Base Move

 

Duck Walk
Dance Through Life – Action Item
 
Flex your ankle to bring the ball of the foot off the floor and then release it back, one foot at a time.  This is duck walk.   Take this simple movement and play with it through this week.  
 
Tap your foot to music, one foot and then the other, lift your toes to examine your nails, express impatience by foot tapping, splash a puddle.     Play with the up and play with the down of the tap, sense the difference in the muscles of your foot and ankle and along your shins when emphasizing each direction.  
 
Allow the rest of the body to join the dance.
 
Chris Freedman | Studio 206 Charlottesville, VA

Base Move
Rock Around The Clock
Say it: “wow”
 
Standing with your feet hip-width apart, rock around the outside edges of both feet, moving in a circular motion from the front to the side, to the back and to the opposite side. Reverse directions.
 
Move from the ground up using the strength of your feet and the mobility of your ankles to create small rolling actions that mimic a hula-hoop.

 
When practicing Rock Around the Clock, play with motions that support increased mobility of your ankles, knees, hip joints and spine. Use your core and upper extremities to support the dynamics of continuous fluid motion.
 
Move with the intent to touch all edges of your feet to the earth!
 
Benefits
Increases flexibility, agility, mobility, stability in the feet and legs
 
Builds strength in the foot, leg, thigh and buttock muscles
 
Enhances F.A.M.S.S. in foot, ankle, knee, and hip joints

Improves balance

Rock Around the Clock
Dance Through Life – Action Item
Reflexology is the ancient Chinese art of treating the body’s energy system through pressure-point massage of the feet.  Rock Around the Clock becomes self-directed reflexology when you partner with the floor.  Pressure to heel, to outer edges, and to ball and toes will restore energy flow up through your body, releasing blocks.  
 
The foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles to move these bones and 100 ligaments!   
 Invite stretch, range, tone, flow, & glow as you Rock Around the Clock today!

Chris Freedman | Studio 206 Charlottesville, VA

Why the Basic 52 Moves? In Nia the basic moves are used to make up the choreography for all of the routines.  The entire body-of-work is based on these moves, so once these moves are learned and embodied, dancing any routine is like coming home.  There are endless combinations and possibilities. Drawing from the Martial Arts, Dance Arts, and Healing Arts, these moves make a great combination of organic precision, emotional expression, and functional movement.   Among other valuable reasons, the moves are designed to make movement easier to do, easier to language, and easier to personalize. In any routine, you learn the moves, then move the moves and then energize the moves. This process deepens your practice.   The 52 Moves condition the whole body from tip to toes.  Chosen for their specific healing properties and fitness properties, the 52 Moves are movement medicine for EveryBody.   The Body’s Way

Technique

1: the manner in which technical details are treated (as by a writer) or basic physical movements are used (as by a dancer);

also: ability to treat such details or use such movements <good piano technique>

 

2 a : a body of technical methods (as in a craft or in scientific research) 

2b : a method of accomplishing a desired aim 

Nia uses 52 basic moves, with many variations, that borrow from dance, martial arts, and so-called “healing practices”. Nia blends the following nine movement forms:

The world around looks like a magical wonderland; clean, green, lush, vibrant and new.  You can sense the activity that is going on in the soil, and between the leaves.  You can almost hear the plants growing.  Visit a riverbank after a heavy rain and you might see really fast moving mucky water carrying broken tree limbs, leaves, and even trash.  Look up at the sky just after a rain and what’s there?  Blue, white, big yellow.  Take a whiff of a post rain garden and smell it’s natural fragrances; soil, worms, flowers, mold, etc…  Why the nature lesson?  Water to the body is exactly the same as it is in nature. 

Water makes up 60% of your body’s form.  It aids in all the systems, functions and appearance of your body. 

If you think of your skin as a leaf, you’ll prefer one that is green and juicy rather than one that has turned brown and fallen, crumpled, off the tree and is blowing around in the wind. 

If you think of the soil as your intestines, you’d prefer one that is clear and healthy and growing good flora to help with all the proper digestive and growth functions. 

If you think of the river as your blood and veins and glands and organs, you’d prefer to have it flush with clean water than mud and dried up, stuck garbage in need of a good dredge.

So, how much?  This is another question with many correct answers.  Here is a guide that I think is valuable.

