Raising the “Barre” on Self-care

Overuse injuries are the most common injuries in dancers and are caused by repetitive trauma. They mostly involve hip, knees, foot or ankle injuries, or stress fractures to the tibia, lumbar spine or metatarsals. Injuries like these occur not only because dancing is physically demanding, but also because dancers have little time to recover between practice.

How do you know if you’re experiencing pain different from muscle soreness? Pain in the muscle usually subsides within 24-48 hours post exercise. If the pain increases during the start of physical activity, wakes you up at night or forces you to compensate your movements you should contact a medical professional for more thorough evaluation.

Restrictive diets and unhealthy body weights have also been shown to contribute to these types of injury, which is why proper nutrition is very important to these athletes!

Prevention also includes staying hydrated throughout the day, making sure to rest and avoid over-training, having proper shoes, warming up before strenuous exercise, training, or performances, and participating in other forms of cross training such as pilates, which helps to strengthen important muscle groups critical for dance.

As I always tell my patients, you know your body better than anyone else -- so know when to back off!