January 06 Adult Support group

[Laschwen]

I couldn't find the updated support group so I guess I'll start it up.

If I missed it somewhere, please move this over moderators.

 

I got back to class last night after getting off the pain pills that apparently made me dizzy last week. How my thighs were so sore after 30 minutes of barre last week was beyond me....

I was fine with a 45 minute barre last night but for a bit of achilles pain....nothing strange. I even surprised myself with pretty decent balance on releve. The drive home bothered my back more than the class did.

I have been hanging on my father-in-law's inversion table and that has helped with the pain immensely.

If anyone has seen the Nutrition and health board posts on Kidney pain, it all turned out to be 3 slightly buldging discs and some arthritis. I keep hearing the phrase "for your age"....

The prescription is exercise. The doctor was fine with ballet classes for the exercises but I am thinking twice a week is not going to do it.

I am not very sore yet today so I am thinking of going to a water exercise class for arthritis at the Y a little later. I have never been to that one so I don't know anything about it except that it is supposed to be in the "warm" pool.

The "Y" is close to home and inexpensive. I picked up their schedule yesterday and one of the two pilates classes conflicts with ballet so I was looking at what else they offer to help strenghten my back.

I wish they had a daily pilates class.....

 

Louise

[Tiffany]

If you are talking about water aerobics, I have taken that, and I love it! It works out soreness in your legs from ballet because you kick, run, do jumping jacks and anything else you would do in a regular aerobics class.

 

I got to take ballet and jazz at my old dance studio (I live somewhere else now) that I took from during high school because I was home for the holidays! It was wonderful, I have so many happy memories there. I am going out of town this weekend and will probably get to take a class there too; I've already called and checked on it!

[Laschwen]

If you are talking about water aerobics, I have taken that, and I love it! It works out soreness in your legs from ballet because you kick, run, do jumping jacks and anything else you would do in a regular aerobics class.

 

I have been to the water aerobics classes at the Y several years ago. I hope it is not the same. All that jumping around in cold waist deep water just aggravated my recurrent achilles tendonitis. This one is held in a warm pool and is mostly seniors. I am told the water is deeper too.

I didn't get to do the class yesterday. Just as I arrived in the pool area and paused to warm my legs in the hot tub, a lifeguard came in and called everyone out off the pool. It had been contaminated by a toddler who apparently should have been in little swimmer pants, and had to be closed for "backwashing" and such. So much for getting started with something new. I'll try again on Monday.

At least the hot tub was nice on my mildly sore legs.

 

Laschwen

[Guest Hattie]

I'm thinking about taking up water aerobics. It seems that I can't do ballet for a while thanks to my ankle injury. I tried just doing barre and adage in the cente but it hurt like hell and I had to stop. My doctor told me today I should only do low impact exercise, so I was thinking that water aerobics would be slightly more interesting than just plain swimming.

 

Tiffany- what sort of exercises are there, and do you think it would be okay to do with my ankle?

 

Argh, I am so annoyed that I can't do ballet for at least 6 weeks!!!!!!

[Xena]

Since this is a support group, I'll write this here rather than start up a new thread.

 

Sorry I've been gone for so long form the board, although I have been keeping up with you all..just!

 

Anyway, ballet ballet ballet. Where to start? Well first thing I am annoyed that I only have one ballet class a week. I hate it. In fact I hate it so much that I have now stopped going, even though the class itself is wonderful and the teacher so nice.

I just can't stand not being able to do more ballet. How on earth am I meant to progress or improve? So I have not gone back this term.

This upsets me, and even more upsetting is that I am meant to be a moderator here and give advice about adult ballet.

It's not that I have given up at all. I just don't see the point of going, when i can't improve. So I am doing other forms of exercise at my gym and taking classes. PIlates, yoga, various cardio vascular exercises, some commercial dance classes (heaven knows what it is exactly), spin classes. I take all these classes in some vain attempt to make up for not going to ballet, in the hope that one day I will move to a town that has an adequate ballet community ( i.e. more than one class a week).

But to be honest, maybe that day will never come and am annoyed at having to give up something that I love more than anything. No amount of any other exercise classes I take can ever make up for ballet class.

Luckily my pilates and yoga instructors are or have been ballet dancers, so a lot of their exercises are geared in that way.

So there you go. Just thought i'd share.

Jeanette

[Tiffany]

We did things like jumping jacks, running motions, using a kickboard and swimming in the deep end of the pool, and using these things that looked like weights but were made out of foam and doing arm exercises. I actually haven't gone to water aerobics in about a year so I can't remember more specifics than this.

 

Hattie, I don't know if some of the things like running in the water would aggravate your ankle, but its worth a try. I had sore ankles from turning out from my ankles in ballet class (I don't do that anymore! I am making progress!) and took a water aerobics class and the soreness was gone!!!

 

Xena, I hope something changes and you are able to get to more classes. What you are saying about not getting better is the reason one teacher told me I could not come to her class once a week; I was attending classes somewhere else and didn't want to tell her b/c she doesn't like that teacher and I ended up just attending classes with the other teacher where more classes fit into my schedule. Maybe a new teacher will move to your town and offer classes that are suited to you. Hah I can be an optimist because today was my last day of work until Monday!! Its going to be a great weekend!

[Redbookish]

Xena, I fel for you. I first found this MB because I was looking for advice & information about ballet classes in the north west of the UK - I was in Lancaster, considerably smaller than where you are, and I could only get one ballet class of one hour per week. I never really tried the whole 'dance with the teenagers' thing, although I might have if I hadn't moved. I did manage to 2 contemporary classes a week during the University terms.

