Cross Training

Many people don’t realize the strength it takes to be a dancer. The most beautiful thing a dancer can do is make the dance look effortless, but what most people don’t know is that in order to make it look effortless it requires a lot of muscle. Dance is one of the only sports that uses every single muscle in the body. At practice we don’t just go over our dances we also cross train. We do anything and everything from running, to insanity, to core workouts, to lifting, and more.

                Not only do dancers cross train to make it look effortless, cross training also helps your jumps get higher and makes harder moves easier to do. Leg strength is very important you need it for kicks, jumps, leaps, turns, pile’s, there are very few moves that you don’t use your leg muscles to do. Also you need arm muscles to hit moves or make slower moves look like they have resistance. Some floor moves require a lot of arm muscle also, to do things such as, push yourself off of the ground or move your body around.  Also a lot of choreographers incorporate lifts in their dances. So if you have to lift a person of a little bit smaller or of close to equal size of you, you obviously must have a lot of arm strength.

                The most important muscles dancers must have are their core muscles. Dancers do countless amounts of ab exercises. Dancers use their core for every move. To dance is to have maximum control over your body. Whether you are just standing or doing a complex move your core must be engaged. Balance is also another huge thing for dancers, and in order to balance you must be using your core. However holding poses, turning, kicks and other advanced technique things use and require an immense amount of core muscles. You must have a good core to have great control and make your movement look beautiful and effortless. Anyone can do a triple pirouette while hopping not everyone can do a clean triple pulled up without bobbling and suspend out of it. So don’t let a dancer’s super tiny body fool you. There is more muscle there than it appears.