“Kick your bum!” “Snap in the back!” “Curl in the back!”
Does your dance teacher constantly yell a similar comment to you? Or have you seen this comment on your feis adjudicator notes? It’s time to take action!
As a dancer, I remember this being one of the corrections my dance teacher was constantly telling me, “kick all the way up to your bum!” And recently, I had a dancer I train and a dance teacher ask me about the same topic - what exercises can dancers do to help them kick to their bum? You've come to the right place for that answer!
Kicking your foot all the way up to your bum requires a great deal of strength in the back of your leg (primarily your glutes and hamstrings) and mobility in the front of your leg (primarily your hip flexors and quad). If there is any sort of weakness or limitation in mobility in those areas, it will results in the inability to kick all the way up to your bum.
Pointing or curling in the back - if your issue is that you CAN get your foot all the way to your bum but it’s FLEXED, engage your calf muscle and arch. Now you’ll be activating the entire posterior chain of muscles in your legs - glutes, hamstrings, calves, arch. And if you are engaging these muscles, you will be pointing your toe in the back!
Ready to improve your curling in the back? Follow along with the below exercises and get started today. If you're interested in accelerating your training with
REMINDER - in every exercise, train the movement patterns the correct way. If it’s not performed with perfect technique, STOP! You only want to train with perfect reps.
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