Why Men, Yes Men, Should Do Ballet
I noticed shortly after high school that many of my friends starting having back trouble and or pulling their hamstrings while doing activities such as running, biking, or sports like soccer which obviously involves a lot of running.
At first my thought was just that they were over-using those muscles or using them improperly.
For one thing, almost everyone on earth warms up incorrectly by stretching first, then exercising when in fact you need to do the exact opposite: small range of motion exercises followed by larger range of motion exercises leading to the body perspiring, and then begin stretching.
But after a few more years it became clear to me that what was really going on is that men have a natural tendency to get muscle stiffness in the back of the legs and over time this stiffness trends upward to the lower back and causes prolonged back problems and can even cause the need for back surgery.
The fix for this, and this is in no way to get a laugh but a totally sincere statement, is for men to do ballet.
Now, before anyone starts laughing or making that hideous spinning movement pretending to be a "ballerina" one needs to understand that men - yes MEN - invented ballet nearly 500 years ago.
Furthermore, ballet is an attempt to capture in living bodies that statuesque posture and motion that the statues of the ancient world so beautifully represented and which in no small part inspired the Renaissance.
The only way to do this was to invent a step by step plan or technique by which you can not only control every inch of the body but can also make it adopt poses and positions requiring the full range of motion of every body member and every muscle group.
The inevitable outcomes of this are for one, that excellent posture and floating gracefulness everyone loves to see, and the other is excellent muscle extension, flexibility, and injury avoidance.
With the study of ballet technique which requires at least two technique classes a week, and perhaps more importantly with the adoption of the method of training that ballet so perfectly utilizes whereby one warms up by first doing a variety of small movements for legs and arms, gradually building up to bigger motions that start to need a full range of motion for the legs, hips, torso and arms, perspiring, and then doing a thorough stretching involving deep stretches like the splits, deep lunges, and twists, men can go a very long way to alleviating the major cause of back pain: tight hamstrings.
And, this type of regimen can only help to improve lower back strength, flexibility, and lessen or eliminate back pain.
At first my thought was just that they were over-using those muscles or using them improperly.
For one thing, almost everyone on earth warms up incorrectly by stretching first, then exercising when in fact you need to do the exact opposite: small range of motion exercises followed by larger range of motion exercises leading to the body perspiring, and then begin stretching.
But after a few more years it became clear to me that what was really going on is that men have a natural tendency to get muscle stiffness in the back of the legs and over time this stiffness trends upward to the lower back and causes prolonged back problems and can even cause the need for back surgery.
The fix for this, and this is in no way to get a laugh but a totally sincere statement, is for men to do ballet.
Now, before anyone starts laughing or making that hideous spinning movement pretending to be a "ballerina" one needs to understand that men - yes MEN - invented ballet nearly 500 years ago.
Furthermore, ballet is an attempt to capture in living bodies that statuesque posture and motion that the statues of the ancient world so beautifully represented and which in no small part inspired the Renaissance.
The only way to do this was to invent a step by step plan or technique by which you can not only control every inch of the body but can also make it adopt poses and positions requiring the full range of motion of every body member and every muscle group.
The inevitable outcomes of this are for one, that excellent posture and floating gracefulness everyone loves to see, and the other is excellent muscle extension, flexibility, and injury avoidance.
With the study of ballet technique which requires at least two technique classes a week, and perhaps more importantly with the adoption of the method of training that ballet so perfectly utilizes whereby one warms up by first doing a variety of small movements for legs and arms, gradually building up to bigger motions that start to need a full range of motion for the legs, hips, torso and arms, perspiring, and then doing a thorough stretching involving deep stretches like the splits, deep lunges, and twists, men can go a very long way to alleviating the major cause of back pain: tight hamstrings.
And, this type of regimen can only help to improve lower back strength, flexibility, and lessen or eliminate back pain.
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