Recuperating From Injury

RECUPERATING FROM INJURY: CHRONIC OR CURRENT

This article of DANCER NEWS identifies how to heal injury or reduce the symptoms of conditions like arthritis or neuropathy, whether sustained recently or of chronic nature. Exercise programs are provided in detail. Too often I have heard from my fellow dancers about chronic injuries or conditions like arthritis that they interpret as signs of aging. Dancers quit or limit their training as they seem to accept that their best days are behind them. This does not have to be the outcome. If you listen and learn you can actually use injury, even chronic ones, to improve your abilities instead of declining. And the body is capable of exceptional regeneration with a recuperative exercise approach.

A two pronged strategy:

Correct poor technique: Determine if anything about your condition is due to improper body use or poor technique. Develop a program which trains your body to use the correct technique.
Heal your body through recuperative exercise: A simple tool is described below that ensures not only healing but at the same time strengthens your body to enhance proper body use. The Basic Healing Technique was developed by myself as a multifaceted healing method adaptable to any type of disability or injury. Several custom exercise program examples are described.

CORRECT POOR TECHNIQUE

Injuries are a great teacher, if you listen. They will immediately tell you that you did something wrong and show you the path toward healing. Determine why the injury occurred. If we understand why it happened we can heal ourselves through correcting ourselves. Every injury has a cause. Often that cause is using improper technique in some way. Alignment is frequently an issue.

In my experience, injury offers 2 different paths:

The injury or chronic condition limits you -or-
The injury teaches you how to change.

How can we correct ourselves?

Here are some common things we do wrong: Addressing any of these results in growth and ultimate healing.

Inadequate warmup hurts the feet and knees the most. If your knees bother you make sure you warm them up before dancing. In addition release stress in the knee whenever you feel it, like during class.
Poor technique: Affects the knees, hips and lower back especially. Look at whether you are being taught safely. General Guidelines for Dancers describes how to determine that.
Improper alignment, particularly with the feet: I was surprised years ago teaching a class that included a professional dancer at how improperly aligned her feet and ankles were. That makes everything not only harder but also riskier.
Over stretching the hips can cause problems. You can be too limber. Increased core support is called for.
Lack of core support and use affects everything particularly the lower back but also the arms and neck. No matter what else is happening, it is always a good idea to strengthen the core. It is especially useful in joint support, reducing the stress on the joints themselves. This helps to heal the injured area.
Not breathing deeply while dancing: Holding your breath or breathing shallowly is one symptom of stress. It is not good for us nor does it look good. Deliberately practice full breathing during classes and rehearsals. You will get addicted to the difference.
Being inconsistent in our training: The body loves consistency. Even more so as we age. One easy way to injure yourself is to take classes occasionally. If class is not held teach the class to yourself in your home or practice in some other way. Maintain your dance schedule.

The most basic lesson of all:
Perform the movement correctly but without pain.
If there is pain, find some way to do the same thing pain free.

Two helpful hints:
1) Pull the abdominals in and re-try the same movement.
2) Consciously breathe while practicing the move.

RECUPRATIVE EXERCISE PROGRAMS

The Basic Healing Technique is a simple outline of how to heal injury or chronic condition and reduce pain and inflammation while becoming stronger and more resilient in the process. It can be used for anything, whether reducing the symptoms of arthritis or neuropathy, lower back pain or injuries of any type.

Basic Healing Technique: There are 3 basic elements to this method:

Gently exercise the joints adjacent to the area impacted. Then if possible, gently exercise the injured joint itself. When one joint is injured, the joints next door stiffen as well in an attempt to stabilize the area. The nearby stiffening reduces circulation, nervous system activity and causes more pain. Often it is safe to release those joints. That in turn does something wonderful: it increases blood flow through the injured area without even moving it! A prescription for increased healing.
Stretch any muscles that have tensed up because of pain: When we are in pain, our muscles tighten up in 2 places: locally wherever we are hurt and in the stress muscles, most commonly the shoulders and back of the neck. Local tension causes restriction of blood flow and increase in inflammation. Reducing stress in each area helps healing.
Strengthen the stabilizing muscles surrounding the injury: You can do this passively, using isometrics or actively in any number of ways. One idea is to drill the right way till it is second nature. Begin with the most basic and safe movements, typically slow and small and increase strength gradually.