Sleeping to be a star? Photo by NimahelPhotoArt via Flickr.

You probably won’t know it, but you could already be deep into sleep debt and this silent loan shark is steadily stealing the shine off your performance. Sleep debt is caused by accumulating sleep loss over time and yes, your body does keep score – that late night I-know-I-shouldn’t-but-I’ll-have-it-anyway coffee sets you back at least ten points. Well okay, maybe five.

Most people don’t realise that they have chronic sleep debt, because it builds up slowly over days and weeks. Also, there are two types of sleep loss – acute and chronic:

Acute sleep loss happens when you pull an all-nighter and you’re awake for more than 24 hours. You may think you’re a cool kid for doing it, but the resulting impairment can temporarily make you as dumb as Dory (you know, Finding Nemo).

Chronic sleep loss is when you only get about four to seven hours sleep a night, putting you a little more into debt each time. And surprise surprise, this is actually the really nasty thief-in-the-night, increasingly robbing your power during the day, but so subtly that you wouldn’t notice the change.

Just can’t get enough

US researchers found that while most people will catch up on acute sleep loss with a single night of 10 hours sleep, those with chronic sleep loss showed deteriorating performance for each hour spent awake.

They found that three days is not enough to recover from chronic sleep loss, but they couldn’t say how many days or weeks may actually be needed. This could be because every person needs a slightly different amount of sleep, and of course your sleep debt score might register higher on the scary-scale than others!

How to fix your sleep debt and improve performance

Cheri Mah (@Cheri_Mah) is one of the leading American authorities in sleep and athletic performance and she coaches collegiate and professional sports teams on optimal sleep, recovery, and peak performance. She found that swimmers who increased their sleep improved their reaction time off the starting block by 17%, and tennis players got a 42% boost in hitting accuracy too (see the study info here).

If it works this well for swimmers and tennis players, imagine what advantage this can create for a dancer.

So start by extending your nightly shut-eye by 30 minutes or more. Yes, that means no more night-time coffees and bad reality TV shows. Set a reminder if you have to until your new habit becomes second nature, but do what you can to get some more sleep each night.

But don’t get fooled…

That rejuvenated feeling you might have after one decent night’s sleep is wonderful, but a tad misleading too. Don’t be tricked into believing that you’re restored as new and your debt is paid.

This loan shark is sneaky and you’ll have to keep paying your debt for a while yet, consistently night by night if you want to shake off the shark and reach your peak performance again.

Your new sleep patterns will be worth their weight in gold soon enough. Okay, so you can’t really weigh sleep, but just think, those extra zzz’s could just win you gold at the next dance competition with your new found vigour and competitive advantage. Now isn’t that worth sleeping on?

Cape Town City Ballet warm-up class. Photo by Michael Groenewald courtesy of CTCB.

Do you ever have those days where you know there is so much more you can do in ballet class, but your body stubbornly refuses to cooperate? Of course you do, silly question, pushing the body beyond its boundaries is basically the definition of ballet, right?

After all, there is no such thing as too many pirouette turns or too much elevation in jumps – dancers are always striving for more.

Dramatic moment with Elizabeth Nienaber. Photo by Michael Groenewald courtesy of CTCB.

But while relentlessly pushing yourself in ballet can certainly give you results, it can also give you injuries. A better approach is to find a happy balance, where you can identify your weak areas and safely strengthen them out of class, enabling you to work harder and with more control in the class.

This is where cross-training for ballet is so valuable.

So when you’re panting after that first allegro exercise and when your feet should be doing hummingbird beats but start to resemble flopping fish instead, it’s time to add some cardio fitness workouts.

And when you’re fighting to hold (or lift) that arabesque, perhaps it’s time to include some core strength conditioning.

Following the recent cross-training article on BodyMindBallet (Best out-the-class ideas for in-the-class performance), I asked a few South African professional ballet dancers to tell us what type of ballet cross-training they do and what works best for them.

Here are some of their ideas that you can try for yourself.

[Although remember that what works for one dancer doesn’t necessarily work for another, so it’s always best to chat to your ballet teacher and physical therapist before starting any new training schedules.]

Ballet cross-training that works:

Michael Revie from South African Mzansi Ballet stretching during rehearsals. Photo by Jurgen Badenhorst courtesy of SAMB.

