Aryana Malekzadeh December 9, 2020

Final Reflection
For my final reflection on someone else’s warm-up phrase, I chose to complete Hollie
Sargent’s warm up to her movement phrase. Overall the warm up was very clear and concise and
she targeted many different anatomical concepts of the body to fully prepare the participants for
her movement sequence. A great warm up like hers is one that raises one’s muscle temperature
for optimal flexibility and efficiency as well as loosen up the muscles to prevent injury, which is
exactly what this one did!

There were a few things that stood out to me during her warm up which I think are worth
mentioning! Firstly, she started off by working very gently with the spine which is a great
strategy! By hanging over our legs and gently swaying from side to side, I was able to warm up
the lumbar and thoracic vertebrae of the spine. This particular exercise was compelling to me as I
was moving into flexion (forward bending) and lateral flexion (swaying side to side) at the same
time! This was also a great stretch for the hamstrings and by moving around in this bent over
position I was able to increase my flexibility and allow the blood flow to get to all parts of my
back. Once we slowly rolled up while still keeping the swaying motion, the movement slowly
moved up the spine to the cervical vertebrae. By letting the head and neck relax I could feel the
movement at the joints of the cervical vertebrae as well as a very satisfying stretch of the back
muscles.

The next thing I noticed was that she made sure to add some cardio into her warm up
which I very much appreciated! She included some simple jumps in parallel to get the heart
racing and to get some blood flow back into the legs. This is a very important aspect of a warm
up because it loosens up the muscles and helps prevent injuries from occurring since tired and
stiff muscles are more injury prone. While doing this I could feel the movement dilating my
blood vessels and ensuring that my muscles were well supplied with oxygen.

The last area which she worked on, which I thought was a very good idea was the core!
Having a stable and strong core is key when dancing in order to keep your balance and bring
everything into place. While doing all three of her core exercises, she was able to target the
rectus abdominis muscle, the external obliques, the internal obliques, and the transverse
abdominis muscle. Which are the four most prominent muscles in your abdominal region. The
rectus abdominis muscle is positioned between the ribs and the pubic bone and is primarily
responsible for flexing the lumber spine which is what Hollie demonstrated when doing the
crunches. The external obliques sit on either side of the rectus abdominis and they are
responsible for allowing your body to twist, which we did in when executing the bicycles.
Complementary to the external obliques, we also fired our internal obliques when doing that
twisting action. And finally, we have the transverse abdominis which is the deepest muscle of the
core and is used in a number or exercises such as heel taps.

Hollie finished off with a gentle and short cool down which is always important in a
dynamic warm-up. Performing a ‘cobra’ and ‘child’s pose’ after doing an ab workout was a great
way to end things off before going into some choreography. This short cool down stretch was
very efficient as it decreased muscle pain and it increases flexibility! Thus, it eases the stress on
the joints, muscles, and tendons that we just worked with throughout the warm up. She did a
fantastic job!