1. Focus on yourself
Each year, thousands of hopeful dancers travel to New York City with hopes of performing on stage at Radio City Music Hall with the Rockettes. For Amanda, the competition was often crippling.
“When I first auditioned, they needed 12 girls and over 1000 auditioned,” she laughs. “It’s hard to cope sometimes because you get told ‘no’ a lot, but you build thick skin.” Later during her career on Broadway, Amanda struggled with her physical appearance. “Body image on Broadway is hard. Often times the costumes were very revealing, so I had to stay in great shape.” It was on stage that Amanda learned to turn pressure into positivity.
“Be you! This is something I learned while being a performer and it holds true to my new career in fitness,” she urges. “The minute you get caught up in trying to be someone you’re not, or get sidetracked by how much others are doing and you aren’t, you will fail.”
2. Don’t underestimate the power of a jump rope
After years of jumping on and off of trendy workout bandwagons, Amanda picked up a jump rope. “My class [The Rope] is a full body interval-based class that uses a jump rope for 55 minutes to tone your body,” she says. Jumping rope burns more than 10 calories per minute while strengthening legs, the butt, shoulders and arms. She continues, “I wanted to utilize the rope so that my clients could do cardio and toning with one piece of equipment. You see your coordination, endurance, stamina, speed and agility improve every day.” It’s also a low-impact exercise, which makes it perfect for any person despite their age or weight.
3. Find a routine that works for you
It’s easy to have a contested relationship with your body, a reality that Amanda knows all too well. “Some days are harder than others,” she admits. “I know that I love to eat food, that I love to exercise and that I love to feel good. If I keep those three things in balance, my body responds in a healthy way.”
Her advice for women struggling to find confidence? Celebrate quirks. “You have to find things that make you unique and celebrate them — play them up and express yourself,” she exclaims. “I also tell clients to find a workout that makes them happy; a workout that you schedule into your day because you don’t want to miss it. Then you’ll find that working out isn’t a chore, it’s a release.”
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