Stay on Your Toes: Preventing and Treating Dance Injuries
Welcome to spring—otherwise known as dance recital season! Aside from being a fantastically fun way to stay in shape at the casual level, dance is a very demanding sport for amateurs and professionals, for whom it is a passionate way of life. If you or someone you love is preparing hard for their next dance performance, you know how incredibly demanding the schedule can be, and how hard it can be on the body. The statistics bear this out: 97% of ballet dancers report having experienced dance injuries during training, rehearsal, and/or performance.
Here at A Life in Balance, Dr. Aurora James-Palmer, one of our amazing holistic physical therapists, has lived the dancer's life herself, and she knows exactly how rewarding and intense this sport can be, and how to help with dance injury prevention.
Dancing into Physical Therapy, Flemington NJ: Dr. Aurora’s Story
“I grew up dancing ballet and was able to dance ballet and modern dance all through college,” says Dr. Aurora. “Dance helped lead me to yoga and physical therapy and has shaped me into the person and clinician I am today.”
In fact, Dr. Aurora first experienced physical therapy because of dance:
“I fractured my ankle in my senior year in high school while rehearsing for the spring showcase,” she explains. “PT not only helped me recover from my injury so that I could dance in recital later that year, but it also helped me strengthen my ankle to help prevent future sprains and strains so that I could continue dancing all through college and beyond. I know the demands that dance puts on the body and the common ways one moves in a ballet, modern, or contemporary class. This knowledge helps me support dancers as they improve their technique so they can prevent injuries.”
Dr. Aurora’s background in both dance and physical therapy helps her understand the connections between overall balance and injury prevention and the demands on dancers’ bodies and schedules. During physical therapy sessions, she can help dancers understand their own body’s mechanics and how they relate to the dances they’re currently practicing so they can prevent injuries and become stronger and more balanced overall, which, in turn, can improve their abilities as dancers.
Common Dance Injuries and How to Avoid Them
As the statistics above indicate, dance injuries are very common—only 3 out of every 100 dancers tiptoe around them! Dancing is an incredibly athletic and demanding sport, and yes, it is a sport. In the sport of dance, overuse injuries are wildly common, as Dr. Aurora explains:
“Quite often dancers repeat specific movements in class to hone their technique using the same muscles and joints over and over,” she says. “This overuse of specific muscles and joints only intensifies when dancers rehearse specific pieces for performances.”
So, doing the same twirls, landings, leaps, and twists repeatedly stresses those areas over and over again, just like a baseball pitcher uses their arm over and over again to hurl a fast one.
“This repetitive movement can lead to overuse injuries, including muscle strains and ankle sprains,” says Dr. Aurora. “Due to the impact on the lower body from jumps, leaps, and turns, the feet and ankles tend to be a common area for injuries, and ankle sprains may make up around 40% of dance-related injuries.”
Dr. Aurora frequently sees dancing patients who come in for help with calf muscle strain and ankle sprain treatment, as well as help with knees and the lower back.
“Muscle strains of the lower body, including calves, quadriceps, and hamstrings are also common,” she explains. “Just like ankle sprains, these injuries can be caused by overuse, or when a muscle is forced to contract too quickly or is stretched too far. The good news is that sprains and strains can be prevented.”
Why Do Dance Injuries Happen?
Statistics indicate Dr. Aurora is on point: ankle and foot injuries are the most common dance injuries, with the lower back and knees filling second and third places on the list. The risks for injuries span all dance forms, and both female and male dancers are equally affected. As Dr. Aurora explains, the most common reasons dancers sustain injury include:
Overuse of specific muscle groups
Poor landings
Fatigue and exhaustion
A heavy dance practice schedule
Lack of strength and flexibility
Stress
Insufficient time to regenerate after an injury or between practices
Dancers, like a lot of athletes, tend to push themselves to the brink of their capabilities to achieve excellence. Sometimes, when they come in for, say, ankle sprain treatment, a calf muscle strain, or foot pain, they don’t give themselves sufficient time to recuperate, which can worsen matters. Working on balance isn’t only physical, but it’s mental as well, especially when it comes to both recovery from dance injuries and dance injury prevention. Accept that your body deserves rest and recovery from time to time to reach its optimal performance abilities.
