Injury Perspectives
Dancing Smart Newsletter
November 11, 2005
Announcements
Let's start with an email that came in after last week's newsletter on pointe work.
This was so helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have this problem with several students also and just thought it was their body and foot structure and that genetics had predestined them NEVER to do pointe. I stress proper technique and alignment but ultimately we are recreational dancers so I never want to burst their bubbles and just say no you can never try pointe. Both of the exercises offered are things I have never tried so we will start devoting 5 minutes for those girls on these areas each class, I will let you know how they progress.
Also wanted to let you know, that this morning I balled up my leg warmers and we passed them from girl to girl as we did releves in parallel facing the barre. They thought it was great fun and I was stunned to see how perfect their alignment was when they were squeezing the "leg warmer balls" between their ankles. No, this was not a pointe class, but my darling 6 year olds in pre ballet II. Thanks again for a great suggestion.
Anne Jensen - St Clair Shores, MI
Thank you, Anne, and thanks to Alicia Zabala for her great advice!
Question of the Week
This week, I'd like to repeat a newsletter from 2003 on injury prevention. This is the season where rehearsals and stress are increased with Nutcracker productions and other holiday performances.
Deb's Answer
The topic of this week’s newsletter is on how to define an injury. I’ll begin by stating that the following are guidelines and you should always seek out expert medical advice if it seems beyond the normal fatigue or soreness dancers have come to expect simply by virtue of being dancers. The first commandment is
PAIN IS ALWAYS A CAUSE FOR CONCERN
Didn’t catch that the first time? Let me repeat it!
PAIN IS ALWAYS A CAUSE FOR CONCERN
I make a big deal out of that sentence because I run into so many dancers who have come to believe that pain and being a dancer go hand in hand. I’d like to challenge that belief and have you consider that your body can be your best ally in pursuing an active dance career – not your enemy.
How do you do that? By recognizing early warning signs of injury and handling them before they get so bad that they take you away from dance class or rehearsal. So how do you recognize a potential injury? Here are 4 possible scenarios.
1. Pain that gets progressively worse during working out.
2. Pain that comes after you work out and the next day comes back after less working.
3. Pain that is accompanied by a certain movement (e.g. arabesque)
4. No real sense of “pain” but a definite restriction of movement.
Dancers often will feel temporary muscle soreness after a class that has been particularly challenging, or when new choreography or movement styles are being introduced. This soreness can be caused by an accumulation of waste products produced after overworking the muscles without the proper warm-up for that movement patterning. Combinations in center and across the floor typically use different sequencing and patterns of movements than a barre warm-up or our modern dance warm-ups. Depending on your individual body type and structure there are movements that suit you better – other’s that challenge your physicality. This type of soreness generally goes away after a few days. Moving and stretching easily helps to absorb the lactic acid. Being properly hydrated is essential. (A general rule for hydration is one quart of water for every 50 pounds of weight a day) This means water…not soda, not juice, not coffee or tea…water. Of course having proper nutrition for your body type is also essential for the body to repair itself easily and quickly, even from small muscle tears.
Often you won’t feel this muscle strain until the day after a class, usually upon awakening the next morning. What happens is that overly forceful stretching or movements that are outside of your normal vocabulary can cause small tears in the muscle and connective tissue. While it is true that the way a muscle gets stronger is through overloading it, which means gently stressing the muscle beyond its normal workload, when you overload the muscle too aggressively in a class – then you are potentially going to create the stiff and sore body the next day. This may take several days to disappear, depending on how well you are taking care of it in ways that we just described before - by hydrating, de-inflaming, gently stretching.
How an injury feels when moving can tell you a lot. If going back to class helps it feel a little bit better, and you feel less sore, great. If moving irritates it or makes it worse, get smart. Most injuries can be short circuited in the early stages if respected. I generally find that dancers have a high pain tolerance and need to be given permission to take care of themselves by sometimes (gasp, gasp) taking off from class, sleeping, getting a massage, or one of the many other requests that your body may be asking of you.
Sometimes a dancer will begin to feel chronic pain in either the muscles or a joint. Typically when chronic pain is felt in the muscles it is caused by excessive tension. This tension is caused by skeletal displacement and making muscles work constantly to both move you and support you. In the joint, chronic pain often happens because of a constant irritation that can be caused by muscular tension, or a mechanical misalignment within the joints.
Dance injuries often start in small ways. They sneak up on you. The dancers who come to see me aren’t the ones who sprained their ankle as they were lowered from a lift. The complaints are less clear…”My arabesque is not as high as it used to be, and my hip is clicking when I lower from a front develop” or “my low back is aching, I’m not sure when it started, but now I can’t do my port de bras backwards” These are the more normal, chronic overuse injuries that I described in the 4 earlier scenarios. These scenarios need to be honored for their potential to spiral into more debilitating problems.
Chronic injuries are more challenging and sometimes frustrating to work with, especially if you are in a performance situation that demands a certain workload or a demanding schedule that is hard to change. This is when having guidance from a dance medicine specialist is important.
Over time you will begin to see patterns in how your body feels and be able to more quickly head off strains and injuries. The first step, one of listening carefully to your body, honestly and with compassion, (not in a paranoid or hypochondriac fashion), will both help you become a better dancer and a better teacher. Don’t deny what your body’s experience is. Line 10 dancers up and have them describe grand plie in first position and you will get 10 different descriptions. The goal is to learn how to evaluate and work with your own unique set of kinesthetic feedback. Your teachers can provide guidance, but ultimately, it is the dancer that is in charge of creating the necessary changes to dance effortlessly and gracefully, without creating pain or damaging the physical structures of the body.
To your good health,
Deborah