It's really common in any discipline for a "warm up" to consist of some half-hearted stretching while gossiping with your classmates about the last GoT episode or how much you drank last night or what cute thing your dog did this morning. 

It should not surprise anyone that the only muscles that get warmed up this way are your jaws. 

While stretching can be part of an effective warmup, warmups should focus more on *movement.*  Getting blood flow to muscles you're about to move, getting your heart rate up, pushing joints through their range of motion to get out any pops, snaps, or creakies, and wiggling out any stiffness. 

There's any number of great ways to do this, but Mackenzie's favorite for her silks classes involves forcing everyone to dance to The Fitness Marshall videos, which hits all of the above goals! Her current favorite is an excellent shoulder warmup and a great chance to show the whole room your sweet moves!

Regardless of how you do it, before your next class, stop sitting on your booty and start shakin' it instead!!

One of the most common aesthetic trials with new students is trouble with pointing the toes. Sometimes new students just take awhile to remember to point their foot, but sometimes other issues are causing the problem. A lack of strength in the foot and the ankle can cause all kinds of ugly points, from scrunched-up tootsies to a sickled foot (and sickled feet can mean ankle damage!). 

Luckily, weak and inflexible feet are easy to work on any old time at home with just your basic resistance bands, and a chair.  Laura Witwer of SassyPants Aerial has awesomely put together videos on how to banish boy-point, sickled feet, and generally lazy toes. Check out the playlist and get working on your pretty points!!