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Thigh muscles - advice how to reshape/reduce


sillysally

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@DD Driver Hi there, there are some misconceptions and misinformation about strength training. What you are saying is not exactly right. Yes it depends on the protocol one uses but there are many factors that play part in the creation of big muscles. 
 

A few of the main factors are:

 

- frequency (how many times per week. Body builders workout 6-7 days per week. Dancers can only afford a couple of hours per week

- intensity (how heavy can you and do you go). Body builders are constantly pushing their limits , dancers don’t need to

- nutrition (how many calories one consumes). Body builders eat above 5000 kcal per day, dancers barely cover the survival needs and are afraid of food. 
- drugs. Female body builders take drugs. Dancers don’t! 

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As a side note for parents and anyone else interested in topics such as this, I agree with Niko’s advice about education and challenging myths etc. IADMS is a great place to start but also the science for dance educators group on Facebook is really good. It’s connected to IADMS and there are so many educated and informed people in that group that discussions are always interesting to follow. The wonderful thing is that everyone involved has the same ideal at heart - and that is to use science to improve how dancers are trained.
 

As a scientist as well as a dance teacher, I’m always looking to understand how and why things are the way they are, and I look for evidence or fact to help me understand. I love to learn and so I will always question why? Or how? Or what does ‘X’ mean? I believe that the most knowledgeable people on earth are those who keep striving to learn more, and who don’t just accept something because “that’s what I was told” or “that’s the way it is”. Science is what shapes our world. There is so much that we take for granted that only exists because someone was brave enough to say “I think this could be done a different way”, and for people to debate it, question it and sometimes agree that it’s ok to change how you approach something, especially if backed up by evidence. 
 

So, in realizing that I have gone off tangent slightly (for which I apologise, but only a little!) my challenge to you is to think like a scientist a bit more! Question, challenge, critically appraise everything. If something doesn’t make sense to you, ask or do research to seek answers. Nothing in dance training should be mysterious or archaic - if something sounds implausible or wrong, then ask for explanation or evidence. If you get conflicting explanations or evidence, seek out more until you have multiple sources saying the same thing / supporting each other. Be aware of second-hand or third-hand advice/evidence eg “I know someone who’s sisters fiancé danced with the Royal Ballet and they told me that they all have their hips removed so they have better turnout”.... (clearly nonsense to make a point!).

 

This forum is great, and it’s got a lot better at making sure that people looking for advice regarding injuries are always directed to the appropriate professionals before other well-meaning but unqualified folks jump in. Perhaps the same caution could be applied when parents or dancers are asking for advice regarding other physical or mental health related matters? 

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9 hours ago, SciDancer said:

Pilates, whilst it certainly has its benefits, has not been shown so far in research to increase muscular strength, so if you want higher jumps, more control in your developpes or rond de jambe, you need to include strength training.

 

 

But Pilates does increase muscle strength surely? I googled and came up with the random selection:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5005852/

 

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1360859206001458

 

https://peerj.com/articles/7948/

 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228631034_Effects_of_Pilates_exercise_on_trunk_strength_endurance_and_flexibility_in_sedentary_adult_females


I’m  quite prepared to accept that there are better ways of increasing strength in dancers but I think there’s lots of evidence that Pilates does increase muscle strength? 

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@Peony yes it does but always look at the population they are referring! These are the titles of the studies of your links:

  • Effects of a Pilates exercise program on muscle strength, postural control and body composition: results from a pilot study in a group of post-menopausal women
  • Effects of Pilates exercise on trunk strength, endurance and flexibility in sedentary adult females
  • Pilates versus resistance training on trunk strength and balance adaptations in older women: a randomized controlled trial
  • Effects of Pilates exercise on trunk strength, endurance and flexibility in sedentary adult females

On sedentary and elderly population of course, but is this relevant to dancers and in particular young dancers?

