Hello lovelies! I hope you all are having a beautiful day today. Today I will be giving you my first piece of advice for all the dancers out there. Even if you are not a dancer, you can still take some of these tips into your own life. Dancing is a great way to stay in shape, and there are many different types so you are bound to find one you enjoy. I'll talk more about that later, but today's tip is on stretching. Now like I said, even if you are not involved in sports that require flexibility, you can still use this. Stretching is a great way to keep you body loose, stretching also keeps you more mobile as you get older. Today's stretching tip will be on the basics of stretching.
1) Before you even begin to stretch, make sure your body is warm. You can do this in whatever way you like. I personally like to dance, whether that is improvising or running through one of my dances. At practice we will do some muscle and endurance exercises to help us improve while getting warm at the start of practice. Whatever you choose, make sure your body is nice and warm before stretching. You do not have to wear yourself out by doing a full work out, especially if you plan on dancing once you are stretched.
2) Once your body is warm, you can begin your routine of stretches. It is important to have a warm body for a number of reasons. When your muscles are cold, they are tight and it makes them harder to stretch. It is also easier to pull a muscle if you try stretching without warming up first. Having warm muscles also help increase your flexibility, they are able to stretch further. Think of a spaghetti noodle, before you boil it, it doesn't bend very far without snapping. But once it's been boiled, it can bend and stretch further. It is the same with your muscles.
3) Although we often stick to a regular routine of stretches, try to incorporate different stretches every once and a while. Repeating the same stretches is like repeating the same math skills, you can only improve so much before you need something harder. Think of it like this, if you are performing a number of stretches over and over again, you could be missing out on improving other parts of your body that you wouldn't normally think about stretching. We all do it. So my tip here would be to create a routine of stretches that works best for you, and once you see yourself starting to improve add a few different stretches or mix it up every few days with a whole new stretch combo.
4)While stretching is great, it can be dangerous if you are doing it wrong. Yes I know what you must be thinking, how can there be a wrong way to bend down and touch my toes? Now while that stretch may be easy, there are others that require more focus. I'll use the straddle stretch as an example. For those who don't know, a straddle stretch is when you sit on the floor with your legs spread out to either side of you. I will attach an example below to help you understand it better. Anyway, while performing this stretch it is important to maintain correct technique, otherwise you could be hurting instead of helping yourself. While you bend to each side, make sure that your opposite hip doesn't lift and that your butt cheek stays on the ground. This may mean that you can't stretch as far, but that's okay. Think about it this way, if you use improper technique to get yourself further in a stretch, you are cheating yourself. If you want to see true improvement, do it correctly. Another thing is to make sure that your knees are turned out, don't let you knees turn to face in front of you. Not only is this incorrect, but you could injure yourself if you continue to stretch this way. Now, while stretching with both flexed and pointed feet is important, here is a tip for when they are pointed. Make sure your feet are never sickled or turned in. Also make sure to point through your entire foot starting from your ankle, scrunched toes is not a pointed to it's just ugly. There are many more technique tips that I will give you for other stretches, but I will do that another day because I know it will be a very long post.
Please let me know if you have any questions about stretching or dance itself. I may not be a professional, but I have been dancing for over ten years now and I have worked with plenty professionals. Attached below are some photos for those of you who got a bit lost during my explanations.
Straddle Stretch:
Comment: Many of you will not be able to stretch your legs out this far and that is okay, I will later show you tips on how you can improve this. Stretching your hips to get them to open it the most important.
Pointed Toes:
Comment: The example on the right is what a sickled foot looks like, this is what you want to avoid. The middle and left are examples of correct alignment. The far left example is what we call a winged foot. Traditionally you will use this technique during ballet classes. Often in my experience where you are doing a kick dance, your instructor will ask you to have the middle example's technique. If you are not in a class and just do this for fun, then you are free to choose but avoid sickling at all costs!
-HMBrownie
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