By Peggy Pollard, Santa Cruz Waltz & Swing www.PeggyDance.weebly.com
Our emergence from pan demic isolation to redis cover face-to-face society, delighted us in June. ...palm-to-palm hand-hold while waltzing! ... wow! ... But now our long August vacation days are shorten ing into crisper schedules of Autumn. Memories of far-away travels, or indolent stay-cations are engraved permanently into history, recorded in our brains and phones. Schools are convening. Families hunker into re vised weekly rhythms. The end of Summer 2021 draws nigh. Sigh. So get ready! Next week calendars turn to the glowing “-ember” months of fall. We must now settle into newly polished schedules for our next year. So this last week of August is the PERFECT time to re-evaluate our exercise schedule to make this our healthiest ever year in body, mind and soul. Doctors say that the #1 most important thing most Americans can do to improve their health is regular exercise. What we need are weekly HABITS, to minimize our stress, maximize our happiness. Here are the seven BEST Exercise Habits you need to do to make 2021-22 your healthiest, happiest ever. HABIT ONE: Find Enjoyable Exercise – Because, we all know, if you don’t enjoy it, you won’t keep doing it. (pssst… machines are boring!) No matter how many $$ you invest in an exercise or cycling, machine or gym membership, machines are very limited in the type of movement you can do on each one. Admittedly, a machine may get you STARTED exercising, and can be a good addition to your exercise repetoire. But as the extremely high annual dropout rate of gym membership every October and February shows, just the amount of $$ you spend is not what will KEEP you going in regular exercise. It’s the amount of enjoy ment you get from the exercise that WILL. Whether ballroom/social dancing (the best IMHO), competing on a soccer team, long beautiful countryside bike rides, mountain climbing,or JiuJitsu grappling, the ideal exercise gets you beyond thinking “I need to exercise” to… “I love doing this activity so much I don’t want to stop after three hours.” The best exercise is when it no longer feels like “exercise. It feels like your purpose in life. It feels like you are doing something terrific. Now that is sustainable. HABIT TWO: Exercise with symmetrical, large body movement--- The most important exercise for biggest physical benefit, are moving your body’s major muscles in a rhythmic symmetrical way. Move your WHOLE body the way it was designed to move. Start with walking for the most simple, primal level of fitness. Then add in other big muscle movements such as running, cycling, swimming and SOCIAL DANCING. Big, rhythmi cal, symmetrical move ments keep your whole body strong. You should also include a combination of anaero bic and aerobic exercise. Anaerobic is slow long distance, such as long walks, slow runs, slow Waltzing, Tango, Night club Two-Step. Aerobic exercise is quick sprints, getting you out of breath, such as Polka, Schottische, Quickstep, Fast Swing. The beauty of partner dancing is that it usually includes all three, often in one dance . ..so efficient. HABIT THREE -- Ex ercise to music you love -- studies show that by exercising to music, you will do it more, and more energetically. Plus, music exercises your soul along with your body and mind. As soon as Nat King Cole’s voice croons through my boombox, telling me I’m “Unforgettable” I no longer feel tired, I feel awe some! I’m floating around the room. Or when Pharrell Williams asks if I’m “Happy” I can’t help jumping so big the roof starts bouncing off. No exercise drudgery there. In fact…I know, I know, this will sound a bit crazy, (why has no one has thought of this before?), but doing PATTERNS of exercises, a variety of moves, perhaps with a partner, counterbalancing against each other… wouldn’t that be wild! Then what if we estab lish patterns to synchro nize those movements to inspiring and catchy music? After that we can progress to allow for creative, spontaneous kinds of movement… we should try that some time. So crazy it just might work. But what to call it… hmmm… how about “prancing?” or stanc ing,” “bancing,” “cancing?” Let’s keep thinking, it will come to us. Uh-oh, running out of space and time here, So view my blog www. peggydance.weebly. com/santa-cruz-waltz blog to read the next four essential habits: 4. Schedule Weekly, 5. Balance Solo & Group, 6. Mind With Body, 7. Learn Systematically. Dance with you soon for your happiest year ever!
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