Injury Prevention and Anatomy for Dancers

1. Injury Prevention and Anatomy for Dancers Goal: To develop an anatomical understanding of your body to prevent injuries

2. Have you ever had an injury? • What where you told to do to heal it? • Is it still bothering you? • Why is learning about this important?

3. 4 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.

4. 6 Most common dance injuries • Achilles Tendonitis and Shin Splints • Ankle Sprain • Stress Fracture • Patellofemoral Syndrome • Low Back Disorders • Anterior Shoulder Impingement

5. Reading: Injury Intervention • For each injury summarize what the risk factors are and how to treat the injury. • We will discuss

6. Soreness vs. Pain • Pain is a complicated process in which our nervous system communicates important information to us. • Pain warns us to pay attention to our bodies. • Acute pain typically gets our immediate attention, like the dancer who comes down from a leap incorrectly and sprains his/her ankle. • Chronic pain can be more challenging to define and to separate from soreness – especially for dancers, as they appear to have a higher pain tolerance than much of the general population.

7. Soreness vs. Pain • Soreness can be caused by overworking the muscles without the proper warm-up for that movement patterning. • Depending on your individual body type and structure, some movements will suit you better and feel natural, while other movements challenge your physicality. • What you are actually feeling are small tears in the muscles and connective tissue caused by overly forceful stretching, movements that you are not accustomed to, or a combination of the two.

8. What to do? • Proper nutrition is essential for the body to repair itself easily and quickly, even from small muscle tears. Protein and good carbohydrates (such as vegetables) should be well represented in the diet. Grains and sweets should be minimized. • Proper hydration is important. A general rule for hydration is to drink one quart of water daily for every 50 pounds of body weight. This does not mean soda, juice, coffee, tea, or sports drinks. The body can only utilize about a cup of water an hour, and will flush the rest through the kidneys. Sipping water, all day long, is the best way to stay properly hydrated. Generally, thirst means dehydration. 


9. What to do? • Warm up muscles with movement, such as brisk walking, easy jogging, or marching in place, prior to stretching gently. This approach will help to dissipate any waste products, such as lactic acid, while conditioning the muscles and preparing them for class or rehearsal. It’s amazing how many times I see dancers walk into rehearsal without a proper warm-up. Taking class in the morning will not count as a warm-up if your rehearsal isn’t until late afternoon.

10. Tibial Torsion? • Tibia: often referred to as the “shin bone” it is the third strongest bone in your body.