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Failing

Failing

Failing is a good thing – both in training and in life. Failing in life can be quite hard hitting and may not present any positive silver linings for quite some time, so I will mainly be talking from a training perspective. In training, working out, body conditioning and practice you have to fail to know where you stand in your physical ability. This might be a physical bodily failing where you can lift a weight any more, run any further, or too tire to carry on – or this can

Quick word on Rest

Quick word on Rest

We do this every night as a habitual activity – it gets dark, we go to sleep… usually. Outside of “sleep” dancers/performers/movers seem to find the concept of rest relatively unimportant and seem to think that “pushing through it” will be fine. First, lets change the word rest to recovery – this sounds a little more active and therefore more appealing/acceptable. The point of recovery is to allow your muscles, nervous, immune, mental systems to repaire and process the stress

Commitment

Commitment

Commitment. This is a big word for some people when applied to another person – it can be a big deal, But how is your commitment to yourself? What are you committed to with regards to you personal and professional development? Do you have goals and dreams? If not, why not?! If you do… good. Dreams are goals without a time frame, so get some goals that will take you to that dream, and then commit to them. Start small and simple – commitment has to be learnt like everything el

Got your back??

Got your back??

I was having a conversation with a dancer the other day, who pointed out to me that dancers never really work their back muscles as much as their front muscles, in their upper body, when it comes to technique class, choreography, or conditioning classes. The back needs to be addressed more in supplementary resistance work. Of course we do use our posterior muscles, within movement, and many dance movements, from floor work to partnering, but, It is very hard to work and devel

Dynamic muscle quality

Dynamic muscle quality

I bang on about supplementary training to compliment your dancing; this is one of FLUX’s main drives, along with pre-habilitation over rehabilitation. One thing to take in to consideration is that our bodies are a “use it or lose it” system. Basically if you don’t practice you wont get any better. Something I have been looking at recently is my dynamic muscle quality. Training explosive actions such as high jumps, distance jumps, explosive pushups (push up clap) to make sure

Warm ups

Warm ups

In the last few classes and auditions, I have taken, not one of them had an adequate warm up from a fitness/physical activity/scientific point of view. A warm up should meet certain criteria: Raise the heart rate Mobilise the joints Light/dynamic stretches What this should achieve is: Increase blood flow to your muscles – enhancing the delivery of oxygen and nutrients. Warms your muscles to promote energy releasing reactions, and makes the muscle more supple. Prepares the m

Fitter dancers

Fitter dancers

So, dancers and their fitness – In a nutshell, a lot of us are not actually ‘fit to dance’. Any of you who have been to any of my talks, workshops, classes, have emailed me, skyped me, or just entered into a longer than average conversation, will have almost definitely have heard me say this. Dance UK’s research found that around 80% of dancers get injured each year. That’s a big number. Susan Simpson, the physiotherapist of the New Zealand School of Dance, states that 90% of

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