How to work out like a badass ballerina in the gym

Publish date: 2024-07-27

That babe next to you at the gym pumping hundred-pound barbells? She’s a ballerina, not a bodybuilder.

These days, top dancers can’t get by on grace and agility alone — which is why more of them are hitting the gym after they leave the barre. As New York City Ballet principal dancer Sara Mearns and other stars have discovered, dead lifts and squats lead to better pirouettes and pliés.

Cross-training, says Mearns’ trainer, Joel Prouty, can prevent injury and increase a dancer’s endurance and strength, improving performance during a rigorous career. But it’s still a fairly new concept.

“There was no cross-training when I was a dancer,” Prouty tells The Post. “There was this fear that it would take away from the aesthetic” and cause a “bulky” look — “but it doesn’t have to.”

Prouty, 39, performed with several ballet companies and toured with Twyla Tharp before retiring in 2010 to focus on the athleticism of dance. He took exercise physiology courses at New York University and began training dancers “away from the watchful and sometimes-judgmental” eyes of companies wary of extracurricular training.

Now, he says, “almost every major ballet company in the world” has started to embrace cross-training, as dancers are eager to prevent injury and unlock their full potential. He’s got a slew of high-profile clients on board, including American Ballet Theatre’s James Whiteside and the Martha Graham Dance Company’s Lloyd Knight, plus Mearns, who started working with Prouty in 2012 and says he has helped her perform with less pain after a back injury kept her offstage for 8½ months.

“For so many years, I was just [overcompensating],” the 33-year-old dancer, who will reprise her role as the Sugarplum Fairy in “The Nutcracker” this year, tells The Post. “If I was injured, instead of making that part of my body stronger, I would just use other muscles that were strong already to make up for it. I’ve now found those muscles in working with Joel.”

Prouty, who posts videos of beautifully intense sessions on Instagram, says that the best exercises for dancers are the same as they would be for almost any athlete, but with a “different intention”: to elongate lean muscles rather than add mass.

For example, “an NFL player and a ballerina should both do barbell-back squats,” he says. “But they should be focusing differently during the same exercise.”

So, the usual clunky workout moves get elegant upgrades when done Prouty-style: Dancers will finish their squats on their toes in a relevé, and incorporate balance-boosting arabesques into each mountain climber.

You don’t have to be a pro to learn from Prouty, who plans to open his own Manhattan gym next year. Here are a couple of exercises to weave into your workout if you want to strengthen and lengthen your bod like a ballerina.

The dancer dead lift

Beginners can start with a lightweight bar or use 5 pound-dumb bells. “Keep your back and core muscles engaged throughout each repetition,” says Prouty.

With the barbell on the floor in front of you, stand with legs shoulder-width apart and your knees soft. Bend your knees and hinge at the hips, keeping a flat back. Bend just low enough to grab hold of the barbell.

With your back straight and your chest out, stand and raise the barbell, keeping your shoulders back. Do 10 to 15 reps.

The partial pistol squat

Beginners can do this one on the ground, but adding the Bosu ball — a dome-shaped balance trainer — creates instability, making your body work harder to balance.

Start by standing on one leg in the center of an inverted Bosu ball, with the toes pointing forward. Lift the other leg up so that the foot is touching the knee and the knee faces forward.

Extend that leg to the front, while at the same time bending the standing leg. Hold for a breath.

Bring the extended foot back up to your knee and repeat, but this time swing the leg to the back and hold for a breath. Do 10 to 15 reps on each side. Remember to step off the Bosu to switch legs!

Squat into relevé

Begin with toes pointing forward and drop the hips down a few inches below the knees.

Stand straight up and fully stretch the knees. For an extra challenge, complete this movement with a high calf raise, called relevé in ballet. Do 10 to 15 reps on each side.

Side slide

Beginners can do without weights, but adding dumbbells makes it more difficult. Use a soft bootie, sock, gliding disc or towel to make this exercise possible, says Prouty.

Start with both feet parallel and transfer all of your weight to one leg freeing up the other leg.

Slide the one leg directly to the side as far away from the other supporting leg as possible without losing proper posture and return to starting position. Do 10 to 15 reps on each side.

Mountain climber into arabesque

Begin in a push-up or plank position and bring one knee into the same side elbow.

Slowly extend the entire leg back behind you into a full back leg extension, called an arabesque in ballet. Do 10 to 15 reps on each side.