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Bodybuilding for Dancers

Should dancers utilize bodybuilding protocols to help with their dance?

Here is my answer:

No!No! Dancers should not be performing bodybuilding

routines to get better at dancing.

Black and white statements aside, it is interesting to see and interact with many dancers across many different genres. I’ve associated with classical, modern, jazz, and of course my own respective art, breakdancing, and I’ve asked many questions on how specific individuals go about their own training (outside of sessioning or practicing for their dance). The answers I’ve received range from big movements – squatting, deadlifting, pull-ups – to smaller, more isolated lifts that focus on specific body parts.

While I can appreciate both responses, I have to question if they are even utilizing correct technique when it comes to these movements. Sometimes, I hear about dancers getting hurt in the gym due to inadequate technique- which is the most far-removed place I would like for any dancer to get hurt if they aren’t dancing.

Push-Up E2D

Clearly not all bodybuilding routines are the same. Ideally, each “routine” would be specific to the individual. However, principles of increasing hypertrophy, reducing adipose tissue (fat), and slowly tapering your training to a lean physique by a specific competition date is DRASTICALLY different than the needs for bboying.

So why pursue these bodybuilding and aesthetic minded goals for dancing?

Benefits for Bodybuilding Routines

To not completely throw the bodybuilding routine idea out the window, there are some benefits drawn from the thought process of simply lifting for lifting’s sake:

  1. Restore blood flow to hypoxic muscle groups, which aids in recovery.
  2. Improve general strength and muscular size (hypertrophy) to major muscle groups.
  3. Depending on movements utilized, there can be cross training benefits for coordination and learning various movements.

In the grand scheme of things, I’m not merely interested in general “gains” specific to bodybuilding for dancers. I’m interested in what is optimal, along with a specific transfer to dancing.

Optimal Training

What are the standards I’m looking to set for optimal training with respect to dancing?

  1. Total Body Movement Patterns
  2. Develops rate of force development
  3. Transfer to task (dancing in this case)

Total Body Movement Patterns

For the past 3-4 years, I’ve been diving down this route of traditional lifting. I’ve engulfed myself in this world of lifting, and strength and conditioning, and I’ve even competed in powerlifting. I wanted to see what it meant to lift weights, and what kinds of useful things I can extricate for dancers everywhere.

With this in mind, I’m all about minimalism when it comes to lifting. Strength sports, powerlifting, and simply getting stronger all preach the basics, and making sure you do the basics very well, in order to get brutally strong.

Deadlift - Miguel 455

If you’re a dancer, no one rants and raves about their 60lb DB curls, or about how much they can barbell shrug, or how many times you can do a kipping pull up for that matter.

If the exercise isn’t transferring to the end goal of you getting better at dancing, I have to question its efficacy in your philosophy and program.

I’m looking to improve these general movements:

  1. Push
  2. Pull
  3. Hinge
  4. Squat
  5. Single Leg Variations
  6. Anti-Movements (Anti-Rotation, Extension, Flexion)

Why these movements? Well, I’ve also come under the influence that by utilizing these generalized movements in an exercise program, alternating loads and intensities, I will be able to have a greater influence on how the body can transfer towards a specific activity – in this case dancing.

While I can write another 2000 words about how general movement patterns can influence specific movements, I’ll just refer you to another article that I wrote on the subject matter HERE.

As you know, and even if you didn’t, the art of breakdancing has large implications for stabilization, large ranges of motion necessary for extreme movements (such as splits, airchairs, hollowbacks, etc), along with the ability to resist any unwanted movements, during powermoves at the very least. Without training a foundation, you may be leaving a large chunk of speed and power away from your dance, along with chances for other muscle groups to possible take the role of other stabilizers and movers.

Developing Rate of Force Development

Whenever I coach the above basic movement patterns for a beginner level athlete, I want to ensure I’m setting them up for the most success from a position point of view. This is where external cuing such as “Chest up!” and “Sit back!” will help to reinforce a specific mechanical position during any given exercise.

However, after the requisite technical positions are understood, then I will encourage that specific athlete to increase the speed with which they are moving. This is helpful, because once they can replicate the position over and over, it will help to increase neuromuscular contraction, increase power qualities for performance, along with increase total nervous system excitability.

