Strength & Conditioning for Dancers

Dance classes and cardiorespiratory fitness

Traditional dance classes are for the most part, a stop and start affair. The dancer stops all activity, or gently “marks” the movement, as they learn the next exercise or combination, or to take corrections from the dance educator or choreographer. There may be brief sections, such as traveling across the floor with explosive jumps that can get the dancer really puffing, but that is usually short lived, and only a small part of the overall class. So, the type of cardiovascular exercise provided by dance class will not generally lend itself to cardiorespiratory fitness, and this can prove problematic once performances come around and a dancer’s endurance is really put to the test.

We know through years of research that fatigue is one of the biggest reasons dancers injure themselves. Sadly, a common story I hear from dancers in clinic is they’ve hurt themselves when landing badly from a jump, or falling out of a turn, toward the end of their dance when they were fatigued. The length of a dance number will challenge cardiovascular endurance and those big bursts of energy need anaerobic capacity. Therefore, a long dance with big jumps at the end can be a landmine to navigate for those without capacity to perform them safely. It seems the last decade or so the physical demands placed on a dancer have increased as choreography has become increasingly more challenging with “tricks” and kicks and jumps galore. Professional dancers and students alike are now required to have a higher level of cardiovascular fitness than ever before for them to perform well and safely. 

Dance classes and strength

Strength training is pretty much any type of training you do against an opposing force. When it comes to strength building in dance class there is little resistance, usually only your own body weight as resistance (unless of course you are lifting something or someone). Dancers are usually familiar with the use of elastic bands or tubing as resistance, particularly to strengthen the feet and toes, but are less familiar with using other types of resistance equipment such as dumbbells, barbells, medicine balls, kettle bells and weight machines.  

Some may have stayed away from this type of weighted exercise due to an outdated belief – especially by those in the ballet world - that this type of training would affect the body shape and aesthetics. Thankfully this unfounded concern is being replaced with a focus on strengthening and having a robust tool – the dancer’s body. Most dancers and dance educators now realize the increasing physical demands placed on dancers truly requires additional conditioning to attain the strength and power to optimally perform much of the choreography. Consequently, today’s dancers are happily picking up a kettlebells or dumbbells, in order to improve their performance.

The benefits of strength and conditioning training for dancers

The body of evidence from research in this field continues to grow and simply amounts to the fact that resistance training can have a significant positive effect on a dancer’s dynamic balance, leg strength (improving hop height and distance) and upper limb stability, without any detrimental effect on aesthetic or artistic elements.

Resistance training also has an osteogenic effect – meaning it helps build bone. A study on pre-pubescent gymnasts who participated in resistance training showed they had stronger bones than age matched gymnasts who did not. This may reduce the risk of bone stress injury or fractures that keep you out of dance training and performances for extended period. There is also the important fact that doing resistance training early in life will reduce the risk of fractures due to osteoporosis later on.

The bottom line is, your regular dance classes may well be improving your technique and artistry, but you could be working in other ways to build your strength and conditioning to improve your dance performance.

How Do I Get Started with a Strength Training and Conditioning Program?

Now that you know strength training and conditioning can improve your performance and help reduce injury risk, you’re keen to know how to get started right? We have Dance Physiotherapists here at PhysioTec that would love to help guide you with an exercise program tailored to your specific strength and conditioning needs.

You can visit the clinic for 1:1 program development, or you might like to find a friend or 2 to train with at Physiotec. We can organise a group training program in our gym with one of our dance physio's at a time that suits you. Please give us a call. You might be surprised how much you enjoy this type of training!