It is well understood that many would recommend Pilates for dancers across all genres. Pilates creates unique, core specific, cross conditioning crucial to a dancer’s range of movement and career longevity through injury prevention. After all, it was dancers who first discovered the benefits of Pilates at Joseph Pilates first Studios in New York and set in motion the Pilates fitness programme we see today.
Many of the industry’s most accomplished Pilates Instructors come from strong dance backgrounds- we can most certainly attest to this with our very own instructors Jade, who trained with the English National Ballet, and Jess , who performed internationally for several years .
One of the most important outcomes Pilates can achieve for a dancer is to teach them how to use their muscles effectively. We often see ballerinas who have larger hamstrings than they should, as they have not effectively been activating their inner thighs and buttock muscles during Plies. What is fantastic about Pilates is that you get the chance to slow right down and focus on the muscle groups that you should be using during each exercise.
The difference between using a Pilates reformer machine and hitting the gym is that the machines at the gym aim to bulk, and often-put strain onto the muscles in order to do so. A reformer machine aims to lengthen and strengthen without bulking, while facilitating the core to stabilize.
A regular, targeted Pilates workout will strengthen and stabilize a dancer, as well as improve technique. Learning to activate your deep abdominal muscles is a lot easier when you take the time in a Pilates class to visualise it, rather than having to concentrate on having soft ballet hands, lowered shoulders, slightly bent elbows etc during ballet Barre.
Learning to use specific muscles such as your deep abdominals and hip stabilising muscles allows a dancer to gain a stronger understanding of their body, and use it in different ways, for example by relaxing their hamstrings and utilizing their inner thighs during plies to achieve a deeper bend.
Let’s not forget the role Pilates plays in injury prevention. Using your muscles in a balanced way greatly reduces stress and strain on joints especially ankles, knees and hips in dancers. Have you or someone you know suffered from a recurring muscle strain? Pilates’ focus on strengthening AND lengthening trains muscles to be strong in all positions and under varying loads preventing injuries.
We are enormously proud to be continuing the passion of Mr Joseph Pilates in working side by side with dances to achieve their goals and move beyond their expectations!
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