Cost Benefits Analysis for Strength Training in Dance

One of the benefits of the semi-private training environment we’ve created at Present Tense Fitness is it has allowed each of the three of us more time coaching one another’s clients and begun to systematize our programming. It seems like a small thing, but creating a team nomenclature for exercises is important in a semi-private setting, because all of our clients need to be getting the same messaging from each of us regarding exercises.

One exercise that I’ve begun programming in some of my clients’ programs—and one that I think could be beneficial for dancer populations—is the cable unilateral 1-leg row with a reach. First, to my point above about nomenclature, if you take a look at our programs, we’ll try to use literal language like that so that every client knows precisely what they’re doing, and each coach knows precisely what is programmed regardless of who wrote the sequence. (I haven’t landed on exactly what we should call this movement. You’ll hear in the video that I sorta stumble around on the name, and I’m sure I’ve written it different in different programs. That’s something I need to work on).

Second, I really like this exercise for dancers because it’s a sneaky way of working posterior chain muscles, particularly in-season, in a way that doesn’t wreck the artist. If there’s any time period during which I’m working with a dancer that I’m most anxious, it’s in-season. I can neither get in her way with stupidly difficult programming, nor let her down by allowing her to get weak or de-conditioned. It’s a delicate balance made more complicated by the shifting demands of choreography. This exercise is one that I think manages to strike the necessary balance well.

You can read above and listen in the video to understand my justification for this exercise, which is pretty straightforward. But I think it’s also interesting to understand why I don’t usually gravitate toward exercises like this.

The point of strength training is to be able to load a movement, or maybe more to the point, to be able to overload a movement. My hamstrings get stronger performing a Romanian deadlift because they compensate (with good sleep and good nutrition) from the stress of the movement during the workout. So if we implement the idea of progressive overload, then I should be able to lift an increasing amount of weight over time.

If you think about the muscles involved in a Romanian deadlift (principally the glutes and the hamstrings), these are some of our body’s biggest, most powerful muscles. And while the lats are powerful upper body movers, they’re not as strong as the combination of lower body muscles. So if I’m trying to overload the Romanian deadlift, then I’m held back by my lats. This is why I’m usually not a fan of a movement like this.

However, I make an exception for this because I think the benefits (drilling hip extension and developing back strength) outweigh the drawbacks (not getting as strong as one theoretically could).

This is where the subjective nature of strength training and specific strength coaches is obvious. Another coach might look at this exercise and say, “there are better ways to accomplish the goals here,” just as I might look at another coach’s compound movement (say, almost anything standing on a BOSU ball), and say, “there are better ways to accomplish the goals here.”

Another way of thinking about all of this is where this exercise might fit in a dancer’s program. This wouldn’t be a “core” lift, or, a lift that would be the primary driver of strength and adaptation in a workout. That would be reserved for something like a squat or hip thrust or landmine press. The lift I’m featuring here would be more in an assistance lift category. So it might look something like this:

(A) Box jump (3x5)

(B) Goblet squat (3x8)

(C1) Cable unilateral 1-leg row with a reach (3x10 each side)

(C2) Dumbbell half-kneeling overhead press (3x8 each side)

(C3) Ab wheel rollout (3x10)

In this scenario, the goblet squat is the primary leg movement, executed by itself. The cable unilateral 1-leg row with a reach is part of a three-exercise superset. It allows me to supplement the squat with a posterior chain exercise while at the same time working a critical horizontal rowing motion.

The biggest takeaway from this discussion? Even if all of us might not agree on an exercise, you should always do an analysis not unlike the above around why you’re including an exercise in a program. If you can’t justify an exercise beyond “I thought it was cool” or “I saw this on Instagram and wanted to try it,” then you’re at risk of wasting valuable time in the gym. That’s time and energy in particular that dancers don’t have to waste.

By the way, the video in this post is taken from our forthcoming resource, the Dancer’s Guide to Strength and Conditioning. It will be a library with a sample program and dozens of videos containing coaching cues, reasoning, and demonstration. You can sign up here to be notified when the Guide is ready.