Art + Dance = Love

Do what you love. Love what you do!

Thank you for your kind words! Before I start, I’ll just state my usual disclaimer with these posts and questions.

Disclaimer: My response is solely based on my own experience and training schedule. I am not a fitness trainer and would recommend doing your own research or consult with a licensed trainer to learn more.

With regards to finding a balance between working FT and dance/training/workouts, it definitely became a process of experimenting and a process of elimination. It depends entirely on your workout style or training regimen, as well as if you’re between majors or preparing for a major, etc.

I’ll do a breakdown of my “off-season” which I would classify any time right after a major where you get a break from dance for about 2 weeks or take part in standard studio practices during the season. After that, I’ll do a breakdown of what my training schedule looked like right before a major (specifically before the NAIDC).

I’ll just clarify that this was during the 2016-2017 season and can change depending on which nights I have class in the studio, holiday breaks and whatnot.

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“Off-Season” or Between Majors (Post-Oireachtas)

Monday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Arms/Abs Workout

Tuesday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Dance Class (1 hour)

Wednesday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Running (Jogging/Sprints)

Thursday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Dance Class (1 hour)

Friday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Rest Day

Saturday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Leg Workout

Sunday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Running (Jogging/Sprints) | Arm Workout

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Leading Up to A Major (NAIDC 2017)

Monday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Arms/Abs Workout | LIIS | Legs Recovery Stretching

Tuesday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Dance Class (1 hour/HIIT mix)

Wednesday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Full Body Workout | Arms/Abs Recovery Stretching | LIIS

Thursday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Dance Class (1 hour/HIIT mix)

Friday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Rest Day | Full Body Recovery Stretching

Saturday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Dance Practice (1 hour/HIIT mix) | Uphill Sprints (30 minutes)

Sunday: Work (8:30-4:30 PM) | Leg Workout | LIIS

*It’s important to note that I keep it flexible and listen to my body. This is just a rough outline of what my week looks like with workouts and training. If my body doesn’t feel up to a leg day (because I’m sore or I found out suddenly I now have another practice the next day), I swap it out for another workout like arms/abs to give my lower body a break. You have to listen to your body. 

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I think these breakdowns require an explanation of some kind. I actually changed up my training regimen for the NAIDC in New Orleans. I was getting frustrated with my process and changed it all up a month prior. I decided that I needed to start training in the gym like I was in the studio - by being smarter and more efficient with my time. I started incorporating super sets that included weights, cardio and plyometrics. I also did some serious cutbacks on any refined sugars in my diet and kept it lower to focus on healthier options and avoid the sluggishness I felt from those sugars. 

I also have changed my “off-season” workout to follow my pre-major schedule a bit more. However, I do a max of 2 practices a week during the off season now until my teacher starts adding more closer to a major or I choose to go in for an extra practice. So if you remove one dance practice from the pre-major schedule, that’s what I am currently doing now (though I took 2 weeks off from dance to rest and have only done workouts). During my “off-season” where I don’t dance for a week or two, I replace my dance workout (which I classify as HIIT training) with jogging to keep my heart rate up.

I find that my new schedule is training smarter in a shorter period of time and I’m much happier doing these workouts as well. 😊 It’s also better because I don’t waste time between circuits. I have plenty of time to include a LIIS workout for a 30 minute walk post-workout while my boyfriend or family finish their respective workouts.

Here’s an explanation of everything above in more detail:

LIIS: Low-Intensity Steady State (walking, cycling, etc.)

HIIT: High-Intensity Interval Training (running, Irish dance, sprints, etc.)

Arms/Abs, Legs, Full Body Workouts: mix of plyometrics, weights, and cardio for about 30 minutes. These change each week so I don’t plateau.

Recovery Stretching: basic stretches to help my sore muscles loosen up and release the lactic acid buildup.

Rest Day: NO workouts during the day to allow the body to relax and recover.

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With regards to how many practices you should do each week, I think that is entirely dependent on your goals and your own schedule. It’s hard to compare one dancer to another because we are all so unique.

