Salsa open diary

noobster said:
Seriously ankle strengthening exercises are so good for keeping yourself in dance shape during extended time away from the floor.

I developed a bum ankle during the early pandemic but the exercises fixed it, along with the dance wobble I had developed from not dancing for so long.

I stand on the ball of one foot, heel off the floor, for a count of 60 each side. Then one footed releves, set of 20, without holding onto anything. I try to do it every day. Only takes a couple of minutes and it's really helped.
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I would also recommend beginner ballet trainings/barr fitness exercise which are also very good for developing core, ankle and leg strengths in general (basically doing similar things as the ankle exercise). Especially if you enjoy classical music, I find it super meditating. Now I found a studio near me they have class with a pianists playing live, the sound echoing off the high ceiling of the studio, and you are just focusing on controlling your body doing some simple moves, just yourself and the music (with only one instrument) and nothing else ☁️
 
I had a long break from any dance and right at my first social I danced all night long, I literally thought I will die the day after:rofl: Interesting thing was that I actually danced my best, or at least I felt like it. Probably people were right when they said that sometimes a break is the best what you can do.
 
So I finally got the second of my three videos from the London Salsa Marathon last summer, actually this is just the initial "preview" but given how long it took for it to get posted, who knows when the full video will be out :p

It's a nice memory with one of my favorite London partners, it's our second video together, Josh was actually my partner in my first ever StarMambo video back in 2017, at LeSalsaClub :).


This was my last salsa festival last year, and probably for a while -- at that point I was about two months into my new intense kiz life :D I was happy to see how some of the dance improvements I had already experienced at that point thanks to kizomba were reflected in my salsa :) -- this was the first night of the festival, and at that point I had essentially not danced any salsa in over two months, only kizomba, so what this video shows is the "raw" effect of kizomba on my salsa, with essentially no salsa practice in the prior two months.
 
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Sabrosura said:
So I finally got the second of my three videos from the London Salsa Marathon last summer, actually this is just the initial "preview" but given how long it took for it to get posted, who knows when the full video will be out :p

It's a nice memory with one of my favorite London partners, it's our second video together, Josh was actually my partner in my first ever StarMambo video back in 2017, at LeSalsaClub :).


This was my last salsa festival last year, and probably for a while -- at that point I was about two months into my new intense kiz life :D I was happy to see how some of the dance improvements I had already experienced at that point thanks to kizomba were reflected in my salsa :) -- this was the first night of the festival, and at that point I had essentially not danced any salsa in over two months, only kizomba, so what this video shows is the "raw" effect of kizomba on my salsa, with essentially no salsa practice in the prior two months.
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I'm stealing some of his things. That was a good don't do a lot of moves dance. He does things that I do but better (I like to interrupt moves with checks that go nowhere, pause from the action often and groove on the spot.
Ironically as much as I hate kizomba, my best groove dances are with follows that do both. I get to play more in closed position, hang out in cbl position for a bar or so, swaying etc.
 
Bostontraitor said:
yo, guys, do you think that dancing pachanga can hurt your knees? if your knees are fragile.
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This post has been on my mind since I saw it in November, and I think it's because I feel obligated to try and alleviate any injury. When dancing, it will help take some stress off your knees if you bend your knees a little so that your weight is being largely supported by your leg muscles instead of your knees. Your leg muscles will cushion/dampen the impact of your steps/weight by having them bent a little. You can train your body/legs to "fall" into that bent position when you're standing around for longer periods of time. Say you're at your kitchen counter preparing a meal or washing dishes for example, and have your knees bent just a little.
Practice the basic step at home with the knees bent too.

Also, my personal opinion is to be supplementing with glucosamine to help your joints as preventative maintenance. I will supplement every two or three months.

Also, be mindful of your shoe soles such that they aren't sticky. I see a lot of young people dance in running shoes, or just rubber soled shoes in general. Defintely not good for the knees at all when spinning.
 
1derpalm said:
Ironically as much as I hate kizomba, my best groove dances are with follows that do both. I get to play more in closed position, hang out in cbl position for a bar or so, swaying etc.
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One time when I was dancing salsa in Paris with a lead who also dances kizomba, I was like, let's try dancing with kizomba moves to salsa :D We did and it was super fun :) I have also danced with kizomba moves to bachata, both as a lead and follow, and it's much nicer than BS or modern/fusion bachata :D Nowadays when I lead bachata I do a kind of mix between kizomba and bachata moves, it's way more interesting than dancing just bachata steps :)
The more dances one knows, the more flexibility and creativity it allows on the dance floor.
 
