Achieving Dynamic Balance

[samina]

All year I've taken a "fitness training" approach to improving my balance -- on top of my daily dance practice I added Pilates and Callanetics, and even did a 6-week "Sunrise Bootcamp" during the summer, waking up @ 4:30 twice a week for a military/football-training-inspired program.

Well, that's all well and good, and I've trimmed down & shaped up. But it didn't do that much to help me to truly control my balance during simple Rumba Walks, despite months of almost daily practice. The problem I was having is that just the slightest shift of my hips or torso would take me off my feet. I've been Queen Wobble, no matter what I tried. And I was deeply frustrated because I couldn't get my body under my control.

But a week or so ago I started an entirely new approach: the meat of my balance training involves dynamic movement where I'm working on balance exercises that take energy through my center, usually in a stop-&-start or rhythmic manner. I've been inventing all sorts of exercises do achieve this -- anything that feels like it's what my body needs. You should see me on the elliptical at the gym -- people must wonder what the hell is that woman doing to herself?! LOL

And lo & behold... I have *remarkably* improved control during my Rumba Walks, and so quickly! I can control the speed of my hip settling much better, and I can speed things up without wobbling so much. It's actually beginning to feel good!

This is inspiring me to invent other exercises, and I'm basically becoming a balance-training freak. But hey... I'm 42 trying to go backwards in time to what my center was like when I was 16. Anything goes as far as I'm concerned.

So my question to everyone is, what has been the best help to each of you in your own quest for better balance, the kind that truly liberates you to really breathe your energy into your dancing while your out there?

I bet others have found this to be equally as challenging, and as rewarding when hurdles diminish, as I currently am.

Samina

 

[Masaya]

One thing my Pilates teacher told me to do, and has helped with my balance somewhat, was to use an elliptical, but without using the handles. You just leave your arms dangling by your side, and focus hard on just moving your legs while keeping your upper body absolutely still (i.e. no tilting back and forth or bobbing up and down). It helps build the strength in your abs, and improve the sense of balance.

 

[waltzgirl]

A lot of my balance problems come from weak feet. I do very slow raises on to my toes--up, hold, and down--to a slow count of eight or twelve every day. Also one footed and moving from foot to foot. It's helped a lot.

 

[mamboqueen]

One thing my Pilates teacher told me to do, and has helped with my balance somewhat, was to use an elliptical, but without using the handles. You just leave your arms dangling by your side, and focus hard on just moving your legs while keeping your upper body absolutely still (i.e. no tilting back and forth or bobbing up and down). It helps build the strength in your abs, and improve the sense of balance.

I do that in a forward direction, but come *real* close to falling off when doing it backwards.

 

[LatinDancer006]

I do that in a forward direction, but come *real* close to falling off when doing it backwards.

Balance requires steady control of all your muscles from toes up to head. Pilate and yoga have lots of movements and poses that requires you to balance. But if you don't have strength in certain muscle you're not going to be able to do that either. Exercise that isolates the abs, like crunches, leg lift, oblique crunches and lunges, leg curls, leg extensions,calve raises, adductor and abductor contracts, and back extensions all should help improve your balance. However the ratio of the strength of those muscles to your body weight is a big factor. If you've been doing the above referenced exercises and you still don't improve your balance, you should add weights to your routine. Being able to 50 squats (sorry, plie for you dancers) without weights in set doesn't neccessarially mean you're strong as far as what we are talking about here. It just means you have muscle endurance. So, you also want to incorporate strength build in your workout as well as your cardio or calistanix (spelling?). A lot of women are terrify that they'll bulk up, but the thing is bulking up is a lot harder to do than you think, especially for someone as active as you.

 

[LaLoona]

The problem I was having is that just the slightest shift of my hips or torso would take me off my feet. I've been Queen Wobble, no matter what I tried. And I was deeply frustrated because I couldn't get my body under my control.

To me it sounds like you need a good dance instructor and not pilates...

In my experience most commonly balance is lost due to

(i) trying to use hips while transfering weight from one leg to another. I was trained to quickly tranfer weight from one foot to another and when the weight is completely over the standing foot - continue with the hip motion. When weight is being transfered - there is not hip motion...
(ii) lack of isolation - while hips are going in a circular motion, shoulder should stay still and right above you feet. Hips are moving sort of "against" your shoulders and feet.
(iii) most often the case. it could be that while doing hip motion you are shifting the weight from inside edge of the foot to the outside edge (the fastest way to lose balance based on my experience ). are you falling forward? if yes, keep the weight closer to the center of the foot. If falling sides - keep it more on inside edge. I would try to make sure that when the hips are moving the pressure into to floor stays on inside edge of the foot and doesn't shift anywhere. Plus always squizing tighs helps.

my two cents
and I would check with a good dance professional...