Also, rate of force development is important, because it will differentiate whether or not you can “put” more force into the ground, in order to stand up with more weight in your hand, or jump to higher values.

This is especially important, because it is often the faster, more explosive athlete that will be able to out-hustle, and leave their opponents in the physical and metaphorical dust.

To transfer this discussion to dancing, if a dancer is slow with their movements, I have to question this dancer’s exercise program and specific technical skillset.

For more information on rate of force development, read this article by Kevin Neeld.

Further Reading

Transfer to Task

Specificity should be prioritized when it comes to technical movements such as those found in breakdancing. If your movement is not enhanced by that specific external exercise, I have to question its necessity in an exercise program.

You won’t get better at windmills by doing bicep curls. I have a lot of friends that do bicep curls, and they can’t dance for the life of them.

Funny enough, it is the combination of both movement patterns (point number one) along with rate of force development (point number two) that will help to determine if an exercise has transfer to a specific task.

Tweet: Utilize large motoric, movement patterns. Move with intent. Rest, eat, and repeat.

There are a few other variables of course, but for now this is all I’ll discuss.

Further Reading

What to Do Instead of Bodybuilding

Instead of doing body part splits, and isolated movement patterns, utilize large movement patterns, such as push-ups, squats, lunges, deadlifts, pull-ups/chin-ups, and rowing patterns, with a high enough frequency (times done per week) for not so many repetitions (nothing above 10, as technique may begin to slide away), but maintaining the integrity of the movement. I’m not looking to absolutely destroy your technique during the initial phases of a program – rather slow, graded exposure to appropriate movement patterns are crucial to improving.

Also, include anti-movement exercises, such as planks, side planks, stability ball planks, rollouts, chops and lifts.

Tweet: Aim for improving technique first, before adding external load. After standards are met aim to increase the speed with which you are moving.

A sample day for the beginning of a program for dancers:

Day 1

A1. DB Goblet Squat – 3×6
A2. Feet Elevated Push-Up – 3×10 (2 sec pause at bottom of movement)

B1. Kettlebell Deadlift – 3×10 (Shoes off)
B2. Side Plank – 3x15sec/side

C1. DB Goblet Reverse Lunge – 3×6/side
C2. Half Kneeling 1-Arm Cable Row – 3×10/side

With this day, you have squatting patterns, pushing patterns, anti-rotation and extension with the side plank, single leg movements with the lunge, and rowing movements with the cable row at the end.

I can make extrapolations for maintaining a single leg movement pattern for any dancer (as they toprock or do footwork, for example). Even for a squat or hip hinge, performing flipping variations will involve a rapid stretch of the soft tissue that is involved with explosive hips, along with allowing for the abdominal muscles to fire appropriately during any powermove or freeze transition.

If these qualities aren’t trained at the very least, what kind of training are you doing to help your dance?

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While this isn’t the whole picture of what optimal looks like by any means, this is just one more step towards improving your dancing!

As always,

Keep it funky.

MAsymbollogo

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Charlie Weingroff’s Training = Rehab 2 Seminar [Recap]

There is a decent amount of information here. Further, I’d consider the following to be only a snapshot into what was divulged that weekend, along with being relatively random as it is a composite of my notes, memories, and pictures.

This blog post, while pseudo-permanent in nature, is merely my interpretation of the information CW provided, along with the understanding that each seminar will be slightly different. Take this with a grain of salt. Further, throughout this post, I have links to Charlie’s DVD Training Equals Rehab 2, in which I am an affiliate.

Firstly, the logistics of the seminar were handled amazingly well. Michael Ranfone and his staff at Ranfone Training Systems ran everything very smoothly. If you haven’t taken a course here, I recommend doing so immediately, because this is how seminars should be organized, planned, and run.

RTS

Moving on…

Charlie Weingroff is passionate, does his homework on the specific attendees that come into the seminar, along with understanding how to get his scientific justifications for what he does very quickly, while keeping the seminar itself upbeat.

If you don’t know who Charlie Weingroff is, you can read his “bio” here.

