It’s the final edition of my three part series, Functional Exercises for Dancers! This last blog will be all about core exercises – a dancer’s favorite. Make sure to check out my previous two blogs on upper and lower body. With this last iteration, you can pick and choose exercises from all blogs to create your own full-body workout, or do a split series and focus on the different body parts on different days! Usually, I add core exercises to the beginning of my workout in the warm up section. Since the exercises all focus on activating the muscles along the trunk through alignment and posture, it is a really great way to prepare the body for the more demanding resistance exercises that follow. More on this at the end of the blog in the sample workout section.
Now, ballet dancers in particular are known for their strong core. Pilates is a frequent cross-training partner to dance due to its technical focus on the core, principles similar to dance, and being a bodyweight style of fitness. So you probably already know some popular ab exercises and how to use your abs. But the core is not just a six pack of abs.
The “core” refers to a region of the body and is actually composed of many muscle groups around the lumbopelvic hip complex (LPHC) – abdominals, hips, glutes, and lower back. Core muscles can be divided into two types: local and global. Local core musculature attach on or near the vertebrae and have direct control of the spine. These muscles stabilize and maintain posture during movement, making sure the vertebrae doesn’t move so much to protect the spinal cord. As a result, beginner core exercises focus activating and strengthening in the local core muscles with minimal movement of the LPHC. Global core musculature on the other hand are more superficial along the trunk and act to move it, transferring loads between the upper and lower body. These are the force producers. After appropriate strength is created in the local core muscles, exercises progress to target the global core with actions that require a full range of motion and eventually explosive force production. Thus, if the local core muscles are weak, the entire kinetic chain is compromised, leading to improper movement efficiency and injury.
Muscular System
Local Core Musculature | Global Core Musculature |
Rotatores Multifidus Transverse abdominis Diaphragm Pelvic floor musculature Quadratus lumborum | Rectus abdominis External abdominal obliques Internal abdominal obliques Erector spinae Latissimus dorsi Iliopsoas |
Core and activation exercises should have the following progression:
1. Intervertebral Stability | 2. Lumbopelvic Stability | 3. Movement Efficiency |
Targets local core muscles with little movement of the spine Focus on activation and stabilization | Targets global core Full yet controlled ROM of the spine with more dynamic movements | Explosive movement and force production through the core and other extremities |
To activate the core muscles, I always say the following cue: “pull your belly button in towards your spine”. This action recruits the local core muscles like the transverse abdominals for stability of the trunk. When performing exercises that require more trunk protection like a heavy deadlift or weighted lunges, use your breath to draw in the belly button and brace the core, like you’re about to be punched in the stomach. Bracing helps contract the global abdominals at the same time for extra muscle recruitment. But don’t forget to breathe!
Exercise List
All the exercises are listed in the progression explained above, starting with the most basic exercises ending with the most explosive and force-producing. Many of the exercises listed I have actually covered before in previous blogs (since many core exercises also activate other muscle groups). If you’re not a beginner, move onto the latter exercises to utilize your core for full ROM and force production – really critical in more advanced dance moves especially in pas de deux or contemporary choreography.
1. Dead Bugs
Training phase: intervertebral stability
Target muscles: local core
Equipment: bodyweight
Progression: use with a ball
After foam rolling and some light stretching, I always start my warm up workout with dead bugs and bridges. Dead bugs are a proven better exercise for the core than crunches or sit-ups because it utilizes the local core muscles for stabilization whilst working on contralateral limb engagement (the alternating leg and arm action). The opposition movement in this exercise helps to work on your coordination and balance for dance and even everyday activities. In addition to the abdominal engagement, the back and hip muscle groups are also recruited to prevent the lower back and pelvis from arching off the floor, promoting correct postural alignment. Overall, it’s a really effective exercise that you should be doing right now!
2. Hundred
Training phase: intervertebral stability
Target muscles: abdominals
Equipment: bodyweight
Progression: different head/leg position or use with a ball
The hundred is a classic mat pilates exercise. It is traditionally done at the very beginning of a pilates session as the arm pumps will warm up the body and increase the heart rate. The name comes from repeating the arm pumps 100 times without stopping. Now, usually the proper technique of the hundred requires the head and shoulders to be lifted off the floor and the legs held straight at a 45 degree angle. However, this is super challenging for beginners! I suggest starting with your legs held in tabletop position and head flat on the mat. You will still feel the abdominal engagement even with these regressions. Make your arm pumps large to get your blood flowing and heart rate up right away. And make sure you’re following the correct breath cue: inhale for 5 beats, then exhale for 5 beats – that’s already 10 reps. Repeat 10 times until you hit 100. It may take some practice for the breathing cycles, but this dynamic action is great work for your lungs as well. Next time you’re in ballet class, you won’t find yourself out of breath after a long allegro combination!
3. Plank
Training phase: intervertebral stability
Target muscles: compound
Equipment: bodyweight
Progression: up and downs, twists, any variation!
