Injury Prevention Information
Disclaimer – This article is being provided for general
information only. It is not designed to take the place of a
qualified medical opinion.
How do we distinguish between an injury and the normal "wear and
tear" of being a dancer? This is a question that dancers and dance
teachers face on a daily basis. We have to constantly evaluate the
body's messages and thus make choices either to rest or to keep
going.
When in doubt, seek the advice of a qualified medical
practitioner. You'll want to err on the side of caution if you have
any questions regarding the treatment of a potential injury. We must
teach our dancers to trust the body's messages. This takes time and
experience.
Here are some guidelines that you can use to help evaluate
whether you are dealing with an injury.
Four Warning Signs of an Injury
- Pain
that gets progressively worse during class, rehearsal, work out,
etc.
- Pain that comes after your class, rehearsal, or work out, and
comes back the next day after less movement is done.
- Pain that appears when executing certain movements (e.g.
during arabesque or landing a jump).
- No real sense of "pain" but a definite restriction of
movement.
Handling an Injury
If the injury is acute and you can pinpoint
the event that triggered it (e.g. you landed on a sickled foot, you
fell out of a leap, your partner elbowed your ribcage, you felt
something snap, or you have instant discoloration) apply ice, stop
moving, and get to a doctor. If your injury doesn't fall into an
acute category, the following information applies to you.
How an injury feels when moving can tell you a lot. If going back
to class helps the injury feel a little better or less sore, great.
Just remember to respect your body's limits during class until you
are feeling 100%. If moving irritates the injury or makes it feel
worse, get smart. Most injuries can be short circuited in the early
stages. Dancers, in general, have a high pain tolerance and need to
be given permission to take care of themselves either by taking off
from class, sleeping, getting a massage, or by answering any other
of the body's requests.
Sometimes a dancer will begin to feel chronic pain in either the
muscles or a joint. Typically, chronic pain in the muscles is caused
by excessive tension. In turn, this tension is generally caused by
skeletal displacement (poor alignment). As a result, the muscles
must work constantly to both move and support the dancer. Chronic
pain in the joint is often due to constant irritation caused by
muscular tension or a mechanical misalignment within the joints
(again, poor alignment). As all dancers know, alignment completely
underlies one's ability to move efficiently and "injury free".
Chronic Sneaks
Dance injuries often start in small ways. They sneak up on you.
Most dancers with chronic injuries are not the ones who sprained
their ankles while being lowered from a lift. The cause of their
injuries is more difficult to decipher. Their complaints (as
follows) are less clear: "My arabesque is not as high as it used to
be"; "My hip is clicking when I lower from a front developpe'"; "My
lower 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 described in the four earlier scenarios. These
injuries need to be respected before they spiral into more
debilitating problems.
Chronic injuries are more challenging and frustrating to work
with, especially if you are in a performance situation that demands
a certain workload or in a demanding schedule that is hard to
change. This is when having individualized guidance from a dance
medicine specialist is important. Over time you will begin to see
patterns in how your body feels, and you will be better able to
prevent chronic strains and injuries.
The first step is to listen carefully and honestly to your body
(not in a hypochondriac fashion). This will both help you become a
better dancer and/or a better teacher. If you notice recurrent
patterns of strain or if you feel the same type of pain in an area
while doing different types of movement, write them down. Keep a
notebook handy to jot down which movements provoke a painful
response. See if you can find any similarities among the movements
in order to determine a cause. Are you consistently getting injured
during the performance season? Is the choreography you are dancing
repeating the same or similar movements on one side of your body?
Are you demonstrating the same side all the time when teaching? Ask
your teacher or another professional to watch you execute these
movements in order to see if you are making a compensation that
could cause pain. If you can't find a pain free adjustment to the
movement on your own, see a dance medicine specialist and bring your
notes with you. If you provide a complete picture, the evaluation
will be more beneficial. Don't deny your body's experience. 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 in order to dance effortlessly and gracefully,
without creating pain or damaging the physical structures of the
body.
Important Stuff
It can be challenging for dancers to admit that chronic problems
can easily turn into acute ones. Generally, acute injuries are
obvious ones. For example, if you rupture your achilles tendon, you
are not going to get up off the floor and dance. However, if you
have achilles tendonitis, you may still be able to dance (although
probably not at 100% capacity). Furthermore, if you aren't careful
with your rehab, you run the risk of rupturing the tendon.
Other examples of acute injuries might be tendon ruptures,
dislocations (patella and shoulders generally), ligament sprains,
and inflamed bursae. Sometimes acute injuries develop from "overuse"
injuries that have not been rehabilitated appropriately. For
example, a stress fracture is considered an "overuse" injury because
it can take a period of time to develop. However, a stress fracture
should be considered an acute injury that needs immediate attention
once it has been diagnosed by a medical practitioner. I have seen
cases of achilles tendonitis become shin splints, which in turn
become a chronic knee or hip problem because the original tendonitis
was not cared for properly.
The bottom line is both the acute and "overuse" injuries are
injuries and should be treated as such! Pay attention to the warning
signs of an injury, and you will prevent the more serious
repercussions of an acute injury. Getting to know the body's
patterns and muscular imbalances and then addressing those
imbalances is the best way to prevent injuries.
"Education is the key to injury prevention."
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