With this in mind, I’m of the belief that this seminar serves as two items:

  1. A sequel to the first DVD he had, Training=Rehab, and
  2. An updated view on his most recent work Training Equal Rehab 2.

Of course, you will have to attend his seminar to truly understand and digest the information that was presented. Simultaneously, I’m of the belief that I cannot fully iterate the depths of the information provided by Charlie during this weekend of events, as they weren’t merely just broad strokes of information – he went in, and he took us for a ride.

[Note: He is hosting another seminar in early 2015 at Drive 495.]

121px-Canada_Basketball.svgTaking a flashback in Tarantino-esque fashion, I met Charlie at his facility in NYC, Drive495, in early 2013. I had the opportunity to chat with him about his personal philosophy one-on-one, along with getting a tour of his facility.

However, after that meeting almost 1.5 years ago, CW is certainly in a different place professionally. He is now using his skillets and knowledge to help the Canada basketball team, along with accelerating sports performance in many other teams across the world, to my knowledge.

Training Equals Rehab 2 – Live Seminar

Many different items were discussed, and for me to disclose over 16 hours plus of information would be a disservice – however disclosing a few topics and glossing over the information provided is something that I can provide.

The first hour or so dissected CW’s personal philosophy of how to interpret information, how to apply ourselves within the fitness/S&C industry, along with the casual interjection of Transformers quotes.

“Learning [new information] is uncomfortable.”

The interpretation I received from this line is that the process of learning is going to be uncomfortable. Information received isn’t usually presented in a pretty linear line, where there is always new additional information being processed. The necessity for creating a filter for information is just as important as the need for understanding, interpreting, and then applying the newly discovered information in a systematic way.

And then of course, there is the process of “Did I do this correctly?” and “Can I improve upon my methods?”

One of the first discussions we dove into is the state of the industry, namely what are the subdivisions of the more commonly referred to “strength and conditioning coach?”

  • Movement Specialists
  • Recovery & Allostatic Specialists
  • Sports Scientists
  • Sport Specific Coaches

Movement Specialists

This can be allocated to the traditional strength and conditioning coaches position. Assessing whether or not your athletes or clients are ready for fitness and performance based goals is important. Coaching exercises from a general physical preparedness level is within the realm of this subset.

Recovery & Allostatic Specialists

If the human body is not ready to provide specific outputs necessary for fitness (life) or performance (S&C) purposes, what is preventing this from occurring?

This is where the question of “Are you overtraining, or simply under-recovering?” fits very nicely.

Instead of pressing on the gas, sometimes we need to remove the e-brake in order to move forward at a more rapid rate. Providing therapy in whatever format will allow recovery to occur, along with other methods that can be done by yourself (foam rolling, utilizing breathing, etc).

Physical therapists, manual therapists, and chiropractors fall into this category.

Sports Scientists

I’m of the belief that this will be the “next big thing” with respect to the shift in sports performance. If it isn’t already on your radar, let this be an informal announcement – interpreting data is important for advancing in the field of sports performance.

At the same time, this is admittedly my weakest area of information, as I simply don’t have a specific route to go towards with respect to learning information.

Start here for more reading.

Sport Specific Coaches

This role has been here for quite some time, and I’m of the opinion that the smartest sport coaches will do their best to listen to the above three coaches for increasing performance.

Without an appropriate movement foundation (movement specialist), how can you task an athlete to drive their knee higher when sprinting, if they lack the requisite joint mobility to move into more hip flexion?

“Getting lower” during skating likewise requires a neutral spine position on top of an adequate amount of hip extension and hip flexion – what do you do if your athlete is experiencing bilateral anterior hip issues?

Or what do you do if your OmegaWave scores (sport scientist interpreting data) are low due to going out on a Thursday night, you have practice Friday morning, and you have a game on a Sunday?

This thought process brings up several unique things to look at if you are a sport specific coach.

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Change is going to be uncomfortable. 

(Personal Note: Lifting weights is uncomfortable. Achieving physiological change is going to be uncomfortable.)

Selye’s model of adaptation involves adapting to stress.

