Weight Training for Male Dancers

A weight training regimen for male dancers should be designed with the notion that dancers move with their whole body; lifting ballerinas requires much more than lifting with the arms, it requires a synthesis of strength that coordinates the lower body and upper body.

A lower body regimen should focus on core strength and weight training exercises that target the

large muscles in the legs. Weighted lunges, squats, and bosu ball exercises create the plyometric strength needed to explode with your lower extremities; explosive power from the legs, butt, and core regions lessen the amount of weight lifted by the upper body alone, allowing lifts to take place with ease. Upper body exercises should be designed to mimic the motions of balletic lifts; by using weights to mimic partnering motions, you can build strength for lifts before a girl is in your arms. One such upper body exercise, that I love, requires me to mimic the motion of an overhead lift. My trainer calls this exercise the single arm twisting push-press; you hold a kettlebell in one hand, at the level of your shoulder, with your elbow tight by your side. The exercise begins with your legs in a lunge, the back leg should be a foot behind the other and it should be the leg on the side of your body in which you are holding the weight. Lunging with the front thigh parallel to the ground and with the back leg at a ninety-degree angle, your body twists forty-five degrees towards the back leg. Once the bottom of the lunge is reached, you explode out of this position, driving the back leg off the floor and the weight is extended overhead. The final pose of this exercise culminates with the weight overhead and you should be balancing on the front foot.  This exercise should be repeated in three reps of twelve, on each side of the body. Check out this video demonstration of the single arm twisting push-press!

Another upper body exercise that my trainer stresses is the neutral grip bicep curl; bicep curls in this position mimic the act of lifting a girl by her waist.  This exercise should begin by standing with your torso upright, with dumbbells in each hand; the elbows are close to your torso and the palms of your hands should face your torso.  See the image below for the correct "bottom" starting position. While you hold the upper part of your arm stationary, you should curl the weights forward, causing the

biceps to contract.  The contraction of the biceps is done until the weights are at shoulder height.  My trainer taught me to hold the weights at the top of the contraction for two seconds before lowering the dumbbells back to their starting position.  Personally, I do three reps of twelve bicep curls, with a minute separating each rep.  This strengthens not only my biceps but also my back and core as well; bicep curls make stabilizing my core easy, when I do a lot of partnering.

One of the last major focuses a male dancer should have in their weight training regimen is on the strength of their shoulder girdle. Proper partnering technique requires a strong and stable shoulder, which requires an external rotation regimen to support the muscles on the backside of the shoulder joint. Most shoulder strengthening exercises should be done with elastic bands as opposed to weights. The reason bands are used, versus weights, is that external shoulder strength is a matter of endurance, not pure strength. One of my favorite exercises is one in which both arms are at my side and both forearms are raised to ninety-degrees, directly in front of my hips. Holding a band for resistance, both arms rotate to the side of the body; this exercise strengthened the rotator cuff

muscles, which are comprised of the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, teres minor, and the subscapularis. Together this sleeve of muscles, which comprises the rotator cuff, stabilize the ball and socket joint of the shoulder. When you gets tired, your natural tendency is to slouch; slouching before lifting a person can result in improper strain on the shoulder, back, and neck that can lead to spinal herniation, dislocated shoulders, and muscle tears. By strengthening the back of the shoulder, the tendency to slouch when you get tired will be greatly reduces; chances of injuring yourself will be greatly lessened when your tendency to slouch is reduced.

Now go workout so you can be one of the best partners around the rosin box!