The week after the New Year is usually seen as the week of fitness and starting new personal health related goals. This is true for me as well; although it also applies to the lifestyle I try my best to withhold all year round.
Prior to beginning my own kind of conditioning program, I began with a three-day juice cleanse supplied by Pressed Juicery. This is the best way for me to get out all of the toxins pent up, and to start anew. As a slight reminder, slowly coming off a cleanse with fresh fruits and vegetables may be the best way to transition. Anything too heavy too soon could leave you feeling woozy.
Monday mornings are dedicated to a sweaty ballet class. Even though there is much stop-and-start action, this does not mean it cannot be a great workout for any body. I usually try to get in class at least two to three times per week.
Pilates will always be one of the most important pieces to my regimen. While stretching and strengthening my body, I enjoy the full-body work, as well as the possibility for injury prevention. I always look for anything with resistance and hardly any impact. As a dancer and an athletically built individual, lengthening my muscles is seen something I constantly strive for.
Recently I have also been introduced to Yoga Tune Up® with a big thanks to Aaron Porter. Talk about a genius group of techniques developed by Jill Miller (creator), used to provide ease in the body through self-massage and structurally repositioning frequently tight parts of the body. If this isn’t one of the best ways to ready your form as a dancer, or any athlete and mover for that matter, then I don’t know what is. Of course there are many other methods – gyrotonics, yoga, pilates, gyrokineses, massage, somatics – however you cannot always do these yourself, or have access to this kind of training so readily.
More info to come: therapy balls and straps needed.
I also am learning the significance of receptors in the body. Motor neurons sending messages to the muscles, don’t always work in the best way. Well that isn’t entirely true; we just have to retrain them. Once you have had an injury, or developed a habit, muscles don’t always remember how to function so efficiently. Therefore tapping into this system of signals, can easily fix a lot of our problems.
If you’ve seen the movie ‘The Theory of Everything,’ you may very well know the effects of this kind of thing failing. However since the brain is so powerful, we shall always have this to repair us, no matter how disorderly we get.
As far as eating goes well that’s simple if you ask me.
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Coffee usually happens, although I’m trying my best to transition to more tea and always water.
Remember to strive for progress, not perfection. This is something I constantly have to remind myself.