Strength Training for Dancers: Complete Guide & Training Program

If you dance hip hop, shuffle, house, popping, locking, breaking, krump, waacking, dancehall, or any other street or club style, you need a strong body.

Not powerlifting strong and not get-huge-strong, but the kind of strength that makes you faster and more explosive. And less likely to injure yourself.

If you want to dance better with fewer aches, strength training belongs in your routine. This program is built specifically with the dancer’s needs in mind.

Go directly to the program in StrengthLog.

Why Dancers Need Strength Training

A lot of dancers avoid the weights because they think lifting will make them bulky and slow.

That’s mostly hogwash.

Strength training doesn’t automatically make you bulky, and it definitely doesn’t make you stiff and slow.

You need to eat more food than your body needs and train for muscle growth over a long time to get bulky (and even then, it’s something you have to want and fight for).

For a dancer, a well-designed strength program makes you more athletic, not heavy or clumsy.

Up-to-date research recommends that “dancers who wish to improve their aesthetic competency are recommended to participate in extra SC (strength and conditioning – my clarification) sessions.”^{1 2}

That’s because doing so improves “lower body power, upper and lower body strength, and flexibility.”

And that’s exactly what every dancer needs.

How Should A Dancer Strength Train?

A dancer should strength train like an athlete.

That means building strong legs, strong hips, a powerful core, stable ankles, and the necessary upper-body strength without tiring yourself out to the point where it ruins the quality of your actual dance practice.

A good setup includes 2–3 strength sessions per week, plus your dance practice. You want to keep your weight sessions fairly short, probably no more than 45–60 minutes.

Avoid training your legs so hard that you walk out of the gym feeling destroyed, and don’t skip your upper body or core. Even if your style is leg-heavy, your upper-body muscles still matter.

Muscles That Matter

For dancers, the most important areas are:

Glutes and Hips

They power grooves, jumps, floorwork, direction changes, and help with knee control.

Hip thrusts, Romanian deadlifts, squats, side lunges, and split squats are all great.

Quads and Hamstrings

Because these guys protect your knees and help with low positions, freezes, drops, shuffles, and footwork.

Squats and deadlift variations are the basics and everything most dancers need.

Calves and Ankles

Because styles like shuffle and hip hop footwork take a toll on your ankles and require lower-leg power.

Train both calf raises and tibialis raises (the back and front of your lower legs), and add some jumping movements, like jump squats and lateral bounds, and you’re good.

Core

But not just crunches.

Because you need your core to transfer force and stop rotations. Planks, side planks, dead bugs, Pallof presses, farmer’s carries, and hanging leg raises are some excellent core builders for dancers.

Upper Body

Because upper-body strength is essential for floorwork and waving, and every style requires balance and posture.

Push-ups for your chest and shoulders, and rows and pull-ups for your back are staples that never fail.

Power

It’s also a good idea to include some jumps and explosive work for power.

Some good choices include box jumps, broad jumps, lateral bounds, pogo hops, medicine ball throws, and short sprints.

Keep the reps low and stop before you get tired; you want to be able to put everything you have into each rep.

Strength

The biggest mistake you can make in the weight room as a dancer is doing too much random conditioning and not enough heavy, progressive strength work.

If you can already handle the weights you’re lifting, you’re not giving your body a reason to get better.

Start light and easy, but as soon as you have decent basic lifting technique down pat, try to increase the load and do more reps when you can.

That’s called progressive overload, and it’s what builds the strength you want for dancing.

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If this all sounds complicated, don’t worry.

If you follow the Strength Training for Dancers program, it takes care of the exercise selection and programs them into ideal workouts for dance performance.

Strength Training Program for Dancers

This is an 8-week strength plan for dancers (hip hop, shuffle, house, waacking, popping, and other street styles) of all levels. Whether you’re just getting started or pro-level, building a stronger body will benefit your dance.

This program is designed to work extremely well with all modern dance styles, making you stronger across all necessary movement planes.

It builds strong legs and hips, ankles/knees, good core control, and enough upper-body strength for floorwork and dynamic moves without making you too tired for dancing.

You can, of course, still dance during this program. Ideally:

• Strength: 2–3x/week
• Dance practice: 2–5x/week, depending on your level

During weeks 1–4, you’ll do 2 strength workouts per week, adding a third by week 5.