Selye

[Photo Credit: strengthpowerspeed.com]

  • When discussing improving a certain quality, the idea of specific adaptations to an imposed demand should always be at the forefront of our [coaches, trainers, physical therapists] minds.
  • If change is not elicited, did we at the very least maintain the qualities [of fitness]?
  • “There’s an input… and an output.”
  • Joint position is a sensory input to the brain.
  • The output is whether or not the system (body) can put forth effort for performance based outcomes.
  • If there is a lack of proper joint position, there will likewise be an inadequate output for motoric performance, and lack of input for further motor acquisition.

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Attempting to achieve physiological change is uncomfortable. This is the body’s method of “learning,” as there are multiple avenues of providing opportunities to learn how to move.

Movement

Functional-Movement-ScreenI’ve always appreciated movement since I was a teenager learning to dance, but I always find the categorization and application of movement based principles to be fascinating. Charlie uses the FMS to primarily identify movement limitations for performance based goals. And he is brilliant at what he does.

Say what you want about the FMS (and/or SFMA), no system is going to be 100% perfect. If you take it for what it is, it is a useful tool used to extract neuromuscular and biomechanical limitations, with the aim for extracting joint positions based on a neurodevelopmental-minded philosophy..

[Interpreting] movement is [accessing] windows of opportunities. Neuroceptive input influences mobility of that specific movement pattern. If you lack the requisite input or movement, where will your window of opportunity go with respect to outputs of performance and physiological adaptations?

Output

Start with the finish. With this in mind, not only can you move and adapt to stressloads, but can you also provide the necessary outputs, whether it is power, strength, or energy system minded goals, in order to be successful?

Further, CW went into detail regarding various methods of achieving output for increases in performance, from energy system development, to positioning for human movement and the exercises that follows suit.

One thing that will always continue to intrigue me, as with many others who are more intelligent than myself, is the thought process that goes into detailing and discoursing movement.

Take the idea of “output” for example, with respects to speed of movement.

If you have a car, and you have a capacity for 200mph for its top speed, sometimes you might not be able to achieve that 200mph for various reasons – you’re going uphill, weather conditions, worn tires, etc.

Driving a Car

One thing that might be limiting us from achieving “top speed” is that the e-brake might be cranked on. So, let’s utilize reflexive movement patterns, and various mobility drills to take the e-brake off, instead of cranking endlessly on the gas pedal to gogogogogo.

This came across in an example that I’m already relatively familiar with – post-activation potentiation, in which you perform a heavily loaded movement pattern (back squat), and then a lighter movement (barbell squat jump, or bodyweight vertical jump) to potentiate the motor units to “light up” faster.

However, instead of pressing on the gas pedal with the weights, take the e-brake off by performing various rolling/crawling exercises or mobility-minded exercises, and then go back to the speed-strength oriented exercise.

Beautiful and simple.

Readiness

This is one aspect of the seminar that I was most intrigued by, for the simple fact that I have only a slight introduction towards this idea. [Kevin Neeld utilized a Grit Score with our athletes at Endeavor Sports Performance, along with utilizing heart rate monitoring for all conditioning.]

6007_JuiceDrop

I probably took 4-5 pages of full notes on this, for the mere fact that I needed to find resources to discover how to incorporate these items into my current practice.

The biggest takeaway I received from this is that utilizing only HRV is a detriment, as it provides only a small vision into what is the whole body. There is much more to “readiness” than simply just accessing the heart rate and its variability with rest and training.

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The above is simply a snippet of the information that was divulged from the mind of Charlie Weingroff. I highly recommend attending his upcoming seminar.

However, if you cannot attend his seminar for whatever reason, I recommend purchasing the DVD Training Equals Rehab 2: Lateralizations and Regressions.

The following is what I believe to be of entertainment value, along with notations, continuing education seminars/certifications, and links to other items to read if you feel inclined to do so.