 

[misteria]

I could be pretty balanced when dancing alone, but whenever I was dancing with a partner, I would just put my weight on him. That was really frustrating...
about a month ago I started practicing a lot with beginners and learning how to lead. My balance improved immediately! And not because of pilates or yoga or anything else...

 

[fascination]

But a week or so ago I started an entirely new approach: the meat of my balance training involves dynamic movement where I'm working on balance exercises that take energy through my center, usually in a stop-&-start or rhythmic manner. I've been inventing all sorts of exercises do achieve this -- anything that feels like it's what my body needs. You should see me on the elliptical at the gym -- people must wonder what the hell is that woman doing to herself?! LOL

And lo & behold... I have *remarkably* improved control during my Rumba Walks, and so quickly! I can control the speed of my hip settling much better, and I can speed things up without wobbling so much. It's actually beginning to feel good!

This is inspiring me to invent other exercises, and I'm basically becoming a balance-training freak. But hey... I'm 42 trying to go backwards in time to what my center was like when I was 16. Anything goes as far as I'm concerned.

So my question to everyone is, what has been the best help to each of you in your own quest for better balance, the kind that truly liberates you to really breathe your energy into your dancing while your out there?

I bet others have found this to be equally as challenging, and as rewarding when hurdles diminish, as I currently am.

Samina

have you notcied my location line? It is all we ever work on and it makes all the difference and yes, b/c I am working on it in the gym and in the grocery store etc.....I get alot of strange looks...I find the cardio kick boxing to be the space in which I get to work some of these concepts best...in that there are solw and fast movements as well as moving and standing movements which require all of my wieght over one leg for a lenghty period of time...and in those periods otime we are often also working our waist...and I make being centered and balanced over that leg a major priority

 

[samina]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions!

Masaya: Yes, I've been finding that the elliptical is a great tool. I keep my hands off and do all sorts of movements that rotate my torso around my axis whilst isolating my body in various ways. I'm convinced that's been having an enormous impact. If the Monty Python folks originated the Ministry of Silly Walks, I should originate the Ministry of Ridiculous Elliptical Movements!

Waltzie: I'll try those raises... I've added daily footwork exercises of all sorts to gain better control from the ground up and, again, and I notice results right away. I've been focusing on better articulation of my feet in general, trying to make them as sensitive and coordinated as my hands, in a way. And to really feel them supporting my body from the earth upwards.

Balance requires steady control of all your muscles from toes up to head.

Yes, exactly, LatinDancer! One of the reasons I returned to doing a strong yoga practice almost daily, now. That's great strength-training, flexibility-training, and balance-training all in one! I'm actually already quite strong & muscular -- what I'm doing is finding the ways that I'm weak as far as dance application, as well as where my knots & blocks are. The yoga twists, extensions, and balance exercises have been helping me find and work through those areas. Again, I can notice a difference so quickly -- it just seems to be a matter of *doing* it, you know?

...about a month ago I started practicing a lot with beginners and learning how to lead. My balance improved immediately!

Very cool, misteria. I enjoy learning how to lead and do want to increase my leading knowledge & skills, as I've thought it would help me be a better follower. Interesting that it helped you with your balance!

To me it sounds like you need a good dance instructor and not pilates...

In this case, it's definitely a matter of working out my own mechanical deficiencies. LOL My instructor gives thorough attention to my technique, and has gone as deep into things as he can, but I think it's still a matter for the dancer to work it out in her own body, y'know? For example, he broke each step of the Rumba Walk down into 4 very distinct movements or shifts in the body to help me isolate what my body should be doing. But my own center was really "broken" (my experience of it, anyway) and I've had to figure out how to reclaim it so that it would free me to movement properly. This has involved every part of my body, that's for sure -- not just my abs & torso, but my hip girdle, my thighs, my neck, my feet.

My instructor is truly a dancer's dancer, very professional, and the source of incredibly focused and detailed instruction. I feel I'm very fortunate to be in his hands.

