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Recycling Tire Tubes for Resistance Bands

Three women perform shoulder stretches with tire tubes during a workout with Molly Graves at the Marsh Studio

Molly holds a tire tube in her hands

When Molly Graves brought out her recycled tire tubes during my first retreat to the Marsh Studio, I knew she was a genius. Not only is this a super-awesome exercise tool, but tire tubes are recycled and free. Good for the environment, good for you! And the tire tubes make a great gift!

You can go up to any bike shop, and they’ll be happy to give you their used tubes. These are the inner tubes that go inside the outer tube, so this part doesn’t touch the road. Just ask for one that hasn’t been repaired with slime (a goo that’s used to fix flats), cut off the valve, use a nail file to shave down the ridge and you’ve got your new favorite stretch tool.

Tubes come in different sizes. Molly recommends experimentation, but be careful not to overstretch yourself or your tire tube– the rubber can snap. And just like they say at the beginning of fitness videos, be sure to consult with your doctor before you begin any exercise program.

Stretching with bicycle tire inner tubes

Molly demonstrates shoulder exercises with tire tubes

“Anything you can do with a theraband, you can do with this,” Molly says. “There’s a little more resistance.”

Shoulder and side stretches

Shoulder stretch

Put your hands wide on the doubled tire tube.
Keep shoulders engaged in sockets– you may need to spread your hands wider across the tube.
Notice if one side is stiffer than the other.
Molly says this a great exercise to do everyday

Full circle shoulder stretch

Continuing with the first shoulder stretch above, make a full circle around the back, then to the front
Notice how you breathe
Switch directions

Sweeps

Molly sweeps the floor in this tire tube shoulder stretch

Keep your hands on the folded tire tube as described above, but fold yourself to the floor
Begin to “sweep” the floor with the tube, right, then left, then right, and so on.
Begin to sweep higher– higher right, higher left, etc. You will begin to rise.
Then begin to sweep around and behind
Try the opposite side as well
Have a little dance with the tire tube

Leg stretches

Hamstrings, calves and hip flexors

“It’s like being able to give yourself an extended arm,” Molly says.

There are many ways to use the tire tube for leg stretches:
- You could double-up the band and put it on top of your foot
- You could just put one loop over your foot.
- Molly’s wrap includes the foot and ankle (see photo).
Wrap the tire tube around your foot and ankle.
Holding the tail of the tube, pull your leg back for a hamstring stretch.
Next, pull it over and across your body.
Then let it go down and out to the other side, making a semi circle.
Switch sides.

With the tire tube wrapped around her foot, Molly pulls her leg back

Straddle splits

Molly wraps an end of the tire tube around each foot Molly carefully extends her tiretubed legs into a straddle

Molly lies on her back to allow gravity to pull her legs down for a wider straddle

Note: The resistance in your tire tube will vary. To avoid snapping, start with a longer tire tube.

To get into this:
- Sit with your feet together.
- Wrap the doubled tire tube across your low back.
- Put loop over one foot
- Now stretch the tube across your low back so that the other loop end can go over the other foot. There will be some resistance.
- Slowly extend one leg, then the other, until you are in a straddle split.
  - You may need to adjust the tube across your low back. You should feel pretty relaxed.
  - Now watch some TV.
To come out, slowly bring in one foot, then the other, and carefully remove the tube.

Conditioning: another awesome use of tire tubes

The tubes aren’t just for stretching; they make a great conditioning tool as well. Molly says you can fill up the tire tubes with sand, knot them up, then wrap them around your waist or ankles during your rope/fabric climbs. More weight=more strength! You go girl/boy!

Molly holds a tire tube of sand used for conditioning purposes

Lauren Blais contributed this article which was originally published at Aerial Journal (www.aerialjournal.com). I(Rebekah) thought this was simply brilliant when I read it. I went to a local bike shop, and sure enough, they had a few tubes to spare. Now, one them snapped on me within an hour of use, so definitely be careful. Next time I won’t cut off quite so much of the air insert.

A Comparative Look at Teacher Trainings Across Various Movement Industries

Since I am launching my first ever Aerial Teacher Training Program this year (http://www.rebekahleach.com/teacher-training.html), teacher trainings have been on my mind more than ever. A recent concern in the aerial industry the past few years has come from people who have taken a few classes of aerial and then turned around and started teaching with only a few skills under their belt. Those who have done this have come under criticism from more experienced teachers who know that the aerial arts involve much more than a few tricks. But the question has been raised: If someone wants has taken a few classes of aerial (say one month’s worth and they are a quick learner), and this person decides that they would like to teach it, what would be the fastest acceptable route to become a teacher? It’s a big, wide open question that will ultimately be decided by the actions of the industry at large, but I feel discussion is important. I decided to take a look at other industries, and see how they have answered that question. If I wanted to become a yoga/Pilates/gymnastics/ballet teacher, how fast could I become one?

