Strengthening Your Season
On this weeks episode of The Dance Docs I sit down with Dr. Emily Noe PT out of Oakland CA to discuss how to incorporate and tailor a conditioning plan that will incorporate strength, endurance and power. We hope that this information will spark your thought process in developing your cross conditioning program and help to progress you back to your pre pandemic dance level injury free.
IADMS iConference going on Now- free to members check it out through the IADMS website for facebook page.
Depending on what area you are looking to build you can apply different principles. We can play with the same exercise to make it more challenging and target building a different system.
Many exercises can be dosed or tailored to target one of these three areas.
For a high level dancer coming back off of this extended time off just taking ballet class not enough to build you back without injury.
Muscular Strength-
When talking about strength we are looking to increase the size and energy capacity of the muscle
Strength helps the muscle to perform activities for longer.
80-90% of 1 rep max Holten curve (pure strength)
What is 1 rep max- The heaviest load that a dancer can perform a full movement with good coordination/form 1 time (and no more than that)
Looking to avoid compensation patterns.
4-10 reps to fatigue
Fatigue is when you are no longer able to hold proper form, start to see a lot of compensation patterns, or just simply can’t do another rep.
Helpful to have a workout buddy, trainer, coach, PT etc who can look at your movement.
If you dont have anyone- you can use a mirror, just mae sure you are maintaining good alignment
I use an app called HUDL technique- great for slowing down videos
How many squats can you do with perfect form? Target would be someone where between 4-10 (If you can do 20 with good form then how do we make the exercise harder - add more weight or adjust the exercise )
To build strength you would want to do 2-3 sets to fatigue (point where you lose your form)
Want a program that will target multiple areas
Want to work, calves, hips, core, arms, full body integration
These programs want to be completed 2-3 days a week
Many times when building strength you create microtears within the muscle and they need time to recover- heal- and therefore get stronger!
Concentric vs. Eccentric work *prone back extensor example
Concentric exercises that target shortening the muscle
Concentric work increases capillary density compared to eccentric so can be used for specificity in training.
Eccentric exercise focus on controlling the motion back to starting position or into a lengthened position(lengthening contractions)
Usually needs more time to recover from a program focused on eccentrics because of the increased peak torque with training this way.
Peak torque- max amount of force generated by a muscle to create movement around a joint
Muscle deoxygenation for strengthening-
Blood flow restriction training (50-70% occlusion depending on area of the body)
allows for lower load on the muscle with same amount of stress to the tissue
Blood flow restriction exercise: considerations of methodology, application and safety
Pure strength working beyond steady state- ph change within the muscle (becomes more acidic- lactic acid) causing the actual mechnism of muscle contraction to stop.
Goal in training is to improve the body’s ability to clear metabolites allowing for increased strength and endurance capacity
Research on Strength training to decrease injury
Australia ballet- saw that after incorporating strength training had an overall decrease in injuries
30 single leg calf raises yielded fewer injuries
30 reps at one time will transition into the endurance capacity of a muscle
Specific way to increase strength-
Calf raises (single leg)
Squats- pistol squat
Russian dead lifts- single leg deadlift (running man)
Nordic curls (hamstring strains)
Pushups / pullups
Muscular Endurance
Muscular endurance- The ability for a muscle to sustain repeated contractions against a resistance for an extended period of time. Muscular endurance can also be looked at as the muscles ability to resist, withstand and recover
Vs. Cardiovasc
This is where most of the workouts occur
Example completing a petite allegro or a challenging variation without feeling exhausted at the end
Works the Aerobic system which focuses on use of oxygen to provide energy to the muscles for continued contraction.
60-80% 1 RM, 10- 25 reps to fatigue (ACSM <50%)
20-30 reps for dancers- have to be slightly super human
When we look at traditional calf strength we actually test for the endurance of this muscle-
20 would be 5/5 “normal” for general population
Research on dancers is showing 30 due to the demands of the job
2-3 days/week * but could do more because you should be able to recover between workouts and not necessarily have delayed muscle soreness when training endurance.
