Still following your log, just… lurking rather than engaging. Sorry. What came first for you, ballet or lifting? I guess as a dancer, you can’t afford to pack on too much bodyweight? Do you consider either activity to be your primary activity? Is there anything with regards to your flexibility training that your dancing presumably requires that you believe would benefit the lifting population?
I started lifting before I started dancing. I should probably talk more about the dance wing of the log, shouldn’t it? Obviously less weight would be good, but it’s not something I bother too much about - I have been training down from being a pudding anyway.
One thing teachers harp on about is that there is no such thing as a trade-off between flexibility and strength; if you have the range of movement in the joint in question (which is often a hard limit set by your bone structure, as with turning out from the hip) the limiting factor is whether you have the strength to support the position when you get there and then to get out of it and do something else. IIRC there is actually scientific backing for this, but an important reason why they go on about it is that they have an endless supply of girls who are floppy as hell but don’t have any strength (because they’re worried about “bulking out”, or just because they can wrap their legs around their heads and think this makes them the queen of all the Instagram), and therefore get injured a lot.
For me, the thing I’d really like would be getting the working leg higher, and that’s a bit of both - however I am a short-legged squat monster.
Have you tried PNF-stretching where you flex the muscle near the limit of its range of motion before relaxing and deepening the stretch?
WednesDONE with new weights at 22 mins 50. Huh, the light day has a 200kg squat in it now. ![]()
On your point, @Voxel, I can’t speak to the method you mention but it does sound a bit like barre?
Thinking about it I would say:
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functional training. most of the “performance” dance styles (ballet, Cunningham, Graham, Release, whatever) are modular - bigger movements are built out of smaller ones - and the organization of the technique class follows this. the ballet barre, or the so called centre barre in Cunningham, works groups of related functional movements and progressively makes them more challenging and builds them into more complex sequences.
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emphasizing range of movement and movement quality. I am totally guilty of not respecting this when lifting - the combination of circuit training and powerlifting is a tell - but on the other side it’s all about “lengthen to strengthen” and movement under control, which means more time under tension, eccentric work, and mind-muscle connection in lifting terminology. You’re very rarely allowed to just hurl the leg ballistically and let it drop (except for battements and the outgoing phase of some jumps, but even those need to come back in under control).
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coaching and teams. you might practice or train independently, but the basic unit of everything in dance is a) technique class and b) rehearsal, someone invariably leads both of those, and they are team activities. One thing that absolutely amazed me when I started was the power of having a coach - in the sense of actual teaching, but much more, in observing what you’re actually doing and keeping your standards honest.
For some reason totally unrelated with the cut of my biketard and this log, Madame kept going on about pecs in class tonight. Engage the pecs, pull up from the emotional centre with the pecs, use the chest and shoulders more. “I’m not getting obsessed by pecs!”
…if you have to deny it?
Maybe I should up the tren, or she should?
Interesting post on the Royal Ballet School blog: https://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2019/10/31/ballet-training-how-much-is-enough/
Back in the gym for the new, even more motherfucking Friday motherfucker. Going in like this: https://twitter.com/FikeMoley/status/1190859857991221248/video/1
Ok so squats at 200kg for 5, 210 for 4, look it up and then BANG failed the third rep at 220kg. I think I had the bar a little too far backwards? Either way it just shoved me vertically downwards until it hit the bar catches. I just leant forwards and walked away.
Very odd feeling that nothing actually hurts despite all the drama. This is the first time I’ve actually been pinned by the weight.
Follow-up: right knee, oddly, is sore.
With that twitter link I thought I was going to get to see a video of you getting amped for squats! Idea: Squat video ![]()
[Note: did the washing up by going back for Saturday on Friday. Knee was OK so I took it to ballet on Sunday and that turned out excellent; only eight dancers so some scope for movement, even if I was better marking the sequence than really dancing it.]
Tuesdone! 26.23. I really enjoyed this - bench and SGHP seemed to go great with strong form. Maybe it was the coffee?
Also keeping a T-Nation T-ip in mind: squat with the weight in your heels. Negative ballet boy mode:-)
(although you should always have some weight in your heels so as to maintain proper three-point contact and turn out correctly from the hip but never mind)
I missed basically the whole Rugby League season this year but here’s the official big hits reel:
Not much to say over the weekend except that heavy SGHPs really help toting piles of shelving around…and hell, if you roll into the studio and find that your teacher has a stand-in who wears an ENB School T-shirt, you’re in for a serious hammering.
I was really wondering why my triceps and rear delts hurt and then I remember, yes, it was all about engaging the upper back and damn there was a lot of it.
That said, back in the gym. Wednesday workout. 23 minutes 08.
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Took class on Wednesday night unusually. This was a little odd - a stand-in teacher who was really into odd breathing exercises - but picked up when we got out in the centre.
Until I got kicked in the balls. We had an across-the-floor combination that finished with a soutenu (the turn where you stay in 5th and spin) and a tombé piqué into arabesque, then failli and start the other side. So you’re going to extend the leading leg, touch it down, and shift your whole weight onto it, releasing the trailing leg (this is the tombé). Then you’re going to whip the trailing leg up as quickly as possible as if you trod on a spike (this is the piqué) to arabesque, ie straight out behind you ideally at 90 degrees or higher.
We had a whole group of men - four or five - and so we blasted across very fast. but we also had to get as many repetitions in without running out of space. on the very last I was slightly behind and the guy in front of me piquéd right into my crotch. I caught the kick in my hands, which could have been the beginning of a really odd bit of choreography. He was really embarrassed, although technically it was my fault (if you’re behind someone else it’s your responsibility to keep the spacing behind the lead).
Then, went to see this lot in the theatre last night: Home | Acosta Dance