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.
Not too long ago another Nia Teacher and I were practicing Nia in a local park. She had brought her laptop so that we could look at the DVD and practice the routine. As you might realize it is very difficult to see a laptop screen outside when you are not right in front of it. We were dancing to the DVD, so we were not right in front of it. She also brought a long a little round speaker. She hooked it up to her laptop to help boost the sound. When we finally gave up on the laptop she plugged the speaker into my iPhone. Cool. It was round and had pretty good sound. It had a little leather looking case and was it just so cute. Of course, I wanted one. It is perfect to carry around “just in case”. I pretty much always have my iPhone because I have my music on it, but not everyplace I have taught has a sound system so a little round speaker would be GREAT! It could fit in my purse.
So to Amazon I went. I am the type that looks at something online for a little while before I decide to buy it. I have a house FULL of stuff. I do not need anymore stuff. I am a stuff collector. So I tend to hesitate before I buy more stuff. When I looked online I was seeing a little round speaker for more money than I need to spend on stuff I don’t need. 😉 Right? I mean, when I am buying something I can live without I tend to have a limit as to how much I will spend. So I looked around on the website. I was finding some nice speakers. I read some reviews. I looked here and there.
I spotted a BLUE one (uh-oh, BLUE?). It was round and cute and it was blue! It was rechargeable so it doesn’t take batteries. I really like that. It also expanded to give you “larger” sound. But since it was blue, cute, expandable and rechargeable I thought it would be more than the other speakers I was looking at, but lo and behold it was LESS. And totally in my self-alloted price range. But I still hesitated because I really don’t need it and even though I thought it was completely affordable I could always use that money for something else. So, in my normal style I didn’t buy it right then. I like to “sit on it”. But then you know what happens? I think about it all the time. I end up in situations where, “Oh it would be perfect if I had that (fill in the blank) that I wanted.”
When I always find myself thinking about the item for a while, I usually give in. And I am so glad I did. It is so cute. And the sound is pretty good for the price and what it is. The sound is WAY better than the sound that comes out of the iPhone. A mini-speaker. Yay! Does it give GREAT sound? No. Is it stereo? No. But it give really good sound and I can hear the music much better than on my iPhone.
The description on Amazon says: “Speaker works with any 3.5 mm headphone jack, perfect for laptops, cell phones, portable game devices, MP3 players, etc.” So you can use it on all of your devices.
It doesn’t come with a nice leather case like my friend’s but it does have its own little bag. That is good enough for me. I just like something that fits the device AND its cord. Something some people might like is that its audio cord does not come apart from its charging cord. I know we end up having so many cords that it is easy to misplace (or as my friend says, “Put away so well.”) some of the cords. When you have a cord to charge the device and a separate one to use it sometimes the power cord can get lost because you don’t use it as often. Well, these two cords do not come apart. There is a little plastic separator that hold them together, it is the little square below the USB connector and the audio plug, and they are connected near the end too and become one cord. The cords also have a build in “clip” to keep them neat and tidy. In this picture it is to the left of the bag, the black plastic square. Cool. All built-in!
Blue things make me happy. Blue things that are cute make me happy. Blue things that are cute that allow me to hear my Nia music and all music better make me really happy. And that it was less than $20 makes me so happy I want share!
Wow. I was practicing a new-to-me Nia routine this morning. I had taught it Monday but to me there is always room for improvement. I can always know my music more intimately. I can always cue better. I can always do a move differently. That is the thing about Nia. There is always so many ways to do the move. I find that it is best to keep it simple when first introducing a new routine. It is best to just do the basics and let the class get it down a bit before showing them any alternatives. The Nia students that get the basics down quickly can easily pick up on alternative ways to do the move themselves. Because they are already at the point of expanding. But I try to remember to keep it simple so I like to practice and learn it better. It is not always easy when the music just “makes” you move. It is easy to get carried away in the music and just start dancing. That is what Nia allows you to do, stick to the routine or dance your own dance. Well, this morning I kind of had a “routine”. Well, at least I had a plan. Ok, maybe more accurately I had a list. But sometimes even though you start out doing the first thing on the list and even the second thing, you get off the path.
