Flexibility and core strength. Tips please?

laelia said:
In what ways do you think yoga would be better than pilates? Unfortunately I don't have the time or cash to do both!
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Welcome to the DF.

Try to find the time/cash. Both of these things are great, and sound to be exactly what you need. Pilates for core strengthening, and yoga for stretch (your calf/hams issues). Find a way to divide the workouts evenly rather than just one heavily.
 
laelia said:
I did, yep, and until fairly recently I was doing quite a bit of running .. which probably didn't help the tight calf and hamstring issues I've been moaning about!

In what ways do you think yoga would be better than pilates? Unfortunately I don't have the time or cash to do both!
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It seems that you did not do enough stretching after running.

I know some guys that do tango and yoga.
There are various types of yoga, so I don't think you won't be able to find suitable one that will give you power and flexibility.

Check Ashtanga yoga. :cool:
 
laelia said:
I did, yep, and until fairly recently I was doing quite a bit of running .. which probably didn't help the tight calf and hamstring issues I've been moaning about!

In what ways do you think yoga would be better than pilates? Unfortunately I don't have the time or cash to do both!
Click to expand...

It seems that you did not do enough stretching after running.

I know some guys that do tango and yoga and they say it's better.
Yoga is not only exercise and tango is not only a dance.
Body awareness is both important in yoga and in tango, i am not sure about pilates.
There are various types of yoga, so I don't think you won't be able to find suitable one that will give you power and flexibility.

Check Ashtanga yoga. :cool:
 
I noticed an iyengar class near to me .. Apparently with that system you use various props (blocks, belts etc) to achieve the necessary poses, particularly if you have flexibility issues (me!).

Anyone recommend this?

Happily I've also found quite a few reasonably priced pilates classes in my local area too, so I've got lots of options.
 
Mladenac said:
Body awareness is both important in yoga and in tango, i am not sure about pilates.
:cool:
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Body awareness is very important in pilates. It depends on being able to identify and engage the relevant muscles for the exercise. There is also a strong focus on small adjustments to posture to achieve the correct ideal. However, it is important to find a rigorous teacher who spends a lot of the time correcting the class otherwise, as someone rather patronisingly said, you will get pilates for housewives, where many people are just going through the motions.
 
Not all Core Strength is the same...some types are impressive in terms of definition and ability to maintain control but may still be superficial when it comes to Tango. It's DEEP CORE STRENGTH that one must develop and this is not NOT accomplished by 'exercises' but rather by real living and dancing...an example of this is this dancer who is hands down the best VALS tango dancer ever and the Vals is generally accepted as THE most difficult dance of tango. Here his is doing Tango! Note: the flexible but profound core lead;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PARJwVp_prA&NR=1
PS...in case you are not able to recognise it yet, this is one hell of a great dance!
...about as good as it can get.
 
Sorry, bit confused! I can't accomplish this kind of strength via exercises..? Obviously I'm not planning to substitute exercises for dance practice, but surely exercises will complement the dance practice?
 
Angel HI said:
Why did you not post a vid of Tete's vals? Seems odd.
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His Vals are numerous on YouTube...his tango is only shown a few times..I'm just leaving some work for the viewer to get into his/her self if not already familiar with it. Tete's tango here is just as beautiful as his flying Vals.:p
But keep your eyes on his core strength in both.
 
laelia said:
Sorry, bit confused! I can't accomplish this kind of strength via exercises..? Obviously I'm not planning to substitute exercises for dance practice, but surely exercises will complement the dance practice?
Click to expand...

I attended workshop with Maxi Guzman in which he stated that; "it's the number of cheezeburgers one eats that counts.":cool:
 
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