The Best Way to Ice a Muscle

Putting ice on an acute soft tissue injury (like a strain or sprain) can prevent further tissue damage, limit the appearance of new swelling, and decrease pain. However, it’s important to remember that using ice, like most injury treatment techniques, is best utilized in moderation and in combination with complimentary treatment methods.

Foot Care for Dancers

Dancers face a host of potential foot injuries and related problems. These issues run the gamut from skin conditions and infections to muscle strains and fractures. Foot problems can be caused by old/worn out dance shoes, dancing barefoot, improperly-sized shoes, choreographic demands, hard or improperly-maintained dancing surfaces, poor nutrition, sweaty feet, and improper mechanics or alignment. Musculoskeletal foot injuries like plantar fasciitis, FHL tendinitis, and stress fractures have been discussed elsewhere on this site. This article will focus on preventing non-musculoskeletal conditions of the foot, including blisters, ingrown toenails, and skin or nail infections. Routinely taking care of your feet is one of the most important things you can do as a dancer as it helps avoid infection, pain, compensations or alterations in your technique, and injuries in other parts of your body (like your ankle, shins, knee, hip, and low back).

5 Upper Body Stretches for Lower-Register Symphonic Instrumentalists

This article completes a series examining upper body stretches for specific types of performing artists. The grouping of stretches presented in this article is targeted toward musicians who play while seated with their arms more or less at their sides. Previous articles have identified key upper body stretches for marchers/musicians who stand, dancers, and musicians who play while seated with their arms elevated.

Yoga for Performing Artists...and staff! 6 Poses to Keep Stage Crew Bodies Happy

This is the last in a series of articles designed to help you identify a handful of yoga positions that will be most beneficial to your particular performance genre. This article focuses on stage crew. Previous articles have been written for marchers, dancers, and instrumentalists (not marching).

Practicing yoga offers performers many significant benefits, including lowering stress levels, promoting physical and mental relaxation, improving balance, and maintaining or improving flexibility. All of these things can help keep your immune system functioning optimally, maintain a healthy body weight, and reduce the likelihood of falls that can cause injuries. Additionally, regular yoga practice can improve body awareness, which can improve precision of movement, lower unnecessary muscular tension, and improve posture.

Concussions in the Performing Arts

March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month

The most common brain injury suffered by athletes and performers is a concussion. A concussion is a traumatic injury to the brain, and it comes with a plethora of symptoms that can affect nearly all of the systems in the body. Even with prompt and proper care and recovery, suffering a concussion can result in permanent or life-threatening consequences.

When people think of activity-related concussions, they typically think of high-impact sports like football, hockey, or boxing, but performing artists are at risk of suffering concussions, too. Most commonly, activity-related concussions are caused by collisions, falls, or blunt trauma to the head (getting hit in the head or hitting the head on something). In the performing arts, concussions are almost always caused by accidents or mistakes while executing choreographed movements.