 

Actually there is little if no evidence at all it works for youth

 

 

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1 hour ago, Nico Kolokythas said:

@Peony yes it does but always look at the population they are referring! These are the titles of the studies of your links:

  • Effects of a Pilates exercise program on muscle strength, postural control and body composition: results from a pilot study in a group of post-menopausal women
  • Effects of Pilates exercise on trunk strength, endurance and flexibility in sedentary adult females
  • Pilates versus resistance training on trunk strength and balance adaptations in older women: a randomized controlled trial
  • Effects of Pilates exercise on trunk strength, endurance and flexibility in sedentary adult females

On sedentary and elderly population of course, but is this relevant to dancers and in particular young dancers?

 

Actually there is little if no evidence at all it works for youth

 

 


Is there little or no evidence because there haven’t been any studies conducted on young people/dancers? Or do the studies show that pilates makes no difference in these groups?

 

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9 hours ago, DD Driver said:

With strength training - doesn't the  impact on the muscle (bulky v lean) depend on the type of exercise you engage in?

I thought the idea was to go for repetition and not to add heavy weights?

 

As I understand it, not necessarily to both questions. Muscle bulk is as much to do with innate physiology and hormones - from puberty, male bodies' production of testosterone affect skeletal development (heavier bones than female bodies), lung development (bigger lungs) and the ability to develop muscle - it's why men and women don't compete together in most athletics (and why there was such an outcry in the 1980s at the East German 'doping' of women athletes with male hormones!)  You can deliberately train for bulk, but that requires fairly specialist techniques. If you look at the way that women look in bodybuilding competitions, what you see is an emphasis on an exaggerated stereotypical "feminine" body - tiny waist etc, and an emphasis on minimal body fat (and similarly for men, emphasis on chest and biceps and stereotypical concepts of the masculine stereotype)  - it's not to my taste at all, I think bodybuilding bodies are a bit to exaggerated, but it takes all types to make the world ...

 

My own experience of learning to "lift heavy" is that getting up to an 87 kilo deadlift and 62kg back squat (my heaviest lifts) has taken about 3 years (but I'm 60) and in the process the training has made me stronger, but leaner (because I've shed fat) and has definitely improved my whole core - not just legs. But I'm not 15 and in pre-professional ballet training!

 

If you have a look at the Instagram feed of "TheDanceStrengthPro" you'll see the sort of slow, careful, controlled and technically exacting training he does with young dancers in training. They do some standard weightlifting as well as specifically dance-related conditioning & training. It's very interesting and I learn a lot.

 

Edited to add: but I take @drdance's point about unqualified people - so caveat - I'm just talking from my own experience of a long time training, but just my own body. And I fit into the category of "post-menopausal woman" that @Nico Kolokythasmentions re Pilates! But I like to approach things as @drdancesuggests - evidence and argument and discussion, which seeks to refine and focus what we're all aiming for, each in our own training journey.

Edited by Kate_N
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I'm finding this fascinating and informative.  We are so lucky to have a community of people with such a wide range of knowledge and experience to draw on.

 

Thankyou to the scientific bods for correcting some of our common misconceptions. It is both interesting and encouraging that they are all saying pretty much the same thing.

 

I think the message for @sillysally is clear...your dd isn't doing anything wrong.  What you can do is to support her to take advantage of her strengths so that she can become the dancer she was destined to become.

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2 hours ago, Nico Kolokythas said:

@Peony yes it does but always look at the population they are referring! These are the titles of the studies of your links:

  • Effects of a Pilates exercise program on muscle strength, postural control and body composition: results from a pilot study in a group of post-menopausal women
  • Effects of Pilates exercise on trunk strength, endurance and flexibility in sedentary adult females
  • Pilates versus resistance training on trunk strength and balance adaptations in older women: a randomized controlled trial
  • Effects of Pilates exercise on trunk strength, endurance and flexibility in sedentary adult females

On sedentary and elderly population of course, but is this relevant to dancers and in particular young dancers?

