Hey there, dancer, you need to add the reverse lunge into your cross-training.
Raise your hand if you were taught to prep for your pirouettes with an even (or close to even) weight distribution between your front and back legs?
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Raise your hand if you’ve ever struggled with turns.
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What if I told you there is a way to train in the gym to improve the efficiency of your pirouette preps? Yep.
Take a second and look at the form for a reverse lunge.
See where I’m going with this?
Let’s take a moment to think about this. When you prep for a pirouette, if your weight is split between both legs, that means when you relévé, you have to shift your weight forward to get onto your leg.
That’s a lot of weight shift happening in one split second while also pushing to relévé, and coordinating your arms to begin your turn. No wonder so many dancers struggle with falling off their center during pirouettes!
So what happens if your prep form stays the same, but your weight is distributed differently? You’ll still plié like a spring before you turn, but this time, you’ll keep 85% of your weight on your front leg.
Now all you have to do is lift straight up – virtually no weight shifting. Suddenly, multiple turns are no problem, you’re on your leg every single time.
How can adding the reverse lunge to your training help your pirouette preps?
If looking at the form for a reverse lunge doesn’t convince you, let me break it down.
I like to give my athletes very specific cues when crosstraining for pirouette preps and other single-leg skills. I often say, treat your back leg as a “kickstand” or imagine the back leg is stepping on thin ice. This keeps athletes from shifting their weight too far back, forcing a much bigger weight shift than necessary.
This trains the body to keep the weight loaded in the glute of the front leg, reducing quad activation, and creating a strong and efficient prep!
The best way to do this? When you step back to perform your reverse lunge, keep your body at a slight pitch forward rather than straight up and down. This will help you keep that weight distributed forward rather than fall backward as you lunge.
I find that if dancers consistently focus on this form during a reverse lunge in the gym, incorporating the 85/15 pirouette prep becomes much more second nature.
Want a visual? Check out this post from Coach Amber demonstrating the adjustment!
Goodbye, wobbly rotations. Hello, multiple turns.
Want more dance-specific training tips like this? Read: Training Tip Tuesday: Confidence Corner, the Gymitmidation Secret, Training Tip Tuesday: The Palloff Press, Training Tip Tuesday: Lifting Shoes