It doesn’t even have to be a big thing that gets you off track. It doesn’t have to be a bad thing. Sometimes it could be a little thing or a good thing that derails you. But either way, you are off track. You find yourself at 11:00 pm with nothing to post about. I thought I had all afternoon to think of something, research it if necessary, write it up, then post, but I got off track.
THEN . . . I typed up this entire post. I was just about to add a link and save it and the laptop I was working on shut down. And I was writing in Notepad because I don’t like writing in the little box that WordPress gives me nor do I like the “full page version”. I write in Notepad, the laptop doesn’t have MS Word so it doesn’t automatically save. So this is my SECOND attempt at this post. And I am sorry to say, but the first one was much better. I had deposited all my thoughts onto the screen so I forgot them.
I am that way. I write something down so I don’t have to remember it and believe me, I don’t. I type up a thought, an idea, a post, I don’t remember it. It as if putting it in type takes it out of my head and leaves a blank spot. Which I guess can lead me right back to my post. I had a blank spot for it.
I even found myself click on “random articles” on Wiki. I figured I was safe clicking on “random” on wiki it is not like video roulette where I don’t know what I’ll get. I got a few about people I had never heard of. One person had been in “Charles in Charge” so I have been signing that for an hour. But another was about “Feather Bowling”. Made me laugh. Apparently:
Feather Bowling is a game played with wooden balls shaped like wheels of cheese. The balls are rolled down a dirt or synthetic alley towards a feather sticking out of the dirt at the other end. The object of the game is to get the ball as close to the feather as possible.
The only place to play the game in the United States is the Cadieux Cafe in Detroit, Michigan.
Who knew? Well now we do. And some of us might even have the theme song from Charles in Charge in our head. Either way, I posted and I shared and that is where I am right now. How about you? Signing? Dancing? Writing down thoughts and forgetting them? Feather bowling? Staying on track? Talk to me . . . .
I am working on learning a new Nia routine. After getting coffee this morning I sat down to listen to the music and bar it. I had done some work on some of the songs already, so I was continuing. I had opened up a slider because the morning was cool and I wanted to let some cool air in and let the cat enjoy the outside. As I was sitting there I started to hear a squirrel barking. I got up to look and I couldn’t see him, but I could hear him well enough I knew he was somewhere along the edge of the yard. I spotted him on our roof. I asked him why he was barking, but I was unable to understand his answer. He kept barking as he ran from one level to the next. Since he sounded so upset I was curious as to why. He sounded as if he was near so I looked again. He was on our roof where I couldn’t see him from the slider. He barked non-stop.
Being the well-trained squirrel sap that I am, I went outside to give them some peanuts and I cleaned the bird bath and filled it with water. I thought maybe he wanted peanuts and water. But he kept barking. I think he actually moved to a place where he could see me and he knew I could see him. He was barking for so long that I decided to video him.
This is him. He is on our neighbor’s roof.
After this he stopped. Maybe he just wanted me to put him on YouTube. Maybe he is not happy that the blue jays are eating the nuts. They usually share pretty well, but the only thing I can think of is that maybe the blue jays are a bit more aggressive than normal because yesterday I noticed they brought babies with them. I don’t know if you have ever experienced baby blue jays. At this point they are flying fine and have their balance so they are a few months old, but they still have that baby cry. They are so round and fluffy and look bigger than the adults. Yesterday one just stood on the table and cried for food. But the adult with him wanted him to fend for himself. But MAYBE this is what the squirrel was barking about today, but I dont’ know.
After he stopped barking he sat in the tree like this. Giving me some kind of “eye”; evil or squirrely you decide.
