Posts Tagged ‘Nia exercise’
Posted by terrepruitt on February 21, 2012
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) per the U.S. National Library of Medicine is “episodes of depression that occur at a certain time of the year, usually during winter.” Interestingly, “Like other forms of depression, it occurs more often in women than in men.” According to Wiki “Although experts were initially skeptical, this condition is now recognized as a common disorder”. I remember when it was declared a “real” disorder. It really sounds as if this type of disorder can become very serious. There are general symptoms that are common when someone is depressed; difficulty sleeping, difficulty waking, sleeping too much, not sleeping, over eating, not eating, gaining weight, losing weight, not socializing, lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, and so on. It seems as if any depression, if left untreated and it continues, could become serious. This type of depression is no different.
I was surprised to see that it is treated somewhat the same way as other depression with both drugs and therapy. Since it is caused by lack of sunlight I hadn’t thought of using medication or talking about it to help it. But I guess that if you are depressed and antidepressants make you not depressed they would work no matter what the cause. And talk therapy helps with all types of depression too. The Mayo Clinic states the causes for SAD to be possibly your body’s rhythm being “off” due to the lack of light, so your body doesn’t know when to sleep and when to be awake, the serotonin levels being low, this is the chemical in the brain that affects your mood, so low levels could be a cause of depression, then there is melatonin levels which regulates sleep so this hormone can be off balance and affect one’s mood.
With that said, I would think that doing things to help make certain your clock stays regular would help. Make certain you keep to a strict bedtime and rising time in the morning. Also eating foods that can increase levels of serotonin might help. Good foods to eat include bananas, papayas, walnuts, and dates. (Mmmm, sounds like a recipe for a smoothie!)
I found the following list on: Muscle-Health-Fitness.com
1) Free Range Turkey
2) Flaxseed/ Flaxseed oil
3) Buckwheat
4) Wild Fish and Sea food
5) Whey protein
6) Bananas
7) High quality Eggs
8) Sour Cherries
9) Free Range Beef
10) Dark Chocolate
According to Livestrong foods that boost your melatonin are rice, barley, bananas and tomatoes. Melatonin is also found in tart cherries, sunflower seeds, almonds, and red radishes. Which again, if low levels of this hormone are thought to play a role in SAD, then increasing the levels would seem to be a logical step.
The thing I see most is light therapy. But it doesn’t work for everyone. It needs to be a bright light, one that is like the sun. I found a variety of lights on Amazon ranging from $60.00 to $600.00. With this type of therapy you sit in front of the light for a prescribed amount of time per day.
Another way to fight depression is to exercise. Exercise is always going to help because it increases your endorphins. The endorphins create a positive feeling in the body. Feeling positive helps with depression. For me dancing is both a great exercise and a great way to get happy. That is one reason why I love Nia because it really does make me happy. But, of course there is all types of exercise to help get those endorphins up. So anything that you will actually do . . . is GREAT!
I think SAD is much more widely accepted as an actual disorder than it once was. There are so many things and ways that we are educated and allowed to see how people live and feel. We probably all know at least one person living in an area where they might be susceptible to SAD. Even if you don’t feel you have felt depression because of the weather, maybe you have things you do that make you happy and get you out of a funk. What are they? What do you do that help make you happy? Share with us here and maybe they can help someone who is SAD.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: chemical in the brain, dance exercise, depressed, depression, endorphins, exercise, Mayo Clinic, melatonin, Nia, Nia Dance, Nia exercise, S.A.D., SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, serotonin | 12 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 31, 2011
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.
