Feet, Legs, Hips & Shoulder Warm Up for Dancers

Prepare your muscles for dancing by utilizing these warm up tips from Dr. Nina Geromel, The Pointe Doc.

This warmup routine focuses on several of the major muscle groups you will be using while dancing. This includes your whole lower body including feet, calves, quadriceps, hamstrings, and hips. Then moving up to your shoulders and upper back to help you keep beautiful posture during your movements.

The Dance Buddy Massager is used during this warm up to massage our muscles to work out any tightness and knots we may have in our muscles, joints and connective tissue. This will also increase the blood flow to these muscles bringing in the oxygen and nutrients your muscles will need while dancing.

While massaging you are searching for areas in your muscles and connective tissues that feel tight, or like a knot. You may notice a bit of tenderness when you find these knots or tight areas in your muscles. When you find these areas spend a little extra time massaging to help loosen up the muscles and increase the blood flow to that area and prepare for dancing. Note, when you are massaging tight areas, it should never be overly painful. If you experience pain, reduce the pressure or seek the help of a doctor to see if there is an underlying cause for the pain.  

Pro Tip: Using the Dance Buddy for a few minutes during cool down is a great way to prevent aches, pains, and soreness after performances.

Foot Warm Up

Warming up your feet prior to dancing will get the blood flowing and loosen up the joints in your feet. This will allow you greater range of motion and improve your ability to perform gracefully on the dance floor. Additionally, having your feet, ankles, and connective tissues in your feet warm will reduce the chances of injury while performing.

Calf and Lower Leg Warm Up

It is common for your calf muscles to be tight and have some knots. Massaging and warming up these muscles will greatly improve your leaps, jumps, relevés, and nearly every other dance movement. This will also generally help you feel better during your performance by reducing the soreness, stiffness, and aches common when performing without warming up properly.

Massaging the muscles on the front of your shin not only help release a lot of tension in your toes and arches of your feet, it feels absolutely amazing. This is one of my favorite areas to massage. These muscles control a lot of the movement in your toes and wrap around into the arches of your feet. These muscles are utilized a lot during dance and without massaging them it can increase your tension.  

Upper Leg Warm Up

Your Quadricep (“Quad”) and Hamstrings are two of your largest muscles and should always be warmed up prior to dancing. These muscles are involved in almost every movement around the dance floor as well as extensions, lifts, and leaps. Properly warming up your quads will greatly improve your range of motion with your legs, improve your lines, and allow you to feel and look more graceful in your movements. Spend plenty of time warming up these muscles and searching for any tightness or stiffness to fully prepare your quads and hamstrings for your dancing.

Hip Flexor Warm Up

As a dancer you are already well aware of how important hip flexibility is to forming beautiful lines and getting long extensions. This warmup routine with the massager will get your hips ready for your performance on the dance floor. Drawing a “C” shape with the massager will trace the muscles along your hips and glutes releasing tension and removing any tightness, allowing you to reach you full range of motion. As you massage your hips and glutes pay attention to any areas that feel tight and spend extra time massaging those areas. This will help your hips feel loose, flexible, and ready for dance.

Shoulder and Upper Back Warm Up

Your upper back and shoulders are utilized a lot in dance to maintain great posture, balance, and expression. Additionally, many of your dance movements, such as Port de bra, will require you to move your arms with grace and ease. Warming up your shoulders and upper back will remove tension in these areas allowing you greater range of motion and movement with your arms. Having your shoulders and back warmed up prior to dancing is also going to make your lines and extensions with your arms and hands feel easier and look beautiful.

Summary

This warm up routine covers many of the major muscles groups and joints you will need to perform your best on the dance floor. This warm up routine will improve your flexibility, range of motion, as well as reduce many of the aches and pains experienced from dancing and intense physical activity.

Learn more about the Dance Buddy massager used in this video here:
https://dancebuddyshop.com/products/dance-buddy-portable-body-massager

Learn more about the amazing and knowledgeable Dr. Nina Geromel (The Pointe Doc) here:
https://www.thepointedoc.com