The Avid Dancer’s Guide to Staying Healthy
As a passionate dancer enrolled in hours of dance classes every week, you may start to feel all that physical activity taking a toll on your body. Follow these tips to continue doing what you love without straining yourself.
Stay Hydrated
Water is critical during any physical activity, but dancing is particularly notorious for causing dehydration. Keep your fluid intake at about one cup every 15 minutes during strenuous rehearsals to stay hydrated. Sports drinks are beneficial, but stick with plain old H2O most of the time to avoid the added sugar and calories.
Take Time to Warm Up
There’s a reason instructors start every dance class with warm-ups and stretching—it’s important to get your muscles, ligaments, and tendons warm before you push them to their limits. Otherwise, like a cold rubber band, they are liable to break when stretched too far.
Remember Strength Training
Dancing is a healthy physical activity on its own, but it’s mostly cardio. Strength training is beneficial to add on the side to build muscles that will help you be a stronger dancer. Lifting weights also promotes better posture and spinal alignment for cleaner movements on the dance floor.
Get Enough Rest
The nature of being a competitive dancer may lead to late rehearsals, early call times, and long hours that take you to your limits—not to mention your schooling, job, family, and social life. Getting a good night’s sleep can help. You may also try adopting relaxation techniques to help lower your stress levels and fight insomnia.
Pay Attention to Signs of Injury
Sometimes, your willpower as a passionate dancer is so strong that you will ignore physical pain, injury, and sickness to keep dancing. However, failure to seek treatment for a dance class injury could result in long-term damage. Don’t let that happen—see a doctor about recurring pain and get the treatment you need.
Are you interested in taking dance classes in Cupertino, California? Dance Academy USA offers numerous lesson times to fit with your busy schedule. Contact us by phone or email to sign up!