Today: Stretching & Strengthening

I have done so little lately in terms of strengthening that I can totally tell. Grande plies are a bitch right now- I struggle with them again. I'm starting back with randomly doing pliés, relevés, and uh, I don't know if it's a ballet move but it's a développé derrière skipping the attitude positions- so like a back leg raise to target my glutes, basically. (I'm a bit afraid that doing as many of these as I like to do may actually hinder my développé derrières due to building so much muscle, and due to the fact that I actually do it a little outwards instead of straight back because it seems to work my glutes more, but the payoff is proving to be a much firmer ass, and so it's worth it to me to work on these. I do need to work more on keeping my extended leg straight, as that doesn't come naturally in that position.)

Basically, since I've started taking actual classes, my work outside of class has dwindled. I do try to arrive an hour early to stretch before class, and sometimes to have some of the girls help me out with some movements, and I also try to stay at least 20-30 minutes after class stretching some, but otherwise I haven't been doing as much as I was, and that needs to change.

I have stopped working the classes I was doing online. I really want to focus on strength and stretching right now- and working on learning the movements in class as quickly as I can, because those are what I want to be practicing at home. I almost have them down to where I will feel comfortable practicing at home, but I'm not quite there yet: I'm afraid of practicing and getting a movement down well, only to be in class and realize I've been doing it wrong. But I am picking things up pretty well, and that will soon be an option for me.

I'm focusing a lot on stretching right now, after doing the warmup I usually do (which I have mostly memorized, so it's also what I do when I first get to the studio and get changed from work clothes). I'm quit excited because even though two of my splits are still embarrassingly high, one of them, my left side split, is actually making noticeable progress! I'm not to the ground yet, and am still inches away from it, but less than a foot, I think, and that's a big difference for me!

So yep, back to it!

Oh, edit! I just wanted to say that when I first started, leg raises/releves were kinda difficult for me- I mean, well, they are hard.  When I first started, I would do about 12-15 one-legged relevés (usually with the other leg in sur le cou-de-pied or retiré) and 30 relevés in a set. Now I'm up to somewhere like 60-100 relevés and I've doubled my one-legged retirés, doing 25-30+ each set. (And I guess I've been doing enough lately, because even with some weakening, I am still able to do these with some ease.)

Quick post!

Thinking about ballet when I should be working! :D It was really inspirational to read the Remedial Ballerina's post about her third class and how she couldn't get up from a grande plie in second- I know the feeling! This is one of the reasons I want to go ahead and build up strength BEFORE I take classes. I'm learning EXACTLY what I need to work on as far as strength training, and I won't be spending class time behind because I can't keep up as far as strength goes.

Also, I spent a lot of time yesterday working on positions and moves with my leg behind my back and raised. I believe I was doing (or attempting) rear frappes and moving (low, shaky and wavering) attitudes from the front to the rear, but focusing on the rear. I was going with what seemed to work my rear the most, and to work the muscles required to lift my legs into those positions- I'm having a lot of trouble with them. Within an hour or two after I quit, my lower back was really hurting- it didn't seem to be a good ache, either. My mom brought over some sort of emu oil or something? and rubbed it in my back. My pain was pretty much gone in about twenty minute- it really helped. I will post what it was when I find out.

I need to take it a little easier on the exercises that compress my lower back- and, I think more importantly, to make sure I stretch it the opposite way, elongating it, when I do those exercises.