Dancing With Injuries?

[Purr]

What do you do when you find yourself hurt? Do you continue to dance through the injury as though nothing were wrong? Do you continue to dance, but scale back somewhat? Or, do you stop dancing until you're completely healed? What has been your experience?

I'm wonder that question this morning, because Saturday I'm reasonably sure I fractured the little toe on my right foot. I'm checking with the nurse here at work later on this morning. And I'm scheduled for a lesson this evening.

I've dance through injuries before, including a very sore back and sore feet. Probably the stupidest thing I've ever done was keeping a lesson the same day I had a cyst removed from my ribcage - and I had 12 stitches. As I recall, the lesson went ok, except I felt kind of dizzy. Oh, but that's normal for me. :wink:

[squirrel]

I guess it all depends on how severe the injuries are... for instance, I've danced and taught when I felt really sick, but I've never tried to do it with a fractured limb :)
I've done it with sore feet and legs and with intense body pains due to lack of sleep... :lol: :lol:

[Sagitta]

I've done it, but never with a fracture. Sore/throbbing big toes, so dance on heels. Knees bothering me pretty bad, but just ignore them...And my latest is sore neck muscles from the tension I suffer doing AT.

[cocodrilo]

JAYZUS, folks, doing strenuous physical activity with fractured bones? You are only going to make matters worse! Stay off it till you're better, no matter how much you're dying to get out there on the dance floor. You'll heal faster and be able to get back out there faster if you give your body the rest it needs when you're down.

[MacMoto]

And my latest is sore neck muscles from the tension I suffer doing AT.
So I'm not the only one then. This is one of the reasons I've stopped doing AT. My neck is ina bad enough state with computing-induced problems without the additional strain... :cry:

[Sabor]

very dangerous deal.. thats why a massage b4 during and after dance is of outermost importance! :P

[pygmalion]

During? :shock: :lol: Much love, Sabor. You crack me up!

I've danced plenty with broken toes. Tape those babies up, wear biggish shoes and keep on going. Probably dumb maybe, but hey, it didn't take all that long to heal. I just wore ballet shoes for the first couple days, because I couldn't wear my practice shoes.

That said, I've never broken an outer toe. That might be different, since the toes are exposed to more wear and tear.

[etchuck]

Neck strain? Hmm... I didn't realize that you had to strain your neck in proper ArT position before. Most of the ArT dancers I've seen around here may suffer from that because they're ALL LOOKING AT THEIR FEET.

For me, it's usually my arches or my feet, but it's irritation-related (shoes rub the wrong way or something sometimes). Outside of that, I do my best to avoid any other major nagging injuries. Lots of non-steroidals like ibuprofen work when dosed moderately.

And yeah, I wouldn't mind a backrub while dancing either. ;)

[Laura]

A friend of mine has broken her smallest toe a couple of times, she just tapes it to the next toe and keeps going. Since she dances in Latin sandals she doesn't have a problem getting her taped foot into the shoe.

My partner danced through incredible knee pain for months and then finally got an MRI and found out he had two torn meniscii in the same knee. He got surgery, though, and seems to be on the road to a good recovery. I've told him I'm not going to let him be all macho about dancing through pain in the future.

I have some problems in one knee, but not bad enough to require surgery. I use ice, a knee support, and that "icy heat" rub-in cream. The problems come and go, and I'm doing exercises to strengthen the area now.

[dancin_feet]

Haven't had any real injuries, thankfully. I have strained my achilles tendon one Sunday (while practising at home) and sat with it elevated and ice for the rest of the day so that I was sure I would be able to make class the next night.

I have also gotten a migrane one Monday morning (not a bad one), and taken painkillers all day to make sure I was OK for class that night. Was a bit sick in the stomache and lightheaded, but worked through the class, regardless.

I have a friend at dancing who has a problem with fluid on the knee. She still does not miss a class, despite saying that she needs to take a break to give her leg a rest, she just can't help herself and shows up anyway!

[Purr]

A friend of mine has broken her smallest toe a couple of times, she just tapes it to the next toe and keeps going.

This is what I plan to do. I went to the doctor yesterday, and had a x-ray of my little toe, and I'll find out today if it's broken. The doctor said if it is, she'd like to me to stop dancing for at least 4 weeks while it's healing. Realistically, I know that's not going to happen.

[MacMoto]

I have a friend at dancing who has a problem with fluid on the knee. She still does not miss a class, despite saying that she needs to take a break to give her leg a rest, she just can't help herself and shows up anyway!
:oops: :oops:

... I plead guilty.

[UltraMagnus]

Pulled a muscle in my back and I am going to compete on Thursday in Tampa....time stops for no one....

[Purr]

Pulled a muscle in my back and I am going to compete on Thursday in Tampa....time stops for no one....

That's right. I did a cha cha showcase routine with a very sore back. I had 2 mini massages and one full body massage in the 2 days leading up to the event. They sort of helped. The show must go on. :|

[DanceAm]

I have dance with soreness, but a true injury, no. I guess I have been lucky.

My wife's knee was giving her trouble before nationals last year. We didn't do any hard practice and just walked through routines and tried to work on our lines. I think that may have slowed us down and made us better. To get ready physically, I worked out a lot on a cross trainer and did other exercises.

[pygmalion]

The cross trainer is great! When I was preparing for a comp last year, I worked out like crazy on one for a month. I didn't lose weight, but I toned up. WAY up. I gained muscle tone and aerobice stamina. I would highly recommend it to anyone. :D

[Genesius Redux]

Yeah, Purr, do what Laura says. Tape it. You'll be able to dance on it when it doesn't send waves of pain through your body. Four weeks off from dancing is the most absurd thing I've ever heard. I've danced with broken ribs. Do what you feel you can.

[pygmalion]

Amen. Four weeks off? :shock: What is that doctor thinking? Seriously, I was back up and dancing with my broken toes taped the same day. No harm done. I did take ibuprofen before my lesson or rehearsal, though, just as a precautionary measure.