Starting again!

I was asked where someone might start practicing technique, when they have not been doing anything for many years. The answer is both simple and slightly tricky at the same time. I have three general and three specific suggestions for you to consider.

Three General Suggestions

First, start moving.

Do anything. Walk your dog. Take your loved ones for a walk around the block. Walk up the stairs of your home instead of shouting upwards. Park five cars further in the car park. The rule is this: Your start has to get you going but not be so hard as to cause you to have to take time off your new exercise plan to recover. We find this often in people that have renewed motivation to start running. They are ‘pumped’ to start, so on the first day they run until they feel that they exercised. Yet, the next day they are so sore, that they have to take two days to recover from their first run. This is not the way forward. Start slow, move and feel good about what you have done. Exhaustion is not your indicator for exercise. Instead, begin by moving more than usual. The small beginning will systematically become longer and more intense. This will assist you in staying motivated.

Secondly, get a partner.

Training is always easier with a friend. Sweating alone is twice as hard when you can’t wipe your sweat one someone else (hehe). They will keep you going when you don’t feel like taking the time on a particular day. You will also do the same for your partner. Training with others also works out wonderfully when you are unsure of a technique. Communal memory is most often better than any one person alone. Free movement and improvisation is also 100% more effective when you have others to draw from.

Thirdly, techniques are like old friends.

Your previous training is not lost. Your technique has simply been put away and needs to be dusted off. That also means that they might feel awkward when you do them again. Allow yourself some getting use to again. You know their names and they are in your body, simply give it some time. Resist frustration with your body and the feeling that you are never going to be as good as you were. Certain realities become clear with a lot of training, but you are not at a place in your new program where you will know what those are.

Three Specific Suggestions

First, start with a light warm up.

Warm up is essential, no matter whether you are practicing every day, or have not done anything in years.  Start with something that gets your heartbeat up and keep going for at least 6-10 minutes. Fight the tendency to want to start with stretching first. After your cardio warm up (try jogging, jumping, skipping rope) slow down for a stretch. To make it super simple, start with your head and work your way down. Remember to rotate all the limbs, and do ‘stretch and hold’ positions for 8 counts. Don’t ‘bounce’ in your stretches (reaching your end point and then pulling away, and repeating the same back and forward movement in quick succession). Allow yourself to spend about one third to half of your beginning program doing warm-ups.

Second, alignment is your light.

Instead of jumping into hand positions or working through the elements, start with alignment. The reestablishment of a good alignment is essential. All stylization, and suspension of movement starts here, so you can feel good about starting with alignment as well.  Start with the tension-relaxation relationship of your body’s center axis. Focus on building the body up like bricks in a wall, and like bending the center axis like the sections in a train. Experience how your breathing, bone alignment, and muscle fitness influence each step. Hereafter, move to isolations as they relate to your alignment.

Third, remember the feeling.

As you start to move you might find it easy to tell yourself that you feel uncomfortable. Allow this initial awkwardness and actively reaffirm the fact that you know this technique. Actively prompt yourself to think of the movement as ‘easy’. This mental framework will assist you to reconnect with what you already know about the technique. When at last you start to ‘remember’ how it felt, you will be well on your way to a great time in the studio, backyard, or living room.

A last word for all of you who might give this a try, remember Marcel Marceau’s encouragement to old and new students alike:

“It is not bad for a first time.”