Present Tense Fitness

Present Tense Fitness Personal training for dancers and general population clients.

We’ve been training dancers for many years now, and one of the things that comes up often is having to re-teach dancers ...
05/24/2026

We’ve been training dancers for many years now, and one of the things that comes up often is having to re-teach dancers how breathe. They walk into gym spaces having been taught patterns that not only don’t serve them, but very often cause the very problems (back pain) those patterns were meant to prevent.

So it ends up looking like this.

1.) Dancers are taught breathing patterns that don’t match up with the physiology or biomechanics of breathing.

2.) Dancers experience back pain as a result.

3.) Dancers are told their cores are weak, and then do a bunch of exercises supposedly targeting the transverse abdominis.

4.) Dancers’ back pain persists and even increases.

5.) Repeat.

If we can break this pattern, and I think we can, then I think we can significantly reduce incidents of back pain in dance populations.

In Part III of this series we will discuss how we train the core.

I call this the chaos gauntlet. Dancers jump these ten randomly placed hurdles and then immediately do 10-15 seconds on ...
05/15/2026

I call this the chaos gauntlet. Dancers jump these ten randomly placed hurdles and then immediately do 10-15 seconds on the CrossFit-style bike (in this case, the Rogue Echo), completing 3-10 rounds without rest.

Why the chaos (hurdles of different size)? — I want their brains to have to navigate a “puzzle” under the stress of fatigue.

Why combine cardio with the hurdles? — I want them to have to organize their bodies and maintain good jumping/landing mechanics while tired.

Why do this at all? — This is a way of being sport- or dance-specific without the activity looking exactly like dance. It’s a safe “laboratory” way of introducing difficulty without putting dancers into real danger. We chase cardiovascular, connective tissue, muscular system, and nervous system adaptations that will translate into (hopefully) a less scary time onstage.

Another way of putting it is that we want to chase the adaptations in a controlled environment such that the inevitable chaos of the stage can be handled no matter what comes up.

I talked a few posts sho about the values of dependability and urgency.Urgency might seem at odds with this post, so I w...
05/07/2026

I talked a few posts sho about the values of dependability and urgency.

Urgency might seem at odds with this post, so I wanna explain.

Urgency is different from reactivity. Urgency means we take ourselves seriously every single day with the tenderness to know that taking ourselves seriously doesn’t mean that we are perfect every single day.

It means we commit to a process. And when we fall short from our process, we take ourselves seriously enough not to judge that falling short but to analyze. I think we often confuse self-flagellation with self-improvement.

When we do this. When we commit to taking ourselves and our bodies seriously, slowly but inexorably over time we learn about ourselves. What works. What doesn’t work. And the urgency is in committing to THAT every day. Not perfection.

Because you know life will hand out behind whoopings when we least expect it. When that happens—none of us can escape that—the urgency we had during calmer times will be there for us.

It won’t save us from the turmoil—I mean look around right more!—but it can help us create a bridge from survival to wonder again when the time is right.

I am always upfront with the people I work with that I didn’t dance. But, art has always been something at the center of...
05/05/2026

I am always upfront with the people I work with that I didn’t dance. But, art has always been something at the center of who I am, and I’ve thought a lot about what it does for us as people and the sensitivity it takes to witness the world.

So many young artists (of many different types) I’ve met over the years have been consumed with benchmarks and validation. And believe me, I get it. But, it seems to me that the writers, photographers, painters, and yes, dancers I’ve known who have been able to carve out a living for themselves are those who’ve dedicated themselves to the pursuit of a process (the craft) and interrogating their own inner life.

Not as a means of escavating trauma for the entertainment of others, but so they could answer the question: “who am I? and, “therefore, what do I have to say?”

When in doubt, go see art. Went to the Southern Guild today to see paintings by Mmangaliso Nzuza and conceptual art by U...
05/03/2026

When in doubt, go see art. Went to the Southern Guild today to see paintings by Mmangaliso Nzuza and conceptual art by Usha Seejarim.

I’ve nothing brilliant to say about it, other than the works were all beautiful, and I’m glad I went. We ended up ducking into a few galleries on a long, meandering walk through lower Manhattan. I felt like a human.

