Cross Training and Conditioning for Dancers
Dancers, Overuse, and a Proactive Approach
The dancer’s viewpoint:
To me, muscles used to be something dancers stretched a lot. I was very, very good at that. Muscles were supposed to be kept long and lean – “elongated.” I could do that, too. Being slight of frame helped me there. You were supposed to “lengthen them” as you danced. No exercise was good for dancers’ muscles except stretching and more dancing. And swimming. Swimming was considered good because it “lengthened and stretched” the muscles. Lifting weights was said to be bad for dancers because it would give them “big, bunchy muscles.” I grew up with those ideas. In my quest to learn why I was considered weak, and why I was always injured, I had to give up those old notions so I could learn how muscles really worked.
I learned that muscles work simply and directly. They contract and shorten. They pull equally on both ends. And shorten. They “lengthen” coming out of contractions, and when one end is held still (heel-in-hand) and then pulled on (hand extends over the head). I learned that muscles need much more than dedicated dance classes to survive the rigors of those dance classes; that slight frames can indeed be strong; that most of us don’t challenge our muscles enough but that we excel in overworking them very inefficiently, and that dancers’ muscles aren’t different from others on the planet.
I continue to learn and to be amazed at this incredible machine we inhabit, at how it still tries to serve us and function no matter what we do to it; and how well it responds to what we demand of it when we train and use it properly.
The trainer’s viewpoint:
Dancers just by the nature and years of training suffer from overuse type injuries. This cycle is further exacerbated by the constant training of those muscles which need to be strong and the lack of consideration of those that need to be strengthened. In any sport or activity there are mechanical patterns that are constantly performed. Very few athletic endeavors involve equal participation on the sum total of a person’s musculature. Therefore, there needs to be some consideration of the injuries that are most likely to occur over the lifetime of that activity and beyond. If we address, before the onset, these chronic injuries, then we have an opportunity to reduce the likelihood of a debilitating injury or at least decrease the onset of these career ending injuries.
In observing injuries to dancers, particularly ballet dancers, there seem to be many injuries that occur to the foot, ankle, knee, hip and low back. Over the next several months we will address these in detail. In order to begin injury prevention rather than treatment, we must look at what is really strong and the weaker muscles will avail themselves as we do.
Beginning with the foot, a dancer spends much of his/her time up on the toes. The muscles of the calf, the soleus and gastrocnemius are therefore very strong. Out of that position comes a general weakness in the tibialis anterior and the tibialis posterior. The peroneus brevis , medius and longus are probably strong relative to the tibialis anterior and posterior, especially if in turn out the dancer collapses in on the ankle.
From there we go to the knee, where we find that in general the quads ( the vastus medialis, vastus intermedius, vastus lateralis, and rectus femoris) are strong but the hamstrings (the biceps femoris, semitendinosis, and semimembranosis) are weak, the abductors (gluteus medius, minimus, and tensor fascia latae) are strong but the adductors (addustor magnus, brevis, longus, gracilis, and pectinius) weak.
Adductors and abductors are muscles that originate on the hip and in some cases cross the knee. The hamstrings perform two roles in the body, one is knee flexion, and the other is hip extension. Along with those muscles come the hip flexor group which is made up of the psoas, the illiacus, and the rectus femoris. Hip extensors are also a major function of the gluteus maximus. Beyond that is the gemellus, and quadratus femoris, internal roatators of the hip which are weak because a dancer spends most of their time externally rotated at the hip. Piriformis is tight and strong.
Next we look to the core. Abdominals, seven of them, spinal erectors, nine of them, and the trapezius, and rhomboids of the upper region of the back.
As we begin to look at injury prevention as a way of furthering a career that takes youth for all intents and purposes, we need to invest ourselves in building a better foundation for the performer to spend their lives on. All in all, there are an abundance of things to work on. Strengthening each of these muscles will add to performance, not take away.
Dancer encourages our teachers to e-mail Jo Hesh at johesh@danceruniverse.com with any conditioning questions they'd like addressed.