Posted in Exercise and Working Out, Misc, Muscles, Nia | Tagged: 2012, 30 minute meals, dance exercise, fat is light, Happy New Year, listen with love, muscle is heavy, New Year's Eve, Nia, Nia balance, Nia class, Nia exercise, Nia freedom, Nia is for everybody, Nia Movement, Nia participant, Nia posts, Nia Practice, posts about Nia, ten minute exercise, the body's way, Year End Review | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 29, 2011
Many bloggers are posting end of the year posts. Some posts are the best, some posts are their favorites, everyone has a different take on it. Some are a review of the year, either in posts or pictures. I thought about doing a post about my favorites, but I was afraid they would all be my Nia posts. As I was going through my posts from the last year I came up with an eclectic bunch . . . . just like my post. I can’t say they are my favorites, but I can say they are ones that I want to point out again. I actually found twenty-three posts that I wanted to re-share. TWENTY-THREE! But that is way too many to summarize and share. I narrowed it down to nine. These nine are ones I think are the most important of the ones I’ve posted this past year. I still think nine is a lot so I am going to do this year in review in two parts. 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.
One of the most important things I have posted about is Balance. The post is called Nia Balance and I was sharing about how balance was challenging because of my injured toe, but the main point of the post is that balance is really important and that our Nia routines are full of opportunities in which we can practice our balance. Since balance is so important you can practice it throughout your day without really changing the way you do things too much. Balance is so important, especially as we age.
It’s Out There is my post about how great Nia is! Ha, ha! Well it is a little bit about Nia, but a lot about the fact that there are many, many, many other movement forms out there. There are so many different forms of movements that there really has to be something for everyone. Nia is for everyBODY as it was created to move the body in the body’s way, but it is not for everyone. There is something out there for everyone! If you look you can find a class for you!
I posted about Feeling Vs. Sensing. Feeling is emotion. Feelings are how you FEEL. Sensing is what your body does. You FEEL happy. Your body senses heat. You FEEL sad. Your body senses cold. Knowing the difference can help you give your body and/or your emotional self, your spirit the workout it needs.
I made up a list of ten exercises that can be done in ten minutes. There is actually a lot of different ways you can do the list of ten exercises, but the idea was to get a full body workout in ten minutes. The hope was that the ten in ten would be an inspiration and a catalyst for actually doing more.
This past week I had company and they were here through the dinner hour. I didn’t know that they would be here that long so I didn’t have anything planned for dinner that would feed all four of us, but I still wanted to feed my husband when they left. So about the time they were talking about leaving I went into the kitchen. I was in the kitchen all of seven minutes. I washed the rice, turned on the rice maker, chopped the end off the asparagus, rinsed them, put them in a pan then put them in the oven, and dumped the marinated chicken in a pan and put it in the oven. I then set the timer for 20 minutes at which time dinner would be ready. I achieved a 30 minutes meal. All because when I froze the chicken I made a sauce for it at the same time. So when I took it out to defrost it was already marinating or doing so as it defrosted. So it really took seven minutes for me to make dinner. My friends didn’t even miss me because I was only gone seven minutes. This post is about Shopping Step to help Dinner Prep. After shopping before you freeze the meat make your marinade right inside the bag. It has really helped me get dinner ready much faster! Love it!
So this is five on my list out of nine post I think really could use repeating. I hope you check back Saturday to see the rest of the list. I thank you very much for taking the time to read this. If all of these or some of these are “repeats” to you, then I really thank you. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you reading and if you are a commenter . . . I appreciate you even more!!! See you back here on Saturday for the rest of the review of my Year End Review!
Posted in Food, Misc, Nia | Tagged: 30 minute meals, dance exercise, fat is light, listen with love, muscle is heavy, Nia, Nia balance, Nia class, Nia exercise, Nia freedom, Nia is for everybody, Nia Movement, Nia participant, Nia posts, Nia Practice, posts about Nia, ten minute exercise, the body's way, Year End Review | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 7, 2011
Reporting in. How are you doing with the 31 Things Project? Getting rid of anything? Today after teaching my Nia Class I took my trunk full of plastic water bottles to the recycler. Those things take up a lot of space. My entire trunk and half my back seat was full. I have a big trunk. There were two large bags and a box sitting in our garage the rest I stored in my trunk. It is not easy to save up recycling because it takes up a lot of space but it isn’t worth it to go to a recycling place unless you have a lot of stuff to recycle. So we have it around for a long time and are always having to dance around bags of bottles. But there is a place in San Jose next to the Willow Glen studio I teach at and the people there were SOOOO nice I think I might drop by more often.
