Terre Pruitt's Blog » Muscles

Year End Review Of Terre’s 2011 Important Posts – Part II

terrepruitt — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:56:12 +0000

Not all of my posts on my list of Year End Review Of Terre’s 2011 Important Posts are Nia posts, but some of them are, Here are the remaining four of nine that I thought were important enough to re-share. This is the second half of my Year End Review Post. When I wrote it as one post, it just seemed too long so I split it up. Thanks for checking in. As with the first half, I am just going to give a little summary so you can have the main point right here and you don’t have to go to the original post. But if you WANT to go to the original post (and comment even) please do! I am listing these in order of when they were posted.

I think of this post Muscle Weighs More Than Fat as being something we all need to be reminded of. Muscle DOES NOT weigh more than fat. The saying that muscle weighs more is one of those things that a lot of us say, but it is not correct. A pound of muscle weighs as much as a pound of fat. A pound of anything cannot weigh more than a pound of something else. A pound of muscle will take up a lot less room than a pound of fat as you will see in the picture on this post if you click over.

If you are interested in a dance class that is pretty, a class that produces a performance then Nia is probably not what you are looking for. Nia Might Not Be Pretty — To Some. Nia is about authentic movement. Nia is about moving the body the way it was designed to be moved. Not everyBODY can move the way it was designed. There might be injuries, defects, tightness, or just plain ol’ non-use involved so it might not be pretty as we learn to move. But it is beautiful. This post reminds you that it is what it is and what it is not is a performance. A Nia class is freedom of movement, something to be enjoyed from the angle of the participant and not someone watching.

I have a post about listening with love, but the title is Let Love Be Your Ears. Ya know sometimes titles need to intrigue a potential reader, I was hoping that is what this title was. But the post is about listening with love. We all have heard and some of us might try to live by the old “if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” But LISTENING with love is different. Not that common of a “golden rule”. We are not always taught we need to love ourselves, so we might not listen as if people are talking to us with love and not accusations and criticisms. This might be something we have to practice. Also listening with love can include giving the person talking a lot of “benefit of the doubt”. Trying to see where they might be coming from.

Another post is about dance being exercise. It is a reminder that you can have fun and get exercise at the same time. Nia is just that!

So that is the last four on my list of posts I think really could use repeating. I know I picked a few because I need to work on some of them/it myself. I hope that you enjoyed either the summary or the posts themselves. I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. If you have been reading my blog and you recognize some of these I thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to read. If you take the time to read and comment, I am really grateful and I very much appreciate it.

And, of course, I wish you a very happy and safe New Year’s Eve. I wish you many, many, many opportunities to embrace happiness and experience joy in 2012. Happy New Year.

Quadriceps

terrepruitt — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:50:25 +0000

I subbed a Nia class in another part of San Jose today and so I had a different group of participants, and the routine we did today has a lot of bows in it. Watching the class do the bow stance made me think of how a bow is somewhat of a lunge. Reminded me how we really do work a lot of muscles in our Nia workouts with all of the different exercises we do. The bow stance is one of Nia’s 52 Moves.

Did you know you Quadriceps are made up for four muscles? Maybe, but since we always say, “quads” we might be thinking of them as one muscle. Of course, when we stop to think about it we understand that “quad” means four so it makes sense that quadriceps is four muscles.

Basically they work together. It is not as if you can work just one. Our quads extend the leg and flex the thigh. They move our thigh towards our chest and kick our foot out (as an example). Quads would be included in a “Push” workout. Lunges and squats target the quadriceps.

I am pretty sure you knew that the quadriceps were four muscles, but I thought I would just remind you.

Nia and the Core

terrepruitt — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:50:57 +0000

Nia thinks of the pelvis, chest, and head as the core of the body. Nia is not defining the core muscles or a core muscle group, Nia just includes these three body weights as the core of the body.

The core is Nia White Belt Principle #8.

Alignment of these three weights affects so many things; energy, bones, muscles, organs. If the alignment is not as it should be all of these things could be affected.

Movement can help properly align these three weights. Often times some areas of our bodies are stiff and/or tight and by moving our body as it was designed to be moved the stiffness gets worked out and the tightness goes away. Sometimes that is what is needed to assist in proper alignment. Other times it might be strengthening or just moving your body in a way it is not accustomed to move.

