Simple and Strong: Strength Training for the Performance Artist

Dancer overhead pressing

As a performance artist—be it dance, broadway, circus, stunts, or whatever art form you make your home—you’re body goes through demanding, high-skill, and high-performance workloads every day. With all that you do out there on the stage of your craft, you need a workout that is going to support your ability to handle the physical stress, not simply add on top of it. So, how do you do it?

You Can Never Be Too Good At a Plié, or a Squat

Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. Every craft has fundamentals—the basics that underpin everything else. Dance has pliés, singing has breath work, acting has active listening. Strength training has the squat pattern and the hinge pattern (deadlifting), and just like performance fundamentals, everything else is built off of those two basics. If you are good at those, you can be good at all the rest.

All the rest, by the way—things like rows, pull downs, push ups, chin ups, dumbbell presses, curls, flys, and on and on—are known as accessory exercises in the strength and conditioning world. They are accessory because they come after the fundamentals. This idea is critical when thinking about how you, the performance artist, should spend your time at the gym.

Think Supporting, Not Adding

If you are a full time performance artist, like we see here at Flyspace, then you are doing a lot! You are dancing, jumping, singing, swinging, twirling those arms around, literally using your body to shower the audience with energy and charisma. As your achy neck, cranky back, or pinchy shoulder may already be telling you, that’s a lot of stress on the body. In the gym, we need to build your resiliency effectively with an absolute minimum on wear and tear. But how? (Did we mention fundamentals?)

One thing about performers, such as yourself, is that 9 times out of 10 you can already move well. You can do at least a squat, or a hinge, or both. That being the case, you can use those movements to do 90% of the training you need. Quite literally, you can hit the gym for 30-45 minutes and do a simple warm up, train your squat or deadlift, and maybe do one other movement and be done.

The other principle that goes along with keeping the exercise selection basic is to focus on strength rather than volume or endurance. In other words, relatively heavy load for lower reps—something between 4 to 6 repititions per set. Why? Remember, you are already doing a lot of activity on stage. We want to add as little on top as possible while still being effective.

Basic Workout for the Performing Artist—Example

Ok, so our principles are to focus on the basics, keep the load relatively heavy and the reps around 4 to 6. Here’s one example of how that could look.

Hypothetical Workout A - 2 to 3 times per week

1. Body Weight Bridges - 3x10

   
   

   

   Bridges

   
   

2. Kettlebell Deadlift - 3x6 at a reasonably challenging weight. (For most performers, high double digits, working towards triple digits.)

   
   

   

   Kettlebell deadlift

   
   

3. Overhead Press - 3x6 at a reasonably challenging weight.

Overhead press

Total time: roughly 30 minutes.

How Do I Know What Weight To Use?

Certainly part of the trick to this is knowing what weights to use. The higher the load, the more you are building your strength, but the more challenging it is to keep your form together. Our recommendation is the same we would make if you were learning to dance, sing, or act—get some lessons! At Flyspace, we offer a basic weight training class for performers to learn exactly what is described here. You may also want to investigate some personal training or even get some advice from a trusted physical therapist.

Summing It Up

If you are a performing artist who is looking to support their body for the demands of your craft:

• Focus on the basics: Squat pattern and hinge pattern (deadlift)

• Don’t do a lot of repetitions. Instead, focus on a heavier weight and fewer reps (4 to 6 repetitions for 3 to 4 sets).

• Use accessory exercises sparingly.

• Try to get some lessons. You didn’t learn your craft with no guidance; your strength and conditioning is no different!

• Have fun and stay fabulous!