YOGA ~ 2 Weeks – 1 Month

You are probably already familiar with this one. In fact, you may already be a registered yoga teacher! This one is a well known 200 hour program that allows you to register through Yoga Alliance (www.yogaalliance.org). Yoga Alliance “certifies” the schools, and then schools offer the training. The instructors then apply for membership to Yoga Alliance. Yogis must keep the registration current each year by paying dues to Yoga Alliance and continuing to complete contact hours from qualified yoga teachers. Yoga teacher trainings often attract anyone who wants to deepen their practice. It is not necessarily just for those who are going to teach. A typically program runs around $2000. Travel is on top of that.

PILATES ~ 4 Months – 1 YEAR plus prior experience

Pilates is somewhat complicated by the fact that there are mat and equipment classes. In addition to mat, the comprehensive program includes the reformer, trapeze (not aerial trapeze), cadillac or tower, chair, and barrel. You can get a mat certificate after about 40 hours. However, if you want to go for certification, you must go for it all and complete a comprehensive program. The hours for the full comprehensive program are similar to yoga, with levels of 200-500 hours. Costs for a course of intensive study covering mat work and equipment training can run from $2,500 to $10,000, with the higher numbers including the full repertoire. The certifying agency for Pilates is Pilates Method Alliance (PMA) http://www.pilatesmethodalliance.org, the “only third-party certifying agency for Pilates teachers in the United States.”

Here’s a nice blog on a new teacher’s journey into getting trained. http://www.limetreelife.com/pilates/ The blogger completed a teacher training that included a series of weekend modules. The weekend modules are a combination of learning the teaching skills, practice of the movements, practice teaching, and discussion/lecture. Students generally take between four months to one year to complete their hours of observation and student teaching required outside of the weekend workshops.(This is very similar to what I am wanting to offer through my own teacher training program.)

My Reflections

I find it important to reflect on the fact that in the early days of both Pilates and yoga, a student of the method would work as an apprentice with a mentor for many months, even years, before teaching clients. That was the usual path to becoming an instructor, just as it often was in other mind-body disciplines such as martial arts and gymnastics. Nowadays, it is common and in most cases required to obtain formal training and certification before teaching Pilates or yoga. In turn, teacher training courses are more ubiquitous. The one consolation I have is that many reputable certifying bodies still require students to accrue practice-teaching and observation hours before receiving a teaching certificate. I think that this is one aspect that should never be under-estimated in preparing a new teacher for teaching.

GYMNASTICS ~ 10 YEARS

Here’s a blog that gives insight into how the gymnastics industry encourages their new teachers: http://gymnastics.isport.com/gymnastics-guides/how-to-become-a-gymnastics-coach

The attitude of this blog reveals that experience and mentorship is valued in place of teacher training courses. While teacher training courses are available via the USAG, it is only a supplement, and a small one at that. In some ways it makes sense that in a competitive sport, coaches take on the aire of “been there, done that” and that gives them the credibility to take someone to a competition. It is recommended by the industry and common for a coach to have more than 10 years of experience prior to entering full time coaching. A Pilates instructor writes the following: “You cannot teach something you do not know and you cannot know it unless you commit to ongoing practice.” I find it interesting that with sports such as gymnastics, it is more common to find teachers not engaged in the practice, and that’s when they are called “coaches.” The word coach has a different connotation than teacher and to me, implies that they are done with the sport themselves, and now they are turning a new leaf to coach.

While aerial dance is just as athletic as gymnastics in my opinion, I feel that it is leans in a different direction in the way. Gymnastics seem to wreck your body and then you’re done (while admitting there are always exceptions to the rule!). Circus seems to be more of a lifelong activity. You’ll find plenty of people in their 50s, 60s, and up still engaged in the fun of the circus, where aerial dance has its roots. It’s more of an ongoing lifelong activity, and so instructors are just as much engaged as their students. Rather than coaches who no longer do the sport, aerial instructors are going to be just as much engaged as their students, so it makes sense that the way that they progress into teaching is going to be very different. There’s no such thing as someone taking a 2 week teacher training course and now they are going to coach a gymnastics student to the regional competition. You have to live and breath the industry for years. Simple as that.

