Injury Prevention

Injuries are every athlete’s worst nightmare. Whether it puts you out for a week, month, season, or it is career ending it is the worst possible thing that can happen to you. Even if it just puts you in pain for rehearsal or a few games or performances; no one wants that. What most people don’t realize is that injury prevention starts in your everyday life with how you sit, stand, and sleep. This is especially true for dancers. How you are sitting, and standing outside of dance class can throw off your alignment making it harder to jump, turn, or anything technique related.

                Many people like to sit into their hip when they stand; I am one of many of those people. Not only does it throw your center of balance off, it gives your hip flexor pain when you go to do your activity. An even bigger problem it causes for dancers is it shifts your shoulders and ribs; so when you plié your ribs and shoulders shift slightly towards the the hip that you sit into. This may not seem like a huge problem but it throws your center of balance off which makes your turns a lot harder than they should be.

                Another thing is standing with too much curve in your back. Standing ways that aren’t necessarily “right” for your body causes more muscles to work, creating tension. So when you try to run or jump after standing wrong all day your muscles will not work as well as they could because they will be tense and tired, even if It doesn’t feel like that, because they were holding you up all day. This causes fatigue in the muscle and will slowly start to cause minor pain that may turn into something bigger. Also if you have an injury and stand abnormal on a regular basis the injury is probably exaggerated from standing like that.

                Now you might have though what I just talked about is crazy but lately I have been reteaching myself how to stand walk and sit and I have had tremendous results. However, it is very uncomfortable and when I’m not thinking about it I revert back to my old ways, it’s a long process but it will be well worth it. In just one week I already can control my ribs from shifting during plié’s which has helped my center of balance improve and I have had less hip flexor pain than I have had in the past. Injury prevention starts in your everyday life.