Being resilient and tough is part of being a figure skater. And right now, the most important thing we can all do is to stay in shape so when we are back to our usual ice skating schedule, we won’t miss a beat!
To accomplish staying in good form and to maintain your strength, incorporate cardio for your heart and stamina, stretching for your flexibility, upper and lower body resistance for your strength, and off ice jumping and run throughs of your programs on the floor with music.
This is an opportunity for you to inspire and enhance your artistic awareness by watching online videos of ballets, operas, operettas, musicals, and dance shows. Enjoy the beautiful moments of reading a book that you love, not on the computer or your phone, but in a tranquil cozy spot in your home.
Suggested Workout
1) Cardio: 10-15 minutes of cardio encompassing jogging, jumping jacks, grapevines, and others.
2) Flexibility: 10-15 minutes of stretching on the floor. (pike position, straddle position, hurdlers position). Standing up hamstring stretch by bending over to touch your toes with straight knees. Achilles tendons by leaning against a wall at a 45 degree angle with the front leg bent and the back leg straight. Quadriceps can be stretched by grabbing your foot and pulling it up to the back of your hip, or by using an on the floor quad stretch (the kind Mrs. Mills does with you in ballet class). Get all the parts moving by isolating head, shoulders, ribs, knees, and ankles. A great exercise for short range mobility is to take, for example, your wrist and move it as though you were writing the alphabet through your hand. You can do this with your feet and ankles as well. Every single stretch should be done on the right and left side equally.
3) Strength: 10-15 minutes of strength training. Build up to 50 pushups in 10 repetition increments. Face a wall and lean in and push out supporting your body weight. If you have hand weights in the house make sure they are not overly heavy. Five and ten pound weights are perfect. Complete ten repetitions at a time and then change to the other side before returning to the first side to repeat a second set. Carry things in the house for your mom, for fun and to be helpful.
4) Agility: 10-15 minutes of agility training. Be certain to wear supportive sports shoes, laced up properly, to avoid any ankle or foot injury. Start with air turns landing on two feet; do these clockwise and then counter clockwise equally. When you begin, rotate one-quarter of a turn and repeat until facing front. Then do two one-half rotations, and finally, one full rotation. Repeat this process several times. Next, hop-hop-hop single rotations and check each as though landing a jump. Then repeat this hop-hop-hop process using double rotations checking each one like landing a jump. If you are advanced enough, continue the hop-hop-hop process using triple jumps, again, checking each into a secure landing position. Then continue the rotational exercises on your dominate rotational side only. Work all single and double jumps, and if you are advanced enough, do all of the triple jumps that you are working on. Combinations should be done as well.
5) Programs: Each day, practice 10-15 minutes of choreography. Run through each of your programs with your music. Give importance to the tension and extension in all of the shapes. If you can look in a mirror, bedroom closet doors are great for this, work on your body and expression and facial expressions.
Enjoy your workouts and remember Sensei Says, “If I think I can, I will.”
The session is over and the Zamboni is coming out.
Auf Wiedersehen
Comments