Give Your Joints Some Love

Last night I had an interesting conversation with a fitness instructor, specifically a Zumba teacher. We were talking about the joys of teaching and she mentioned that she had to reduce the number of classes she teaches due to joint and body pain. I realized in that moment that in the 8 years I’ve been doing Nia and the 7 months I have been teaching I have not experience any joint pain at all. I attribute this to the emphasis of Nia on moving with pleasure, joy and body awareness.

I feel very fortunate to have a loving relationship with my body. I dance for pleasure, I know when and how to tweak my movements and listen deeply to the voice of my body. I stop or ease up when needed and I do not need my body to scream at me. I hear her whispers and have learned to anticipate her needs.

The 13 joints are the ankle, knee, hip, wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints on the right and left sides of the body, and the spine. We will explore moving our 13 joints so that we each find a pace, depth and way of moving that is most pleasurable for us individually. We explore the sensation of pleasure in every joint as we become familiar with every joint’s range of motion and discover our unique style and expressive self, the choreography of our own dance.

Here is a free student handout on a 13 joint exercise from Nianow.com: 13 Joints Exercise PDF Download

The focus of tonight’s class is dancing the 13 main joints of the body. The intent is to find your own internal rhythm. Move at a pace and depth that feels right to you and take the opportunity to make each movement yours completely.

Join me from 6pm - 7pm at Delilah's Belly Dance Studio in Fremont.