Injuries

Follow our advice to give trouble-free dancing

Most if not all dancers will experience injuries at one point or another. Most of us have weak points in some areas, such as muscles, joints or tendons for example. When we discover what these weak points are we may have problems with them for the foreseeable future.

However some injuries can be prevented simply by taking some straightforward measures. Read through the following points to learn more.

Never abandon a proper warm up routine

Injuries can sometimes be caused through improper warm ups – or worse, none at all. Some believe that stretching doesn’t do much good at all, but even if you don’t stretch before or after dancing you should still warm up by walking for a short distance and then building up to the dancing you intend to do.

Injuries are more commonly experienced when cold muscles and ligaments are subjected to exercise. When you warm them up they become a lot stronger and thus can withstand a lot more. This means that if you make a wrong move or a misstep of some kind you are less likely to injure yourself as a result.

Always make sure you have the right equipment

When we say equipment here we basically mean having the right dancing shoes. It is also worth noting that just because one particular type of dancing shoe works well for one dancer, it doesn’t mean the same shoe will provide the perfect amount of support to you as well.

Don’t be tempted to buy the cheapest shoes you can – you could end up paying in another way entirely, through an injury or problem of some kind. Get advice before buying your dancing shoes and make sure you buy them from an expert provider of such items.

See a specialist if you experience an injury or any ongoing problems

A podiatrist is trained to provide help and assistance with any injuries or problems with the feet. A physiotherapist can help with pain in legs, arms or joints, to name just a few areas. For example if you do not have very good mobility in certain areas you will want to improve on this. A physiotherapist can help with this, but if it involves your feet you may want to see a podiatrist as well. Sometimes a multi pronged approach will lead to the best results, and since you rely on your feet a lot in dancing you must be sure you take good care of them.

Perhaps the best piece of advice to keep in mind is to get assistance as soon as possible if you do develop a problem of some kind. The worst thing you can do is to keep on dancing because it could well make any kind of injury even worse. This applies regardless of whether you know how the injury was caused or not.

For example if you turn your ankle you know how you did it. But if you suddenly develop aches and pains in your lower leg for no apparent reason, it is important to find out how this occurred and what the problem is.