You might have read my post about Sounding in Nia. That is what we call it when we make noise in a Nia class — sounding. You might have read my post about Reasons for Sounding in a Nia Class. Even if you did not read that post, I bet you are aware of some of the reasons to make noise in an exercise class. One of the biggest ones is to ensure breathing. If you are making noise you are breathing. Knowing the students are breathing is a HUGE relief to an instructor. Some of the other reasons sounding is good are it can help stabilize your core, it can act as an emotional, spiritual, or physical release, and it can be really fun. Sounding can be noises/words such as HA, HI, HEE, HOO, WAH, WAHOO, etc. Sounding can also be singing. With “Nia Music” sometimes singing is just sounds.
I always invite the Nia participants to sing. Often times I tell them it is really easy because there are no words. I have often wondered how the singer sings. I have often pondered how it is done. Then Nia put out this video*. It is an interview with Carl Tietze whose song Am I The One, is on the Sanjana Album. Sanjana is the first Nia routine I learned. In the interview Carl talks about how he invited a vocalist, Jen Folkner, to listen to the song. He said he put the headphones on her and most of what we hear on the song is from her first time hearing the music.
She is sounding. Granted, she is doing is beautifully. I don’t want to put the pressure on and say this is what we do or need to do in a Nia class. No, not at all. I am just saying that it is fine to MAKE NOISE. I did laugh when I heard this interview because I kind of imagined that songs that have no real words but are just a singer making noise was done like this. I imagined the musicians just saying, “Go!” and the singer just letting her/his voice come out.
I was recently very amazed and in awe of a woman who had never been to a Nia class before – in fact, before class she asked me what it was. So she didn’t even know what type of exercise/workout it was. And yet, while she was moving to moves she had never done, she was singing. The song was one of those songs without words, but she was just making noise in a “singing voice”. It was great! I was very impressed.
Making sounds or singing in a group workout class is not something that comes easy to everyone. Sounding while learning moves doesn’t come easy to people who normally make noise, so it was especially fun to have her in class. Plus she had that much more fun and received the benefits of sounding.
I hope this interview helps give you a glimpse into making sounds. I hope you are able to experience the benefits of making noise while do your cardio dance. You know it is fun.
Do you sing while you dance in your fitness dance class? Don’t you love the way singing and dancing makes you feel?
*Click here to go to Nia’s website to sign up for the monthly newsletter!
I had a new to Nia person come to class today. She called me yesterday to ask about it and showed up to class today. I like that. Of course, I asked her about it after class. She said she liked it because it made her think. She said that is what she needed. Nia is amazing because it is one of those exercises that DOES make you think. There are differences in a Nia routine. There are times when there is Free Dance, a time where you don’t think. You just let your body move to the music. You let it go and see where it takes you. It is not a trance dance, you are not in a state of trance, but you are letting your body move to the music without thinking. There is no thinking of what others think or how you look, or of a pattern, you just move. There is also the choreographed steps. Some of those steps are described as the actual dance steps there are, say a Jazz Square, a grapevine, a ball change, etc. And when learning them or even when incorporating them into a routine there may be thinking involved. There is also the imagery used in Nia. Where instead of saying reach up we might say pick an apple, instead of just saying walk we might say walk Jazzy, instead of saying get down on the ground we might say melt onto the earth . . . .these things might cause you to have to think for a moment. What are the movements involved in picking an apple? What does “Jazzy” mean? How does a body melt? Sometimes a routine will have us doing a movement that is out of the ordinary. Say against the normal “flow” of movement. And again that is where we have to think. So sometimes, yes, we do think in Nia.
Right now I have just begun teaching a routine, I have only taught it once and it is making me laugh because when I first saw Debbie Rosas do it on the DVD I didn’t understand why she said left hand on one section and right hand on another. To me it looked as if she was alternating. So the first few times I did it, I alternated my hands that I started with. When I was barring the song and I went to write down the arm choreography I stopped to watch it closely. She says left when we start with the left ONLY and right when we ONLY start with the right. There is alternating hands in between, but not alternating starting hands. This is one of those funny moves that makes me think. I love that the other teachers on the DVD didn’t quite get it either. Makes me feel better. Makes me remember that it is a practice and my brain and body will have to think about this move until I have it engrained.
