July 1, 2013

Dealing with Sore Muscles

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The best thing you can do is stretch

Oh boy! I just finished my first class in a few weeks and I am hurtin’! It was a really strange circumstance of me leaving my studio just in time for the new studio to be closed for two weeks, then I was out of town. So It had been three weeks of no structured class. I have been stretching and trying to practice at home as much as possible but I think that there is definitely something to be said for the rigor of a structured class. I got to class a bit early to stretch and speak with the instructor and thought I was ready for anything- I couldn’t have been more wrong! Haha. It still surprises me, adjusting to my body as an adult and how it works, to see how just a little break in activity can send me right back to square one (okay maybe like square five, but still not where I was at!). I got home a sweaty mess, plopped down on the bed, and told my fiancé that I know I need to eat but I’m not sure how to go about it because 1. I can’t move my legs and 2. I’m nervous that the second I put food into my mouth I might throw up. Ok, I’m slightly dramatic but I really was whooped! I knew that I instantly needed to get on top of making sure my muscles don’t tighten up much because I knew if I didn’t I probably would be in a world of hurt tomorrow. I thought I’d share a few of my tips for avoiding that next day of crying when you drop your keys because you know how much it will hurt to pick them back up. 😉

1. Stretch it out: I like to lay on my back on the floor, stick my leg straight up at a 90 degree angle and just make slow circles of varying sizes with it. The slow motion really makes you stretch it out. Then I bring my leg straight over across my body for a while, bend it for a while, then I bring my knee to my chest. I also like to borrow some yoga moves like these here. I particularly love doing the cat, cow, child, and half downward dog because they feel so relaxing but they also really do stretch those muscles out. The key is to keep stretching throughout the day so that the lactic acid doesn’t settle in your muscles which is what makes you sore. It seems like the most obvious tip but I also think that it’s the first we forget.

2. Soak! I love a good, warm Lush Bath Bomb (or essential oil) and epsom salt bath. I find the that the combination of heat and scent take the epsom salt to the next level because you’re not just relaxing your muscles but your mind too. Personally, I get super stressed from being so busy and having a stressed mind leads to a tense body and there’s no amount of salt that can take that away. So lock the bathroom door, tell the kids or partner that you’re out of commission for 20 minutes and relax! I also enjoy partaking in a good foot soak, perfect for a dancer. I love trying new “recipes” that I find on pinterest. Today I tried one with green tea, baking soda, vinegar and epsom salt. The result wasn’t too pretty… the water, well it looked a little gross. However, my feet felt AMAZING after.

3. Enlist a loved one for a massage! This is self-explanatory and can be fun!

4. Fuel your body properly. This one is hard. There are so many different resources with conflicting ideas about what to eat in general, but when you add in what to eat for working out there are one thousand more ideas. What I have found that has really worked for my body is to have a protein AND carb heavy snack about an hour before I go to ballet. Something like bagel with peanut butter or hummus. Occasionally I throw an apple in as well. I also make sure to follow my class up with a balanced yet protein and fresh food heavy meal or snack. For example, today I had a burrito in a whole wheat tortilla with eggs inside, lots of lettuce, carrots, avocado, and cabbage. I feel that I almost always feel so much better when I have something that is substantial but not heavy. I’ve read in a few places that blueberries (or any antioxidant heavy food) work well because they soak up all the free radicals left. Anti-inflammatory foods like kelp, salmon, ginger, green tea,  and sweet potatoes are also supposed to be really helpful in telling your muscles to calm the heck down. And, of course, stay hydrated!

5. Try some topical treatments like white flower oil, icy hot, peppermint oil, or salonpas. My personal favorite when it comes to this is to, right after my hot bath, rub a little white flower oil diluted in baby oil all over my legs, bottom, back, arms, and shoulders and then bundle up in warm clothes for a while. This really lets it soak into my muscles and feels SO nice.

6. Finally, don’t be too afraid of the occasional ibuprofen or Tylenol. Sometimes the pain is just too much to manage with home remedies and that’s totally fine. You don’t have to do without!

Hopefully some of these tips are helpful/new to at least one person. What do you do to keep the aches and pains away?

-Caysie

Filed Under: Ballet, Info, Outside Class Tagged With: , , , , , 7 Comments
June 28, 2013

Poll: What Content Should We Post More Of?

