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The day of competition is one of nerves, excitement, and so. much. hairspray.

Throughout the chaos of running your dances, stretching, warming up and doing your makeup, it can be hard to remember to eat. When you do remember, it’s usually something quick, high in carbs and high in sugar.

When you take the time to make healthier food choices around dance competitions, you’ll find that you have more energy for the day and you'll recover quicker. Try some of these healthier swaps and see if your performance, endurance and recovery increase at your next dance competition.

So many dancers and teachers focus on core strength when it comes to turns, balance and stability, but not much attention is paid to the ankles until dancers start pointe or have an injury. Increasing ankle strength is essential when a dancer keeps dropping their heel, hopping in their turns or have a low relevé.

The health of your dancer’s feet and ankles effects the health of their knees, hips and everything else moving upward so I encourage you to take the time to work on these smaller areas as they can greatly improve larger muscles and structures of the body.

Try these three moves to increase ankle strength in your next practice and have your dancers try these at home while brushing their teeth or chatting at the kitchen counter.

I get asked a lot as a personal trainer for dancers about hip flexibility and strength. It seems to be an area of concern for coaches and dancers striving for flat splits, high kicks and extended leaps. The biggest issue however isn’t really a lack of flexibility, but a lack of movement in our every day lives. The increased time we spend sitting at work, school, in cars or buses causes our hip muscles to become tighter and shorter. This pulls on our low back and even our hamstrings. With these 5 movements, you’ll see a drastic change in hip flexibility but you can also enjoy some more movement in the back and legs.

You probably have a stretching routine that you’ve been doing for months or even years. Usually the routine starts standing, folding over your legs for a hamstring stretch, spending some time in a runners lunge, and of course a straddle stretch that slides right into the splits.

From studios to dance teams, stretching usually looks the same, but it’s important to follow healthy stretching guidelines to prevent injury and decreasing your strength.

So, how should a dancer stretch correctly? By avoiding these three things, below!

Flexibility is a fundamental skill for dancers and athletes. The ability to move your body freely will make the execution of skills and exercise much easier. Many dancers struggle with flexibility in their hamstrings and hips, but what they don’t know is that tightness in their hamstrings is directly related to a tight back and tight glutes (buttock region).

These four moves are going to pay special attention to hips, back, glutes, and hamstrings. Put all four moves together to increase your dance flexibility for a lower split, longer extensions, and more open hips.

As athletes, dancers have the ability to focus their strength and power in many different ways. Being aware of which muscles will be best for a variety of skills will help build strength and level of skill, beyond just technique. These exercises will not only increase jump height and power, but also build long lean muscles in your dancer’s legs!

A day or weekend of competition is mentally and physically exhausting for dancers, but they can prepare their body days, weeks and even months before competition to improve their strength, balance, performance, endurance, recovery and injury prevention.