In the last three years of seriously working out, I’ve only just started finding a workout regimen I like and am getting results with. However, it is always changing and adapting. So the best piece of advice is this:

Print out a weekly agenda that shows your times for each day.

Mark out the hours that are blocked out for work or other commitments you must attend.

After you’ve mark those down, start marking the hours you have blocked out for dance class or practice.

After that, then block out your workouts to work around those. I find it’s much easier to do this since you don’t want to do a hard leg workout the day before a tough dance practice. 

The best advice I’ve heard for this is to be flexible and to listen to what your body is saying. It truly has made a difference in my performance and training.

Nancy 🎻👯

I know three. Maybe 3.5 since I have technically learned garden of daisies twice before (just hasn’t stuck); but I really want to teach myself King of the Fairies and Three Sea Captains. I figured though I should learn the basic five first (Saint Patrick, Blackbird, Job, Jockey, Garden) then move onto the King and Captain.

I will be pulling this Benjamin style (as in Benjamin Franklin and his journey to become more moral. If you don’t know what he did you should look it up, its interesting)

I know three. Maybe 3.5 since I have technically learned garden of daisies twice before (just hasn’t stuck); but I really want to teach myself King of the Fairies and Three Sea Captains. I figured though I should learn the basic five first (Saint Patrick, Blackbird, Job, Jockey, Garden) then move onto the King and Captain.

I will be pulling this Benjamin style (as in Benjamin Franklin and his journey to become more moral. If you don’t know what he did you should look it up, its interesting)

For more fitness motivation: in-pursuit-of-fitness

I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on here and thoughts from dancers in my class about how tough January can be for Irish dancers, and I thought I’d post some food for thought on here. I know we come back from Christmas break and our teachers go nuts because we don’t have magical stamina and forgot how to hornpipe, but I’m here to tell you that’s ok and that’s what you should be doing!!!

Let me explain:

Every other sport besides Irish dance has a year divided into stages (and practicing hard, harder, and harder-er don’t count as stages): off-season, pre-season, in season, and peak. This is because it’s not physically possible to peak all year round! You need cycles to let your body recover and build strength in preparation for the next season. If you practice as hard all year round as you do the month before a major, your body will start to break down and you’ll be much more prone to overuse injuries.

Your teachers understand this to a certain extent because after a major, you (typically) take a step back from stamina work and either learn new choreography or drill bits of steps. You may even take the 2 weeks around Christmas completely off to recover, eat, and be merry. But what your teachers may not understand is that it’s not reasonable to think all their dancers will come back in January and be able to dance as hard as they did in November. And that’s where the discouragement and self-doubt come in for dancers trying to come back. I’m here to tell you, even against your TC’s words, that it’s ok and you’re not failing at anything!

Like I said, there are several stages to a season (dance or otherwise), and they each have their very important purpose:

Off season: We don’t really acknowledge that we have an “off season” as dancers, but this is a critical time for your body to recover immediately after a major. Typically we only take a real off-season if we danced through an injury at a major. Admit it, we’ve all done it. “I swear, doctor, I’ll put the boot on as soon as the Oireachtas is over!” Lol. But this time is also great to increase flexibility by stretching every day, do strength training on opposing muscles once a week to prevent injury, or switching over to another sport like yoga, swimming, or running to keep fitness up by using totally different muscles. The off season is also important for your brain. We need a time to release the mental stress and anxiety that built up before a major, and switching our focus to other physical activities will do just that. If you do 3 majors a year, your off seasons are in December and July/August.

Pre-season: This is the time to build strength and general stamina, which I’ve talked about in previous posts if you need ideas for kinds of exercises and frequency of workouts. You build a solid base of strength that will directly and pretty immediately benefit your dancing, but it won’t put you in peak dancing form just yet because you haven’t had time to incorporate this new strength into your dancing. This is also the time when I tend to incorporate a new style change into my dancing (like my only focus is really pulling up my thighs to straighten my legs, which kills my stamina immediately), which is difficult to balance when you’re trying to get back to the same standard of dancing that you were at before the major. It may also be hard for your TC to understand why you’re not dancing “to your potential” when they remember you dancing a certain way at the Oireachtas. And to add complexity, feises start up again during your pre-season. If you’re used to placing a certain way at feises when you’re at your peak, you may be disappointed to find that you’re not quite at that level during your pre-season. In my mind, this is ok too! You can’t peak all year long, it’s just not possible. Remember what your goal is, and use feises as practice (both physical and mental) for your next major. If you’re not doing Worlds or Nationals, it’s ok to designate a certain feis where you want to peak. If you do 3 majors a year, your pre-seasons are January and September.

