At-home training: how to make it enjoyable and motivating
While some of us, myself included, have already stepped back into dance studios and began taking in-person classes after all these months at home, the pandemic situation is still critical in some countries. As I am joyfully jumping across the studio and finally expanding my movements as much as I can after more than one year at home, my thoughts go to all the young aspiring dancers who are still joining online classes from their houses.
I have gone through all the highs and lows of at-home training. Without any doubt, this situation has allowed me to focus on certain aspects of my technique that I neglected before and take time to improve my mental and physical health. While my experience was mostly positive, I cannot forget how hard it was some days to convince myself to put on my dance clothes and take another class on my own in the living room.
My goal with this post is to give you a fresh outlook and some ideas on how to make your at-home training more enjoyable and motivating if you’re still stuck in your living room.
Problems of training at home and how to find your way around them
I will dedicate this section to all of the questions I asked myself during my long time spent training at home, mostly on my own. I will write about my personal experience and what I did in every situation, hoping that you will get some helpful information out of it. Without further ado, let’s dive into the first topic.
I'm tired of only doing ballet class. What else can I do?
At first, my at-home training plans consisted in mostly doing ballet barre, some center work, the little pointe work I could do on tiles and floor barre. Even though I am fond of dancing more than anything else, I got bored of these activities rather early on.
1. Select different classes from different teachers to follow along
One of the first things I did was creating a playlist called “classes to try” where I would save all the interesting dance classes I wanted to follow along some time soon. This variety in my ballet classes kept me curious and willing to discover something different. I also learned what works best for myself in terms of exercises, cues and teaching methods. If you’re struggling with motivation, try a new video from your playlist.
2. Do your conditioning exercises
During lock down I became very consistent with doing conditioning exercises designed to help me improve my technical faults. I used the time to experiment new exercises, create my own set routines and found how to incorporate them into my day and week.
My process to select which exercises to do is easy: first I list what I want to improve, then ask my teachers for advice and they recommend me exercises to do. After I got all the information that I need, I create exercise routines and perform them before class or whenever I have a free time slot.
3. Experiment with something different in class
Is it just me or when you have new shoes or a new leotard or even a new correction to work on you are way more excited to take class than usual as well? Throughout this time, I found many things to spice up training that immediately made me want to get up from the sofa and train. Here they are:
get new dance wear you really love
take a barre with a theraband wrapped around your arms (as explained in this video by Progressing Ballet Technique)
take barre with dead pointe shoes that you will use as demi-pointes (please do not go onto full pointe on dead shoes!)
take barre with ankle weights
challenge yourself not to hold the barre while doing barre work
do all the barre combinations laying on the floor with your feet against a wall (as demonstrated by Jurgita Dronina in this video)
dance your ballet combinations to pop music or any other music you love to boost your energy. I once did barre on 80s and 90s most popular rock songs and I have to admit it was one of the most productive self-class sessions
4. Try at-home gym sessions with the tools you have
I genuinely missed going to the gym during lock down, but I kept training, adapting the same resistance training workouts I was doing with machines and weights to the home environment. Almost any exercise that you do at the gym can be recreated with therabands, dumbbells, chairs and steps.
I find resistance training incredibly helpful for dancers and very enjoyable to do as well. Decide which exercises you are going to do, put on your all time favorite playlist and work! Here are some of my favorite home-friendly resistance training exercises:
any kind of squats and lunges (especially bulgarian split squats and squat jumps)
deadlifts with a theraband
push-ups and tricep dips
planks (especially plank walks)
back lifts
I am not motivated at all. What can I do?
I have to be honest. I did struggle quite a lot with keeping my motivation level up throughout these months, but what kept me going was discipline together with my love for dancing. You can't always rely on motivation, therefore I find it essential to have a set weekly or daily plan even if you’re at home all day long.
What I usually do when I lack motivation is to remind myself what my goal is and what I need to do to get closer to it. Another thing I like to do is to create my own vision boards with pictures of my favorite dancers and artists as well as motivational quotes. I just need to look at it once and I already start feeling better. If I feel too overwhelmed and need a break, I take it without any guilt in order to come back better than before. Keep in mind that sometimes the healthiest thing to do is to simply take time off.
Other solutions for when you’re feeling low are talking to someone (either a family member, your teachers or a dear friend), cleaning and tidying as it will clear your thoughts at the same time, watching inspiring dancers and any dance video that you love or take a complete day-off and enjoy doing something different than usual.
I procrastinate by using my phone / laptop too much. What should I do?
I’ve been there so many times. I would allow myself to scroll through my Instagram feed for 5-10 minutes and in the end find myself procrastinating and staying on my phone for hours. The solution for me was pretty simple: turn my phone on airplane mode and store it in a closet or give it to my mother and ask her to hide it.
If you don’t have your phone around you are way less likely to waste time. Since if you procrastinate you will get bored, you will start doing anything you need to do because you are left with little to no choice. After some time you’ll enjoy time away from technology so much that you won’t find yourself procrastinating by scrolling through your social media just as much.
I am worried that this situation is never going to end and that I will fall behind in dance
Although it might feel like a never-ending situation, I promise you that there is an end to it. You will eventually get back to your “normal life” sooner or later. With this in mind, answer this: how would you want to remember this period once the pandemic related restrictions are over? I personally wanted to remember about all the time I spent working on my own to improve technically and artistically as a dancer. This is what pushed me to work day in and day out.
Uncertainty is scary, but you can choose your point of view: you can either live in fear or acknowledge the current situation and make the most of it with what you have, where you are. The second option sounds a lot more reassuring, doesn’t it?
Once again, I can’t stress enough how important it is to talk to someone you trust if you have any fears, doubts or questions. Ask your dance teacher for advice especially if you’re afraid you are not improving enough. They will certainly help you and guide you through.
This is everything I have in mind for now. I hope that you found some good advice while reading. Keep going, keep working and keep your passion for dancing up. How is the situation where you live? How are you and how have you been investing your time? Leave a comment down below if you wish and stay tuned for new posts!
*Note: Photos shown above are from Teacher Lina’s online classes!