Dance Conditioning

While it hurts me to say it keeping your stomach and leg muscles fit is a pretty important part in becoming a successful dancer. With all the fast pace moves it is essential for dancers to keep up, and that is impossible to accomplish with a six pack of pudding cups.
Unfortunately that means we must endure the dreaded sit ups, planks and your occasional set of push ups. All while this might sound like a cake walk to some, just typing that small list made me tired.

Now that it is January all high school dance teams are preparing for competition season, a.k.a its time to kick our flabby butts into high gear. And so begins the endless string of conditioning at practice and at home exercises emailed by our coach.

Even though I hate working out just as much as the next girl I know that without it I would probably never complete a kick or turn. The core is essential to every move in dance, it controls our motion and extension of our bodies. So it is pretty important we give it a proper workout.

* For this post it will be my sister Liz (who is also a dancer)  doing the exercises

In this first exercise Liz will be doing Russian twists. These are a great way to work the sides of your core and are very simple to do. The objective of the move is to keep your back straight as you follow your connected hands moving from one side of your body to the other. In the picture below Lizzie is lifting her feet off the ground for the maximum workout but the book states that beginners should start with their feet on the floor if the twists are too difficult.

"If the center of the body is defined as an area from which you can achieve the most effortless control, then strengthening it is essential to training" (Franklin 109). The author explains that we can not ignore exercising our cores, even though most dancers would rather focus on mainly flexibility.


The second exercise I forced Liz to do was single leg drops, with this exercise the book suggests the slower you drop your legs the better workout you will get. Keep your legs straight and tightening your core during the leg drops is also how to achieve the best workout.

" Proper breathing though moves and stability will also be gained with ease once a dancer conditions their core regularly, it is a central part of the body that effects so much of our movement" (Franklin 113).

After these two exercises Lizzie told me that she did feel a difference in her abs and that even though the exercises were so simple they were very effective. Making them great for dancers just like me who want the reward but don't really want to put in the work.

Question:  What kind of daily exercises do you do to keep yourself "fit" for your sport or daily activity? And how effective is it?

Citation: Franklin, Eric N. Conditioning for Dance. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2004. Print.