I love that Nia is Body, MIND, Emotions, and Spirit (BMES). I love that new people come in and see all that it is and say they love it. I love it even more when they come back.
I always say that there was a reason Nia was once named Neuromuscular Integrative Action . . . . because that is really what it IS. I don’t know why they abandoned that, but I can imagine. It is a mouthful. And to some perhaps it sounded intimidating. Once people come to class they get to see it for themselves. It really was/is an ingenious name, just a bit much, I guess. As we are thinking we are using our nerves and our muscles.
Oh my! You might have read my post about me getting to teach a Nia class in Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz, for those of you that might not be familiar, is a beach town in California. It is not very far from me, but I still don’t get over there often. The place where Nia is held over there is lovely. My student and I usually make a day of it when we go over the hill. The last time we went we stopped and had breakfast at a place serving daily toast. That started my fascination with what I call “Fancy Toast” – click here for the post on Fancy Toast. I have tried it with pears and I like it much better with persimmons, which is funny because that was a substitution on the part of the restaurant owner. But the persimmons have to be REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ripe. At the point where they are almost mushy and a little slippery to cut up. Since I eat the Fancy Toast all the time — because I just happened to have had a few persimmons — I thought I would look into the nutritional value of persimmons.
The ones that I have been using are the flat-ish kind. I hear they are the Asian persimmons. According to a document from the California Department of Public Health a medium (168g) persimmon has 118 calories, only 3 of which are from fat. With the following percentages of the government daily values:
Total Fat: 0g 0%
Saturated Fat: 0g 0%
Trans Fat: 0g
Cholesterol: 0mg 0%
Sodium: 2mg 0%
Total Carbohydrate: 31g 10%
Dietary Fiber: 6g 24%
Sugars: 21g
Protein: 1g
Vitamin A 55% / Vitamin C 21% / Calcium 1% / Iron 1%
Persimmons have a lot of sugar and relatively no protein. But a nice amount of fiber and a good amount of Vitamin C, but even better amount of Vitamin A.
Remember, also, that colorful fruit has carotenoids which provide the orange color in the fruits. And the carotenoids act as antioxidants in your body, meaning they attack harmful free radicals that damage tissues throughout your body.
Most of the recipes I saw called for persimmon puree which is a combination of cooking and blending. So I like the idea of putting them on my toast, I cut up the raw fruit and pile it on top, making it “fancy” or putting them raw into a salad. I actually have not tried them in a salad because I have used them all on my toast!
There are two varieties, the Hachiya and the Fuyu. The Hachiya is the taller of the two, with the Fuyu being more flat. The Hachiya is used more for baking whereas the Fuyu is the one that people eat raw. The document I mentioned states “The Fuyu was developed by breeding out the tannic acid from the Hachiya, making it more appealing to taste and easier to eat whole and raw.”
Have you tried making and eating the Fancy Toast? What else do people do with persimmons? Do you have a persimmon recipe?
For many it is Christmas Eve. Some might not celebrate Christmas or it is past the day, but here, where I am, it is Christmas Eve. It is Tuesday so normally I would have had a Nia class in the morning, but the Park and Recreation Department of San Jose took the day off so there was no Nia this morning. They also have instituted a very abbreviated Group Ex schedule so my Nia classes with the City of San Jose are done for the year. We will be back Thursday, January 2, 2014. (WHOA! 2014!) I have one more Nia class in Willow Glen this year and one more class this year that I am subbing for the YMCA. Then onto the next year! So today I had a very relaxing Christmas Eve Day. Probably thee most relaxing Christmas Eve Day I have had in a LONG time. It was nice. One thing I had to do today was make spinach dip. In my world this is a common party treat. I have been making it for as long as I can remember. Although I had not made it in a long time. I think I first heard about spinach dip when I worked at my first mortgage job in the mid ’80s. So that is a long time. Spinach dip seems pretty common and timeless.