1. Drink as much as you can – pure water that is.  For the most part, you’ll never be over-doing it (**see note below).
2. If your lips are dry or if you are really thirsty, you are already
    low on water.
3. Living in a dry climate, running a fever, doing lots of exercise,
    pregnant, peeing less than four times a day? Drink more until
    you sense hydration.
4. 8, 8oz glasses per day is a good start, but quickly loses its
    value added if you are peeing every 20 minutes or if you feel
    bloated. Most people won’t need that much water.
5. Drink half your weight in ounces.  Ok, if you are exercising a
    lot.  Drink your whole weight in ounces.  Ok, if you are
    preparing for a sports competition, on a cleanse diet, or have
    nothing else to do but drink and pee.
6. Look at your skin, hair, nails.  Smell your breath.  If any of these things look or smell bad – drink more water.
7. Look at your urine.  If it’s bright yellow, drink more.  Keep tabs on this and when you have almost clear pee, stick to that
    amount.  Experiment.
8. Count everything you drink – coffee, tea, water, soda…  It’s all water.
9. Space your water intake over the day.  No use in pounding
    glasses of water just to mark it down as done.  Your cells will
    only absorb what they can at any one minute.  Like over
    watering a plant and watching the water run into and over the
    pot liner and onto the floor.
10. Take on the simple task of finding out your water needs by
     tracking, sensing, observing and being methodical.  Track what
     you drink.  Track how you feel.  Then, when you feel as if
     you’ve reached optimal hydration… There you are.

Just one last note; My list is an educated opinion that I have developed rather than scientific or medically sound. 

If you have health issues (liver, adrenal, heart…) please consult your healthcare provider or a couple of them.  The most important thing is that you are hydrated, that you become aware of your body and its needs and that you are proactive in making health and wellness in your body…and your life.

Happy drinking.

**Note: I do NOT advocate drinking soda or juice.  They are nutritionally useless and calorically disastrous. Drink a soda if it is what you crave. Not daily.  Eat a piece of real fruit if you want juice.

People ask me all the time about the amount of cardio they’ll need to do to lose weight.  The answer is simple and not so simple.  I’ll give you my top five answers.  You’ll notice that, politician-like, I don’t directly answer the question, but I hope you can get the idea of how to think about and deal with cardio.

Cardio alone won’t make you lose weight.  No amount of exercise will out do an ill-conceived nutrition plan (or one you don’t follow).  You can do two hours of cardio a day, but if you eat a hamburger, french fries and a shake for dinner, you can’t really expect to lose weight. Keep reading…

 30 – 60 minutes per day – depending… Bodies are all different, so how much cardio you have to do will depend on how intense your workout is, how big you are, how fit you are and even how old you are. 

If you are 50 years old, 50lbs over weight and you’ve been sedentary for the last six years; your 30-60 minutes of walking every day will have big pay-offs.  For me, at 46 and a few extra pounds on my body, I would have to do 2 hours of cardio per day to see a difference.  Don’t get too disheartened – I already do at least an hour a day anyway.  I am fit already, so for me to lose weight by cardio-loading, I would have to move into my gym. 

Most trainers (and the American Heart Association recommend 30 – 60 consecutive minutes per day with an elevated heart rate.  If you need to – split it up into 20-30 minute increments.  Don’t count the warm up or the cool down (5 minutes max on either end of the cardio work, so a 30 minute walk logs in at 20-25 minutes of cardio).  The fact is, the more you do, the more calories you will burn. And…keep reading…

You cannot do too much cardio. Go ahead and be active.  Really active.  Don’t hold back.  Test your body and see what blows your skirt up.  It’s not the most scientific way to count actual burnage, but most people burn anywhere from 250 to 500 calories per workout.  That’s an average workout.  Probably 50-70 minutes of moderate to intense exercise.  Sweating is no gauge of intensity either.  If you know me, you’ve seen me sweat before the warm up is finished, so don’t judge by that. 

Judge by perceived rate of exertion.  You should be able to have a conversation while you are working out – perhaps not about anything important since you should be laboring in it a bit, but you shouldn’t be sucking wind.  Too high an intensity over time will lead to burn out, injury and unsustainability. Also, remember that revving up your system with regular cardio activity revs up your system for the whole day.  That’s why you’ve heard the recommendation to exercise in the morning.  Doing housework, raking leaves, running, swimming, shoveling, playing, dancing…these are all cardio activities.  As you do more, you will notice that each one becomes easier as your body gets the message of its own fitness.  Then, guess what?  Time to step it up again.

