Dancing Old Dog: Continuum Really Works And It Can Help Your Training

 

Hi folks,

For your body to operate optimally, I imagine that you need to recruit all available systems, including both thoughts and feelings. Emotions can run high prior to and during a race, so there is an emotional component to sports right there. The left brain logical stuff is already built into your training plan, probably down to the last gel and the type of shoelaces you wear. We humans each tend to have a dominant side, basing life primarily on reason or on feeling. I suspect that truly balanced individuals, who use both emotion and reason in a highly integrated manner, may be rare. Ultimately both views of the world are employed in our decision-making processes, at least to some degree, unless we happen to be locked into one pole or the other. Mr. Spock versus hysteria!

My life has largely been directed by thinking, with a tendency to give inadequate or inappropriate credence to what I feel, even at times being unaware of my underlying emotions. Like Socrates, I decided to correct this issue late in life, at least to some degree, by learning to dance. Through some friends I was fortunate to encounter a suitable dance and Continuum teacher, Rebecca, who recommended scream therapy in my case. About two years later I signed up, basically because my partner, Deb, gave me a gift lesson. To my absolute surprise Continuum is working. I have tried all sorts of dance lessons in the past to no avail, as I was working like a robot using reason - didn’t feel a thing. I have found at the age of 68, two years ahead of Socrates age-wise, that dancing can be pleasurable and it is great exercise.

I have made a brief video clip to display what I was instructed to do during my first Continuum lesson.

Would you believe that this strange noise-making exercise could unlock one’s feelings, make your body move to the music, and transform your life?

Magic! Thanks, Rebecca!

-k @FitOldDog

 Important Note: These posts do not provide medical advice. You should always consult your physician before undertaking or significantly modifying an exercise program.

Copyright © 2010 Kevin T. Morgan aka FitOldDog, Old Dogs in Training, LLC.

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About Kevin Morgan

About Me: Senior Scientist Ironman Triathlete & Blogger. Carrboro, NC. Mantra: safe exercise for better health through improved mind and body awareness. Business USP: use the experience of an actively competing scientist Ironman triathlete with an abdominal aortic aneurysm stent graft to develop a safe approach to exercise for better health through improved mind-body awareness, if you have diabetes, heart disease, cancer, obesity, other health challenge, or you are simply dealing with the effects of aging. Marital Status: Partnered Ethnicity: Caucasian
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5 Responses to Dancing Old Dog: Continuum Really Works And It Can Help Your Training

  1. Marian says:

    It looks like you used a fish eye lens.

    • Kevin Morgan says:

      Hi Marian,
      Nope! I used my iPad, but my arms weren’t really long enough. They used this method (close up with regular lens) to portray the ‘baddies’ in that great move, ‘Strictly Ballroom.’
      -k @FitOldDog

  2. Marian says:

    You mean Mr. Spock, not Dr. Spock the paediatrician.

  3. Marian says:

    I like the “as always”!

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