| By :
Michel Maling
Dancers exercise their muscles differently to the rest of us. They use small concentrated movements to build long, lovely, toned muscles. Here are some exercises you too can do to start working your way to a dancers body. Yoga and Pilates are dance infused programs that focus on all of a woman's problem areas. Dancers exercise by working the muscles and then stretching them out again in order to get a long lean look without the bulk. A dancers workout will focus mainly on isometric exercises. These are exercises that work against the weight of the body. The movements are small and held to develop strength and condition the muscles. Your balance, endurance and overall fitness levels will be improved by doing these types of exercises. Speed and agility is developed further with isometric training. These exercises won't look like much, but they will work some of those deep muscles and if done correctly will deliver great results. You will need a bar or chair for support. 1. Stand feet slightly turned out facing a bar or chair with both hands holding for support. Point your toe behind you to five o'clock. Slowly lift the leg up and down by 2.5 cm for thirty seconds. Next repeat smaller and faster for another thirty seconds. Now imagine tracing a R5 coin with your big toe. The smaller the movements, the better. Next reverse the circles and then repeat the entire thing with your left leg pointing to 7 o'clock. 2. Still standing next to your support, turn sideways and hold on with one hand. Lift your right leg up as high as you can in front of you while keeping the abs held and the left knee slightly bent. Slowly lift and lower your raised leg by 2.5 cm at a height comfortable to you. Once again repeat this a bit faster and then trace your toe around an imaginery R5 piece clockwise and then again anti clockwise. Repeat on the other leg. 3. Place your forearms on the support and rest your head on your forearms. Lift your right leg up behind you with the foot flexed and the knee bent at 90 degrees. Press the raised leg up and down by 2.5 cm for thirty seconds. Now do the same exercises faster, then switch over to the other leg. 4. Again using your chair for balance, place your feet in a narrow V and rise. Keeping your heels together and off the floor bend your knees so they resemble a diamond. Keeping your tail bone looking down at the floor, bend and stretch by 2,5 cm for thirty seconds and then repeat this faster for another thirty seconds. You can then do the same exercise with your feet turned outwards hip distance apart and keeping your heels on the ground. Be sure to keep your knees aligned over your toes for both these bending exercises. Mastering the above simple exercises will get you off to a good start in the quest to get a dancers body.
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