dance – ShakeUpFit

August 29, 2016 — No Comments

Major Lazer – Slide – #MoveMondays

Single, single, double

This move is fun and one that you can add into a lot of different songs and routines easily but there are a couple of key points that you need to be aware of so you don’t hurt yourself:

When doing this move and taking part in any dance fitness class you should have proper workout trainers. If there is too much grip on the top of your trainer when twisting your feet you may twist your knee…not good!
Make sure you stay on the balls of your feet, it’s much easier to move faster
Only go as low as you can while still being able to move to the beat. There’s no point pushing yourself to go lower if you’re going to hurt yourself getting back up at the right moment to move to the next step

Enjoy and ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #MoveMondays, Fitness

Tags: arms out, balls of the feet, bent legs, dance, double, fitness, knees, low, move, side, single, slide, sweat, toes

August 2, 2016 — No Comments

Fad Fitness – #TalkToMeTuesdays

Fad fitness programmes

There’s no denying that there are literally dozens, hundreds of ways you can get fit and get the body you’ve always wanted. Some take longer, some need to be done more frequently than others and some just don’t hurt at all. What you need to be clear about is what works for you and your body. It may be you haven’t found it yet, but you shouldn’t stop looking. Think about what you would enjoy, give that a go and take it from there. When you find your right thing you’ll love it, going to a class or doing it won’t be a chore, it will be fun and you’ll smile the entire way through.

What does drive me a bit crazy however are the fad fitness programmes. The celebrities that every year have a new ‘smaller in 5 mins’ workout that convince you that if you do this workout just two to three times a week you’ll be sure to have their washboard abs and still feel great. No. Just no.

Let’s be clear, working out is a fantastic way to stay in shape and yes, a side effect is you lose fat in areas and build muscles in others. It doesn’t automatically mean that the scales will be lighter, you may get heavier due to muscle building. It doesn’t automatically mean that you’ll have an amazingly flat stomach either.

Getting to that shape and that body that you see in countless Hollywood movies takes a careful planning of both diet and exercise. A great phrase that I love is that you can’t work off a bad diet. If you exercise, that doesn’t mean you get to treat yourself to a really bad meal every night. Yes, a treat here and there is fine, it’s what keeps you going but I’ve known so many people that do a couple of workouts a week, expect an instant change in their weight AND expect to be able to eat the worst of the worst takeaways.

Your body needs caring. Would you put vegetable oil in your car? No. it needs proper maintenance just like your body and that is not going to happen in a DVD that shows you just 5 mins of information.

Most of the DVDs also do not encourage you to assess yourself. You don’t have the guidance, experience or knowledge of a trained instructor at home, just someone showing you the moves and encouraging you in a very generic way. How do you know if your posture is right? How do you know if you should move your feet an inch forward because you’re arching your back too much? You don’t. That’s why I always advise trying something out in person first and then giving it a go at home.

So next time you’re about to pick up a ‘5 mins washboard abs’ DVD, ask yourself would it be better to just pop along to a class at your local gym, community hall, leisure centre or any of the other hundreds of things going on all across the world?

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #TalkToMeTuesdays, General

Tags: crash, damaging, dance, diet, fad, fit, fitness, hurt, loss, shakeup, sweat, weight, weight loss

August 1, 2016 — 2 Comments

Box step – #MoveMondays

One of the easiest move to teach someone as you just need a bit of imagination to picture a box!

Where your feet start are the bottom two corners of the box and all you do is step each foot forwards to imagine the box on the floor.

This move can then be tailored so you can go lower, push your hips out further or use your arms to add in more of a full body workout.

The move is pretty straightforward so no instructions this time, just watch and copy!

Have fun and ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #MoveMondays, Fitness

Tags: box, corners, dance, fitness, hips, legs, move, push, squat, sweat

July 18, 2016 — No Comments

Major Lazer – Arm Pump – #MoveMondays

A mini body pump. The movement is slow which takes control and actually works your arms more. You also need to keep your tummy sucked in which will help you to balance and work your abs at the same time.

Knees should be slightly bent, the more bent they are the more you work your legs out so take it as far as you want to.

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #MoveMondays, Fitness

Tags: abs, arms, circles, dance, fitness, hips, move, pump, shoulders, sweat, waist

July 14, 2016 — No Comments

The Running Man – #ThrowbackThursdays

The Running Man. A classic move for anyone who has ever danced to an 80’s track. A little bit of MC Hammer or the spectacular Janet Jackson.

The running man is an institution. Done very simply by running on the spot and letting your feet slide backwards before coming back to the front and repeating. A great move that uses your arms to help pull you backwards and works those legs by marching forwards.

Have you done the running man? If not, why not? give it a go today and remember the biggest thing you need to be able to do the running man is a smile and have some fun!

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #ThrowbackThursdays, Fitness, General

Tags: 80’s, dance, dance off, eighties, Janet Jackson, learn, MC Hammer, move, release, running man, shake, shake it off, shake up, smile, stress, teach me, tutorial

July 12, 2016 — No Comments

Boys can’t dance – #TalkToMeTuesdays

Billy Elliott

Most people know the story of Billy Elliot, the boy who wanted to dance. So why is it there is still so much stigma attached to boys that want to dance?

