While resistance training, and specifically resistance training with weights, has become commonplace in the training regimens of many sports, it still seems that among artistic athletes there is a pervasive belief that resistance training is not for them and will not be beneficial to their practice.

So let’s break it down, what is the benefit of this kind of training for dancers, gymnasts, acrobats, aerialists, and other artistic athletes, and how do we best incorporate it into a training regimen? While these disciplines do not traditionally incorporate— and often used to discourage— resistance training, research studies continue to show that the benefits of an appropriately applied resistance training program outweigh any potential risk. Injury Prevention Resistance training done as part of a sport-specific training regimen has been shown on numerous occasions to reduce the risk of both overuse and acute injuries. One study has even shown that when appropriately applied, strength training halved the risk of overuse injury. Like we talked about before, resistance training can be used as a means to train the body to be able to tolerate the loads and forces that are unavoidable in sport. It helps us to build good movement patterns that pr...