Dance
training program
Jump higher, land softer, and hold clean technique deep into a routine — power, control and stamina for the stage.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
Train Smart’s dance program is a complete weekly strength and conditioning plan periodised around your camp or competition block rather than a month of the year. It trains explosive jump height, turnout and hip strength and soft, controlled landings, fits around your technical training, prescribes a weight in kilos for every working set, and retests you every four weeks on Max push-ups and Standing vertical jump, plus the conditioning benchmark your running plan is built around.
Why this program exists
Dancers are told for years that lifting will make them bulky, so the only strength work they get is the routine itself — and then the ankles and hips wear out.
Jump height and landing control, not maximal load. The program trains explosive jump, turnout and hip strength, soft controlled landings, and the postural endurance to hold clean technique at the end of a routine. Testing measures jump and control rather than a one-rep max, because a one-rep max is not a dancer’s number.
A default dance week
This is the sport’s own template — the starting point before it is fitted to your days, your equipment and your season. Team nights and game day are protected; everything else moves to the days you are free.
What dance is won with
These are the qualities the program is built to develop, in priority order. They come from the sport, not from a generic template.
- Explosive jump height
- Turnout + hip strength
- Soft, controlled landings
- Core + postural endurance
- Full-range mobility
| Session | Type | Duration | Focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lower Power + Landing | Gym | 50–60 min | Jump height + soft, controlled landings |
| Routine Stamina | Conditioning | 30–40 min | Hold technique without gassing out |
| Core, Full Body + Mobility | Gym | 45–55 min | Postural endurance + full-range control |
| Studio Rehearsal | Skills | — | Technique practice |
| Aerobic Base | Conditioning | 35–45 min | Recover faster between rehearsals |
The season changes the program
- Pre-season
- Between seasons — set volume ×1.2. Build the engine and the strength base.
- In-season
- Performance season — set volume ×0.7, prescribed weights hold. Maintain, don’t drain.
- Off-season
- Off-period — baseline volume. Rebuild general strength and fix the niggles.
- Block structure
- Four-week blocks: three weeks accumulating, one week deload. The block’s character changes across the year rather than repeating.
- Game day
- Protected. The day before gets a 20-minute explosive primer with no running, no heavy legs and no prehab block bolted on.
The dance testing battery
Five numbers, re-run every four weeks. Chosen to match what dance programs actually measure — and the results re-price your training weights and reset your conditioning paces.
| Test | Measures | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| 2km time trial | The aerobic benchmark your program is built around. | mm:ss |
| Max push-ups | Pressing endurance and trunk control with no kit required. | reps |
| Handstand / pike press hold | Overhead pressing robustness at your own bodyweight. | s |
| Standing vertical jump | Lower-body power in its purest form, and the cheapest fatigue check you own. | cm |
| Single-leg hop for distance | One-leg power and the left-right gap that predicts injury better than either leg alone. | cm |
What is actually in a dance program
Every movement below appears in the sessions above, with the coaching cues the app shows you, the sets and reps it is prescribed at, and ranked alternatives if you cannot do it. The weight is calculated from your own last top set.
| Movement | Appears in | Why it is there | Trains |
|---|---|---|---|
| DB Pullover — stretch hold | Core, Full Body + Mobility | Lat length and thoracic extension held at end range — overhead room for reaching, marking and throwing | Back |
| Front Squat | Core, Full Body + Mobility | Quad and trunk strength in the upright posture sport actually loads | Quads · Glutes |
| Hollow Hold | Core, Full Body + Mobility | The braced core every line comes from | Abs / Core |
| Jefferson Curl (light KB) | Core, Full Body + Mobility | Loads spinal flexion and hamstring length together, then holds there — the range you land and bend in, owned rather than avoided | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Push-Up | Core, Full Body + Mobility | Upper strength for lifts + partner work | Chest · Triceps |
| Weighted Chin-Up | Core, Full Body + Mobility | Contested marking + tackle strength | Back · Biceps |
| Countermovement Jump | Lower Power + Landing | Builds the jump height behind leaps + grand jetés | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Goblet Squat | Lower Power + Landing | Base leg strength | Quads · Glutes |
| Loaded Adductor Frog Hold | Lower Power + Landing | Deep abduction and adductor length held long enough to change it — the base position for guard work, low blocks and wide bases | Groin / Adductors |
| Romanian Deadlift | Lower Power + Landing | Posterior chain for driving legs | Hamstrings · Glutes · Back |
| Seated Straddle Good Morning | Lower Power + Landing | Adductors and hamstrings at length together — the wide, low position a slide tackle or a low ball ends up in | Groin / Adductors · Hamstrings |
| Split Jump → Stick | Lower Power + Landing | Trains the soft, controlled landing that protects ankles + knees | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Trap Bar Jump | Lower Power + Landing | A loaded jump — peak power output with no barbell skill to learn first | Quads · Glutes · Calves |
| Weighted Pigeon Hold | Lower Power + Landing | External hip rotation at full length under load — what a deep lunge, a turn-out and a guard position all run out of | Glutes |
Staying available
The prehab block is matched to the region of the session it sits in and to the tissue this sport actually punishes — not a generic mobility flow bolted to the front.
Prehab only works if it happens, and the reason it usually does not is that it has nothing to do with the session it is attached to. Rotating a pool by session number puts shoulder work before a squat day and Copenhagen planks before a bench press. Technically covered; nobody does it.
In Train Smart each movement is classified by the region it protects and matched to the session, and the pool rotates across the week so you cover all of it rather than doing the same three moves three times.
More on prehab that people actually do →
What the free month covers, and what comes after
The first month is one complete four-week block — three building weeks and a deload. The first retest comes after that block, and it is the first time the program measures what your training did.
- Week 1
- Testing session on the dance battery. Your starting weights and paces come from it.
- Weeks 1–3
- The first block builds. Hit your reps and the weight goes up on its own.
- Week 4
- Deload — the week the previous three become fitness.
- Week 5
- Retest. The results re-price your weights and reset your conditioning paces.
- Weeks 5–8
- Block two changes shape, priced from the top sets you just did and the numbers you just tested.
Dance training questions
What does the Train Smart dance program include?
When is dance pre-season?
Can I follow this program if I only train twice a week?
What tests does the dance program use?
Do I need a full gym?
Get your dance program
Pick dance, answer eight questions, and your week is built — around your team nights, your game and the days you can actually train.
Your first month is free, with nothing to pay today. Then A$24.99/month, cancel any time. On the App Store and Google Play.
- Install itFree to download on iPhone and Android.
- Tell it how you playYour sport, your season, the nights you train and the kit you have. No account needed.
- See your week, then start freeYour program is built before you pay anything. Start the free month to unlock it, and cancel any time in your store settings.