Polling Station

Since we’ve recently gone through a transition, I want to get an up-to-date feeling for what I should be posting more of: interviews, tips, how-tos, etc.  Please take a second to fill out the poll below. I will still keep doing blog type posts on a regular basis, but I’m looking to do more. If you have any specific how-to or tips posts, ie. you want to learn more about tendu tips or grand battements, leave me a note in the comments! Generally my tips or how-tos come from something I personally struggle with and do research on, but if you’ve got something you want to see, let me know. If you’ve got something you want to share, feel free to send me an e-mail (info at adultballerinaproject dot com) about contributing.

 

Filed Under: Ballet Tagged With: , , , , , Leave a Comment
June 25, 2013

Workout Motivation and Ballet Class Slumps

  Workout Motivation helps beat the heat

Everyone has their off weeks, and last week I had a bad one and I’ve seem to lost my workout motivation. Although I got 2.5 miles in on Monday while I was still at home with my sister, I only managed to get in .75 on Wednesday before I started to have knee issues while I was running on the indoor track and decided to quit since the Urban Scramble (a scavenger hunt with a lot of uphills and running on sidewalks) was the next day and I didn’t want to be hurting for that.

Once I got to the Urban Scramble, while my legs were feeling better, I decided to pass on two scavenger stops in University City since they were fairly far away from the other spots and all uphill. We ended up walking a lot of the first 2 miles (I was being pouty as my Garmin wasn’t starting up). We ran the last 1.3 miles roughly when my Garmin magically started working. After that race/scavenger hunt I was extremely sore (I did something wonky to my hip, but I’m not sure what), so Saturday morning ballet was a bit rough. I also woke up extremely tired, so I struggled through most of the class. Sunday became an unintentional rest day.

Yesterday I had the intention of running for 30 minutes on the track, but only got about a mile done since HQ and I didn’t get out the door until about 11, and even the indoor track was brutally hot. Since I had to head into work extremely early this morning, I’m hoping to fit in a bit of spinning plus about a mile on the treadmill and then some easy (if there is such a thing) fartlek training on the track (probably still indoors, the temps are super high here in Philly this week). I just need to pull myself out of this workout slump.

How do you pick yourself back up after a bad week of workouts?

Filed Under: Ballet, Blog, Etc., Running Tagged With: , , , , 3 Comments
June 21, 2013

DIY Barre–ballerinas can build too!

Before: giant pile of pipes and wood. After: beautiful ballet barre that matches my decor. Yippee!

 

I’m really excited for this post today because the project in it has changed my life. (A little dramatic, maybe, but you get the idea!) It has been so nice to be able to have a barre at home to practice my port de bras, tendus, pliés, etc. when I don’t really have time to go to a full class. I had been using my door frames and kitchen counter to balance previously and let me tell you- not so graceful looking! I had seen some Instagram posts of people using portable barres so I looked online to see where to buy one and was not super excited about price. I got to scouting for other solutions and found this lovely tutorial by Laughing Abi and I thought I’d give it a shot. As to not be horribly boring and repetitive, I’ll leave the step by step out and summarize the process and also include the little changes I made to my barre from the tutorial.

Here’s what you’ll need to replicate my barre:

  • Six 1 1/4 inch PVC cross joints
  • Four 1 1/4 inch PVC elbow joints
  •  Two  30 inch long 1 1/4 inch PVC  pipes (I made my barre at 43 inches because I’m tall. In order to change the height of the top barre, adjust the lengths of PVC that are 30 inches.)
  • Two 6 inch long 1 1/4 inch PVC pipes
  • Four 12 inch long 1 1/4 inch PVC pipes
  • Two closet rods or wooden dowels between 1 1/8 inches and 1 1/4 inches in diameter… these should be around 6 feet long in the store.
  • 8 screws
  • Spray paint (I used Valspar Perfect Finish Gloss in “Tropical Oasis”)
  • PVC glue (I used Christy’s Red Hot Blue Glue)

What you’ll want to do is assemble the 2 of the 12 inch pieces together with a cross in the center and an elbow on each end. Repeat for the other side. I glued all of those joints together for extra sturdiness. It’s optional but if you choose to do it, make sure you work fast because that glue dries in a heartbeat! From there stick the long pieces (mine were 30 inches) into the cross you just attached the 12 inch pieces to. You’ll then add a cross to the end of that. Repeat for the other side. Now you can slide in your first barre! Now insert the 6 inch pieces into the top cross joints. Add the final cross joints to the tops of those and now slide in your first barre. This is where I took mine apart again to paint it. After the paint was dry I put the barres back in where I wanted them and instead of using foam as suggested on the tutorial, I screwed through the cross joints into the wooden barre. This was my dad’s suggestion to help the whole thing from wobbling side to side. I did a screw on each side of the cross joints (8 total). I then carefully sprayed those teal as well. That’s more or less it! It was simple, sorta fun, and fast. I think I managed to finish the entire project in under two hours which isn’t bad for something I get so much use out of.

