Has your ballet teacher ever told you to stretch every day? What about perform specific exercises daily other wise your ballet technique will suffer? Well, if you do not have time to attain these goals, fear not. Daily training is actually harmful to your body because our muscles need time to recover to improve. Doing too much can be harmful to the muscular system as well as your mind.
Signs you might be overtraining with your ballet technique:
You take class daily and never have a day off
You constantly feel sore
You get injured easily
You are NOT seeing progress in your technique despite constant training
You lack energy and focus in the ballet classroom
You are having trouble falling asleep
Your anxiety or depression is heightened
You get sick easily
So, if you are reading the above and think "Yep, that's me," then continue reading this article as well as watching my Youtube video below to help you fix you ballet training approach.
Why is overtraining bad?
If you exercise or dance every single day without taking a break, your muscles do not have time to regenerate and actually improve. Your dance performance will either decrease or plateau and this can be VERY hard for dancers to understand. We think working harder is better but, that is not always the case.1 Factoring in specific rest and regeneration days are CRUCIAL to your health and ballet technique progress.
A solid training plan for ballet dancers...
If you're a dancer who runs a busy schedule (like most of us), then this next bit of information will help you plan out your dance technique training, cross-training, and recovery days. This will help you manage your time wisely as well as decrease your risk of overtraining or overuse syndromes.
1. Map out the days you have to take technique class or rehearsals
From there, rate those days from 0 being easiest dance days to 10 being hardest dance
days.
2. Integrate in cross-training days
In order to gain ballet technique progress, you must integrate cross-training in but, according to your schedule and exertion levels. Cross-training will help you from overuse injuries but, only if integrated correctly into your schedule.
For example: you dance 4 days a week. Days 1 and 4 are the least exerting days. Then you would integrate at least 15 to 30 minutes of cross-training at the end or beginning of these dance days.
My ideal schedule for a dancer would look something like this:
Monday- dance technique classes
Tuesday- cross-training 45 minutes
Wednesday- dance technique classes
Thursday- ballet technique, 15 minutes of cross-training
Friday- Stretching, mobility, rehearsal
Saturday- rehearsal
Sunday- day of complete rest and light stretching
Note: during times of show weeks I recommend dancers take a lighter schedule and focus more on mobility and recovery vs. cross-training strength activities.
So, if you're a dancer who struggles with structure, planning, or figuring out what to actually do when it comes to cross-training, mobility, and more...
The 2 day a week cross-training program is a perfect layout for you. It considers that dancers have a busy schedule but, helps focus on different body parts each lesson. It takes about 15 minutes one day of the week and a longer 30-45 minute training day later in the week.
To join the 2 day cross-training program that is included in all unlimited year and month plans use. the code IGVKBDANCER for 10% off each month of your monthly unlimited plan!
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Resources:
1. Goolsby, M. A. (2021, August 16). Overtraining: What It Is, Symptoms, and Recovery. Hospital for Special Surgery. https://www.hss.edu/article_overtraining.asp
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