Jaime_Pipoca said:
This post has been on my mind since I saw it in November, and I think it's because I feel obligated to try and alleviate any injury. When dancing, it will help take some stress off your knees if you bend your knees a little so that your weight is being largely supported by your leg muscles instead of your knees. Your leg muscles will cushion/dampen the impact of your steps/weight by having them bent a little. You can train your body/legs to "fall" into that bent position when you're standing around for longer periods of time. Say you're at your kitchen counter preparing a meal or washing dishes for example, and have your knees bent just a little.
Practice the basic step at home with the knees bent too.

Also, my personal opinion is to be supplementing with glucosamine to help your joints as preventative maintenance. I will supplement every two or three months.

Also, be mindful of your shoe soles such that they aren't sticky. I see a lot of young people dance in running shoes, or just rubber soled shoes in general. Defintely not good for the knees at all when spinning.
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I started my dance journey with traditonal bachata. I was told to bend the knee from the beginning, which I am used to it now. What I worried about bachata is you push your hip up from the ground, that gives a lot of pressure to your knee in the process.

However, when I started to learn pachanga a month ago. I tried to get a sense of it. But I found the style requires a lot of back and forth knee bending. It got me worried. So I posted that question here.

I went to see my primary care physician. She told me it's just a matter of time for everybody. In my case, it's worse than others and I started notice the uncomfortable knees so soon.

Like you recommended, I am taking joint health supplements now. (Move Free Advanced Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM Joint Support Supplement). Hopefully, it can help in my case.

Basically, my knees could get painful if I do a lot of weight shifting from left to right, back and forth... so far spinning didn't hurt yet. Maybe I will be that social dancing guy, who doesn't dance much but does social a lot soon.

Y'all think salsa congress social should be 8+ hours long. That will kill my knees if I do that. LOL
 
Sabrosura said:
One time when I was dancing salsa in Paris with a lead who also dances kizomba, I was like, let's try dancing with kizomba moves to salsa :D We did and it was super fun :) I have also danced with kizomba moves to bachata, both as a lead and follow, and it's much nicer than BS or modern/fusion bachata :D Nowadays when I lead bachata I do a kind of mix between kizomba and bachata moves, it's way more interesting than dancing just bachata steps :)
The more dances one knows, the more flexibility and creativity it allows on the dance floor.
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I danced bachata the other night (a whopping 3 songs). I was bored and tired so I accidentally started doing men's saidas with bachata timing. Not sure where that came from.
But I could see some kizomba moves (not urban kiz per Se) moves fitting within the framework of a chill salsa or son context. A teacher from Montreal teaches some salsa with some kizomba snuck in. If I didn't hate what passes as kizomba music and the cliche "isms" in the scene, I would actually like it.
 
Bostontraitor said:
I started my dance journey with traditonal bachata. I was told to bend the knee from the beginning, which I am used to it now. What I worried about bachata is you push your hip up from the ground, that gives a lot of pressure to your knee in the process.

Basically, my knees could get painful if I do a lot of weight shifting from left to right, back and forth... so far spinning didn't hurt yet.
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You can also be mindful of how you're displacing your weight. Supporting your weight/pushing off on the ball of your foot (particularly for lateral movement) also puts a lot of pressure on the knee(s). Keeping a flat foot will help take the weight off the knee. Yes, I know it sounds like dance heresy with not being on the ball of the foot, but I believe in making things work for you.

Since this is salsa diary, and speaking of making things work for you, I will also stretch before a social. Isolate different areas and hold them. If you are going to stretch, hold it for a minimum of 40 seconds. If you are going to hold out longer, do it in increments of 40 seconds. I usually hold it for 2 minutes. I didn't use to stretch pre-social, but dancing became so effortless such that I feel light and fluid. It got easy in a sense.

Stretching, supplements, etc..maintenance is far less costly than rebuilding.

