Mysteries of Muscle Memory

When you learned to write, you trained the muscles in your arm and hand to create letters. It took time and concentration to do this, but with repetition it became automatic. Your hand developed muscle memory; when you write your name, your muscles remember how to move without focusing on the process.

Dancing, yoga, gymnastics and weight training are examples of other activities that require enhanced muscle memory. We can make the learning process easier and help establish muscle memory by using a few simple techniques:

* Visual images
* Repetition
* Slow motion
* Micromovement

Imagery

Using a visual image is an effective way to train your body to perform a new dance step or exercise. The best visual images are those which are familiar and detailed.

In dance, visualizing a movement helps you perform the step. For example, if a dancer wants to make an S-curving motion with her body, she can visualize a fish swimming, a camel walking, or a snake crawling. Since the best visual images are familiar and detailed, visualizing the color, texture, shape and markings of the image make it more vivid and effective. Likewise, visualizing yourself correctly repeating a new dance step or exercise makes the learning process easier.

many people find geometric shapes helpful. For example, you can imagine drawing a big circle to make learning a belly dance hip circle or circle step easier. A square is a useful image for learning a box step or hip square.

Repetition & slow motion

Repetition helps fix a new exercise or dance movement in your mind, so that the next time you perform it, you remember it more easily and perform it with less effort. Slow repetitions of a new exercise or dance step enable you to feel every nuance of the movement.

Rushing through a movement before youve completely mastered it skips over the important process of sensing every nuance of the movement; beginning dance students and exercisers often need to be reminded to slow down. Going slowly helps your muscles recognize precisely what the movement should feel like when performed correctly.

Micromovement

Micromovement means performing a movement in a very tiny way, using the least range of motion possible. For example, if you were writing the letter O ten inches high and then writing o in a script so tiny it could barely be seen, your O would require a much larger hand movement than tiny letter o, the micromovement. Using a tiny range of motion helps you sense subtle muscle movements which are occurring, but micromovements must be performed with awareness to get the full benefit. Going slowly helps.

Have fun with learning!

Select the movement or exercise you are working on, then answer the following:

Imagery: what animal, shape or object does it remind you of?
Repetition: what kind of music would help you when practicing this movement?
Slow motion: how many counts does it take you to complete one repetition?
Micromovement:what is the smallest range of motion you can use for the movement?

Ramona is the author of dynamic Belly dance, the Joyful Journey of Dancemaking and Performing. See free belly dance videos, read book excerpts and order an autographed copy at http://www.DynamicBellyDance.com

Copyright 2007 - All rights reserved worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article, give author name credit and follow the EzineArticles terms of service for publishers. Thank you!

Yoga Cl Ny

Mexican Vacations - Cultural Sites to Check Out

If youre planning on taking a trip to Mexico, there are literally thousands of things you can do there. One of the most interesting and fulfilling, however, is to go check out some of the numerous cultural sites that are open to the public.

One interesting and lesser known cultural site to check out is the caves in Baja that contain ancient cave paintings from indigenous peoples in the area. Theyre a couple of hours drive from the U.S., so you can go there even if you arent planning a full-fledged trip. Its a nice weekend trip for people from california or nearby areas you can drive in, get a hotel nearby, and wander around in the tourist-accessible areas.

A better known cultural must-see are the interesting archeological sites left behind by the Aztecs and the Mayans. These are the famous pyramids that youve seen in pictures, and you can actually go to visit many of them. The Aztec ruins are located mainly around Mexico City and nearby. To see the Mayan ones, youll have to take a trip to the Yucatan peninsula either one of those places is a great spot for tourists to go visit, so you can either focus on one or do a split vacation. Many of the pyramids have sculptures and other artifacts on display, and some areas are fully preserved ancient cities. Its well worth a look the buildings are impressive, especially given the technology used to build them. One of the best preserved to take a look at is Chichen Itza in the Yucatan a well-preserved and partially restored site that is actually very close to cancun, another great tourist spot where you can go and get the regular vacation activities out of the way.

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