 

Actually there is little if no evidence at all it works for youth

 

 


yes I did pick up that the studies were not in dancers and were in adults, some post menopausal but your statement referring to Pilates was general. They also didn’t appear to be of particularly high quality, With sample sizes of 25  etc they’re also unlikely to meet confidence intervals on their own, but there did appear to be a large number of studies showing the same thing. So it would suggest that Pilates does have an effect on strength. I didn’t find any studies in dancers or young people. Is there sufficient evidence either way? Why does it build strength in older adults and not younger ones? As I said, if the message is that it’s not the most effective way I can understand that but I honestly can’t see that it doesn’t build strength, it’s certainly not my personal experience

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2 hours ago, Peony said:


yes I did pick up that the studies were not in dancers and were in adults, some post menopausal but your statement referring to Pilates was general. They also didn’t appear to be of particularly high quality, With sample sizes of 25  etc they’re also unlikely to meet confidence intervals on their own, but there did appear to be a large number of studies showing the same thing. So it would suggest that Pilates does have an effect on strength. I didn’t find any studies in dancers or young people. Is there sufficient evidence either way? Why does it build strength in older adults and not younger ones? As I said, if the message is that it’s not the most effective way I can understand that but I honestly can’t see that it doesn’t build strength, it’s certainly not my personal experience


I think it’s all about starting point. If someone is completely sedentary, and has not done much exercise for a long time, then any form of training programme is likely to show some strength gains. But what Nico is getting at, I believe, is that there comes a point or threshold  where pilates no longer provides sufficient stimulus to elicit a strength-training response, and with a fairly active population such as dancers, it would be fairly easy to reach that threshold. Let’s not forget that Pilates as a training method was designed to rehabilitate injured dancers early in their recovery so it is designed to be fairly low demand and designed to help someone re-start training after a period of rest. 

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2 hours ago, Peony said:


yes I did pick up that the studies were not in dancers and were in adults, some post menopausal but your statement referring to Pilates was general. They also didn’t appear to be of particularly high quality, With sample sizes of 25  etc they’re also unlikely to meet confidence intervals on their own, but there did appear to be a large number of studies showing the same thing. So it would suggest that Pilates does have an effect on strength. I didn’t find any studies in dancers or young people. Is there sufficient evidence either way? Why does it build strength in older adults and not younger ones? As I said, if the message is that it’s not the most effective way I can understand that but I honestly can’t see that it doesn’t build strength, it’s certainly not my personal experience

@Peony if a person is untrained or very unfit, or coming back from an injury there will be some strength development. After that stage the overload is not large enough to continue with the adaptations. For general population, this is an excellent form of exercise, but for an elite performance population I am afraid there is very little evidence or logic to keep doing something that is of such low intensity simply as a feel good factor. Joseph Pilates did not make Pilates for dancers, but he was a good salesman. 

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Just adding on to what @Nico Kolokythas and @drdance have said regarding Pilates and strength training. The research so far has not shown that Pilates increases muscular strength, at least not in the way that would have significant impact for dancers beyond rehabilitation. This is also coupled with poor methodologies in the studies that do exist which also makes it difficult to compare papers so is certainly worth further investigation and also in specific populations.

 

In order to see increases in muscular strength, we must overload the body as Nico pointed out. One of the ways to do this is through increased weight, so therefore there naturally comes a point where your own bodyweight is no longer enough to keep adapting and developing strength. So this is why you may see increases in those completing rehab or with lower levels of initial strength in sedentary individuals when participating in Pilates. Dancers have also been shown in the research to not be as strong as other athletes, despite the level of physical activity, so we may see an increase in strength in the initial stages of Pilates training, but then reach the maximum that can be achieved without more overload. We use a lot of muscular endurance in dance (low weight, high reps or positions held for long periods of time) but we need enough strength to achieve this endurance. For example if you wanted to do 15 push ups (muscular endurance) but you do not have enough strength to hold your bodyweight in a plank position to begin the push up, how will you be able to do the 15 push ups? I hope that makes sense. 

 

If anyone is interested in reading more here are some papers reviewing the literature on Pilates research in dance. Sorry they are not all open access. I would caution when reading however that some papers state that Pilates increases muscular strength, however if you read the paper in detail it relates to one specific muscle, often related to posture rather than gross skills. 

