Breaking and all the other urban dances which you assign to the hip hop culture are nowadays not that what they had been in the time of origin. Due to the development, above all in the last two decades, the variaty and the parallels to competitive sport, the awareness for the physical and health-related aspects has risen a great deat.

The motivation and the work of people like Sophie Manuela Lindner aka Sophiela, who is on the way with her Urban Dance Health Project and even pioneers in this field, is therefore all the more important. In her workshop during the Red Bull BC One Austria Cypher in Vienna she points to the basic aspects in this field even more and works with many young dancers on their understanding for the training structure and their own body.

She and Jens Nonnenmann aka Jenso from the Tru Cru from Stuttgart (Germany) have devoted themselves to the research and the work in physiotherapeutic field in connection to the breaking culture, are both still active in the scene and thus they are in a position to operate realistically, i.e. enlarge on current topics and problems in this field with the culture and thus continouosly create support and solutions for preventions. In the following you will find some good and flexible suggestens to build up your training.

Training structure

Warm up
Light jumps, for example rope skipping etc, can prepare your body for the training within a very short time. It is very important that you really sweat and all parts of your body become warm.

Coordination
Special balance exercises help to activate the deep muscles and strengthen the stability in different positions e.g. freezes. Important: Execute all balance exercises only as long as you can hold this position. If possible start with 10 seconds, extend or shorten it according to the exercise, level of difficulty and stability.

Strength and muscles
For quick and dynamic motion sequences strength exercises build an important foundation to prepare all muscles. It is good to practice with one's own body weight and to execute exactly those positions which will later be important for one's own moves, turns and jumps.

Endurance
A significant aspect for the improvement of the training consists in the conditioning of techniques and motion sequences in different forms. The Japanese TABATA concept, in which intensive training contents are executed in different intervals, e.g. 20 seconds activity, 10 seconds rest, offers for this an optimal opportunity. It’s a very good way to simulate a battle of 3-4 rounds, high intensity in the active phase and short rest periods.

Cool Down
A focused cool down after the training is mostly even more important than one might think. In order to achieve a preventing effect you should reduce the physical load slowly thus giving the muscles the opportunity to relax. Stretching in this case can be as helpful as some light steps or easy footworks.

Additional tips

New findings on fasciae
In 2007 the first international fasciae congress took place in Boston. Since then scientist have been doing research in this field and over the years they found out that fasciae are not only connective tissue between muscles, bones and nerve tracts but that they are also responsible for many movement processes – for example when jumping the muscles execute the first three jumps and then the work is taken over by the fasciae. For this reason it is very important to invest more care in the fasciae since they start to stick together more and more because of physical stress and this effect leads to diverse injuries.

Training devices and support
The Blackroll® is a good tool which helps to smooth fasciae on the thighs and calf muscles. With the Blackroll® DuoBall you can treat different parts above all in the spine and neck area. TheLyapko Nadelroller supports the healing and has a similar effect as acupuncture. The more you use these devices on your body the better the healing and the regeneration process. In the beginning the sensation of pain is enhanced but lowers when using the devices regularly.
• Blackroll® Produkte & mehr
• Lyapko Nadelroller & Nadelprodukte

Conclusion
The seminar was a great enrichment for all participants who intensively deal with breaking and now got the chance to obtain more understanding for their own body. With short and clear explanations Sophiela was able to communicate the significant points in an interesting way above all to the partly young participants and to underline them with practical exercises. Urban Dance Health becomes more and more an important base for dancers who want to develop further on national and international level.
More information about Urban Dance Health, exercises, explanations and background knowledge can be found on the official webpage www.urbandancehealth.com