If you’re dancing a lot, do 2 strength days instead of 3 all through the program: alternate A and B one week, then C and A the next, back to A and B, and so on.

The exercises are basic and straightforward, so you don’t need extensive strength training experience to follow this program.

You can jump right in, even if you’ve never lifted before, and you’ll get complete video and text instructions for every movement, both here in this guide and in the StrengthLog app.

Weekly Structure

• Workout A: Lower Body + Core
• Workout B: Upper Body + Lateral Power
• Workout C: Full Body

Try to spread your training sessions out so you have at least a day of rest between them. You don’t have to micromanage your workout days more than that.

Example (2-Day Week)

• Mon: Workout A
• Thur: Workout B
• Dance on other days

Example (3-Day Week)

• Mon: Workout A
• Wed: Workout B
• Fri: Workout C
• Dance on other days, maybe one overlapping

Can you dance on strength-training days and vice versa? Yes, you can, but it’s even better if you can separate them.

If you train both the same day, do the most important workout first.

For most dancers, that would be dance training, but it could be the other way around if you’re not performing your best when you dance because you don’t have the necessary muscle strength.

In that case, prioritizing strength work for a time would be a good idea.

Load, Progression, and Rest Times

Here’s how to think about things like how long to rest between sets and how heavy to lift.

Load

Use a weight heavy enough so that the last repetition slows down significantly.

You don’t have to train to failure so that you can’t complete your last rep, but if you could have done 3 or more reps, the weight is too light.

Progression

If you complete all sets with good form:

• Increase upper-body lifts by 2.5–5%
• Increase lower-body lifts by 5–10%

OR:

• Add 1 rep per set before increasing weight.

Rest Times

Rest 60–120 seconds between sets (recommendations, not set in stone).

Longer rest is fine if you want, but you want at least a minute to recover and perform your best.

You can also rest longer for harder exercises, like squats, and shorter for easier ones, like calf raises.

Strength Training for Dancers: Sample Week

Below is an example of a week from the program with the exercises you’ll be doing (Workout C only from week 5 and onward).

The exact number of sets, rep scheme, exercise progression, and the planned intensity and volume structure are available in your StrengthLog workout tracker app.

Workout A: Lower Body Strength + Core

Warm-up:

• Leg swings x15
• Deep squat hold x30 seconds
• Glute bridges x15
• Ankle hops x30 seconds

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Goblet Squat	2–3	10
Romanian Deadlift	2–3	10
Bulgarian Split Squat	2–3	8
Standing Calf Raise	2–3	20
Side Plank	2–3	30 seconds
Dead Bug	2–3	12

Week 5 Changes: Barbell squats replace goblet squats, seated calf raises replace standing calf raises, Copenhagen plank replaces side plank, add dumbbells to dead bug.

Workout B: Upper Body Strength + Lateral Power

Warm-up:

• Band pull-aparts x15
• Arm circles x20
• Scapular push-ups x10
• Jump rope 2 min

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Lateral Bound	2–3	4
Hip Thrust	2–3	12
Side Lunges	2–3	8
Push-Up	2–3	12
Dumbbell Row	2–3	12
Pallof Press	2–3	12

Week 5 Changes: Single-leg hip thrusts replace regular hip thrusts, kettlebell side lunges replace bodyweight side lunges, dumbbell chest presses replace push-ups, farmer’s carries replace Pallof presses.

Workout C: Full Body (Week 5 and Onward)

Warm-up:

• Light pogo jumps x20
• Arm circles x20
• Leg swings x15
• Hip openers x10

Exercise	Sets	Reps
Jump Squat	2–3	5
Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift	2–3	8
Kettlebell Swing	2–3	10
Push-Up	2–3	12
Assisted Pull-Up	2–3	8
Plank with Shoulder Taps	2–3	15
Superset: Standing Calf Raise + Tibialis Raise	2–3	15+15

You can run this program year-round and adapt it (2 or 3 workouts per week) according to how busy you are with your dancing.

Get Started With the Strength Training for Dancers Program

This and many more training programs are in the StrengthLog workout log app. The app is free to use, forever, with no ads.

This program, however, is a premium program, which means it requires a premium subscription.

We offer all new users a free 14-day premium trial. You can activate it in the app without any strings attached.

Strength Training for Dancers: The Exercises

These are all the exercises you’ll be doing in Strength Training for Dancers, in the order they appear in the program, with all the hows and whys explained.