One thing I notice over Thanksgiving when I made a quadruple batch was that the recipe calls for a 10 ounce package of frozen spinach. Well our big green friend now makes his frozen spinach in 9 ounces sizes. I thought that was funny. Then today as I happened to be READING the recipe I noticed something that had me saying, “WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!” The directions actually say to COOK the spinach. I have never heard of such a thing. I have NEVER cooked the spinach. And as I mentioned I have been making spinach dip for YEARS. Cook the spinach? Really?
I prefer the Knorr Vegetable soup mix. But one year I couldn’t find it ANYWHERE and I ended up with the SPRING Vegetable mix and that was awesome because it had mushrooms in it. Now I can’t find that. I have also used other soup mix and have not been as happy as when I use Knorr. But this “cooked” really made me laugh out loud. Here is the recipe I am sure many of you are familiar with:
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Knorr Spinach Dip
Ingredients
1 box (10 oz.) frozen chopped spinach, cooked, cooled and squeezed dry
1 container (16 oz.) sour cream
1 cup Hellmann’s® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise
1 package Knorr® Vegetable recipe mix
1 can (8 oz.) water chestnuts, drained and chopped (optional)
3 green onions, chopped (optional)
Directions
1. Combine all ingredients and chill about 2 hours. Serve with your favorite dippers to your favorite people.
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Also, for me, the water chestnuts are NOT optional! They are a requirement. In fact, to me, the are the best part. If you watch me getting some spinach dip you will probably see me pushing my cracker/bread/veggie through the dish just trying to get at that chunk of chestnut.
In addition to the change in weight of the spinach they also now package it in a plastic, which helped when squeezing the water out. After I squeeze the spinach it is all clumped together so I use forks to pull it a part.
So I have two main questions for you:
1) Do you COOK your spinach? 2) How do you squeeze all the water out of the frozen spinach? To me that is the worst part.
So here it is Friday again. Time goes so quickly it seems. Only ONE more check in! Wow!
So you might know I was hired on at the YMCA. It is somewhat the same as the City of San Jose was at first. Right now I am teaching as a substitute without a regular class. But with the YMCA I am actually subbing for Nia classes. That is really nice. The participants are there to do Nia.
Today I had one woman say as she was leaving that I made her smile for the first time all week. -Oh.- While that made me happy, Nia and I made her smile, I was also sad, it is FRIDAY and this was the first time she smiled. I think something is going on in her life so I am so happy that I could allow her a moment of Joy. I am grateful for Nia that I was able to do that. So you KNOW, that is going in my goodie jar.
How about you? What good things do you have going on? I know there is a huge rush going on right now at this time of year. The Holidays are almost here, but please take a moment to put something in your good things jar!
The number of Goodie Jar check ins will not match the number of weeks in this year because I missed a few. I cannot believe there are only two more check ins left. Wow! I am excited. My good things are overflowing. I am excited to read them.
I taught for the first time at the YMCA this week. I was subbing a class. There is a Nia class already and I was subbing for the teacher. Today I sub again! Yay!
So how about you? What good thing is going in your jar this week? Care to share?
I was talking to a friend after Nia class recently and I don’t even know how we got to this but she said the main difference between Up Dog and Cobra was the feet. I just looked at her a smiled. Since I didn’t reply she went on to explain how the feet are this way in that pose and that way in this pose and still I just smiled. If you research any pose in a book, on the internet, in a class, with a teacher, with another yogi you are probably going to get a different answer on how to do it. I am finding that just like with so many things you are going to find a lot of different – and often conflicting information. I am thinking that as yoga has become more “main stream” and available to more people it has morphed — a lot. So while I was not familiar with the feet being different in Up Dog and Corbra I didn’t want to tell her that what she was saying was incorrect because she could have learned it differently or be doing a different version or modification than what I do or what I am familiar with. As we talked she concluded for herself that she thinks she was thinking the feet positions were different because of the pose before or the one after. So she could just be thinking of her feet in terms of another pose. Seems as if the Upward Facing Dog or Up Dog and the Cobra are sometimes called the same thing or thought of as interchangeable. I view them and I do them as two different poses. This post is focusing on Cobra.
With both poses you start on your belly. With Up Dog your hands are below your body, in line with your shoulders. With Corbra, when your body is extended, your hands are forward of your body.
