Cross Training for Hip Hop
No one knows more about the marriage of fitness and hip hop than choreographer Juliane Arney. An original member of Culture Shock Dance Troupe, she toured the country as a hip hop dancer for 10 years, just as hip hop was becoming a credible and respected style of dance. She then got to work as a personal trainer, and now choreographs fitness DVDs and teaches workshops for professionals throughout the world.
According to Arney, hip hop is a “high impact sport” that requires a unique set of skills. While many dancers can master these skills in class and rehearsal, she recommends incorporating cross training exercises into your students’ daily routine for added benefits.
Why Cross Train?
You’ve probably heard it time and time again, but it’s all about injury prevention. “Hip hop is so physically demanding and it asks your body to move in ways that can’t easily be done without control,” explains Arney. “So the more core training you have and the more stable you are… the less chance you have of getting injured.” Strength acquired from cross training will also help with the execution of choreography that requires level changes. “Having the strength and the core control to land without crashing to the floor really will help you escape all the bruises and the injuries that come with it,” states Arney.
The second reason to cross train, according to Arney, deals with stamina, but not just the burst of energy required to complete a three-minute high intensity routine. “It’s also for the ability to recover quickly so you can go right into the next piece when it’s your turn,” she says. “I think that’s something most dancers don’t really think about.”
Cross training also comes in handy for learning choreography more quickly and more accurately. When it comes to hip hop, so many of the movements take enormous amounts of strength and need to be practiced over and over again to master. But for dancers who cross train, that process can be sped up significantly. “If you already have that strength available you would learn so much more quickly,” reveals Arney. “You’d be able to pick up the choreography faster, especially in the more athletic styles of hip hop and break dancing.”
The benefits of cross training go beyond working in the studio and extend to the stage, where dancers need the most power and strength. “One of the big benefits of cross training is the ability to be more powerful,” explains Arney. “You get more height, you get more power, you get more distance out of it.” In addition, Arney points out that cross training can help dancers put on a more entertaining show. “You really can’t do your best performance with your face and your personality when you can’t breathe,” she says. “The more cardio stamina you have the easier it is to give your fantastic performance that gets the judges to put you through.”
Cross Training For Students
Arney recommends incorporating any or all of the following four activities into your students’ training regimen:
• Cardio
“The first thing dancers need to do is build an aerobic base,” states Arney. Building an aerobic base is simple—all it takes is lower intensity, longer duration cardio, whether it’s using the elliptical machine or taking a kick boxing class. “Sustained lower intensity cardio really, really helps with the kind of bursting cardio that dancers need and I think a lot of dancers don’t know that,” she adds. “They think they just need the kind of cardio that they can do something for one minute or a few minutes.”
• BOSU® Training
“BOSU® Training for dancers is like everything you ever wanted in cross training,” says Arney. Not only does it include plyometric exercises for power and performance, but it also has a balance component. “Everything you’re doing on the BOSU® [Balance Trainer or Ballast® Ball], whether you’re doing squats or lunges or core work or explosive jumps, you have to be able to stop the action and balance using your core muscle and your ankle, knee and hip stability,” she explains. “All of that training makes dancing feel like nothing.”
• Push-Ups and Pull-Ups
Upper body strength is crucial because hip hop often requires dancers to support their entire body weight on their hands. Because most dancers lack upper body strength naturally, Arney recommends “basic boring” push-ups and pull-ups to build muscle tone. “If dancers just did that it would change their ability to do certain steps,” she contends.
• Yoga
Yoga is not just for ballet and modern dancers. According to Arney, hip hop dancers can benefit from it as well because it encompasses multiple cross training components. “If you look at yoga, it has all those elements in it,” she explains. “It’s got balance, it’s got stability, it’s got upper body strength. If you had to skip everything else and you did some good yoga you’d be doing all of those things.”
Tips for Teachers
Incorporating cross training exercises into your students’ training is definitely doable, it just takes a little time, energy and research. “The dance teachers that I work with at the college level are always coming to my yoga classes and taking yoga strength work for the upper body to their classes,” says Arney. “I have two dance teachers out here who use the BOSU® [Balance Trainer] and do stability training for their dancers in class, so I think it’s totally easy to add it on to the stuff you’re already doing.” For advanced students, try to incorporate about 15 minutes of cross training per day, in any or all of the categories listed above.
It’s also important to make sure you’re helping your students warm up properly before jumping right into cross training exercises. “The purpose of a warm-up is to increase blood flow to the muscles and lubricate the joints,” says Arney. “Some easy dance combinations would totally qualify as a warm-up.” Another suitable exercise is having your students mark through choreography, which serves as both a warm-up and an extra rehearsal session. Ten minutes on a treadmill, elliptical or bike will also get the job done.
Most importantly, don’t forget to encourage your students to rest. “One of the most important things that dancers understand is that they need one rest day a week,” says Arney. “The only way your body can adapt, get better, get stronger, and get more flexible is if you rest it.”
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To get more fitness moves from Juliane Arney, log on to julianearney.com.