 

Does Pilates Training benefit dancers? An appraisal of Pilates research literature

https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/jmrp/jdms/2006/00000010/f0020001/art00008

 

Influence of Pilates training on muscular strength and flexibility in dancers

https://www.scielo.br/pdf/motriz/v17n4/a10v17n4.pdf

 

Some effects of supplemental Pilates training on the posture, strength and flexibility of dancers 17 - 22 years of age

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30477608/

 

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On 15/07/2020 at 15:52, PhysSup said:

 

I'm with @drdance on this. This is anatomically and biomechanically impossible. Dancers and teachers use a lot of imagery, which can be extremely useful in the studio, but is often not anatomically plausible. 

 

 People have different propensities to increase muscle mass / cross sectional area. Yes, testosterone is one contributing factor, but also whether or not you are a 'responder' to strength training. Some people physiologically have very little ability to respond to strength training, and as such, do not easily develop muscle mass, and others develop muscle mass and strength more easily. There is nothing you can do to change your physiology. For most females however, even using the heaviest weights, will not increase muscle mass. 

 

Unfortunately, Pilates will not change the shape of muscles. Everything drdance has written on this thread is scientifically robust and evidence based.

 

There are many vocational contemporary dance schools out there that will not discriminate against body shape, muscle fibre type or size. Those large muscles are wonderful, powerful muscles that can produce exciting and explosive dancing. Embrace them. 

of course pilates can change the shape of your muscles.  It tones, defines and strengthens. Whilst not a scientist I am living breathing proof! I myself reshaped my body using pilates! Pilates  literally gave me my career. Am I not real?!😉

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4 minutes ago, Emma northmore said:

of course pilates can change the shape of your muscles.  It tones, defines and strengthens. Whilst not a scientist I am living breathing proof! I myself reshaped my body using pilates! Pilates  literally gave me my career. Am I not real?!😉

You are also, like all of us, the creation of your confirmation bias. Science is there to guide and control and sometimes confront this bias. Whilst what you are describing did happen to you, it does not mean that the reasons it happened are the reasons you are thinking.This is not to offend your opinion or experience but simply to give perspective. Athletes have similar ideas sometimes, they believe that if they do exactly what another successful athlete did they will be successful too. Unfortunately...not the reality. 

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I must say well done drdance......your Facebook post asking for back up has brought many well informed people on to this forum! Nico is always great.

 

From a dancers perspective ...... and I love the science......but irrespective of what the research says.........pilates was a godsend for me and so many of my colleagues.

The focused exercises helped us as students, develop the neural pathways to each individual muscle group......therefore, when asked in a class setting to engage the lats (for example) or inner thighs......it was far easier to immediately make those connections and ensure the right muscle groups were working.

As a pro after a broken foot - I managed to return much improved havimg only donr pilates for 4 months - even earning a promotion from it!!!

 

I have used both imagery and pilates to get less than perfect bodies in to top vocational upper schools. So whilst not understanding the science at your level - the uses have been proven over and over again.

 

Nico you are welcome to observe a class over a period of time to see how i create these transformations as i am genuinely   curious as to why the science doesn't support it.

 It only works on the most dedicated dancers!

 

I will leave you all now to your scientific discussions as my brain is fried from Covid-19 risk assessments!!!!

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5 minutes ago, Nico Kolokythas said:

You are also, like all of us, the creation of your confirmation bias. Science is there to guide and control and sometimes confront this bias. Whilst what you are describing did happen to you, it does not mean that the reasons it happened are the reasons you are thinking.This is not to offend your opinion or experience but simply to give perspective. Athletes have similar ideas sometimes, they believe that if they do exactly what another successful athlete did they will be successful too. Unfortunately...not the reality. 

But Nico.....i have used this over and over again now to great success for students entering upper school......

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It seems to me that people agree that pilates can provide significant  increases in strength and stability when you begin.  This would take a number of months.  At a certain point it is about maintaining this. 

 

For athletes and elite dancers greater strength is coming from many additional activities.  These people are also doing pilates with professionals that  continuously add new and more challenging sessions and exercises for their clients.  It is amped-up pilates.  Weights are used and they work through to fatique.

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Precisely! BALLET pilates....

You can't beat many decades of proof long before anyone looked at the science behind it.

I enjoy investigating it all but would prefer scientists are more open to observing professionals and what they entrust to keep their careers alive.

