How to do pump turns in dance

What Makes These 6 Turns So Hard—Plus Tips on How to Master Them

Showstopping turns are every dancer’s dream, but they’re some of ballet’s biggest frustrations. We asked the experts for their insights on what makes these turns so challenging—and their best tips for mastering them.

Pirouettes From Fifth Position

Why They’re Hard:
It’s tricky to generate momentum from a closed fifth, “so dancers try to manufacture force by sticking their bottoms out and leaning forward,” says Jenifer Ringer, dean of the Trudl Zipper Dance Institute at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. “Then when they relevé, they throw themselves backwards.”

Master Them:
As counterintuitive as it may feel, moving straight up and down from a strong center will produce ample force. To maximize energy transfer into the rotation, maintain your turnout from start to finish. “Keep the working knee turned out so that it’s already in position as you go from plié to passé,” Ringer says.

Grand Fouettés en Tournant (Italian Fouettés)

Why They’re Hard:
“The croisé angle has to be sharper than you think,” says Ikolo Griffin, a Pacific Northwest Ballet School faculty member and founder of Just Turns workshops. “A lot of dancers start almost en face, and then when they try to fouetté, the leg goes to the side, barely going upstage.” Brushing the leg in a turned-out position as you move through first position is also difficult.

Master Them:
Griffin recommends starting in a steeply angled écarté. Then, using the line of your développé as a plumb line, maintain turnout as you brush through first and extend the working leg upstage to set up the fouetté into attitude. (You should feel like you’re brushing the leg almost entirely upstage.) Moving the arms through first rather than low fifth pro-motes a more upright posture, making it easier to get into relevé or onto pointe in the fouetté.

Pirouettes à la Seconde

Why They’re Hard:
Simultaneously balancing and relevéing on the supporting leg, and steadying the working leg

Master Them:
San Francisco Ballet principal Sasha De Sola, famed for her rock-solid turns, visualizes an ankle weight on her extended leg. “It helps me keep energy through the leg and let centrifugal force keep it at a steady level.” Griffin tells dancers to “move straight up and down as you relevé on the supporting leg—if you lean for-ward on the plié and back on the relevé, it throws you off.”

Chaîné Turns

Why They’re Hard:
Dancers frequently travel too far with each rotation, and end up opening the legs out to second position.

Master Them:
Griffin advises keeping the feet in a tight first position, with your heels together, and holding your chin level as you spot. “Then you can do a lot of chaînés quickly, and it looks really impressive,” he says.

Back Attitude Turns

Why They’re Hard:
Rotating with your weight behind you requires awkward counterbalance.

Master Them:
Ringer reminds dancers to get over their front leg in the fourth-position preparation for en dedans turns. “If you’re over the back leg in fourth, that’s two motions you have to do”—shifting your weight forward and lifting up into relevé—reducing the amount of force you’re putting into the rotation, Ringer explains. With the weight squarely over the front leg, “you can just relevé straight up and lock your back and attitude leg against each other to hold the position and not let it be disrupted as you revolve.” For en dehors turns, De Sola creates the necessary counterbalance by keeping her upper body lifted and placing her arms in high fifth, forward enough that “if you were to lookup, you could see your palms. ”

Turns en Manège

Why They’re Hard:
It’s easy to lose your spatial orientation as you move around the circle.

Master Them:
De Sola maps out her spot and exactly where she wants to be in each part of the circle, and rehearses it over and over. “I’ll plan to do three turns across the front, then the fourth on the diagonal, and so on—everything is calculated,” she says. “Think of each sequence of turns as linear, and allow each turn to finish before you change your spot for the next one.”

Secrets Of The Cuban Method

“In Cuba, everybody turns,” says Caridad Martinez, a ballet faculty member at The Ailey School and a former principal with the Ballet Nacional de Cuba. Here, she walks us through the exercises and techniques that comprise “the Cuban secret” of pirouettes in general, and fouettés in particular.

Pirouette Basics

Two legs in plié: The Cuban methodology teaches the fourth position preparation for turns with both legs in demi-plié. The benefits of this approach are speed and control, says Caridad Martinez. “That push of the back leg to passé, at the moment of relevé, makes it easier to generate more turns.”