My list thus far is: today, I rid our space of plastic bottles. Yesterday, I went into my office closet for something and ended up throwing some stuff out. Closet is still not clean, but it is a bit more organized and some of the stuff in it is more easily accessible. The day before I noticed a drawer in the kitchen that had gotten a bit out of control so I tidied that up and threw out some of the stuff in there that was no longer useful. The day before that I fixed a watch band. I have several watches and most them need batteries or new bands (sounds like a perfect “thing” for my project). The one that has a working battery has a “broken” band. Well, the leather band itself was fine, it was the pin that hold the band to the watch that had broken. Now, please understand that I know it is easy to remedy these things, I just don’t always think about them. They slip my mind. I was looking for something in a box and I found some pins. I had saved the pins from a broken watch band. So I was able to put the saved pin into my watch band and — Voila! A watch. Yeah! I love watches and I have not had one that could actually be worn in so long.
Fixing that band did two things; 1) it has encouraged me to put “fix watches” on my 31 Thing Project list and 2) it changed two useless items (a pin and broken watch) to two useful items. Unfortunately that little tiny pin was not taking up a lot of space so no space was created, but time certainly was. Ha, ha. Ok, times was not CREATED, but I now know what time it is!
This is proving less easy than I thought because of the Holiday season, but I am committed to the project so I am going to do it. I need to remember that the idea is not to take up a lot of time. Give me a chance to exercise focus. Yesterday I spent way too much time in my closet! I got distracted by things in the closet that I was not looking for. So . . . how are you doing? Do you have seven things on your list of “done”?
Posted in Misc | Tagged: 31 Things Project, clean closet, create space, create time, dance exercise, fix things, Nia, Nia class, Nia classes in San Jose, Nia Dance, Nia exercise, Nia Teacher, recycle, San Jose Nia, water bottles, Willow Glen Nia | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 6, 2011
I believe one of my Nia friends on FB posted a reposting of Bonnie Ware’s Top 5 Regrets of Dying*. You might have seen it. You’ve probably heard many people repeat the saying and maybe some people even admit that they don’t regret things they have done as much as things they did not do. This saying kind of sums up what Bonnie said most people’s regrets were. Or at least the majority of regrets had to do with things they did not do.
The list she compiled consisted of the following 5 things. To see her post you can click here.
1. I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
Wow, huh? She said this was the most common regret. I think living a life true to oneself is very difficult for some people. First of all one has to decide who they are. With so much information out there and so many ways to be it is not easy for some to decide who they are, so it is even more difficult to be true to oneself. Then add on the fact that there are people in your life who expect things from you. Not an easy task, but according to Bonnie one of the ones that people regret most not doing. So while you have a chance, I would suggest you work on it. I work on it daily.
2. I wish I didn’t work so hard.
Again not an easy task. Especially if you have kids, bills, and/or a mortgage. Sad that having kids is the very thing that makes you work more because you want to provide THINGS for them. They are inundated with WANTING and MUST HAVE, so you, as a good parent want to give them things. With all the extra hours maybe you end up working through a lot of special times.
Most of us could probably learn to live without a few things, exercise restraint when it comes to certain things. The article states to simplify which could lead to less need, which could lead to more space and happiness.
Yes, I know easier said than done. But if we listen to lessons from people who have been there sometimes we can save ourselves a lot of heartache.
Remember Bonnie has shared this information from people who are dying. And these are common regrets.
3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings.
I think learning how to express one’s feelings correctly helps supply courage. Feelings are emotions that cannot always be helped. But our actions based on feelings CAN be controlled. If we are hurt or angry; screaming, yelling, hitting, throwing things, etc. are not good ways to express your feelings. These things might be therapeutic ways to vent, but they are not good ways to express feelings. Learning better ways is a step in having the courage. Also, being in tune with who you are expressing your feelings too helps. If you have feelings which are strong you want to share with someone and you are having to work very hard to NOT scream and yell it is usually a good idea to do it at a time when the person is receptive. Try not to have a serious talk where you are emotional when the other person has had a bad day, is tired, or is in the middle of something. These circumstance make it difficult for the person you are trying to share with to listen openly and give you what you need. If they had a bad day and you coming to them telling them they hurt your feelings, might make them feel guilty with an instant reaction of yelling and blaming you. Putting yourself in that type of situation would do the opposite of helping you have courage. While Bonnie reminds us we can’t control the reactions of others, we can control WHEN we share with them in order to receive a better response.