Quotes from the Weekend

  • “You have to believe in something.”
  • [From my notes] “Believing in everything, and believing in nothing, is still believing in something.”
  • “BRING THE HEAT.”
  • “Egregious.”
  • “Can your joints load and adapt to stress?”
  • “Magic is being the smartest person in the room.”
  • “Or you could be a 110lb soaking wet breakdancer, jumping on one hand!” (speaking about me)
  • “I like the way you think. You done good, son.”
  • “Breathe. Squeeze.”
  • “You can take the blue pill, or the red pill…”
  • “What is the cost of doing business..?
  • “Everything matters, and everything is done for a reason.”
  • “The B Team team plays on Thursday.”
  • “#BestInTheWorld”
  • “You can look both ways before you cross a street, but this doesn’t guarantee you WON’T get mugged before you get to the end.”
  • “Be so good that people can’t ignore you!!”
  • “You don’t train mental toughness.”
  • “You cultivate mental toughness.”
  • “Read everything written by Pavel.”

Some Other Key Items You Probably Didn’t Know About Charlie (That I Didn’t Know)

  • CW can rap, and pretty damn well too, if you ask me.
  • Digital Underground is on the tip of his tongue at any moment.
  • He can speak Spanish. And fluently, if I may add.
  • CW has some really good impersonations up his sleeve. [I’d like to see a Christopher Walken one, however.]
  • He likes Redline.
  • Charlie is 5’4.5” (5 foot 4 and 1/2 inches) tall, and approximately 195-200lbs on any given day.
  • He can squat the house, and he is probably (definitely) stronger than many of you reading this. (I did know this.)
  • He doesn’t eat bread.

Certifications and Seminars to Look Towards

Terms and Books for Further Discovering/Reading

Charlie and I

Training Equals Rehab 2

As always,

Keep it funky.

MAsymbollogo

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5 Thoughts on Conditioning for Dancers

Aerobic conditioning often brings about a knee-jerk reaction to thought processes of running long slow distances.

The fitness industry has gone back, forth, and back again as to why “long slow distance (LSD) running” is bad for you.

I’ve even written an article as to why running is “bad” for bboys. Looking at only mechanics of running versus three dimensional movement is a bit short-sighted of me, and I apologize for the lack of applied information.

However, aerobic fitness as a concept is important.

  • As a concept, aerobic fitness will help to improve nervous system functioning.
  • It will also help to improve cardiac functioning (improvements and increases in aerobic enzymes and left ventricle of the heart).
  • Lactate threshold levels are realized sooner if the body’s metabolism is not functioning from an aerobically optimized system.

When learning and adapting newer information, I have one main thought in my head:

Will this benefit dancers?

And the answer to this question of whether or not aerobic fitness will help is yes – aerobic fitness is extremely important for dancers.

By improving your aerobic conditioning, and improving on the body’s exchange of oxygen, you can exhibit less fatigue, last longer throughout battles, and even more extrapolated, you can improve your ability to learn new combinations and movements by the simple notion that if you are fatigued, you won’t be able to practice as intensely or for as long.

CompetingDemands

Photo Credit: RobertsonTrainingSystems.com

To take a step outside of the context of strictly just breakdancing, aerobic fitness is important for dancers of all types as well.

How? I’m so glad you asked.

Improving aerobic fitness can improve recovery.

Allow me to put this in a more realistic context. Imagine you are traveling from city to city, or you are performing night after night with no days off between rehearsals and performances.

Stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system is helpful for rest and digest mechanisms.

Increasing and improving cardiac parameters related to a more optimized aerobic system will allow more blood to flow with less cost to the system as a whole – more transactions with less cost.

This is opposed to enhancing your anaerobic, or more specifically the alactic/lactic energy systems, where there is only a finite amount of energy stores that will cost a lot more in terms of energy for the body to utilize.

How can I improve my aerobic fitness?

Money question there, young buck.

However, this is both a little more complicated than just running for hours every day. Sometimes it is as simple as reducing the amount of conditioning you are currently doing. The name of the game when it comes to dishing out advice online is that it depends, because everyone is different and will respond differently to exercise prescriptions.

Observations with Respect to Aerobic Fitness and Movement

My aerobic conditioning is lacking. For the past 3-4 months I’ve been tracking my heart rate whenever I session with people or whenever I’ve been on my own.

  • Power moves bring me up to an exceptionally high heart rate very quickly.
  • Even more obvious – footwork, toprocks, transitions, and combination movements result in lower heart rate numbers due to less demanding tasks (when compared to powermoves often seen in bboying).