Finish up: For all turns, says Martinez, “we teach to finish on relevé, because that’s when you really finish. Hold the position a little bit more—gluteus in and up, turn out the standing leg, open the knee and stay! Don’t leave anything behind.”

Spotting secrets: To find a more active torso, says Martinez, “have the sensation that you quickly bring your back to the audience.” This “switch” of the torso propels you farther around, and with more energy. In addition to spotting with rhythm, try telling yourself “Back! Back!” You may find you effortlessly have the force for that extra rotation.

Round arms: “We keep the arms rounded,” says Martinez of the Cuban method, though she notes that it’s not incorrect to extend to allongé. She gives a simple exercise to help her students coordinate their port de bras in turns: Hold an object in your opposite hand (the left, if you are turning to the right) as you prepare. At the moment of the relevé, quickly pass the object to your right hand as you turn.

Fouettés, Cuban-Style

The progression: Following the Cuban training method, Martinez builds strength and coordination for fouettés systematically in class. “It’s very important not to skip any steps,” she says.

Begin with consecutive relevés in retiré, both at the barre and in the center.
“Then do that with a quarter turn, then a half. That is awful! But later you appreciate it.”
Progress to three consecutive full pirouettes, holding the leg in retiré as you plié between turns.
Repeat the above, this time extending the working leg à la seconde with the plié between turns. Then add a beat, back-front, to the passé as you turn.
Pirouette, plié á la seconde, pirouette is one way to fouetté. “When you have the coordination and the technique to control that, the next step is to go to the front and then seconde,” says Martinez.
Work up gradually, starting with three or four fouettés.

Options: As noted above, the working leg in fouetté may extend directly to the side with plié or rond de jambe from front to side. With rond de jambe, you have a further choice: You may relevé with the à la seconde and then turn, or open the leg in plié and relevé at the moment of the pirouette. “We use both,” Martinez explains, depending on the choreography.

The twizzle: Rather than pushing off from fourth directly into a high passé, many students allow the back foot to linger on the floor as they begin to turn, causing the passé to over-cross and the standing leg to turn in. In fouetté, the consequence of this is that the working leg drops too low when it extends. “That leg does not come down,” Martinez cautions. “Feel that you isolate from the hip to the knee, and keep that distance the same.”

Extra Tips

“Practicing balance—that is the students’ homework,” says Martinez. She suggests trying promenade on relevé at the barre, going en dehors with the leg in retiré and en dedans with the outside leg in cou-de-pied.
During fondus or ronds de jambe at the barre, Martinez works on the transition from plié attitude en avant into écarté derrière: “Extend the standing leg and get to écarté at the same time—that coordination is important when we are thinking about fouetté.” Practicing attitude, as opposed to extending fully to the front, helps prevent over-crossing.

What is pumping and does it help build muscle faster

March 3, 2021LikbezSports and Fitness

This effect is even compared with the pleasure of sex.

Iya Zorina

Author of Lifehacker, athlete, CCM

What is pumping

Pumping is the effect of strength exercises, in which the muscles are filled with blood and visually become larger.

Intense muscle contraction partially blocks ^{The Muscle Pump: Potential Mechanisms and Applications for Enhancing Hypertrophic Adaptations veins that drain blood. At the same time, the arteries continue to work as usual, due to which the plasma concentration inside the muscle increases.}

The accumulated plasma seeps through the capillaries into the interstitial space and then returns back. This causes ^{The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training cellular edema, or reactive hyperemia, known in bodybuilding as pumping.}

At the same time, a pleasant feeling of muscle fullness arises in a person. Arnold Schwarzenegger described ^{The Muscle Pump: Potential Mechanisms and Applications for Enhancing Hypertrophic Adaptations pumping as a fantastic feeling, reminiscent of filling the muscles with air, and claimed that the pleasure from it is comparable to sex.}

Why pumps are needed

Because pumps make muscles look bigger, bodybuilders and actors use them before going on stage or during filming. However, this is a temporary effect, and it disappears soon after the muscles stop working, and the blood circulation in them returns to normal.

Pumping is also used in regular workouts as an additional muscle stimulation to increase hypertrophy - the growth of muscle fibers.

