With competition season right around the corner, and dancers putting in more hours at the studio in preparation, we wanted to pass along a few tips and tricks on how to care for your body in order to stay happy and healthy. We chatted with Miss Dani (In-depth Physiotherapy) to get her Top 5 list of things we should be doing on a regular basis to care for our active bodies. See below for what she had to say!
Greetings SNAPPERS!  I hope your Christmas break was restful and that your bodies are feeling rejuvenated and off to a great start in these first few weeks back at classes.  With competition season right around the corner, I wanted to offer a few simple tips that can help prevent injuries over these next few months of increased rehearsal intensity!
1. Do a PROPER warm up.  Not just for class, but even for your small group/solo rehearsals.  Even though they may only be an hour long, we still want to make sure our bodies are ready to dance full out.  This is especially important when it does come time to perform for competition- too often dancers just sit around right before they have to go on stage and end up injuring themselves during performance.  You should be making time to do a proper warm up backstage and prepare your bodies before you perform.
2. What to include in a proper warm up?  DYNAMIC stretches- NOT static stretches.  Static stretches are ones where you would hold a certain position for 30seconds or longer.  While there is a place for static stretching, right before a dance class/ rehearsal is not one of them.  Holding a muscle in a stretched position for longer than 30seconds can actually inhibit (“turn off”) that muscle for the next 30 minutes!!  Not something we want to include in a warm up- but rather, save them for AFTER dance class.  DYNAMIC stretches however are ones where we are moving through a stretched position- not holding.  ‘Fascial Mobilizers’ are an example of dynamic stretching (check out the ‘Indepth Physiotherapy’ Facebook page for some examples).  You might have already started seeing some students ‘bouncing around’ before class with an exercise I have given them- these are fascial mobilizers- a great way to warm up the muscles, fascia and get the heart rate going!
3.  Make sure you are “Brushing your muscles” as often as you “Brush your teeth”!  Things like foam rolling, using the tennis ball to release muscles, gentle cupping, massage- these are all ways we can help maintain our muscles and prevent excessive muscle tightness.  These body maintenance techniques should be done REGULARLY especially as your dance training increases over the next few months.  Remember we don’t just start brushing our teeth when we find out we already have a cavity.  Therefore, we shouldn’t ONLY roll out/ stretch muscles when they are tight- we should be doing it on a regular basis beforehand to PREVENT tight muscles.  Often if we wait to roll or stretch our muscles when we are already tight, it is almost too late- and often not as effective.  We should be doing this daily, especially after a long day of dance to help maintain those muscles and keep them released so they can function well.
4.  Listen to your body!  Don’t ignore aches and pains.  Feeling any discomfort or pain in your muscles and joints?  Have these pains been sticking around for a week or two? Get it looked at ASAP by a family doctor, physio or chiropractor.  The quicker you get on top of an injury/ pain, the quicker it can go away.  Too often I see people that have “pushed through the pain” or ignored something for months or even years.  Once the body has endured pain for 6months or longer, it becomes “chronic”.  This means that the body actually changes how it processes pain, and can therefore make it harder to resolve the pain after it reaches that point.
5.  REST.  You should be dedicating at least one day a week to complete rest.  The body needs time to recover.  If we are demanding it to work 7 days a week, it WILL break down and burn out.  Not something we want to endure in the middle of competition season!  These are also great days to “brush your muscles”, stretch and just relax.  Give those muscles a break or they WILL start yelling at you and cause issues.
I hope these few tips were clear and helpful! I would like to wish all the dancers at SNAP luck in this upcoming season and hope they do anything BUT “break a leg”!   If you or anyone you know needs some injury advice, please don’t hesitate to contact me- I am now only a hop, skip and a shuffle-ballchange away from the studio!  (See pictures and address below!  Email Dani @ indepth.physio@gmail.com to book!)
Here’s to a safe and happy Competition season!
Many thanks for your continued support,
Miss Dani 🙂 (Dani West, PT, MScPT, BA Dance)
Indepth Physiotherapy- Cochrane Location
Suite #204, 105 1St West
Cochrane, AB T4C 1B1