What if you don’t like an exercise or you can’t do it for some reason (an old injury, for example)? Can you switch it out for another one?

The answer is yes, as long as it’s an exercise with a similar movement pattern, you can usually do it instead.

That being said, I’ve included all the exercises below for a specific reason, so if you switch any of them out, you want to make sure your replacement is functionally similar.

For example, if you want to do front squats instead of back squats, or incline dumbbell presses instead of dumbbell chest presses, be my guest. But replacing squats with leg extensions? That won’t work. They are very different functionally.

Goblet Squat

The goblet squat gives you base strength and control that make level changes, low grooves, and jumps easier and more powerful.

You’re doing goblet squats in the first 4 weeks of the program, not only because it’s an excellent exercise but also because it teaches loaded squat mechanics. If you don’t have much experience with weight training, it’s the perfect introduction.

Plus, it makes you stronger in the “sit into the groove” position that running man variations and bouncing require.

Week 5 and onward, I’ve programmed regular barbell squats instead, but you can continue with goblet squats if you love them. The problem with goblet squats as you build stronger leg muscles is that you have to use such a heavy kettlebell/dumbbell that your arms tire first.

How to Do Goblet Squats

1. Grab a kettlebell by the sides of the handle, and hold the kettlebell against your chest.
2. Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart, and your toes pointing slightly outward.
3. Inhale, lightly brace your core, and squat down as deep as possible.
4. Reverse the movement and return to the starting position. Exhale on the way up.
5. Repeat for reps.

Note: you can do dumbbell goblet squats if you don’t have a suitable kettlebell.

Romanian Deadlift

The Romanian deadlift, or RDL for short, is a really useful exercise for dancers because it trains the hinge – hips back and torso forward – and builds strength in your hamstrings and glutes. You can do it with a barbell or a pair of dumbbells.

Much of the movement quality when you dance comes from muscle control through your hips, pelvis, and posterior chain, not just the knees and quads. When you combine the RDL with the other lower-body exercises in this program, you get the kind of multidirectional strength in springy and controlled movements dancers need.

The Strength Training for Dancers program includes both regular and single-leg RDLs. The latter is great for hip stability and asymmetry, and carries over directly to dance (because most dance movements are not symmetrical in motion).

Bulgarian Split Squat

The Bulgarian split squat is a rear-foot-elevated squat where you put one foot up on a bench behind you while the front leg does the work.

It’s awesome for any dance style where you need hip control and single-leg balance (which is most styles). Many hop transitions load one of your legs more than the other, and because dance is rarely symmetrical, the unilateral strength you build with Bulgarians is extra useful.

A forward torso hits your glutes more, while a more upright torso hits your quads more. Dancers benefit from both, but I would start with a slight forward lean to get a bit of both and a great transfer to dance.

Note: You can do split squats with just your bodyweight (great if you’re just getting started), dumbbells, or a barbell, like in the GIF above.

How to Do Bulgarian Split Squats

1. Place a bar on your upper back or hold a pair of dumbbells in your hands.
2. Stand with your back turned against a bench, which should be about knee height. Stand about one long step in front of the bench.
3. Place your right foot on the bench behind you.
4. Inhale, look forward, and squat down with control until right before your right knee touches the floor.
5. Reverse the movement and extend your front leg again, while exhaling. Your back foot should only act as support.
6. Repeat for reps, then switch sides and repeat with your right leg forward and your left foot on the bench.

Calf Raise

A good dancer needs calves that can absorb force and return it, almost like a spring. And the best exercise for your calves is the calf raise, which also improves foot and ankle control while it’s at it.

In the Strength Training for Dancers program, you’re doing calf raises with both straight legs and bent knees. The first strengthens the entire calf muscle, while the bent-knee version shifts more work to the soleus, which is great for bouncing and endurance.

You don’t have to do your calf raises in a dedicated machine. If you don’t have a standing calf raise machine, the Smith machine or leg press (make sure you have the safeties engaged in both cases!) work just as well. And for seated calf raises, you can wrap a towel around a barbell as a protective pad and hold it across your thighs.

Side Plank

The side plank is a basic core exercise that helps your waist, hips, and shoulders work together, which is very useful in most dance styles for controlling your body when you shift side-to-side or turn quickly.

When you arrive at week 5 of Strength Training for Dancers, you up the intensity by switching to Copenhagen planks. It’s a superb exercise that adds adductor (inner thigh) strength to the mix.

