![]() ![]() “All athletes and dancers tend to use their global muscles, and it’s hard to find the deep muscles,” she says. Southwick gives dancers strengthening exercises that engage and activate the core and deep muscles. Pilates is a good option for building core strength. As with all dancers, stability begins with a strong center. ![]() “Dancers really have to work to stabilize and protect the joints,” says Kadel. You cannot reduce hypermobility, but you can manage it. Photo by Lauren Pajer, courtesy of Boston Ballet. Southwick working with Boston Ballet dancer Alec Roberts. Over the long term, spine osteo-arthritis may develop, leading to chronic back pain and stiffness with age. “L-4 can slide in front of L-5 during back cambrés, battements or arabesque,” says Karim, which may cause a vertebral fracture in extreme cases. Dancers may hear a clicking sound or feel pain in the hip when they développé to the front or side, but should see a dance physical therapist before jumping to any conclusions.Īn overly mobile spine is also vulnerable to injury. Examples include labral tears-when the cartilage ring lining the hip joint socket separates from the joint-and impingement, in which the bones of the hip joint rub against each other, causing pain and joint inflammation. But even one unstable joint, like a knee, can be a weak link in a chain reaction pulling other joints out of line.Īnnette Karim, director of dance medicine at Evergreen Physical Therapy Specialists, says she sees a lot of dancers with problems affecting the hips. Some dancers experience the condition only in certain places. The drawbacks of extreme flexibility can include fatigue, pain, sprains and chronic injuries. Photo by Aaron Burnell, courtesy of Kadel. Kadel, kneeling, recommends strengthening exercises to combat hypermobility. Of course, being overly flexible doesn’t always cause symptoms, but regardless, dancers need to balance their innate flexibility with strength and control. In rare cases, it signals a disorder such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, in which extreme flexibility can accompany problems affecting the eyes, skin, blood vessels and heart. Sometimes it’s a sign of benign joint hypermobility, an inherited condition involving joint laxity along with pain, fatigue, a tendency to bruise easily and even digestive problems or hernias. So, although the ligaments are more mobile, they are also more fragile. This can lead to wear and tear, or even dislocations of the joint. “There is a difference between muscle flexibility and what’s happening at the joint.” If someone has hypermobility, the ligaments holding the bones together at a joint are loose, allowing for more movement beyond the normal range of motion. “Some dancers are flexible, but that doesn’t mean they are hypermobile,” she explains. There are different kinds of flexibility, says Heather Southwick, director of physical therapy for the Boston Ballet. When More Flexibility Isn’t Necessarily Better But, she warns: “When someone has hypermobility, there is more play in the joint, which may increase the risk of injury.”īeing hypermobile may help you create beautiful lines and shapes, but it can have serious consequences if not managed properly. “As dance has progressed, dancers are increasingly being asked to work at their end ranges of joint motion with really high arabesques or développés,” says Nancy Kadel, orthopedic surgeon and co-chair of the Dance/USA Task Force on Dancer Health. Stretchiness is prized in the dance world, so that could seem like a huge advantage. While many dancers spend hours stretching, a lucky few are endowed with nearly limitless flexibility. ![]()
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