Knee Strain
Dancing Smart Newsletter
August 19, 2005
Announcements
The only announcement I have this week is to publicly thank Sundance, my website/computer guru who created the new template for the newsletter. He's great – I don't know what I would have done without him troubleshooting and solving the multitude of problems that come along with websites and computers. (I know my forte and computers it isn't!) If anyone is looking to update their website or needs a template for the studio newsletter you can contact him at Sundance@terradigm.net.
I'm going to answer a couple of questions this week as the questions are rolling in. We're 48 people shy of 1,000 subscribers to the newsletter!
Question of the Week
First off, thanks so much for your terrific classes at the Dance Teacher Conference. I had a ball - literally and figuratively! Next, on to a problem that has me baffled. One of my students is an eleven-year-old girl who dances about five hours a week as is very active in sports at school. She is fairly tall for her age and has done a lot of recent growing as eleven-year-old girls do. She is very tight through her hip flexors and hamstrings. Whenever we do any stretches sitting on the floor and reaching over toward the feet she complains of pain on the tops of her shins. It doesn't matter if she flexes or points her feet, whether she has her feet together or apart, or if she is reaching rounded over or flat back. I can't figure out the connection for her. Any thoughts?
Thanks again,
Leslie Connaghan,
Act Two Studios
Deb's Answer
I think you've hit the nail on the head between the growth spurt and tight hip flexors and hamstrings. Remember the quadriceps muscles and the hamstrings both attach below the knee at the top of the shins. It is possible that she is tight enough that when she sits on the ground the pull is so great that she feels it at the muscle attachments. The fact that her sensation doesn't change if she pointes or flexes her feet says that the calf muscles are probably not the culprits.
I imagine that she has a hard time sitting with a neutral pelvis on the floor and is probably sitting on the backside of her ischial tuberosities or sits bones. If this were the case it would point to the muscles around the hip being the troublemakers. Encourage her to do ballwork on a daily basis and to do her stretching standing up. Right now, her body is giving a clear signal that the sitting position is not working – and I would pay attention to that.
It's possible that being involved in sports at school is encouraging more strength activities over stretching. While I encourage most all physical activities (I do have challenges with finding positive things to say about football, though) I have found that sometimes school coaches don't always provide balanced workouts. There are as many myths and bad habits in sports training as there are in dance training!
You might encourage your student to increase her stretching after her sports activities, and to speak up to her coach about adapting any stretches that hurt. Hopefully, this is a temporary stretching setback that will ease off as her muscles are allowed time to catch up to the bone growth.
Second question…
Both of my knees started hurting a few months ago. They only hurt after I have exercised. The pain occurs at the bottom of my kneecap and it's the worse when I lock my knees. During this summer I've taken 3 classes a week. I've also stretched and practiced my ballet technique every day. Now the summer session is over and I'm going to take a 2-month break from dance to work on volleyball. I've been doing a little research, and I was wondering if this could be Osgood Schlatter Disease. I'm going to go to a sports medicine specialist soon. If it is Osgood Schlatter should I also take a break from volleyball? Could I keep stretching daily? I would really appreciate it if you could give me some information about this disease and tips to help my knee pain.
Thanks again,
Claire
Good research, Claire! You've identified that you're feeling discomfort at the tibial tubercle, which is where the quadriceps muscle attaches. You may be straining at the tendon attachment because of a growth spurt or overworking of the hip flexors. Stretching is definitely a smart thing to keep in your daily activities.
Going to a sports medicine specialist is the right way to get an answer to your question about whether to take a break from volleyball. I can't answer that for you – but I can tell you that I have seen many dancers and athletes work with changing patterns of muscular strain and in time get back to their desired activity – in even better shape!
The one identifying feature of Osgood Schlatter's is that the tibial tubercle underneath the kneecap gets bigger than normal from the pull of the quadriceps. Hopefully, you are catching your pattern of strain before the bone has begun to grow outwards and through stretching and not continuing to strain the muscle will be only temporarily sidelined from your desired activities.
Be well!
Deborah