Terre Pruitt's Blog

In the realm of health, wellness, fitness, and the like, or whatever inspires me.

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Archive for January, 2013

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Ride ‘Em Cowboy

Posted by terrepruitt on January 8, 2013

There is a stance in Nia called the Riding Stance.  It is part of Nia’s 52 Moves.  I actually think of it as the Sumo Stance.  It is called both.  I bet if I actually were to really let my body doing the thinking, my riding stance would be taller than my sumo stance.  Stop and think about it.  Do you picture a rider with legs straddling a horse and sitting up tall?  And a sumo wrestler as legs wider than a horse with his body lower to the ground?  A sumo wrestler is still upright and “tall”, but he is closer to the ground. with a wider stance than a horse  Ha!  I love that.  As I am typing and thinking, this is what I come up with.  An insight.  That is what I love about Nia.  Even though there is an ideal there is still the way a body does it.  And sometimes a body does it the way the mind thinks about it.  My body translates sumo stance as low to the ground.  I am going to go to class and use the different terms and see what my student’s bodies do!  The Nia Technique states the Riding stance is as if you are riding a horse.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaAs I stated, riding a horse – to me is at a higher level than a sumo wrestler.  So, I actually do this stance much lower and that is because I THINK of it as a sumo stance.  I am going to practice this stance as a RIDING stance and see where my body goes.

The book says:  “your knees slightly bent and your feet apart, as if you were riding a horse”.  I think I have always had a really wide horse!  Whether the horse is wide or not, the feet are parallel.

Again, to be clear, the Riding Stance in the Nia 52 Moves is with the knees slightly bent and the feet apart.  The feet are as far apart as if you are riding a horse.  As I recently posted the sound to make while doing this stance is “ha!”

I think that it would be fun to say, “Yehaw!”

This stance is a great way to condition the legs.  It is fun to play with this stance and try different levels.  By levels I mean both the planes and levels of intensity.  A level/intensity 1 would be a high plane.  Then a level/intensity 2, could be the middle plane.  And the level/intensity 3 could be the low plane and maybe more of  what I think of as a sumo stance.  With all moves in Nia the key is pleasure.  So the move is not meant to be painful.  If you are sensing pain in any part of the leg adjust your stance.  If you sense pain in the knees, check your feet, are your toes facing forward?  Are you evenly distributing your weight over your whole foot (feet)?  Ankle pain?  Are your legs/feet too wide apart?  So it is important to not always go as low or as wide as you CAN, but to go as low and as wide as is reasonably comfortable.

I love that as I write I learn.  That is one of the reasons I am writing a blog.  It is so helpful to put things in writing.  It is helpful to stop and examine what you already know, right?  Sometimes you see things differently.

Either way . . . . Riding or sumo stance, the stance is with knees bent, feet apart and parallel. Everyone’s stance, every BODY’s stance is different.  Got it?  Horse riding.  Ride ’em cowboy.

I am fortunate enough to have wonderful students that are willing to pose.  Here are the “riders” of the group.

Are you ready to ride?

Posted in 52 Moves (of Nia), Nia | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Nia Stance Sounds

Posted by terrepruitt on January 5, 2013

There are a few posts on my blog about sounding in Nia.  I even have a separate category for it.  See over there to the left under categories, under Nia?  Sounding is what we call making noise in a Nia class.  Sounding is great for many reasons.  Sounding is a release.  It can help release tension, emotions, spirit . . . whatever needs “releasing”.  Sounding is fun.  Sounding can assist in the stabilization of the torso.  Sounding can help ground you . . . physically, emotionally, and your spirit.  Often times when I am doing Nia both when I am teaching and when I am a student, my spirit just makes a sound.  I don’t plan it, I don’t think about it, a noise just comes out.  I “woo” a lot.  But sometimes other sounds comes out.  Sometimes the sound I make makes me laugh because I really don’t think about the sound, something just comes out.  I could be thinking of something, for example, maybe the move we are doing reminds me of a swirling skirt, so then the sound could be a “whosh” as in the sound of a skirt, or it could be a giggle of a girl twirling in a skirt.  I don’t always think about the sound I just let it out.  Sometimes I do think of the sound.  Sounding can be purposeful.  The noise can have a purpose.  I have posted about healing sounds and sounds associated with the chakras.  This post is about the sounds that are associated with Nia stances, which are part of Nia’s 52 moves.

