Are you looking to get into a dance workout routine with some easy dance exercises this year? Then I’ve found the best, easy dance exercises you can do everyday!
As a dancers it is important for us to condition our bodies just like athletes. However, it can be hard to know where to start when it comes to beneficial dance exercises. With my own exercise and dance conditioning journey I’ve found myself going to these ten AMAZING dance exercises to boost my strength to keep me dancing.
These exercises will help condition and train your body for hours of dancing and dance rehearsals. Other benefits of these dance exercises include injury prevention, improved strength, improved flexibility, and more!
You are going to learn about the best exercises for dancers, dance exercises, exercises for flexibility, exercises for strength, and more.
After reading this post you will have found the best exercises to add to your dance training routine.
This post is all about easy dance exercises
Easy Dance Exercises
Dance Exercise #1: Plank Variations
Planks are an excellent and easy dance exercise to target multiple aspects of your body as a dancer. Planking targets your core muscles in a variety of ways to build your stability and endurance.
There are a variety of different planks that you can try to target different areas of the core and body.
Check out this article for some great plank exercises and tips for executing them
This is video with some ideas for a few plank variations that your can do to strengthen your core
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Dance Exercise #2: Calf Raises/Releves
Calf raises or as us dancers might call them, relevés, are an excellent and simple dance exercise designed to target your lower leg and ankle.
Dancers spend a lot of time jumping or in a relevé position, so it is important to strengthen this part of the body for these actions.
You can do calf raises in a variety of variations. Here are a few ways to try calf raises to strengthen your lower leg and ankles:
- One leg
- With ankle weights
- Both legs
- Turned in
- Turned out
- In each ballet position
- While holding dumbbells or weights
- On a bosu ball
- With a ballet barre or stable base
- Free standing
Dance Exercise #3: Resistance Band Exercises
Nearly every dancer has used an exercise or resistance band at some point. And that is because they are a great way to train your muscles.
Most dancers are familiar with using resistance bands or “therabands” for strengthening their ankles for pointe work and ballet. However, resistance bands can be used to train and work the entire body.
You can use resistance bands to strengthen your hip flexors, turn-out, por de bras, and more for all of your dance conditioning needs.
Resistance bands are great to use if you are recovering from an injury or in physical therapy. That is because they allow you to do low impact exercises and target a variety of muscles.
Dance Exercise #4: Leg Swings
Leg swings are a great way to improve your stability and warm up your hip joints. You can perform them standing and holding onto a ballet barre or stable surface, lying on the floor, or standing on your own.
You can perform leg swings by stabilizing your core and swinging your leg forward and backwards or side to side. Make sure not to let your core go because this can put harmful pressure on your lower back.
Check out this video for a leg swing dance exercise that you can do!
Dance Exercise #5: Lunges
Lunges target the muscles in the legs, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Building strength in these muscle groups contributes to better stability and control during dance movements.
You can try lunges in a variety of different directions to improve your balance and stability on one leg.
Here is a video of some lunge variations and exercises you can try
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Dance Exercise #6: Dead Bugs
Dead bugs are one of my FAVORITE exercises for strengthening and stabilizing your core. They are a very low impact exercise that you can do at a variety of levels. Dead bugs are actually more effective at improving core strength, endurance, and flexibility than crunches are.
Here is how you perform dead bug:
Start with your legs bent at a 90 degree angle lying on the floor and your arms reaching up towards the ceiling. Stabilize and work the core to extending one leg straight while the opposite arm extends above your head.
If you want some more information of dead bug exercises for dancers and some great variations for dancers, I recommend this blog post from Dancers Who Lift!
Dance Exercise #7: Single Leg Balances and Exercises
Practicing your balance and stability on one leg can have massive benefits for your dancing. You can try balancing and simply holding your balance or you can try some different exercises with dumbbells, weights, or just your body weight for more of a challenge.
Different types of single leg exercises and balances can challenge your leg stability from the hip down too. This stability is incredibly important for us dancers.
Check out this link for some great single leg balance exercises to improve your stability
Dance Exercise #8: Foam Block Exercises
Foam blocks have a variety of exercises that you can do with them. They are especially useful for training your leg stability or adding some distance between your body and the floor for stretches or other exercises.
This is one of my favorite hip flexor exercises to do with a foam block:
Start with a foam block (you can also use a water bottle or weight) near your ankles. Your legs should be straight out in front of you and not turned out. Now you are going to isolate your hip flexor and lift your leg up and over the item.
Check out this video for some great foam block exercises for dancers
Dance Exercise #9: Squat Variations
Squats are a compound exercise that engages multiple muscle groups and offers a range of benefits for overall fitness. Squats primarily target the muscles in the lower body, including the quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves. Strengthening these muscles is essential for improved stability, balance, and power in various activities.
The benefits of squats for dancers include engaging and strengthening the quads and glutes for jumps and dynamic movements.
For this exercise, try different squat variations including squats with jumps and squats with a releve.
Check out these squat exercises for dancers
Dance Exercise #10: Dynamic/Active Stretching
Dynamic or active stretching is incredibly beneficial for dancers. Dynamic stretches for dancers help get the body ready for movement while also allowing the muscles to stretch.
To try this exercise, try stretching and moving through each stretch. This should be different from static stretches that just stay in place for a given amount of time.
Benefits of dynamic stretching include deeper physical stretch and increased mobility in the body.
If you want to learn more about dynamic stretching, check out this blog post from dancer fitness
Before you go:
I hope you found these amazing and easy exercises for dancers helpful for your own dance fitness journey.
Comment your own favorite exercise for dancers that you use below!
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This post was all about the best easy exercises for dancers