Dead Bug

The best part of the dead bug is, of course, that you look like an upturned beetle wiggling around when you do it. However, it also gives you a couple of dance-specific benefits.

The biggest one is controlling your core while moving your limbs. For example, in dances like hip hop or shuffle, your legs might be doing quick patterns while your upper body stays relaxed (or hits), and dead bugs help you keep your pelvis and ribcage under control.

It also helps you move from the hip while holding your pelvis steady, great for glides and fast changes in direction.

You start with bodyweight-only dead bugs and progress to holding dumbbells in your hands as Strength Training for Dancers continues.

How to Do Dead Bugs

1. Lie on your back, with your arms straight up towards the ceiling and your legs stacked over your hips, with the knees bent at a 90-degree angle.
2. Engage your core and make sure your lower back is in contact with the surface.
3. With control, straighten out the right leg and lower it towards the floor at the same time as you lower the left arm over your head as far as you can. Keep the lower back in contact with the floor the entire time.
4. Reverse the movement, and repeat for the other side.

Lateral Bound

The lateral bound (often called skater jumps) trains explosive side-to-side power and helps whenever you need to catch your body weight. I can imagine they’re also good for rhythm control.

If you haven’t done these before, start with small lateral hops rather than big jumps, and work up to bigger distances where you bound from one side to the other like you’re moving with a beat.

How to Do Lateral Bounds

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent.
2. Shift your weight onto your right leg and lift your left foot off the ground.
3. Push off your right foot and jump laterally to the left.
4. Land on your left foot, bending your knee to absorb the impact.
5. Immediately push off your left foot and jump back to the right.
6. Continue bounding side to side in a controlled, rhythmic motion for the desired number of reps.

Hip Thrust

The hip thrust is a great glute exercise for styles where hip extension and explosive lower-body drive are a big deal.

Strong glutes don’t automatically make you a better dancer, but they are the power hub of most athletic dance moves. And the hip thrust zeroes in on your derrière like almost no other exercise, for more stability and hip control.

In Strength Training for Dancers, you start with regular hip thrusts and advance to single-leg hip thrusts when you reach week 5.

Side Lunge

The side lunge is great for side-to-side movement, which dancers need a lot. They train lateral strength and hip mobility, and improve your control in wider positions.

You can use just your bodyweight or hold a kettlebell or dumbbell to your chest if the given number of reps feels too easy.

How to Do Side Lunges

1. Stand up straight with plenty of space to your side for you to step out. Hold a kettlebell or dumbbell to your chest if you want added resistance.
2. Lightly brace your core, and take a big step to the side.
3. Go as deep as possible without your heel lifting from the ground and while maintaining control.
4. Push yourself back up by pressing the foot from the ground.
5. Repeat for reps.

Push-Up

The classic push-up is an excellent exercise for dancers, training your chest, shoulders, and triceps, and building strength and stability for moves that rely on your arms and for going from standing to floorwork (and vice versa).

As with many other exercises, there are easier variants, like kneeling push-ups or incline push-ups, to start with, if regular push-ups are too hard. Build up your strength and advance to the regular one when you can.

How to Do Push-Ups

1. Assume the starting position, with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Try to form a straight line from head to feet, and brace your abdomen slightly.
3. Lower yourself as deep as you can, while inhaling.
4. Reverse the motion when you’ve touched the floor, and push yourself up to straight arms again while exhaling.
5. Repeat for reps.

Dumbbell Row

The dumbbell row hits your upper back, lats, rear shoulders, and biceps, but for a dancer, its value is bigger than back day. These muscles help you pull your shoulders down and back when you need to, and help you avoid collapsing through your chest when you’re tired.

Pull from the elbow, pause for a second at the top, then lower the dumbbell slowly. Make sure you don’t skimp out on that last part, because it makes you stronger at decelerating, like stopping an arm or catching a groove.

How to Do Dumbbell Rows

1. Start by placing a dumbbell on the floor beside a bench or chair. Stand facing the bench or chair and place your left hand and left knee on top of it.
2. Keep your back flat and parallel to the ground, with a slight bend in the standing leg. Grip the dumbbell with your right hand.
3. Inhale and pull the dumbbell by driving the elbow toward the ceiling.
4. With control, lower the dumbbell back to the starting position while exhaling.
5. Complete the desired reps on one side, then switch to the opposite arm and leg.

