Irish Dancer

“How do I improve my stamina?”

I’d agree that this is probably one of the hardest things to improve…

Firstly- because the types of exercises dancers tend to gravitate to get fitter are not specific to the goals they are looking to achieve…

And secondly- the way our energy systems work, it is nigh on impossible to maintain true 100% effort for the length necessary for a full dance.

The solution?

SPECIFIC exercises working SPECIFIC energy systems in a SPECIFIC time frame…

Get the gist?

The key to effective strength and conditioning programmes is specificity- ie doing stuff that is actually relevant to your sport!

This means scratching pointless gym sessions, saying goodbye to 100 sit ups a day, and not even contemplating running for longer than 20 minutes!

In order to get FIT for IRISH DANCING you need to work on doing an exercise such as squat jumps with MAXIMUM effort, for around 60 seconds, resting for a couple of minutes, then repeating giving 100% every time..

Ensuring you MAINTAIN that max effort no matter how tired your legs get, and how little height you get off the ground.. (keeping your technique sound of course)

And pressing on until you can do MORE in the allotted time.. Keeping that jump as high as you did at the beginning!

When your fitness improves…you will then be at a point where you can maintain (only slightly) sub max effort for the entirety of your dance :)

Give it a go and let me know how you get on..

(warning-you may vomit!)

Good luck!

Sue Fay Healy baby