Growth Spurts
Dancing Smart Newsletter
July 8, 2005
Announcements:
None this week. On to the question of the week.
Question of the week:
I have a young student who is under going a growth spurt and I was wondering what kind of advice should I give her for re-assurance? What exercises would you recommend I give her to work on out of class? Thank you, Pamela
Deb's Answer:
This is a great question, Pamela. So often dancers begin an injury pattern during their growth spurts because they continue to train as if there hadn't been a shift in their flexibility. It becomes a time where overuse injuries such as tendonitis are common.
We know in growth spurts that the bones grow faster than muscles. If the growth spurt is significant a student may experience growing pains, a real physiological event. They may temporarily become clumsy and uncoordinated. Through in hormonal swings and you've got a pretty awkward time period to get through.
How can you counsel your growing dancers?
- Encourage them to gently and consistently stretch. Gently is the operative word here. Aggressive stretching will lead to straining the muscle and tendons. Make sure they are feeling their stretching in the middle of the muscles, not at the joints, which would indicate that the pull is too strong and the tendons are yelling at them to ease up. Any and all stretching is good. I don't typically suggest major strengthening at this point in time.
- If they are having any discomfort at their knees or ankles, you may want to have them pull back on the amount of jumping and leaping they are doing. Achilles tendonitis and jumpers knee often get started during a growth spurt.
- Encourage the dancer to cross train during growth spurts. This would be a good time to introduce Pilates, yoga, or floor barre into their training regime. Cross training is good at any point, but if they need to pull back from dance because of consequences from their growth spurt, it makes them feel as if they are still training, but just in a different way.
- Check in with your dancers' general health habits. Are they getting enough sleep, eating a balanced diet? Our bodies are very adaptable and can handle stressors much better if rest and nutrition are optimal. (Just coming out of the teenage years with my own children I can attest to the increased sleep needs and the negative influences that the lack of sleep has on their lives)
- The last suggestion I would have is to let our growing dancers know that what they are going through is normal and expected. It is a time period when females may have huge hormonal/emotional swings. Eating disorders can become a problem. It goes without saying that extra TLC from teachers go a long way to support healthy self-esteem and body image during this challenging time.
Until next week! Hoping everyone is enjoying some extra time in the sun!
Deborah