Pallof Press

The Pallof press (the name comes from John Pallof, the physical therapist who invented it) is a core exercise where you resist being twisted by a cable. It teaches your core to control and resist rotation.

That’s important in dance styles that ask your body to do opposite things at the same time, like your hips moving while your feet change direction and your arms swing. And if your core can’t stabilize all of this, you leak energy, and the entire movement becomes messy.

How to Do Pallof Presses

1. Attach a handle in a cable machine at chest height and stand with your side facing the machine.
2. Grab the handle with both hands and stand with feet hip-width apart and knees slightly bent.
3. Pull the handle to your chest, engage your core, and then press your arms straight out in front of you without rotating your torso.
4. Hold briefly, then bring the handle back to your chest in a controlled motion.
5. Repeat for reps, then switch sides.

Squat

After doing goblet squats for the first phase of Strength Training for Dancers, you’re moving to regular barbell squats for the next one, focusing on strength and power.

For a dancer, squats are definitely not dance practice with a barbell, but they are the best way to improve overall strength in your lower body, and that strength transfers to almost any type of athletic performance.

Like with any other exercise in this program, you can start as light as you need (the empty barbell or even just your body weight), then increase the load as you gain strength. And if you haven’t done squats before, you’ll get stronger fast.

How to Squat

1. Place the bar on your upper back. Inhale and brace your core slightly, and unrack the bar.
2. Take two steps back, and adjust your foot position.
3. Squat as deep as possible with good technique.
4. With control, stop and reverse the movement, extending your hips and legs again.
5. Exhale on the way up or exchange air in the top position.
6. Inhale and repeat for reps.

Dumbbell Chest Press

In Strength Training for Dancers, you’re graduating from push-ups to dumbbell chest presses by week 5. Both build upper-body control and shoulder stability from different angles. You’ll continue with push-ups, too, but on another workout day.

I’ve programmed dumbbell presses instead of the barbell bench press because they’re more “dance-friendly,” showing left-right imbalances and letting your shoulder blades move a bit more naturally.

How to Do Dumbbell Chest Presses

1. Lie on a bench, and lift a pair of dumbbells up to the starting position.
2. Press the dumbbells up to straight arms, while exhaling.
3. Inhale at the top, or while lowering the dumbbells with control back to your shoulders.
4. Repeat for reps.

Farmer’s Carry

The farmer’s carry (also called farmer’s walk) is a very basic exercise: you hold weights at your sides, walk, and that’s it.

However, it has a surprisingly big carryover to dance, the biggest one being postural control. That means you can keep your torso and core organized and leak less energy while the rest of your body has to move, while you’re getting more and more fatigued.

Plus, it’s great for ankle, knee, and hip stability, which are always great to have, no matter your dance style.

How to Do Farmer’s Carry

1. Step in between two farmers’ walk cases, or similar implements.
2. Inhale, lean forward, and grip the handles.
3. Hold your breath, brace your core slightly, and lift the weights.
4. Look ahead, and start moving forward in small steps. Increase the stride length as you increase the speed.
5. Try to keep your body in a straight line and not lean excessively forward as you walk.
6. When you’re done, lower the implements back to the ground in a controlled manner.
7. Repeat for reps.

Hanging Leg Raise

Introduced into the program in week 5, the hanging leg raise is an S-tier core exercise for the abs (when done the right way) and the hip flexors. It makes you stronger in any dance moves that require pelvic positioning and core control.

Doing it the right way means you tuck your pelvis at the top to bring your pubic bone toward your ribs and avoid using momentum to kick your legs forward.

If you’re struggling to keep your legs straight when doing this exercise, bending your knees and doing hanging knee raises instead makes it much easier.

How to Do Hanging Leg Raises

1. Jump up and grab a bar, placed high enough that you can hang from it with straight legs.
2. Without swinging, lift your legs as high as you can in front of you.
3. Lower your legs again, with control.
4. Repeat for reps.

Jump Squat

The jump squat trains explosive leg power in your quads and glutes that you can use for more pop off the floor and to practice controlled landings.

You’ll be doing sets with few reps, so you stay snappy and keep well away from fatigue. This one is for clean, explosive training, not grinding to failure.

How to Do Jump Squats

1. Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands in front of your chest or by your sides.
2. Bend at the hips and knees, lowering into a squat with a straight back and engaged core.
3. Drive upward explosively and jump as high as you can.
4. Land softly on the balls of your feet and immediately descend into the next squat.
5. Repeat for reps.