Can pumping increase muscle growth

In order for muscles to grow, first of all, it is necessary to ^{The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training mechanical stress that occurs during power loads. An equally important factor is the metabolic ^{Potential mechanisms for a role of metabolic stress in hypertrophic adaptations to resistance training stress, and cellular edema during pumping is an important part of this process.}}

Increase in volume ^{Functional Significance of Cell Volume Regulatory Mechanisms of cells due to water promotes ^{Mammary Protein Synthesis Is Acutely Regulated by the Cellular Hydration State promotes protein synthesis and reduces protein breakdown. There is a theory ^{Mechanisms and significance of cell volume regulation that in this way the cell tries to survive. As pressure on the membrane and cytoskeleton threatens to rupture, it increases protein synthesis to strengthen its structure.}}}

In addition, increased volume may ^{Dietary creatine monohydrate supplementation increases satellite cell mitotic activity during compensatory hypertrophy affect progenitor cell activity. During overload, stem cells turn ^{Type I insulin-like growth factor receptor signaling in skeletal muscle regeneration and hypertrophy into myoblasts and transferred to injured muscle fibers for their recovery.}}

Also referred to as pumping effects is ^{The Importance Of The Pump: Anthony Catanzaro Is Here To Pump You Up! stretching of the connective tissue around the muscles and the formation of additional capillaries in response to an increased need for blood delivery.}

How to practice for a pumping effect

Since cellular edema occurs when the venous outflow in the working muscle is disturbed, the main task is to ensure constant tension of the muscle fibers.

How many sets and reps to do

Widely used in bodybuilding ^{The Muscle Pump: Potential Mechanisms and Applications for Enhancing Hypertrophic Adaptations two options:}

2-3 sets of 15-20 reps with a rest of 60 seconds between them.
5-10 sets of 8-12 reps with 30 seconds rest in between.

In both cases, work with light weights that allow you to perform the required number of repetitions without muscle failure.

How to choose exercises

In the same exercise, the load on the muscles varies depending on the position of the body and weight.

For example, when lifting a dumbbell for biceps at the lowest point, when the arm is extended, the load on the muscles is minimal. As the arm flexes, it increases, reaching a peak when the elbow bend forms an angle of 90° and then decreases again.

Shoulder strength from dumbbell to elbow in different phases of bicep curl. Photo: Alexander Starostin

^{The Muscle Pump: Potential Mechanisms and Applications for Enhancing Hypertrophic Adaptations are the best exercises for pumping effect.}

Let's take the back of the thigh as an example. In the good morning, the muscles are completely relaxed at the top of the movement when you are standing with the barbell on your back. In the GHD hyper, it is at the bottom point when hanging upside down, and in the 45° hyper, it is at none of the points of the exercise.

1 / 0

GHD Hyperextension. Photo: Alexander Starostin

2 / 0

Good Morning. Photo: Alexander Starostin

3 / 0

Hyperextension at 45°. Photo: Alexander Starostin

Thus, this movement is better than others for achieving the pumping effect.

What range to work on

Almost any exercise can be perfect for pumping if you limit the range of motion in it so that the muscles do not relax at any point.

For example, to pump the chest muscles, you can do push-ups from the floor or on the uneven bars only at the bottom of the range, without fully extending your arms.

Expanders and bar chains are also well suited for this purpose. At the top point of the exercise, when the load on the muscles is minimal, chains or expanders add loads, and closer to the bottom point they remove additional resistance.

Squat with resistance bands. Photo: Julia Obolonskaya

What training methods are used for pumping

There are several popular techniques that help achieve the pumping effect.

Drop Sets

This is a training method where you perform a set with a certain amount of weight until you notice a noticeable flaw in technique, then drop about 25% of the weight and do the same exercise again almost to muscle failure.

You can also do triple and quadruple drop sets, in which you repeat this procedure three or four times - drop the weight and continue the set.

Rest between working sets is as long as necessary to change working weights.

Sarcoplasmic Stimulation Training (SST)

This method involves many sets to muscle failure with varying rest times or phase lengths. It is suitable for trained people who need a new stimulus for muscle growth.

CCT was tested in one small study ^{Acute Effects of the New Method Sarcoplasma Stimulating Training Versus Traditional Resistance Training on Total Training Volume, Lactate and Muscle Thickness with experienced athletes. Compared to conventional training, the two CCT variants had a smaller total volume of load, but at the same time increased muscle thickness much more. Here are the options.}

1. Contractile . After a warm-up, perform three sets of 10 repetitions until muscle failure and a rest of 20 seconds between sets.

