A Dancer's Guide to Stronger Hips

Although most people don't consider hips to be an essential part of strength for athletics, they are one of the most important. Your hips are the center of your body and are what support the upper and lower half. Any injury to the hips can lead to back pain and knee pain. Coming from personal experience, any time you work out, make sure to work out your hips. Being a dancer, I know that my hips are one of most used part of my body while dancing. To have alignment, posture, balance and technique, my hips must be strong. There are many hip strengthening exercises that I use. The most popular one, is clam shells. The point of this exercise is to open and close your legs to work on your hip rotation and hip flexors.

To complete this exercise, lay down on your side. To achieve the correct position, "Bend your knees to a 45-degree angle, legs and hips stacked" (ATI 18). Keeping your feet together, life your upper knee towards the sky, then back down, and repeat. While doing this exercise, your hips should be in line with your back to keep posture and alignment (ATI 18). An example of this exercise is shown below.

What do you think the result is of overuse in your hips?
ATI, PT. Strengthening Exercises.

A Dancer's Guide to a Stronger Back

Just like many other athletic activities, back strength is very important to a dancer. Back strength helps with balance and alignment. In a lot of dance moves, you have to bend your back or keep it completely straight. If your back is weak, it can become very difficult to keep perfect posture without being very sore and in pain. Pretty much every more in dance requires good alignment to look professional and not sloppy. In addition, balance comes a lot from your back and to complete moves like turns, you need very good balance. The better balance and strength you have, the more turns that you can do.

One exercise I use to strengthen my back is called "Bridges" (ATI 22). For this exercise, you need to lay on a hard, flat surface on your back. Bend your knees up like you would to complete a sit-up. Have your hands flat on the ground by your sides. Keeping your pelvis in line with your back, lift your pelvis up to the ceiling. until your core makes a diagonal line with your legs (ATI 22). Hold this position for 10 seconds, then go back down. Repeat this as many times as you would like. I repeat this 10 times. You should feel this exercise in your back, core, and hips. An example of this is shown below.

How do you think back strength effects your everyday life?
ATI, PT. Strengthening Exercises.

A Dancer's Guide to Stronger Feet

Dancing doesn't only involve straight arms and legs, and good posture. A major part of dance is pointed toes. They key to any move in dance, looking professional and proper is pointing your toes. Now, when doing a style like hip hop or when a move is purposely made to have flexed feet, then it's okay. If flexed feet are intentional, it can add style and emotional to a move or routine. But, normally, dancers always are to point their toes. Someone who isn't a dancer wouldn't think that your feet must be strong and flexible; they do. A perfect point is one where the foot is in line with your leg, and you can feel and see all the muscles through your leg engaging along with your foot.

This exercise is a very simple but very effective foot strengthening exercise. It stretches as well as strengthens your foot, to get that perfect point. First, sit down on a flat, surface. Have your legs straight and extended out in front of you. Flex your feet up and high as you can (ATI 24). The goal is to get your heels as far off the ground as possible. Hold this for as long as you need. I normally do 5 seconds. Then, point your toes down to the ground. Pointing your toes and curling your toes are very different. To achieve this, "Try to get your toes to touch the ground and arch your foot as much as possible (ATI 24). Hold this for as long as you need. Again, I normally do this for 5 seconds. Next, flex your feet again. Go back and forth until you feel your feet are stretched and warmed up. This exercise is shown below.

Is strength in your feet essential to any other sports?
ATI, PT. Strengthening Exercises.

How to get better at Basketball : Dribbling Techniques

 🏀Ball Handling & Dribbling🏀🏀

How to Get Better at Basketball

Ball handling and Dribbling are the foundation to a good basketball career. According to James Wilson , " Good ball handling means you have better control of the ball , which results in having a good foundation in shooting , passing or dribbling" (14)

🏀Triple Threat🏀

A tip James Wilson mentions in his book How to be better at basketball in 21 days is : To understand the triple threat stance

The triple threat position allows you to pass , shoot or dribble (hence the name). The triple threat position is when you are in a "crouched, athletic attack stance you have a firm grip on the ball on your dominant hip and eyes facing forward " (Wilson 14). Once you get this stance down you are a triple threat.

