Sunday 1 June 2014

Irish Dancing: 4 Weeks Later


Fun Rating: ★★★★☆    Difficulty Rating: ★★★☆☆     Results Rating: ★★★★☆

   Well...what can I say? I have thoroughly enjoyed this month's workout. Seriously. It's perhaps the hardest thing I've done in terms of difficulty rather than stamina (30 Day Shred wins there), but by sticking with it, I can confidently say that I can do a couple of Irish Stepdance moves. A couple. Because they are hard and take a ridiculous amount of practise to learn let alone do well, and I have an even greater respect for people who do it.

   It was so, so much fun. I spent half an hour a day on it, and when I say the sections are between 1 and 4 minutes long, I'm not exaggerating. I didn't learn any routines, sadly, only individual moves but I can piece them together. There are a lot of moves that get progressively harder, so it's a case of learn this section, then this one, then this one etc, focusing on soft-shoe before hard-shoe. So I was repeating every section constantly. I spent the first day on a single minute section, skipping back to the beginning of the chapter and practising it over and over again, and that does sound tiresome, I admit, but you don't notice it at all, especially when you do start to get to grips with the movement. The satisfaction that comes with getting the hang of a move is huge, as well.

   I built up a good sweat from it, and Seeg has actually noticed a difference in my waist. As for my legs...I don't know whose they are but they're not mine. My legs are not this slim or this toned. Seriously, who stole my chunky little stubs?!
   I've never really thought about my legs to be honest. I've never had nice ones really, and I'm quite short as well so I've always kind of hated them, but goodness me, this workout has been tough love for them. My legs have been killing me all month because it's such a demanding dance style, but the results are clear to me. If you want nice legs, nice calves in particular, pick this DVD up and have some fun with it. It's intense.
   I've also been building up a surprising sweat from this. Sorry if that grosses you out but we're talking workouts here. I hadn't expected to get much from this if I'm honest. You never use your arms in Irish dancing, just your legs, so while there is some jumping and hopping which does get your heart a-racing, I didn't expect to sweat like that. So while I thought it was possible that this month might be a wasted workout...well, I was so, so wrong. I feel amazing, my legs look great, I learned a little bit, and while a little bit of the magic and awe has gone from the Lord of the Dance now I can see their movements and understand what and how they're doing a lot of it, I am also a lot more overwhelmed by some of the other moves, tap especially, because I know what they're doing and for the life of me just can't do myself at all let alone at their speed. It's insane. I haven't done it yet, and I'll feel silly when I do, but I have considered putting the Lord of the Dance on the TV and copying the movements of the soft-shoe dances. I'll fail immediately, I know I will, but now I can kind of follow with my eyes if not my feet, it could be a load of fun.

   I'll post a DVD review in a couple of days, and I've gone into good detail about the DVD itself, so if you're thinking about it but want more info, hopefully I've got you covered.



1 comment:

  1. Interesting... I'm not sure if this is my kind of workout but it does sounds kind of fun....

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