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Have you ever heard about stretch routines for dancers? If you’re a dancer, you need specific stretching routines that are different from non-dancers. This is based on the findings of a study comparing the stretching routines of dancers and non-dancers (3). You’ll gain the greatest benefit in an increased range of motion, relaxation, and healing after dance sessions. If you dance part-time, you probably have to go to the office, work as a computer technician, take care of kids, run a business, or any other job. A good stretch will help you get back to those activities without feeling the strain of your energetic salsa dance competition. Here’s how stretching will help.
Having a basic understanding of how stretching helps dancers will make you less likely to overlook these important exercises.
Stretching helps increase blood flow to your muscles (12). This helps repair and heal damaged muscles by providing essential nutrients and oxygen through the blood.
It helps both young and old dancers, but it’s particularly useful if you’re older and your muscles take longer to recover from intense physical activities.
If you accompany your stretching exercises with deep breathing, you’ll stimulate the vagus nerve in your body. This will help slow your heart rate by activating your parasympathetic nervous system and countering your body’s stress responses (7).
Such a biological process will help you relieve stress, especially if you participate in dance as a leisure activity. You certainly don’t want to go back to your high-pressure CEO job feeling more stressed than when you left.
Read More: Types Of Stretches To Loosen Up Your Body From Head To Toe
Flexibility is vital for nearly all dancers. Fortunately, stretching further enhances the range of motion of your joints, which is a key aspect of flexibility (5).
This benefit is particularly useful if you participate in disability dance due to certain forms of physical disabilities that affect your flexibility.
Even if the disability you have doesn’t affect your flexibility directly, stretching will further enhance your abilities. For instance, stretching exercises can enhance upper body movements for someone confined in a wheelchair.
Now that you know the benefits, which stretching routine should you adopt?
Here are three main categories of stretching methods that can help dancers (10).
Static stretching is what many people have in mind when they mention stretching.
It’s simply putting your limbs in certain positions that stretch out the targeted muscles. You take it to a point when you feel tightness in your muscles and hold the position. This elongates the mechanical structures of your muscles and increases your range of motion (ROM).
In this category, you can find excellent stretching exercises for flexibility.
One of these stretches for flexibility enhancement is the ‘Kneeling Stretch’ (11). Here’s how you do it:
Just like normal workouts, you can achieve more from these stretches by exercising as a couple or with friends. Supervise each other during the exercises to ensure that you’re doing it in a proper form.
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Active stretching is quite useful since it replicates most dance movements.
It’s basically about contracting and stretching a pair of opposing muscles: you contract one muscle so the opposing muscle can stretch. The longer you hold this stretch, the more you benefit from an increased ROM (6).
Here’s an active stretch you can try for your quadriceps:
As you perform these stretches, remember to compliment them with nutrition that further enhances your flexibility. For instance, vitamin C found in citrus fruits will help maintain healthy joints.
Other foods to consider include oily fish, chicken, beans, dairy, avocados, and watermelon. Also, drink enough water.
Dynamic stretching is often used in yoga practice.
You never hold your limbs in any specific position for long. Instead, you take the limb from full contraction to full extension, through the complete range of motion. Do this in a controlled motion, with either a slow or moderate speed.
The carioca drill is such a dynamic stretching exercise (4) and here’s how you do it:
Such dynamic stretching is not only useful for dance moves, but also to various sports. The carioca drill, in particular, is useful to soccer players in building their dribbling skills.
Dancing itself may help you become a better athlete if you’re engaged in both physical activities. The coordination required in dancing can translate to better agility in sports such as basketball, football, volleyball, hockey, gymnastics, and rugby.
Many stretching routines for dancers have a strong focus on the legs. That’s because dancing often involves frequent leg movements. Even when your legs are not moving, they are still maintaining the stability of your entire body.
Here is a selection of some of the best stretches for different leg muscles.
One of the best stretches for your hamstrings is the ‘Assisted Hamstring Stretch’ (1).
Here’s how you do it:
Understandably, such stretching exercises may seem less exciting compared to an adrenalin-filled rumba session. So, to liven things up a bit, you can put on some soft music in the background that can help you enjoy your stretching session.
While listening to songs such as “Girl on Fire” – Alicia Keys, “Roar” — Katy Perry, “All Eyes on You” — St. Lucia or “Dissolve Me” — alt-J, you’ll hardly notice the clock moving.
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You’ve probably felt your calf muscles aching after an energetic bout of dancing. So, a good stretch will help ease the pain.
Try out this stretch (8):
The simplicity of these stretching exercises makes it possible to perform even if you are at your workplace.
If you had to rush back to work after your part-time dance gig, you can still stretch your aching muscles while working.
For your feet, you shouldn’t just focus on stretching but strengthening them as well.
All the weight of your body rests on your feet, so they need strength more than flexibility.
Here is a good exercise to strengthen your feet (8):
And here’s a good exercise to stretch your feet:
Apart from helping dancers, these types of feet exercises can be useful to people working in jobs where they stand most of the day like sales floor stock clerks, food prep personnel, waiters, cooks, and fast-food workers.
Your back is critical in ensuring stability during most dance routines.
Without a strong back, you may not easily coordinate your movements. If your back isn’t flexible enough, you’ll have problems adjusting your movements comfortably.
Therefore, you need the best stretches for the upper back and lower back flexibility.
One particularly effective stretch is the cat stretch, flexion, and extension stretch for your back (2) and here’s how you do it:
While doing such stretches, make sure that nothing is obstructing your limbs from reaching the full range of motion.
This means that your clothes should be properly fitting or flexible enough not to obstruct your movement. Generally, you can wear T-shirts, sports bras, tank tops, yoga pants, tights, capris, and shorts.
Read More: How Often Should You Stretch To Enjoy The Benefits Associated With Stretching
Ballet places a particular emphasis on the range of motion of your limbs. Therefore, stretching can play a major role in helping you excel as a ballet dancer.
Fortunately, there’s a range of stretching exercises specifically designed for ballet.
“Barre” exercises feature prominently as being specifically suited to ballet dancing. Such exercises are designed around the wooden rail which ballet dancers use during practice.
But you don’t necessarily need the wooden rail since many basic structures around you can serve the purpose. These include tall tables, countertops, chairs, balcony rails, windowsills, banisters, stools, and dressers.
An exceptional “barre” exercise to try out is the Ice Skater stretch (9):
As much as stretching is beneficial, doing it poorly can be detrimental.
You should only stretch your joints to about 80 percent of the maximum range of motion. Pushing it further can initiate a shaking response which is a clear indicator that you’re doing it wrong. The stretch should also not cause any pain in your muscles. That’s different from the line you sense when your muscles are stretched taut. The pain is more like a spot rather than a line.
However, if you’re stretching without feeling any sensation, you’re probably not gaining much.
To better understand this, you can relate it to how entrepreneurs handle risk: an opportunity with too much risk and little benefit is bad for business, but too little risk usually means little benefit as well. The best deal offers just the right balance between risk and benefit.
So, don’t be afraid to stretch that muscle.
By routinely using these stretch routines for dancers, you can increase your performance and avoid unnecessary injuries. However, don’t expect results instantly, but wait to experience a gradual improvement as you continue stretching after every dance session. Also, try out different stretching exercises so you can target as many muscle groups as possible.
This article is intended for general informational purposes only and does not address individual circumstances. It is not a substitute for professional advice or help and should not be relied on to make decisions of any kind. Any action you take upon the information presented in this article is strictly at your own risk and responsibility!