weight lifting & zumba

Hi Alemama,

I have been spending too much time these last few years in science libraries and only last week learned of Shakira from an article in the Huffington Post. She is the epitome of natural female dance and posture, and when I saw her I yelled OMG - there is our WW goddess!

Actually, over the years we have done a bit of hip shaking here in the studio and - believe it or not - my rendition of “belly dance” was very much like Shakira’s (if old and funky). The way she lifts her chest and butt is completely supportive of (and supported by) a healthy, horizontal SIJ, and it has dawned on me that we need more of this natural movement to keep mobility there.

All the ortho/PT science in the world can try to explain human spinal stability, but it is best illustrated in a natural female dancer.

Hope you are enjoying Zumba - which I have looked at on YouTube. It appears to be a little more “male” in its movements??

Here’s to shakin’ it.

Christine

P.S. The direction Shakira is taking looks pretty pitiful - bleached blond in a cage? ugh.

Yes, I think she could be the WW dance goddess. And there's no doubt about latin rhythms. Ya just can't stand still!! Ya gotta hand it to her. She is all woman. I wonder whether I would still say that after seeing her do Zumba? I don't think she would do it.

From the little bit I have seen I think you are right about Zumba being more masculine. It is the hip thrusts that do it. Hip thrusts just don't work with POP. You will also notice that Shakira doesn't do any belly isolations. They are almost impossible in WW posture, and are real symptom makers, though I will continue to try getting my head and belly around them, sans symptoms!. It is my holy grail.

I looked at a few Zumba videos. One was for children. Would you have your child learn Zumba? Yes, I know it is the sort of dance they see on videoclips on TV all the time, but what is behind it? Have I suddenly exposed myself as some sort of prude?

Louise

i did zumba about a month ago....it was fun but i felt very heavy afterwards...we didnt really do a lot of jumping but I guess for my cystocele it was just too much jostling around! It was deffinately fun though and maybe once I heal more i will give it a go again...another problem i have is relaxing my lower belly so im sure that contributed to the heaviness I felt afterwards

i started tangoing recently (Argentinian, not ballroom). Interestingly, the posture is quite WW as well, though they say pull your stomach in (I skip that part). But bottom lifted, back curved, shoulders straight--though upper body is very far forward.
It works really well for me with WW in mind...and hasn't affected my prolapses at all.

not quite the same as this moving and shimying, but still so gorgeous!

Ahhhh! Yes Kiki! I couldn't agree more. Argentinian Tango is wonderful, and made for WW posture. It is great all over body exercise, and is quite slow, deliberate and controlled in the movement. Such opportunities for passion and playfulness! I do hope you can find a regular opportunity to dance the Tango with your DH. Many cities have Milongas in public places. NYC has one at the South Street Seaport, Manhattan, once a week week, all summer. We arrived in NYC the day before the first one of the season in 2007 but it was such a cool night that it was cancelled. :-( We had to leave before the next scheduled Milonga, so we took the opportunity to dance the tango in front of the Shakespeare Statue (another regular Milonga venue) in Central Park, all by ourselves.

Dance on.

Louise

Ooohh . . . I love having Shakira as a posture visual! And never a shred of fabric across her abdomen, not in ANY picture on Google anyway, lol! It was really positive and helpful for me to see how she holds her belly, too. It's toned, but far from a masculine six-pack. It's sure not floppy, but still roundish and feminine. I know the belly is one of the hardest posture concepts for a lot of women, myself included, so seeing Shakira's was a great "aha" for me. (Please correct me if I'm wrong and her belly is not a good example!!!!!)

Hi Kiki

I am so amused when I see really competent bellydancers (mainly on Google, I admit). They really do display WW posture in most of the dance. However, all the technique classes I have taken stress tucking the tummy in and butt under slightly, with a neutural spineb (Wha???). The old zip and tuck technique. Comes straight from Pilates, and of course most of the bellydance videos and classes offered have a flavour of fitness and weight loss, which women seem to buy, and is the way that bellydancers can make a decent buck out of it. Those costumes, and all that travel are expensive!! Many good teachers are accredited personal trainers. They have to be, because women wanting fitness classes are less likely to buy classes with somebody who doesn't have a competence ticket.