4. I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends.
Wow. None of these are easy, huh? I mean, I have many friends I don’t see as often as I’d like. Life is busy. And maybe #2 and #3 actually had an effect on #4? Could be. But maybe if we work less and have less stuff to deal with we would have more time for friends. I know that I could be a little bit more timely with some things instead of waiting for the last minute. Then I might be free to meet with a friend when she called instead of having to buckle down and get stuff done.
But with all of the social networking available to us, keeping in touch with people might be a little easier than in the past. We will have to see. Because it also leads to us having more friends to keep in touch with.
5. I wish that I had let myself be happier.
Hmmm. Interesting. Seems like people on their death bed actually admitted to keeping themselves from being happy. According to Bonnie, they didn’t realize until they were dying that it is a choice. One chooses to be happy. Again, maybe this ones ties in with the ones above. If you figure out who you are and are true to yourself you’ve probably realized you made a choice to be happy. If you work less and fill you life and your heart up with more wonderful moments you have made a choice. If you learn the dance of self expression, you will have allowed yourself to be happy. If you keep in touch with friends and they are the good ones that fill your life and heart, then you’ve made a choice to be happy.
Wow. Seems like all the regrets on the list are related. Seems to be that working on these now could help keep us from having regrets when it is too late. Doing these things when you have the health to do them is important. As I mentioned maybe #1 thru #4 can help with #5. Or maybe it is the other way around. What do you think?
*Bonnie Ware is the author of the new book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying. Visit her official website Inspiration and Chai.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: Bonnie Ware, can't help feelings, courage to express my feelings, dance exercise, Facebook post, Inspiration and Chai, live a life true to myself, Nia, Nia Dance, Nia exercise, One chooses to be happy, Social Networking, Top 5 Regrets of Dying | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on December 3, 2011
Whew! Of course the first two days into December were busy or to state it more accurately – already scheduled. So my 31 Things in December Project almost didn’t get started until the 3rd of December, but as I was going along I realized that I could count what I was already doing as part of the project. I was originally thinking of things to do specifically for the project so I hadn’t made the connection that what I was doing could be included in the project, which is just plain silly. As you may know from my posts one of my best friends is moving away. Yes, I can still talk to her and keep in touch, but visiting will be a much larger ordeal and will not happen as often as we would like. So this past week I spent two days visiting her just to see her two more times before she left. The last visit was on December 1st, the first day of my project. I hadn’t thought of something to do for the project. But I did get a new rug which is to replace TWO rugs in my entry way. So without even thinking about my project I was able to get rid of two things, but since I replaced it with one, some sticklers might consider the “getting rid of count” at one. But that is ok, it is still ONE thing. And it is much easier to vacuum, clean, wash, etc. ONE rug instead of two. And that is the point of this project. If making more space, if getting rid of things, if de-cluttering, if fixing something helps make life easier and less time is consumed then that is what we want.
Then on December 2nd, I had a Nia class to teach late morning and then my mother-in-laws memorial service to go to, so again I was not thinking of my project. But I was thinking of making sure the house was not a disaster when some people came to visit afterwards, so I employed my refrigerator cleaning technique. With my technique I don’t empty out the fridge so I don’t always throw stuff out. But this time I decided to throw a few things out. Afterwards I realized that my getting rid of stuff in the fridge could be considered “things” for my project. So, yay, since I had other things on my mind it worked out great.
