I had an incredibly wonderful Valentine's Day! I hope all of you did as well. My boyfriend made me dinner, we exchanged gifts, and it was absolutely perfect.
However, I woke up the next morning and was terribly sick! No better way to screw up a long weekend than spending an entire Saturday either in a bed or on the couch, immobile. It was awful, guys. I can't even tell you. But, luckily I'm feeling better today, even got a gentle workout in to start the vacation week off right. When you're not dancing, it's important to maintain your stamina and athleticism so you don't get back to work feeling like you've lost everything. It's good to give our bodies a break from the normal routine. Doing the exact same thing day after day isn't good. So over vacations I like to do a bit of cross training. This week, along with our Dancer S.O.S. submissions/answers, (ask me your questions in a comment below or e-mail me at: rhiannon@maine.rr.com. Ask me anything!) my posts will all have 3 examples of exercises/exercising that you can do over break to stay in shape. Today we'll start off with some things I did in my workout today (keep in mind I was extremely sick yesterday and had to take it easy, so I did about an hour of these exercises with generous breaks in between intervals).
1: Spinning. Hop on a bike and get your heart rate up. Spinning is a great way to burn calories and maintain stamina without beating on your body. Unfortunately, unless you have a bike at home, you will need to go to a gym or exercise facility to do this (unless you're in a warm, sunny climate and can go for a bike ride, which we certainly couldn't do right now up in Maine).
2: For this exercise, get yourself a balance cushion. This exercise can be done on the floor as well but the cushion offers extra challenge. Standing on the balance cushion, do some curls with 3-10 pound weights (whatever you prefer). You could also lean slightly forward and do some kickbacks (refer to picture demonstration).
3: Lunges. Gotta' keep those legs toned! After the spinning and arm exercises on the cushion, I did 20 lunges (10 on each leg).
I did this circuit about three times. These exercise were provided by a professional personal trainer and anyone can do them. Work hard, don't push beyond your limits, and always warm up before you begin.
Until next time, readers! Don't forget to submit your questions for the weekly Dancer S.O.S. Advice Column!
Thanks for reading,
Rhiannon -
