Today I took a sculpting class with Shannon, and we were doing lunges. Yeah, lunges - those leg-burning favorites that make me grit my teeth. Especially when Shannon is teaching - she's relentless. Just when you think she's gotta be done and ready to give our poor crying legs a break, she demands yet another set!
But, she said something today that really helped me correct my form during the lunges. She had said to "keep the back leg a hip's distance from the front leg." I almost didn't even hear that part, because honestly, what does that mean? It was when she followed that by saying, "you're not walking a tight-rope." The light bulb went on. I then realized she meant that my back leg should be a hip's distance to the right or left (depending on the leg) of my front leg, instead of directly behind my front leg, as if I were walking a tight rope. I'll never forget that now.
It reminded me of a saying I was famous for, when I instructed exercise classes back in the day. (yup, I started teaching water aerobics back in the 90's, and taught boot camp, kickboxing and all kinds of sculpting classes. Back when DEITA was NDEITA) When I instructed the class to get into proper squat position, I always told them to visualize being in a public restroom at a rest stop. You know how nasty those things can be. Imagine you have to pee like there's no tomorrow, and the only open stall looks like some granny tinkled all over the seat. I know everyone's "hovered" over a public toilet seat before, and I said that when squatting you should imagine hovering over that toilet seat. "Stick your butt way out behind you, so you don't pee on your shoes." Visualizing that really helped the class get it right, and I think the giggles helped with the pain they were in from holding that squat position, too!
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