My Reflections

I found this interesting: There is a Junior Professional Membership for coaches who are of age 16 or 17, and the instructor membership (for USA Gymnastics) is available to individuals starting at age 14. Instructors of this age are teaching the young kids and acting in assisting roles, but still, it is rare to see someone so young teaching yoga or Pilates, etc. I think that this helps create the environment for mentorship, and a culture of the older coaches passing on their expertise to the up and coming coaches. I would like to see this concept carry over into the aerial industry, and welcome kids who are 15 and older to act as junior instructors. I have seen it at some circus schools, so it is not something that is far out there. I don’t think students under 18 should be taking teacher training courses per say, but I do think we should welcome their help in our studios and mentor them so that when they are older, they are ready.

BALLET ~ 9 DAYS (plus being an expert and nothing less) OR 5 years OR no training

ABT (American Ballet Theater) is well-known in the world of Ballet. Did you know you could become certified in ABT Ballet? As long as you meet the necessary skill level, you can get certified in as little as 9 days. This prepares you for teaching children ages 3 and up and you can be as young as 17 years old. A 6 day course prepares teachers to instruct intermediate and advanced ballet students age 11 – 13+. And another 6 day course prepares teachers to instruct advanced and pre-professional ballet students ages 14+. May I emphasis the skill level which allows someone to do this is not beginner, not intermediate, barely advanced. The skill level required to enter the program is advanced and professional.

Ballet is similar to gymnastics that the most respected teachers don’t necessarily perform any longer. It is part of the culture of ballet to have a teacher who is older and has lived a full life of dance. It is normal and common to have a teacher only verbally cue in class, and never demonstrate, just as a gymnastics coach is likely to do as well.

As far as governing bodies go, the Royal Academy of Dance was the best I could find. The RAD was created with the objective to improve the standard of ballet teaching in the UK and, in pursuit of that goal, a new teaching method and dance technique was devised for the Academy by a group of eminent European dancers. The RAD is one of the largest dance organizations in the world with over 12,000 members in 79 countries, including about 7,500 who hold Registered Teacher Status (Wikipedia). However, if you wanted to teach dance at a local dance studio, no one would ask if you were a part of this or any other organization (at least not in the United States).

In the United States, it is very common for dance teachers to receive a masters degree in fine arts from an accredited institution. This degree typically takes about 5 years or more and typically costs anywhere from $40,000-100,000+ depending on what college you attend. Many dance teachers go on to teach at dance studios or in the public or private school system, at levels ranging from elementary school PE to high school dance teams to college dance companies (or being a professor of dance). It is an interesting mix to say the least. Within the same dance studio, you may have someone with no college experience (qualified simply due to natural talent) teaching next to someone with a masters degree. The main thing that the local dance studio cares about is that the teacher can dance and they can teach. Credentials are great, but experience is valued even more within dance studios. In the school system, you absolutely must have your masters degree in order to teach, so that is why so many dancers receive theirs. It keeps doors open for job opportunities.

10,000 HOUR RULE

It is certainly a hard question to answer: What is an adequate length of time to train a teacher? Those who value their art form of teaching may cringe at the suggestion of two weeks. How can someone conquer the art of [fill in the blank with any art form] in 2 weeks if it wasn’t already in them? I remember Debbie Park (my aerial mentor) once telling me that it takes 10 years to become an expert at anything. I have also recently encountered the 10,000 hour rule.

The 10,000 Hour Rule is the idea that it takes approximately 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a skill. For instance, it would take 10 years of practicing 3 hours a day to become a master in your subject. It would take approximately 5 years of full-time employment to become proficient in your field. (hmm…sounds like gymnastics coaches perhaps?)

It really is experience more than anything that will make a teacher blossom. I think that a solid teacher training program includes many hours of practice, as well as time for the teacher to grow to a place where they are confident in the skills. It is likely that a teacher may begin teaching while they are still a student of the craft themselves. It is not practical to require every student be practicing their art for 10 years prior to considering teaching. They simply must be a few steps (of course the more the better) ahead of their students, in recognition that it is all one big continuum of learning at the end of the day.

A wonderful yoga practitioner had the following to say on the subject at hand, “I believe people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. I care because this practice, this community cares for me. This same care will lead me to the [knowledge I need]. .. I am a student forever, hopefully well beyond 10,000 hours, but today I teach by the minute.”

YOUR TURN

Do you think the aerial dance industry should have teacher training programs that are so common they become necessary part of the industry? What is the ideal length? How long should a teacher be practicing in the aerial arts before they take a teacher training? Lots of room for a million opinions!

