How to Prevent Dance Related Injuries?
Dance is surely the most basic and relevant of all forms of expressions. It requires strength and adaptability. Without the appropriate abilities and mastery, an artist can be at a high risk of getting harmed. Whether you're keen on dancing, are a parent of a dancer or are a mentor. It's critical to realize the most well-known injuries and how to forestall them during dance preparing or live exhibitions.
Most Common Dance Injuries
Lower back, hip, leg, ankle and foot, and overuse injuries of muscles and joints are most commonly involved in dance related injuries. The six injuries that are most common in ballet and other forms of dance are:
Ø Ankle Sprains & Impingement.
Ø Hip Injuries.
Ø Snapping Hip.
Ø Hip Impingement.
Ø Arthritis of lower limb
Ø Knee Injuries.
Ø Stress Fractures.
Ø Achilles Tendonitis.
Ø Impact injuries such as bruises caused by falling over, bumping into another dancer and tripping over props.
Ways to Know you Pain Is really a problem
After vigorous dancing session you may feel muscle soreness, but the pain diminishes after couple of days. However, the range of body movements, repetition and speed of movement can put you at risk of an injury, particularly if you are new and learning unfamiliar steps. In order to confirm that your pain is due dance injury related you must assess the following:
· Be postponed toward the beginning of any active work.
· Move your weight starting with one leg then onto the next.
· Reduced duration of activity.
· Night pain.
What are Aggravating Factors?
Due to lack of experience, beginners could also be susceptible to injury because they don’t have the talents or technique to satisfy the physical demands of their chosen dance style.
Weak muscles are more likely to be injured when stretched. Controlled movements will improve your wellness and muscle strength.
Poor technique could injure your bone and soft tissues by bringing your foot right down to the ground with more force than usual.
Overtraining can cause a good range of overuse injuries. Inflammation and stress fractures within the feet are common dance-related overuse injuries.
Failure to rest; returning to activity too soon before an existing injury has healed can aggravate the condition.
Weak muscles within the back and abdomen increase the danger of injury to all or any areas of the body including the spine and legs.
Poor posture and fatigue.
Environment Factors such as ripped carpet, uneven floor, spilt liquids or fittings on the brink of the dance area like stairs.
How to Prevent & reduce your risk Dance injuries?
Get adequate sleep every night (8-9 hrs).
Build strength, balance and endurance.
Wear expertly fitted shoes proper to your style of dance.
Stay hydrated.
Warm up altogether before you begin moving and stretching.
Eat a well balance diet.
Obtain guidance from your dance teacher that you are utilizing the right stance or procedure.
How to Overcome these Risk Factors?
A suspicious person might be overcome the risk factors by paying attention to following:
Pick a dance style that is proper for you. Have a fundamental familiarity with your own body and of your very own cutoff points and limits. For instance, high effect dance styles that include bouncing and fiery developments are not proper for an individual with joint pain.
Warm up completely before you begin moving and incorporate dynamic stretches. This is significant in setting up the body for moving.
Drink a lot of water previously, during and in the wake of moving.
Cool down after a dance class with movement and stretch once more.
Wear layers of garments that you can take off as your body heats up.
See your doctor for a check-up if you have a medical condition, are overweight, are over 40 years of age or haven’t exercised regularly for a long time.
Wear expertly fitted shoes suitable to your style of dance. Appropriate dance shoes disperse load, assimilate effect, and backing your foot.
Try not to drive yourself excessively far or excessively quick, particularly in the event that you are a fledgling.
Ensure you take adequate rest between dance meetings, particularly in the event that you are new to moving or are not exceptionally fit. This will help limit muscle soreness or firmness.
Talk with your dance teacher on the off chance that you have an issue or injury. They might have the option to alter the move and show you a variety to diminish the danger factors.
In the event that you have a previous issue or injury particularly to the foot, lower leg or lower back, consult to your doctor prior to beginning.
What to Do IF I Do Get Injured?
What to do if you get yourself injured during dance training?
· Treat all delicate tissue (like wounds, injuries and strains) with Rest, Ice, Compression (wrap the swollen territory) and Elevation (R.I.C.E.). Utilizing these four prompt medical aid measures can reduce pain and increase healing time.
· Try not to continue completing aggravating activities until you have completely recuperated from your physical issue. Getting back to an activity too soon can potentially turn an acute injury (an injury that occurs suddenly) into a chronic injury (an ‘overuse’ injury that gradually worsens over a long time).
· Stop in the event that you feel immense pain. Proceeding to do so will just aggravate the injury.
· Seek insight from a trusted medical professional as soon as you can to help in diagnosing and prognosing the injury.
What Can Physical Therapy Do for A Dancer?