So, yeah, this is part of what I mean when I posted the post about workout distractions. I could ignore them, but often times they are making a ruckus for a reason and if they are doing it in our yard I like to try to figure out why. Eventually, I shut the door and closed the curtain so I could bar some more of the Nia music and get a Nia workout in. I wanted to show you more of the “distractions” from our yard. Silly squirrel.
Nia is a cardio dance workout. We turn on music and we dance. We have Nia routines that we do to certain music or we can put the patterns to different music. We are not limited to these two choices this is just an example. We dance to music, we have fun, we don’t even realize we are exercising. To me, it is “like” Zumba in that way. But Nia is a practice. Nia has different levels and each level has principles. If you choose to experience the different levels you can, but even if not the principles of Nia can be applied to the workout and to life. To me, Nia is like Yoga because of the fact that some of the “stuff” you do in a workout can be applied to life. Since the ideas and principles of Nia can be applied to life they are not necessarily “new”, most of it is not made up by the creators of Nia. Some of it you might recognize and have heard elsewhere. It is the way it is applied and put together. I have stated this before . . . that things are not new, so you aren’t imaging that. I do like to repeat it because a lot of people have not heard of Nia so they might think it is something new and “way out there”, but it is not, it is based on science and things you know. Some of the things I am learning are things that I have to continue to “practice”. 🙂
Here are a few of the things, in no particular order:
–It is ok not to be perfect. That is not really the way we state it when we talk about it, but I have started many posts with what we really say and maybe one day I will post one, but I am not ready to deal with the spam and odd comments I might receive from our actually verbiage of this same idea. But basically we don’t have to do things perfectly. Which is really great because there really is no such thing.
—The Four Engery Allies are always something I am having to practice. (Speak with impeccability / Don’t assume anything / Don’t take anything personally / Always do your best)
–Even silence is music. We actually practice listening for the silences in our music. A lot can happen in a silence, it could be a birthing place for something spectacular. Or it could just be a place of rest and calm. Either way it is sometimes something to look forward to.
–Natural Time is a gift. Moving and living in ones own natural time and not having to do everything by the clock that society runs on, is not always possible. There are some things you just have to do, so when there is an opportunity to move and live in natural time I take advantage of it and I consider it a treasured gift.
–Live in the moment. I am always doing one thing and thinking another. We live in a society of multi-tasking. It is celebrated and even rewarded, but it is not joyful nor rewarding. Sometimes I forget why I walked into a room because I started walking there to do something and then after the first two steps my brain has already jumped to the next task. So I arrive in the room thinking, “What am I doing here? I know what I want to do when I am done with why I came in here, but I don’t know why I am here.” So this is something I am always having to practice.
All of these things are things we learn in our Nia workout. We don’t have to dance perfect, we have our energy allies when we dance, silence can be part of our movement, we move in our own natural time, and we move in the moment and dance to the music. All of these things work in and off the dance floor. So Nia teaches me a lot and it continues to teach me.
Would you believe me if I told we do push ups in Nia? Ha! We do a lot of exercises in Nia, but we do them to music. We are dancing and flowing from one move to the next. We allow for the individual to do them their own way. People might not even realize they are doing a push up, just like the sit ups they are disguised. It is not a disguise of deception, not at all. It is that we are in the moment and it is truly a dance so one just doesn’t realize it is a push up. Sometimes it is a military push up, but sometimes not. Sometimes it is from the knees, or sitting down or even standing and using a wall. But there is pushing involved and the upper body is utilized.
For this Ten Minute Workout we are using the BOSU. The round side is on the ground. So we are using the flat side to hold onto. Push ups have never been my favorite exercise to do because I have never been really good at the military ones. But I could do them, but now I am sticking to the on-the-knees version to stay off my toe. You do with your legs what is comfortable. Even though my execution of a push up can be improved upon I love the push up because it is a multi muscle working exercise.