I’ve been writing a lot this week because I’ve been thinking a lot, and it’s been helpful to me to identify, clarify, an...
05/02/2026

I’ve been writing a lot this week because I’ve been thinking a lot, and it’s been helpful to me to identify, clarify, and even sharpen my own analysis. That’s what writing is. And I’ve really appreciated how you all have responded.

As the week ends, I find myself reflecting on the context in which I do my work, and how sometimes I feel a bit delusional in thinking that living my values through my work can make a dent in *all of this*.

I think a lot about the older Black people in my life who’ve entered their sunset years witnessing the systematic dismantling of the achingly incremental progress their generations fought so hard to win. And I think a lot about the values old Black people have instilled in me: Dependability. Resiliency. And, maybe most importantly: Urgency.

I’m lucky in that, in my work, I get to serve people. For the professional dancers I work with, I get to offer them a modicum of care (I hope) to help make their jobs, if not easier, maybe a little more sustainable. And for the pre-professionals I work with, I get to teach them and coach them. What I hope they see in me, or, maybe, what I aspire to be for them every single day, is the representation of leading with tenderness and rigor simultaneously.

I’m going to teach you the right way to do things, but I’m going to recognize your agency and humanity and multidimensionality in the process. I think that’s at least as important as proper squat mechanics. I don’t actually know how much that matters given all that we’re collectively facing. But I hope it matters at least a little bit.

Anyway.

I wore my glasses today, and people were very sweet in giving me compliments. But usually when I wear my glasses it means I haven’t slept. People can really be healing when they see you sometimes, you know? I went from “I’ve got to make it through this day” to “oh, wow, thank you,” in a matter of minutes. I hope maybe someone did that for you today too.

I think it’s a mistake to be too reactive when it comes to strength and conditioning for dance. I always ask every dance...
04/30/2026

I think it’s a mistake to be too reactive when it comes to strength and conditioning for dance. I always ask every dancer I work with about their needs, aches, and pains. And I try to program according to their specific needs.

But, I also think it’s important not to be too reactive. If a dancer has a specific repetitive lift only on their left side—as happens often in choreography—I’m not going to try to make that left side somehow a lot stronger than their right. Because it’s just as likely that they’re going to need their strength in a much different way for different choreography.

So, we focus on general capacity and athleticism, and then when bodies get beat up by in-season performing—as they always do—we try to both get out of the dancer’s way and help triage their aches and pains to help them get through.

Then, when there is a reprieve in that dancer’s schedule? We help put them back together, nurse whatever might be ailing, and then rebuild their capacity for the next gauntlet.

Susan () taught me this “hip extension without knee extension” drill. If you ever worked with someone who’s knees shoot ...
04/27/2026

Susan () taught me this “hip extension without knee extension” drill. If you ever worked with someone who’s knees shoot up straight during a deadlift variation, what they’re doing is almost substituting knee extension for proper hip extension.

When this happens, the knees will lock out, the back will go into extension, and they’ll be the person who can’t do a hip hinge without feeling it in their lower back.

This drill—you can see my leg shaking—is humbling, and it teaches us to take the knees out of it while focusing on the hip.

The Dad 2.0 sneakers make it hard to see, but my heel is floating on these, meaning the heel isn’t touching the ground. The reaching motion adds to the degree of difficulty.

I’ve been using this drill with a number of dancers, who mostly report that it has helped their knees feel more lubricat...
04/24/2026

I’ve been using this drill with a number of dancers, who mostly report that it has helped their knees feel more lubricated. (I say mostly because no drill is universal. Try it—hopefully it works!)

Cues:

1.) Lie on your side with the knee you want to work on the bottom. You want to press that foot into the wall with a knee that’s slightly bent.

2.) The goal is to keep the lower leg against the floor as you roll back and forth. The side of your calf, in other words, should stay touching the ground.

3.) Roll back and forth while pressing your foot into the wall. This drill should help groove that tibial rotation. You can include these as a daily drill, but particularly before movement.

Side note: this is another example of why when you’re building out a gym, you need blank wall space. And I would say that’s particularly true if you train hyper-mobile populations. We use walls so much to provide external feedback.

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222 East 6th Street
Dayton, OH
45402

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Monday 7am - 7pm
Tuesday 7am - 7pm
Wednesday 7am - 7pm
Thursday 7am - 7pm
Friday 7am - 7pm

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