Dance, like any physically demanding activity (it’s art form and sport to be perfectly honest!), requires you to take good care of yourself to keep at peak performance condition. Whether dancing one class a week or 6, it’s very important that a dancer pays attention to the cues that their body is giving them and fuels up properly to avoid injury and illness, especially during the colder months of the year. Here are some tips for making 2018 a healthy, productive dance year:

Stretch It Out – Stretching is key to keeping muscles warm, pliable, and ready for dance. It is that much more important during the cold weather months that you make sure you are fully warmed up, stretched, and prepared to focus on proper movement so that those nagging little muscle pulls don’t follow you through the next few months. Some dancers even make sure to wear warm up leggings, leg warmers, or light sweaters to help keep their muscles ready for class.

Fuel Up – Any athlete needs to properly feed themselves to make sure they have enough energy to train, and dancers are no different. Making sure that you have a wide variety of healthy foods in your diet is essential to keeping you healthy and dance ready. Lean protein (chicken, low-fat yogurt and cheese, and milk), dark, leafy veggies and honestly veggies of all colors coupled with whole grain pastas, breads, and a balance of healthy fats (olive oil, avocados) will ensure that you don’t come into class too tired to give it your best effort or leave too tired to tackle any homework that may be left for you to complete. Make sure that part of your nutritional routine is getting plenty of water, especially during the winter when the heat is running and the air is super dry.

Kick Back – These days it feels as if we run from one thing to the other and for some reason being busy has somehow become synonymous with being productive. This is so far from the truth! Everyone needs time to unplug (and yes I’m referring to your phone, the texts can actually wait I promise) and recharge your own batteries, and sometimes the adults have to remember to set that example too. There are times when I step back and look at the family calendar and think “I wonder if I’ll sit down this week?”, and I cannot tell you how long it takes me to finish a book I’ve been looking forward to reading! I am making a conscious decision to set a better example for my girls and teach them the value of doing absolutely nothing. Having time just to put up your feet with a cup of cocoa, play with your family, cook or bake together, read, even cleaning can be restorative and help maintain sanity. Burnout is real, and stress is incredibly bad for your whole state of being so this may be the most difficult but perhaps the most important thing to promote a healthy dancer in 2018.

Catch Some ZZZZ’s – Following the prior emphasis on relaxation, getting proper sleep is so important not just for a growing child but for a dancer as well. Your body does all of its healing while you sleep. You convert the activities of the day from short-term to long-term memory (i.e. choreography you need to remember for your next class) and your sleep also sets the tone for everything from your mood to your appetite for the following day. Now, I definitely believe that everyone is different, and some people need 8 hours of sleep while 7.5 may be fine for their friend, but you should be making sure that you are not working off of your bare minimum amount of sleep on a daily basis. If you can, a quick 20 minute power nap may be just the thing to help you find focus for the remainder of the day too!

Here’s to 2018! May it be your healthiest dance year yet!