-Mary Anthony
Competition season is here. With that comes long weekends
from morning tonight. Sometimes dances are rushed back to back, and others are
hours apart stretching across three days. Competitions are crowded, cold,
stressful and hectic. Sometimes it can be difficult to stay focused on yourself
and your body throughout the whole day or weekend. It becomes a necessity, yet
a struggle to stay stretched, energized and prepared. There is a part of you
that wants to see every dance being performed on stage, another that wants to
hang with your dance friends and enjoy team bonding and another that is on a go
go go mission to be stretched and ready to dance at any second, even though you
are probably dancing around aimlessly throughout the whole weekend at the
convention center. Preparation of the body is important and can be reached in a
variety of ways.
To be prepared on competition day you want to be ready and
warmed up. At the beginning of a long competition day treat your body kindly.
Don’t be snacking on unnecessary junk. Stay hydrated and just drink water. You
will also need fuel to keep you going throughout the day. I suggest natural
sugars found in fruits like apples, berries, oranges and bananas. Throughout
the day snacking is okay, but you want to be sure that you don’t go nuts and
keep it healthy with a lot of hydrates. There is no reason to feel bloated or
tired on a day that is a constant go. It will help if you let your food be a
source of energy.
Another way to get your body ready to go for a long day of
competing is to do a warm up and cool down. It really helps in getting you
energized and warmed up for all the dances you have, also do it before any
stretching because it will help loosen your muscles and spark blood flow for a
deeper stretch in the future. Start by doing some low impact exercises that
will boost your pulse for around ten minutes like; jumping jacks, squats, heel raises,
leg swings, swimmers. Once you begin to sweat you should begin to slow it down
and begin to cool down, taking deep breaths while also completing deep body
movement to keep your blood pumping.
After the light cool down you should begin to stretch. Keep
the stretching light. Overstretching can believe it or not hinder your
flexibility, you bod is not used to that deep of a stretch and that makes the
muscles the go tighter than usual. Instead hold stretched in a normal rotation
for less than thirty second intervals. Focus on body strength on the competition
day. To achieve the body strength you should concentrate your stretching on
dynamic stretching such as yoga and walking lunges. After that give your attention
to plies, abs and feet exercises. Results should show in your leg and core strength
and flexibility for sure.
After all of your performances you should leave time to
continue stretching out your muscles, this is when you should stretch for
longer intervals within your stretch rotation, helping flexibility and prepare
for the next day of dancing, with that you should also stretch statically the
night before your first day of competition. It will help in the overall of your
dancing and will prevent injury from all the work you put on your body from an exhausting
day of dance completion.
~Julia Brewer
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