frontal -- abduction and adduction
• Transverse -- rotation 

Students gave verbal directions to a brave soul standing in the center of the circle and they had to do a movement to represent the cue like, "do a distal arm movement with abduction in the frontal plane", or "rotate the inferior part of your body in the transverse plane".  The students also demonstrated movement's from Carolyn Adams' technique class and Erika Pujic's repertory rehearsal as we described and evaluated them.

Then we put markers on bony landmarks of the body to begin to assess posture.  Our skeletal assessment considered typical deviations such as forward head, lumbar lordosis, kyphosis, swayback, among others.

You can see Stacy finding the range of motion in Sabrina's knee joint.  Stacy has two green markers near her lower back on her PSIS, posterior superior iliac spine.  The dancers assessed their partner and took careful notes on alignment while also investigating the spine for scoliosis, or curves in the spine, which you can see here:

It was a pretty intense day of assessment and new information gathering.  I asked the students to think about and journal on the process of assessing their partner: feeling for bony landmarks on another body -- which can be strange at times!  Hopefully we'll hear what some have to say about today's class .....

DAY 1 at NYSSSA

Today's class began with a muscular assessment through strength and mobility testing.  The dancers paired up and got to work --- agility; flexion, extension and hyperextension of various body parts; balance...some new terms we discussed include

• pronation (rotating toward the midline, as in rolling in on your ankles)
• supination (rolling toward the outside of the feet)
• flexion (bent limb)
• extension

The dancers measured resting and active heart rates and we will soon discuss the impact of cardiovascular endurance -- especially for dancers and the amount of lengthy repertory that we perform.  It was even a bit of a challenge to do jumping-jacks for 3 minutes while testing! 

The student partnerships interviewed one another and began to do some visioning work that will help us to set goals for this summer and beyond.  They discussed previous injuries, current weekly movement activities and past kinesthetic experiences, strengths, challenges and interests. 

We found that many of the dancers in our group have extreme mobility in their spines and that dancers really do have incredible physical movement capacities.  We have to remember that "normal" people might not ever be able to move the way a dancer can!!  In order to move safely (and to have a long and healthy career in dance) we need to find our movement potential while maintaining proper alignment and increasing strength. 

Let's get to work!

Greetings from Mr. Sam, the skeleton!  He and I (along with a foam roller, resistance bands, tennis balls and other teaching tools) just drove for over 5 hours to Saratoga Springs, NY where I will be in residence for the next four weeks at the NYSSSA School of Dance, a pre-professional training program for high school dancers.  I will be working with 32 of New York State's most talented and eager dancers while getting to the topic of body conditioning - specific to dancers.  Tomorrow is our first day and we'll begin with assessments and goal setting.  We will use this blog to share things we are working on and as a space where the students can post their goals, investigations, challenges, etc.  After the program, this blog will continue for my students, clients, and anyone interested in health and fitness. 

So.... here we go with Day 1 of our four week intensive..... 

But first, one last thing -- don't forget, if you ever find yourself on a long car/train/plane/boat ride like the one I was on today, don't forget to bring a towel or shirt to roll up and place at the small of your low back.  You will keep the natural curve of the spine while being seated for a lengthy period of time.  This will help to reduce the back pain you may feel after a long ride while maintaining alignment.  Happy road-tripping!!

Welcome to Grab Your Sneaks!

Hope you are enjoying the summer and have been spending time outdoors in the hot, hot heat!   Don't forget to stay hydrated as you Grab Your Sneaks!