There are some movements that require a straightened lumbar curve, eg belly isolations. There are also some that are normally done with a straightened lumbar curve, that can be amended slightly, so as to not induce pressure in the vulva, eg hip circles and undulations. I don't see Shakira doing any of the moves that require a straightened lumbar curve. Shakira doesn't have a very positive reputation in bellydance circles, but she doesn't sell herself as primarily a bellydancer either, so I find that acceptable. She's pretty cool to watch too. I can see why women and girls want to emulate her. She is probably personally responsible for the current bellydance fitness craze!

Bellydance has a strange history. Many have tried to tell the history of bellydance, but most bellydance history as we read it is conjecture, often tinged with New Age interpretation. We do know that Bellydancers have never been regarded as high up the social hierarchy, though they have been symbols of their culture, and widely admired by both men and women. Marrying a dancer has never enhanced a man's social standing. Therefore dancers have not been a part of history regarded as being worthy of recording. History has historically been written by the winners, and we know what that means. If you are not powerful, or did not contribute to that power, or were female, then you might as well not exist. Dancers were further down the social hierarchy than ordinary women. So there are no written records of bellydancers from ages past, in the same way that there are very few written records of any ordinary women from the past.

In the good old days bellydancers danced in the royal courts, and at weddings, festivals and other important occasions. These days bellydancers dance at big hotels and social gatherings, restaurants and Festivals, anywhere a bit of good old fashioned exotic bling and glamour goes down well. They also dance for each other, and for themselves, in their own social gatherings and in-house performances, called Hafla. They are mainstream people with mainstream jobs, and may even be the CEO's wife, or the CEO herself, performing at the annual sales conference.

Good bellydancers are admired for their artistic skill, their sensuality, their physical ability, their technique, their amazing costumes and skilful interpretation of music. Bellydancing is just another form of respectable dance. At the other end bellydancing is a sexual come-on, a way of displaying a 'dancer's' sexuality and selling it.

The oldest film footage of real bellydancers, from the beginning of the 20th century is probably a world away from what we see today. We do not know how the bellydancers of ancient Egypt really moved, and what sort of posture they used, but Pilates did not exist in the Middle East of old. That we *do* know. I suspect their posture was very WW, just like most of the women of their time.

Just a final thought. If we all had posture like the ancients I think perhaps 'zip and tuck' would never have been invented.

Cheers

Louise

Girls, I am so amazed how fit and toned you are! Alemama, you are a true inspiration, I love doing your Nauli and I do Bikram yoga once a week, but with 3 kiddos I have zero free time! How can you do it with 4???!!?!?!?! lol
WTG!!!

Liv

Bad_mirror...she says herself “this is perfection” - and I agree. The female rounded lower belly is adaptive for housing our pelvic organs and only with the most arduous effort can women change that anatomy. In Shakira’s latest stuff her belly looks flatter (and her arms anorexic) and it’s likely she’s being pressured into the “droid” look so common in our (now world) culture.

Luvmyboyz......I am on my feet all day as a mammographer and I find that I catch myself holding my abs in...not like before mind you but i have them slightly tense. I hav had to stop kickboxing and cardi/muscle classes as my cystocele just pops right out!! It goes back in after slowly but I feel as though I am aggravating things and then i get worried. Maybe the zumba is worth a try for me..they just started it on monday nights....I may try it once. I am cycling when it is mild out (heading into winter), and using eliptical until I get fitted for a pessary tomorrrow to wear when I exercise, b/c betweem maintianing posture, not holding my gut in and my cyctocele, and then owrrying aobu damaging my uterus further I am a freak at the gym........

peace....sadie

Louiseds,
Have you ever come across a belly dancing video that uses WW form? I've looked at some in the past, but they all advocated the flat belly, bum tuck!