5 ballet exercises for stronger and leaner legs

Ballet dancing is both a beautiful art form and a strenuous exercise. Professional ballet dancers often stick to a strenuous workout routine in order to gain the strength and balance necessary for their acrobatic and elegant dance moves. Here are five workouts you should master if you're hoping to strengthen your legs for ballet.

• Start with your chair on your left, feet shoulder's length apart and toes pointed out.
• Then raise onto your tiptoes and lower yourself back down as you keep your core tight.
• Lightly grab the chair if you need help balancing.

These are three crucial exercises that ballerinas do every day.

Tendu

• The tendu begins in first position (toes turned out, ankles touching).
• Balance on your left leg and brush the right foot out in front of you.
• Touch your toes to the floor, and then return to first position.
• Do this a total of four times to the front, four to the side and four to the back with each of your legs.

Once you've mastered the tendu in first position, move on to try it in second position. To do so, just switch to second position (same as first but with feet spread about 30 cm apart).

After you've mastered tendu in first and second position, add fourth and fifth positions.

Dégagé

The dégagé is the tendu done at twice the speed. With this exercise, you should raise your feet a bit above the floor as you extend your leg is extended.

Grand Battement

Once you're comfortable with your tendu and dégagés, take it up a notch with grand battement.

This exercise builds even further on the basic tendu. Here's how: when you extend your foot, lift your leg into the air from your hip.

If this looks like a kick to you, then you're doing it properly. After all, a grand battement is basically just a big, controlled kick. But the goal here is flexibility — you should be able to reach at least a 90 degree angle.

A plié is a bend from the knees while keeping the torso straight and upright. This exercise really works your thighs.

• While in second position, lift up onto the balls of your feet.
• Hold here for a couple of seconds, then plié down very deeply so that it's actually a squat.
• Come up and repeat, while staying on the balls of the feet the entire time.
• Again, use your chair for balance and keep your core engaged.

• While balancing on your left leg, bring your right leg behind you while bending down in a plié.
• Your right leg should be bent at an angle with your toes pointed to your left.
• While rising, keep your leg up while you straighten it out and extend it behind you.
• Repeat this 20 times, and then switch sides.

This exercise conditions an entire group of muscles that ballerinas rely on for balance and support.

• Get a towel and lay it down on the floor, then place one foot flat on its surface.
• Use your toes to scrunch up the towel as much as you can, over and over again.
• Switch feet and repeat.

At first, you can use the chair as much as you need when you first begin these exercises, but with as little body weight as possible.

If the exercises feel too easy after a while, get rid of the chair completely and lift hand weights during the routine instead.

Mastering these exercises is a process that can take time. But keep at it, and good luck!