Then today – I made sure I did it BEFORE I posted so I could be honest – I did one of the things I was originally thinking about doing for this project. Now this is going to probably sound really silly to a lot of people, especially men, but I’m going to share anyway. First I am going to try to set it up so it might not sound as silly. If someone is going to do a project, let’s say, build something, they might need a variety of tools in order to do it correctly. A cook or a chef usually has many tools at his/her disposal in order to cook a nice meal. A hairdresser has many tools in order to style, cut, color, and work on people’s hair. Well, for some the same thing goes with make-up. I don’t think I wear a lot of make-up but I do realize that there are some tools that help with the make-up applying process. One tool some of you that wear make-up might use is an eyelash or eyebrow brush. Well, I don’t think that there is any sense in buying them. What I do is I use the brushes in that come with the mascara I buy. I like certain shaped brushes when I apply mascara so sometimes I will buy my mascara based on the brush. Well, since I use the brushes in my make-up applying process sometimes I don’t throw the tube of mascara away even when I have stopped using it.
Mascara does not last a long time. I think they have even perfect formulas so that is gets clumpy and sticking after about 45 days so you are forced to go out and buy more. Anyway . . . with the fact that there is a point that I stop using it and I use the brushes after I am done with the mascara, I have ended up with a lot of unused tubes of mascara in my drawer. Now, my intent as I save every tube is to “deal with it”, but it is a messy process. It is not that it takes a long time, but when I am doing my make-up I am usually trying to get out of the house so I don’t want to take time to stop and look at all the tubes I have, decide which brushes I might want, then wash them out. I am too busy trying to get ready. Then when I am home I don’t think, “Oh my mascara brushes!” So you might be able to imagine how they can pile up. So that is one of the things I have taken care of as part of my 31 Things in December Project.
I went through all of the tubes of mascara I had. I decided which brushes seemed as if they would make good tools, then I pulled them out of the tubes, THREW THE TUBES AWAY (YAY!), and washed the brushes. I ended up with a few brushes, but they are all different shapes and different bristle hardness, so I think they will be able to be used differently. I am going to evaluate them when they are dry to make a final decision. If the bristles are to soft after they dry then they really aren’t what I want. So I might end up throwing away even more.
But now I have a little more space in my make-up drawer. I know the whole make-up thing might seem silly to some, but as I stated the whole idea of this project is to help eliminate things to help free up space and/or time. With less things in my drawer there is more space which creates more time because I am not having to paw through useless tubes of mascara. Plus with this particular thing I have created tools that will help me apply my make-up more efficiently. Not that I actually do that often anymore because I dance it off when teaching Nia, but when I do it is nice to have help.
So? What about you? Have you been able to get rid of at least three things? Or move somethings from the broken pile to the usable pile? Have you decided to participate in this exercise of making space? Well, share. Tell us what you have done to make your life more free.
Posted in Misc | Tagged: 31 Things in December Project, cleaning refigerator, dance exercise, make-up tools, making more space, mascara brushes, memorial service, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia exercise, Nia Teacher, Nia Technique, teach Nia classes, unclutter | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on November 8, 2011
We exercise our proprioceptive sense in Nia in every workout. Generally proprioception is the sense of body parts in relation to the body. One’s own perception of one’s own body. You may have also heard kinesthesia which is very closely defined, both definitions debated, as the sense of movement. But for now I will tell it as I learned it and explain it as I know it. Proprioception is what we do by knowing where we are in space . . . not outer space, but in space. Knowing how far to reach for something. Our body knows or senses how far our arm has to reach. In our muscles we have proprioceptors that monitor, detect, and inform the rest of the body what needs to be done in order to achieve the goal of reaching the object. Proprioception makes life so much easier!
When you reach for your coffee/juice cup in the morning you probably look at the cup. You look, your brain makes a million calculations, your arm reaches out for it, and you grab it. Then do you look at the mirror to make certain you actually get the cup to your mouth? Probably not. You just know where your mouth is and you bring your cup up to you mouth for a sip of liquid. Yes, there have been times I am sure when we have all “missed our mouth” and poured something down our front, but more often than not we make it to our mouth. Same with eating and brushing our teeth. We know where our mouth is so we are able to get our hand to our face with the proper distance for the utensil.
Walking is the same. We have a sense of where the ground is so we don’t watch every step, we just allow our leg to go out to make contact with the ground and we step. I bet we have all missed a step or thought the ground was either farther away or closer than it actually was. So we might have jarred ourselves a bit. But again, more often than not walking is a smooth habitual action executed with ease.