In this workout we have just gone from sit up (on the ground), to overhead triceps extensions (on our knees), and now we are doing the push ups. I think having done the triceps extensions on the ground is one way to help you make it through the 10 exercises in the 10 minutes.
With the round side of the BOSU on the ground, I grip the edges of it. Mine has “handles” and I use them. I stay on my knees and use my arms to push me up and allow me to come down. Even on your knees there are different ways to do it. You can keep your legs down, using your shins and the top of your feet for additional stability or your can lift your shins and feet off the ground. Remember no matter how you choose to do the exercise you are not stuck doing it that way for the entire 10 or the second pass through. So experiment. Listen to your body and decide what works best for you at that moment. Remember your goals and adjust your movements to help you to achieve them.
Only go as low to the BOSU as you can and still be able to push back up. Using the BOSU requires you to use equal strength in each arm because you have to work to keep the BOSU level.
One of the key things to do to get the most out of a push up is to keep the body straight and move the entire body down and entire body up. Even if you just go down a little, the straight body is working arms and core. If you just let your upper body down and push it up you are missing out on the exciting portion of a push up. It works soooo many more muscles if you engage your torso and have it move with your arms.
You see what I am saying? (As I am typing this I imagined you getting on the floor and trying it. I am sure you sense the difference. Even if you don’t go down that far.)
As I share with my students in Nia class all the time, there are technical ways to do an exercise or a movement, but not everyone can do it that way — the body’s way. It could be a matter of needing to learn it or work up to that or it could be that our body is not physically able to do it. Whatever the reason, I believe it is important to know how to do it properly and then be aware of how we are doing it. Then we can listen to our body. When we try to do it the technical way our body might say, “Oh yeah, that is just not going to happen.” Then we can adjust. We can learn, is it not going to happen because it is painful or is it because I need to work a little bit to get to that level? Then we can make a decision and a conscious choice.
Know how to do a push up, then decide how you are going to do it. Don’t just let the pattern of your movement dictate how you execute an exercise, decide for yourself make a choice then do it. As I said before, it could be that you do five with your whole torso then need to give your arms a break . . . . but that doesn’t mean you have to stop, just do the push up with your arms and not bring the whole body down and up. Or you do three on your toes then decide that you really want to have a straight back so you switch to your knees. Then on your next set you do all knees. Whatever you decide, make sure it is something you are aware of and then do your push ups your way.
What do you have to add? Share? Comment? Question?
Music is a great motivator. Often times it is used to set a mood. Sometimes we even use it to memorize things. I’ve been putting on Lady Gaga’s album, The Fame or Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream album to do my Ten Minute Workout to. Such fun songs on both the albums. As you know the workout is only ten minutes so I don’t get through much of either album during the workout. Somtimes I am in a middle of a song and I just say or I’ll do some additional sit ups or whatever I am sensing I want more of. If not, like when I’m in a hurry, I carry the music about with me.
I often listen to Nia music (music that we use for Nia routines) because I am always wanting to learn it better. Or I am trying to learn a new routine (and sometimes that takes me awhile). But I don’t like to do a timed set of exercises to Nia routine music because I get distracted and start doing the Nia choreography or something else pops into my head and I move those moves to see it they fit. I do the same thing with other music — dance to it — but at least if I am doing specific moves new/other moves don’t pop into my head as with Nia routines which are always in my head so they just kind come out. 🙂
So this is MY placeholder. I will be back to report that I did my workout. What about you? How are you doing with it? What is your favorite song(s) to workout to?
Ha! I am done. I was done awhile ago, but when I logged in to post I had a comment and I wanted to answer it. And as you can see it is longer than the original post. HA! I always do that when I comment. I do it on other people’s blog. My comment is longer than their post. Now I am doing it to myself!!!!
Well, anyway, today I did my little workout to Prince. What about you?