Then remove 20% of the weight and perform one more set until muscle failure. At the same time, the concentric phase of the movement - when the muscles shorten under load (raising the dumbbell to the biceps) - lasts four seconds. And eccentric - when the muscles lengthen (lowering the dumbbell to its original position) - takes one second.

After that, rest 20 seconds, remove another 20% of the weight and repeat the approach to failure, but now the eccentric phase lasts four seconds, and the concentric phase lasts one.

An isometric approach completes the workout - another 20% of the weight is removed, after which the projectile is held at the point of the exercise with the highest torque (for lifting the biceps - when the elbows are bent at a right angle) until the muscles fail.

2. With different rest times . In this variant, after a warm-up, 8 approaches are performed 10 times until muscle failure. Rest between sets varies all the time and is 45-30-15-5-15-30-45 seconds.

This option gave less effect than contraction, but more than a regular workout with the same rest time between sets.

Isometric sets

Isometric work is when a muscle contracts without changing its length. In other words, tense in static. Such work severely restricts ^{ANABOLIC PUMP TRAINING blood flow, which in the long term increases the pumping effect.}

For static sets, you can either set the bar stops at the right height, or take on too much weight that you can't lift. In the latter case, he should not be above you without insurance.

Let's look at the bench press as an example. You set up the bench in a power rack and place the restraints slightly above your chest. Then lie down on the bench, squeeze the barbell so that it rests on the limiters from below, and try your best to press as if it is possible.

Maintain tension for 10 seconds, then rest for 1-2 minutes and repeat the exercise 2-4 more times.

How often can you do the exercises

You can do sets every workout, but keep in mind that the program should not consist of only them. Long sets with light weights will not replace the intense tension that can be achieved when working with serious weights for 6-12 reps.

Therefore, you still need heavy multi-joint exercises that will load all the muscle fibers to the maximum and provide enough stress.

Leave long pumping sets at the end of your workout as a way to "finish off" the muscles.

What else is important for pumping

The ability of muscles to swell in response to exercise depends not only on the method of training, but also on nutrition.

Drink enough water

In order for the muscles to fill with water, it must be present in the body in sufficient quantities. Try to follow general recommendations ^{Healthy Hydration for training: 0.5 L of water 2 hours before training and 200-300 ml every 10-20 minutes of exercise.}

It also helps to weigh yourself after your workout and drink an additional 0.5 liters of water for every pound of weight lost.

Eat carbohydrates

If you are not trying to lose weight before a competition, be sure to eat enough.

Carbohydrates are stored in the muscles in the form of glycogen, which provides you with energy during strength exercises, and also binds ^{Relationship between muscle water and glycogen recovery after prolonged exercise in the heat in humans to water, making the muscles fuller.}

In addition to carbohydrates, you can also take sugary drinks during your workout - this will increase ^{Glucose-fructose ingestion and exercise performance: The gastrointestinal tract and beyond your performance and save ^{Carbohydrate supplementation attenuates muscle glycogen loss during acute bouts of resistance exercise glycogen stores.}}

Try Creatine Monohydrate

Creatine Delays ^{Creatine Supplementation Increases Total Body Water Without Altering Fluid Distribution ^{Long-term creatine intake is beneficial to muscle performance during resistance training. in strength training.}}

To increase the effect of pumping faster, try the loading method. Take 20 g of creatine monohydrate (5 g four times a day) for 3-6 days, and then 2-3 g per day to maintain its high level.

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Popping: The Dance Style of the Future

Since the dawn of funk music, many dance styles have been born, each type trying to match the music and adapt more favorably to it. Moreover, everyone wanted to outshine each other. The movements were striking in their technicality and plasticity. To this day, popping is considered the most spectacular and multifaceted. This bright and illusory dance is full of expressiveness, freedom and fantasy.

What is popping?

A distinctive feature of this dance is a sharp contraction and relaxation of the muscles of the dancer: you need to create the effect of shuddering the body, like from a stun gun - this movement is called "dad" or "hit", hence the name. The performer of this style of dance tries to create the illusion of a non-human body making unnatural and physically impossible movements.

