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Written/Created By: Dr. Meagan Robichaud, PT, DPT
Picture this, it’s the middle of the winter and you’re running late to your dance class. You sprint through the doors just in time to rip off your coat and begin with barre work, still shivering from the below freezing temperature outside. More times than not, as physical therapists, we see dancers come into our clinic with injuries that resulted from beginning a dance class with cold muscles and failing to complete any kind of a warm up. A brief dynamic whole body warm up before dancing can actually prevent many common dance injuries and better prepare not only your muscles but also your mental attention for the work you are about to put in during a dance class.
Below you will find a list of 8 exercises to use as your full body warm up. Check out our educational video for proper form and completion of all exercises and consult with one of our Dance Medicine PTs for further instruction!
4-way Ankle with Theraband
Complete 10x in each direction each foot
Relevés at Barre in Parallel
Complete 25x
Lateral Walking with Theraband Loop at Toes
Complete 1 min each direction
Glute Bridges
Complete 20x
Alternating Lunges
Complete 10x each leg
Port de Bra with Theraband
Complete 10x each arm
Sidelying Open Books
Complete 10x each side
Dying Bugs
Complete 10x each side
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