🏀Dribbling 🏀

Dribbling should be a second nature for basketball players especially guards. In James Wilson's book he emphasizes that you should not dribble the ball with your fingertips but with the palm of your hand.

In this clip , Alexis (Point Guard) is shown dribbling with her palm. As you can see it is very difficult for her too have CONTROL over the ball . 

When dribbling with her fingertips and palms the overall control of the ball is greater.

Another example of bad vs. good dribbling

 

As seen with these clips , correct dribbling and using good ball handling techniques can drastically improve your game.

Questions : 

Do you have any dribbling or ball handling tips ? 

Have or Do you play basketball ?

Track Starts

Track Start Improvements

As I have improved my track start through out these blog post I have been given some very powerful tips to get my track start to where it is now. I will have to be able to all of this new gained knowledge into the next up coming track season.

Tips

Exploding from a set of blocks is a violent, unnatural thing to do. It takes great overall strength, coordination, and agility to have an effective start. I'm not saying go out and become a bodybuilding ballerina, but having a good strength-to-weight ratio with a sense of your body and what it's doing will make your life a lot easier.

Finishing Guide

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As you near the finish line, maintain your stride while keeping your knee action high. Get your feet quickly off the ground and pump your arms faster than in the early stage of the sprint. When you near the finish line, lunge forward to break the tape. Focus on lunging with your chest, as your torso and not your head or limbs are what is considered to cross the finish line. Lower your head and pull your arms back to push your torso forward in a falling motion.

Questions

What is the best way to finish a race?

How do you keep a continuous stride?

Cited

Pictures cited: Track & Field By Gabrielle Vanderhoof

Track Starts

Track Start Improvements

As I have taken more tips throughout my blogs I have seen suggestions to raise my hips higher into the air. This helps the feeling of the falling affect so I am able to get out of the blocks faster and be able to start my stride down the track faster.

Tips

Hamstrings are the most important muscle for a fast sprint.

Quadriceps are the second most important muscle for a fast sprint.

You are going to need strong calves for pushing off with your toes.

Your shoulders, chest, and back need to be strong for pumping your arms.

The core needs to be strong to keep your body straight and aligned properly.

Make sure to always stretch your muscles before an event to make sure you do not pull any important muscles before or after the event.

Proper Start Guide Lines

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In the “set” position, it is generally understood that the hips should rise above the line of the head. However, this is where things can go wrong, following the misguided concept that they must also lean forward, bringing the shoulders ahead of the hands and putting pressure on them. This can easily be checked in practice and made visible to the athlete by using a stick or weighted string to drop down from the shoulders.

Questions

If you have ran sprints in the past what was your best time for the 100, 200, or 400?

If you're an athlete what was the worst injury that you have had?

Cited

Pictures cited: Track & Field By Gabrielle Vanderhoof

Track Starts

Track Start improvements

My improvement through out my track starts from the blocks has improved drastically. Some tips I found to help my momentum moving forward was to bridge my hands and have my legs bent to where they are comfortable and to be able to have the most power off of your push off.

Tips

Have fingers make a bridge

When running run off the balls of your feet not your heels

In stride have next foot ready to hit ground after your toe hits

When you are finishing do not stop right away this can cause shin splints

Advanced Running

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As seen in this picture Michael Johnson an Olympic sprinter is running off of the balls of his feet in his strides. To keep this going one must lift their knees to a angle where they can quickly get their next foot to the ground.

Questions

Do you guys have any other advice for me for when I come out of the blocks to keep my stride and speed continuously growing?

How can I keep my stamina?

Cited

 Pictures cited: Track & Field By Gabrielle Vanderhoof

Track Starts

Track Start Improvements

As I worked on my track start and started taking tips from the book I noticed that my form wasn't correct to the way it should be. instead of having both feet behind me I moved my dominant foot forward so I could have the most momentum when coming out of the blocks.