TheDance Exercise, Nia, Nia in the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, Gentle Yoga, Group Ex classes, YMCA, Zumba, PiYo, Nia Technique, SJ City Fit, SJCityFit picture in this post is an approximation of how MY feet would be placed in the various stances.  Remember that your stances would probably be slightly different.  The width would be according to YOUR body and your body’s way.  The picture is just to give you an idea and maybe help remind you of the various stances.  At this time I have a post associated with four of the six stances.

In Nia’s closed stance the sound is the vowel sound “o”.  The sound is made to “create volume in your chest cavity”.

In Nia’s open stance the sound is (to say) “balance” or “ground”.  Saying the word “balance” can assist you in your balance.  The word “ground” can assist with allowing you to feel grounded and sense balance.

The sound for Nia’s “A” stance is “aaaaahh!”.  You say it on an exhale.  Letting out all your breath until you are ready to inhale.

Sumo stance or riding stance (feet as wide apart as if you were riding a horse) has an explosive sound.  Say “ha!”  To me this helps with stabilization.

The bow stance has a sound of “u”.  The bow stance is done with either foot in front, not just with the left foot in front as shown in the example.

The cat stance (standing on one foot, with the other foot pressed against the standing leg) has the sound “wooooooo” associated with it.  This is done on the exhale.  This stance is also done on the other foot and not just the left one as in the example.

So as you are practicing the Nia stances you can use the sounds associated with them for added benefit and fun.  It is just fun to make noise.  To me it adds to the experience.  In my classes I encourage people to make any noise they want.  I also like to play with the noises, sounds, and words associated with the move.

Do you attend a dance exercise class  or exercise that encourages you to make noise?

Information regarding the sounds made with the Nia stances can be found in The Nia Technique book written by Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas (NKA, Carlos AyaRosas).  The book can be purchased from Amazon.

Posted in Nia, Sounding | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

More Smoothie Lessons

Posted by terrepruitt on January 3, 2013

I have been getting a lot of use out of my blender.  I use it almost every day.  There are additional lessons I have learned in the time I have been using it.  The blender shows how many times I have used it, according to the blender I have used it 168 times. I have tested it and the cleaning of the jar that I do after I use it does not get added to the count.  There might be a few extra counts because I’ve blended somethings twice, so the second blend might be added to that, but I haven’t done that often.  Some of the lessons I have learned are really additions to some of the things I have already shared.

In my first post about what I had learned I stated that kale in a smoothie is really bitter.  I thought about this every time I made a smoothie with kale.  It was so bitter.  I didn’t add more than two fruits because I didn’t want that much fruit in a smoothie, but I did put at least two, plus avocado and cucumber, but it still didn’t cut down on the bitter.  I kept thinking about how bitter it was.  I couldn’t understand why it was SO much less bitter when cooked, because when I cook it I don’t cook it THAT much.  I usually just kind of wilt it.  Well, after thinking and thinking all I could come up with was salt.  When I cook kale I cook it with salt and I believe that salt helps with any bitter flavor.  So I tried it in a kale smoothie and voila!  That did it.  By salt, I mean not even a whole shake, just like a little tip of the salt shaker.  I bet that I could count the grains that go into the smoothie.  I am not trying to add flavor but just take a little bitter out.  It works great.  I was so excited to figure this out because I like the idea of being able to “eat” a lot of kale.  I really couldn’t EAT as much kale as I can drink and kale is a great green to add to my diet.