“When you tell a dancer they have to stop for six weeks, they can view that as a failure,” says physical therapist Heather F. Stewart, DPT, PT, SCS, a former dancer who works with performance athletes at the Sports Medicine and Performance Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
While the main target of dance physiotherapy is on regaining full function after injury, it’s equally important to show dancers the way to avoid future injuries. Sometimes meaning breaking down myths, just like the “pain is gain,” mantra, or the misunderstanding that strength training builds unwanted bulk.
Young dancers especially believe flexibility, but without strength and control they will get hurt. Stewart shows dancers the way to use resistance bands and other techniques to create strength without mass. When she assesses a dancer, she looks for signs that they could reinjure themselves. Flaws in technique and muscle weaknesses are common culprits in stress fractures, tears, tendonitis, sprains and other injuries.
“Our goal is to ascertain the compensations that are occurring and help the dancers correct them,” Stewart says, adding that she always tells her patients exactly how her suggestions will help. “It’s one thing to inform somebody what to try to do, it’s another thing to inform them why they have to try to it and the way it’s getting to lower their risk of injury and reduce their pain.’
7 Strength Exercises for Dancers that Can Help Reduce Injury Risk.
(this is by no means a comprehensive list, just some of my favorites)
1. Resistance Band Chop
Procedure:
Attach a resistance band with two handles to a stable base of support. Kneel on left knee with right foot flat on the bottom ahead of you. (You can kneel on a yoga mat for comfort.) Extend arms to grab band with both hands, over to right above right shoulder. Engage core, squeeze glutes, and use torso to tug handles down and across your body, past your opposite hip. Return to starting position and repeat for 8 to 12 reps. Switch sides and repeat 8 to 12 reps for one set. “Try to remain tall and don’t slouch so you retain your hip stable,”
2. Single-leg deadlift with kettlebell
Procedure:
Stand with feet together and hold a kettlebell (choose one you'll confidently lift 20 times) with right ahead of thigh, arm extended, and palm facing in. Lift your right leg off the ground and bend knee to 90 degrees ahead of you. Keeping your back flat, hinge at your hips and lower your torso until it’s almost parallel to the bottom. Extend right leg behind you as you lower kettlebell to the bottom. Bend right elbow to 90 degrees, lifting kettlebell to hip height, then lower. get up to starting position and repeat for 8 to 12 reps. Switch sides and do 8 to 12 reps for one set. “The biggest key to the present movement is trying to remain tall throughout, keeping hips parallel to the bottom so you create a line from head to toe,”
3. Incline Band Lift
Procedure:
Attach a resistance band with two handles to a stable base of support (or to the clip on an adjustable cable at its lowest setting). Kneel on right knee with left foot flat on the ground in front of you, to the left of band. (Kneel on a yoga mat for comfort.) Extend arms to grab handles with both hands, over to right at hip level. Engage core, squeeze glutes, and use torso to pull handles diagonally up and across your body, past your opposite hip. Return to starting position and repeat for 8 to 12 reps. Switch sides and repeat 8 to 12 reps for one set.
4. Step-up with kettlebell
Procedure:
Start facing the box or step. Step onto the box with your right foot, holding a kettlebell on your left shoulder. Step up, lifting your left leg upward and bend knee to 90 degrees, while bending your right elbow to 90 degrees. Make sure to keep your heel on the box. Hold, then lower your left foot down to the ground and lower right arm down to sides for one rep. Do 8 to 12 reps, then repeat on other side for one set. This is a great move to improve your side-to-side movements and your jumping abilities.
5. Medicine Ball Throw
Procedure:
Grab a medicine ball and stand with feet shoulder-width apart, with a wall on your left. Step forward with your left leg and lower into a lunge, so your thigh is parallel to the ground while twisting from your waist as far as you can to the right, bringing medicine ball to right hip. Engage core, then explode out of lunge, straightening right knee up as you throw ball across body to wall. Catch ball for one rep, then repeat 8 to 12 times; Switch sides and do 8 to 12 reps to complete one set.
6. Single-leg hip bridge
Procedure:
Lie face-up with left foot on a medicine ball, right leg extended diagonally toward sky and arms extended out to sides with palms up, hands in line with hips. Press into left foot and squeeze glutes as you lift hips up off the ground. Lower back down to start. Do 8 to 12 reps; switch sides and repeat.
7. Squat
Procedure:
Stand facing forward with your chest up. Place your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider. Extend your hands straight out in front of you to help keep your balance. You can also hold your hands at chest level or place them behind your head. Bend at your knees and hips, sticking your butt out like you're sitting into an imaginary chair. Keep your chest lifted and your spine neutral, and do not let your lower back round. Squat down as low as you can, keeping your head and chest lifted. Keep your knees over your ankles and press your weight back into your heels. Keep your body tight, and push through your heels to bring yourself back to the starting position. This is one rep.