Key to Dance Injury Prevention: Recognize the Early Warning Signs
Sometimes dance injuries are the result of a sudden bad landing or accident. While those situations can’t always be avoided, overuse and stress injuries often can be, especially if you learn to listen to your body and take action at the earliest sign of trouble. Dr. Aurora advises dancers to pay attention to these signs:
“Look out for any pain, weakness, stiffness, limited mobility, and tenderness,” she says. "You may experience sharp or aching pain that may occur or worsen with movement. You may also experience stiffness and reduced mobility along with some muscle weakness. These may be signs of a muscle strain or sprain. If it is a larger strain or tear, there may be bruising or swelling to the area as well.”
Instead of pushing through the pain, Dr. Aurora says it’s important to stop when these symptoms are mild and to address them right away, or they will get worse.
“Even if the pain seems minor, that’s a warning sign,” she explains. “That is the time to stop, rest, and seek evaluation and treatment to prevent the pain from worsening.” The sooner dancers address their small aches and pains, the faster their recovery time will be, leading to less downtime and more dancing.
The Role of Strength and Flexibility in Dance Injury Prevention
Preventing dance injuries, however, starts before even minor pains emerge. Building overall body strength, flexibility, and balance during training is essential for injury prevention, as Dr. Aurora explains:
“Dancers need both flexibility and strength to help support their bodies,” she says. “While dancers work constantly to improve their technique, it is also important that they work to improve core strength and general flexibility and strength of the body’s joints. As dancers gain flexibility, they must gain stability and strength within this flexibility. This essentially helps the body absorb dancing impacts safely while supporting the joints.”
Dr. Aurora also adds that it’s important to balance overall body fitness into a dancer’s training regimen: “Work the muscles differently from the same repetitive movements in a dance class or performance piece. This will help to counteract overuse.”
Some exercises Dr. Aurora recommends for dancers to build overall balance, strength, and flexibility include:
Weight training and resistance training to ensure all muscles are equally strong
Cross-training to use other muscles and counteract overuse for overall balance
Stretching and yoga to improve flexibility, body awareness, breathing techniques, and mental focus
Consistent warm-ups and cool-downs to reduce stress, improve circulation, and prepare the body to perform
Rest and recuperation periods to allow the body to reset and reduce inflammation
One-on-one preventative physical therapy to evaluate, identify, and remove any imbalances and movement patterns that could lead to injury
Proper training that includes all of these elements can help dancers perform at their top levels while reducing their chances of getting injured or help them recover more quickly after an injury.
Treatment and Recovery: ALIB’s Approach
Now, if you get injured and need calf muscle strain, foot injury, back pain, ankle sprain treatment, etc., it’s important to seek help as soon as possible and not try to ignore the problem. If you’re in pain, contact us at A Life in Balance Physical Therapy for an evaluation and start working on recovery right away.
We will thoroughly evaluate your injury, but we will go much further than that, too. We will map your body’s movement patterns from head to toe to pinpoint weaknesses, overuse patterns, and inefficient movements that may have aggravated the injury, and then we will develop an individualized treatment plan that addresses all of those patterns. The goal is to bring the entire body into a harmonious balance of movement, which is what we love to see in dance! Treatment plans typically involve strategic rest, tailored exercise and stretching regimens, training protocols, and natural pain relief modalities like dry needling.
“Dry needling is a technique that helps us relieve tension from tight, sore muscle knots called trigger points,” explains Dr. Aurora. “These trigger points can reduce the range of motion, cause pain, and reduce circulation. Dry needling releases these trigger points, bringing in better circulation, pain relief, faster healing, and a broader range of motion.”
Final Advice for Dancers Preparing for Recitals
As dance recital season ramps up and schedules get hectic, it’s important to remember to take good care of yourself and not lose track of essential, simple daily habits. “Injuries often happen when dancers are fatigued, stressed, or distracted,” warns Dr. Aurora. “It is important for dancers to remember that their bodies are their instruments, and they should treat them with kindness! Don’t forget to drink plenty of water, eat nutritious meals, and get good sleep. These healthy habits help to set the body up for success. It is also important to listen to your body, rest when needed, and warm up properly before each performance.”
Try The Physical Therapy Hunterdon County Dancers Trust to Keep Them On Their Toes
If Dr. Aurora could teach anything to all of her fellow dancers, it would be this: “Listen to your body and treat it kindly!” Don’t ignore small pains that could become bigger pains that would keep you from dancing.
But whether you’re feeling small pains, big pains, or even none at all, schedule an appointment with us at A Life in Balance Physical Therapy in Flemington, NJ. We can help you optimize your performance with tailored recovery and exercise programs and natural pain relief options like dry needling and massage therapy. And if you’re out of town for your recitals or competitions, you can even reach us through virtual physical therapy sessions! Happy dancing!
