Each month DanceLife’s ‘Body Stylist’ Kane Bonke will be answering your questions about all things health and nutrition. For more information on Kane please see his profile.
Hi I’m a female dancer currently studying at full time. Since I’m dancing every day I have increased my food intake for energy but don’t seem to be able to burn it off as I am putting on weight. What should I do?
Well it is true since you have increased your energy expenditure you need to increase your food intake BUT you need to have a look at the foods you have increased. Have you increased foods with high fat content and a high GI rating to get you through class? If so this could be your problem. Make sure you are eating more fresh fruit and vegetables and snack on healthy foods with low GI rating in between classes to give you energy. Avoid chocolate and foods with a high GI rating. High GI foods will give you instant energy but drop you faster than you can Grand Jete and will have you searching for your next snack before warm up is even over in class. You are what you eat so what goes in will pop out.
Hey, I’m a male dancer who is tall and skinny and I really want to put on weight. What is the best way for me to do this without the gym as I don’t feel comfortable in the environment?
Eat Eat Eat! Also it depends what you mean by put on weight. If you just want to fill out eat eat eat. As dancers we have a high aerobic output so it can be hard for male dancers to bulk up due to this. So you must make sure your eating enough food to compensate for the amount of energy you’re exerting. If you feel your diet is inadequate grab a protein bar to snack on during the day, this can assist with weight gain. If you want to build muscle the best way for this is to lift weights, this doesn’t mean that you have to go to a gym. Buy yourself some dumbbells and start to work out in the comfort of your room or every chance you have through the day drop and do a series of push ups the ideas are endless. Anything that you have to resist against will help you build some muscle, you may not become Hercules but it’s a start.
I attend dance classes 4 days a week but don’t feel like my body is getting fitter anymore. I seem to stay looking the same even with all the classes I do. What should I do to improve my body?
I am all for cross training. Your body adapts to any form of exercise that you do in around 4 weeks. So once your body has been shocked and has adapted to the stress you are putting it under there will be no more change. What happens with class is that teachers tend to do the same thing week in and week out which means your body is not being pushed. So you can either increase the amount of classes your doing or go and explore other ways of getting fit. Swimming, kayaking, circuit training, boxercise, yoga anything that your body is not used to will see you get more results.
As a dancer is jogging bad for me? I have been told that it can shorten my hamstrings. Is this correct?
Jogging is a great form of exercise for cardio fitness and toning of the body. There is how ever a lot of pressure on your knee and ankle joints so I recommend that you wear the correct jogging shoes to limit the pressure on your joints. Any exercise that has a concentric phase (shortening of the muscle) will have a shortening effect but a good stretch session at the end of your jog will lengthen the muscle.
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