Exercise and strength conditioning are basically the same no matter what type of sport you are training for. The only difference is there are different training programs for the different sports. Dancing is no different. Basic conditioning for a dancer isn’t that much different than conditioning for athletes.

While all athletes need to work on strength, flexibility, muscular endurance, and cardio-respiratory endurance, dancers, however, need to train for three categories not used by athletes. They are proper alignment conditioning, neuromuscular coordination, and relaxation skills. Here are the basic five core principles of conditioning and training for all of those who are interested in becoming serious dancers.

• Warm-up and cool down – One of the most important things you can do to properly prepare your body for the stress you are about to place upon it while dancing is to warm it up. Warm-ups for different dance techniques vary, but they generally include doing some stretching, slow repetitions of movements accompanied by breathing exercises, and jumps or other activity to warm the large muscle groups. Your warm-up should adequately raise the body temperature and prepare the muscle groups for any activity. Sometimes forgotten but the cool down is also just as important. It is crucial to decrease the intensity of an exercise before you stop completely, thus preventing blood from pooling in the extremities which i causes muscle soreness and spasms.

• Use it or lose it – Did you know that your muscles will start to lose their memory after 48 hours of non-use? Dancers who won’t be active or practicing a technique during their vacation will need to keep this fact under consideration. When you are not dancing for a period of time, you won’t lose all of practice but you’ll be much further behind than everyone else.

• Start an exercise program effectively –

• Start off slowly and gradually work your way up to more vigorous exercises.

• After any workout that really stresses a muscle group, take a little time to undo the bad effects and take note of the good effects.

• Before stretching, try contracting the opposite muscle group to fully feel the effects.

• Use what you know about how joints and specific muscles act and react to pinpoint the exact muscle or muscle group that you want to strengthen or stretch.

• Listen to your body. If something is starting to hurt, chances are you pulled something. Take a rest and try working on another area of the body.

• Progressive overload - Stress placed on the body must continually increase in order to increase the muscle capacity of your body. In other words, to become stronger, you must continually add more weight and increase the resistance to the muscles. The adequate level of conditioning must be comfortable for you, since you cannot just continue to overload your muscles forever. There is a limit to how much your muscles can handle.

• Working in efficient positions - Any type of conditioning you do has a chance to cause the dancer more problems if she is doing any exercises improperly. Proper alignment is critical for any successful conditioning program. Bad alignment will cause joint stress which in turn leads arthritis, stress fractures, or chronic pain. Remember that misalignment is common when you are fatigued; so make sure you do not set yourself up for these problems by planning your exercise program to be too long.