Written by Flik Swan, Co-Founder of Sleek Technique
Well known as the creators of the Sleek Technique method and establishing it as the first online dance fitness business in the UK, Victoria and Flik have a wealth of expertise in the health and fitness industry. Seamlessly blending the benefits of ballet with mainstream fitness they help women across the globe achieve their fitness goals.
Dancers today are athletes. They may not win gold medals, but they do enrapture their audiences with every single muscle and sinew in their strong, lithe bodies. Sustaining a professional dance career in today's modern world requires the right training, nutrition, resilience, and a little sacrifice sprinkled on top. So how do these 'athletes of the gods' go about doing this, and more importantly, how can anyone incorporate some of their more achievable fitness, diet, and lifestyle habits into their everyday lives? Well, my 'gut feeling' as a professional dancer, ballet fitness trainer, and cofounder at Sleek Ballet Fitness is you'll want to learn where the answer lies.
Dancers look after their muscles and their gut
Ballet fitness classes are based on the daily barre exercises that ballerinas practice to strengthen, define, and hone their muscles. Take ballet fitness classes regularly, and that distinct posture and muscle tone are easy to spot. But what's happening on the inside? Our microbiome (the microorganisms that live on or inside us), influence every aspect of our body's health and well being. The gut microbiome is essential to the functioning of our muscles, brain, metabolic health, heart health, immune system, and hormone production, all of which a dancer needs to be at optimal levels to be leaping, turning, flexing, and focusing for long periods of time, both at the ballet barre and on stage. Even a low level of dysbiosis, or imbalance within the gut, can disrupt energy levels, impede weight management, affect mood stability, lower immunity, and hinder physical and mental well-being, affecting not just performance but daily life.
Fortunately, we all have a level of control over the health of our gut, and by looking at some of the fitness, lifestyle, and dietary choices of dancers and ballet fitness lovers, we can have significant influence over the function of our gut microbiome. So, whilst science tells us there is a genetic factor in our gut microbiome, it also tells us it can be positively influenced by lifestyle and dietary habits, all of which dancers and non-dancers can incorporate.
What is an unhealthy gut?
Common conditions include mood swings, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, unintentional weight fluctuations, skin issues like eczema and acne, digestive disruption such as SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth), leaky gut, and IBS, cravings, anxiety, depression, joint pain, autoimmune diseases, and an irregular thyroid. None of these are great if you need to put on pointe shoes ready for a 3-hour performance, nor if you have a family to look after, a career to manage, or just life itself to get through. So how does this happen?
There are numerous causes that affect the balance of good and bad bacteria within the gut. Stress and anxiety is a major contributing factor. They both trigger signals within the gut-brain axis via the vagus nerve and central nervous system, causing the microbiota to respond to these stress signals in an ultimately negative way within the body, leading to distress and inflammation. An overconsumption of refined sugars increases cravings and the levels of bad bacteria within the gut. Our busy, modern lifestyle doesn't help. Consuming food in a rush or on the go leads to poor digestion and absorption of the nutrients in our food. Then the flip side of this is long periods of inactivity that leave us sluggish and bloated. Add in antibiotics, which wipe out not just the pathogens within the body but the healthy gut flora, too, and things get uncomfortable. Toxins can also play a role within all this. It's a lot to consider. So how can we minimise the damage these factors cause? Let's consider what we can remove.
Things to avoid
Refined sugars
Long periods of inactivity
Alcohol
Ultra Processed Foods
Trans fats
Excess sodium
Toxins, including pesticides, those found in skin care products and chlorinated water
Minimising the use of antibiotics, including excess use of cleaning wipes and sprays
Getting rid of these from our daily lives will bring about great benefits. But it's not all about what we take out. Dancers are fit, strong, and flexible. To become like this, they need to put the right nutrients into their bodies and maintain smart, sustainable lifestyle habits. We can do the same. So, what are some of the things we need to include for a healthy, dancer-like physique?
Things to put in
Regular exercise: it doesn't have to be hours at the ballet barre. 30 minutes of daily exercise is all it takes to help with constipation and gut diversity. A good online ballet fitness class is a great choice.
Good sleep hygiene: prioritising sleep for both you and the circadian rhythms of the gut microbes allows for digestive rest as well as cell repair time.
Fermented foods: feeding the good bacteria with nurturing prebiotics. Think yogurt, kimchi, apple cider vinegar, and kombucha to start.
Nutrient-dense whole foods: vitamin and mineral-rich foods to assist in whole body functioning - from 'a' for avocados to 'z' for zucchini, and everything in between.
Fibre: aids digestion, transportation of vital nutrients and elimination of waste. Nobody enjoys being constipated, so make sure you get your daily intake.
Chlorophyll-rich green foods: a vital source of micronutrients to protect against cell damage. Go for broccoli, spinach, and asparagus.
Berries: high in antioxidants and phytochemicals to support total health and body functioning, they all do the trick.
Ensuring sufficient water intake: water is key to the development of the mucus layer in the intestinal wall and a key factor in food transit and colon cleansing.
Mindful eating: create a calm, consistent eating regime and savour the food in front of you
Remember, seasoning counts: herbs and spices, specifically turmeric, pepper, garlic and ginger all support a healthy ecosystem in your gut.
Take small steps for dancer's big leaps
The list may seem like a lot, but making small changes makes things achievable. And think about it: dancers have to practice their art daily so they can improve their technique until it becomes effortless.
