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Category Archives: Dancers
Sports-Neuromuscular Stimulation & Mirror Resistance
Neuromuscular stimulation provides your strength, coordination, reflexes, and balance. If this system is lacking you will not have these capabilities in daily living or athletics. The neuromuscular stimulation and feedback loops are highly responsive to high frequency contractions which occurs during the rapid compression movements performed during cardio burst workouts. These feedback loops are referred to as Mirror Resistance.
Squat Run beginning position. You may want to try dropping closer to your heels to increase the muscle activity. As you run or pad in and out of the squat, try touching the foot pads when in full squat. Give yourself that extra challenge building your cardio and strength.
The SANDDUNE’s Goal
Our goal at the Original SANDDUNE™ is to provide orthopaedic and neurological patients of all ages from kids to grandparents, as well as dancers, golfers, and athletes from other sports, the benefit of working out on this challenging and effective apparatus. It will add a valuable new dimension to the goal of helping reestablish greater balance, coordination and strength to those coping with the fear of falling due to injury, illness and recovering from surgery.
The distinctive properties of the SANDDUNE also lends itself to athletes striving to increase coordination, greater flexibility in their joints, core strength, a more responsive musculature, and balance components critical to sound fitness and successful athletic performance.
Jack’s 5 minute testimony
Mighty Dancer!
Cardio Burst Squat Run
How does the SANDDUNE help with balance and strength?
Eagle’s Lost Focal Point!
The SANDDUNE™ simulates walking in loose sand at the beach. It challenges your body to find its center of gravity. The natural phenomenon of neuropaths being re-activated after lack of activity caused by injury, illness or sedentary lifestyle, causes your muscles to react to signals from your brain, which begins a process of strengthening those muscles which are necessary to restore and maintain good balance.
For example, people with strong balance can try this Spine Stretch exercise described below on the SANDDUNE to really build and challenge their balance. From there progress to positions like the Eagle pose in Yoga. Make sure you have someone present with you to spot if this is new for you. If not, have a barre or something sturdy and stable to assist you should you loose your balance – wall or sturdy chair for example. Make sure there are no sharp object around you.
- Center yourself on the SANDDUNE with a small ball if you like, weighted or not, in your hands, with arms bent so that the ball is at your neck just below your chin.
- Stand straight, tailbone tucked with bellybutton pulled back toward your spine so your core is engaged and active. Remember as you increase your flexibility you are increasing your core strength on this apparatus.
- Before you begin your roll down, pick a focal point on the floor to maintain your balance once your eyes meet the floor.
- Now, imagine peeling an orange, trying to keep the peel in one piece as you prepare to begin a roll down similar to what is done when doing a seated spine stretch. If you are not an orange lover, then think Slinky toy and their fluid motion.
- Tuck your chin close to your chest resting it on top of the ball in your hands as you begin to slowly drop your head onto the ball in your hands and start to descend into your stretch. SLOWLY is the key word here. Your eyes focal point should follow the movement of your head.
- As you roll down, your head, hands and the ball will come into line with your waist. This is when you begin to uncurl your arms, keeping them close to your body and drop the ball slowly as you stretch the ball toward your feet. As Martha Graham, the great American Dancer said, “When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers.”
- When you reach your feet, mindfully relax for a count of what is comfortable for you if this is your first time so that you can understand your body’s adjustments to being on a moving surface. A count said out loud of 1001, 1002, 1003 is a great way to gauge what your body’s balance can handle. Another quote from Martha Graham put this into perspective. “First we have to believe, then we believe.” “The body never lies.”
- At the end of your count, roll back up to standing in the same slow, fluid manner that you descended to your feet.
- I like to do this 10 to 20 times unless I want a deep stretch and am trying to tuck my fingers under the SANDDUNE to increase stretch.
Eagle Focus Found on The SANDDUNE!
Making Rehabilitation exercise made acceptable
When recuperating from knee/hip surgery or injury, the biggest obstacle that many patients face is keeping with the program! Many patients do not like the pain of beginning physical therapy after this type of surgery because of the pain experienced when walking on hard surfaces. Appointments are skipped to avoid the pain. I have seen family and friends do just this. They may say to their physical therapists “I am doing great, doing my exercises everyday” and then not follow through with their recommended regimen at home because, again, it is painful and there is no incentive. This is one case where no pain, no gain it not mantra of choice.
The patient goes to the office for their visit and the physical therapist notes that their progress is not correlating with the amount of time reported for following prescribed exercises for “home” work. Therefore this renders the physical therapy sessions ineffective for the patient. 
Your center becomes the foundation of building coordination and strength. The SANDDUNE™ helps restore the stability, mobility, and flexibility to the muscles recovering and rebuilding after an injury or a replacement of the knee or hip. When on the exercising on the SANDDUNE™ you are not centered on your physical challenge.
Providing a challenging yet comfortable apparatus to rehabilitate with is a key factor in the motivation to keep appointments and do the prescribed therapeutic exercises. The Original SANDDUNE™ gently forces you to focus and become more mindful of your body’s movement while finding and maintaining your balance on the apparatus.
Younger Dance Students
…I have found it great to use with my younger students who 1 – lack coordination 2 – don’t understand the idea of engaging all muscles and 3- need to work on balance, control and core engagement. I would be happy to share my process with anyone interested. This tool is really making a difference in the kids training- would really love to utilize it with classrooms of kids instead of one on one.
Jen ~ Artistic Fusion Dance Academy
Original SANDDUNE™ 