85% will be doing pilates daily!

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In a study, a scientist will look at defining what pilates is and must control other variables (other training/practice) that could compromise the validity of the study.  They want to test the impact of pilates alone.  To not muddy the waters.

 

So many professional dancers or vocational students may be doing a form of pilates that is not strictly/just pilates but rather a customised training regime.

They will also do other activities that build strength and as an individual it is difficult  to isolate what gains come from (their version of-) pilates from what is due to their other activities.

 

Meanwhile, I find Sara Mearns at New York City Ballet fascinating.  She does a very tough exercise regime e.g. squats with weights and training as seen in this video!

https://www.instagram.com/saramearns/?hl=en

Edited by DD Driver
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I think with the argument regarding Pilates we should be mindful of why dancers do Pilates and why people think it isn't an effective training tool. It seems to me that the two things are not the same.

 

Pilates and similar exercise methods such as PBT, gyrotonic etc are fantastic for targeting individual muscles, supporting ballet technique and rehabilitation from injury. I am a fan of PBT especially, and have seen great benefits in my own students, particularly in their ballet technique. I 100% agree with Emma in that it helps dancers have more awareness of their muscles and therefore to engage them appropriately in a ballet class which ensures correct technique. From that perspective I think it is great, and definitely helps support correct posture, use of turnout, alignment etc in ballet. 
 

However, I also agree that these exercise methods do not provide enough stimulus to cause changes in force production, or to guard against muscular fatigue (a known contributor to injury). For these purposes, there must be a greater challenge and this is where more mainstream strength and conditioning approaches have value. Working against weight/ resistance, utilizing force, challenging the different energy systems of the body etc will have more benefit. This is why companies such as the Royal Ballet use gym based strength and conditioning alongside Pilates. @Emma northmore A large number of dance scientists DO observe and work with professionals - (hundreds if not thousands of research papers have been written using professional dancers as the subjects) however it is incredibly difficult to actually get in to some schools, companies and institutions! Perhaps if every company welcomed dance scientists in to watch, observe and question openly then there might be a better mutual understanding. After all, we do all want the same thing, I believe? 

 

As for whether an exercise methodology such as Pilates is SOLELY and DIRECTLY responsible for changing someone’s body shape - I find this hard to believe. I don’t doubt that many people have attributed changes in body shape to doing Pilates, HOWEVER I suspect that it may not specifically be the Pilates that has caused the change, but that by doing Pilates/PBT/gyrotonic, the dancer refines their technique, learns more efficient ways of moving and develops better movement economy so changes the way they are working in class, thus altering the recruitment of muscle fibres. 
 

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@DD Driver Re the Instagram video - if I was her I would be asking her coach/trainer why all of that work was done on a wobble board/bosu ball. What is the rationale for doing that when the surfaces that she dances on are not like that? It’s like training to swim in the sea and then competing in a completely still pool. I thought ballet dancers were all about working “the right muscles” but training on an unstable surface is going to challenge all the muscles that don’t need to be challenged, whilst putting the dancer at much greater risk of injury. 
 

I’m sure you’re all possibly getting sick of my mantra now but - ask why! Why am I doing this? What do I want to achieve? Will this help me get to what I want to achieve? Are there safer/more effective ways of getting there?

Edited by drdance
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10 hours ago, Emma northmore said:

Precisely! BALLET pilates....

You can't beat many decades of proof long before anyone looked at the science behind it.

I enjoy investigating it all but would prefer scientists are more open to observing professionals and what they entrust to keep their careers alive.

85% will be doing pilates daily!

Precisely! We investigated and saw over 60% injury prevalence in professional dancer (In pre-professional it is worse) with the majority of the injuries in the lower limb and the majority of the injuries being of overuse onset. There is a place Pilates but it cannot be the only thing a dancer does simply because dance and Pilates put little force through the body but the body needs to cope with a lot of force when landing from a jump! 

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Hi all,

I was wary of posting my question.....as weight and size remains a controversial topic in ballet. And I can vouch as a mother of a 15 year old aspiring dancer, it is a conversation rather than a topic that is never ending 😉  However it seems that the post has led to a sharing of knowledge that I'm sure will benefit many.