What about touching your nose or scratching an itch? The same thing. We know where our body parts are so our muscles and our proprioceptors know what it will take to get our hand there to scratch.
This is part of the nervous system. This body function can be trained, it can be practiced, it can be improved. If you like sports such as golf or baseball, you are practicing with precision movements that allow you to use an object to make contact with a ball. You learn how and when to swing. You learn how hard or light to hit in order to get the ball to go not only the distance but where you want it to go. Practicing a choreography dance is training your muscles and your nervous system. Learning the steps and being able to place your feet correctly without looking is great practice. In Nia we use our entire body while dancing so we are able to keep our proprioceptors and our nervous system active. In many of our routines we actively look up while our feet perform specific moves. We encourage our students to allow their feet to dance what they know.
It is very important to practice with and train our proprioceptive sense. Learning new motor skills is a great way to get those muscles and nerves singing. As we age this sense seems to diminish and it could be just from lack of movement. I have seen many elder people stop moving and then become very afraid of the world around them. If we keep our proprioceptive sense then we are aware of where our body is and we are aware of the world around us, this helps us fear less. So keep moving. Keep practicing old skills. Keep learning. Learn new skills. Keep dancing. And keep living. Exercising our proprioception will help ensure a high quality of live and living!
Posted in Just stuff, Misc | Tagged: muscle training, Nia choreography, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia exercise, Nia routine, Nia workout, Proprioception, proprioceptive training, sense of movement, sense of the body | 4 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 15, 2011
Nia is a cardio dance workout (it is really much more, but on the surface, that is what I call it). As with many cardio workouts done to music there are a lot of moves. Since Nia is basically a dance workout there are a lot of common dance steps and movements that many of us were taught in different forms of dance. Some are even from different forms of martial arts or other exercise classes and modalities. Nia has a base of 52 moves. We call them the 52 Nia Moves. What Nia has done is put them into categories to allow you to see what areas of the body are most associated with the move. One of the most common moves we use in Nia classes is the Open Stance. I have been familiar with the open stance for as long as I can remember. I took ballet and tap when I was young. I have done Jazzercise and other types of dance exercise classes. Many of these types of things have an open stance. From the first time I can remember being taught the open stance it was taught as “feet hip width apart”. Some of you might be familiar with that. Well, I don’t know if other modalities meant it actually that way or if I had been misled, but in Nia the open stance is actually hip JOINT width apart.
So you might be saying, “What?” Well, go ahead, if you can . . . . stand up and into open stance. I’m going to guess most of you don’t have a mirror in front of you . . . so look at your feet. What do you see? A somewhat wide stance? Are your feet hip WIDTH apart? Probably, because I believe that is the common instruction for “open stance”. Stay there. Touch your hips and thighs. Sense how that stance feels. Make note of the sensation of your leg muscles. Picture your leg bones. Are they at a slight angle?
Now bring your feet closer together. Picture your stance being hip JOINT width apart. Most of us have hips that are larger than where our legs meet our hip socket. Try this: Imagine someone gently lifting you off of your feet by you head, imagine your legs are just hanging down from your hip JOINTS. Then the huge hand that lifted you sets you gently down. Your legs exactly in the same position as when you were hanging. Your leg bones come straight out from your hip joints. That is what Nia open stance is.
For me, it is much more narrow than I was taught open stance was.
My pictures are showing the difference between what I thought was open (the first one) and what I now think of as open (the second one). I stood on the rug so the pattern would help show the difference. Please keep in mind that everyone, everyBODY is different so the width of your feet will differ from mine, but if you keep in mind that open is not really hip WIDTH apart, but hip JOINT width apart then you too, might have an adjustment in your “open stance”.
Well, did you? Were you taught open is hip width apart? If you stand hip width apart is there a noticeable difference when you stand hip JOINT width apart?