Michael Revie, principal dancer at South African Mzansi Ballet says, “when I perform, it is normally for 1 and a half to 2 hours and it is a mix of everything, so training many different ways is very, very important for me.”

Michael does circuit training three times a week, mixing upper body and leg workouts, and he aims to do weight training twice a week too. However, he doesn’t stop there.

“Being a dancer, we move every day in different ways,” says Michael. “I feel if I stick to one type of training, I will be neglecting some parts of my body. I need to be fit to run long distance and do sprints, long jump, high jump, weight lifting, flexibility and strength.”

Thomas Thorne of Cape Town City Ballet (CTCB) takes a similar approach with cross-training.  He says “I don’t believe that just a ballet class is enough to keep strong. Ballet has become more athletic and bodies are more toned, so going to the pilates class or the gym is needed.”

Thomas recommends trying many different forms of exercise and he emphasizes that “male dancers also must be strong to partner a girl and get through a solo”.

Kirstel Jensen and Daniel Szybkowski during rehearsals at Cape Town City Ballet’s studios. Photo by Michael Groenewald courtesy of CTCB.

However, even though the physical demands and cross-training needs are different for ballet men and women, that doesn’t mean gym is only for the boys.

Kirstel Jensen, a CTCB dancer, says that gym makes her stronger too, especially helping with upper body strength and also strengthening her legs for jumping and landing. She says working out at the gym also improves her stamina and “it makes muscles not usually used stronger, which in turn improves my ballet technique”.

But when it comes to increasing core body strength, pilates pops up on almost all dancers’ cross-training schedules. Claire Spector (from Cape Town City Ballet) says pilates helps her build strong core muscles, while it’s good for preventing injuries and for general body conditioning.

Elizabeth Nienaber (CTCB) says she does pilates, yoga and gym, listing several benefits including increasing flexibility, relieving stress and she says it provides a “better understanding of the body/mind connection”.

Angela Hansford during rehearsals. Photo by Michael Groenewald courtsy of CTCB.

Angela Hansford (CTCB) believes that yoga works best for her. In particular Angela says that because she’s tall, she needs a very strong core. “This helps me to move faster and be more coordinated,” she says.

Angela adds that yoga stretches are very beneficial, and “heated yoga is also great because you feel more flexible in the heat and can really push your stretches.”

But if you prefer fresh air to hot, stuffy studios, Daniel Szybkowski (CTCB) says he goes jogging and hiking, which he claims strengthens his ankles and legs and also improves his stamina.

But what about cross-training for injury rehabilitation?

Michael Revie has dealt with his fair share of injuries over his career and has developed his own injury prevention/recovery techniques. But as a starting point he says, “if I have an injury, I wait until the physio says I am allowed to train, then I train the injured area by itself (pilates, swimming, biokinetics). As soon as I feel the strength coming back, I start to lift more and train longer.”

See them in action…

Now that you have some insight into these dancers’ off-stage workouts, why don’t you see for yourself how it translates into their on-stage performance?

You can still catch the Cape Town City Ballet dancers on stage this week with their production of The Sleeping Beauty at Artscape until 18 August (tickets through Computicket here); and you can see Michael Revie and the South African Mzansi Ballet dancers in their upcoming production of Cinderella at the Joburg Theatre in September (book those tickets here).

Photo by Daniela Vladimirova via Flickr

Are you injury-prone, struggling with your flexibility, weight or your health? What if it turned out that you have some hidden agendas and unconscious motives relating to your physical body?

“No way” you say?

Well, you may just change your mind, quite literally, after hearing this evening talk on 30 May 2013 where Dr John Demartini delves into the mechanics of the mind and its connection to fitness, health, wellbeing and the reasons behind the things we do or don’t do to achieve our health and wellness goals. (See the video introduction below.)

Dr Demartini is a renowned human behavioural specialist, a revered chiropractor and an international authority on the mind body connection with a background of over 40 years in-depth study covering over 260 ‘ologies’ with a primary focus on health, disease, healing and wellbeing.

How to “walk your talk, not limp your life”

He says we have incredible capacity to create profound transformations in our psychology and physiology through the power of our perceptions. When we take command of how we perceive things we change the labels and our misperceptions about our own health and wellbeing.

This presentation at the Sandton Convention Centre will address the unlimited healing power of a balanced mind and is said to include ground breaking information on conquering various forms of addiction.

