What To Do On Your Rest Days
Rest days have always been a crucial component for me for as long as I can remember.
From being a young girl trying to become a champion all I wanted to do was dance, and as a beginner sometimes that is absolutely the best way to progress. But just like anything, the better you get at it the higher intensity you are performing it at, and so I knew that to perform at my best on certain days I would need to take rest days on other days, and that’s exactly what I forced myself to do.
Do you feel like you’re falling behind by taking a rest day? Don’t worry, I am with you. My mindset would not allow me to sit still and do nothing as I would tell myself I was going to lose. And so I had to always add in something that was enough to feel like I was making progress without actually fatiguing my body and mind.
Today I want to share these tips with you but first, let’s look at why you shouldn't train on every day of the year.
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How To Control Your Nerves [Through Breathing]
Have you ever stood backstage with a mind that won't stop racing? If so, you're not alone.
It's normal to be nervous before your performance, whether you’re about to step on stage for the first time or you have dozens of shows under your belt.
Fortunately, there are many ways you can manage your nerves and one of those ways is through breathing!
Breathing techniques bring you into a calmer state by deactivating the ’fight or flight’ system in your body and is something that has been used by Lauren across many of her big competition days.
Instead of standing backstage and watching the competition warm-up, Lauren practiced controlled breathing, which in turn kept her heart rate down, made her body more relaxed and most importantly saved more energy!
In today’s blog, I am going to teach you the exact same techniques so that you too can calm your nerves at a competition, and make your performance reach new heights!
So let’s get started.
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How The Menstrual Cycle Impacts Dance Performance
Have you ever noticed that your menstrual cycle influences your dance performance? If so, you’re not alone! While the menstrual cycle doesn’t impact the performance of all Irish dancers, for some, it certainly does.
In this blog, you’ll learn how the menstrual cycle can influence dancing abilities. Plus, you’ll discover what you can do to manage the effects of your cycle.
So How Can The Menstrual Cycle Impact Performance?
Various hormonal levels fluctuate during the menstrual cycle. Some of these hormones impact how you feel, your coordination, and how fast you recover from your dance sessions.
Therefore, you may feel better at certain times of your menstrual cycle than at others (although other factors can also influence how you feel and perform, such as your sleep and nutrition).
Now, we are oversimplifying a bit here, but there's one menstrual-cycle- related hormone in particular that can influence dance performance. It's the hormone...
