1 Simple Tip for Busy Dancers…

…to maximise your strength practice.

Have you been doing an exercise routine or movement practice for a while and feel like you have plateaued? But you just don't have the time to do more sets and reps?

Today I wanted to share one of my favourite ways to get the most benefit out of your movement practice when you are short on time.

What I would like you to consider is “time under tension.”

Let’s take for example a hip bridge - normally I would give a standard tempo to perform it at - i.e. 2 counts up and 2 counts down. However by adjusting the timings and even adding some holds, you are increasing the work the body has to do with each rep and even increasing range of motion and the number of muscle fibres recruited (hello flexibility!)

Give this a try:

Try performing 8-10 Hip Bridges and see how you feel afterwards - a score of level of exertion from 1-10.

Rest for 1-2 mins

Try 4 counts up into the Bridge, hold for 2, come down for 2 - try 6-8 and see how fatigued you feel after those! 

Hopefully you have noticed a difference and can try substituting timing adjustments to other exercises too to try and maximise your strength practice in a short amount of time. 

Of course, by doing  the regular speed ones and then the slow ones right after, that will also make the latter ones harder. Try the slow ones again on their own later on today or fresh tomorrow and see how they go!

Let me know how you get on and how you incorporate this into your current practice!

And look out for next week’s blog, I’ve got another tip for you to help take this further.

Don’t have a movement practice or are struggling to create or maintain one? Check out my Strong Motion programme here or shoot me a message here  to find out how I can help.