Exercise & Pregnancy

Dancing Smart Newsletter
May 12, 2006

Announcements

Pointe Magazine will be running a 2-part article on turnout. In the first article I tested the turnout of two aspiring ballet dancers (ages 14 & 15), and then gave them stretches and strengtheners to practice for a few months before being retested. I'm going to NYC at the end of this month to retest their turnout and then report to Pointe readers their improvement and comments. Watch for the first installment to be in the next issue of Pointe Magazine!

Almost forgot - in the April/May issue of Pointe magazine there is an article on the iliopsoas muscle and it's influence on the arabesque - written by yours truly! It was wonderful seeing the model's face after I stretched her iliopsoas, she had a big smile on her face and said "it's so much easier to lift my leg!"

Onto the questions of the week

First Question

Congratulations, Mindy! Thinking about being pregnant has brought back many fond memories. I was one of those women who loved being pregnant and most all that went with it. Having gone through the process 3 times, I do have a few suggestions for you.

The first suggestion is to keep stretching your iliopsoas muscle all the way through the pregnancy. This should keep lower back problems at bay. Since the weight of the baby pulls the lower back into a swayback position it is easily strained. Most dancers prefer to stretch the iliopsoas out in the runners lunge or some variation of it. The farther into your pregnancy you are, you may want to shift to stretching out the iliopsoas in a standing lunge position, or sitting on a chair.

Along with stretching the hip flexors, you want to maintain your abdominal and pelvic floor strength, in other ways besides lying on your back. Truly, we could all stop doing abdominal exercises if we simply utilized our abdominals efficiently while moving and standing. Thinking about keeping the front of the pelvic bowl lifted will help the weight continue down through the legs with as little strain as possible to the lower back.

The other suggestion I have is to do regular release work with a pinkie ball up against the wall, paying special attention to the outside of the pelvis. Since it is inevitable that there will be some loosening of ligaments and widening of the pelvic bowl, this helps to release the muscle tightness that often occurs with this shift.

Warmest wishes for a glorious pregnancy and an easy birth!

Next Question

Soccer does not have to be bad for your ballet technique. It all depends on your balance of muscle strength versus flexibility. If you are playing more soccer than practicing ballet it will improve your cardiovascular conditioning for sure, and also develops great leg and foot coordination and strength. Depending on your age, if you are going through a growth spurt it may seem that soccer is tightening up your muscles. All growth spurts are accompanied by muscle tightness.

If you play soccer recreationally, and you are practicing elements of ballet outside of class whether that is doing stretches, or a mini-barré on your own, I don't believe that the soccer will keep you from improving.

Last Question

My best advice to you is to support your health, Cara, in as many ways as possible. Overdoing right now in your quest to get back in shape will only delay your recovery. I'm going to suggest to you that you stop focusing on what isn't going right with your body, and instead imagine your body as healing quickly and efficiently. Imagine taking class, and working on your audition pieces. I know it is a leap of faith to consider that imagining your activities will help keep you in shape, but research shows that body doesn't know the difference between imagined movement and real movement. It will create the proper neurological pathways as if you were moving! There has been research done with hooking athletes up with electrodes that measure muscle activity as they imagine running, or throwing the basketball. What they found is that their body responded as if they were really doing it. There are many other stories about Olympic athletes and elite performers focusing on visualizing their routine or performance easily and effortlessly with an increase in their performance results.

So.... Focus on what you want to have happen in the future - be grateful for your body's ability to heal easily - and catch yourself thinking and drawing energy to what you don't want and shift your focus as soon as you find yourself worrying.

Even though it may seem impossible to shift your focus from feeling under the weather, you can chose to be surprised and delighted at your quick recovery. I'm rooting for you!

 

On with the dance,

Warmest regards,

Deborah

"Education is the key to injury prevention"

Copyright ©2003-2006 The Body Series. All Rights Reserved.

Deborah Vogel is a dancer, author, and master teacher who conducts workshops across the U.S. for both student and professional dancers. Her numerous articles on dance technique and injury prevention have appeared in Dance Spirit and Dance Teacher magazines. She is the Director of the Institute for Performance Studies and a faculty member at Oberlin College and the OC Conservatory of Music. During her years in NYC she co- founded the Center for Dance Medicine. Deborah makes her home in Oberlin, Ohio.