Physical therapist Marika Molnar and chiropractor Lawrence DeMann, Jr., designed this exam, using standard fitness tests adapted with dancers in mind. Its main purpose is to assess cardiovascular conditioning, imbalances within different muscle groups, asymmetries between the right and left sides, and flexibility. It should be performed by a dance medicine professional.
Cardiovascular Fitness
A fit heart should return to baseline, or resting heart rate, within one to three minutes after a vigorous workout. The practitioner takes your resting heart rate, then asks you to jump rope two-footed at your own pace for four minutes. Your heart rate is taken immediately afterward—usually within fifteen seconds after stopping the exercise. This step is repeated one minute later, at which point a fit dancer’s pulse will have dropped by at least twenty beats. If this has not occurred, your pulse is taken three minutes later. Dancers whose pulse has not returned to its resting rate require an aerobic fitness program three times per week that suits their body type.
Physical Strength
Your entire body needs to be strong to exercise and perform dance steps. To address this need, a fitness screening will evaluate strength in your lower extremities, trunk, and upper body.
For your lower-body test, you will stand on one leg in the neutral position (i.e., where the foot falls naturally while walking) with your arms held out to the side. The other leg is bent at the knee with the foot off the ground. A strong dancer should be able to do twenty-five slow relevés on each leg lightly holding on to something, rising steadily from flat foot to half-pointe with no demi-plié in between. Shaking or unevenness is a sign of weakness in the leg and ankle.
Peroneal strength in the two tendons running down the outside of the leg below the knee is necessary to prevent ankle sprains. Similar to the test in the orthopedic screening, you should be able to hold the pointed foot off the ground lying on the side in the winged position, resisting the practitioner’s attempts to force each ankle out of this position.
Strong hip flexors are crucial for lifting the leg forward, whether to merely walk up a step or do a grand battement. Lying on your back with straight legs, raise one leg at a time in the turned-out position upward at a forty-five-degree angle (slightly to the side). The practitioner pushes down and outward to test the strength of the psoas muscle and the other extensors (the rectus and sartorius muscles). A strong dancer should be able to resist.
In contrast, hip extensors (buttocks, gluteals, and hamstrings) move the leg backward. Take the same position as above but with the knees bent ninety degrees and your pelvis raised to bring your back in line with the knees, like a bridge. Straighten one leg forward until it is level with the other knee and hold it on your own for 90 to 120 seconds. Anything less means the hip extensors are weak. This test is then repeated with the opposite leg. Asymmetries in strength between front and back hip muscles or right and left sides need to be corrected by exercise.
The trunk exam tests the abdominals in front and the extensors in the back. As the main core muscles of the body, the abdominals provide stability for almost every movement. These muscles include the lower, upper, and obliques (which cross over your abdomen like an X).
First, the upper abdominal muscles are tested. You lie on your back with your arms across your chest and hands on opposite shoulders. Sit up halfway with your legs straight. Hold this position against resistance, while the practitioner tries to push you down. The oblique muscles are tested in the same way, but instead of sitting up straight, you will twist to the opposite side. The practitioner pushes on your shoulders to see if he can break the position. Repeat on the other side. The final abdominal test involves the lower abdominals. This time, you will lie on your back and hold your legs up at a forty-five-degree angle. The practitioner stabilizes your trunk with one hand across your chest to keep you from rising up, while he pushes down against your legs with the other hand to try to break the position. Sufficient strength in each area is necessary to resist all three tests. If you can’t, then remedial exercises are needed.
The last test that assesses strength in your lower body involves the back extensor muscles, which are necessary for good posture and partnering. Lie on your stomach and bend over the edge of the table at the waist, with your arms resting on your back. Raise your back until it is parallel to the table and maintain this position on your own for two minutes. An elite dancer is considered out of shape if he or she lets go at ninety seconds or less.
Our final series of tests measures the upper-body strength needed for partnering and arm movements. The first of these involves doing twenty-five push-ups. Men should do at least this amount in the standard way with straight legs; adult women should be able to do twenty-five with the knees on the floor.
The following tests of arm and shoulder include:
• The deltoid test, where you put your arms out sideways parallel to the floor in the standing position and hold them against resistance. If both arms give way, this signifies weakness. However, when only one arm goes down (while the other does not), this may be a sign of a rotator cuff injury in the weak shoulder.
