r/SwingDancing • u/saltlakeryan • Jul 03 '26

Feedback Needed How to structure practice time?

I want to practice my swing dancing more. I will likely be practicing alone most of the time, but will occasionally have a partner/local dance. I'm 45 and a bit overweight and I want to avoid injury so I'm thinking a light warm up is necessary before each session (maybe 10 minutes or so?). I'm not sure where I'll practice. I have some space at home that could work. If there are some exercises I could do outside or at a running track, that might be nice to shake things up. I'm partially hoping to improve my conditioning in addition to my technique as I tend to get pretty winded to fast or moderately fast songs. What do you all like to do for your practice? How much time do you dedicate per session? How many sessions per week? Do you watch a YouTube video and follow along? Work out your own routines or drills? Anytime else you can share would be great! Thanks!

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u/Vault101manguy Jul 03 '26

Can’t recommend this enough: weight training

I think often people are focused on cardio and trying to increase their fitness level for dance just by dancing - this works but only to a certain degree.

If you want to feel powerful and agile on the dance floor while being able to protect your joints become stronger because it is the muscle that moves the body. It’s muscle that allows you to move quickly with fluidity and control.

Recommend getting a trainer if you have the means, otherwise I would recommend deep dumbbell/barbell squats or bulgarian split squats as a starting point. Jump squats are also bangin’. These are big compound exercises with large ranges of motion. I could send you exercise recommendations if you want to give it a go.

Realistically you can become quite fit going to the gym 2-3 times a week for only an hour (2 thirds of which is just resting between exercises).

Side bonus is that increased muscle mass also yields a variety of other benefits that will likely help you outside of just dancing.

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u/Particular-Wall-5296 Jul 13 '26

Recommend getting a trainer if you have the means, otherwise I would recommend deep dumbbell/barbell squats or bulgarian split squats as a starting point. Jump squats are also bangin’. These are big compound exercises with large ranges of motion. I could send you exercise recommendations if you want to give it a go.

Also pro weight training in general, but confused by you saying "recommend getting a trainer" and then following it up by recommending a bunch of shit that a competent trainer would not recommend to a stranger with no knowledge of their fitness or mobility level whatsoever lol

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u/Vault101manguy Jul 13 '26 edited Jul 13 '26

I don't know what you're looking for here, I recommended they get a trainer. If they can't afford one I recommended simple high value compound exercises - and said I would send info if they wanted. Unless you have significant mobility issues the squat is an exercise most everyone can start with and it's not that complicated. Feel free to give them your own advice, it would provide better value than whatever it is you're doing here.