Strength training for dancers: what the studies in dancers measured, the lifts, and a week around class and rehearsal

Strength training for dancers, in the research, is fitness and strength work added to a dancer's classes and rehearsals, and the measures are strength, power, endurance and sometimes how performances are scored. This page is written for adults; the studies cited here were done in ballet and contemporary dancers, one of them including younger novices, which the page says, and it stays on strength: no flexibility advice.

The studies cited here are few and small, and that matters for what follows. A 2009 systematic review of fitness in contemporary professional and student dancers found only two studies of supplementary exercise training and dance performance, and said further research was needed to confirm preliminary data.¹ A 2009 review of professional classical ballet noted that fitness programs supplementary to dance classes have only recently been considered, reported weaknesses in the upper body, torso, hamstrings and quadriceps, and noted dancers have been wary of strength training.²

Strength shows up in the jumping. In 35 classical ballet dancers (11 men and 24 women) in three groups, novices (12 dancers averaging 16.6 years), semiprofessionals (13, averaging 20.0) and professionals (10, averaging 23.8), countermovement jump and drop jump performances were related to grand jeté leap performance (r = 0.77 and 0.76), with large to very large correlations within groups that grew as skill increased. The abstract doesn't say whether those two figures are pooled across all 35 dancers, so the novices' younger ages may be in them.³ That's a correlation on test day, not proof that training the jump raises the leap.

What supplementary training did in dancers

24 women who were contemporary professional and student dancers, averaging 27 years, were randomly assigned to an exercise group or a control group (12 each; three withdrew). The exercise group added a 6-week conditioning program of two one-hour sessions a week of circuit and vibration training to their normal dance commitments; the circuit work focused on local muscular endurance and aerobic conditioning. The exercise group's lower-body muscular power rose 11%, upper-body muscular endurance 22%, aerobic fitness 11% and the scored aesthetic competence 12%. The control group reported decreases in all the fitness measures except aerobic fitness, and a 7% decrease in aesthetic competence; the abstract doesn't say whether those control-group changes were tested.⁴

That's one trial of two dozen women, over six weeks, and the program was circuit and vibration training, not a barbell program. It shows what a program like this did for those dancers. It doesn't tell you what a lifting block would do for you, which is why the week below is labelled practical.

The lifts for dancers

The trial's abstract doesn't list its exercises, so these picks are practical, built on the strength areas and the jumps the review and the leap study point to.

New to the barbell? How to get stronger covers building up to heavy sets, and how much weight to lift covers picking the load.

A week around class and rehearsal

A practical layout, not a protocol from a trial. Two sessions a week match the trial,⁴ and it ran six weeks, so give a block at least that long before judging it.

Put the strength sessions on days away from the hardest rehearsals and performances, or after class, and keep the legs lighter the day before a show. Cardio and lifting covers the order and the gap between sessions.

Strength training for dancers at home

Practical, with no equipment: split squats and step-ups on a stair, single-leg Romanian deadlifts, calf raises on a step, hip bridges, push-ups, planks and side planks, and small jumps. The bodyweight workout lays out a full session and the resistance band workout adds a band for rows.

Common questions

Does strength training help dancers?

In the one randomized trial cited here, a 6-week program of circuit and vibration training raised lower-body muscular power and upper-body muscular endurance in contemporary dancers.⁴ The reviews say the evidence on supplementary training is limited so far.^1,2

How many days a week should dancers do strength work?

Twice, in the trial.⁴ Around a full dance week, two short sessions are a practical fit.

Does this cover ballet and contemporary?

Both appear in the studies cited here: the trial and the first review in contemporary dancers,^4,1 the second review and the leap study in classical ballet.^2,3 Other styles aren't covered.

Is this for young dancers?

No, this page is for adults. The trial's dancers averaged 27 years.⁴ The leap study included novices averaging 16.6 years, so its correlations aren't an adult-only finding; its semiprofessional and professional groups averaged 20.0 and 23.8.³

Training for another athletic skill? Volleyball players, martial artists and climbers each have a page.

If you'd rather have the week planned

Fitting strength sessions around classes, rehearsals and performances is a scheduling problem as much as a training one. Coaching here is general strength and fitness coaching, not dance coaching: your workouts are built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and rebuilds the next one around what's coming. How coaching works explains it, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: put the Monday lower session in next week, and keep it there for six.