The biggest issue I have with people wanting to join my dance fitness class is they say they don’t know how to dance. It slightly baffles me, why would you need to know how to dance? All you have to be able to do is follow what I tell you to do and try to do it to the same timing as I do. But worse case scenario you won’t and you’ll still be moving and you’ll still be sweating and still be working out as you wanted….and hopefully still having fun while doing it? So why would you care really.

When it comes to boys, my mind boggles even more so. A lot of them look at you, when you suggest they come to a dance class, as if you’ve just told them their an alien that was adopted from the planet Jupiter on the day they hatched from an egg. ‘Men don’t do dance classes’.

When drilling into that statement further, they say it’s more for women. Why? Well, I think actually that’s their way of saying they’re scared and intimidated to come.

The few guys who have come along to my class have loved it. I mean, regardless of your sexual orientation, you get to dance in a room full of women with everyone having fun, no stress or awkwardness that there is in a club and you don’t even have to think about your dance moves. All you have to do is be able to follow instruction and over the weeks you will easily pick up the moves, no matter how bad you think you are at dancing.

I’ve seen people in my class who can’t keep to the beat of a song. Yes, I show them the move, I move to the beat and they can be going a completely different direction. That might be what happens on week 1 but by about week 3 or 4 those same people are moving to the beat and almost knowing what moves are coming next. They learn to keep to the beat. Dancing is a skill that anyone can learn, to differing degrees but everyone has the potential to keep to a beat!

I think the biggest shock that the guys in my class have had was how tough the class is. They thought there would be lots of hip twirling and grinding, some body pumps and that’s it, not much sweating. HA! Proven wrong every time, working their butts off and hurting more in that one hour with me than they would pumping weights.

So to everyone out there, boy or girl, old or young, try out our class. We are an amazingly welcoming group who just love music and enjoy the idea of smiling the whole way through our workout. Yes, some of us (myself included) treat it like our very own concert, belting out tunes while ‘squatting like it’s hot’ but who cares. No one in our room judges each other, we’re all there for the same reason.

Look forward to seeing you all soon

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #TalkToMeTuesdays, General

Tags: beat, boys, chart, competition, dance, exercise, fitness, girls, grind, hurt, judgement free zone, music, pain, shake, shimmy, sweat, tracks, tunes, workout

July 11, 2016 — No Comments

Major Lazer – Karate Chop Squat – #MoveMonday

This move on it’s own combines a couple of simple moves that create a full body workout. Imagine a side on squat with strong karate chop arms. That’s the only real way to describe it.

This move works your arms by keeping them strong and your hands pointed to make a karate chop action. It also works your abs by using them to stabilise and move through the movement and takes just a little tensing of the ab muscles to keep your balance. Lastly it works out all of your upper legs and bum depending on how low you take the squat. If you have the capacity you can take the squat very low down but remember that no matter how low you go you have to keep to the beat so make sure you can get back up in time!

Watch the video and give this one a go

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #MoveMondays, Fitness

Tags: arms, chop, dance, fitness, karate, legs, move, shakeupfit, squats, zumba

July 7, 2016 — No Comments

Justin Timberlake – #ThrowbackThursdays

The main man. There literally is nothing this man can do that is wrong. Back in his Sync days I used to refer to him as the guy with scrambled egg on his head (have you seen it?!), and wasn’t such a fan. Then he went solo. And life changed.

This guy has moves, he has the voice that just rocks it and the tunes he brings out are just awesome. Some of my favourites are actually from his first album. A little bit of Seniorita and of course the classic Cry Me A River. I still remember getting that first album and enjoying everything about the sound. Finding a way to escape into the music and even before dancing was such a big part of my life, just letting my body do it’s own thing. Letting it find it’s own rhythm, letting it flow, sway or shake any which way it wanted.

Justin Timberlake was one of my turning points in music. He helped me to just relax, enjoy the music and have fun.

That is why when he made his comeback this year his track HAD to go into my playlist. It’s the cool down before our stretches but is such a tune every time it comes on I completely lose myself in the music and the words and just dance. The song is such a fun loving song it always makes me think of those days where you’ve had a cider or two, the sun is beating down and you’re dancing in the park to someones speaker or phone, barefoot on the grass just catching snippets of fun with friends as often as you can while the sun lasts.

JT, a true legend and I reckon would be an absolutely great laugh on a night out!

What’s your first memory of JT? or maybe your favourite old school JT move? haha share it here!

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #ThrowbackThursdays, General

Tags: dance, JT, justin, Justin Timberlake, legend, listen, mogul, moves, music, sound, Timberlake

July 1, 2016 — No Comments

1st of the Month! – All change

all-change

Hello all my lovelies

Today is the first day of July and it signals big changes around the world, in the yea and most importantly on this blog.