Cobra / Bhujangasana, you lie on your stomach. Your legs are stretched out behind you. The tops of your feet are on the earth. Place your palms on the earth a bit forward of your shoulders. The starting position of the hands are the staying position. The hands do not move. So they start a little forward of the shoulders. When you are ready you push gently down with your pelvis and pushup with your arms. Think of a cobra. Think of how they raise themselves off of the ground, they don’t have any arms. So let the power come from your back. Your arms are holding and supporting.
As with so many poses continue to keep your shoulders down, the blades back. The neck is lengthening. Keep the space open between your shoulders and your ears. No scrunching or hunching. The arms do not necessarily straighten in Cobra. They are not bent and with elbows resting on the ground as with Sphinx, but they are bent. For a bigger stretch in the back you can straighten your arms, but since the power and energy are coming primarily from the back, straight arms are not necessary.
Your legs remain together. With firm thighs and glutes. Toes are pointed away from you.
Hold this pose until your body says stop and repeat. Remember to breathe, allow your breath to flow easily. This pose strengthens the back and arms. It opens the front of the body. It is a great stress reliever.
This pose is similar to Updog, but it is different. It is primarily the placement of the arms and where the energy comes from. Corbra has arms forward and power comes from the back.
In the Nia 52 Moves there are moves clumped into groups. There are moves of the base, which involve the feet, such as Heel Lead, Releve, Closed Stance, Bow Stance, Slow Clock, Fast Clock, front kicks, side kicks, etc. There are upper extremities which include moves such as blocks, punches, sticks, chops, finger flicks, Creepy Crawlers and Catching flies. Then there is a group called the core which involves Pelvis, Chest, and Head. Two of the moves that are pelvic moves are Pelvic Circles and Hip Bumps. Two relatively easy moves, I am confident most people have done them in their life time. As I said easy, but they pack a wallop!
The Pelvic circle begins in A Stance (feet a little wider than shoulder width apart) and you move the hips in a continuous circle as if you are using a hula hoop. Just around and around. Circling the hips. Don’t forget to circle the hips in the opposite direction. With this move the arms are free to move in any direction and any way they want. This particular show belongs to the hips.
Hip circles are a common move both in dance and other exercises. It is good for the waist and hips.
The other pelvic move is the hip bump. In Nia we bump our hips in all directions not just to the side. So for the hip bump stand in the A stance and move your hip to the side, then the other side, and the front and back. A quick bump. This is an agility move with the quick start and stop. The arms involved in this are also freedance . . . they can do what they want.
Again, this move is not unique to Nia at all.
As with all the 52 moves there are ways to do them correctly while in practice. Practicing them and getting them in the body’s muscle memory help when we incorporate them into a routine. While doing both the Pelvic Circle and the Hip Bumps the arms are free to move, but it could be the arms have specific choreography tied to the moves in a routine. Also the hip bump is in general done in all directions, but in a routine it could be part of the choreography that the hip just goes to one side then the other.
I am pretty confident that many, many, many people have done the hip bump. It is a familiar move.
In the routine I am doing right now there is a hip bump or two. My favorite is to assign a feeling to them. Sometimes we do sexy hip bumps . . .kinda goes without saying. But we also do angry hip bumps, silly hip bumps, and dramatic hip bumps. Each of those hip bumps brings out a different movement and with each individual it is different. It is so fun to see people interpret the feelings and emotions in a common move like the hip bump.
So these are two moves that are grouped into the Core moves in Nia’s 52 moves. I think that you should get up right now and do some pelvic circles and hip bumps. Your hips will thank you.
So are either of these moves movements you have done before? When is the last time you bumped your hip? How about a pelvic circle? What would your angry hip bump look like?
I have students who come to Nia that amaze and inspire me. After Nia class recently I saw someone walk out of class I wish I had talked to before they left. But they left before I could make it over to them. But then when I left they were still outside. It was a new student so I was so happy to be able to say hello and get their name. I realized later that I didn’t introduce myself, but at least I got their name. Anyway, we were talking about their participation in Nia and they shared one of the reasons why. It reminded me that exercise is a great way to help against depression. There are studies and research that go a long way in proving that exercise does the body good when combating depression. This is the Holiday season and some people get depressed. So getting up and moving is a great way to keep the blues at bay. I was so happy to hear this student being proactive and not letting the circumstances that have been presented get them down.
