Exercise tips for your interview!
A few years ago I attended a staff development course on Presentation Skills and one of the important points my presenter made was how to warm up body and voice before using them. Most professional presenters warm up their body and voice before every presentation! The presenter mentioned the benefits of doing so also for interviews, and since then I have had a 3-5 minute warm up routine before every presentation and interview. It has worked wonders for the projection and resonance of my voice and preparing the body has increased my adrenalin on the day and physical movement. I feel much more alive and animated! But lastly, it has improved my confidence as I feel much more prepared both mentally and physically and as I always laugh at myself doing the different (and sometimes silly) exercises, I always come out of it with a smile.
I feel the best time to do these exercises are in the morning or, if necessary, I try and do them in the nearby Ladies before the start of presentation/interview. Do improvise!
So here are my exercise tips to fully prepare for an interview:
Body (in no particular order):
If you are suffering from any health issues, please consult your doctor before attempting these exercises.
Even if you do not have a presentation in your interview process, warming up your body still is beneficial for overall physical movement and feel.
- The shoulder roll – roll your shoulders backwards slowly x 5
- The body stretch – reach your arms above your head and really stretch your body, feel that tension and those knotted muscles loosening up.
- The neck turn – turn your neck (very carefully) to the left and to the right x 5
- The body shake – shake your body, jump up and down if you can, and look in the mirror and smile!
- Pick your own stretch or dance exercise that you feel help loosening up your body
Voice (in no particular order):
If you are not in a private room, warming up your voice may be difficult. If I do not have a private room, I sometimes do these exercises whilst walking down a trafficked street (no one can hear you anyways!).
- The tongue turn – stick out your tongue, move it left to right, up and down (this is also fun to do in front of the mirror)
- Sing a song / do scales – sing a short song or chorus or just la la la, but go up one note every time you sing it. I usually do “row row row your boat, gently down the stream, merrily, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream”
- The choir voice roll – if you have ever sung in a choir, you will know this one. Start with the highest tone ("mmm" or "jaaa" are two good options) you can possibly do and move your voice gently downwards. Repeat this a few times.
- Rolling your Rs – If you are able to, making a constant R sounds for a short period of time does wonders to your voice and resonance!
There are some good websites out there describing additional exercises, I have picked some I thought were good:
Warming up your voice:
http://www.wikihow.com/Warm-up-Your-Voice
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sing/learning/warmingup.shtml
Face stretches: http://actingforscientists.com/public-speaking-warm-up/
Now dance and sing your way to the interview. The best of luck!!
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