Calling all Ballroom and Latin competitors over 40. Ladies do you choose dresses that hide upper-arm flab? Gents have you gained a tubby tummy and lost sight of your twinkle toes? Couples if you no longer make the finals and have lost confidence, don’t quit competing! Kinesiologist Jane Tofts, a slim 61-year-old medallist competitor, can put you back on top form with her complementary health therapy. Miranda Piercy met her
“Kinesiology can help competitors by improving co-ordination, dance performance and artistic skills. It can assess and correct bodily imbalances and detect allergies and food intolerances. It can even help to change attitudes, belief systems and behaviour,” says Jane. Kinesiology is a touch therapy that links traditional Chinese acupuncture, meridians and energy balancing with Western muscle testing. It treats holistically which is to say the Body, the Mind and the Spirit rather than just treating the symptoms of a problem. She started Ballroom and Latin in 1999, had a gap year, then in 2002 won her over 50s Bronze Latin event at the Imperial Dance Sport Faculties’ Modern Ballroom and Latin Grand Finals Weekend in Blackpool. Jane can self-test to keep in tip-top condition. During a consultation the client remains fully clothed on the couch while Jane undertakes a series of non-invasive, painless muscle tests. “These tests show up weaknesses or imbalances causing a previously strong muscle to suddenly ‘unlock’ or become weak. That tells me that the body needs something, or needs to release something like toxins or an emotional problem,” says Jane. She works out the exact problem be it physical, emotional or nutritional and the necessary treatment. Jane lists her top 10 health tips for competitors over 40.
1. Drink enough bottled spring water
Many older people cling to tea and coffee to get a lift when instead they should be drinking two litres of water a day. Without it your body perceives a drought and retains water causing bloating. Plus tea and coffee are dehydrating so you need to follow up every cup with two cups of water to counter the effect.
2. Feed your bones and musculature
Jane produces diet plans that are tailor-made to suit the individual client. “Dancers need to monitor themselves more carefully past 40. Their mineral reserves are being used up quicker and, although dancing is a weight-bearing exercise which is beneficial to ward of osteoporosis, it is still using up the body’s reserves of energy. So eliminate junk food and eat properly to feed your bones and muscles.”
3. Grow your own vegetables or buy organic ones
Avoid sprayed vegetables as the chemicals can build up in the liver. Kinesiology can help to get rid of existing build-up.
4. Get your essential amino acids
Obtain these protein-building blocks from first-class animal protein, or, if you are a vegetarian, create healthy breakfast cereal by mixing organic quinoa flakes and organic buckwheat flakes with dried fruit, organic oats and pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds. Soak the mixture overnight in bottled water not milk.
5. Cut down on dairy products
Eat non-dairy sources of calcium like green vegetables, sunflower seeds and nuts as dairy products encourage many allergies. Also dairy produces too much mucous making it more difficult to breathe.
6. Get your minerals and vitamins
Minerals are what you lose most as you get older. You need calcium and phosphorus for healthy bones and calcium and magnesium for a healthy heart. Vitamin B is important for dancers as it calms the nervous system and feeds it.
7. Take Tissue Salts
Most people over 40 need tissue salts. Kinesiology can discover what the individual requires. Jane stocks tissue salts but you can also find them in the homeopathic section of health food shops.
8. Don’t consider drugs or surgery until you’ve tried complementary therapy
Some common health problems can put older dancers at a disadvantage when competing by making them feel ‘less than’. Kinesiology can help. For example men delay taking action when they get prostate trouble which could be easily sorted out without surgery by taking the berry Sawpalmetto and minerals, mostly zinc. A woman may feel fat, stressed and unhappy in her competition costume due to a bloated abdomen caused by Candida. She may have even been prescribed anti-depressants but Kinesiology can get rid of Candida with a Bowel Detox or Bowel Build.
9. Get rid of emotional baggage
Partnering problems and arguments can be caused by more than just the frustration of trying to learn and improve Ballroom and Latin. They can be due to hang-ups about the opposite sex in general from past experiences which then become focused on our current dance partners and need to be resolved. Jane is a trained counsellor and can use ESR — Emotional Stress Release — to help.
10. Learn to love yourself and be confident
Jane employs NLP — Neuro Linguistic Programming — to help calm competition nerves. “Learn to love yourself — the confident dancers DO love themselves. When people say to me ‘oh he loves himself’ I think I wish we all had that…When you don’t win go back to the drawing board and think what are our strengths ? Don’t think of weaknesses — oh can’t do — think of it as well let’s see what we can do about that, because we’re good. We can do this, this and this, and we’ll get over that. Never mind what the champ’s doing. You love you and you may not be the champion, but so what — you’ll get better.”
Jane Tofts is a qualified practitioner of Progressive Kinesiology, has studied Anatomy and Physiology and is registered with both the Association of Natural Medicine and the Federation of Kinesiology. A first consultation with Jane costs £40, telephone Witham 01376 500 201.
