How Does Ballet Help Your Fitness Level?
Even if you're starting ballet as a beginner, regular dancing can boost your fitness level through cardio activities and strength and flexibility training.
If you're excited by the prospect of longer, leaner muscles and a more graceful gait, an adult ballet class might have more appeal than the local gym. On the other hand, the learning curve is steep for beginning dancers, particularly when you're an adult. It takes time to learn ballet's unique vocabulary and master even basic steps and movement combinations. As you sweat it out in class, keep your eye on the prize. Over time, ballet can help improve your fitness profile by building muscle and improving cardio endurance.
Strength-Building Benefits
Ballet exercises boost strength throughout your body, from the small intrinsic muscles of your feet to the larger muscles of your back, glutes and calves. Classical ballet technique involves rising onto the balls of the feet or toes, turning out the leg at the hip socket and sustaining high leg extensions to the front, side and back.
Constant repetition of these exercises builds considerable strength in specific areas, most notably in the hip, lower leg, ankle and foot. However, ballet's muscle-building benefits are limited, and ballerinas are notoriously weak in their arms, hamstrings and quads, leading to strength imbalances that are a risk factor for injury. Recognizing that ballet training alone isn't sufficient to protect them from injury, many ballet dancers work with free weights, attend Pilates classes and engage in other muscle-building activities to beef up their upper-torso, core and upper-leg strength.
Read More: Calories Burned in a Ballet Class
Cardio Endurance
A typical ballet class involves short bursts of high-energy combinations that can leave a dancer gasping for air. On the flip side, those frenetic moments in class are interspersed with slower movement combinations and time spent standing still as the teacher demonstrates or offers corrections. A great deal of what happens during class places little demand on a dancer's heart and lungs. As a result, ballet dancers often demonstrate lower levels of cardiovascular fitness.
Because technique classes alone can't prepare dancers for the higher aerobic demands of rehearsals and performances, dancers often supplement their ballet training with more-intense cardio activities, such as running, swimming or using elliptical machines. In a fitness-focused dance class, cardio endurance can be emphasized by completing a longer, higher-intensity warm up or completing a number of movement combinations, solely for the purpose of repetitious activity.
Balance, Agility and Flexibility
Ballet training scores high in terms of developing flexibility, balance, agility and coordination. Over time, ballet's complex movement combinations, quick turns, fast footwork and high leg extensions can improve these aspects of your fitness profile.
Flexibility is of utmost importance to a dancer, particularly in ballet. Even if you're starting ballet as an adult, you can expect to make significant gains in these areas if you're diligent.
Boosting Your Fitness Profile
Taking one 45-minute class a week might be great for de-stressing after work, but once-a-week dabbling with dégagés probably won't bring the hardcore fitness results you want through ballet alone. Improvements in alignment, strength, flexibility and speed take time and consistency.
For measurable fitness gains, you'll need to take two or three classes a week over a period of months. When you're in class, maximize your time there by staying focused and paying close attention to your instructor's corrections. Staying after class to stretch, work with resistance tools and practice steps or combinations you find challenging will help boost your fitness level more quickly.
Read More: What Muscles Does Dancing Ballet Strengthen?