In progress.

 

Overall, I’m pretty pleased. It made practicing at home a lot easier. It also has come in handy for stretching! I must say, because of how lightweight it is it isn’t super sturdy. This means that you can’t really put much weight on it, it’s really only good for adding some balance to what you are doing. In the end, that’s really what a barre is for anyway so it is helpful not only to help you keep balanced but also to remind you not to use the barre to hold you up. Make that supporting leg do some work! 🙂 I also added a big piece of cardboard left over from when we had some bark delivered for our landscaping in order to keep my shoes from getting scuffed on the flooring. It also comes in handy for practicing in the bedroom, where we have carpet. The combo has become my own little studio that all tucks behind my dresser when I’m not using it which is perfect for how small our place is.

Using my barre for pliés and stretching in my kitchen which is right across from a full length mirror.

So there you have it! An easy, affordable, and portable ballet barre that you can make yourself. I honestly am glad that I made it. If you decide to give it a whirl, let me know how it works out! Do you have any other suggestions for ballet at home?

-Caysie

Filed Under: Ballet, Info, Outside Class Tagged With: , , , , , 19 Comments
June 19, 2013

From Campus Philly: My Love Note to Major Moment Studio

While I’ve been busy messing around with the layout and other tweaks with the new site, I wanted to take the time and share this post I wrote for my internship a few weeks ago dedicated to my ballet studio.

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phillydance

Dear Major Moment Studio,

I first approached you nervous with palms sweaty, unsure of exactly what an “adult ballet” class would entail. I pulled open your door and stuttered as I introduced myself to the ballet teacher with the vibrant red hair, curled into pigtail buns. I wanted to run away—who does ballet as an adult beginner anyway? But I stayed.

And I fell in love.

The studio is on the smaller side, located on west South Street, lumped between an apartment building and Magpie. The studio’s smooth hardwood floors and gigantic mirrors make up for its size.

Everyone who attends the classes is warm and welcoming—no one is going to scoff or laugh at you when you can’t get the hang of a move. We’ve all been there before.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s your first ballet class or your 2000th, everyone is welcome at Major Moment—male, female, 18 or 65. The students remind me that you’re never too old to start taking ballet. Every week, I get excited by the new students who walk in. Sometimes they’ve never taken a ballet class before; other times they’re returning after years of being out of a dance studio.

I just barely fit in the latter category: I took classes from ages 4-6. Then I participated in a slew of different sports: baseball, soccer, gymnastics, swimming, cheerleading. Who would’ve thought I’d return to ballet at age 20?

Major Moment’s owner and resident ballet instructor, Beverly, is charming—she may occasionally mix up her own two feet—but she always takes the time to make sure all her students don’t get left behind during an exercise. Beverly preaches that she doesn’t teach “baby ballet.” She knows adult beginners are capable of more than that. She pushes you to work harder, if you need it–but her corrections are always kind and gentle. She wants you to get better. This isn’t just a dance fitness class. As a student here, you learn real ballet.

Beverly teaches three levels of ballet classes (Absolute Beginner, Beginner II, and Advanced Beginner) that are offered through Philly Dance Fitness. She also never cancels unless it’s Christmas, New Year’s Day or Memorial Day.

Her motto is “No challenge, no change.” She doesn’t mind it when I show up to the Advanced Beginner classes, although I’m not quite up to that level yet. I go to challenge myself.

Major Moment Studio, I never thought I’d be able call myself a ballerina, but thanks to you I feel like I can.  Philadelphia has a great, burgeoning art scene–I’m grateful that I can be a part of it.

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You can check out the original post over on Campus Philly and check out Philly Love Notes for more awesome spots in Philly as well.

 

Filed Under: Ballet, Blog, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , 2 Comments