After 12 years as a dance educator, one of the most shocking things for me to hear from a dancer is “What is cross-training?” Call me biased from my background in therapy and personal training but, if your muscles aren’t conditioned in the right way for dance, your technique and stamina will suffer. So, how can you tell if you are lacking with your dance cross-training routine? When your muscles lack energy and strength, they will not perform properly. The risk of injury due to improper form more than doubles. To put it simply, if you are weak or tired, you may not be performing positions correctly which can put a lot of stress on your body - especially when performed repetitively. But, what exactly is cross-training for dancers? While there are many options when it comes to cross training, I suggest incorporating a combination of different exercises that target muscles that are commonly used in ballet as well as any complementary muscles that might need to be strengthened. What this doesn't mean is doing exercises simply for the sake of saying your cross-training. Every exercise a ballet or even jazz dancer cross-trains with needs to be functional, relevant, safe, and purposeful. But, before you jump right into cross-training...
Have you noticed any of the following?
You are burning out of energy fast in class
Your legs shake when you are performing extensions
You are frequently experiencing overuse injuries
You can’t permanently fix any corrections you are being given
You have pain when you dance and you feel unstable
If so, this may just be the very thing you have been looking for! Cross training is a guaranteed way to:
Condition your muscles for improved technique performance
Decrease your rate of overuse and chronic injuries (which means less time away from your ballet barre)
Make technique more enjoyable because you know what muscles you need to activate
Improve the visual quality of your movements
Unfortunately, back in my day there were very few resources available to dancers on how to cross-train effectively.
Thankfully for you, I have developed a series of courses in my cross-training platform to help you improve key areas of dance such as
Turnout
Extensions
Turns
Balance
Feet
Arms
Core
Splits
Even a beginner foundation course for those new to the ballet world
So, if you have any of the top 5 signs above that you're experiencing in ballet class. It's time to join the Veronica K Cross-training platform for dancers. Click here and learn more about our flexible membership options. Happy dancing! Veronica