Physical training is important for every athlete to ensure that they are at their highest ability for any competition. Likewise, dance is a physically demanding sport. You can find out what our thoughts are on whether or not dance is a sport.
There is a misconception that dancers do not think about their fitness.
While dance forms such as ballet, ballroom, hip-hop, jazz, tap, and many other forms are considered to be great forms of exercise, dance training sessions are not enough to condition the bodies of a dancer.
- Foundation classes focused on dance movements alone does not help dancers in fitness.
- Young dancers learning to cope with the high level of demands needed for choreographies might neglect fitness.
- Dancers need to seek supplementary training, training beyond the classes and rehearsal to gain fitness. Each dancer starts with different strengths and their fitness needs to be dealt with beyond the dance studio.
Good fitness pushes a dancer's physical abilities and prevents a dancer from being injury-prone, which in turn, enhances their performance.
Exercises To Improves Stamina
An important aspect of a dancer’s ability is stamina. A dancer’s stamina is also their capacity to work at moderate heart rates before becoming exhausted. In terms of performances and rehearsals, the lack of stamina can easily result in dance injuries.
Dancers can include aerobic workouts more during available days as compared to performance season to prevent injury and overtraining. Such aerobic activities include cycling, jogging, stair climbing, swimming, and walking.
Exercises To Improve Muscle Strength
A dancer’s strength is needed to perform slow and controlled movements but also to produce movements that require increased exertion such as jumps and kicks.
Prevention of overtiring a dancer’s muscles can reduce the occurrence of dance injuries by including weights or resistance training in a dancer’s workout routine.
There remains to be a concern if including weights will affect the flexibility and aesthetic appearance. However, the inclusion of strength training does not affect a dancer’s flexibility, instead, it helps to improve muscle strength.
Dancers can include some forms of strength or endurance training are static exercises with resistance, pilates, and yoga.
Exercises to Improve Flexibility
Working in hand with stamina and muscle strength is a dancer’s flexibility. Understanding the proper ways of stretching is extremely important. Dancers have to be aware and carefully isolate their muscles with correct breathing.
It is important for dancers to understand the benefits and drawbacks of different types of stretches. As with any exercise routine, stretching should be performed after dancing has been completed.
Exercises to Improve Coordination
As a dancer, it is important to include a neuromuscular coordination workout routine to improve their body’s coordination. Such workouts can help with a body’s control and ensure the usage of the right muscles at the right time.
Some additional benefits are developing the efficiency in their movements, making their poses look effortless and not forced. Regardless of the dance genre, this translates into making a dancer’s routine feel and look intentional and instinctive instead of memorized and forced.
In other words, dancers can become more skillful in only engaging the muscles required to produce a certain movement which in turn helps to ensure adequate energy levels and reduce fatigue.
Neuromuscular coordination can be improved through meditation practice, Tai Chi, yoga, and Pilates.
Exercise to Improve Body Composition
A dancer’s fitness level is correlated to their physical performance. The optimal body composition varies from one activity to another.
If dancers want to be able to train for long periods without feeling exhausted and sore, they must maintain an ideal body composition.
Balancing the right amounts of energy intake and exercise can be helpful for dancers who want to achieve the right body compositions.
Exercise To Improve Artistic Expression
The physical well-being of dancers is the foundation of their artistic expression. As dancers, the term “full-out” or go “all out” is an expression we may be familiar with hearing while rehearsing a performance piece.
Being able to dance and express a routine is only possible through training for short bursts of high-intensity interval training. Technical training is not enough to train dancers for short bursts of highly energy-demanding moves. This runs the risk of injuring dancers due to fatigue.
Ways that dancers can train themselves in this aspect is with high intensity, short bursts of activity. Some workouts include sprint training, high-intensity interval training, or even specific repetitive moments of dance with faster movements to increase the power of execution.
Importance of Rest
And lastly, rest is an especially important part of a dancer’s physical fitness. A dancer’s physical fitness will dictate their ability to recover from a grueling, physically and mentally exhausting route. Finally, rest is an especially critical component of a dancer’ s physical fitness.
Proper rest, proper nutrition, and adequate hydration are required to counteract the negative consequences of overtraining.
Consistency as a dancer
Physical fitness is an important asset to a dancer’s abilities apart from their capability to accomplish a routine with perfection. It is encouraged for dancers to focus on enhancing their technique and artistry through a physical training foundation.
Increasing your overall body strength enables you to be more versatile and allows you to experiment with the artistry of your movements.
The journey of understanding your physical fitness will help to improve training techniques, engage in effective injury prevention, and better your standards of health and physical conditioning.
The more work you put into training your body, the stronger your muscles and joints become. Maintaining a constant training schedule helps to keep your body in top form and keeping a certain level of physical activity each day is beneficial.
We also covered Kpop dances to lose weight. Even if physical fitness is not your greatest passion, try your best to include small forms of beneficial physical activities and you may just see small improvements in your dance movements.