Posted in 52 Moves (of Nia), Nia | Tagged: 52 Nia Moves, ballet classes, cardio dance, cardio exercise, cardio workout, dance steps, exercise classes, Jazzercise, Jazzercize, martial art classes, Nia, Nia class, Nia Dance, Nia exercise, Nia Moves, Nia workout, open stance | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on September 6, 2011
Nia’s training, the Nia Intensives are something that anyone can take. If you are not planning on teaching you can still attend the intensives. Nia is a practice that can be applied to life without ever having to teach it. Nia has several different ways of helping with continued education both for the livelihood member and for teachers. First for a person that is planning on teaching, #12 of the White Belt principles is continued education. There are instructions and ideas on how to learn Nia routines.
There are three stages to learning a routine. When I took my White Belt Carlos was very adamant about not skipping any of these steps. I am glad I have decided to post this because I am being reminded that there are a few steps in each stage that I could be better about doing. In the first stage we are reminded to just simply do the DVD. With each routine we have a DVD and we are instructed to just do it. Do it as if we are taking a Nia class. Do it as you would do any exercise DVD. Move, listen, and enjoy the workout. This is obviously one step that can be done several times.
Another step is to listen to the music all the time. Listen and allow it to seep into the body. Then we are encouraged to FreeDance to the music. We are instructed to dance six of the eight stages. Keep in mind this can be over the course of days or weeks, whatever it takes. Then they advise us to just WATCH the DVD without working out to it. The last step in Stage 1 is to do the bars.
Stage 2 is where we watch the DVD and note the separate portions of the body’s choreography. Three separate steps, first we watch and note the legs, then the core, then the arms.
Stage 3 of learning a Nia Routine is where we start to go deeper into the routine by starting to have an awareness of the musical cues that signal a change in movement. By now, with having danced the routine to the Nia DVD as a student, listened to the music, mapped out the music, noted the choreography, and become aware of the sounds that tell us when there is a movement change coming we are ready to pretend. We call that teaching or dancing with your bears. It is the example used when you are at a point in the learning process where you are ready to do the workout and pretend there are students. During my Nia White Belt Intensive Carlos said something like set up stuff bears or spoons or pillows, just set up something so you can have a focus. I think the bear scenario is used in all intensives because we all call it “teaching/dancing with your bears”. Step 3 of stage 3 is to even go deeper into the music. It is amazing how the music will sound different after you have taught your bears. I might realize I need to pick a different music cue because while I am moving the one I originally chose gets lost, or I hear a better one. Sometimes I stop and don’t move at all to make sure I am hearing the music correctly. More advice includes being the student, doing the routine again, but as the student and not the teacher and getting more technical with the moves. Once you have the basic choreography down it is time to get technical and make certain you have all the levels of intensity familiarized in your body. The Nia Routine training DVD also has many other tools on it to help us learn the routine. They have a portion where they talk about the energy that goes with each move and more about the technical aspect of each move. One of the last steps is the recommendation to dance the routine with a different focus. That is a great way to learn a routine because it becomes practically brand new and you discover so much. The last stage encourages us to change the music. Because we have mapped out music and know the count of it we can pick songs that match and put the choreography to different music.
In addition to these great stages and steps they have mapped out for us to assist us in learning a routine, Nia’s continue education includes articles and telecourses. They also film classes that they hold at Nia HQ so that people can watch and learn about more ideas that delve into Nia. In 2010 the course of study was the 13 Nia White Belt Principles. The course of study for 2011 is “Becoming A Sensation Scientist”, learning about senses of the body. I am not sure of what the course of study’s name is for 2012, but it looks as if it has to do with the body itself with title such as, “Awareness of Muscles” and “Awareness of Ligaments and Tendons.” So this is part of what I mean when I say Nia is so much more than a workout.
YES, Nia is a cardio dance workout where you can go to a class and move your body to music get sweaty and get exercise for your body. But if you want, it can be a practice, where you learn more about your body. Even if you are not a teacher or a livelihood member Nia does a monthly telecourse call where everyBODY can listen, I would like to encourage you to check it out. Go to the main website for Nia and see all the education they have to offer. You might be just amazed as I always am.