Tips

Have knees inside elbows but not to close

Have lean forward as if you were going to fall on your face

Stride out of the blocks with your head down

Don’t stand straight up when coming out of the blocks

Have a slow incline with your body as you push out of the blocks

Proper Form and Guide Lines

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In this picture you can see this man exploding from the blocks putting all of his momentum forward to get a push off from his dominant leg and propelling his body in an rising action. The back leg is driven forward at the sound of the gun as the front leg extends, pushing off the block pedal. The arms are aggressively extended, forward and back. If the rear leg is the right leg, the left arm is driven forward as the right arm is driven back. You keep this going throughout the race with the opposite leg hitting the ground and the opposite arm slicing through the air. The head stays neutral on the start, looking down the track slightly.

Questions

Do you have a different way to come out of the blocks?

How do you have your feet set up when you are pushing out of the blocks?

Cited

Pictures cited: Track & Field By Gabrielle Vanderhoof

Why It Is Important to Keep Low Amounts of Stress (Health)

Did you know that having high amounts of stress leads to overdosing of eating unhealthily, making bad decisions, increase of laziness, decrease and sleep and much more pitiful, and alarming harms towards your human health?

Well, in return there are factors to play around that type of stress life. throughout this blog post I will be covering the three ways of thinking terms that I used to develop a stress free life. The three terms are simply think positive of yourself, gain self-confidence and keep yourself around people that make you happy. 

In addition, if you think positive of yourself, you are on step one of the road to a stress free life. From the book Change Your Brain Change Your Body by Daniel Amen, he states, “How Stress plays tricks with your mental health is by draining your emotional well-being and associating anxiety and depression. Stress activates the limbic system of the brain, which is your emotional center.” (Amen 221). Here Amen is reconsidering that stress also builds up depression of mental health. This can come into play in relationships, with friends and family, etc. One of the biggest ways that I built up mental stress was when my mom died of breast cancer 4 years ago. With my mom being dead and not being here for me I had to build up a mindset of thinking positive and being able to do things for myself from now on. I’ve noticed that most teenagers my age have a mom to do most things for them and they’re spoiled. But I have to overcome these issues myself. For example, cooking dinner at night for myself. If you think positive of yourself and set yourself up for success you will feel a decrease of stress throughout your life.

Furthermore, if you gain self-confidence, you will eventually think positive of yourself and not develop any internal stress. Amen brings up the topic of “how chronic stress harms the brain.” He states, “Stress is a normal part of every day life. Don’t give me wrong I little stress can be a good thing. But, there is more negatives than positives between stress. The stress hormones are the primary chemicals of the fight or flight response in there especially useful when you face on immediate threat. The stress hormones majorly come into play around mental states like death of a loved one” (Amen 215). Amen Is corresponding the differences between positive stress and negative stress. I too agree that there is more negative stress than positive stress. An example way that I developed positive stress was when I lost a soccer game against a rival team that we usually beat every year. Though losing in competitive sports games leads to stress, me losing to that rival team motivated me for next time to work harder. That’s developed me to gain self-confidence prepare myself for my next journey without stress. So yes stress can be good to motivate yourself but on the Flip side majority of stress falls under the negative categories.

 

Lastly, if you surround yourself around people that make you happy and are good influences you will positively generate yourself closer towards a physical stress free life. Amen brings up the topic of stress by stating, “You can literally scare your body into a stress response the brain is a very powerful organ. Brief surges of stress hormones are normally beneficial. The motivate you to do a good job that work, Study before a test, how Your mood is with your friends or paying your bills on time. The problem with stress in our modern world is not these short bursts of aline and cortisol. Chronic stress constricts blood flow to the brain, which lowers overall brain function and prematurely age is your brain. Researchers found that stress flip-flops your mood swings when you are with friends or family and create temporary effects on young adults thinking and memory skills” (Amen 211). Overall, having stress in your life develops your body to response in positive ways by motivating yourself. But, also, in negative ways by mentally and physically constricting your body. I have surrounded myself with positive friends and family members that make me happy. I also surround myself with people that think positive of me and support me through my times, and I do the same back to them.

