So I'm getting ready to go on pointe, in a week or so and I'm super excited. The thing is my teacher wants me to work on my strength so it'll be eiser on pointe. We do zillions and zillions of plies and releves (sorry for spelling) and I don't know if its really helping me. Any suggestions for strengthing excercises for my calves. thighs, and core? thanks a bunch!!!!

TAKE OUT THAT THERABAND. seriously though, anything you do with a theraband and your feet will be more helpful than you can imagine!
I know your ankle is not injured but here is a couple pages on exercises you can do and what you should be strengthening:

physicaltherapy.about.com . . .

The best way to strengthen calves is to keep doing releves unfortunately. For thighs you could try some wall squats. Just put your back against a wall and pretend to sit in an imaginary chair. Then hold that there until you absolutely cannot take it anymore! Not sure if you know what bridges are but these would be really helpful with trunk stability and also hamstrings.
Here is a picture (just in case):
www.iposture.com . . .
There are a lot of variations you can do with bridges so you just have to play around with it. (such as leg extensions, doing it in turnout etc)
Hope this helped a little!

No offense, but the theraband won't give you the results you want, in the timeframe you want. There are some really effective ways to gain calf strength, but using a theraband isn't one of them, I'll explain why.

The gastrocnemius (the bulge at the top of the calf) is primarily a fast twitch muscle, which responds best to rapid contraction, think jumping, running, releves en pointe. The other main calf muscle is the soleus, which is primarily a slow twitch muscle, it's what you'll end up using mostly if you use a theraband. It adds support, but not strength in the sense that you'll jump higher, or be able to releves easier.

askthetrainer.com . . .

This is a great article on building your calf muscles, it gives you a bit of insight into what it takes to develop calf muscles.

I'd struggled a long time with trying to develop the calf strength that I needed, tried the theraband, tried tons of calf raises, releves, etc. The results were pretty minimal. What really helped me was adding plyometrics and some weights to my calf routine. Assuming you're dancing enough to be advancing (which it seems you are, your calves should be strong enough to start to work them fairly hard.

The first exercise is pretty basic, it's just jumping on one leg, using mostly the calf. This will probably be pretty easy for you, so to take it to the next step you can hold a dumbell (start light and work your way up) on the same side as the leg you're working. The reason this exercise works is because the gastrocnemius responds very well to rebounding and landing from jumps. What I find useful with this exercise is to adjust my foot position from parallel to turned out, and to make sure to work all the way through the foot.

The second exercise is also deceptively simple. Find a line on the floor, tape line, seam, or you can lay down a rope. Jump one legged front to back, over the line, picking up your foot at least 6". Also do this exercise going from side to side. This will also work your vastus medialis, but that won't hurt anyone. Once you this becomes easier, you can upgrade to jumping over a rolled up pilates mat or towel, the higher you pull the foot up, the better workout it is.

The third exercise is one you're familiar with, releves. I'm going to call them calf raises because you shouldn't just do them turned out. How we'll make these more effective is by adding some extra resistance. So assuming you can do a one legged releve to full releve, essentially we'll be doing that while holding a dumbell on the same side as the leg you're working. If you have stairs in your house, that would be the ideal place to do them. Try to do sets of about 15 per leg, to full releve. If your calf isn't screaming at you when you're done, you didn't work hard enough, rest and do another set, also think about increasing the weight if it's just too easy.

A note on muscle/strength development. Your calves are meant to move your body weight thousands of times per day, so naturally they're built to a degree that your body weight isn't straining it. All of the exercises I talked about work because they increase them amount of stress on your calf muscle, thus getting the muscle to grow. Assuming you weigh more than 30Lbs, there isn't a theraband in the world that can give you your body wight in resistance, let alone more, hence the therband isn't much use for gaining strength or muscle. The theraband has some great uses though, you can work on taking the strength you build to a new range of motion.

I guess one last note. Think of being a dancer as being an athlete, and beyond the sense that you sweat a lot and are in good shape. All the exercises I list I got from trainers/physical therapists that work with professional athletes, and they work great. Think of the athletes that move in ways similar to dancers. High jumpers, martial artist, gymnasts. Then look at how they cross train, this is a great insight into how to cross train to jump higher, move faster, and get your legs way up there.

Great information!! I have read similar exercises from other trainers as well related to calve exercises.

An excerise I do to strenghten both of them is to stay in a grand plie in second position. Then I do 10 releves for both feet then 8 on one foot then 8 on the other, then 6, then 4, 2 and then 1. And another one I do is releves in the second position and then plie with your feet still on high demi-pointe; Straighten then plie slowly and do that about 20 times then hold in plie for 30 seconds.

Thank you guys sooo much for those suggesetions, kenwoodman thank you a bunch I can't wait to try those excersises I think they will help me a lot!!!

There's also another post that PurkleStars posted a while ago, but there are animations and everything. It's called 3 exercises to strengthen arches, ankles, and feet, and it helped me a lot! I did them for a few weeks (winter break), and I could really see a difference in classes afterwards. You could also just google pointe strengthening exercises, and that will get you a lot. Plies and releves are always best though, because that's what you'll actually be doing when you're en pointe.

I agree with cellodancer that you should do plies and releves because that is what you'll be doing, but in terms of gaining strength they are far from best. If you just do a ton of plies and releves you will get stronger, but a lot slower than you could.

Increasing the strain on a muscle is proven to build muscle faster than having a light strain over time. Going back to the example of how walking uses your calves, but we don't all have gigantic calves. Doing more of the same will take you longer to get where you want to be, or maybe not get there at all.

I can give you two solid reasons to try what I've been talking about.

1. The person who gave me these exercises (and a few more) is the physical therapist that works with OBT.

2. I do these exercises, and in a month I gained 3" in my vertical jump, which uses these muscle groups. There are some more advanced exercises, but these will do you good.

I realize that with cross training dancers can be worried about getting bulky looking, but two of the three exercises I talked about are exercises high jumpers use. If you do a quick image search, I don't think you'll find a single high jumper with bulky legs.

My point isn't that doing lots of releves and plies is bad, but that you can develop yourself physically more efficiently, which gives you more time to do what you love, dance.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to PM me.

Walk around on your the pads of your feet, no heel. It will really work out your calves! I would also try wall sits, and eeek this will be hard to explain but lay down on your back and put both legs together and raise them off the ground not too high just a few inches, it works out your legs and abs!

kenwoodman's response is THE best.

But in case you have a boring job where you have to stand around a lot, or anything like that, here's what I do just whenever to accent whatever "real" workouts I'm doing.. I just do sets of 10 one-footed releves at a time whenever I remember and have a spare moment. I usually get about 120-140 per side in a 3 hour shift! It makes an impact for me because I'm a relative beginner, though, so it might not make a big difference to you.