The Body's 5 Distinctive Reactions to an Acute Injury

When an injury happens, the body has a set reaction called the inflammatory response, which is the first step in the body’s healing process. Swelling is a key component to the inflammatory response, but there are four other characteristic signs of inflammation, too: redness, heat in the affected area, pain, and dysfunction.

Yoga for Performing Artists: 9 Fantastic Daily Yoga Poses for Marchers

This is the first 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 marchers. Check back for future articles for dancers, instrumentalists (not marching), and stage crew.

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, improve aesthetic qualities of performance and movement, lower unnecessary muscular tension, and improve posture.

Shoulder Injuries in the Performing Arts: "Separations"

This is the second article in a series on shoulder injuries in the performing arts. This series of articles will address fairly damaging acute shoulder injuries. Unless otherwise noted, these injuries are substantial enough that they should not be self-treated until after you've seen a medical professional who has instructed you to do so. These traumatic shoulder injuries should be treated as emergencies, since there is a high risk of significant complications if they are improperly or incompletely cared for (these complications can include nerve damage, internal bleeding, and nonunion fractures). Some of the injuries discussed in this series can be caused by accidental falls or collisions, but these articles will focus on other mechanisms of injury.

Clothes that Burn Calories?

Some companies that sell exercise clothes make a lot of claims about the abilities of these clothes nowadays. According to ads, these clothes soak up sweat, keep you cool, improve your body’s functioning, and now, help you burn more calories.  With all these "specialized" clothes, shopping for exercise clothes can be overwhelming and confusing.

Not only are many of these claims unproven, but not all of the “perks” advertised by these companies are actually desirable for exercise clothes (or even good for you). If you are considering purchasing one or more of these types of special exercise clothes, make sure you research how the clothes go about achieving their claim-to-fame (if they do). Some clothes actually end up interfering with your body’s natural cooling processes, which can put you at risk of overheating while exercising.

Foot Care for Marchers

Marching band can be a great deal of fun, but it can also put your body at risk of developing injuries. Old, worn-out, or improperly-sized shoes, sweaty feet, standing for long hours, and a whole lot of marching can lead to a host of problems, including blisters, plantar fasciitis, ingrown toenails, skin or nail infections, and foot, ankle, lower leg, knee, hip, or even back pain. It isn’t just the shoes or the long hours that can take their toll; even the surfaces that bands typically march on can have negative consequences for your body: clumps of grass on football fields, curbs at parades, angled or uneven surfaces – even standing or marching on the bleachers/stairs.

2014 National Athletic Trainers' Association Clinical Symposia & AT Expo

Last week, Behind the Scenes Medical Consulting's owner, Laura Mertz, attended the National Athletic Trainers’ Association Clinical Symposia & AT Expo for four days in Indianapolis. Here, she shares some of her experiences and observations at this year’s convention.

As I have done every year of my career, I attended the Performing Arts Medicine pre-conference half-day session at the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) conference. This year focused on connecting with performing artists and arts organizations who may not know that performing arts medicine exists. Presenters included the athletic trainers at Ohio University, Dean College (MA), the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and the hospital outreach organization that provides medical services to Cincinnati Ballet. In addition to the invaluable information this session consistently provides, one great benefit of attending this seminar is re-connecting with friends and colleagues from around the country, including the athletic trainers at Ohio University, Cincinnati Ballet, Indiana University, Radio City Rockettes, Louisville Ballet, and La Rêve – The Dream at Wynn Las Vegas.

"Dancer's Tendinitis"

Some injuries are so commonly seen in dancers – especially when compared to their incidence in non-dancers – that they earn a dance-specific nickname: Dancer’s Fracture, Dancer’s Tendinitis, Dancer’s Hip.

Dancer’s Tendinitis refers to Flexor Hallucis Longus tendinopathy (That’s quite a mouthful! No wonder it’s referred to as dancer’s tendinitis!).  The Flexor Hallucis Longus (FHL) muscle is located in the lower leg and its tendon runs down into the foot, attaching to the bottom of the big toe. As the name implies, it is responsible for flexing (pointing) the big toe. Tendinopathy simply means “an injury or disease related to a tendon,” making it a good term to use when discussing tendon-related conditions without worrying about what specific aspect of the tendon is injured (the actual tendon vs. the sheath of connective tissue surrounding it) or for how long it’s been injured (tendinitis vs. tendinosis – acute vs. chronic).