What professional dancers know that could give you the edge!
So you want to be a dancer? Do you understand the non-dance related training involved?
Why do we want to do strength training? Our body is the tool of our trade when it comes to dance, so how well do we train it to achieve the desired results?
Dancers are athletes and, like athletes, depend on their bodies being strong and injury-free so that they can earn a living. Unfortunately, the majority of education for dancers tends to focus on high-level technique and performance, with little regard to the fundamentals required to build a strong and resilient body.
What training do you currently do?
Just consider this, a meal tastes bad with poor-quality ingredients ….. If dancing is your nourishment then in what state are your ingredients? (food, water, muscles, strength, flexibility, tissue resiliency etc)
You want to do (scorpions/splits/6 turns/death drops) are your muscles, nervous system, and tendons ready? You need a strong system to cope with the demands of dancing today.
So what is strength training?
Strength training, also known as resistance training or weight training, is a type of physical exercise that focuses on building and developing muscular strength, power, and endurance. It involves using resistance such as free weights (dumbbells, ViPR and resistance bands), weight machines, or body weight, to improve muscle and nerve activity.
Through regular strength training, individuals can enhance their muscular strength, improve joint stability, increase bone density, and enhance overall physical performance.
For the dancer, strength and conditioning is essential to create a robust system that can tackle any choreography and perform again and again without breaking down. The goal is to be stronger and have better endurance than what is required from you for the performances or training ahead. This way you will feel full of energy and have less chance of injury.
Professional classical dance companies all have a dedicated gym and pilates studio with qualified staff to monitor and develop strength programmes. They understand the need for weight training and movement training to prepare the body for the skill of dance.
The body strives for balance, harmony and energy conservation. This is because the brain’s main job is to minimise threats, and perceived danger, and keep you alive. This requires balance in all areas of the body. You don’t want to be exhausted if a tiger jumps out and chases you down the street. Because of this, we become very efficient in how we move (using less energy) and so we then plateau in a place of balance and safety once more.
To see change in the body we need to add stress to the system to elicit change and improvement. Positive stress into the body can be done by adding load, volume of movement, speed and complexity of demand into the system. Through movement, the body receives this stress and the brain thinks …. “Mmm this is pushing my boundary of comfort, I’d better make this tissue more robust so it can handle this stress and we can find harmony again”. This is how we see change in bones, muscles and fascia. This change gives us the outcome of improving our strength and we feel like movement is easier to manage and we can go for longer.
The important thing to remember is that we need to keep changing things up and kick-starting the body into positive change. If we do the same exercise programme for 3 months, we become so efficient there is no change to the body at all. We may potentially use even less energy to do the same task than we did 3 months ago, this is what we know as being ‘show fit’.
What Can I Do?
Variability is key for planning a training programme. Your plan will need to address improvements in strength, endurance, mobility, stability, Cardio (CV), and power and don’t forget proper recovery!
It should be goal-oriented – improving endurance for a long routine, improving power for high jumps or the elastic rebound of fascia for kicks.
You could go to class and do; Yoga (mobility/strength), Pilates (stability /strength) Circuits/Circuit Training (Strength/ CV), Boxing (CV/Strength) or do your own plan at home or in the gym.
In the gym, you want to do both body weight and loaded exercises, in both a linear and a 3D approach.
Recovery and sleep are actually when we get stronger so this is equally important as our training sessions. Recovery sessions could be an Epsom salt bath, some foam roller work, float tanks, acupuncture, massage gun, meditation, dedicated rehydration and re-fuelling with healthy foods. You won’t lose your strength or ability to dance even if you take 3 weeks off altogether! You will actually come back stronger after a proper break!!
Nothing beats getting a solid night of uninterrupted sleep however for physical and mental health….and strength gains.
There are many training ideas on my free education channel Strength4Dance, some examples are below to give you some ideas;
In summary…
Whether you are a professional dancer, training full time or just love dancing, you will need to look after your body so that you can get the most from your dance classes, avoid injury and move like a well-oiled machine. Creating your strongest body is an ongoing project that takes planning and commitment. If, like me, you want to dance until ‘death do you part’ then you will have to work behind the scenes and get the ‘tool of your trade’ in fine working order.
Want to know even more about creating a well-oiled machine?
Get our online dancers manual – all the information you will ever need to create a strong body; from hydration and sleep through to strength and power training. Be your own personal trainer and health coach! Click below to find out more…
Your Body, Your Tool, Your Career: The Strength4Dance Ultimate Training Manual (Online)
$139.99
We also have Free online training sessions with our Band-ITS Body classes.
30 min sessions for Pilates, strength and CV with extra resistance to get great results.