So with this, I have a few suggestions for other dancers to try.

1. Buy a heart rate monitor and start seeing when you go over a certain threshold.

There are many ways to standardize your heart rate numbers, and “see” where you are in comparison, but if you go running, and utilize the running data as a means to set a standard for where your bboying conditioning should be, then we are already setting you up at a lower standard.

One quick way to do this is to perform your most intensive set, or footwork, or go all out with whatever move set you choose while wearing and tracking your heart rate.

  • Afterwards, see how long it takes for you to return to a heart rate of 130 bpm.
  • Record this time, and remember your move set.

2. Front load power moves in the beginning of the session.

There is a finite window of opportunity with which to practice, due to physiological demands from ATP and PCr energy stores being the drivers in these large movement patterns.

Energy Systems

Photo Credit: 8 Weeks Out

Also, the body’s nervous system has only so much in the “tank” before it gives – so by front loading your choice of movements to work on in the beginning, you are more likely to perform these movements  cleanly, while simultaneously improving your capacity to learn and string movements cleanly together.

Basically, by being less fatigued you are more likely to improve your capacity to move more and move better.

Performing movements under high levels of fatigue may pre-dispose you to a host of systemic issues, namely utilizing synergistic muscle groups as prime movers, when they should be stabilizers, otherwise known as synergistic dominance.

This leads to my next point.

3. Perform movements cleanly, and once you get sloppy, stop.

If you begin to drop in intensity, or it takes longer than a set number of seconds/minute(s) to recover your heart rate, then you should move on to the next task.

I have the ability to discuss heart rates during power moves because I literally had a heart rate monitor on when practicing power moves. Sometimes it took me 2 to 3 minutes to recover from a heart rate of 196 to 130 BPM. If I can make an assumption that someone will have a greater aerobic fitness level than me, then it should take that person less than 2 minutes to restore to an acceptable percentage of heart rate max.

Hopefully at this point, you understand the concept that there are wanted variables and unwanted variables when training. Reaching technical failure on a movement is a largely unwanted variable.

4. Train footwork and transitions to stay within a heart rate of 130 to 150 BPM.

Call this mental conditioning, but next time you practice footwork, give this a try on your off days. By staying within a certain pre-defined heart rate (the 130-150 BPM is an assumed target heart rate – each individual will have fluctuations above and below these levels), you are more likely to stay within a specific range of functioning.

Why?

Well, I’m always looking to see if things will transfer to the task that is necessary.

In this case, bboying is the name of the game.

So if you can perform your sets, footwork, and other dancing at a lower heart rate than previous sessions, I’d like to imagine your economy of movement is improved.

Basically you’re more efficient.

I’d say you’re relatively inefficient if your heart rate is at 190+ during footwork for 2 minutes at a time.

5. Recovery between sets is important, so be cognizant of your work:rest ratios.

If you perform back to back sets, chances are you will be at a high heart rate for a long time. Literal physiological power output will likely decrease past a certain number of seconds (8 seconds is the an important time to remember, as this is when the alactic energy system is primed for contributing.)

I’ve timed bboy sets, watched hundreds if not thousands of battles by this point, and I’ve competed as well, all to make an observation that more often than not, many higher level bboys utilize a timeline of about ~15 to 30 seconds of powermoves, footwork, and dancing to get their point across.

Any more time than that, and the message you are trying to convey may not come across as well due to fatigue.

Obviously, performances will have a different set of demands, as they often range anywhere from ~2 minutes to 60 minutes+ of high performance energy!

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For those interested in more application of energy systems training to dancing, read on ahead as I’ve attached some interesting items from Mike Robertson and Joel Jamieson respectively.

Further, if you’re interested in learning how to take it to the next level of dance, please sign up for my newsletter, and/or pass or share this info along using the easily available buttons at the bottom of this post. I would appreciate it!

As always,

Keep it funky.

MAsymbollogo

Further Reading

Robertson Training Systems – 10 Nuggets, Tips, and Tricks on Energy System Training

8 Weeks Out – Research Review: Energy Systems, Interval Training, & RSA

8 Weeks Out – Truth About Energy Systems (VIDEO)