Neuromuscular Integrative Action

Active Sports for Active Seniors – NIA – Jan 2008 No! - We are not going to use our sports column for an article on the National Intelligence Agency. In this case, NIA stands for Neuromuscular Integrative Action. It is another not-so-new exercise and activity programme for those wanting to keep fit and enjoy doing so. So read on and learn. Who knows you may even get your own NIA group going in your community – talk about networking! NIA is an activity integrating the actions of many disciplines then using expressive movement practice that incorporates the means to achieve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual fitness and well-being! Avid practitioners of NIA describe it as a medicinal activity for the body, mind, emotions and spirit. Difficult to define and  one cannot describe NIA by any one word or even by a single phrase. It cannot be limited to a single way of thinking or perception because it is always evolving and changing - uniquely touching each person who experiences it. NIA is a personal thing. It is a sensation that one feels when one gives oneself over to it. You have to do it. You have to experience it. You have to feel it to understand it! As a concept, NIA combines the dancer, the martial artist, and an awareness of the person within oneself. NIA attempts to set free ones personal expression. A worldwide fitness movement that started twenty-two years ago NIA continues to evolve. NIA replaces the idea of exercise as punishment with the concept of exercise as pleasure. NIA advocates a more wholesome approach to holistic fitness as opposed to the repetitive torture of hard exercise. NIA is to traditional forms of exercise what holistic medicine is to traditional health care. NIA treats movement as medicine. A cardiovascular program that uses whole-body, expressive, grounded movement, rather than repetitive jogging, jumping, stepping or lifting. NIA is adaptable to every level of fitness, every age and type of body, even those with special limitations. Above all NIA is effective while being - fun! NIA fully supports the Pleasure Principle: If it feels good keep doing it. If it hurts, stop! NIA provides three levels of intensity in every movement; a variety in range of motion; and, endless user-friendly choreographic movement choices. Three planes and level ranges support cellular action, an internal expansion and contraction of the entire body. Relaxation is infused into every movement, establishing dynamic-ease, grounding, being connected and moving from the center, regardless of speed or intensity. NIA is currently offered by fitness and health practitioners throughout the US and Canada. It is easily adaptable and incorporated into most fitness and well-being programmes. NIA can also be tailored to the needs of people of all ages and abilities.  - 30 - For more info go to: http://nianow.com/ http://www.niac.ca/bc/aboutnia.php

 

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