09/28/2025
Post-International Dance Medicine and Science (IADMS) Conference Thoughts 👇
Leah and Brooke just wrapped up an incredible IADMS conference. The research, lectures, and presentations were strong as ever—but, we feel it’s the conversations in the hallways that tend to leave the biggest mark.
One topic that kept resurfacing:
Can we really say we’re training dancers like athletes… if their strengthening still stops at Therabands and Pilates Balls?
This isn’t about throwing shade at low-load tools—they have their place and we use them too! Bands and controlled bodyweight exercises are fantastic for rehab, motor control, and early-stage strength development. But if we’re talking about progressing from rehab to peak performance we've got to expand.
Why Lifting Matters for Dancers
✅ Strength = Control + Power
Heavier external loads (think barbells, dumbbells, kettlebells) help dancers generate force more efficiently. That means better jumps, faster turns, and more control in high-demand choreography.
Strength Training Helps👇
✅ Tissue Capacity Matters
Tendons and muscles respond to progressive overload. If a dancer is only ever loaded with their body weight—or less—we miss the opportunity to build tissues that can tolerate the demands of professional-level performance and rehearsal schedules.
✅ Injury Prevention Starts with Preparation
Many common dance injuries (stress fractures, tendinopathies, labral tears) are linked to repetitive load and fatigue. Strength training with weights helps raise the ceiling of what the body can handle before it breaks down.
✅ Neural Efficiency
Strength training isn’t just about bulk (which, let’s be honest, dancers rarely achieve anyway). It’s about teaching the nervous system to recruit the right muscles at the right time—more efficiently.
Bottom line: If we’re going to keep saying dancers are athletes (and they are), we need to start training them like it. That means integrating progressive resistance training into their conditioning. The conversation is shifting, and we’re here for it.
Tell us what you think strength training for dancers should look like? 👇
