There are several scientific exercise principles that must be
followed in order to get the most out of your training.
Each individual has different needs to reach their goal or sport
and personal strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, no one exercise programme
will suit all. A well designed programme should look at the individual needs
and address this within the programme. For instance, one dancer might lack
strength and balance at the ankle following an injury. Therefore, their
training focus would be to re-train the strength and proprioception within the
ankle joint. It is therefore important to understand your personal needs as you
train to optimise performance and reduce injury.
The first principle of conditioning is ADAPTATION. The level of adaption is
proportional to the demands placed on the dancer’s body, such as the
volume/quantity, frequency and the intensity/load of training. Training
adaption is only developed when the athlete forces the body to adapt to the
stress of physical work. If a dancer’s body is presented with a demand greater
than it is accustomed to then it adapts to this stressor by becoming stronger.
When the training load remains the same, little or no training effect will be
had, and thus, no adaptation will occur. We have seen (in previous research)
that traditional dance classes alone are insufficient to adapt a dancers
fitness, thus the body needs to be stressed in other ways. This may be done by
means such as weight training and Pilates.
The second principle of conditioning is REVERSIBILITY. This is the reverse of adaptation
and is the biggest challenge to developing training goals and a programme
design. If you stop working a trained skill then that skill will become weaker
and eventually diminish. Such an example would be dancers who experience the
effects when returning to dance class following a holiday. This may be
recognised through sore muscles following the return to dance class in once
strong muscles which have weakened over the break through disuse. The moral of
this is to ‘use it or lose it’. Regularly training if we want to maintain the
capacity we have worked so hard to get. It should be noted that how often you
need to stimulate the stressors to retain the capacity is dependent on the
individual dancer.
The third principle is SPECIFICITY. The
specific nature of training is sometimes obvious. For example, doing développés
will not make your arms and shoulders stronger no many how times you do them or
how often you train. To train your shoulders and arms for dance you should
train them specifically doing dancelike movements. This principle also applies
to capacities as well as movements. For example, if you need to hold your leg
in a high développé a la seconde for 30 seconds, then you need to practice
holding your leg in a properly aligned high second position rather than doing
high grand battements in a la seconde. Holding your leg using your hand could
be a useful step to acquiring the range of movement needed however, you will
also have to practice holding your leg high using lower limb muscles to develop
a développé a la seconde. Specificity also applies to speed of movement through
a particular range and we must match the training we perform to the challenges
we face and expect. The influence of gravity is also different during dance
movements, for example, balancing after a triple pirouette is different to
balancing after a plié-relevé. Therefore, practicing a variety of movements
will make your balances more versatile as a dancer. To design a specific
exercise or programme we must know the exact movement, speed, range and quality
needed. This will best prepare us as dancers for what choreographers may throw
at us. This suggests the need to study more than one technique to accommodate
the different styles which may be required of you. If you are unsure of what
demands to develop and maintain you would do best to train a variety of
capacities. This way you will not be far from what is required when you are
presented with new challenges. There will still be a period of adaption,
however you will adapt quicker and be less at risk from injury.
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD is the need to create a challenge to ensure our bodies grow. This
can require us to work beyond our comfort zone, something which is no stranger
to a dancer. This is called overload. It is when we push our bodies to more
than what they are used to in ways such as resistance, repetitions, duration,
speed, volume or range of motion. For
example when building strength, increasing the number of repetitions slightly
or the number of sets per week will increase the overload of a workout.
Changing one part per week is an effective approach to challenging your body.
Additional areas to change would be increasing the weight/resistance a little
and the number of workouts a week. It takes time to achieve your aim, however
following the progressive overload principle is the key to achieving your goals
without step backs. Some guidelines for applying to the progressive overload
principle are; challenging your current limits and moving with the ideal
dancer’s alignment. Ignoring this principle is unsafe and slower, leading to
compensation and injury.
COMPENSATION is when you attempt to
work too far beyond your current abilities. This leads to compensation in movement
patterns which may become a bad habit that will need to be unlearned.
Compensation may occur when correct form is not known or the principle of
progressive overload is followed too quickly. If compensations are not
corrected then you may find yourself injured. The top priorities during
training should be to execute the best form and correct dancer’s alignment. If
this is not possible using a said weight or number of repetitions then you must
cut back the last few reps or drop the weight slightly. This will allow you to
progress gradually and safely.
Thanks for reading, come back soon! Don’t forget to fire any
questions you have at me.
-E
START STRONG, FINISH STRONGER
References
Brewer, C. (2005). Strength
and conditioning for games players. Coachwise Business Solutions.
Welsh, T. (2009). Conditioning
for dancers. University Press of Florida.