Posted in Nia, Nia White Belt Principles | Tagged: awareness of the body. Nia class, Carlos AyaRosas, Carlos Rosas, core, Nia, Nia bars, Nia bears, Nia cardio dance class, Nia choreography, Nia Dance, Nia DVD, Nia education, Nia exercise, Nia HQ, Nia Intensives, Nia Music, Nia Practice, Nia routine, Nia Teacher, Nia Telecourse, Nia training, Nia website, Nia White Belt, Nia White Belt Intensive, Nia workout, NiaNow.com, Sensation Scientist, teach Nia | Leave a Comment »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 18, 2011
One of my favorite workouts DVD besides my Nia routines is a ten minute one. It might be considered an old one as it is from 2004, but I love it. They always sell these things as a “Don’t have time to exercise” type of thing, but doing only a ten minute workout all the time won’t get you far. As I have said before when I was sharing my little ten minute workout in June, it is good when that is all you have time for but only every once in a while, honestly more is needed to reach fitness and health goals. This DVD, done by Lara Hudson, has five ten minute workouts on it. It has capability built into the DVD that allows you to play one workout or pick more than one to make a longer workout and they will play right in a row. You don’t have to start one, do it, then manually start another. When you set up the workout you pick the order you want them to play in. You can even pick one workout twice so you can do it two times.
The five workouts are an ab workout, a buns and thighs workout, an arm workout, a cardio workout, and a flexibility workout. There are about 10 exercises per workout — even with the leg workout. The number of times you do each exercise varies from 4 to 12.
I’ve actually only done the cardio workout once or twice because I prefer to do Nia or Turbo Jam as my cardio. I also like to do more than 10 minutes of cardio, but it could be that all of these together would work for you.
Lara has an easy way about her. The instruction is clear and easy to follow. Some times in her instructions she ends the word in a high tone and it never fails to make me laugh. She is pleasant to work out to. She also is very good at reminding you throughout the video to concentrate on each movement. She often says, “Controoool.” in a way that encourages you to keep the movement controlled. Precision is another key to Pilates and she does a good job getting you to remember that, too.
In the ab workout there are various sit-ups and leg lifts. There are roll ups and roll overs. Lara is very clear with her instruction regarding breathing, which is very helpful. This workout is done lying down.
The leg workout is done on the floor also. It contains the usual leg lifts and bridges, and maybe some other exercises that are not so usual. This workout has you do a set of exercises for one leg, then switch to the other leg. Then there is another set you do for each leg. Even though the workout is only ten minutes the pacing is nice and you really are able to get through about 10 different exercises.
They call the arm workout “Sculpting Pilates”. It is bicep curls and triceps extensions. There is shoulder and back work in there too. There might be some exercises in each workout that are new to you, but nothing to drastic. For this workout the basic stance is the Pilates V, heels together with the feet forming a V. At times we separate the feet, but most of it is done standing in the V.
The cardio portion of this DVD is a series of planks, push ups, curls, dipping lunges, leg lifts, swimmers, and mermaids. As with all of the workouts the flow is nice and Lara keeps you moving reasonable pace. Also, as with all the workouts, she gets a stretch in there. It isn’t a long stretch but just enough to help you “reset” if you need to.
The flexibility one consists of the cat and the cow, and other stretches that really get pretty much every part of your body — all in ten minutes.
I think this is a GREAT little Pilates workout DVD. It could even be a nice way to start to doing Pilates. If you have never done Pilates this could give you an idea of what to expect if you were to go to a class. It could help you learn a bit of the concentration and breathing. I really like this DVD. I feel it is a great addition to any workout program. It allows you to do from 10 minutes to 50 minutes in the order you want.
Have you ever done Pilates?
Posted in Exercise and Working Out | Tagged: a buns and thighs workout, a cardio workout, ab workout, an arm workout, bridges, cardio workout, cat and the cow, center, concentration, control, flexibility workout, flow, full body stretch, leg lifts, lunges, Nia, Nia DVD, Nia exercise, Nia routine, Nia workout, Pilates, Pilates exercises, Pilates V, Pilates workout, planks, precision, sculpting exercises, sculpting workout, ten minute workout | 4 Comments »
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