Quintessential exercise the plank is. I’ve said this before, but plank is one of the best exercises for dancers to do. It is an all-engaging exercise utilizing the entire body (but mostly focused on the core) and is exhausting to do correctly. Since I’ve written about the details of plank before, I’m not going to add much here except for one more thing: if plank is too difficult for you to do correctly due to lack of strength in the local core muscles, revert back to your dead bugs. Since dead bugs aren’t weight bearing and they are performed lying down, it’s a safer and more beginner-friendly exercise than plank is.
4. Side Plank
Training phase: intervertebral stability
Target muscles: obliques
Equipment: bodyweight
Progression: leg raises or clamshells
Side plank is quite a difficult exercise. It’s a one-armed plank, so it requires a base level of strength in your supporting arm and hips to be able to hold the pose in correct alignment. Side planks also require a great sense of balance to sustain the position. Side plank mainly targets the obliques – the abdominal muscles located on the sides of your body that wrap around the torso connecting the front and the back. Obliques are important in dance for a strong supporting side, especially when doing barre work, or anything on one leg for that matter, like developpes in adagio. Progress up to a proper upright side plank with some modifications you can try: use your elbow instead of your hand, bend and place your knees down, put your feet in one line for a larger base instead of stacking them. Hold your side plank starting for 10 seconds, then work your way up to a longer time and the next variation from there.
5. Leg Raises
Training phase: intervertebral stability
Target muscles: lower abdominal area, pelvic floor
Equipment: bodyweight
Progression: Leg Circles/Grand RDJ
Leg raises or leg lifts are a perfect exercise to target the lower portion of the abs. Most other ab exercises mainly work the upper abs. The lower abdominal area is very important for dancers because it helps to control our pelvic floor and strengthen our lower back. To maintain a lifted posture with a neutral pelvis requires work from our lower ab area. It is the source of our “lifting up” / “pulling up” / “grow taller” feeling. The most important note for this exercise is to protect the lower back by not letting it overly arch as you lower and lift your legs. To start, only go as low as you can with good alignment – keep the belly button pulled in towards the floor. Lower your legs closer to the floor once enough strength is established.
A great progression from the straight up and down leg raises would be to replace it with a circle movement. The circular motion of the leg recruits more core muscles and requires more stability of the core overall to hold the body still. This movement is similar to that of a rond de jambe in ballet class. Whilst the working leg is circling, the body and supporting side must anchored steady in order not to drop the rond de jambe. As the leg circles from devant to a la second, pull in the abs further and think about counterbalancing by engaging the opposite oblique to keep the torso square. Practice these “grand rond de jambes” in both en dehors and en dedans to see how you need to engage the muscles differently for each direction.
Other intervertebral stability core exercises include bridge and cobra as previously written about.
6. Plank Knee Tucks and Pikes
Training phase: lumbopelvic stability
Target muscles: abdominals
Equipment: bodyweight, with small towel or slides
Progression: use a stability ball instead
After establishing a baseline of intervertebral stability with the local core muscles, it’s time to add in some dynamic movement of the core for the global core musculature. This phase is all about controlling the core through a full ROM – flexing and rotating the core. These are your intermediate level of exercises. A plank knee tuck or pike hits all the muscle groups like your basic plank, but in a dynamic motion. To perform a knee tuck and/or pike, you must first have a solid high plank position. Place your toes on top of a flat towel or a pair of slides. For the knee tuck, keep your butt low as you slide your feet and knees in towards your chest, feeling the “crunch” in your abs, before returning back to high plank. The pike is a little different: keep the flat back position and instead hinge from the hips up into a pike or downward dog position. It is important that you feel the difference between the two positions in terms of your muscle engagement and posture. For an advanced challenge to stability, try the exercise using a stability ball instead. You will find you will actually need to really engage the core just to balance on the ball and prevent yourself from falling off, not just to perform the tuck/pike!
7. Side Bend
Training phase: lumbopelvic stability
Target muscles: obliques
Equipment: bodyweight or dumbbells
Progression: heavier weight
I know I totally said above that now we’ve reached intermediate level exercises, but this one is really simple so I suggest you add some light weights to make it more challenging. We all know side bends – we typically do them after plies in second positions stretching towards and away from the barre. They are a standard in our port de bras steps for garnering greater mobility in our core. It is important in dance that we have an appropriate level of flexibility and wide ROM of our body to allow ourselves the greatest freedom of movement and look effortless doing it. Side bends help us keep a flexible waist but at the same time build strength in our obliques to hold our posture. Use a dumbbell in the opposite hand of the side bend for added weight. Make sure to perform each rep slowly to feel the stretch when bending, but also feel the muscle recruitment upon returning upright. Remember, heavier weight may mean a smaller ROM, so keep the weight light to begin with for a greater stretch whilst working up to a heavier set.
