Tomorrow starts my summer vacation! I am so excited to finally have a break from writing. I thought it would be fun to start a travel diary focused on my fitness routines and tips. If you are deciding to take a trip somewhere, I recommend that you try some of these great routines, recipes, and more! Today, I am sharing a great video of 8 quick workouts that you can do on vacation. I hope you enjoy, and don't forget to check back every week for more updates! Until next time, A

I've talked a lot about finding balance between your agonist and antagonist muscles. Exercising one group of muscles more than the other, or completely neglecting one altogether, can increase your susceptibility to certain injuries. If you will remember, I discussed this in my post about hamstring and quadriceps. If you have tight triceps and weaker biceps, you can experience pulling on the tendons near the elbows. This can be a problem if you are a pitcher or tennis player.

I love finding new resources that will help me with both my job as a personal trainer and dance teacher, but also as a dancer myself. I spend a lot of time researching various products and books to make sure that they are indeed helpful and proven to be effective. One of the best programs that I discovered a couple of years ago was this flexibility program. I encourage you to check it out for yourself and here is why: For years I've struggled with inflexibility. Sure, I can t

Exercise is a great support system for people with certain health issues. It can help their bodies work more efficiently and even help them recover from what ails them. As a personal trainer, I'm required to do my research on how to properly teach each person to exercise according to their specific health issues. I wanted to start diving a little deeper into how fitness can be used as a way to prevent further decline in health. Of course, you must consult your doctor before e

I have found, through many years of research, that a lot of athletes have a similar problem. They have an imbalance in the muscles of their legs. This is becoming less and less of a problem among athletes because research has shown how it can hinder their performance and changes are being made. However, it is becoming more and more of an issue among the average adult. Prolonged sitting and improper training of the muscle groups can cause tightness or weakness in either the qu

One of the most common injuries in both dance and athletics is rotator cuff injury. This particular injury comes from overuse (baseball, tennis, swimming, weightlifting, and football). This can cause a huge problem for athletes who constantly use their arms. If you work through the pain and don't take care of the injury right away, the shoulder ligaments and tendons can degenerate causing further injury and future issues. The best way to keep this from happening is to strengt

This spring, I will be offering $10 off the Amazon price of A Dancer's Diary! If you order before June 1st, you will get A Dancer's Diary for only $25. Just click "order your copy of A Dancer's Diary" in the upper left corner of this page and fill out the information. A Dancer's Diary offers great information specific to dancers and athletes (and those in between) who wish to maintain health and strength throughout their careers. You will learn how to properly maintain streng

I have a bit of a back injury and am not able to exercise, however, you are able to exercise so I am going to share a little inspiration with you to keep working out. Keep up the good work guys! I made a huge amount of progress last week building muscle and increasing metabolism (I am eating so much!) that it's a bummer that I can't continue. Be positive and push through to achieve your goals. Don't push too hard to the point of injury (like me, ugh!) but some pain and burnin

You will remember in my post about athletic burnout, I said that it was important for parents to teach their children to release stress? In this post, I will be sharing some of my favorite ways to relieve stress through stretching and breathing exercises. Try performing these whenever you start to feel anxiety or when you need a little pick-me-up. Breathing- Take deep breaths by first filling your lungs completely. Imagine you are filling your stomach, then your chest, and fi

We all know that flexibility is extremely important when it come to dance and gymnastics, however, not many people realize how important flexibility is when sports are concerned. Flexibility doesn't necessarily mean that you can stretch your leg as far as the girls in the picture. The definition of flexibility is "the quality of bending easily without breaking." This means that your body should be able to bend easily without any tearing, popping, or breaking of joints, ligame

Good afternoon lovelies! I am so excited to announce my first tour location is in Redding Center, Connecticut. I will be visiting The First Church of Christ as they host their annual fair. At the fair, I will be selling & signing books, talking with you, and giving away fun goodies. If you would like more information or would like to RSVP for this event, visit the Book Tour & Events page and scroll down. Now is the time for dancers to start getting in shape and preparing thei

Happy Friday everyone! Are you ready for the weekend? We have had so much fun having family over this week and it's sad that they will be leaving soon. As for today's blog post, I wanted to share a great stretch with you that increases flexibility and loosens the hips. This is also a great stretch for the hip flexors if they are tight. This stretch is called the Pigeon. I love this stretch and would always add it to my students' stretch routine to help them get into their spl

Good afternoon everyone! Today we are going to focus on nighttime stretching. I had a hard time falling asleep last night so I decided to stretch a little to relax my body. It really helped! I started to get sleepy and my body was ready to relax and rest. Below is a picture that I found of some wonderful stretches that you can do in bed before you go to sleep. I love Cassey Ho from Blogilates and her videos, I recommend that you check them out for some great workouts and stre

For Friday Flexibility today, I am going to share with you some great stretches that can increase the flexibility in your back. It's just going to be a picture today, that way it is easier for you to follow. I recommend doing these stretches 2 times a day, every other day. You should start seeing a difference by the end of about a month if you are continually stretching. Remember to breathe and relax your muscles as you stretch, and don't push it too hard. If you start to fee

Before we get started, I want to remind you that if you feel any pain, immediately stop what you are doing. Minor injuries can be gently stretched immediately after the time of injury, however a serious injury must be rested for at least 72 hours before any stretching can be done. Please consult your doctor if you suspect a serious injury, as it could get worse if not medically treated. Now that we have that out of the way, today we are going to talk about restoring flexibili

It's that time again! Today we talk about flexibility in the backs of the legs (calves, hamstrings, and glutes). Hamstrings can become tight from being stationary for long periods of time, such as sitting and writing all day (I do get up every once in a while to make sure my legs don't get too inflexible) or having a desk job. They can also get tight from previous injuries or from an imbalance in quad and hamstring strength. When you exercise, you want to make sure that you a

Welcome to the next installment of Friday Flexibility! Today we are going to talk about hip flexibility. My hips are really tight and cause me to have very little flexibility. For dancers, the hips are quite often what prevent them from achieving full turnout and leg flexibility. I recommend that you try these exercises twice a day for about 30 days. Test your flexibility on day 1 and test it on day 30 (you can even take pictures) and see if anything changes. One-Leg Hip Open

Today is the start of a series that I will be going through this June. Every Friday we will talk a little about flexibility and I will share some exercises and stretches that will help you increase your flexibility. At any time during this series, please let me know if you have any tips on what has worked for you. I also encourage you to sign up for the member's area to connect with other dancers who struggle with flexibility. One of the best ways to increase flexibility is b

Dancers have to focus on so much when they are dancing, and when they are in class. One of the most important things is turnout. I can't tell you how much it irks me to see a dancer either forcing his/her turnout or (worst of all) not even reaching their turnout. Nothing is more unattractive for a dancer than having a knee turned forward in passe or during a developpe. Today I am sharing a great idea that you can try if you have trouble reaching your turnout. In order to reac

Tight muscles in the hips and thighs and overuse can cause the IT band to become inflamed or sore. This can cause pain to radiate from the outside of your hip down to your knee. As a dancer, this can be very uncomfortable and can hinder performance. Here is a great stretch that will help loosen those muscles and provide relief. Be careful not to pull too hard on your leg as you could tear something. Always be gentle with your stretches. Try holding this stretch for about 10 s