As an example of how we guide a body to alignment, we utilize the bow stance in Nia routines. A great exercise while in the bow stance is to move the pelvis in all directions. Moving the pelvis in all directions while in this stance allows for the body to gain or retain mobility. Mobility in the hips and the spine. Movement of the pelvis releases energy and muscle tension. This type of movement also requires strength in the torso and leads up to the chest and head. While circling or waving the hips the body falls on and off balance and the chest and head must be used to stay upright. All of this contributes to stability, flexibility, and strength.

We often dance our chest in Nia. We move our ribs to open them and keep the muscles in between mobile. We breath deep. We makes sounds. We use our chest to guide us in our workout, giving us a different way to move. This releases blocked energy.

Nia encourages movement of the head in our routines. We are often moving our head on its own or to lead us through a move. We employ our hands and our eyes to help us move our head. Not all cardio workout classes employ the use of the head and it seems as if a lot of people are just plain ol’ not used to moving their head. So caution is always recommended. Since moving the head stimulates two chakras it is sometimes very powerful and some people get dizzy until they are used to it.

When these three body weights are in alignment sense calm. When our body is strong yet flexible and capable of mobility it assist us in keep our body weights aligned correctly even when we move we feel confident and have a sense of wellness.

The Nia White Belt Manual* has over 15 pages addressing the pelvis, chest, and head. I think that means that there will be more posts regarding the core and/or its parts, because Nia has a lot of information that I can share about the core.

*The Nia White Belt Manual was created by Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas as was Nia (the Nia Technique). All of this information is based off of information from their trainings and the White Belt Manual and the Nia Technique Book

Core Muscles

terrepruitt — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:46:15 +0000

You can look up “core muscles” and find that different people include different muscles in the group considered the “core muscle group”. But unless you are going to get that specific and train just one muscle in the group then you really don’t need to figure out which person is right. It would serve you just as well to do a variety of exercises that strengthen your “core” and more than likely you are going to be working the various different sets that the different people are including in the “core muscle group”. What can help is to think of the “core” not just as the abdominals. That is very limiting. If you think of the core as center from which you need to be strong and stable then you will possibly have a larger picture of what the core is and understand that it is more than just your abdominals.

You need a strong center to be stable and balanced while you are manipulating your limbs. If you keep that in mind you might realize that it is the back of your body as well as the front AND extending further down your legs than you first might have realized.

Doing a variety of crunches and sit-ups, including V-sit-ups and side crunches, will work your abdominals. Wood chops help with the entire trunk area. Push-ups are great because they require you to keep your abs tight for a great workout of them.

Bridges (lying on the floor and pushing your pelvis up), work the lower back muscles as well as the hips and glutes.

Lunges are great because they work your quadriceps and glutes. If you put some trunk twist into it with or without a weight you are adding another dimension to it and getting your trunk area.

Squats can help as they get the quads and glutes too.

Exercises that require you to balance yourself are going to help you with all those stabilizing muscles. These will strengthen your “core” as well as keeping it trained and at the ready for you when you need them to stabilize you.

So, do you really need to know that in a squat you are using your multifidus and quadratus lumborum (among other muscles) or does it just help to know that if you do them you are strengthening muscles that will assist you in having a strong a stable core? I believe it is good just to think about the “core muscles” as being the groups and groupings of muscles from the top of your chest down to your knees, front and back.

Hamstrings

terrepruitt — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:39:20 +0000

Not the string you use to tie up a pig or a ham, but the muscle group. There are three muscles that make up the Hamstrings; the Semimembranosus, the Semitendinosus, and the Biceps Femoris.

These muscles flex the knee bringing your foot toward your buttocks, extend the thigh, and rotate the hip/leg.

I have been thinking about my hamstrings A LOT the past few days because of a recent workout where I did a few exercises that really worked my hamstrings. There are a lot of gyms in San Jose but where my friend and I were is a tiny gym that does not have a lot of machines, but you don’t need machines to really work the back of the legs.

We did some deadlifts, hamstring curls, and worked with a kettlebell, not to mention our warm up lunges. So, yes, I have been thinking about my hamstrings a bit.

I wanted to point out that the hamstrings are three different muscles and remind you of that.