Though stress is a normal part of every day life, You can indeed decrease the amount of stress by the three topics of thinking positive of yourself, gaining self-confidence and keeping yourself around people that make you happy and a positive influences. If you succeed in doing that, I will promise that you will see a decrease in stress, because it worked for me in multiple ways, for example, mental stress and physical stress.

One statement that I could leave you off with is why set yourself up for failure by gaining stress on your shoulders, if you could set yourself up for success by living in a positive happy life around people you like?

If you had the chance to get one thing back in your life that you regret doing, wanting or having what would that be?

Amen, Daniel G. The Brain-Body Solution. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted, Piatkus, 2012.

Track Starts

For some of you, this blog could be old news and somewhat useless; but for others, I'm hoping this blog will provide some useful tips that can be applied toward the progress you make during track season as well as the progress in other sports.

History of Track and Field

The history of the Ancient Olympic Games was dated as far as 776 BC. This first recorded Track and Field event was in Olympia, Greece. This single event was a footrace of about 200 yards called the stade or stadion, from which the word "stadium" originated.

Starting form

This is the incorrect way to start out of the blocks, this is called the "rocket". Though it may work for others (mostly amateurs).

Reference to proper start:

""

This example is the correct way to start out of the blocks as if you were going to fall over on your face.

Now that I have taken a few tips from the book "Track & Field" by Gabrielle Vanderhoof and the diagram shown I'll make sure to use it for the next blog as well.

Tips

Start with the dominant foot forward (you can find out which foot is dominant by standing and leaning forward until you fall, the foot that hits the ground first when you fall is your dominant foot).

Have dominant leg at 90-95 degrees.

Have non-dominant leg a foot behind the dominant leg.

Have fingers on the ground, not palms of hands.

Questions

How long have you guys been in track?

Do you have any other tips for coming out of the blocks?

Cited

Pictures cited: Track & Field By Gabrielle Vanderhoof

A Dancer's Guide to Stronger Glutes

In order to execute dance moves well, dancers need strength in all parts of their body. Strength in your glutes is an essential part in being able to complete certain technique moves, like turns and leaps. When completing these moves, you need to tighten your butt muscles to hep with balance and stability. If you don't have enough strength in this part of your body, the move you're trying to complete won't work as well.

The following exercise is another one I learned in physical therapy. It is called a "Bent leg glute raise" (ATI, 12). To do this exercise, first you need to get on your hands and knees, making sure that you're keeping your head aligned with your back and your hips square. Next, lift one of your legs up towards the side wall. While doing this, your leg should be bent (ATI, 12). Look below for an example. This exercise has helped me improve my ability to do more turns and get higher in my leaps.

In order to do this exercise correctly, “Make sure you are on a hard, flat surface” (ATI, 12). This will help you keep your body even to get the most out of it. Make sure to keep the correct form to prevent injury.

Why do you think glute muscles help with stability and balance?
ATI, PT. Strengthening Exercises.

A Dancer's Guide to a Stronger Core

One of the most contributing factors of dancing is strength. Most people see dancing as just moving your body to beats. However, dancing goes a lot deeper than that. There are technical moves such as turns that are apart of routines that dancers learn. In order to execute these moves well, you need to have strength coming from your core. I always heard about this but I never really considered doing workouts to gain the strength that is needed. Not having the amount of muscle I needed was holding me back from improving my technique. I started going to physical therapy for my hips, knees and back, in eighth grade and just recently got out. While I was going, I received a packet full of exercises to help strengthen my back. 

The following exercise is one I learned from my physical therapist that helps me work on my core. "This exercise is called the crunch (shown below)" (ATI, 3). To do this workout, you first need to lay down on your back on a flat surface. Then, bend your knees and either have your arms crossed across your chest or behind your head. Lift your shoulder blades off the ground and "crunch" your abdomen upwards, hold, then go back down. Repeat this until you feel like you've gotten the workout you need (ATI, 3). This exercise has helped me gain strength in my core, so I can improve my turning ability. 