Get a heart rate monitor and set a goal that is do-able for you.

When I was just starting out I got myself a Polar Heart-Rate Monitor.  I programed in my age, height, weight, approximate physical intensity in an average day, resting heart-rate and gender.  While I exercised, I wore the receiver around my wrist and the transmitter around my ribcage and I got all the feedback I could want.  I set goals from calories I wanted to reach per week to miles I wanted to travel to minutes I wanted to log.  I never got bored with that device.  It was very satisfying to see my weekly stats every Sunday night.  Once I did 12,000 calories in a week.  I think I was at a Nia training or a fitness conference. 

If you are looking to burn calories, the heart rate monitor will be a good motivator.  It gives you feedback in real time.  Then, know the following…

A pound of body fat equates to approximately 3500 calories. That is to burn through it.  Think of lighting a pound of Crisco on fire and seeing how long it lasts. 

So, if you have a calorie deficit of 500 calories (meaning that you burn 500 calories more than you eat each day) you would lose approximately one pound per week (500 x 7 = 3,500). 

Ideally, you will eat 250 calories less and burn 250 in a workout.  That’s reasonable.  One less Frappuccino plus one hour of cardio per day = one pound off per week if all other factors remain the same.  Keep a log somewhere.

Most importantly, keep a record of what you are doing. 

I write my food intake down in a separate journal  and I write my cardio in my day-timer and I give myself stars to show my success.

Happy cardioing!

P.S. I count my hour-long Nia classes as 30-40 minutes of cardio.

BUT… three or four years and four belts later, she came with my mom for Weiss Family Nia.  So, the least I could do is entertain her ears with something she could hum tomorrow.  She said she liked it very much.  “I can’t imagine what the music would be if not that…,” she said.  Well, the playlist is ¹/₃ Nia Music, ¹/₃ Pop Music and ¹/₃ Music from the work we did at the Nia Workshop at Kripalu.  Here is the playlist with the artists.

Weiss Family Nia Playlist

Family Portrait – Pink
Show You Something – Afterlife
Family Affair – Mary J. Blige
All for U – DJD2
Cornbread, Eddie and Me – RJD2
Dah-Din Beats – Ges-E Usman
Everybody – Ingrid Michaelson
We Are Family – Sister Sledge
The Way I Am- Ingrid Michaelson
Shine – Joshua
Madh Assalhin: The Zen Breaks Remix
Sanctuary – Madonna

 STANCES
    1.    Closed Stance
    2.    Open Stance
    3.    “A” Stance
    4.    Riding (Sumo or Horse) Stance
    5.    Bow Stance
    6.    Cat (One-legged) Stance

FEET

    7.    Rock Around the Clock
    8.    Duck Walk
    9.    Squish Walk
    10.    Heel Lead
    11.    Whole Foot
    12.    Ball of the Foot
    13.    Relevé
    14.    Toes In, Out, Parallel

STEPS

    15.    Stepping Back onto the Ball of Your Foot
    16.    Sink and Pivot Table Wipe
    17.    Cross Front
    18.    Cross Behind
    19.    Traveling in Directions
    20.    Lateral Traveling
    21.    Cha-cha-cha
    22.    Slow Clock
    23.    Fast Clock

KICKS

    24.    Front Kick
    25.    Side Kick
    26.    Back Kick
    27.    Knee Sweep

PELVIS

    28.    Pelvic Circles
    29.    Hip Bumps

ARMS

    30.    Blocks: Upward, Outward, Inward, Downward
    31.    Punches: Upward, Outward, Across, Downward
    32.    Elbow Strikes: Down, Side, Back

CHEST

    33.    Chest Isolations
    34.    Shimmy
    35.    Undulation
    36.    Spinal Roll

HEAD

    37.    Head and Eye Movements

HANDS & FINGERS

    38.    Chop Cut
    39.    Strikes
    40.    Pumps
    41.    Finger Flicks
    42.    Creepy Crawlers
    43.    Catching Flies
    44.    Claw Hand
    45.    Spear Finger
    46.    Finger Extensions
    47.    Fist
    48.    Webbed Spaces
    49.    Palm Directions
    50.    Power Finger Crossover
    51.    Balance Finger
    52.    Touching