At Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet (CPYB) it is our mission to “inspire, educate and enrich lives through the training in and performance of classical ballet.” And while it is the performances that garner the most attention and awe from our community of patrons, it is our commitment to excellence in our training that has the greatest impact on our community of dancers. An integral part of ballet training is being physically strong enough for the rigorous demands of ballet. Demands that require constant monitoring and awareness of how one’s body is feeling, moving and executing. This awareness coupled with an intentional strength-training plan makes for healthier, stronger, and ultimately more successful dance students who have the tools and discipline to best avoid injuries throughout their careers.
To help provide this component of training, CPYB partners with Med Gym, also located in Carlisle, PA, to incorporate regular strength and conditioning training for all its dancers. Med Gym’s mission to “Move Better. Feel Better. Live Better.” compliments CPYB’s holistic approach to shaping dancers who not only thrive in their dance career but lead well-rounded, fulfilling lives in all they go on to be and do.
Med Gym’s owner, David Drinks, has been working with CPYB students since 2017. David is an Exercise Specialist with a focus on developing training programs for athletes and has a degree in Sport & Exercise Science. The program he’s developed for CPYB includes a combination of power training (pyrometrics), functional strength training, light conditioning, and corrective exercises that improve stabilization and mobility. David’s experience working with dancers has led him to understand that, “For ballet dancers, most of these students need strength training to help control their hypermobility. In order to help prevent injuries, we want these kids to learn to control their flexibility and balance that training with gaining strength.”
In this way, regular trips to the gym are a core factor of injury prevention.
The team at Med Gym starts with assessing dancers from a functional movement perspective, and then from a strength and conditioning perspective. It’s his team’s job to help ensure that dancers have the physical strength, balance, and stamina to withhold their intensive training. Beyond just their ability to perform the steps, how do they move? What other healthy habits are they practicing? How do they sleep? Eat? It’s all connected, and all taken into consideration when developing a training program that meets these athletes where they are not only in their ballet journey but also in their physical development as youth.
The goal is to prepare dancers for the journey ahead, and in the words of CPYB’s own students, that is exactly what the partnership with Med Gym is accomplishing. David displays several ‘thank you’ cards and notes from past dancers in his office including one that says, “Thanks for the past two years of strength training experience. I learned things to set me up for long-term health and fitness.”
According to David, the appreciation and enjoyment of the relationship between Med Gym and CPYB is mutual. In reflecting on the dancers he’s worked with over the past seven years, David says, “These are unusual teenagers… they show up and they put in the work. They are super kind, super courteous people. That speaks to the culture at large that they require excellence while also promoting a really positive environment of doing this together while also growing to be good people.”
By putting in the work, CPYB’s dancers are taking a proactive approach to getting stronger, being a healthier human, and preventing injury – all significant components to a rewarding ballet journey.