Dancers should be strength training from a program

You’ve seen me write before that the very idea of “cross training,” rather than simply, “training,” is reflective of the flawed approach to strength training the dance world historically has taken. That approach is slowly changing as best practices become more commonplace, led by progressive physical therapists and the recent interest of strength coaches in the art form.

Cross training suggests that somehow the strength and conditioning program isn’t exactly a part of one’s dance training, when in reality the two ought to be viewed as two sides of the same coin. Everything you do in the gym should in some way be linked to what you’re doing as a dancer if you aspire to perform at the very highest level.

There’s only one* way to accomplish that: train from a plan.

The cross training mentality suggests that when you have a day off, you “go to the gym.”

The training mentality suggests that you look at your calendar for the week and for the month and for the year, and you plan your training to fit into that schedule. You may or may not lift on your day off as you try your hardest to consolidate stress and find days where you can completely unplug.

Cumulative work makes you stronger season-over-season

When dancers and athletes think of training, they’re often focused on the upcoming season or even the upcoming show. A training approach, or, in this instance, a long-term athletic development (LTAD) approach would suggest that a dancer look not just at what’s immediately in front of them, but rather on the years to come. In this case dancers aren’t really all that unique. Talk to strength coaches about how they approach the LTAD of their young football or basketball players; they want to lay a foundation of movement and strength upon which they can build as the athletes mature. This is how Romanian deadlifts or cable pull-thrus become really solid, heavy kettlebell swings or power cleans. This is how great overhead positioning on a unilateral dumbbell overhead press becomes a barbell push press.

If you’re randomly approaching what you do in the gym, you could be robbing yourself of the opportunity to perform more complex tasks in the gym that could benefit you on the stage.

Progressive overload necessitates that you keep track of what you're doing

Percentage-based programming can be a great way of keeping strong athletes on track. Strong people often want to lift heavier and go harder than they should on a consistent basis, so prescribing 72.5% of a one-rep max on a lift can keep the athlete from overtraining.

I’ve yet to encounter the dancer who’s strong enough to need percentage-based training, but that doesn’t mean a plan isn’t warranted. In the case of dancers, a strength training program and detailed notes on sets and repetitions can be critical for pushing their LTAD forward. Think about it this way: if you’re randomly walking into the gym and selecting exercises, some of which you haven’t performed in weeks, how do you know how much weight to lift? Keep in mind, particularly if you’re lifting in-season, you don’t have a lot of time. So if you do three sets of a goblet squat at a weight that’s even five pounds less than what you could be doing, then you’re not going to make yourself stronger. While those sets aren’t quite “wasted,” if you always work out in such a random manner then you’re going to be sacrificing strength, power, and quite possibly performance potential on the stage.

Efficient training is linked to a dancer’s calendar

Taking notes. How much weight did I use on those rear-foot elevated split squats for 10 repetitions? This week I’m doing those for 8 on each side. If you don’t have notes, you won’t be able to answer those questions. You might go too light or too heavy or you might waste valuable time trying to figure it out. Our in-season training sessions for professional dancers are remarkably short—they’re usually no longer than 30 minutes. The only way to work with that efficiency is to know what you’re going to do (or in my case, know what I’m going to ask the dancers who trust us to do) before walking into the gym. I know the weights. I know the sets. I know the repetitions. The dancers come in and work, and then they leave to go home and cook and eat and sleep and talk to loved ones and watch Netflix and go to bed on time so they can wake up the next morning and make breakfast and prepare for work and learn new choreography and meet with the costume designers and go to the post office.

All of it fits together. There is only one calendar for a dancer because time is at such a premium. And if you’re writing everything down and working off of a plan you know you’re getting stronger, which means you’re not succumbing to the late-season crash that can lead to injury or reduced explosiveness.

A strength training program doesn’t need to be complicated.

Squat or lunge

Hinge

Push and pull vertically

Push and pull horizontally

Strengthen anti-extension and anti-rotation

You can choose really simple exercises that fit into the above movement patterns, take notes on what you can do, and then hold yourself accountable for improving those numbers over time. Switch things up once every four or five weeks, and make sure you’re accounting for your menstrual cycle if you’re a woman so you know when to take a deload week. That’s it. That’s a program, and with a little bit of learning and accumulation of an exercise library, you can program for yourself and progress for yourself.

But if that still seems overwhelming? Ask a strength coach.

*If writing a strength and conditioning program for yourself seems daunting, the next best thing (aside from asking a strength coach to write one for you) is to take notes. You will be able to see significant progress simply from taking notes and holding yourself accountable for lifting more weight next month than you did this month.