If someone can tolerate endurance based exercises without residual discomfort, DOMS, no pain the day after we know that they can tolerate more load and transition into strength based conditioning
Why is muscular endurance so important- increases the vascularity to the tissues allowing increase oxygen exchange.
The muscle needs restoration of the intramuscular vascular system and endurance exercise is what helps to bring in more oxygen for fuel.
This may be the most important factor as dancers begin returning to class, rehearsals and stage performance.
Concentric exercises are more benficial for endurance training due to increase blood flow to muscle
Examples of endurance based exercises:
Body weight lunges (increase hip strategy)
Squats
Floor barre
ankle/ foot intrinisic exercises
Pilates
Gyrotonics
Light upper body weight exercises
Dynamic stretch workout (been doing with dancers- this actually combines muscular and cardiovascular endurance)
To some extent technique class is an endurance based program
Why endurance training is important when returning from tendonitis
Increase the load/ work from the muscle instead of strain on the tendon itself
Tendonitis- increased reps to load tissue
Dr. Kat starts with some backwards walking over eccentric releves off a step- functional, low load, longer duration. Also use isometics throughout the ROM bent knee and flexed knee (soleus- where I tend to see the weakness and lack of control)
Muscular Power
Definition of muscular power: The ability to overcome resistance over a certain distance
Usually for tasks that require all strength and speed at one time such as a large jump or other dynamic movements that require full effort.
From a PT perspective we would look at a jump or movement with high speed to ensure good form upon returning to full activity.
>90% 1RM, < 4 reps to fatigue
ACSM recommends 3-5 minute rests between sets which is shown to be beneficial both within training sessions and performance with subsequent sessions. * You do not Exercise yourself into shape you rest yourself into shape.
After a true power workout you should be spent- really feeling like you have no more to give
Testing for power-
Squat jumps
Triple jump
Box jump ups
Progression of power exercises
2→ 2 (squat jump)
1→ 2 (jump forward pushing off one foot landing on 2 feet)
1→ 1 alternating (bounding forward or skaters)
1→ 1 same (triple jump)
2→1 (jumping forward off of two feet landing on one foot)
Traditionally a jump progression based on loading out have
If we are looking at Power what might a workout look like
Traditional plyometric programs
The Dance Docs Blog on Plyometric training- both traditional and dance specific programs
Can be done for form during a grande allego jumps
Tour jete
Tours en lair
Grande jete
Effects of plyometric training vs. traditional weight training
How would you actually dose this-
If I was working with a dancers coming back- in addition to class
2-3 days of endurance training
1-2 days of strength
1 day of power
Really focusing on 2-3 days a week of the extra workouts can yield huge gains
Make sure that you are taking rest days as you are incorporating this into your program
Part of this is learning to push past that wall
Make sure that you are also optimizing your diet for the increased demands that you are placing on your body.
Dr. Emily Noe PT, DPT, FAAOMPT
She finds her strength in determining the root cause of the problem but enjoys treating patients holistically. Her years of dance training, and now love for hiking, biking and climbing help inform her prescription of therapeutic exercise with creativity and specificity.
Dr. Emily Now PT became interested in Physical Therapy due to an injury during her professional dance career. She performed professionally in NYC as well as Miami and her own choreography has been presented at La Mama Theater NYC, Suny Purchase Buffalo, and the Colony Theater in Miami.
After receiving her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Florida International University, she completed 2 years of Residency and Fellowship training in Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy from the Ola Grimsby Institute. It was during this training that she learned the importance of specific tissue diagnosis and treatment. She finds her strength in determining the root cause of the problem but enjoys treating patients holistically. Her years of dance training, and now love for hiking, biking and climbing help inform her prescription of therapeutic exercise with creativity and specificity.
She currently provides dance injury screens, prevention, and conditioning classes to companies and studios around the Bay Area and treats privately at Truve in Oakland. She is certified through Owens Recovery Science and uses Blood Flow Restriction during rehab and training of patients. She has taken Didrik Sopler's nutrition for healing courses and often finds this to be a helpful component in rehabilitation. Emily is excited about treating patients of all ages who struggle with orthopedic injuries to sports specific training and is flattered to be part of the Dance Docs Podcast.