 

But I'd say keep up whatver you can, because on moving to Birmingham, I've been able to take up to 4 ballet classes a week (indeed, I could take 6 if I didn't have an extraordinarily busy job) and by just doing the maintenance of 1 class a week for so long, I've very quickly been able to get upnto speed to do (although not very well) the Advanced class at DanceXchange.

 

So you just never know ...

[Laschwen]

Hi again.

My whine of the day is that now that I have been doing daily time on the inversion table for my back, my ankles have puffy places just inside the front tendons. I am guessing there may be bruising eventually but they don't hurt in the swollen spots. That inversion table isn't doing my achilles any good either.

I have class today so I hope that will work some of it out. I went and bought neoprene ankle wraps for padding so hopefully the swollen spots won't get worse.

I will also bring a cooler with ice packs to class because the drive home was more stressful on my back than class was on Tuesday. I can drive with soft ice on my back. If I need it on my ankles too I will have the strap on kind available too.

I started planning what to do when I get back to the warm water therapy pool at the YMCA (before the class starts). I am thinking maybe the grand plies I cheat out of in class. The only ones I do more than 3/4 of the way down are in second position. With my current weight and lack of control I am afraid if I get all the way down, I won't be getting back up again in any ballet-like manner.

The anti gravity may work nicely for me to get the feel of it again.

 

Laschwen

[Skittl1321]

oops. I skipped class last night. I don't think I have ever skipped class before. (Missed, but not skipped) I was just to tired to go. I ended up going to bed at 7:00. I have no idea why I am so tired, but I have been for the last month. (Before someone suggests the standard response I've been getting, I'm not pregnant- can't a girl just be tired?)

 

So Saturday class is going to be harder than normal, because I didn't go yesterday. I will make it up on Monday.

 

Pointe class is also becoming really difficult. I joined a class about 5 months in, so I've been at it for one month and the other girls 6. It technically isn't my first time on pointe, but it is my first time with real pointe instruction. (I used to just do a barre at pointe, and apparently not correctly...) I do fine most of the time, but we did a prep for a pique turn across the floor last week (no turn) and it got to the pointe where the teacher was following and pushing my body over my leg. I couldn't do it on my own, and even worse, I was getting to the pointe of stepping up on a BENT leg. My legs are never bent in pique... I don't know what is going on.

 

Do hopefully I will be less tired next week, and classes will go okay on Saturday.

[Jans]

I couldn't do it on my own, and even worse, I was getting to the pointe of stepping up on a BENT leg. My legs are never bent in pique... I don't know what is going on.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Oh, sorry to hear you're tired, *sends an extraboost of energy*!

 

I have the same problem. Although I tend to bend my leg a little when doing piques in soft shoes (I'm working on that), I've noticed that especially when try to rise on pointe my knee tend to bend.

 

I've thought it's because I somehow don't have the courage to rise on my toes, I don't trust myself enough (yet) to "shoot" forward, but I'm holding back. And because when pointing my foot in pointe shoes my toes/platform are not towards the floor but more forward I think that I unconsciously feel that I have to get the platform to the ground before I can rise on my leg, and then I've already bent my knee.

 

But working on that, too.

[Guest pink tights]

OK fellow dancers, I'm tired and not all that motivated about class too, but I think it's the dreary winter weather!

[spankster]

Hi Laschwen,

 

Sorry to hear about your discs. I adore water exercise. Just a little tidbit - I found years ago the exercises to be distressingly high-impact, but in recent years there has been a minimization of impact and a lot of the exercises, even the aerobic ones, are really done without any jumping. Cross-country, for example, if you know what that is, is done wholly beneath the water (except for your head ). Maybe you could call the instructor and ask about the format of the class.

 

There are "jumping jacks", but you can do them in a low impact manner by letting the legs open and then PULLING the inner thighs together to come "up." This is a much better exercise for me than the traditional. So for some of the exercises where it might be iffy, you can do them your own way.

 

I have adored the anti-gravity effect in the pool. You can do all your regular warm-up exercises there. Hope you feel better.

[Laschwen]

Hi Spankster:

I went to the water class yesterday.

The upper body stuff was standing still (in a nice pulled up second position for me) and waving arms in all directions. I skipped the water weights. Flat hands were plenty resistance for me.

The lower body work was either pretty much ballet barre already or could be modified to suit without notice.

Considering it was me and the seniors; my toes coming out of the water on the "grand battements" to the side might have been noticed....but nobody commented. If you are there, everyone assumes you need to be for one reason or another, even if you are a mere kid of 44.

There was little to no "jumping around" to keep things aerobic, but I did some little jumps that I don't do on land and really enjoyed that.

We did walking laps across the pool in a variety of ways; even a sort of grand jete. There was one where I could do a two count version of a pas-de-chat all the way across which was a nice way to work my feet.

I think I will keep it up. It mau be the only place I can actually do some of the ballet moves I am not yet able to do on dry land.

I am even a little sore.....

 

Laschwen

[Guest pink tights]

Laschwen, The pool 'floor' can be very abrasive on your water-logged feet. Look for a pair of those aqua socks to spare yourself the agony of shredded feet!

[spankster]

That is so awesome, Laschwen! It is pretty fun, isn't it? That is terrific that yours turned out to be nice and low-impact. I totally agree about what you said about the class. My class is mostly seniors too and everyone is there for his or her own reason. We have several students that have had knee or hip replacements and you know, you would never ever know it by watching them on land. I love it so much. Cheers!