• Testing the supraspinatus muscles, which lie on the upper border of the shoulder blades, is another way to assess the function of the rotator cuff. Hold your arms down at your sides and try to move them outward from the body against resistance. Weakness may indicate an injured rotator cuff in the shoulder.
• The serratus is one of the muscles under the armpits that helps to stabilize the shoulder blade. If this muscle is weak, one or both shoulder blades will stick out, or “wing.” You can test this by raising your arms straight forward while resisting the practitioner’s efforts to push them down.
• The main muscle for supporting and lifting the shoulders upward is the trapezius, which is divided into the upper, middle, and lower sections. You test the upper trapezius by trying to shrug your shoulders against resistance. To test the middle and lower trapezius, lie on your stomach with your hands in the small of your back forming a triangle with thumbs up. You will try to lift your arms against the practitioner pushing them down.
• The rhomboid is a back muscle that helps stabilize the shoulder blade. You can assess its strength by holding your arms behind and away from the back with the palms of the hand facing outward. If you can hold them in this position against resistance, you are strong in this area.
• A broad back muscle that also stabilizes the shoulder blade is the latissimus dorsi. Stand with your arms at your sides, internally rotated (turned in) so that the backs of your hands are touching the thighs. This position is held against resistance as the practitioner tries to pull the arms outward from the side.
• The pectoralis muscle, which lies beneath the breast area, provides strength to the shoulder joint. Lie down and raise your arms straight up toward the ceiling. In this position, the arms are pushed down to the side against resistance.
• The biceps muscle in the front of the upper arm is used to flex the elbow. You can test the strength of the biceps by holding the elbow bent at ninety degrees in front and perpendicular to the floor while the practitioner tries to straighten it.
• The triceps lies in the back of the upper arm and is used to keep the elbow straight. It has the opposite function of the biceps muscle. You can test it by trying to hold the elbow bent at ninety degrees against a force trying to bend it.
Flexibility
Generalized flexibility is essential for dancers. Tightness is the dancer’s great enemy because it is a common precursor to muscle pulls or strains. This part of the exam is designed to detect tightness so that preventive steps can be taken to minimize injuries.
• Tightness in the lower back or lumbar spine can be evaluated by your ability to place your palms to the floor with your knees straight while standing.
• Hip and thigh tightness is tested in two ways. Lying on your stomach, place the heel of the foot on the buttock to check for tightness of the quadriceps muscle in the front of the thigh. Lying on your back, lift your leg while keeping the knee straight. Ideally, the leg should go to a minimum of ninety degrees, preferably more.
• The main structure tested in the calf for tightness is the Achilles tendon and its associated muscles. This is done while sitting by holding the ankle inward and trying to bring it up flexed at a right angle. Do it first with the knee straight and then with the knee bent. This makes it possible to evaluate separately the two muscle groups that attach to the Achilles tendon.
• The ankle needs to have full motion in both the ankle joint itself and the joint beneath the ankle, the subtalar joint. Tightness is checked by comparing the range of motion in your right and left sides by moving the heel in and out in the sitting position. Loss of motion in these joints can result in problems such as recurrent ankle sprains.
Recommendations
If needed, the practitioner will give the dancer specific strengthening or stretching exercises, as well as an individualized training program to implement at the gym.
Fitness Screening Form
Cardiovascular
FOUR-MINUTE JUMP-ROPE TEST
Resting HR____ Immediate post HR____ 1 min post HR____ 3 min post HR____
Strength (circle if weak)
1. LOWER BODY
One leg relevé 25x Right/Left
Peroneals Right/Left
Hip Flexors Right/Left
Hip Extensors/Pelvic Raise ____30 ____60 ____90 ____120 Sec.
2. TRUNK
Abdominals Upper/Oblique/Lower
Back Extensors ____30 ____60 ____90 ____120 Sec.
3. UPPER BODY
Push-ups M____ F____
(circle if weak) Deltoid, Supraspinatus, Serratus, Trapezius, Rhomboid, Latissimus, Pectoralis, Biceps, Triceps
Flexibility (circle if tight)
Lumbar Region, Hips, Thigh, Calf, Ankle
Recommedations
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