Stand up! (& belly dance)

Clear back the beginning of January I read this article on Scientific American – Can sitting too much kill you? Apparently it’s not just how much exercise you do or do not get that affects your health, but how often you get it and how long you spend sitting. Go ahead, read the article, see if you don’t stand up to at least just stand up at the end. I did.

So I started thinking about the class I was going to be teaching. It starts at 12:45 and ends at 3:30. That’s a very long time to be sitting. Add to that time the time they spend in their other class of the day from 8:00 to 12:00. That is a LOT of sitting in a day for them. And according to that article, their class schedule is killing them. And that’s just not nice.

As I was planning my first class (in which we would be covering all of chapter one and about half of chapter two), I decided that we were going to have three or four 30 second “breathing breaks” during the class. I even made a little countdown graphic to keep us within 30 seconds (it sits at zero for several seconds and then restarts if I don’t change the slide soon enough). I put it at different pausing points in my lecture slides to remind me that we need to take them so I don’t just keep going and going Energizer bunny style.

The rule for a breathing break is they can do anything but sit at their desk. They have to stand up. They can stand there. They can stretch. They can walk around. But they can’t sit.

The first day of the semester when I was introducing myself I told them that I enjoy belly dancing. During one of the breaks on the first day I was teaching they said it would be fun if I taught them some belly dancing during the breaks (it’s all females in the class). I decided that was definitely a possibility.

Now each breathing break has a belly dancing skill suggestion that they can try if they want but they don’t have to if they don’t want to. According to the comments they’ve made, this also makes me a very memorable teacher.

Breathing Break Belly Dancing Suggestions so far, in case you need some ideas while you aren’t sitting there:

• Write your name with your right shoulder
• Write your name with your left shoulder
• Half circles with your hips to the front
• Half circles with your hips to the back
• Full circles with your hips, both clockwise and counter-clockwise
• Forward figure 8s (scoop right hip forward, scoop left hip forward, repeat)
• Backward figure 8s (push right hip back, push left hip back, repeat)
• Downwards vertical figure 8s (lift right hip and drop, lift left hip and drop, repeat)
• Upwards vertical figure 8s (scoop right hip up, scoop left hip up, repeat)

Next week we’ll be writing our names with our hips.

It truly is amazing how often belly dancing is used in my life. 😀

Go ahead. Take a break. Breath. Reconnect. Center. Maybe do some belly dancing to help your body not be so stiff. Just don’t sit for too long!