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In the video, I am demonsrtaing my hip flexor stretch which I noticed has improved since the first time. I demonstrate that in week one I started at 90 degrees and now in week 4 I can start stretching 5 degrees farther.

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In the video, I am demonsrtaing my quadricep stretch which I noticed has improved since the first time. I demonstrate where I was week one with my leg straight under my hip and now in week four my starting point is 5 degrees farther behind.

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September 28th:
In this video, you can hear me describe to a friend how it hurts the back of my neck. I am also moving very slowly through the postions and stopping in each position because of how diffcult it is.

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October 18th:
In my top shelf, I am limited in creating a straighter back because the lack of flexibility behind my neck and not enough strength in abdominals and upper back to push my hips higher.

November 2nd:
In the picture, you can see a straighter spine with more flexibility in my neck and strength in upper back and abdominals. The next thing to work on is being able to maintain the straight spine while allowing the legs to move.

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September 27th:
This is my first handstand where the line is demonstrating what my alighnment should be: hips stacked over the shoulders over the wrists. In the picture, my hips go past the line creating an arch in the low back

October 24th:
In this picture we can see my hips are stacked over my shoulders over my wrists. What I need to focus on moving forward is finding a handstand balance and starting to get the legs higher so the feet are stacked on the hips.

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There is still one more week left on my training plan, but it is the last week of classes, and I completed my last ground class last week. From week one I have gained more mobility in the hip flexors, quadriceps, lower back, and the back of the neck. I have gained more upper back and abdominals strength but not as much as my mobility training. I do still have back pain throughout ground-based classes which I didn't think was going to be fixed with my plan. I will continue working with Kyle and Lydia to address the my back pain, but now I have a better understanding of my body.

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Tripod and legs over the head September 28th

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Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp (6)

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Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp (5)

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In our dance science lecture on flexibility, I found that I have Hollow Back Posture, as demonstrated in the photo on the right. That means my hip flexors, quads, low back, and back of the neck is short and tight, and my hamstrings, abdominals, and upper back are long and weak. This finding makes sense because, in my ground-based classes, where there is a lot of floorwork, I would usually have a lot of back pain after class. Also, working with Kyle and Lydia, they noticed my lower back takes control and doesn't allow my upper back and abdominals to do the work. At the end of ground-based class, when I would stretch my quads and hip flexors they felt very tight. Lack of flexibility in these four areas makes it difficult to execute specific exercises because I am not using the right muscles which leads to compensation in other muscles like my lower back, hip flexors, and quadriceps to do all the work. Compensation is not bad, but that creates a muscle imbalance, 'muscle imbalance only becomes an issue when it affects my daily life' (De'ath 2022) In this case, this is affecting my ability to keep dance training without pain.

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What have I learned that I will take into the futrue

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What have I learned that I will take into the futrue

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Moving forward I will continue with the mobility training that I do every day because I found it helped manage my foot pain so that I could dance throughout the day. I will plan for next term to focus my plan on stability in my abdominals and upper back and will keep in mind when setting my goals that I need to be task orientated so that I feel less overwhelmed and find consistency in my supplemental training and let this attitude filter into my dance practices.

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Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp (4)

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top shelf - Made with Clipchamp_1670269647117

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Untitled video - Made with Clipchamp (3)

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'Periodisation is the systematic planning of training, with the goal of the athlete peaking at a desired point.' (De'ath, 2022)) In terms of periodization at LCDS, there are four different cycles. Preparing, Crafting, Performing and Transitioning. These cycles are in the hope to decrease chances of burnout in overall well-being. This is used by gradually increasing physical and mental intensity throughout the term generating a peak till the last week of the term when the intensity decreases.

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Working with Lydia, the physiotherapist for my foot injury, instead of addressing the foot pain, she worked on the rest of my body. I was given exercises for inner thighs, abdominals, calf flexibility, upper back strength, and pelvis alignment. Then working with Kyle, the strength and conditioning coach, targeted my abdominal strength and addressed my back pain. Working with the team, they have given me exercises that I can include in my plan and also take the attention away from the foot pain and address the alignment of my body.

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Dance Practice: Ground based foundations
Dance Science: Goals
Dance Science: Flexiblity
Dance Science: Strength in Abdominal and Upper Back

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'In my bridges I felt less pain in my lower back, doing my warm up allowed more strength from glutes and hamstrings.'

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My Reflection 11/28 Ground Based Class and Pilaties

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My Reflection 11/28 Ground Based Class and Pilaties

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'Taking it one step at a time allowed me to appreciate what hard work I was doing and all good things I was doing...'

