[McKell voice over]
Welcome to jskstories.com.
[background music]
Today I’ve got a 5 minute dancer/movement warm up for you. I’m joined with a special guest today, Abby from ‘Abby’s Dance Class’. Her classes teach ballet skills, jazz skills, and other dance skills. She’s here with me today to help us with our 5 minute warm up.
[abby on screen]
Alright, let’s get started. We’re going to get our muscles warmed up and blood pumping by doing a light jog in place. After this Abby is going to help us learn why a warm up is important.
[Abby voice over]
Hello everyone, I’m happy to be with you today! You may be wondering, “why is it important to stretch our muscles”? I’ll give you a couple of reasons. We want to prevent injury, we want to improve technique, and we want to better our mobility and flexibility.
[Both voice over]
Let’s get into it!
[Abby voice over]
Let’s start with our side leg stretch. I’m tucking in my right leg and I’m stretching out that left leg. Take a deep breath. Let it out. Place our hand on our knee and extend that other hand over the head and breathe into this stretch. You don’t have to push too far, that’s not what matters. Melt into that stretch and then we will switch to the other side. Tuck that left leg in, and extend that right leg out. Take another deep breath. Never stop breathing my friends. And extend that arm over. Don’t push yourself too far. We don’t want it to hurt, we just want it to stretch those hip flexors. And back up. Whew!
Now I’m going to open up into my straddle. Scoot yourself forward. Make sure you’re sitting up on top of your hips and deep breath into this stretch my friends.
[McKell voice over]
If you don’t have your splits or you’re not much of a dancer, just stick in this first pose with me! Keep breathing and keep stretching.
[Abby voice over]
Walk your hands out and feel that burn and don’t forget to keep breathing!
[McKell voice over]
If you’re following me, go ahead and switch legs one more time. Again, don’t worry about if you can’t reach your toes. You just want to make sure you feel a good stretch and that you’re taking some deep breaths.
[Abby voice over]
And walk those hands back up.
[Both voice over]
Great job!
[McKell voice over]
Alright everybody, let’s go ahead and stretch our hips out with a butterfly stretch. Bring those feet together, grab onto those ankles, and you’re going to use your elbows to gently press down on your legs. Nothing that will hurt. Just really gentle. Keep taking some deep breaths. You’ll want to feel this stretch in your inner thighs. Alright, just a little longer and then go ahead and release it. Great job.
[Abby voice over]
Next up, pick up that right leg and cross it over the left one. Hug that leg in tight and take a couple of deep breaths. You’ll feel this stretch on the outside of your hip and thigh. Go ahead and uncross and switch legs. Keep breathing! Don’t forget to breathe. And uncross. Next up, go ahead and stretch those legs out in front of you and reach towards your toes. You don’t have to touch your toes, just feel the stretch in your back and legs and keep breathing it out. You can start to reach for your toes if you feel like it, but just breathe into that stretch. And come on up!
[McKell voice over]
You guys are doing great! Let’s go ahead and come down into what we call a ‘child’s pose’. Come onto your knees. Rest your hips on your feet and then you’re going to reach forward and rest your forehead on the floor. Like Abby has said before, just take lots of deep breaths. Great job!
[Abby voice over]
Next up lets stretch out our neck. We’ll start by looking side to side and then up and down. Move slowly and do a circle. Keep your shoulder pressed down and reverse the other way. Nice work!
[McKell voice over]
Next up, our arms. Go ahead and pull one arm towards your body, feeling that stretch through the back of your arm. And now let’s go ahead and switch arms. Same thing on the other side, feeling that stretch in the same place. Nice work. Go ahead and let it go. Now we’re going to pull our elbow up behind our head. Pull that elbow towards your head. Switch sides. Take some deep breaths. You guys are doing great. Now hop up onto all fours for a plank. You have two options here. You can extend out onto your toes, or if that’s a little too intense, go ahead and drop down to your knees. We just want to feel strong through our arms and strong through our chest. Great work everybody!
[Abby voice over]
Next let’s do some shoulder rolls! Go ahead and roll your shoulders back. Press them down. And go ahead and reverse it, so we’ll roll them forward now. You should feel that stretch in your shoulder blades. Go ahead and add your hands into this. Just sort of assisting that rotation. And then reverse it, rolling forward. Just a few more! And shake it out! Nice work!
[McKell voice over]
Abby, thank you so much for coming and helping me with my 5 minute warm up today.
[Abby voice over]
Anytime! Thanks for having me.
[McKell voice over]
Tune in next time! See you later everybody!
[Abby voice over]
Bye!
[music fades]