Are you a dancer looking to improve strength, flexibility or endurance? Do you want a dancer’s body – NOT in the sense of being super skinny – but rather being strong, toned, and flexible? I want to use my experience in the dance studio and the gym to create free workout and conditioning videos because talking about dance and fitness are my favorite things.

Like no seriously, I’ll be out salsa dancing with my friend who’s a personal trainer, and I’ll be like “check out my squat form!” Or I will pick his brain on quick and slow muscle fibers and other nerdy kinesiology questions.

I am Pro Ballroom and Latin Dance Instructor but also an avid fitness lover. If you’ve read my blog post on how I train in the gym as a pro dancer, you know how much I love connecting my loves for the dance studio and the gym. I think it is really important that dancers understand how their bodies work, when is too much, and how to train and stretch to prevent injury and make our dancing better. I think the strength that I have gained from lifting weights has made my dancing even stronger, sharper, more powerful, and most importantly… more efficient.

Dancers are lazy. Not really. But we want to utilize our muscles in the most efficient way so that they don’t have to focus on doing extra work or tire out our muscles.

So before we dive into actual exercises, I am going to give you a little “Intro” or “Teaser” and discuss basic anatomy and the different muscle groups we use in our dancing.

BIG RULE OF THUMB: Use your larger muscle groups before your smaller muscle groups.

What do I mean by this? A BIG example is using your biceps and triceps to hold up your frame rather than supporting from your back. Your arms will get VERY TIRED if you lock your arm muscles (my instructor used to flick my arm anytime I contracted or locked my arm muscles haha!)

The Muscles We Use While Dancing

(**Hint it’s most of them, which is why dance is a full body workout, and also you may not be used to engaging some of these muscles. But that’s what the upcoming exercises are for!)

Upper Body – Frame Muscles

Biceps and triceps : DON’T LOCK/CONTRACT! Your arm muscles should be stretched not contracted. We are going to support our frame from our back. If you try to use your arm muscles they will get very tired

: DON’T LOCK/CONTRACT! Your arm muscles should be stretched not contracted. We are going to support our frame from our back. If you try to use your arm muscles they will get very tired Latissimus Dorsi (Lats) : largest back muscle that stretches to the sides of the back. These are what we engage to help “lift” our frame and hold up our arms.

: largest back muscle that stretches to the sides of the back. These are what we engage to help “lift” our frame and hold up our arms. Traps and Rhomboids: Help keeps our shoulders down and our shoulder blades down and stretched to the sides of our back

Help keeps our shoulders down and our shoulder blades down and stretched to the sides of our back Deltoids and Teres: These are your shoulder muscles that also help keep the arms elevated in their frame position. Your lats are your large muscles on the sides of your back that help support your frame, but these are what we actually engage to move the arms up and down. But again if you don’t use your large muscle groups, your smaller ones will get exhausted easily so make sure you’re still engaging your lats!

Core

Our core muscles help our upper and lower halves move together and maintain balance & posture.

You should feel like you are always engaging your core, pulling the belly button towards the spin but not over contracting as we want to keep the spine as straight as possible.

Rectus Abdominus: “abs” for short, run from sternum to the front of your pelvis.

“abs” for short, run from sternum to the front of your pelvis. Transverse abdominus: thin wide muscle that runs underneath the internal oblique muscle.

thin wide muscle that runs underneath the internal oblique muscle. Obliques: on the sides of your torso, used for rotating your spine and bending laterally

on the sides of your torso, used for rotating your spine and bending laterally Pelvic Floor: lowest part of your abdominals

lowest part of your abdominals Erector Spinae: the 8 muscles that run up the sides of your spine and help keep you nice and tall

Lower Body

Quads: front of the thighs, power house of your legs, and help us extend and straighten the leg

front of the thighs, power house of your legs, and help us extend and straighten the leg Hamstrings: function to help move your knees and hips

function to help move your knees and hips Adductors: inside of the thighs, VERY important in dancing –> squeeze these babies at all time. Always feel like you have a magnet b/w your thighs even if your legs are apart. It will help your balance, control your leg swing, and make your pivots/turns much easier. I always tell my students “Squeeze your thighs! Close your thighs!”

inside of the thighs, VERY important in dancing –> squeeze these babies at all time. Always feel like you have a magnet b/w your thighs even if your legs are apart. It will help your balance, control your leg swing, and make your pivots/turns much easier. I always tell my students “Squeeze your thighs! Close your thighs!” Abductors: on the sides of the hips, help us stabilize our leg and rotate from the hip joint

on the sides of the hips, help us stabilize our leg and rotate from the hip joint Glutes: one of the strongest muscles in the body. It helps us rise from a low position. So Squat! You use your glutes especially in Bolero! (Tell that ass to get low)

one of the strongest muscles in the body. It helps us rise from a low position. So Squat! You use your glutes especially in Bolero! (Tell that ass to get low) Calves: back of the lower legs, they help you lift your heels and shift weight to the balls of your feet

As a dancer, we use all parts of our body to help us move around. Ideally, we want to use our muscles in the most efficient way possible in order to reduce the amount of work we must do.

We also want to take care of our muscles which means: stretch and rest!

Too many times have I gone too hard on a leg day before I had to do a performance… especially a bolero performance.

Subscribe below if you want to learn more about dance conditioning, good stretches and exercises for dancers, and how we use our bodies! My goal is to teach people about dance and fitness and how to properly use our bodies for better dancing and better health!