Do you think that core strength has an impact on dancing?

ATI, PT. Strengthening Exercises.

Having the Right Mindset For a Healthy Body

Are you thinking what i'm thinking? Well if so I advise you to read this whole post due to tips and engagement that will rise you to a happier lifestyle. 

The non-fiction text "Change Your Brain Change Your Body" states, "It is your brain that decides to get you out of bed in the morning to exercise, to give you a stronger wiener body, or to cause you to hit the snooze button and procrastinate your work out. It is your brain that pushes you away from telling the table that you have had enough, or give you permission to have a second bowl of rocky road ice cream, making you look and feel like a blob. Is your brain the manages the stress in your life and relax with you so that you look vibrant, or when you left unchecked, send stress signals to the rest of your body and wrinkles to your skin. And it is your brain that turns away cigarettes, too much caffeine and alcohol, helping you look and feel healthy or give you the permission to not. Yes all create a system of health" (Daniel Amen 3). 
The text is applying the figures that if you use your brain the correct way and develop your brain to have strong, successful and healthy habits, it will develop you to overcome a procedure in life. That procedure will make you get and keep the body and habits that you will have always wanted. If you succeed to have strong, successful and healthy habits you will indeed  see changes quickly if prohibited. 
I have been through the challenges of being stuck with fast food for almost every meal of the day, lack of sleep on school nights and having a weak mindset of wanting to workout but then not being able to due to laziness. This all can affect your mindset of staying healthy but can be revoked by saying "No i am doing this today." Or "I'm making the promise of staying healthy for a year or my whole life."

Here I am reading the book "Change Your Brain Change Your Body." This book is very inspiring and gives great tips and lots of mindset tips on changing you brain to be successfully healthy.

The text again states, "Your brain is the command and control center of your body if you want to have a better body the first thing is to always start having a better growth mindset"  (Amen 4). 
This is left me with a message that when you do something your brain has muscle memory to want to make that a habit and do it over and over again. If you do that habit over and over again it will affect you in the long run badly. But if the habits that are strong, successful and healthy they will make you proficient and headed towards a successful mindset. 

Even i have tried and tried to keep a confident workout mindset throughout every summer and School year but sometimes you just need to take a break. Breaks are good but never procrastinate and let them get off the hook. Always have a backup plan and ease off the workout. don't just say "Okay well i'm done with this" and stop. Force yourself to start up again in another week. It is worth it trust me.

Do you want to improve your looks, style, eating habits, strength and health in general? Well, if you can develop a growth mindset to keeping a long term healthier lifestyle you are indeed ready to start a fresh "I will stay healthy" rather than a "I can't stay healthy".
Is your mindset healthy enough to keep your body sturdy? If you have any concerns follow my steps above and you will see changes in your health standards. 

Amen, Daniel G. The Brain-Body Solution. Change Your Brain, Change Your Body: Use Your Brain to Get the Body You Have Always Wanted, Piatkus, 2012.

Working out

Eating healthy is hard but something I have trouble with is working out. I’m a lazy teenager who doesn’t like working out so I never have the pull to go to the gym or go on a walk and etc. but then once I’m ready, I never seem to know what exactly to do or how to work out properly.

When you work out, there are so many benefits including, “improved energy levels, increased ability to handle stress, improved mood, reduced risk of many chronic diseases, enhanced self-esteem, more positive outlook on life in general” (Stollman 33). I personally know I should start working out more to receive some if not all of these great benefits.

Now onto what to actually do to work out, the book detailed some ways to work out including: Walking, Using a Work out DVD, Cardio, Strength training, and flexablitity training (Stollman 33-39). I’m going to try to start committing and doing these different exercises often to obtain some of these benefits as noted before.

