Personal Dance Fitness
How to Choose a Personal Dance Trainer This New Year
When your leaps and turns become sluggish and you need to get back into shape, here are tips on how to find a fitness trainer in the thre most beneficial training methods
The New Year is upon us once again. Resolutions pile up and the resolution to keep these becomes the main concern. For a dancer, the resolution to get back into shape after those numerous turkey dinners and late night egg nogs is in priority when the realization hits you after the first dance class of the year. When time is better spent in the dance studio, what is the best way and who should a dancer go to in order to get back into shape?
Pilates
Joseph Pilates, a prize-winning gymnast from Germany, developed a series of training exercises to enhance the quality of life and health. Suffering from asthma, rickets and rheumatic fever as a young child, Joseph Pilates believed that the modern life-style, bad posture and in efficient breathing were the roots of poor health. It was during this time spent in internment camp in Lancaster during World War I that he developed the Pilates Method.
In 1925, Joseph Pilates migrated to the United States, where he met his future wife Clara and founded a studio in New York City gaining a devout following in the local dance and performing-arts community. Dancers such as George Balanchine and Martha Graham were regulars to the Pilates’ studio for training and rehabilitation. The Pilates Method is easy on the body and joints, concentrating on support for the spine through posture using the mind to control muscles. The awareness of breathe is borrowed from yoga to add focus and endurance throughout the practice.
Finding a trainer today is quite simple. Many workout facilities and gyms provide various classes which may include Pilates. There are also specialized Pilates Studios which bring in more depth to this method, providing beginner, intermediate and advanced/master classes. Pilates can also be offered by dance studios where these classes can be taken on a drop-in or series basis.
Finding a Pilates instructor is not a difficult task. But depending on what you are expecting to get out of the instruction, depends on how you should go about your search. Romana Kryzanowska is a direct protégé of Joseph and Clara Pilates located in New York City. The obvious instruction you would get from her would be immense. Delivering direct knowledge and philosophy in the styles of the Pilates would be an honour but would only be reserved for the serious. Also providing instructor training courses, Romana Kryzanowska’s teachings can being your Pilates Method to that level unattainable through infomercial DVDs.
Ashtanga Yoga
Taught by ninety-two year old Sri K. Pattabhi in Mysore, India, the Ashtanga Yoga practice has varied and evolved into the Western World. Ashtanga Yoga is also known as Power Yoga. Involving the synchronization of breathe more so than all other yoga practices, Ashtanga Yoga is both muscularly challenging but also helps you gauge how much you want to push yourself that session. Yoga is a practice where you are your best teacher. How far will you push yourself today? Maybe a little bit further tomorrow? Ashtanga Yoga literally means “eight-limbed yoga” which defines the formation of new muscles in a flexible way, but also creates a spiritual root of Yoga featuring the eight spiritual practices of Ashtanga Yoga:
- Yama: moral code
- Niyama: self-purification and study
- Asana: posture
- Pranayama: breath control
- Pratyahara: sense control
- Dharana: concentration
- Dhyana: mediation
- Samadhi: contemplation
Finding a Yogi or Yogini to help train you through your Ashtanga yoga practice can be found through a group Ashtanga yoga class that you took where you enjoyed your instructor or through recommendations within the yoga community. It is good when on your voyage and search for a yoga instructor that you find a yogi that will understand the strengths and weaknesses of a dancer. In this way, yogis may need to develop a program specific to dancers’ needs, just as a personal fitness trainer would.
Personal Fitness Trainer
Finding a personal fitness trainer is fairly easy. Just walk into a gym and say you want a personal trainer and they’ll be jumping at the opportunity to sign you up for a gym membership, with the added expense of assigning you a personal trainer. Personal Trainers can be quite the asset on your endeavour to get back into dancer shape. They can be found at chain gyms such as Gold’s Gym and Fitness World or they can also be found through independent online fitness communities, such as Fitness Vancouver.
Things to keep in mind when discussing your dancer fitness plan with your new personal trainer would be an emphasis on your core – you need this for turns and balance most especially. The leaning and lengthening of your muscles is also essential. Avoid too much weight and smaller reps and sets. Try to do less weight with more reps and sets when engaging in weight training. Explaining the need for endurance in a dancer’s body is also an essential aspect that would need to be defined to a personal fitness trainer.
Getting into dancer shape is a resolution that should be kept throughout the year, so the best of luck to you!