My Ten Minute Workout is done. I do believe that ten minutes is not that long and it can be done, but one does have to manage their time properly and I did not do that yesterday. I had plenty of time in which to do it, but I kept getting delayed. Also, I was sensing my hamstrings wanting a rest. I didn’t really think they NEEDED a rest, they are not injured or really sore, but I am aware of them when I get up. The Nia routine I did most of last week has a lot of bows in it. The name of the Nia routine is Passion and when the music is in fully swing it allows the passion of dance to be experienced and I have been taking my bows low. I am experiencing some soreness in my hamstrings.
But the main reason for me not doing my Ten Ten in Ten is my poor time management. Unless I am in a lot of pain and think that further movement will damage my muscle for me the best course of action is to work through it, even if I tone the volume of movement down. This workout MIGHT cause DOMS to be experienced and that is when you have to decide what it best for you.
I subbed a Nia Class this morning. Nia is a lot “about” the music. We dance to the music. Today while I was teaching I really just let the music take me and I danced. I didn’t hold back much because of my foot. I don’t put my weight on my right foot when I am in ball of foot position or bow stance, but I was DOING ball of foot (a GREAT step forward in my healing process). During the class once or twice I wobbled or missed a beat because my foot kind didn’t want to support me. At another point I realized I was on the EDGE of my right foot (another HUGE step forward in my healing process). I had enough time in which to think about that and while it seemed ok, I was glad when the music told me it was time to move again because it didn’t seem like I should be doing that for much longer. I really worked my foot this morning. I went all out in Nia class. That led me to not wanting to do my Ten Minute Workout. I was really dreading the lunges because I am not ready to put weight on my right foot in ball of foot position—-and that is what a lunge is!!!
I came upstairs to do it. Then I sat down at my computer, did an e-mail or two and I decided my foot really was too tired to do it. I logged onto my blog to post that I was skipping Terre’s Ten Ten in Ten today, but when I saw the picture of my “gym” I thought, “It is really only 10 minutes. And it is really just the first exercise that you are dreading. So . . . do it LESS. Even more “less” than you have been.” So . . . . I did it. It is obvious to me that I spend a lot of time in my long lunges — when I do them fully on a stable foot — because I thought that I was not going to make it two times through and when I looked at my timer I had plenty of time left and I was on the stability ball pass for the second time. When I do lunges little it takes me less time.
I did my little workout, how about you? What are you finding while you do these exercises?
When I first started teaching my Nia classes I was doing it three times a week, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at the studio in Willow Glen. Not every class had many students. I remember talking to different people about the low numbers. Some of them suggested not having that many classes in a week, not having that many dance lessons a week. Understandable. Most people didn’t know what Nia was. Since it is dance many people thought of it as a dance that you learn. But Nia is not like Salsa or Tango where you are shown steps, then asked to mimic them, then instructed to practice, then allowed to practice to music. Nia is not a dance lesson type of dance.
Even though Nia incorporates nine different movement forms, Nia is more comparable to Zumba or Jazzercise where the music is playing and the participants follow the lead of the teacher. No experience in or with any of the movement forms is required. Nia is a cardio dance workout, it is exercise so it is GREAT to do it three times a week. It is recommended to participate in a form of cardio exercise at least three times a week to maintain heart health. Depending upon your individual needs and goals cardio more often might even be in order. So Nia three times a week is great.
When I had the opportunity to hold a third class in a week that is exactly what many of my Monday and Wednesday students said, “Nia three times a week is great!” Now I have a third Nia class on Fridays in Los Gatos. (I know I have said that before, but I am excited. Plus I need to get the word out!)
Another point about Salsa and Tango is a partner is needed. Nia does not require a partner so it is often easier to actually do it three times a week since you are not trying to coordinate with another person to meet and dance three times a week.
Participating in Nia with any regularity participants will learn, but it might not be dance steps. There are many things to learn when participating in Nia, but it is not taught as steps and or patterns are taught in a dance lesson. Instead of Nia being a dance lesson, you will learn lessons as you dance Nia. 🙂
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