History

The popping dance style originated in the 70s on the streets of California, and was popularized by a group of poppers calling themselves the Electric Boogaloos. Its leader - Sam Solomon (Boogaloo Sam) - created the movements that are performed today in the style of popping and locking. With each muscle contraction, Sem shouted out the word "pop", since then the technique of his movements has been called popping. The history of its origin is rather unsightly, but this did not prevent the dance from spreading very quickly among young people, and after watching the movie Breakin, the majority of the population mistakenly considered popping and its branches to be the top break.

Popping dance overview: types of movements

The dance is based on many movement techniques - this is necessary to create variety in performance. At the same time, they can exist as separate styles or be an addition to the main one. Popping includes seven basic techniques.

The most popular is waving. The dancer must depict a wave that passes through the entire body or through its individual parts. This technique is very often used in other street styles, such as breaking and locking. You need to have very good control over your body in order to perform this movement believably. The most famous representative of this style is David Elsewhere.
Another known technique is gliding. Here the situation is much more complicated: rolling from toe to heel, you need to depict sliding on the floor, and when the steps become more technical, it will seem that the dancer is moving through the air. The peculiarity of this style is that the body and hands are not involved and should not move at all, then the technique itself looks very impressive. There are more than forty types of gliding, but the most popular are sliding forward and backward, left and right, kneeling, and zigzag. The mimes performing on the streets were the first to perform them, calling such movements "walking against the wind."

King tut, or tatting, is a movement that imitates the Egyptian pharaohs. It is performed mainly by hand. The task of the dancer is to create the most direct angles between the palms, shoulders and hands. It is believed that tatting became popular after the release of the next series of the Bugs Bunny cartoon, in which he depicted a series of movements using right angles.
Finger tut - all movements are performed only with the fingers. Quite an impressive sight. Sometimes geometric figures are built very quickly, which is incorrect execution. The movements must be performed in time with the music, and then the beauty of the performance is fully revealed.
When a dancer stops several times for a fraction of a second, and his movements resemble movement in the light of a strobe, this means that you have another popping technique - strobing, and it is performed on relaxed muscles for a more believable result. B-boys first learn to practice familiar moves, such as putting on a hat or gloves, then gradually increase the challenge.

The slow motion technique is based on moving slowly, like a videotape has stuck.
Puppet is a puppet style in which the dancer transforms into a puppet and copies its movements. Sometimes this style is called robot dance.

Moonwalk: history

The popping dance style has become so popular that some artists and singers have included it in their musical productions. The most famous performer of this style was Michael Jackson. In his performances, he used the gliding technique (sliding): it was the famous "moon walk" that became his hallmark. Many believe that this movement was created by Jackson himself, but this is not so, the technique was used before by other artists. For the first time, the moonwalk appeared in the film "Children of Paradise" 1945 years old.

The authors are Etienne Decroix and Jean-Louis Barrault: working as mimes, they repeatedly applied their innovation. Ten years later, the tap dancer Bill Bailey repeated it, slipping backwards backstage, then the famous mime Marcel Marceau used this technique in his performances for forty years. He was replaced by the eccentric James Brown: the soul singer performed gliding in the movie The Blues Brothers. Many other stars have repeated the moonwalk in the hope that it will bring them at least a modicum of popularity, but only Michael Jackson was able to conquer billions of people with the ability to "glide through the air."

Dancers' clothes

In the dance style, popping was previously considered a tradition to perform it in a classic costume: a white shirt, black trousers and a hat served as an indispensable attribute for poppers, their performances in such clothes looked very elegant and unusual. Over time, interest in the classical style faded, today dancers look at it much easier. Elegance was replaced by loose-fitting trousers and oversized T-shirts, but, whatever one may say, the hat remained the hallmark of popping.

Les Twins - Bourgeois brothers

Today popping is a dance boom that burst into the lives of many dancers, and every advanced hiphoper dreams of learning how to move like a robot, or "walk against the wind." But only a few reach the heights of mastery and impeccable control of their bodies. One of these was the Bourgeois twins from France.

Children from early childhood admired their idol M. Jackson and dreamed one day to learn how to master the body in the same virtuoso way. On the streets of their hometown, the twins got acquainted with hip-hop, popping and locking. Combining these styles, the guys created something new, as they themselves say, "hip-hop new style." Lauren and Larry have mastered all the popping techniques and master them to perfection: today they conduct many master classes in all street styles, they can often be seen as judges at competitions.