How To Get Stronger Feet

As a ballerina, you obviously need strong feet. After all, they carry all your weight and are one of the main points of balance for any dancer. But how do you get strong feet in the first place?

Well, first of all, start of doing foot workouts every day. No matter where you are, as long as you have feet, you can do them. Stand on the balls of your feet and roll up and down working through your feet.
Do this fifty times on each foot. After 2 - 3 weeks you will notice a difference in the strength of your feet.
You should do leg lifts every day, too. This will add to the strength of your feet.

Another way to strengthen your feet is to actually get into those pointe shoes and so some work! A great exercise is to rest en pointe one leg at a time. Hold that position for a couple of minutes, and then repeat on the other foot. Do this three times every second day.

I know you will hate me for saying this, but you really need to do LOTS of releves to get/maintain strong feet. And when I say lots, I mean LOTS! Like, twenty in each position, including parallel.
So that's 120 a day!
You can do these en pointe or on demi pointe. It doesn't really matter.

One last tip I have for you is to do ankle circles. Do 20 clockwise, and 20 anti-clockwise on each foot every day.

If you are looking for stronger feet, I suggest you do these exercises. Try them for just three week and trust me, they'll make a BIG difference for you!

How To 'Ice,' Yourself

If you have not a strained/pulled muscle, one of the first things you are probably going to do, is to put an ice pack on it. But did you know that there is a particular way to ice yourself?

Well ...... there is!

You see, if you put the ice pack on yourself for say, 20 minutes straight, then take it off, it will actually probably do more damage to yourself than if you just left it be.
Why?
Because if your leg, let's say, has a strained muscle and is at room temperature, then you go and wack a freezing cold ice pack on it, you leg isn't going to appreciate that sudden change in temperature.

However, if you put the ice pack on for 5 minutes, then take it off for five minutes, then put it one for four minutes, then take it off for four minutes, until you are down to one minute, it would be a much better idea.

Just recently, I really hurt the tendons in my foot. My teacher said that I should ice my foot just like I told you in the paragraph above.
It actually really works, and is way better than just putting ice on it for 20 minutes straight.

Below are instructions on how to properly ice yourself, so you can print them out and keep them out and keep them stuck to your fridge or somewhere like that, so that when you need to ice yourself, you can easily glance at the instructions and know exactly how to do it.


INSTRUCTIONS:

1) Get an ice pack out of your fridge (not freezer. A frozen ice pack won't work as well as just a cold one.

2) Apply the 'ice,' pack to the injured part of your body for 5 minutes.

3) After five minutes, take the ice pack off for another 5 minutes.

4) Apply the ice pack for 4 minutes.

5) Take the ice pack off for 4 minutes.

6) Yep, you guessed it, put the ice pack back on your sore muscle for 3 minutes.

7) Remove the ice pack for another 3 minutes.

8) Re-apply the ice pack for 2 minutes.

9) Keep ice pack off for 2 minutes.

10) For the last time, put the ice pack on your sore muscle for 1 minute.

11) Now you can remove the ice pack for good. Rest your foot for another 7 -8 minutes. Do this at least twice a day for 7 days, or until your muscle is healed.


Thanks everyone for following. You are all awesome!