Landing with Proper Mechanics

If you are a dancer, you have most likely heard at least one of your teachers say, “Roll through your feet!” or “Get your heels down when you land!” These instructions are given to help dancers land with proper mechanics and reduce their risk of injury while maintaining their jump height during a combination of successive jumps.

High Ankle Sprains

In the lower leg, the two bones, the tibia and fibula, meet twice: once near the knee and once just above the ankle joint. The distal tibiofibular joint (the one just above the ankle joint) has ligaments that connect the two bones in the front and back of the joint. These ligaments blend together with the connective tissue that runs between the two bones throughout the lower leg (called the syndesmosis or the syndesmotic ligament). Injuries to the distal tibiofibular ligaments are referred to as “high” ankle sprains due to their location in relationship to the rest of the ankle joint. Syndesmosis sprains often occur with high ankle sprains either at the same time that the high ankle sprain occurs or shortly afterward due to the syndesmosis having to absorb higher forces than usual after the tibiofibular ligaments are sprained.

Cross-Training for Dancers

So far, you’ve read about the myths of working out, the most common misconceptions about exercising for dancers, and why you should stop believing those who say that running is bad for dancers. All of these articles discuss the varied beliefs surrounding cross-training for dancers. But what exactly is cross-training?

Cross-training is a term that has been around since the mid-80s and it simply refers to training in more than one sport or physical activity. The concept of cross-training came about as a way to address the shortcomings of sport-specific training, like muscular imbalances and an increased risk of developing overuse injuries. Cross-training is designed to improve the body’s physical fitness (cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength or endurance, flexibility, etc.) while reducing the negative effects of sport-specific training. Properly-selected cross-training routines can also fill in the gaps in functional ability that sport-specific training can have.

Static Stretching or Dynamic Movement?

You know that you should warm-up before you stretch, but how do you make sense of all of the conflicting information out there about static and dynamic stretching?

For decades, sports medicine practitioners and researchers have debated the effects of static and dynamic stretching. Unfortunately, it seems that every time new stretching-related research is published, its findings contradict the study that was published before it. The most important thing to remember when perusing the findings of all of these studies is that many of them are examining different outcomes: one study will compare static and dynamic stretching for improvement in flexibility while another study compares the two looking for any changes (improvement or decline) in athletic performance immediately after the stretch. Since studies are examining very specific effects from static and dynamic stretching, it is not always a good idea to compare these results to each other. However, the news media often does just that when they are reporting the most recent study’s findings, which leads to confusion.

Please, stop believing (and saying) that running is bad for dancers!

Dancers, especially those who take ballet, often hear that they should NEVER run as a form of exercise because it will do many horrible things to the body from a dance perspective. While injures can happen when you run, they can also happen while swimming, biking, dancing, riding in a car, walking in a shopping mall, getting out of bed, showering, or going up or down the stairs.

Most of the “reasons” why running is bad for you as a dancer have no basis of truth and some of them, quite frankly, just don’t make any sense. The vehemence with which dance teachers and some dancers argue against running is baffling.