Have you ever heard a dance teacher say “we need to keep running the dance so you can build your stamina?” Growing up that was something I heard a lot, especially when competitions were right around the corner. Years later, I now know that that’s really not helping you build your stamina.
Before we talk about why that is - what even is stamina and why is it so important for dancers?
Stamina is the ability to sustain prolonged physical or mental effort, exertion, or activity over time.
We can break this down further into aerobic stamina (endurance) and anaerobic stamina (strength and power). Aerobic stamina is needed for things like long periods of running or dancing, while anaerobic stamina is focused more on short bursts of high-intensity effort, like sprinting or heavy lifting. Both types are important in dance, but the training for each can look different.
In general, having good stamina as a dancer means you can maintain your energy and endurance during long classes, rehearsals, and performances. It allows dancers to perform with precision and control longer without getting fatigued, reduces the risk of injury, and helps in maintaining concentration and focus during intense performances. High stamina also helps dancers recover faster between performances and rehearsals.
So if dancers are using stamina only in terms of dance, why is running the dance not enough to build up this endurance?
One reason is that this repetition is limiting not only the muscles that are engaged, but the intensity of that engagement too. It’s sort of like when you watch a movie over and over again. The second or third time you watch it, you don’t have to pay attention as much or work as hard to know what’s going on in the plot. After repeating your dance routine a few times, your body starts to get used to it and relies on the familiarity of the movements; your body doesn’t have to work as hard, so it doesn’t.
Repetition also can lead to developing bad habits or injuries like repetitive strains or overuse injuries. If there’s a triple pirouette on the right side in your dance, and every time you do it you are sickling your ankle, practicing over and over again isn’t going to help your body build the muscular endurance to perform well. You’re more likely to overwork the right side, make it a habit of sickling your ankle in your turns, and develop an ankle injury. And the longer you are running the dance, the more and more likely this all becomes.
Another reason why practicing over and over again isn’t enough to build up endurance is that the lack of variety can make you mentally check out. How bored are you after running the dance 5, 6, 10 times in a row? At some point, you’re not getting anything beneficial out of it, and it’s really just more time for bad habits and injuries to develop.
But I think the biggest reason that these practices aren’t helping you build your stamina is the importance of specificity in training, and I mean this in two ways. The first is that your training needs to reflect your specific needs, strengths, and weaknesses. Training programs and regimens aren’t one size fits all, the same things won’t work for every dancer. So your training should be tailored to the areas that you are looking to improve, and that probably doesn’t mean running the dance over and over again. Specificity in training also means that it should target exactly what you are working on. If you’re trying to strengthen your hamstrings, you wouldn’t just run your dance over and over again, would you? It should be the same answer for when you are building your stamina. This training needs to look like something other than dance, just like your exercises for hamstring strength do. Having a well rounded training regimen that encompasses things other than dance is so important, and this is just one reason as to why.
What can you do instead to see real results?
If you haven’t already, you can try cross training and incorporate different forms of exercise like running, cycling, pilates, or strength training, all of which can improve your stamina and endurance. You can also start smaller and try adding specific strength and conditioning exercises into your weekly routine. Exercises like jumping jacks, squats, and mountain climbers are great additions to start working on your stamina, and they don’t require any equipment! If you want to work on mental stamina, try adding techniques like visualization, mindfulness, and breathing exercises to your regular routine. Creating a stronger mind-body connection now can help you use it, and those same techniques, when you need mental stamina to get through those long days of competitions and conventions. And it’s important to remember that when you’re training to build your stamina, it’s like any other training. You should track your progress, it will take time to see results, and rest is just as important as the workout!
To track your progress, you can use your RPE, or rate of perceived exertion. The RPE scale typically ranges from 0 to 10, where 0 is complete rest and 10 is maximal exertion. By assessing your perceived effort during different practices, performances, or exercises, you can understand where your stamina levels are and how they progress over time. If you start out feeling like a 6 on the scale when performing a routine, after several weeks of consistent training, you might be able to do the same routine at a 5, which shows your endurance has improved. You can also use time to track your progress by timing how long it takes for you to start feeling fatigued during exercises or practices. If you notice the time has increased from maybe 20 minutes to now 30 minutes before you start to feel tired, your stamina has increased too. It will take a few weeks of consistency to start seeing results, but tracking your progress like this will not only help you recognize that you are getting closer to achieving your goal, it will also help you determine if what you are doing is working.
To sum it up, building stamina as a dancer means switching things up! Sure, running through your routines is important, but it’s not going to improve your endurance. To see these results, we need to be adding other types of exercises, whether it be running, pilates, or a few rounds of jumping jacks twice a week, to our training. Plus, getting in some cardio and strength training will help keep you injury-free and moving smoothly. So, take a little break from the dance and focus on building a strong, resilient body that can keep up with all the choreography.
And if you want to build your stamina but don’t know where to get started, here’s a free sample training plan example of beginner cardio for dancers:
Week | Day | Exercise | Sets | Reps/Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Week 1 | Day 1 (Aerobic Focus) | Jumping Jacks | 3 | 40s, 20s rest |
Week 1 | High Knees | 3 | 30s, 30s rest | |
Week 1 | Body Weight Squats | 3 | 12 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 1 | Mountain Climbers | 3 | 30s, 30s rest | |
Week 1 | Day 2 (Anaerobic Focus) | Sprints | 6 | 20s, 40s walk rest |
Week 1 | Jump Squats | 3 | 12 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 1 | Plank Hold | 3 | 30s, 20s rest | |
Week 1 | Burpees | 3 | 8 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 2 | Day 1 (Aerobic Focus) | Jumping Jacks | 4 | 45s, 15s rest |
Week 2 | Step-Ups (per leg) | 3 | 10 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 2 | Lateral Shuffles | 4 | 30s, 30s rest | |
Week 2 | Mountain Climbers | 4 | 40s, 20s rest | |
Week 2 | Day 2 (Anaerobic Focus) | Hill or Incline Sprints | 5 | 25s, 35s walk rest |
Week 2 | Jump Lunges (per leg) | 3 | 10 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 2 | Plank w/ Shoulder Taps | 3 | 20 taps, 20s rest | |
Week 2 | Box Jumps | 3 | 8 reps, 40s rest | |
Week 3 | Day 1 (Aerobic Focus) | Jump Rope | 3 | 2 min, 1 min rest |
Week 3 | Body Weight Circuit (squat, lunges, push-ups) | 4x | 40s each, 20s rest | |
Week 3 | Lateral Shuffles | 5 | 45s, 15s rest | |
Week 3 | Burpees | 3 | 10 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 3 | Day 2 (Anaerobic Focus) | Sprint Intervals | 6 | 30s, 30s walk rest |
Week 3 | Jump Squats | 3 | 15 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 3 | Push-Ups | 3 | 12 reps, 30s rest | |
Week 3 | Mountain Climbers | 3 | 15 reps, 20s rest |
If you haven’t already, check out our YouTube channel full of more free videos and tutorials about dance science and training! Click here to see the channel.
And if you’re looking to work together on your training goals, check out our training options such as our 6-week online training plans, BodyKinect Blueprint, or virtual 1:1 sessions!
Comments