LaLoona, thanks for your detailed advice about how to improve my balance in the Rumba. These are all things my instructor highlighted during lessons, but it's very helpful to hear it again, as I pulled away from working on Rumba with him until I gained better control of myself. Your pointers are excellent reminders. And one of the great things at this point, after having done months of work on myself, is that I have so much more control in my thighs, now, that they really do help stabilize things, just that alone!

have you notcied my location line? It is all we ever work on and it makes all the difference and yes, b/c I am working on it in the gym and in the grocery store etc...

fascination, what do you mean by "location line"?? I'm wracking my brain trying to decipher this because it sounds so important if it's all you work on & it makes such a difference! I wanna be doing it too! LOL But I am utterly clueless as to what you mean. Details, luv... details!

Again, thanks for sharing, everyone. I hope more will come forward with their own findings & suggestions...


Samina

 

[SDsalsaguy]

fascination, what do you mean by "location line"??

:lol:

Look ubder her avatar and see what where she has listed for her "location."

 

[samina]

Oh... LOL! Gotcha! Thanks, salsero.

Oh yes, definitely, fascination. It seems every spare minute I have, I'm moving my center over my supporting leg in some way, sometimes a la Standard, sometimes a la "Evil Latin".

First thing this morning found me barefoot in my little makeshift dance studio, moving about to Josh Groban and reaching & angling whilst over my standing leg in order to activate my center. In the end, it seems, it requires dancing in order to learn how to dance, ay?

I've never heard anyone talk about the importance of emotion, but I find that to be the unifying force when I'm moving. It seems to instantly enliven everything - my center, my arms, my feet, my hips.

I suspect that I may even look back upon this quiet little personal discovery of mine as a critical turning point. Imbuing my movement with emotion seems to activate a kind of body awareness that is transformative. It all flows through my center when it occurs -- perhaps the flow of emotion carries information to the rest of the body more effectively, in a way that unifies movement.

In any event, I never thought of emotion as being key to balance. But it seems to be connected...

Has anybody else experienced that association?

Sami

 

[hamstersphere]

Has anybody else experienced that association?

Yes, absolutely! As in, one song can make a fantastic rumba and another one makes me into Captain Wobbles - the only difference being something in my head reacting to the music.

Anyone have any ideas on how to distill the 'good music' vibe and use it later?

 

[fascination]

Oh... LOL! Gotcha! Thanks, salsero.

Oh yes, definitely, fascination. It seems every spare minute I have, I'm moving my center over my supporting leg in some way, sometimes a la Standard, sometimes a la "Evil Latin".

First thing this morning found me barefoot in my little makeshift dance studio, moving about to Josh Groban and reaching & angling whilst over my standing leg in order to activate my center. In the end, it seems, it requires dancing in order to learn how to dance, ay?

I've never heard anyone talk about the importance of emotion, but I find that to be the unifying force when I'm moving. It seems to instantly enliven everything - my center, my arms, my feet, my hips.

I suspect that I may even look back upon this quiet little personal discovery of mine as a critical turning point. Imbuing my movement with emotion seems to activate a kind of body awareness that is transformative. It all flows through my center when it occurs -- perhaps the flow of emotion carries information to the rest of the body more effectively, in a way that unifies movement.

In any event, I never thought of emotion as being key to balance. But it seems to be connected...

Has anybody else experienced that association?

Sami

well, I am told that my emotions and emoting will eventually be an asset, but at this point there are only two allowed emotions that help more than hinder, confidence and patience...IMO, the two hardest

 

[samina]

...at this point there are only two allowed emotions that help more than hinder, confidence and patience...IMO, the two hardest

I understand. They are certainly both certainly necessary!

For me, the activating emotion seems to be "deliciousness", if that makes sense... setting aside every other intention and just absolutely enjoying the feeling of what my body is doing in every moment.

Yes, absolutely! As in, one song can make a fantastic rumba and another one makes me into Captain Wobbles - the only difference being something in my head reacting to the music.

Yes, I have that experience too. Definitely. Some music just doesn't inspire the heart to sing or the body to move!

The dancers that inspire me are always the ones that are ecstatically lost in enjoyment of their dancing. Watching my instructor move and the way he relishes that movement -- it's so helpful to me to be around that.

And doing that myself gets me over my feet in new ways, without thinking or trying. That must be why my balance seems to be better when I'm in that state. And I'm completely in the moment when it happens, so there's nothing in my mind creating conflict and pulling me off my feet.

That's how it seems, anyway.

Sami

 

[waltzgirl]

And doing that myself gets me over my feet in new ways, without thinking or trying. That must be why my balance seems to be better when I'm in that state. And I'm completely in the moment when it happens, so there's nothing in my mind creating conflict and pulling me off my feet.

That's how it seems, anyway.

Sami

My pro always says the body is smarter than the mind. Getting into the emotion gives the mind something to do, so it gets out of the way of the body!