Kettlebell Swing

A lot of your movement power in almost any dance style comes from your pelvis and hips, and the kettlebell swing is one of the best exercises to learn how to create force from your glutes and hamstrings without having to learn complex Olympic lifts.

A good swing also has a pulse, like hike, float, snap, float, which is really good for rhythm and timing, and makes it a surprisingly dance-friendly exercise, in addition to the power benefits.

How to Do Kettlebell Swings

1. Place a kettlebell on the ground, about one or two feet in front of you.
2. Take a wide stance, lean forward, and grip the kettlebell.
3. Brace your core slightly, and swing the kettlebell back between your legs, while inhaling.
4. Swing the kettlebell forward by extending your hip, while exhaling.
5. Try to swing the kettlebell to about chest height.
6. Repeat for reps and put the kettlebell back on the ground when you’re finished.

Pull-Up / Lat Pulldown

Pull-ups and lat pulldowns are great for dancers – not for building a barndoor back, but for posture and shoulder/scapular control. Both help you learn to move your shoulder blades down, up, around, and back, which makes it easier to keep your arms in place instead of flopping around.

I’ve programmed assisted pull-ups as the default exercise in the Strength Training for Dancers program, because I do think it offers bigger dance benefits than the less dynamic lat pulldown.

You can use a pull-up machine or a resistance band, or have a training partner hold your feet while you push just enough with your legs. But if you have none of the above on hand, do lat pulldowns instead.

And, of course, if you’re strong enough to do strict, unassisted pull-ups – by all means – go ahead.

Plank With Shoulder Taps

The plank is a classic and very effective exercise for core strength and stability. Here, you’re adding shoulder taps, connecting core control with your shoulders and hips.

It might not look like much, but the hard part is not the tap itself; it’s keeping your hips from rocking side to side. Great prep for dance moves where your arms, shoulders, and legs are all doing different things.

How to Do the Plank With Shoulder Taps

1. Start in a high plank position with your hands directly under your shoulders and your body forming a straight line from head to heels.
2. Lift your right hand off the ground and tap your left shoulder, keeping your body as still as possible.
3. Place your right hand back on the ground and immediately lift your left hand to tap your right shoulder.
4. Continue alternating shoulder taps while maintaining the plank position.
5. Repeat for reps.

Tibialis Raise

The tibialis raise is an unassuming-looking but useful exercise for dancers, especially for styles with lots of bouncing, hops, or fast direction changes.

It trains the tibialis anterior, the muscle on the front/outside of your shin that lifts the front of your foot. You use that little guy for toe lifts and foot control. Not only does it help your dance, but it also balances your lower leg if you have strong calves, as dancers often do.

The default exercise in Strength Training for Dancers is tibialis raises without added weight, but if they feel too easy, you can use a kettlebell for more resistance.

Note: Be careful if you already have shin splints or stress-fracture-like pain (as dancers sometimes do). If so, start with a single set. Tibialis raises can actually help here, but you don’t want to pile on too much isolated work at once.

Follow the Strength Training for Dancers Program in StrengthLog

What’s the best way to follow this program?

With StrengthLog, our workout log app. It’s one of our many sport-specific training programs.

You get the entire program at your fingertips, with all workouts ready to go. The app makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re on the right path.

Download it and start tracking your progress today!

StrengthLog is free, but for our more advanced premium programs, like this one, you’ll need a subscription to follow it in-app.

We offer a 14-day free trial (no strings attached and no funny business) that you can activate in the app, so you can check it out before making a decision.

Final Rep

Let’s put a bow on this; you’re an athlete, and it’s time to train like one.

For too long, dancers have been told to dodge the weight room for fear of getting muscle-bound and bulky.

Chuck those myths in the trash where they belong, start the Strength Training for Dancers routine in StrengthLog, track your workouts, and build strength that makes a difference wherever you dance.

Dance is demanding. Your body should be ready for it.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training.

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Last reviewed: 2026-06-16

References

1. Eur J Sport Sci. 2024 Apr 30;24(6):637–652. Strength and conditioning in dance: A systematic review and meta‐analysis.
2. Front Physiol. 2025 Feb 27;16:1511833. A meta-analysis of the effects of strength training on physical fitness in dancers.