Healthy Performer

Healthy Performer Lesson 1: 18/9/18

In my first Healthy Performer lesson we explored the importance of diet in the life of a dancer. 

Firstly we defined exactly what a healthy diet is. My group decided that it was "meals with the right amount of each food group" and what each food group is designed to do. Protein for muscle repair and build up, carbs for energy, specifically brown carbs as they are a slow-release of energy. As a class we came up with the definition "A healthy diet includes everything you need to ensure you as a performer are able to do your job to the best of your ability." 

We talked about the importance of hydration in a performers diet and how crucial it is to have water with you in every class. 

We read an article about the prime example meals to have to ensure you get a slow release of energy after breakfast and lunch (brown carbs such as wholemeal toast or wholemeal pasta), as well as how to have the most protein for dinner so any muscle fatigue can be repaired over night.

We talked about how having a diet high in sugar makes you tired as the energy is released faster and goes down to a lower point of energy than you were at before you ate anything. 

We discussed the difference between refined and non-refined sugar.

Refined sugar- bad for you, tends to be white, the type of sugar in chocolate or sweets. 

Unrefined sugar- tends to be natural, the type of sugar found in fruit. 

We were told to look at a balanced plate which looks like this: 

Healthy Performer 25/9/18

In this lesson we made posters of different food groups and talked about what a healthy mix of food is. We were told to start keeping a food diary from Friday. We also talked a lot about the health and safety rules in the studio and the reason why these are important. We did a quiz in teams about the health regulations and discussed things such as why the air con is regulated to a certain temperature, why we should wear the correct footwear and why eating in the studio isn't allowed.

Healthy Performer 2/10/18

In this lesson we looked at what warming up is and why it is such an important and big part of a performer's life.

We defined warming up as "preparing the body, physically and/ or mentally for the task you are going to do"

Some of the reasons why it is so important to warm up correctly and thoroughly is because it:

1. Allows the muscles to be able to have full range of motion to reach the person's full potential
2. It helps the person to avoid injury such as pulling or tearing a muscle
3. It loosens up the muscles  

Warming up for exercise like dance should always start with cardio this could be jogging on the spot, running or jumping. The reason for this is that it increases the heart rate which subsequently increases the blood flow to the muscles and therefore allows to a larger range of motion. It also makes sure the blood and fluid in the joints isn't as thick, again allowing for a larger range of motion.

After the cardio section of the warm up you must then warm up and stretch the different muscle groups. This begins with the largest muscle group, the back and spine. This is built upon and you then begin the prep stretches. This means exercises such as lunges or stretching your below above your head to reach your back.

The final stage of the warm up is warming up and stretching the specific muscles that you will be using during the exercises. An example of this would be doing ankle warm ups for tap to ensure your ankles don't get tight and therefore cause injury.

A thorough and effective warm up should take between 15-20 minutes.

Healthy Performer 30/10/18

In honour of Halloween we learnt about the skeleton in this lesson.

Protection - e.g rib cage: 

• protects your lungs and your skull protects your brain
• Allows movement
• Helps you stand/ keeps your shape 
• Reservoir for bone marrow

There are three main bone shapes:

• Irregular bones (e.g vertebrae)
• Regular bones (e.g the small bones in your hand)
• Long bones (e.g skull or ribs)

As a classed we discussed the importance and vitality of warming up within the context of the body. It prevents injury, allows your body to access its full range of motion  and increases blood circulation- therefore getting muscles the right amount of oxygen.  

We were each assigned to create a 15 min warm up based around a specific dance style. I chose Jazz as I've done countless amounts of Jazz warm-ups and practice a lot of the exercises at home when I want to stretch.

I was able to come up with a warm up and playlist in about 10 minutes based on exercises I'd done in previous dance classes.

My decided warm- up consisted of:

• Jogging on the spot
• Starjumps in 8 to each side of the room
• Pulling the elbow down to the knee on both sides in 1s, 2s and 4s
• Twists
• High knees
• Head movements- side to side, up and down
• Helicopter arms

for the cardio section and

• Lunges (with elbows on the floor)
• Straightening both legs and putting the ear to knee
• Lunges to the front (to stretch for box splits)
• Splits
• Sitting in second

Healthy Performer 6/11/18

In this lesson we talked about the different types of joints in the body. 

 There are three main types:

1. Fibrous - skull
2. Cartilaginous
3. Movable - ball socket, hinge, knees/elbows, saddle

We did a task colouring in the bones and were then assigned to draw a schematic diagram identifying the main joints in the body:

 Healthy Performer 13/11/18

In this lesson we continued learning about the different types of joints in the body, building on what we'd learnt last week.

The 2 new types of joint we learnt were:

• Ellipsoid - e.g wrist
• Pivot - e.g neck

We also got into partners and labelled all the bones on the person we were paired with. My partner was Tilia and although I was quite unsure of a few of the bones we managed to use every label correctly by the end of the exercise.  This was the end result:

I led the warm up I'd created in the pervious lesson. I began with a cardio warm up which is listed above. I then went on to stretching which focused mainly on the legs. I received positive feedback on my cardio as it was more intense than what we normally do. However, I think I should've included a lot more back stretches on the back as I really didn't do much to stretch it which is really important.

Healthy Performer 20/11/18

In this lesson we focused on movements of and in the body. These are the definitions Mandy taught us:

• Flexion - When opposite ends come together, e.g bending knee/ elbow

• Extension - Joint action, for e.g opening your arm from flexion

• Hyper-extension - Extension beyond the normal amount. My knees a re hyper-extended so they bend backwards further than a normal person's do. 

• Plantar flexion - Pointed foot

• Dorsiflexion - Flexed foot e.g standing in neutral

• Abduction - (remember like abduction) taking away e.g lifting your arms to the side

• Adduction - Bringing your arms in e.g taking arms from your side back to neutral.

• Rotation - You are able to rotate your hips, shoulders and knees

• Pronation - Rolled in feet- I have a problem with this. 

• Supernation - Rolled out feet

• Inversion - Sickled foot 

• Eversion - Winged foot

We then colour-coded a worksheet which had detailed information about the joints and range of motion: