What’s More Important For RI Dolls Dancers? Strength Or Flexibility?

Dancers at RI Dolls in Woonsocket, RI know that strength and flexibility are important if you want to be awesome on the poles but which is more important? They both are so you need to find a balance between strength and flexibility. If you find a good balance between the two, you can do lots of things on the poles.

Strength

When you work on building strength, you will likely need to use weights. You don’t necessarily have to use heavy weights at a gym. You can buy some weights that you can use at home and build strength throughout your body. Get a good set of weights that you hold in your hands that vary in weight. Different weights will be used for different exercises. You should have several pairs of weights from 5 lbs. to 30 lbs.

Don’t work the same set of muscles two days in a row. Instead, alter your day with lower body and upper body exercises. Start with a lower weight to find out what you are able to do without hurting yourself. You should be able to do at least eight repetitions. If you can’t do that many then you should choose a lower weight. Build up to 15 repetitions. If that’s easy then you know it is time to increase the weight that you use.

One of the most important things to remember when using weights is to make sure that you are doing it properly. If you’re new to using weights to build strength, get the advice of a professional. Go to a gym or book some sessions with a personal trainer and learn how to do the exercises right – form is everything!

Flexibility

First and foremost – don’t compare yourself to anyone else. Your age, muscle tone, past experience with exercise, and natural flexibility all play a role in how flexible you can be. You can increase your flexibility though if you train consistently.

And that’s important – consistency. Your muscles have memories and if you slack off for a period of time, you’re going to have to backtrack and relearn the flexibility that you’ve lost. You’ll make better progress if you stick to a schedule and don’t take too much time out between flexibility workouts.

It’s important to warm up before you do a flexibility workout. This will help to prevent injuries and it will maximize the benefits that you can get from each workout.

Give yourself time. Don’t push it too hard or you can get injured really fast and that can not only set back your flexibility progress but it could also cause you to miss time at work and you don’t want that! Don’t rush it and don’t push your body farther than it wants to go.

Balance

Although it has already been mentioned, balance is critical. Don’t over train for strength or your flexibility will be lacking when you want to do certain pole routines. Don’t undertrain for strength though either because it won’t matter how flexible you are if you can’t hold the position or yourself!

Alternate days of flexibility training and strength training. Get some aerobic training in there too, so that you don’t run out of breath and energy when you’re on the stage. If you are balanced in your exercise routines, you’ll be able to do so much more.

If you work on strength and flexibility, you will have the ability to create fun, entertaining and interesting routines that not all the other dancers are able to do. Your customers will come back for more all the time because they will look forward to seeing what kind of new routines you have come up with.

Do It Right

It’s worth mentioning again that it is important to make sure that you are doing the exercises to build your strength and flexibility properly. If you don’t have a lot of experience in doing these exercises make sure that you get the help of a professional to learn the proper form. You don’t have to work with a personal trainer all the time but a few sessions can be very helpful. Personal trainers can also help if you find that you are in a rut and that you are not making the progress that you once did. They can help you find some new exercises and routines to bring your workouts back to life again and make them more effective.

Being a dancer at a place like Rhode Island Dolls is work and even when you’re not at work, you need to work at keeping your body in tip top shape.