Since I mentioned frozen banana and ice in my first post about lessons I do have some follow up information.  While a cold smoothie is better than a room temperature one sometimes adding FROZEN banana AND ice makes it way too cold.  Drinking freezing cold smoothies in the winter is not that great.  Using a banana that has not been frozen and ice is fine, but using both is sometimes too cold.

Beet greens make a smoothie red.  I used the leafy green part AND the entire stem and the smoothie came out red.  It was rather pretty.  I think it was actually perfect for the Christmas season.  That is when I learned this fact.

While I have not tried freezing a smoothie and then letting it defrost a bit and drinking it, I have let one sit a bit before drinking it, and I have let one sit in the fridge overnight and they do not taste as fresh.  I am sure that is a no brainer, but since I am sharing I thought I would mention it.  The smoothies that have sat out for a bit or in the fridge overnight were still good and totally drinkable, it was just not as fresh tasting!

So there you have it.  A few more things I have learned.  You?  Have you anything to add?

Posted in Smoothies | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Little Tweakers

Posted by terrepruitt on January 1, 2013

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaI have already posted about one of the awesome gifts I received for Christmas.  I received another one that makes me so happy when I use them I just wanted to share. You might remember I bought a speaker for my iPhone awhile back.  I was so impressed with it I wanted to share about it because it is great to have a portable audio source, just in case.  It is really helpful when you are teaching a dance exercise class like Nia.  Well, more like it came up on Woot.  My hubby looks at Woot and he knows how much I love my other speaker so he asked me if I wanted what they were selling on Woot.  I glanced at it and said yes because it was LESS than I paid for my other speaker AND it was TWO speakers!

They are REALLY cool.  When my hubby showed me I hadn’t even read all the cool features!  First of all as I said, they cost less than my ONE speaker I originally bought.  They are black but when they are in use and they are open they glow blue!  These little guys are so cool.

They have their own bag, I love things that have their own storage.  They fit together and stick with magnets.  They have a volume control.  They have an audio in cord and a connection cord.  One speaker has the audio in cord.  The other speaker has the cord that connects them.  So you can just use one if you want.  BOTH cords retract back into their respective speakers.  How cool is that?  I had just been telling someone over Christmas that I think every electronic device that has a cord (whether optional or not) should have a place that the cord can be stored ON/IN the device.  But that is just me because I have what seems like a million cords and I don’t know all the devices they belong to.  So every time I put these speakers away I am so impressed because I just pull gently and the cord goes right in.  They are great sound for such little devices.

Dance Exercise, Nia, Nia at the City of San Jose, Nia classes in the South Bay, Nia Teacher, Nia Class, San Jose Nia, Nia San Jose, Nia workout, Nia, ZumbaThis particular pair came with a “BONUS! USB wall adapter” which the package claims is usually an extra $19.95.  The speakers on Woot didn’t even cost that much AND it came with the additional adapter.  I loved them so much I looked online to see if we could get more.  We can, but at more than twice the cost and without the “BONUS”.  I don’t NEED them so I’m not going to spend it.  I just really like them and since the places I teach Nia at for the city of San Jose do not always have sound systems I was thinking I could keep a pair in my car.

The iHome/first speaker I bought does not have an electrical adapter.  It only charges off a USB.  So when I use it at a venue I am teaching at I have to make certain it is charged.  But these speakers I just got, I could leave in the car and not have to worry about them being charged because in a pinch I could plug them in and use them.  Also the iHome speaker does not have a volume control.  Which is fine, because the device it is used with does.  But I found out that it is really cool to have two options of volume control!

Of course these speakers would work with iPhones, iPads, iPods, MP3 players, MP4 players, and laptops!

Yeah, no post about goals and resolutions, just an excited post about something that makes me happy.  I hope you enjoyed your New Year’s Eve.  I wish for you to enjoy 2013.

Posted in Misc | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

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