Bostontraitor said:
I went to see my primary care physician. She told me it's just a matter of time for everybody.
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***Reads post, goes and starts supplementing again. Yup, it's been two months***



Bostontraitor said:
Like you recommended, I am taking joint health supplements now. (Move Free Advanced Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM Joint Support Supplement). Hopefully, it can help in my case.
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In my case, I noticed a difference in about 3 weeks of daily usage upon supplementing for the first time. After the off period and back on, I noticed an improvement within three days. My body recognized it and knew what to do with it.
 
Jaime_Pipoca said:
In my case, I noticed a difference in about 3 weeks of daily usage upon supplementing for the first time. After the off period and back on, I noticed an improvement within three days. My body recognized it and knew what to do with it.
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That's a nice romanticized way of looking at it but not really accurate :) It's not like the body couldn't recognize it the first time -- more likely, the first time it took a while to get the healing going, and now that you have that "base" the body can more easily "pick up where it left off".

I'd also recommend a good silica supplement for joint health. Silica is very important for joints, it is a core building block of cartilage (and collagen and other connective tissue). Also helps with hair, skin, and nails so that's a nice side benefit (nails, hair, skin health is actually a sensitive marker of our nutritional status because they are the first things the body "abandons" if there is a deficiency in the nutrients needed to build them, the body would rather use that nutrient internally for a more essential purpose; I actually have crazy strong nails, they never break even when very long; I take other supplements so silica is not the only reason, but it's an essential one).

I like the one that comes in drops, I add a few drops to my daily drinking water bottle.

Some mineral waters, such as Fiji, also have a good amount of silica (which is probably one reason why Fiji is the best tasting bottled water out there).
.
 
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Sabrosura said:
more likely, the first time it took a while to get the healing going, and now that you have that "base" the body can more easily "pick up where it left off".
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You say Paris, I say Paris, in the end we're still talking about Paris. This actually reminds me of a life changing experience I had. Long story short, I had refused to take a medication I was perscribed. After some time of taking it, I flat out refused to take it. Turns out, it was leading me towards a miserable death.
 
Jaime_Pipoca said:
You say Paris, I say Paris, in the end we're still talking about Paris. This actually reminds me of a life changing experience I had. Long story short, I had refused to take a medication I was perscribed. After some time of taking it, I flat out refused to take it. Turns out, it was leading me towards a miserable death.
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Yesss Paris rocks :D

What was the medication? :oops:
 
1derpalm said:
...
You sound suspiciously like @Sabrosura with a burner account ...
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You are just too jelly for her having amazing orgasms from dancing kizomba.

Let me tell you something. Kizomba is life changing. Life changing. I once danced bachata with a sugar mama. She was so thrilled, immediately added me to her cellphoen plan. But bro, I danced kizomba with her for the following week. She pulled me aside, and told me: let me add you to my will. True story. Kizomba rules!
 
Jaime_Pipoca said:
Since this is salsa diary, and speaking of making things work for you, I will also stretch before a social. Isolate different areas and hold them. If you are going to stretch, hold it for a minimum of 40 seconds. If you are going to hold out longer, do it in increments of 40 seconds. I usually hold it for 2 minutes. I didn't use to stretch pre-social, but dancing became so effortless such that I feel light and fluid. It got easy in a sense.

Stretching, supplements, etc..maintenance is far less costly than rebuilding.

In my case, I noticed a difference in about 3 weeks of daily usage upon supplementing for the first time. After the off period and back on, I noticed an improvement within three days. My body recognized it and knew what to do with it.
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Thanks, I need to do stretch excercise before dancing. I don't usually do that. Now I see i am just ignorant and silly.

So far I have not experience too much difference yet after I take supplements for two weeks. But I am patient. Hopefully it does help me. Health life, happy dancing.
 
Bostontraitor said:
You are just too jelly for her having amazing orgasms from dancing kizomba.

Let me tell you something. Kizomba is life changing. Life changing. I once danced bachata with a sugar mama. She was so thrilled, immediately added me to her cellphoen plan. But bro, I danced kizomba with her for the following week. She pulled me aside, and told me: let me add you to my will. True story. Kizomba rules!
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I just woke up and read this. I had to check to see if I didn't write this myself at 1 am as I fell asleep. It sounded suspiciously like me with a. Burner account.
 
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