8. Pilates Criss Cross
Training phase: lumbopelvic stability
Target muscles: abdominals and obliques
Equipment: bodyweight
Progression: try with a resistance band
Whereas the side bend laterally flexes the obliques on a frontal plane, this criss cross exercise twists the obliques on a transverse plane. Same muscle, different movement pattern. Another pilates exercise, but this one is a bit tricky in that it requires arm/leg coordination and some mat pilates experience… so, review your dead bugs, hundred, and leg raises. I suggest breaking down this exercise into the upper and lower halves before attempting it all together. Try the lower half first – bicycling the legs. This is actually a very good pilates exercise by itself (you can add it to the first half of the list above after the Hundred). Then, try just the twisting of the upper body with the knees bent and feet flat on the floor. What makes this exercise difficult is twisting correctly. We don’t just want to point the elbows to the opposite sides and move the shoulders. Remember, this is an ab exercise, so the motion needs to originate from the abs! Think about twisting to meet your opposite knee and armpit together. This will force you to keep your arms wide and utilize your abs for the twisting motion. Like the Hundred, this exercise is also wonderful to do in the beginning of your workout to increase your heart rate and work the lungs (make sure you employ correct breath technique)!
Other lumbopelvic stability core exercises include back extension/supermans as previously written about.
9. Cable or Dumbbell Chop
Training phase: movement efficiency
Target muscles: compound
Equipment: cables or dumbbells
Progression: medicine ball throws
Moving into the last phase of core progression, a cable or dumbbell chop simulates a wood chop motion throughout the core and upper body for power building. The chopping action is usually done downward from a higher to lower plane, but you can also do a lifting action in the reverse manner to work the core in a different pattern. These functional movement patterns are great for dancers to build rotational strength and power in the core, especially for port de bras, cambres, renverse, and more. Start off slow and controlled; make sure to engage the entire body when performing the chop – rotate the torso, turn the hips, and pivot the back foot. For an advanced option, switch to very light weight and do your chops at a higher rep tempo for faster force production. Since power is our goal here, we want to produce the highest amount of force in the fastest time possible. This is perfect for male dancers who need that explosive energy in the core for advanced steps like tours, jete manege, and grand pirouettes.
10. Medicine Ball Rotation/Twist/Chop Throw
Training phase: movement efficiency
Target muscles: compound
Equipment: medicine ball
For the ultimate form of core movement efficiency, progress your chops, lifts, and twists to using a medicine ball. Previously, our cable and dumbbell chops will practice our technique and focus on generating some power in the movement. But by using a medicine ball (different modality), decreasing the weight (medicine balls should be no more than 10% of our bodyweight), and thus increasing our speed, we are creating a higher rate of force production with our core than any other exercise. This is because we are actually throwing the weight! The tempo for a medicine ball chop throw should be explosive – as fast as possible to have the muscles contract quickly. Load and explode! Make sure your workout space is suitable for this exercise (I suggest concrete or brick walls and hard floors) and be careful of your surroundings when throwing the ball. Since this exercise is power-focused and at an explosive rate, keep the reps low and rest periods long. (This exercise is not for beginners!)
TL;DR:
The core, made up of many muscles in the lumbopelvic hip complex, is super important for dancers for stability, balance, and even power.
Start your core program with intervertebral-focused exercises like dead bugs and plank for stabilizing the trunk.
Then progress to lumbopelvic exercises that utilize the core over a full ROM before attempting the advanced power generating exercises of weighted chops and throws.
Sample Core Workout (reps x sets)
Core exercises are great for the warm up section of your workout to get that beginning activation and build up the heart rate. I suggest doing all the exercises in a circuit fashion and then moving to your usual resistance training workout. A circuit is a training technique in which the exercises in a program are performed one after the other with minimal rest. After weight training, I always like to cool down with either leg raises or plank to round out my workout. It brings the program full circle to start and end with core activation and stretching.
The first two sample circuits are beginner level and are a great activation warm up since they are only performed once. If adopting these two programs for a whole workout in itself, I suggest performing the circuit four times (4 sets). The latter circuits for the more advanced as they include our power exercises described above. The two longer and more exhausting advanced circuits are to be performed twice. I recommend doing a shorter resistance training section after as to not overwork the body.
Core Activation Beginner Circuit 1
Dead Bugs | 20 x 1
Bridges | 40 x 1 (20 reps normal, then 10 single leg bridges on each side)
Pilates Hundred
Plank Crunch and V-Up | 20 x 1 (10 reps of each)
Leg Raises | 20 x 1
Core Activation Beginner Circuit 2 – Oblique focus
Dead Bugs | 20 x 1
Back Extension with Twist | 20 x 1
Pilates Criss Cross | 50 x 1
Side Plank | hold 30 seconds on each side or 10 leg raises on each side
Side Bend | 20 x 1 (10 reps on each side)
Core Activation Advanced Circuit 1
Dead Bugs | 20 x 2
Bridges | 40 x 2 (20 reps normal, then 10 single leg bridges on each side)
Pilates Hundred
Dumbbell Chop | 10 x 2
Medicine Ball Rotation Throw | 5 x 2
Core Activation Advanced Circuit 2
Dead Bugs | 20 x 2
Bridges | 40 x 2 (20 reps normal, then 10 single leg bridges on each side)
Pilates Criss Cross | 50 x 2
Dumbbell Lift | 10 x 2
Medicine Ball Chop Throw | 5 x 2
Side Note: As you can tell, I love dead bugs and I do them in every single one of my workouts
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