Ballet taught mean awful lot. I spent my life learning the discipline and it has helped me tremendously not only in my own training, but when training my clients to loose body fat, gain confidence, increase their strength and rid their bodies and those annoying aches and pains.
Controlling my OWN bodyweight has come easy to me, and thats because I spent all my years learning to lifting my legs, jumping and landing with control,, turning- all of it required me to have HIGH levels of mobility and strength to achieve the effortless illusion you see in class and on stage.
And the body NEEDS this, regardless of whether you are an athlete etc. All of us require a good level of mobility, control and strength in order to move well and be at optimum health
It’s why I stress so much about learning to push, pull, and move the body efficiently with control and ease. It’s paramount to keeping the joints healthy and those annoying aches and pains at bay. Plus, it serves as a necessary foundation to base all your other training on and around. If you can control your OWN body and it’s limbs, then you are pretty much set up to do well in everything else you wish to do- a sport, an art, strength training, fat loss, muscle building- you name it.
Spending “our lives” on one leg, as its known, serves the body a great deal. Yes, it required for our art, but again, the body requires us to be strong and stable enough to move and control our ENTIRE body weight on one leg. Its how we are able to balance for any length of time and move effortlessly around the space. Most of the work we do is on one leg and dancers are some of the strongest athletes you WILL ever see (but I am biased :-P)
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And its these two main elements that should be programmed in into EVERYONES training programme. Doesn't matter if you are starting your journey, getting back into fitness, you are a body builder, as cross fit athlete, wanting to loose weight, rehabbing and recovering from injury, young , old - ALL OF US need to build strength and stability in different positions. It allows us to react better to our surroundings and therefore prevents accidents and injury, now and later on in life.
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However, creating stability doesn’t mean just balancing on a bosu or uneven surface - performing single leg work (just like ballet) are perfect for training the body’s stability. It challenges our balance to with stand outside forces, making us a sturdier object- and thats really the root cause, our WHY to why we train.
I teach my clients the importance of this and as their coach, its important to me that I prepare their bodies for this. My aim is for them to lead, healthy, pain- free lives so they always have the freedom of movement.
It taught me one other thing. And its actually the secret to getting results.
Discipline
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From a young age, it was relentless trips back and forth to attend classes, not just for me, but for my parents too. It was classes, shows, classes, summer schools, more classes- it was constant travelling to and fro
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And then there were the times that I hated. Hated getting up early for class. Or I’d dread putting on my pointe shoes, knowing Id have sore feet again the next day. Or even attending rehearsals, as it would be long and tedious , all to perfect it in time for the end of year show
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It sucked. They were the last things I wanted to do at the time. BUT I wanted to be better and I knew doing all this was necessary in the long run to achieve my end goal
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Having a strong mindset was paramount,, as most athletes can vouch for, when in the pursuit of greatness. During these times, I still had to carry on because what gets engrained in us class by class, show by show, is DISCIPLINE
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Those moments I spoke about hating, they are the moments that I still got on with. Those are the times that regardless of how 💩 I felt, I still put my shoes on, I still got up for class , I still attended rehearsals
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But how
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Well it was all down to discipline
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And this is where most people will make a mistake when trying to reach those health and fitness goals. Reliance on motivation becomes too heavy and unfortunately, motivation is no good in these circumstances as it’s an extremely fickle thing. Some days you’ll be raring to go- others, well you’ll feel like how i did (💩) and want to do bugger all!
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Hence why its no use asking “how do I stay motivated” .
Instead, you should be asking, “how do I stay disciplined”
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Discipline is your key to success. It cuts out the ups and downs you get with motivation by stopping your emotions dictating your preferred choice of action in the moment. Therefore, using discipline is more likely going to produce you results, as you will be doing what is needed, rather than what you want to do
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Really, in truth, this is the secret to the “whole health and fitness thing”. Hard work + discipline = results
Ill forever be grateful for all the knowledge and skills I learnt during my training days. It has served me hugely not only in my own training- but when coaching my clients too. I train them to gain control of their joints and with that, a whole other level of freedom
So ask yourself now: can you effectively and efficiently move you body? Can you balance? Hold yourself up? Push yourself up from the floor? Can you tense and hold your limbs in the air?
And even more importantly : can you move without pain?
If you cant, then click the link below
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