That is very useful information, much appreciated.
The weekly ballet has been amazing. The teacher used to be the principal at the school my kids danced at, and I have a great deal of respect for their attitude to ballet and pedagogy (no competitions, all body types can do ballet, focus on the individual improvement not the comparisons, etc). They took a class of adults who ranged from never having done ballet, through 'did ballet as a late teen' (me), plus at least one who really knew what they were doing, started with 'this is how to stand' and has then taken us through a range of skills, always allowing for individual injuries and limitations (I'm not the only hypermobile adult in the class).
Enough rambling - you asked about warm ups. Early on, the teacher would have us all sit on the floor with our legs straight out in front of us, and warm up our feet by flexing and pointing feet, working through the foot in the way that we then went on to learn to do in the barre work. There were variations on this, but the only ones I can remember are that you start with feet touching all the way along, and then after some number of repetitions turn the hips/etc out and do it in the turned out position. She also got us doing specific small muscle isometric exercises for the ?VMO (I've forgotten the muscle name, but I think that is the abbreviation) which is just above the knee on the inside of the leg -- this helped with knee stability. For a while she then had us doing our own warm ups, so I would do gentle squats, ankle rises, other things that move the joints slowly. Lunges sometimes. When there is space, sitting with legs as wide as comfortable, and then walking hands forwards and back, and then sitting upright and tilting pelvis back and then straightening (kind of rolling very slightly back on to the coccyx) - pulling abdominal muscles to the spine.
Current warm ups are done by the teacher again, and are about core strength. Glute bridges, with a whole bunch of variations (knees together, knees holding a ball in place, tension band around knees pulling outwards). Initially, we were just doing the pelvis tilt part of that (like the above rolling on to the coccyx, but lying on the floor). Because hips are my worst joint, I had to start with modified versions of most of these, but now can do them most of the time. Also an exercise just called 'cockroaches' which I don't think I can adequately describe! Occasionally, other strength based exercises, which get blood flowing.
Oh, and for arms/shoulders anything that makes great big movements - swinging arms across the body and then out wide, big circles, rolling the shoulders. My goal there is to loosen as much of my shoulder/upper body as possible, because my shoulders are heading for being as bad as my hips (or maybe my hips have improved enough that my shoulders now register...)
the tl:dr on this: movement to get blood flowing/muscles moving a bit, appropriate strengthening work, minimal to no stretching.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2020-04-27 05:13 am (UTC)The weekly ballet has been amazing. The teacher used to be the principal at the school my kids danced at, and I have a great deal of respect for their attitude to ballet and pedagogy (no competitions, all body types can do ballet, focus on the individual improvement not the comparisons, etc). They took a class of adults who ranged from never having done ballet, through 'did ballet as a late teen' (me), plus at least one who really knew what they were doing, started with 'this is how to stand' and has then taken us through a range of skills, always allowing for individual injuries and limitations (I'm not the only hypermobile adult in the class).
Enough rambling - you asked about warm ups. Early on, the teacher would have us all sit on the floor with our legs straight out in front of us, and warm up our feet by flexing and pointing feet, working through the foot in the way that we then went on to learn to do in the barre work. There were variations on this, but the only ones I can remember are that you start with feet touching all the way along, and then after some number of repetitions turn the hips/etc out and do it in the turned out position. She also got us doing specific small muscle isometric exercises for the ?VMO (I've forgotten the muscle name, but I think that is the abbreviation) which is just above the knee on the inside of the leg -- this helped with knee stability. For a while she then had us doing our own warm ups, so I would do gentle squats, ankle rises, other things that move the joints slowly. Lunges sometimes. When there is space, sitting with legs as wide as comfortable, and then walking hands forwards and back, and then sitting upright and tilting pelvis back and then straightening (kind of rolling very slightly back on to the coccyx) - pulling abdominal muscles to the spine.
Current warm ups are done by the teacher again, and are about core strength. Glute bridges, with a whole bunch of variations (knees together, knees holding a ball in place, tension band around knees pulling outwards). Initially, we were just doing the pelvis tilt part of that (like the above rolling on to the coccyx, but lying on the floor). Because hips are my worst joint, I had to start with modified versions of most of these, but now can do them most of the time. Also an exercise just called 'cockroaches' which I don't think I can adequately describe! Occasionally, other strength based exercises, which get blood flowing.
Oh, and for arms/shoulders anything that makes great big movements - swinging arms across the body and then out wide, big circles, rolling the shoulders. My goal there is to loosen as much of my shoulder/upper body as possible, because my shoulders are heading for being as bad as my hips (or maybe my hips have improved enough that my shoulders now register...)
the tl:dr on this: movement to get blood flowing/muscles moving a bit, appropriate strengthening work, minimal to no stretching.