 

Once a comment is made to a child (and at 15 my DD is still a child in many ways), it is difficult to change the understanding of the comment. I want to turn what appears as a negative into a constructive comment - whether it leads to a change  in exercise and training, or a change in mental perception or a change in goals I feel that this feedback must be used to make a positive change for her not just demoralise her.

 

Based on the replies, I will look into both strength training and pilates. 

I guess we will need to create a plan that is appropriate to her age and goal as a dancer - we dont want to create a mini Arnie Schwarzenegger 🤣

My daughter is herself starting to look into body conditioning and pilates...instagram and youtube I will share with her some of the links form this chat.

 

I must say a big thanks for your contributions. My family is british but we live in Switzerland and I am not only clueless about the ballet world but physical exercise is not my thing.  The general approach to nutrition here involves eating small portions and very little processed food whilst exercise is truly part of daily life involving walking lots and generally staying active.  I really appreciate your contributions and am happy to be able to learn for those more experienced and those with  specialised knowledge. 😀

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11 hours ago, Emma northmore said:

But Nico.....i have used this over and over again now to great success for students entering upper school......

I’m not disputing the quality of your work @Emma northmore but I am sure you understand that training in developmental ages has to follow some physiological rules. An adolescent student of dance is not a dancer, in other words he/she is not a miniature adult. Dance and in particular ballet is treating, at times) the young body as a miniature adult. Supplementary training for young dancers cannot be based only on what we think is right (don’t forget our bias), but it needs to be based on some form of evidence other than our own opinion (which is biased). Please check the literature for youth development and tell me where does it say that Pilates is the key to developing a young body. I’m not saying Pilates shouldn’t be used but I’m saying it is not enough. Landing from a simple jump can produce ground reaction of 3.5-5 times the body weight of a child and rates of force of around 500 times of body weight/second. Now honestly when you know the above, can you honestly believe that Pilates is the only thing a young body needs to develop force production and absorption physiological properties?  And if the answer is yes, can I please read some evidence about it? If the answer is no...well :)
 

Keeping in mind that Joseph Pilates was a very weak individual who found a way to train himself. He never said Pilates is the key to development of a child. He was an adult. Also, if he hadn’t gone to New York and if M.Graham and Balanchine weren’t so avant-garde things might have been different now. Lastly, these two dance superstar names were avant-garde ...past tense ...what about now? Shouldn’t we use the knowledge we have to evolve practice? Shouldn’t we think out-of-box? Shouldn’t we be avant-garde? Isn’t this how medicine evolved? Building on experience and discovering new ways to a better world. 
 

We have had similar debates and I’m sure you understand that this is an exchange of opinions and not an attack on someone’s opinion. We do need to push practice to more evidence-based, not personal-evidence simply because “wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it, and right is right even if no one is doing it”!

 

I’m yet to see a student (male or female) coming to the upper school and think “yep strong”. They usually need to catch up of minimum one year of resistance training and they feel intimidated. I will be presenting next week at the RAD conference discussing this topic even further for anyone who may be interested. 
 

@Emma northmore always a pleasure to debate with you. 

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32 minutes ago, Nico Kolokythas said:

I’m yet to see a student (male or female) coming to the upper school and think “yep strong”. They usually need to catch up of minimum one year of resistance training and they feel intimidated. 


Are you including the students you’ve worked with in the lower school there @Nico Kolokythas? Surely if they’ve been following your programme for a number of years in LS there shouldn’t be ‘catching up’ to do when they get to upper school? (This year is obviously an exception, everyone will have catch up to do!) 

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1 minute ago, Farawaydancer said:


Are you including the students you’ve worked with in the lower school there @Nico Kolokythas? Surely if they’ve been following your programme for a number of years in LS there shouldn’t be ‘catching up’ to do when they get to upper school? (This year is obviously an exception, everyone will have catch up to do!) 

@Farawaydancer thank you for clarifying, I was referring to new students and yes we are observing a difference between new students and students who come from the LS. With the male population I would say the transition is getting better, with the female population we are not there yet but lockdown has helped a lot and I think it will be a turning point.  

