Yoga Balls, BOSU Balls, and Free Weights: Working Out With Ballet Memphis’ Angelina Broad
Some ballet dancers fear weight lifting, bodyweight squats, and high protein, as they assume they will only lead to over-defined muscles and a bulkier frame. Angelina Broad, a Ballet Memphis company dancer and a certified personal trainer, has learned that, for her, nothing could be further from the truth.
“I’ve always been on the more muscular side—often, that’s viewed as a negative in ballet. I wanted to embrace it,” she tells Pointe. “Through strength training I feel more confident in myself. My muscles have transformed in the best ways possible, and I’ve found the beauty in them.”
Ballet on the BOSU
Broad bases the majority of her daily strength routine in ballet and incorporates the knowledge of muscle function she gained through her National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) certification. She frequently utilizes a BOSU ball—she’ll flip it round side down and, with a 10-pound weight in each hand, swing one leg to front and then back to arabesque, or développé in and out from passé to the side. On occasion she’ll add a 5-pound ankle weight on each side for an additional challenge. Or she’ll simply balance in relevé on two feet. For all of these she works in a turned-out position.
“It’s more challenging than you would think,” says Broad. The exercises target, as expected, both the lower and upper legs, but also the core and upper back to maintain stability. The work on the BOSU also has helped Broad with injury prevention. “I have chronic shin pain, and once I do those exercises on the BOSU, it makes a huge difference for the next day,” she says. “All the muscles around it are better connected and feel stronger.”
Redefining Stamina
When it comes to building stamina, Broad finds that production run-throughs provide her with enough of a cardio challenge. She focuses on muscular endurance when cross-training, something she says dancers often don’t take into consideration. “When they run a piece, their muscles are so fatigued by the end of it—it’s not just being out of breath. It’s a very different type of stamina,” she says. Doing stability exercises similar to the ones above, either with body weight alone or holding light free-weights, has made her feel more confident and physically prepared.
Consistency Is Key
Broad does some form of cross-training daily, even when time is limited. “Core is every day,” she says. “I never skip it.” For abdominals, she’ll do standard crunches, ball crunches with pulses, and elbow planks. She also incorporates resistance bands daily, both for shoulders and arms (bicep pulses, or moving the arms from first to second with the band across her back) or for legs (clamshells, turned-in and turned-out leg lifts, and inner-thigh pulses, all with the band around her thighs).
On a normal rehearsal day, she aims for an hour and a half total. But if she only has 30 minutes, “I’ll do abs for 10, arms for 10, and legs for 10,” she says. For show weeks, she’ll maintain that routine but decrease the time and intensity. She also factors in one day each week of resting and relies on icing and foam rolling daily, if possible, for recovery. (She is thrilled with the recent addition of Normatec boots at the Ballet Memphis studio.)
“Once I found a routine and started being consistent with it, it changed the game for me,” says Broad. “It has made ballet easier.”
Fueling for Strength
Broad credits her physical progress to incorporating more protein in her diet throughout the day. Her favorite snacks for fuel are bananas, GoMacro Bars, and Fairlife protein shakes. She also enjoys liquid I.V.s for hydration, and chocolate milk.
After shows, her go-to meal is pasta with some kind of protein and vegetable. If time allows, her favorite is spaghetti with her mom’s homemade meatballs and broccoli.
Focus on the Full Body
One of Broad’s go-to exercises works the full body and starts with a large yoga ball. While doing this exercise, focus on the lower abdominals to keep the work out of the hip flexors.
Plank to Pike
- Get into a high plank position, with the tops of the feet resting on the yoga ball.
- Fold only at the hips and engage the abdominals to pull up into a pike position, rolling the ball forward. Keep the arms in place and move only the legs.
- Return slowly to the plank with control by rolling the ball back out.
- Do 10 reps, holding the pike for 10 seconds at the end of the final rep.
- Rest 30 seconds.
- Repeat for 3 sets.
