Hadia's International Belly Dance Academy

Post #4

Free Massages Here!!! any time you need or want one 

Oh My Aching Backbend

 I have already mentioned in my previous posts that belly dance is one of the best ways to keep our entire back happy and healthy, but in order to reap all of the rewards, we need to follow the path of least resistance with our movements. Here are some important points to keep in mind. I recommend that you:

1. learn to let your pelvis follow our knees when doing hip circles, (small at the front, large at the back movement and knees directly under the hips on the sides). The knees gently straighten at the back and slightly bend in the front.

1. are very careful to avoid dancing with your torso positioned backwards, behind our pelvis (i.e. backbend). This can also occur when you think that you are “lifting” the chest by contracting the upper back muscles and rotating the front of the chest upwards. To avoid this imbalance, simply slide the chest forward. This does not harm the discs, but does compress the two side (facet) joints of lower vertebrae, causing a dull, chronic and nagging pain in the deep lower back muscles, as they tighten to protect you. Overloading the lower back with the full weight of the torso tipping is especially problematic when doing one-sided hip movements (as in the Nagwa video from the previous post). This combination can indeed cause damage to your lumber spine discs and joints.
2. avoid doing large torso circles above a relatively immobile pelvis, as in the popular ‘Argentinian’ style. Ouch!! It may look nice, but it will grind away the joints and discs between your lower vertebrae and the sacrum because of the enormous weight of half of your body combined with the multidirectional compressions as you trace the circle. However, you can get the same wow effect safely if you tip the shoulders in the opposite direction as the pelvis and follow the movement of the knees. Your back should remain completely straight and strong through the entire movement. This is the same counterbalance that you would find with a teeter-totter and eliminates all weight and pressure.

OK OK, I imagine that you are thinking “Well this is all interesting, but I am here for the free massage, so where it is? Tabla roll…..I would now like to introduce you to the amazing auto-massage and healing power of the torso undulation, especially the diagonal undulations. I will even venture to say that this is the quickest and most effective way to keep you back happy, healthy and pain free. However, it all depends upon how you do an undulation. Using my technique, I alternately open and close the chest and pelvis as a symbiotic unit. When this is done with no effort or muscle tension, these gentle movements become a completely free, full torso self-massage. Although the linear front/back undulation is helpful, I highly recommend focusing on diagonal undulations, as these are much easier, have a far larger comfortable and safe range of motion, making it impossible to lean the torso backwards. These offer perhaps the most powerful benefits of oriental dance and are also incredibly easy to do. You can have at look at this movement in my website dictionary (just sign up with your name and email by clicking on this link www.hadia.com and you will have instant free access). For more variations, I recommend my longer online video “Body Logic for Belly Dance” which is also available for purchase on my site with this link. http://www.hadia.com/register/bl4bdrt

However, if you ever do have a sore aching back after your performance or class, here is a very powerful and corrective exercise. You can also incorporate it into a daily routine to prevent low back strain or compression. It is basically moving between the Yoga Cat and Cow, but also adds a side-to-side component. These four points are then smoothed out into a full rib and pelvic rotation. It is much easier to see it than to try to understand the explanation, so you can find this particular movement in Volume 4 of my 4 DVD Ultimate Oriental Belly Dance System. I do recommend that you consider adding this set to your DVD collection. Here is the link again. www.hadia.com

So, until next time, Happy, Healthy Dancing to you all!

If you have any questions, just drop by and visit me on FB facebook.com/hadia.dances  I will always answer quickly unless I am on tour with a bad internet set up!!