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In weeks two and three when I felt overwhelmed, instead of looking at my training plan week to week I looked at it day by day. This new perspective allowed me not to stress about the many training sessions I had throughout the week. This helped me get more of the training sessions completed and I started to find consistency. I was changing to a task orientation perspective of my goal which 'research in physical education contexts has found that a task orientation is typically positively associated with various motivational factors including intrinsic motivation, positive affect, and the belief that effort is the cause of success.' (Carr and Wyon, 2003, p. 106) By having this task orientation perspective I saw progress in the consistency of completing my goals, and the consistency leading to wanting to continue to train.

On November 21st I wrote a reflection for my ground-based class saying "I got the over and under combination complete today and when I got frustrated the first time [doing the combination] the second time I did it [correctly] because I had self talk. Instead of telling myself I am bad at the exercise and starting to give up,  I looked at what skills I have to complete this exercise and viewed what I am doing as a task, rather than the outcome reflecting how good or bad I am at dancing.

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Initially, when creating my end goal, it was to maintain a neutral pelvis throughout ground-based class. In the dance science lecture on the spine Steph, asked us if it is possible to maintain a neutral spine in dance and the class agreed that in reality, it is not possible because of the different positions we were in. So I changed my end goal to develop mobility in the hip flexors, quadriceps, and back of the neck and gain stability in the abdominals and upper back. Tracking my progress through tripod, top shelf, and handstands and hope to reduce back pain throughout ground-based class.

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Since I have a hollow back posture I want to gain flexibility in the quadriceps, hip flexors, lower back, and back of the neck. I want to strengthen my abdominals, upper back, and hamstrings.

I want an increase of flexibility so there needs to be "deformation of the connective tissue is necessary to produce permanent muscle length change. This will require gradual increase of duration and frequency of stretch. "(Lorraine and Urmston, 2016) I want to note that you cannot change muscle length with flexibility training you are adding more lubricant and glide with the muscles.

With *periodization, I can use the timetable to see if any exercises in my plan are already included in my dance classes like pilates/yoga and dance fitness. I want to make sure days that are physically intense I am not adding another workout in because I am not allowing time for adaption-enough overload and rest- in my muscles (De'ath, 2022)

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Challenges that came up while completing the plans were firstly acknowledging that going from not having any training plans to having these extra exercises is a big change. Also, having to build routines into my day means I am taking extra time and there is no external source forcing me to do it. These plans are created by me and my wanting to improve myself so I can perform better in dance.

In weeks two and three, I found that I would be easily overwhelmed by the number of training times that I had planned in the week even if it was just for 10 minutes. Since I felt overwhelmed I did not do some of the training sessions that I had planned which I think limited the full potential of my outcome.

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The tables in orange are part of my 5 week plan. The other tables are supplemental training that I have used alongside this training.

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My goal is to create a warm-up and end-of-the-day flexibility and strength routine. These routines will be used in my 5- week plan with a end goal of maintaining a neutral pelvis throughout ground class.

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In my training at LCDS, I have noticed that not having personal goals for myself in dance classes, I unconsciously start to compare myself to other dancers in the room. I stop appreciating the skills and work that I can do and center my attention on what I can not do at that moment. My focus became centered on negative perfectionism instead of positive perfectionism:

Positive perfectionism enables one to have realistic goals, acknowledge their limitations, and enjoy the results of their effort, which creates a feeling of satisfaction. Meanwhile, negative perfectionism had the opposite result. It increases one’s worries and decreases or weakens self-esteem and self-confidence

Geranmayepour and Besharat found that negative perfectionism is correlated to low self-confidence and I found that it leads to self-comparison. This research was not tested on dancers they were tested on students across many majors at a university. This could have different or the same results being tested on dance students. As a dancer, the dance environment plays a major part in my perfectionism. That includes the teachers and other students. Karina Desai's thesis research found, 'Various research has been conducted to investigate the growing theory that the classroom environment, or social psychological climate, of dance studios is to blame for these negative characteristics.' (Desai, 2021, p. 50) Using both of the points in this research I was experiencing negative perfectionism which is an accumulation of myself and the class environment. I have also been dealing with a foot injury for over a year and that has made it difficult to see progress psychologically and physically which in turn in has made it easier to self-compare in dance classes and lowers my self-confidence. I hope that setting goals for myself will help me see the light at the end of the tunnel.