Exercise increases the production of endorphins, it also DECREASES stress hormones. So TWO things working at once. The decrease in stress hormones AND the increase in endorphins. Endorphins are the chemicals that make you feel good. So exercise makes you feel good. Endorphins also act as natural pain killers working to mask pain. Sometimes pain is a symptom of depression so in addition to just feeling good you are not in pain — two ways you are feeling good.
According to WebMD, one study — way back in 2005 — revealed that “30 minutes of moderately intense exercise five days a week reduced symptoms of depression by nearly half after 12 weeks”. This study was done at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
Science Daily has a little article about how it is now believed that not only is exercise an effective way to treat depression it is also being considered as a way to prevent depression. Seems to me like that would be a given considering all the benefits one can receive from exercise. I mean, in addition to all the chemical reactions in the body you just have better stamina and/or mobility and/or strength and/or stability.
There is debate about what type of exercise, but what I am seeing is that it needs to affect the body . . . either get your heart pumping or your muscles changing. Both is fine too. It does not have to be extremely strenuous, but there should be a level of intensity that is not attained during your regular activities.
I would go out on a limb and say that most of us know exercise makes us feel better. I don’t think we need to read the studies that the researchers are writing. We have done it ourselves and KNOW without a doubt that working out makes us happy. I think that it helps even more if the workout is something you enjoy. But even if you are “doing time” on a treadmill it is better than sitting around.
So, again, I am so happily amazed by my students.
Often times the first thing that gets cut from a schedule when it starts to get busy is exercise. Don’t let that fall off your calendar.
What about you? Are you getting some exercise in? What type of exercise makes you happy?
I am certain that I have mentioned the fact that Nia changes. Like many things it grows, it morphs, it improves, it changes, yet it remains the same. The basics stay the same. The core of it stays the same, but as time goes on it morphs. Sometimes it is the verbiage and the names of things, but it basically stays the same. It has been a year since I have taken the Nia Blue Belt Intensive. In that intensive we were given a Manual from August 2006 and while we were being trained we were told that a new manual was soon to be released along with some new ways of explaining, talking, and learning things. So part of what I quote here might be a little different from what is being taught now, but the idea and the process is the same. The process is Creating Space.
In an intensive, before every session we gather and create the space. This practice was discovered as something done in martial arts. Debbie Rosas and Carlos Rosas, the creators of Nia, recognized its value and brought it into Nia. It is the responsibility of the participants to create the space. It is the responsibility of trainers to hold the space.
The Blue Belt Manual states: “Creating space is the conscious act of preparing the environment, which includes your body.”
It is an incredibly powerful act that enables an individual and a group to become prepared for receiving. It is — at its core — coming into stillness. In preparation for creating the space we use a prescribed process. There is a schedule that is kept. A bell is rung seven to ten minutes before we are to start creating the space. This allows for people to wrap up any conversations they might be involved in and to do any last minute things that need to be done. Then there is a five minute bell and another one at one minute. Then, the students create a circle in which we sit quietly while we create the space. The things we do is quiet the mind, stop the inner dialog and just let the mind rest and become open to hearing and receiving the teaching that is about to happen. The body is also stilled. The emotions are balanced and not taking over. We are connected to our higher self . . . the manual says, “open, but you are not seeking at the moment”.
A main point is to not allow for distractions of any kind. No physical distractions . . . that is one reason why we sit still. No mental distractions . . .that is one reason why we stop the inner dialog and the thinking. All four bodies, Body-Mind-Emotion-Spirit (BMES), are stilled.
The space we create is “a way to set up an energy environment that supports your practice and learning.” It really is a very helpful and powerful tool to help with the learning process. We continue to sit in the space until the trainer interrupts us by thanking us.
I believe that many things could benefit from the creation of space; a meeting, family dinner time, Nia classes, a yoga practice, any exercise, and many more. I think it is a good idea sometimes to clear your head and body of distractions in order to concentrate fully on the “task” at hand. I know that for me this practice really works well in the intensives.
Is this something that you think you could benefit from? What types of tasks or activities do you think you could create space for?
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