 

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11 hours ago, Emma northmore said:

I must say well done drdance......your Facebook post asking for back up has brought many well informed people on to this forum! Nico is always great.

 

From a dancers perspective ...... and I love the science......but irrespective of what the research says.........pilates was a godsend for me and so many of my colleagues.

The focused exercises helped us as students, develop the neural pathways to each individual muscle group......therefore, when asked in a class setting to engage the lats (for example) or inner thighs......it was far easier to immediately make those connections and ensure the right muscle groups were working.

As a pro after a broken foot - I managed to return much improved havimg only donr pilates for 4 months - even earning a promotion from it!!!

 

I have used both imagery and pilates to get less than perfect bodies in to top vocational upper schools. So whilst not understanding the science at your level - the uses have been proven over and over again.

 

Nico you are welcome to observe a class over a period of time to see how i create these transformations as i am genuinely   curious as to why the science doesn't support it.

 It only works on the most dedicated dancers!

 

I will leave you all now to your scientific discussions as my brain is fried from Covid-19 risk assessments!!!!

Everything works with dedicated dancers Emma! I’m happy to observe and I’m sure you know that I am as critical with my own work. 

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Nico I think you made an important point, pupils studying ballet are not mini adults. Their bodies are different and still developing. That is why I would take issue with Emma's assertion earlier in this thread that a dancer who has been a professional for many years knows technique and how the body works. Yes that is fine for teaching adults and very advanced older students,  but it is not enough. A good teacher training course which addresses child development - physical, mental and emotional is essential.

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17 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said:

pupils studying ballet are not mini adults

Going off the topic a bit, but this line made me laugh because it reminded me of a lecture that I gave many years ago to medical students on the anatomical and physiological differences between neonates and adults. My opening line was meant to be "Babies are NOT mini adults." But I was met by very confused looks as what I actually said was "Babies are NOT mini humans...."

I think they began doubting my credentials at that point.🤣🤣

It is a serious point though. Babies, children and adolescents are, physically, mentally and emotionally, very different beings to adults, and indeed to each other - it is not just a size thing. That is why generally we have different health care professionals, teachers etc for each group. I think dance teachers have a lot asked of then actually. There aren't many other people who work with the whole age range and I think it is very difficult, probably impossible actually, for any teacher to be equally expert with all groups. Yet they are often expected to be all things to all pupils.

Especially in light of recent revelations in other physical activities I would agree that any dance teacher or sports coach who works with children and/or adolescents would benefit from at least basic study of child development, growth etc as the growing body is a lot more vulnerable in many ways and not everything is as obvious or intuitive as it might seem. 

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4 minutes ago, Pas de Quatre said:

Nico I think you made an important point, pupils studying ballet are not mini adults. Their bodies are different and still developing. That is why I would take issue with Emma's assertion earlier in this thread that a dancer who has been a professional for many years knows technique and how the body works. Yes that is fine for teaching adults and very advanced older students,  but it is not enough. A good teacher training course which addresses child development - physical, mental and emotional is essential.

Thank you for your comment @Pas de Quatre I agree with you. In sport in order to train the elite, high performance success is a bonus but not a guarantee for getting the job. One needs to work him/herself up. In dance, personal success as a pro seems to be enough to become an elite teacher with a certificate, that in sport would be a level 2 certificate of coaching. A level 2 gives you the right to coach but doesn’t make you a coach. Ballet teacher training would benefit from coaching education, anatomy and physiology and it should be a lot longer than it currently is, in my humble opinion always 

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On 16/07/2020 at 07:27, Farawaydancer said:


Is there little or no evidence because there haven’t been any studies conducted on young people/dancers? Or do the studies show that pilates makes no difference in these groups?

 

There are no studies in dancers but there are in young people with musculoskeletal issues and the results are not that promising (see attached). Pilates is very low intensity exercise for a young person, therefore, you might be missing out on human potential if you just use this form of training for youth. 

BB6E5DAD-7BB3-4895-AE9B-DD341FDCC132.jpeg

Edited by Nico Kolokythas
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