The Body & Movement

Improve turnout for ballerinas, Irish step dancers and everyone alive

Most dancers crave a solid turnout. That’s when your hips, knees and feet laterally rotate (or turn out) instead of being parallel with each other. Every foot position in ballet is done in turnout. What changes is how wide the stance is or where your feet are lined up in relation to each other, but the feet, knees and hips are always in turnout. The motion should come from the lateral rotators of the hip, but not everyone is born with a natural turnout and some people really struggle to increase turnout.

To try and mask a poor turnout, people often torque their feet to make it look like they have a turnout. This can create the appearance of turnout, but it’s fake. And the problem is that a fake turnout weakens the ankle and foot, a problem if you are a ballerina or Irish step dancer because foot and ankle strength are vital for dancers.

So how do you actually develop a strong turnout from the hip using the proper muscles?

One simple exercise is known as the clam.

It’s fairly easy, but be careful. A common mistake it to move the entire pelvis, not just the leg. Moving the leg might […]

Improve turnout for ballerinas, Irish step dancers and everyone aliveMaggie Downie2018-02-14T16:10:12-05:00

Move More

Just me trying to get my feet behind my head and stay relaxed at the same time.

I love to move. I’m always looking for ways to move more throughout the day. This month on a whim I’ve been doing an Instagram challenge to try a different, assigned yoga pose every day. Some of the moves feel great. Other days I look at the way I’m supposed to contort myself and I just laugh. I haven’t been able to get my feet behind my head since I was six months old.

Most days I play with movement. I have some monkey bars and I experiment with what I can do with them. I try to feel what my clients say they feel on certain exercises. While taking a walk, I check to see if my butt is involved in each step. When I breathe, I experiment with where I can send my breath. When watching television, I roll around on Yoga Tune Up balls. Movement is a game for me. Discovering what, where and when can I fit movement into my day makes me happy. I enjoy the challenge.

To some degree this […]

Move MoreMaggie Downie2018-05-04T09:57:18-04:00

Menstrual cramps or gas

This is my mom. The woman who created the chicken walk.

If you ever asked me if I knew the difference between menstrual cramps or gas, I would have definitively said, “Yes.” With that opening line, you probably realize that this blog may come with a little TMI. I’m going to talk about my bowels more than you may care to know about. I’ll try to make the process at least mildly entertaining. But if you don’t have any menstrual or bowel trouble you’ve been trying to sort out, you can feel free to skip this one. However, if you have ever confused menstrual cramps for gas, keep reading.

Menstrual Cramps or Gas

I’m familiar with gas pain. As a kid if you had gas pain in our house my mom would make you get up and move. She called it the chicken walk. You would make big, exaggerated movements and get your knees up really high, practically pulling one knee up toward one shoulder and then repeating on the other side as you strutted around the room. If you weren’t doubled over in pain from gas cramps it would have been […]

Menstrual cramps or gasMaggie Downie2019-07-31T20:45:46-04:00

Handstand Helper

I’m actually working on my handstand, but this was the picture that had the most of me in it!

For two years I’ve been trying to do a handstand and the planche also known as the Peacock. Two years is a long time to work on something and still not be there. It can be frustrating. My failure at the planche is lack of strength. I’m just not strong enough in my shoulders, back or glutes to support myself in that position. And I can’t find my balance point. The handstand, on the other hand, has nothing to do with strength. I’m strong enough. I just can’t figure it out. If anything I’m not sure my shoulders are flexible enough for me to get in the right position.

I’m not giving up though and that’s the point. So far my experimentation with these exercise has been pretty regimented. Must have strength. Must follow this prescribed format. That has been helpful, but it’s only gotten me so far. My current mode of operation is to be more playful when I’m working on these exercises.

That’s helpful in a couple of ways. I’m less stressed […]

Handstand HelperMaggie Downie2018-02-14T16:16:22-05:00

Finding Neutral

When talking about fitness and posture, you’ll often hear people refer to a neutral spine, but finding neutral can be harder than it seems for a natural position our body is supposedly supposed to have. Most often in fitness when instructors say neutral they are referring to the low back and pelvis, but all our joints have a neutral position. Experimenting with where your neutral is in the low back and pelvis is usually the easiest place to start. So let’s experiment with finding neutral in different positions.

Neutral Lying Down

The easiest way to find neutral is to lie down on the floor with knees bent, feet on the floor. This is the easiest position to find neutral because you can actually feel the floor (or not feel it). When you press the lower back toward the floor, known as imprinting, you can usually feel the floor touching your lower back. Conversely, or neutral you should have a slight arch in the lower back. There should be some space between your spine and the floor. There doesn’t have to be a lot of space and everyone’s neutral can be different. Generally, the rule is that you should be able to […]

Finding NeutralMaggie Downie2018-02-14T16:23:08-05:00