Practicing better ways to eat, move and live is no different for the rest of us. By getting rid of the things that deplete our microbiome, you'll have room to put in the things that will support it, eventually, without really thinking about it. So, what else can we expect to gain?
Physical and mental benefits
Life today is non-stop. In the world of professional dance and ballet fitness, dancers have rigorous ballet training and performance schedules. So, staying well and avoiding injury is imperative for dancers. But it is for all of us, too; we want to stay healthy so we can reap the benefits of regular exercise. Did you know that 75% of our immune system is in our gut? So, if we eat the right foods and incorporate smart fitness and lifestyle practices, we avoid getting sick or hurt.
And it isn't just about physical health. A well-functioning microbiome is vital for our nervous system and mental well-being, too. About 90% of the body's production of serotonin comes from within the gut microbiome. We need this hormone for mood regulation as well as sleep and digestion. The right serotonin signalling leads to better mood, staving off feelings of anxiety and depression and keeping us feeling uplifted.
So, what else can we do for a beneficial bacteria boost?
Boosting our gut health
By bringing in diverse, happy bacteria that nourish and feed the gut itself, our whole community of gut bacteria can flourish, leading to noticeable physical and mental health improvements. You could also consider checking you're getting enough fibre and include both prebiotics and probiotics, as well as polyphenols if they're lacking in your diet. Perhaps look into a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme supplement if you do experience gut or gut-related issues. Work with your medical advisor to see what is right for you. Let's think about these further:
Fibre
Fibre helps with food digestion, transportation and elimination. Soluble fiber not only gives the microbes in your gut a fermentable food source, but sufficient consumption leads to the creation of short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs), providing the body with energy whilst simultaneously increasing healthy gut flora. Insoluble fibre adds bulk to the stool, allowing for smooth excretion of waste.
Prebiotics
Prebiotics could be considered the fertiliser for the gut microbiome, encouraging the growth of beneficial bacteria. Prebiotic foods include raw leeks and garlic, onion, chicory root, dandelion greens, bananas and asparagus, all of which give the gut microbiota the opportunity to feast and feed.
Probiotics
Probiotics are live, fermented bacteria and yeasts, which come in supplements and foods like yogurt, kefir, miso, kimchi, sauerkraut, tempeh, and kombucha. These cultured foods help repair and reinoculate the gut microbiome, but they do not reside permanently within the gut. Probiotics boost the number of beneficial microbes in the gut and support a healthy immune system.
Importantly, they help reduce gut permeability and stave off pathogenic bacteria whilst secreting antibacterial molecules.
Polyphenols
Polyphenols are micronutrients naturally occurring in plants. Unlike probiotics, they are mostly digested by the gut bacteria. Larger, indigestible molecules are fed upon by the gut microbiome in the colon, increasing the overall number of good bacteria and lowering triglyceride and C-reactive protein levels of inflammation.
Digestive enzymes
Digestive enzymes, including proteolytic enzymes, lipases, and amylases, are essential for biochemical reactions throughout the entire process of digestion. You may consider supplementing with a broad-spectrum digestive enzyme but preferably include foods that promote digestive enzymes. These include:
Tropical fruits: pineapple, kiwi, papaya, mango
Miso, soy sauce, tempeh
Apple Cider Vinegar
Raw honey
Kimchi
Think like a dancer
So what about putting all this into action? This is where you'll nurture that dancer mindset towards a healthy lifestyle to support long-term health. These steps encourage lifelong, simple habits and fitness routines that will enable continued health within the gut microbiome and overall fitness and wellbeing. Let's revisit what can do to stay fit, healthy, energised and gut happy, plus a few extras:
Enjoy regular, consistent exercise every day: walking, ballet fitness, cycling, it's your choice.
Eat a varied, whole-food diet with organic foods and products where possible.
Stress management through practices like dance, breath work, meditation
Put a consistent focus on quality sleep with a minimum of 7 hours per night
Embrace nature, camping, gardening, playing with pets, getting outside
Drink sufficient, chlorine-free water daily: 1.5 litres minimum - more if you're sweating
Avoid toxins where possible
Minimising antibiotic use, including medications, antibacterial cleaners and wipes
Indeed, just by focusing on the first three of these, daily exercise, such as a ballet fitness or barre class, a whole food diet, and stress management, will bring about great benefits to your gut. Your gut-brain axis will be better supported for an improved immune system and central nervous system function, and you'll have more energy, better recovery, and improved sleep, to name a few of the upsides. Get started straight away with a free 7-day trial here.
So, to get that dancer feeling, take the approach we take at Sleek Technique: small, positive steps to get your body moving and help to repair, improve, or maintain a healthy, diverse bacterial community in your gut. Then you'll feel like you can perform your best, whether on stage in front of thousands, honing your muscles in an online ballet workout, OR simply in day-to-day life in front of your boss or your kids. You have to put in some work; implementation, consistency and adherence are key to this being successful and so manageable and sustainable changes will help move towards positive health outcomes for you.
While research into the gut microbiome is continually ongoing and evolving, discoveries are being made at a rapid rate that tells us the health and function of the gut can impact the health and function of the whole body. This makes a dancer-style approach to gut health such a smart choice for a flourishing microbiome, which in turn is crucial to life itself.
Flik Swan, Co-Founder of Sleek Technique
After 20 years at the top of the professional dance world, Victoria and Flik brought their combined expertise in dance and fitness together and pioneered the first online dance fitness business in the UK. Laying the groundwork for many others to follow, they continue to bring creative, effective fitness to women everywhere regardless of location.
