Are you successful with splits but unsuccessful at getting your leg above 90 degrees? Or, are you lacking core engagement during class? Here are four simple steps to create a sustainable cross-training routine to enhance your dance training.

Note: Especially if you are training daily, these workouts do not need to be lengthy. An extra minutes before class would be incredibly effective.

Heading to ballet class early to do some clamshells, glute bridges, and planks will help to warm up your core. Those are the simple, yet effective ways you can add to strength training.

This is individualized and will take some experimentation. Doing this will promote proper engagement of your muscles and help to warm you up in preparation for class.

After class, you might be fatigued and therefore execute movements improperly. Remember, building a cross-training routine does not have to be complicated. In fact, it will help make your dancing less complicated. Imagine being able to maintain balances for long periods of time, not huffing and puffing after center combinations, and having beautiful extensions well supported by muscles instead of clenching onto tendons.

Simply incorporating strength training minutes a couple of times per week, especially just starting out would be sufficient.

Featured post by Maya Marian Bryant , MPH Candidate, NASM-CPT, Certified Barre Instructor. Skip to content MEMBER LOGIN. Search Topics What is Cross-Training? The Benefits of Cross-Training for Dancers We can consider the benefits of cross-training by examining all parts of the typical dance class.

Strength Training for Dancers Strength training may be done in multiple forms but generally, it includes some form of resistance applied to your body. These movements require a level of muscular strength and power. While technique classes can improve muscular strength and power, it is not necessarily the main goal.

Some current dance technique classes are increasingly asymmetrical practicing coordination on one side only and are more focused on stylistic and artistic aspects of dancing rather than adequate repetitions to develop strength, power, and endurance.

Therefore, you should do supplementary exercises for muscular strength, power, and endurance outside of your dance technique classes.

Without a certain baseline of these important abilities, you are more likely to incur musculoskeletal imbalances and injuries.

Injuries developed from muscular imbalances or from lack of core strength in large, explosive movements are common. You need a good level of muscular strength, power, and endurance in order to effectively perform a variety of dance movements such as lifts, jumps, and explosive movements.

An adequate level of muscular strength, power, and endurance not only assists the technical and aesthetic aspects of performance, it can also minimize the risk of injury by increasing joint stabilization and improving bone health.

A common method of strength training is with resistance machines or free weights, such as dumbbells. Even more common for dancers is using exercise bands or stretchy surgical tubing as resistance.

You can also do strength training using your own body weight, such as in push-ups and leg lunges. You should exercise larger muscle groups before smaller ones, because smaller ones fatigue more quickly.

It is important to alternate muscle groups to allow for recovery before performing another exercise on the same muscle group. For muscular strength gains, you should exercise a muscle through its full range of motion for 8 to 12 repetitions. The amount of weight or resistance should be challenging; after the set, you should feel muscular fatigue.

Young teens or dancers rehabilitating from an injury should use lower weight or resistance and higher numbers of repetitions. For exercises targeting muscular power, remember to perform fast repetitions.

You can repeat exercises two or three times in a given conditioning sequence. When exercising for muscle strength, you should isolate the muscles to be strengthened; carry out the correct motion fully in a smooth and controlled manner without other muscles compensating.

People tend to compensate when they are tired, which is when other muscles take over for the fatigued muscles. As Hewett and Oliver explain, low-intensity, continuous aerobic exercise improves the endurance in your muscles as well as the cardiovascular system of your heart and lungs.

In HIIT workouts, short bursts of high-energy anaerobic intervals are followed by lower-intensity recovery intervals and repeated several times. You can alternate between sprinting and walking, or cycling at different speeds.

According to Hewett and Oliver, HIIT workouts are the most efficient way to improve aerobic fitness. But you only need them once or twice a week in combo with steady cardio, and health and injuries need to be factored in to the design of the program. Fote has seen the positive benefits of this kind of training at Houston Ballet.

Every Friday the athletic trainers lead the dancers in 10 exercises for 20 minutes, where they push for 40 seconds on and take 20 seconds off. You can prepare your body for the stage without access to fancy gym equipment.

Hewett and Oliver suggest:. According to Hewett and Oliver, aerobic metabolism is in play once you exceed a minute of continuous movement.

With that in mind, warm-ups and combinations in dance classes could be repeated to create more opportunities to dance without stopping. If you can get your heart rate up with a higher-intensity warm-up, then it is easier to sustain throughout class, adds McIntyre.

Other largely untested ideas include shortening the rest time between combinations and switching up the order of class so that jumps—the most aerobic of dance moves—enter in sooner. How you approach the role can also help you plan for the demands on your cardio fitness. Fote encourages dancers to visualize their repertoire and decide where they are going to breathe.

Every step needs attention but not necessarily the same energy. Learning this is part of the artistry.

Water provides a great natural form of resistance training — great if muscle and joint pains are a daily challenge. As with jogging, try alternating between lower and higher intensities.

Check out your local community centre, or even the seaside if the weather permits. Cardio training is important, but being able to lift things like our partners for longer without tiring is a form of endurance too. Core exercises like planks or leg raises are important, before branching out into the lifting muscles, like triceps and hamstrings.

Gents might find the ratios rather skewed away from them, but what better way to earn the admiration of your female companions?

There are numerous fitness dances out there — Joy of Dance offers Zumba, Nia, and Ginga , for instance. Next week, we return to dance technique, and ask: what can you change in how you dance that will not only make it look effortless, but feel effortless as well? Then kick your feet forward and back to where they just were, and rise from a squatting position into a standing position.

Jump once with your arms over your head and collapse back into the squatting position. Repeat like jumping jacks until you are fatigued. Jogging Very few activities are as beneficial to cardio health as jogging.

Try going for a moderately paced jog for about minutes, three times a week and you will see an improvement to your overall endurance very quickly.

Squats and Lunges These exercises are favorites among bodybuilders and athletes, but when practiced with smaller weights, 5 to 15 pound dumbbells are a good start they can be very useful for dancers too. When practicing a basic squat or lunge, hold an equal amount of weight in each hand at hip-length OR hold one weight with both hands at your chest.

Focus on slowly performing the squat or lunge with an emphasis on control. Longer sets of 15 or more repetitions with lighter weights will help you develop tone and control over your legs, hips, and core. Resistance Bands A good way to develop your muscles without bulking up too much or overdoing it is to try using resistance bands.

A resistance band is a length of stretchy material that allows the dancer to use their own weight and inertia in an exercise. They are especially desirable for the kind of low-impact weight training that focuses on muscle development and flexibility. Resistance band exercises can be used to work out the arms, legs, feet, ankles, and core muscles by providing a way for the dancer to pull against their own strength and use their body against itself in a way that is highly complementary to the art of dance.

Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content Dance is by its very definition a physical activity that requires a strong relationship between the mind and body.

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However, this is not always the case. Cardio training is crucial to enhancing your dance ability and fitness. Cardio respiratory training is an essential part of the physical training of a dancer.

Cardiovascular endurance depends on the ability of the heart and lungs to deliver oxygen to where it is needed and to continue for long periods of time under stress.

Source: Laura Stanyer.