In season: This is game time. You drop off your heavy strength training and shift to plyometrics and sprints to build power and agility. You increase the frequency or intensity of your dance practices and shift to a more dance-centric practice schedule. This is when you start to see the big jumps in performance. You’re really getting in the zone, and the major is so close that you can TASTE it! This is your hardest month for training, so it’s important to think about what you’re eating as well. Make sure you increase your caloric intake when you’re training this hard, and get enough sleep to help your body recover. On the note of recovery, make sure you take at least one day COMPLETELY off from all exercise every week. Recovery days are just as important as workout days. If you do 3 majors a year, your in seasons are February and October.

Peak: This is a critical time in the pre-major schedule. You’re dancing really hard most days of the week, and decreasing your plyometric and agility training to polish the final details of your rounds. We’re all pretty familiar with this stage. What most of us do not do is what’s called a taper phase: one to two weeks before a competition, slowly back off on training. You shouldn’t be doing 9 steps in a row the day or even the week before your competition. You want your muscles to be primed and ready to go, not exhausted, on the day of the competition. I know it’s tough to get your TCs to give you a taper during class, so I’d say gradually decrease any strength exercises you’re doing down to nothing a few days before the competition. I don’t do any dancing at all the day before a competition, but that’s personal preference. If you do 3 majors a year, your peaks are March, June, and November.

Notice I didn’t mention what to do in April and May. That’s because you don’t have a full month complete each of the training stages in this time. I recommend either shortening each of the training phases, or going through an extended “maintenance” phase, depending on how early worlds are that year. The maintenance phase is exactly what it sounds like: you want to maintain that conditioning you worked up to in March. To do this takes some playing around, but I recommend picking different days of the week to alternate pre-season and in season training work, culminating in June being the peak month. The most important thing to preventing injury during this stage is listening to your body. If something doesn’t feel right, take a day off, no question, and come back the next day.

Now that you’ve read through the different stages, you hopefully understand why January sucks for Irish dancers. It’s hard mentally to accept, but I promise that this stage, and this perceived setback, is essential to your dancing. Your body only gets stronger when you make it adapt to new things. If you just danced hard all year long, you wouldn’t see as big of an improvement because you’re not forcing your body to change. This is why cross fitters change their workouts completely every 6-8 weeks. In order to build strength, you have to put your body in unfamiliar territory. Only then will you adapt and really see a dramatic jump in strength or agility. So as dancers we need to take these rest periods, these steps back, as recovery periods, and then we need to force our bodies to change by doing something totally different from the past, some new cross-training exercise, a new way to build stamina, etc. Combine that with a solid dance practice schedule, and you’re going to see improvement in your dancing for sure.

There are certainly people, especially TCs, that would disagree with me on this. But I firmly believe that part of being a dancer is extending your dancing career for as long as possible, and to do that you need rest, recovery, and discrete training periods. I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m going to keep doing what’s best for my body, even if my TC yells that I’m out of shape. I know I’ll peak when the time is right. I’m trying to be kind to myself this January, and I encourage the rest of you to do the same. :)

For 1 major a year (assuming Oireachtas is November): January through April- Off season May through July - Pre Season August through October - In Season November - Peak, Oireachtas December - Rest

For two Majors (worlds and Oireachtas) a year: January - Off Season February - Pre Season March - in Season April - Peak, Worlds May through June - Off Season July through August - Pre Season September through October - In Season November - Peak, Oireachtas December - Rest

For three majors a year (Worlds, NANs, O): January - Off Season February - Pre Season March - In Season April - Peak, Worlds May through June - Maintenance July - Peak, Nationals August - Off Season September - Pre Season October - In Season November - Peak, Oireachtas December - Rest