The Effects of a Low Volume Physical Training Program on Functional Movement and Strength in Dancers

Physical Preparation

Physical preparation is a training process containing a sequence of structured training sessions, which follows the principles of periodisation to achieve the best performance through a well-developed general base (Minikovski & Portela, 2021). Many people, mainly dancers, still consider technical dance training a complete and sufficient stimulus to develop all desirable skills required in dance, although Wyon (2002) disproved it. In addition, science has demonstrated for decades that this belief is limited and that other stimuli are needed to fully develop the dancer's desirable characteristics (Koutedakis, 1996; Koutedakis, 2004). Physically conditioning the dancer refers to developing aerobic and anaerobic conditioning, strength, power, endurance, flexibility, agility, and personal/psychological development (Koutedakis; Jamurtas, 2004; Rafferty, 2010; Wyon, 2018) to provide a healthier and long-lasting dance practice, in addition to facilitating progress with a lower risk of injury (Dantas, 2014). The professional who works with physical preparation in dance should have some knowledge of the art since, with no technical foundation, it is hard to achieve goals successfully (Bittar, 2004).