Fitness

On the first week we focused on our own fitness. We did different exercises such as:

Push Ups- This helped our upper body strength.In order to do a proper push up we need to make sure our arms are underneath our shoulders and also to keep your neck long, for more information on how  to do a good push up there are lots of different websites and videos that you could follow. In 30 seconds I did 8 push ups which isn't so great, therefore all I need to do is work on my upper body strength.

Crunches- Most peoples necks normally hurt, in order to stop this you need to use your hands to support behind the neck. In 30 seconds I did 23 crunches.

Plank- This will help your core strength you will need to keep your neck long. I held plank for 2 mins 10 seconds. Incorrect:

 Correct:

Running- We first checked our resting pulse, mine was 122 beats per minute, then ran up and down stairs for 2 minutes, and counted our pulse for 30 seconds. mine was 86 beats in 30 seconds, we had to times it by 2 which is 172 so we could estimate our pulse rate in one minute.

After a couple of weeks we did the same exercises to see what we had improved on and what we needed to work on and recorded them. In the second time we did this I improved in most of them but in one I got worse.

Push Ups- I improved in this, in 30 seconds I did 17 push ups on feet.
Crunches- I improved a lot in this, in 30 seconds I did 34 crunches.
Plank- I need to work on this as I only stayed up for 1 minute 20 seconds whereas on the first week I achieved staying up for 2 minutes.
Running- I got 53 beats per minutes rest time and then in 30 seconds I got 89 beats after running meaning times 2 to get beats per minute therefore getting 178.

Audit Skills:

In our booklet we were provided we had a place to write what we could improve on called audit skills. I think the main area I would like to improve on would be my posture, it's mainly in my jazz forth and my second position.

 Incorrect:

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Before every dance or sport you need to warm up and the best way to do that is to do cardiovascular. This warms you up and gets the heart racing, sending blood round your body to warm up your muscles so you won't get injured. If your muscles are warm it is easier to stretch. Stretching maintains and increases the flexibility of the muscles and improve mobility joints, stretching will be different in warm ups and cool downs. In the warm ups the stretches use speed and movement preparing a variety of muscles that you use when dancing. In the cool down its the complete opposite, you can hold a stretch up to 60 seconds without causing discomfort or risking injury. When stretching you should be able to feel the stretch but if its painful you will need to stop.

There are different types of stretching-

Static Stretch- These are mainly used in a cool down. This type of stretch is held for 30 seconds onwards and if it's ever used in a warm up don't hold it for longer than 10 seconds in order to relieve stiffnesss in muscles overused in the previous exercise session.
PNF stretch- This should only be used when fully warmed up. PNF stands for Proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation which means that the small sensors that identify tension are used to achieve maximum elongation (lengthening) of the muscle without initiating the stretch reflex.
Dynamic Stretch- Dynamic stretching is used in the warm up. It involves slow continuous moments. example: for hamstrings, inner thigh and hip flexors you can do a controlled grand battlement extending the leg to the front to the side and the back then repeat. For calves, inner thigh muscles and hip felxors use knee bends, plies and lunges.
Ballistic stretch- This type of stretch needs to be used at the end of a warm up as it could be potentially harmful if the muscles are not fully warm. This is similar to the dynamic stretching but the speed is faster.