Should Dancers Cross Condition
As the dance season is winding down and we move into the summer months I always get lots of questions surrounding off season conditioning. Questions like What conditioning should I be doing? How many days should I be working out? Is running the best way for me to get cardio in? And the list continues. On this week’s Episode of The Dance Docs I sit down with Dr. Kathleen Davenport MD to discuss your questions surrounding cross conditioning, and discuss these questions as well as ideas that we give to many of the dancers that we treat.
Cross Conditioning for the dancer
As the dance season is winding down and we move into the summer months I always get lots of questions surrounding off season conditioning. Questions like What conditioning should I be doing? How many days should I be working out? Is running the best way for me to get cardio in? And the list continues. On this week’s Episode of The Dance Docs I sit down with Dr. Kathleen Davenport MD to discuss your questions surrounding cross conditioning, and discuss these questions as well as ideas that we give to many of the dancers that we treat.
What is cross conditioning and why is it important
Cross-training is defined as an exercise protocol that utilizes several modes of training that are outside the athlete’s main sport to develop a specific component of fitness.
Doing the activities that your body is not use to doing
Working to avoid imbalances by training the same activity day in day out
Ways to use cross training
Boost cardiovascular endurance
Train muscle groups not used in dance
Improve muscular strength
Best time to cross train is during the off season
You have time to add different kinds of workouts into your program without sacrificing time or energy that you may need for a rehearsal day
My dancers found cross conditioning classes incredibly beneficial during the pandemic when ballet schedules were light, 2x/wk- and those who conditioned throughout came back feeling stronger, more connected. And i had feedback from the artistic director that they came back looking stronger than when they left.
It is important that before we jump into the conversation I want to stress that taking time off is just as important as cross conditioning.
I urge dancers to take a minimum of two weeks off, even better take a month off.
You need to give your body a change to heal from the months of constant work and stress.
This does have to be balanced with the amount of time to ramp back up.
Use this as a focused time of eating right, nourishing your body, allowing your tissues to heal and build back stronger.
Make sure that you listen to your body, don’t push your body to the limits
You can stay active but not push or force the physicality of your workout
Cardiovascular training
We know from the research that a dancer's cardiovascular system is comparable to a healthy sedentary adult.
Cardiovascular training is very important for today’s dancers because the length of pieces and physicality required has increased
Dance is usually short burst of high heart rate (HR) instead of sustained heart rate of >10 minutes
Cardiovascular zone training
Aerobic exercise- cardiovascular conditioning where your breathing and heart rate are increased for a sustained period of time-
Greater than 10 minutes
Are not gasping for air, can maintain a conversation
Examples would be running, cycling, swimming laps, elliptical, stair mill
Find what kind of aerobic exercise you enjoy doing and do that
Mostly zone 2 and 3- below the lactate threshold (body is able to clear lactic acid build up during exercises)
Zone 2 greatest amount of mitochondria benefit- boosted metabolism, and primarily using fat for fuel, maximize the amount of oxygen in your blood
This is where I like dancer to be on the off season if they are looking to add cardiovascular training into their program
Builds your cardiovascular foundation
70% of training should be done in this range
Usually takes about 6 weeks to build up the cardiovascular system and for this to feel easier and more comfortable to sustain
Anaerobic exercises involve quick bursts of energy and are performed at maximum effort
This is where most dancers feel comfortable
Working hard to breathe, feel out of breath at the end of a set
Includes jumping, plyometrics, lifting weights, sprinting, HIIT, X-iser, think petite allegro
Mostly zone 4-5- above lactate threshold- this is where you feel the muscles burning and you want to stop
Have to be more careful with training in these upper zones, and do not want to do every day
Only was to complete specific high HR workout 1-3 days per week
Should feel very fatigued and tired after these sessions
Quick zone breakdown:
Find max HR (220-age) multiply it by the percentage to find target HR for zones
Zone 1- 50-60%
Zone 2- 60-70%
Zone 3- 70-80%
Zone 4- 80-90%
Zone 5- 90-100%
You need to ask yourself what is the goal of adding in cross conditioning?
Why do continuous cardio training if all dancers do are short bursts in high HR zones?
May be required at some point to do back to back sustained efforts and you want to be prepared
If you know the upcoming rep for the season it may be beneficial to begin training in the off season so that you have developed the cardiovascular or muscular systems needed for the upcoming rep
Other ways to get in sustained cardiovascular training
Running
I am ok with dancers running if they want to- especially in the off season
If a dancer loves to run, I am not going to stop them and will discuss safer ways to run.
Bike
Like this for dancers- tend to recommend upright bike over recumbent
Recumbent- needs greater hip flexion due to starting in almost 90* position
May not be best for someone who is dealing with hip impingement issues
Upright bike- also going to require trunk and pelvis control- a little more whole body
Spin classes like Peloton/soulCycle- great!