Honey, Take Your (Aerial) Vitamins Before Play Time Please

When Julianna and I started brainstorming for the Aerial Hoop Manual Volume 1, we realized that there is a distinct difference between correct technique and choreographic choice. I am a fan of saying, “Nothing is wrong [as far as body positions in space] as long as it is done on purpose and with full body awareness.” Julianna is a big fan of saying, “But don’t forget to take your vitamins.”

single knee hang.Still001

Because of my background in dance, I am very experimental when it comes to aerial movement. I appreciate what the Aerial Dance Festival in Boulder, CO has done for the aerial dance world. The idea is to treat your apparatus like a contact improvisation partner and go for it. There is about as much as modern dance in terms of proper technique and relatively little in terms of set moves that get progressively more difficult. Because of my love of modern dance and all pioneers in the field, I love keeping the idea that all positions of the body are okay as long as you are aware of what your body is doing. Every shape can have an expressive purpose, and in this framework, I play. I do very little conditioning or what’s “proper.” The whole reason I have enjoyed writing the books is because it has forced to me to sit down and look at moves in ways in which I typically ignore them.

Our conversation started when we discussing the single knee hang on hoop. I, of course, just wanted to hang out. Up I went on the hoop to just hang ten. Julianna, as sternly as my ballet teacher told me I had terrible feet, said that I was turning my hips out and needed to work on squaring them.

Me: “I don’t need to square my hips. I like working in turn out.”

Julianna: “But you need your vitamins! You can turn out once you have learned how to work in parallel. Working in parallel will train your muscles how to properly engage so that you can go into turn out from there.”

Me: “I am awesome and can do anything in aerial. Let me try this exercise.” Me 5 seconds later: “That’s freakin’ hard! I do need to train this area! My hamstrings are weak! Julianna, thank you for making me take my vitamins!”

Okay, so the conversation didn’t really go like that, but you get the idea. I still hold fast to the idea that anything is permissible, but not everything is a healthy place from which to build a foundation. It is important in training and teaching that you set yourself up with proper technique and form. Train the muscles that are required to support your weight so that when you do choose to disengage and go all over the place, you can do so smartly and by choice, not because of muscle weakness.

There are two important lessons here:

1) Take your aerial vitamins. Example: Train the single knee hang in parallel before working in turn out or disengaging.

2) Don’t be afraid of the things that teachers say are wrong for form. Understand that they are only wrong for the vitamin version. Example: It is perfectly fine to release and go crazy in your knee hang, but if you have skipped your vitamins, you risk working on a weak hamstring, and your body may lack the ability to properly protect you from injury because it hasn’t learned the proper engagement.

For example, holding a hoop with thumbs wrapped is an important technique to teaching a beginner how to hold the hoop. This gives the grip more support and protects the student from precarious wraps. In fact, telling a student anything about their grip is a good thing because they need to get their body awareness to that part of their body and having something to focus on gets the right neurons firing to that part of the body. But, I have met many professional aerialists who haven’t given a second thought to performing moves without their thumbs wrapped. Does this mean we should throw out the old “thumbs wrapped method?” NO! It just means that professional aerialists get to make choreographic choices that may go against everything a beginning student has learned. That’s okay. It’s important to teach beginners so that they know the difference and understand that one day they get to make their own choreographic decisions as well.

Another example is engaged shoulders versus disengaged shoulders. Yes Yes Yes, it is important to have the shoulders engaged during technique training. Are there times when a professional aerialist may make a choreographic choice to disengage the shoulders during a static or dynamic movement? Yes! And it’s perfectly okay because they have all the body awareness, technique and strength required to execute it safely.

These issues can sometimes get a little uncomfortable to some. It is like the ballet dancer finding themselves in a modern class where the teacher is telling them to work in parallel instead of turn out and let go of their centers. It goes against everything they were ever taught! You will find some teachers have very strict standards about what is “right” and “wrong” as far as technique goes. The good thing is that they are teaching great form and keeping beginning students free of injuries. The down-side is that sometimes, they cling so hard to policing form that they do not allow the dance to happen.

For beginning aerial students, I say: Do not neglect your vitamins! You may want to jump straight into choreographic choices because they are more fun and feel better on your body, but you cannot neglect your vitamins! These come first.

For professional teachers, I say: Do not be overly concerned that another teacher is teaching something totally different from the way that you teach it. Maybe it is not always the vitamin strength the students needs, but more often than not, it’s not wrong. It’s just a choreographic choice. Have the wisdom to know the difference.