Speaking to some of you, it seems a lot of you really enjoy these blog posts but we need a bit more consistency and a bit more planning so....here it comes.

From today I'm going to try and post once a day, every day. I'll be talking about lots of different things but the majority of them will be about your health, happiness and fitness. Not only that but I'll be categorising my posts and each day will be themed around a certain topic which are listed below.

Feel free to read them all, read only the days that you find relevant and more importantly try them out. I want to help you all think more about being healthier, being more aware and trying to make any changes, small or big to work towards your happiness and health.

Posts will start regularly from tomorrow so keep an eye out. If you want to help me spread the word, likes, follows, shares would all be much appreciated!!

Categories:

#StretchSundays - if you like a good stretch, love yoga, have never done yoga but want to try it out in the comfort of your own home or just learn more, this is the day for you! I'll be talking through some of my personal favourites, explaining them and even filming a few demonstrations for you to give a go

#MoveMondays - all my dance moves will be released on Mondays. I'll talk about the benefits of dancing, post some instructional videos and even talk you through a few of them

#TalkToMeTuesdays - I want you to engage, discuss, debate and yes, even disagree. I'll be putting up my opinions on various topics and asking yours

#WellbeingWednesdays OR #WetWednesdays - mid-week will be split and dedicated to two topics, general well-being and getting fitter and enjoying the water. This will be the day we might talk through meditation one week and the week after talk about how to improve your swim stroke

#ThrowbackThursdays - one of my favourites. I've already introduced this into my classes with a throwback tuned introduced on the first Thursday of the month but these posts could be anything. Music, dance, exercise or even old toys! Tying them back into your health

#FeedMeFridays - obviously no week would be complete without some food. These will be my favourite recipes, easy tips on how to stay healthy when out and about or even how to mix up your food prep in ways you might not expect

#SkinliciousSaturdays - completing our week will be our Saturday where we'll be taking a look at what goes on your body. The main focus of this will be the amazing Tropic products but also we'll start sharing some extra knowledge and getting you to ask questions about your current regime

I hope you like the topics and like what's to come in the near future, I love writing them and sharing my thoughts with you all. If you want to have something specific shown then just drop me a line and I'll do my best to include it!!

Looking forward to what the future brings and remember, life isn't about getting to a destination it's the journey we take to get there.

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in #FeedMeFridays, #MoveMondays, #SkinliciousSaturdays, #StretchSundays, #TalkToMeTuesdays, #ThrowbackThursdays, #WellbeingWednesdays, #WetWednesdays, Beauty, Fitness, Food Tips, General, Recipe, Therapy

Tags: breath, clean, cosmetics, dance, days, expand, film, fitness, food, healthy, holiday, meditate, more, move, old, retro, salsa, shake, shakeup, shimmy, skin, stretch, sweat, swim, talk, throwback, video, vintage, water, wellbeing, wet, yoga

March 20, 2016 — No Comments

Callanetics

Callanetics

We all know how much I love exercise so this weekend involved me trying out a new class run by a friend of mine. Callanetics with Sarah Coombes.

Initially I thought this would be a bit bored. I mean I did some research and apparently Callanetics was huge in the 80's. A phenomenon that swept across the nation, set up by a dancer to help those with a smaller range of motion.

The reason I went was to help two people in my life. A friend and my mum. Both suffer from medical conditions that although they would love to do intense exercise like I do, the dance fitness, the yoga, they can't. The idea was that Callanetics would help them to build the muscles up, primarily around sore and affected joints, so the pressure on those joints are reduced and it helps to alleviate pain. The exercise program helps to work the deepest muscles with the tiniest of movements.

I went to the class for others but I went with an open mind. As a fitness individual I always love finding out about new things, new ways to help and I was willing to try.

As the class started I looked around the room and realised I was probably the fittest in the room, no one else looked like they did quite as much exercise as me so I thought I would be fine. I was wrong. Yes, I could do most of the exercises and the more difficult adaptations but goodness me they ached and hurt.

As I worked my arms in tiny movements by pulsing my thumbs together behind my back I realised how much my chest was being worked, realised how much my shoulders and arms ached.

Then when we moved down to the floor and my leg was behind me being pulsed while off the floor my rear was was screaming. Muscles I didn't know existed were crying at me.

So in summary, the class was awesome. Yes there was no music. Yes it was slow. Yes it ached. But it was all I could have hoped it would be. It worked muscles that my other various fitness exercises couldn't get to. It worked them deeply and in ways I wasn't sure could be repeated without going back to a Callanetics class. As a new form of therapy it is perfect and anyone and everyone who I know that could benefit from the class I shall be telling about it.

So if you have a spare hour on a Saturday morning from 10am-11am, happy to pop into Danceworks across the road from Selfridges and to join us for a healthy brunch straight after then come along, try Callanetics!

Ciao for now x

Published by mbennardo in Fitness, General, Therapy

Tags: arthritis, callanetics, class, coombes, dance, dancer, fitness, hospital, movements, osteo, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, sarah, test, tiny, try

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