Dance@Home Physio Tips

Published April 14, 2020 by Jen

Hey Dancers!

If you haven’t seen these Dance@Home Physio Tips already on our YouTube Channel, I wanted to make sure you have them available for yourselves. I really care about helping you stay in dancer condition while you are experiencing the home-bound realities of this unprecedented COVID-19 Pandemic. These videos will help prevent a wave of increased dance injuries once you return to normal training.

I have been in touch with many dance studios and I have been so happy to hear that most of you have online dance content to do – this is TERRIFIC and I HIGHLY recommend you stick to a routine of doing what your studio provides for you.

So why these videos?

It’s because I have also learned that most dance teachers are wisely avoiding giving you jumps and turns to do. This is because it is not as safe to do these things at home as in a studio with good space and good floors (that are intended for the impact on your legs caused by jumping).

BUT – the trouble with muscles, is that “if you don’t use them you lose them” – that includes losing your normal muscle endurance when not using your legs to the extent that you normally do. At the best of times, dancers tend to get hurt in the lower legs, and usually with jumps and turns (whether in soft shoes or pointe shoes). So imagine if you don’t jump or turn for weeks/months and then try to go back to your normal training when it is finally safe enough to do so? You guessed it – a much higher risk of injury compared to a normal season. I am passionate to help you avoid this higher risk of injury when you finally go back to your normal training.

I created these videos exactly for that!

These 5 videos involve an intro with 5 tips to keep you safe, then 2 workouts, each with a tutorial video that teaches you the technique involved in each exercise. It is critical to watch and practice with the tutorial videos before doing the workout videos so that you get the most out of each exercise, understand how to make them harder/easier according to your abilities, and avoid getting injured. Once you get into the workouts of Videos 3 and 5, I highly recommend doing them 2-3 times a week, each, in order to keep the endurance abilities of your legs closer to normal dance training.

What to do if you have questions

If you have questions about the content of any of these videos or have a niggling pain or injury, new or old, please REACH OUT! Just because we can’t see each other in person doesn’t mean that I am unavailable to help you. We can have a wonderful virtual care appointment to assess, diagnose and guide you in self-treatment, as well as trouble shoot technique and give specific, customized exercises just for you!