Archive for Teaching Nia – Page 2

Nia Nudge: Closed Stance

NiaNudge LogoBase Move
Closed Stance
Say it: “rest”
 

Standing in place, align your feet with the big toes touching and the heels slightly apart and the outer edges of your feet running parallel to each other. Keep your feet, ankles, knees and hip joints relaxed and spring-loaded. To sustain upright balance, slip into the position of at-ease and ready, sensing your posture as if falling up towards the sky. 

When practicing Closed Stance, play with moving at different speeds while sinking and rising through the three planes: high, middle and low. Use your core and upper extremities to support you in moving down and up and vice versa. As you lower, point your tailbone backwards, generating the movement from the balls of your hip joints. As you rise, press your feet into the ground. 

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Abs and The Three Body Weights, Three Planes, Three Levels, Three Intensities: Three, March, Cha-cha-cha!

Danced Opal this morning with a focus on Abdominals. It was actually an Abs Class. Students looked terrified, but after looking at an image of the four distinct groups of ab muscles (transverse abdominal, the internal obliques, the external obliques, and the abdominus rectus) and a brief discussion about what each group does, both in terms of movement for movement sake (ex: “moves the spine laterally”) and in terms of functional movement (ex: standing up from sitting or shoveling snow”). The tension eased.  Then, the whole routine sort of fell into place with a pelvis, chest, head focus.  Opal wins the prize (nominated by me) for routine with the biggest aerobic bang for the buck. I forgot how intense Opal is. Read More→