While Misty Copeland is paving the way for so many dancers to embrace strength, muscle and possibility, there is still such resistance from the dance world to include strengthening in the conditioning regimen. Why is it that so many dancers are turned off by weight training- even believing it to be bad for their bodies and harmful to their art? Let’s explore this common belief and talk about why we need to move away from this line of thinking!!
Strength training is foundational to dancing:
The truth is, dancers of all types (ballet, jazz, modern, lyrical, contemporary, hip hop, pole, tap, and more) are missing out on so much potential!! The relationship between strength and performance in any sport or art is clear: jumping, lifting, balancing, spinning, holding positions - strength training can help with all of that!
strength training will take your dancing to the next level.
So, if strength training is so important, then why don’t we see it in dance the way we see it in other types of athletics?
Why dancers DON’T strength train:
Myths:
It will make me stiff
It will make me bulky
I’ll be targeting the wrong muscles
I will get injured
“The body never lies.”
I will get stiff
False.
At Arrow PT we argue this all the time. A tight muscle is not always a short muscle... and similarly, a tight or stiff muscle, does not mean that the muscle isn’t functional. But, also … stiff to a dancer, is not what the average person would view as stiff. So, if we look at a spectrum of flexibility, dancers will tend to fall on the end of very flexible. Stiff to the dancer, while not something we want to dismiss, is likely still more flexible than the average person’s tissue. And we need to take this into account when we are trying to add flexibility.
A young dancer demonstrates hip flexor strengthening vs stretching in the clinic. (click to see video)
Rule of thumb in our practice: we cannot add more motion until we can control what we have. So, in fact, by strengthening through the range of motion that we do have, we now allow our bodies to safely become more flexible. The flexibility is earned. The interesting thing is that our bodies are very protective. If we are trying to stretch and add length to muscles which are not ready for that (i.e. strong), our nervous system rebels. Tightness is a protective mechanism that is inherent in our physiology and we can actually cause injury if we try to fight that.
Research has shown that resistance training has no negative effect on flexibility, and may even improve it.
I will get bulky
False.
This myth is one of the most common misconceptions about weight training. It must be noted that putting on muscle takes a lot of work and time and fuel (food). Resistance training a few times a week is enough to make you stronger, but will not cause huge changes in muscle size.
Aesthetics are historically very important in the dance world. Not only is that changing (thankfully), but it needs to be noted that strength training will not drastically change your body shape unless that is what you are designing your programing to do. At Arrow Physical Therapy, we work with our dancers to add strength, power and endurance to their dancing. We want to prevent injury and create tissues resilience. We are not interested in the shape of the muscles or the body, but rather in what the muscles and body can do!!
Do we look bulky here? Both of us are competitive CrossFit athletes and use strength training each day. It takes a LOT of work for us to get even this muscular.
i will target the wrong muscles
False.
This myth is rooted in a dancer’s fear that they will overtrain their non-dancing muscles. The problem with this is that we actually want balance between the strength of all muscles. Without balance, we can end up with less than ideal movement patterns and ultimately injury.
We want to train the muscles that are used in dance and this will help us to become better at these movements. But, we also want to train the muscles which are not targeted in dance so that our body is supported for our life off the dance floor and outside of the studio.
For example, we see a lot of dancers who end up with hip impingement, a condition largely impacted by muscle imbalance. What we often find in our dance patients that they have difficulty using their hips in certain ways because they are so used to using them in a turned out position for dance. Yes, we want those rotators strong for the dance movements, but we also want balance so that the dancer does not live their life in turn out. When we spend our whole life in this position, not only does this not improve our dancing but can lead to things like hip impingement, knee pain, piriformis syndrome, back pain and others.
I will get injured
False.
The reality is that a dancer is more likely to be injured dancing than in any cross conditioning or strength training program they might incorporate.
Dance is an extremely physically demanding activity and in most cases, dancers perform repetitive movements for several hours a day. Studies have shown that dancing five hours a day or longer (not uncommon in dancers as young as 13) leads to an increased risk of stress fractures and other injuries.
On top of the intensive training, many dancers get very little time to recover between the sessions and have no "offseason". Finally, restrictive diets and unhealthy body weights may also contribute to dance injuries.
What it really looks like:
It has been shown that the absence of strength training in dancers is highly associated with injury. So, in many ways, strength training is injury prevention for dancers.
At Arrow Physical Therapy we treat our dancers like any other athlete. We tailor the exercises to each athlete, to the injury and consider the competitive/performance season they are in when it comes to programming.
Let’s get you on the road to your best dancing yet!!