Event details:

Public talk: Mind over body by Dr John Demartini
Date: Thursday, 30 May 2013
Times: Registration at 19:00 and talk from 19:30 to 21:45 (including Q&A).
Venue: Committee Room 4, Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg
Tickets: R280 through Computicket or R300 at the door.

Still not sure? Watch this quick (1 minute 40 second) video summary of what to expect at Dr Demartini’s talk:

Photo by RelaxingMusic via Flickr

Did you know that some high performing professional athletes get up to 12 hours sleep a night?

Usain Bolt, widely regarded as the fastest sprinter on the planet, gives part of the reason when he says that “sleep is extremely important to me – I need to rest and recover in order for the training I do to be absorbed by my body.”

And Roger Federer, professional tennis player, says, “If I don’t sleep 11 to 12 hours a day, it’s not right.” (Keep reading for a brilliant infographic on this topic.)

The secret power of optimal sleep for peak athletic performance

We all know that we need a good night’s sleep to be healthy, but did you know that not getting enough sleep could actually be holding back your athletic potential?

Multiple gold-winning Olympic swimmer, Michael Phelps, said “eat, sleep, and swim, that’s all I can do”. And he doesn’t mean that eating and swimming is all he can do in-between sleep, as if sleep was some kind of inconvenience; no, sleep is one of his top strategic priorities.

It has a lot to do with recovery. The body needs enough time spent in deep sleep to rebuild and repair the tissues. If it gets to complete this task each night without interruption, then your body is that little bit more prepared the next day for the next batch of training.

Doing this consistently night after night is what some professional athletes believe to be their secret weapon. Once you’re already at the top of your game, leveraging this silent power of sleep is the perfect competitive advantage.

Fortunately, you don’t have to wait until you’re at the top of your class before trying some of their tricks. You could start sleeping like a professional tonight.

Winners sleep, losers weep

So, how much should you be sleeping? ‘A little bit more’ is probably the best answer. The average person sleeps only 6 hours and 44 minutes, but you should be aiming for at least 8 good hours each night if you want to dance at your best.

While you may not need to copy Roger Federer’s 12 hour sleeps, many high performance athletes average around 8 to 10 hours, so depending on the mental and athletic demands of your day, you‘ll have to experiment with what works best for you.

Have a look at this fantastic infographic for more sleep stats and quotes on how you can sleep to be an all-star (click on the image to see the full-sized infographic created by Zeo).

How many hours sleep do you get per night? Have you found that a good or bad night’s rest has affected your performance?

Photo by Lorenzo Sernicola via Flickr

When a teacher tells a dancer to lift the arches of the foot, you’d think it’s a simple instruction with no room for misinterpretation. Think again.

Are you doing it wrong?

Following our recent post on arches (Fact or Myth: Do high heels strengthen the foot arch), we’ll show you one surprisingly simple exercise to lift and strengthen your arches, while avoiding overusing the wrong muscles.

Actually, we’ll get Australian dance physiotherapist Lisa Howell to show you with her short and sweet video on the topic.

She calls it the ‘holy grail of arch control’. And if you’re one of those dancers unwittingly gripping the wrong muscles/tendons to lift your arches (like I was), then this little video certainly will feel like the most highly-prized holy secret you’ve ever discovered.

It’s an old video, but a must-see for dancers and dance teachers alike…

Did this video help you? Let us know your thoughts and suggestions on arch control in the comments below.

Photo by Andrea Rinaldi via Flickr

Sorry ladies, this one’s definitely a myth, and a dangerous one at that, especially for a dancer.

According to the Journal of Experimental Biology, researchers have found that the Achilles tendon of women who wear high heels actually thicken over time and stiffen permanently.

In fact, high heel wearers are found to have muscle fibres around 13% shorter than women who wear flat shoes. Yikes!

Also, high heels worn for extended periods will put pressure on your metatarsal heads, which already take a great deal of pressure with every jump and relevé in the ballet class.

You’ll be far better off by treating your feet kindly in-between dance classes by wearing flat shoes that cushion your soles and support the feet and ankles (like running shoes, ankle boots or lace-ups).

Rather reserve those killer heels for special occasions (preferably where you don’t have to do too much standing), and make sure to gently stretch out your calves afterwards.