The last section Lisa Stollman added about Exercising was 10 tips to make exercise part of your routine which includes trying to walk a lot each day, sign up for activities, and make sure to move at least 60 minutes a day. These are just some of the tips for daily exercise!

Do you like working out? What do you do to exercise?

MLA: Stollman, Lisa, MA, RD, CDE, CDN. The Teen Eating Manifesto: The Ten Essential Steps to Losing Weight, Looking Great and Getting Healthy. Northport, NY: Nirvana, 2012. Print.

Pistols Workout

 “Use your imagination, and this amazing exercise will never stop making you stronger” ( Mark Lauren, 115)

So in the last blog I wrote, I promised to write about the exercise ‘pistol’. Not going to lie, this is a tough one. If you really want to kick it up a notch, this will do the trick.

Bring your butt down all the way down to the heel of your working foot, with the other leg stretched out before you.  Keep the negative movement slow and controlled, then explode back up. 

One way to advance this form,is to keep your hands stretched before you, holding a backpack full of rocks or milk jugs full of water. Get creative, push yourself to hold heavier things and to come up quicker once you are down. If that is too difficult, try only doing down in a very low squat, then pushing up very quickly.  (Lauren, 115) how will you dress up or dress down this exercise?

The one thing I love about the pistols, is that it doesn’t take forever to feel the results, and most importantly, see them. It requires you to push yourself, in terms of endurance, and strength. This form works out your gluts, your thighs, and calves.

Try doing this outside, somewhere serene and somewhere you haven’t been before. I love working out in a different place every week. I know this isn’t realistic to expect for everyone, but it makes all the difference, taking care of your body can be fun, and not always a chore if you get creative. I would recommend when doing this, to breathe slowly. Inhale for 5 seconds, and exhale for 10. Breathing like this will help your body adjust to the strain, and provide as a type of distraction; focus on your breathing and not the pain in your legs. I would also suggest drinking plenty of water before doing this exercise, as well as after. This is very straining, drinking will prevent the next day cramps and soreness.   

If you try ‘pistols’, I would love to know! Send me a picture or leave a comment on where you went, and what you did. And if you have any exercises’ s you enjoy or do often, please leave a comment.

better yourself: workout

Well-being-noun the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy.

The first sentence in the book You Are Your Own Gym by Mark Lauren declares: “I CAN UNEQUIVOCALLY STATE You Are Your Own Gym is a must read for anyone truly interested in their well- being”. I read that sentence and made up my mind to check out the book from the library. I am certainly interested in my well-being.I have lifted nothing but grocery bags and the occasional box from Costco for years,and still struggle with them. Also, my dad calls me chicken.

Lauren claims in the introduction of his book that we owe it to ourselves to be lean, fit, and claims that with the use of this book, I will no longer have the excuse of “no time” because the journey he promises to a better body (and use of it) will only take 20 minutes a day, 4-5 times a week. Lauren personally promised me a better physique, with primitive workouts, using nothing but what the Lord gave you (p.2).

To be completely clear, I’m not aiming for a washboard stomach, round shoulders, or shirt –sleeve-stretching biceps. Rather a toned stomach, toned triceps and biceps and legs (and maybe less struggle when carrying said groceries).

One of my favorite workouts so far has been the one legged squat. It works on virtually everything: gluts, hamstrings, lower back, and hip flexors, and has really pushed me to my limits in terms of endurance. Using a chair for balance, lift your left leg about 4 inches off the ground up and stand on your right leg, with your head up and back straight. Slowly lower your body, bending at the waist and right knee, until your right thigh is parallel to the floor, let go of the chair, and extend your arms forward. Hold this position for as long as you can.(page 114)

This position is definitely a work in process, could not get my thighs parallel to the floor without falling over. I held my meager attempt at the one legged squat for no longer then 30 seconds. Then rested for one minute, and repeated for another 30 seconds or so. I did a set of 5 rotating between the 30 second hold, and the one minute rest. I finished out with a set of 'pistol' exercises, which i will explain in my next blog post. Thank you for reading! I encourage you to try out this exercises, please comment and share your experience!