Why you should do cross training when you belly dance!

Dance should look effortless on stage, but it is by no means effortless

As much as we would like to be carried away by the music, a certain amount of technique is needed. And technique is inextricably linked to muscle strength, flexibility and condition.
In my new program “Train Like a Dancer” you will be guided how to achieve  this.
 
​Maybe you have not thought about this subject at all, but if you are taking class with me, you have heard me say many times in class, train these muscles at the gym, do your abdominal exercises, work on your glutes outside of class.
The fact is that we only have 75 minutes in class and you want to spend those 75 minutes as much as possible on dance, because after all it is a dance class and not a sports class.
 
So if I am strong I will dance better?
A big yes! Because every physical activity is based on muscle load and belly dance is no exception. In my thirteen years of teaching, I see that students have difficulty performing basic dance steps and exercises, and that is because they have some degree of underdeveloped sport specific muscles.

Cross training means stronger muscles
Stronger muscles mean more body control
More body control means dancing effortlessl
​

​What is cross training?
Cross training means that you use different ways of training than the exercises you would do that are normally associated with your movement form.
So with belly dancing you can think of pilates, yoga, running, hiit and fitness.
 
In my next blog article “Why is Belly Dance so Difficult?”, I am going to analyze a basic step and you will see how it works in terms of muscle load. We are going to see how different muscle groups work together to achieve a movement. Of course, not all muscles are developed in the same way in your body. Cross training helps you to ensure that you can train your body in such a way that different muscle groups are sufficiently developed and you can perform the belly dance movements effortlessly, which of course also makes you less likely to injure yourself. Because different training forms have a different load on your muscles, you prevent unilateral training. In belly dance we use the same muscles over and over so that it can get stuck and stick. As a result, you get imbalance in your muscles and because the muscle is no longer flexible, you also have a greater chance of injuries.
 
Benefits of cross training
Because cross training encourages your body to move in a different way than you do in belly dance, it will help you increase your strength, condition, flexibility and range of motion.
Ultimately, all of this will help you to get out of your comfort zone and shine on stage.
 
Of course cross training is not a requirement, but I am in favour of it. As a hobby dancer you can also do fine without cross training, but your learning process will take a little longer.
 
If you got excited and want to start with cross training safely and use it correctly for your belly dance, my Train Like a Dancer program will soon be online. Train Like a Dancer is specifically for Belly Dance and Fusion to train the entire body on strength, condition and flexibility. But actually everyone can benefit from it, even if you don't dance.

My next article will be about “Why is Belly Dance Difficult?”. This post will be released at the end of the month. There will be an accompanying video with it for free.