They can include more full body workout with standing, sitting, upper body weights, and sustained cardio
Class can be great and motivating for the individual over running or going on a solo bike ride
If you can clip into the bike or use foot strap on gym bike to increase full leg engagement over just pushing muscles
Make sure that you take some time to fit the bike to the right position
Elliptical/stair stepper
Need to be careful for both stair steppers and elliptical machines, many times they will place the feet too wide apart for the dancers pelvis
Instead of working hip flexors/extensors a dancer is now having to over utilize hip abductors in this position and throw the pelvis off
Want to monitor and make sure that the dancer is not over extending through the hip
Best thing to do is to look at the dancer in front of you to make sure that alignment is optimized
Swimming -
Swimming is great for dancers
Low impact full body workout
Have used with dancers to build cardio when returning from injury
If you are swimming make sure that you are breathing every few strokes
Can also do a water running program in both shallow and deep water
Alternative movement forms of Cross Training
HIIT
Many different forms of HIIT training
Tabata- 8 rounds, 20 seconds of an exercises with 10 seconds of rest
The goal is a short period of high intensity followed by a period of rest
My classes we did 4 groups of exercises with 4 exercises each
30 seconds on 10 seconds off between
1 minute between
Repeat for 2 sets
See both cardiovascular and strength benefits from HIIT workouts
Make sure to find a class that works for you and that you can modify if necessary to avoid injury
Kick boxing
Great core and cardio.
Utilizes upper and lower extremities as well as full body connection
But caution on the hips going crazy
Try not to over do hip ROM
As with any new endeavor, modify and start slow
Stepper- x-iser
Can use for HIIT training
Can be used during class to assist in building endurance or backstage as part of a warm-up
Used it with many dancers during petite allegro
A dancer could complete petit allegro combination and then use x-iser, when waiting for next round
Was also a great tool to use during circuit to increase cardio component
Quick, easy and cost effective piece of equipment
Strength training
Should dancers be lifting heavy weights
Yes- this is ok and actually rather required if you’re going to be lifting a human being over your head or in other partnering work.
You should be able to lift a weight overhead before you lift a human
If you are interested in adding strength training I recommend working with someone who is a certified personal trainer or PT
NCSF, ISSA, NASM, ACE, ACSM
Even better if someone has a CSCS
Should they be doing a ton of dance specific movement with heavy weights
Not necessarily. What is the functional goal of this?
There is a place for dance specific strength training such as adding an ankle weight or using a resistance band for dance specific movements
This is not something I recommend on a regular basis
There is a concern that if a dancer is just adding ankle weights to the things they are doing in ballet class there is a higher risk of overuse injury due to excessive load
Are we really “cross training” with dance movements with weight
Not really cross training as these are movements that you are already training to do
May be helpful for a specific dancer coming back from a specific injury, but as a concept for every dancer to get stronger, no.
Timing of Cross Conditioning
How do we add this training into a dancers schedule without over fatiguing the dancer
During the summer when the schedule is lighter and a dancer is either off from class or only taking light class (1.5-2 hrs/day)
Cardio 1-2 days/week; 30-45 minutes
Cross training class, or weights 2-3 days/week: 45-60 minutes
During rehearsal period, or longer days
Keep your sessions shorter
2 days/week for 30-45 minutes
When you schedule is heavy, may increased shows or days dancing
Focus on recovery or completing 1 session a week, or a few short sessions
Don’t want to over fatigue with conditioning
Don’t want to add anything new in right before a show
Recommend to consult with a therapist or personal trainer who can look specifically at your schedule and help you make an appropriate plan
Stretching
Is not really part of cross conditioning, as it is built into dance class
When I am getting a dancer back from a hip tendon injury, like a hamstring, I literally have never had an issue getting back hip flexion needed for a dancer to complete the splits.
Most of the time dancers need to focus on strength
Stretching hamstrings will not bring back extension it will only inhibit it and can likely lead to an innominate rotation
Caution on correct types of stretching, optimizing stretching and not over stretching
I will confess I get worried about others stretching and over stretching dancers
I also get worried about lengthening in the absence of stability
Static stretching will actually decrease muscular power- best thing to do is to add in your static stretching to the end of the day/end of class when you are most warm
Yoga as a form of cross conditioning/stretching- focus should be on stability and controlling the range instead of just sitting into a pose
Balance
In dancers balance is compensated for by looking in the mirror, hip hiking, sinking, etc, which actually means that lots of dancers are quite terrible at balance.
It is essential to train balance on uneven surfaces and with eyes closed to accommodate for stage lights, darkness backstage, etc.
Do activities where eyes are closed and then have to open them, working in a dark or bright environment
Working on different surfaces, and completing activities such as standing and putting shoes and socks on, standing with shoes and without shoes, jazz shoe vs pointe shoe.
It’s really about adding a few things one at a time and not feeling like you need to add everything in all at once.