8/9/17 - Additional Research on Warm Ups, Cool Downs, Rehabilitation and Injury Prevention

Additional Research

Warm Ups

An effective warm up should:

1. Prepare dancers mentally and physically for a class
2. Reduce the likelihood of injury in class
3. Improve dance performance
4. Increase co-ordination
5. Increase heart rate and blood circulation
6. Increase body temperature
7. Allow the joints to move more freely
8. Improves effective muscle actions
9. Reduce the prevalence of injuries
10. Improves transmission of nerve impulses

Warms ups are vital before dancing to decrease the tension in your muscles and joints as well as to prepare the body before jumping into large movements that could otherwise cause injury. This decreases the chance of you having to move with stress or strain as you dance. A warm up increases your body temperature, but not too much, it increases it to its optimum temperature. 

Ideally, after a warm up, you should not feel tired, as it should contain simple and low impact movements with no fast changes of direction. The movements should definitely follow the correct alignment so as to decrease the risk of injury, and the movements should also be controlled and continuous. A warm up needs to include exercises for the whole body, and definitely the ankles, hips, spine, shoulders, elbows and wrists, and it should ideally have around 6 to 8 repetitions of each exercise. Professional performers should complete a warm up which lasts around 30 to 40 minutes, and by the end of a warm up, you should feel warm, relaxed and prepared to begin dancing.

Cool Downs

The cool down is of equal importance to the warm up and needs to be done after a class before going back to normal movement levels. Cool downs reduce muscle soreness in the next few days after activity and they help to speed up the recovery process as well. 

Cool downs are very important because:

1. If an activity stops suddenly, blood pools within the muscles instead of returning to the brain, which can lead to dizziness
2. Dancing increases adrenaline as well as endorphins in circulations which can lead to lack of sleep and restlessness
3. If they are not done, then lactic acid builds up in the muscles as well as other waste products, and these cause stiffness of the joints and muscles and it can also lead to cramps and muscle spasms

During a cool down, you need to gradually slow down your movements which will in turn slow down the breathing rate and this will gradually reverse the warm up process. You could find extra soreness if the intensity of the activity performed is more than you are used to or if there are unfamiliar movements performed. Stretching is also a very good thing to put into a cool down. If one is still sore the next day, some light stretching and activity could be beneficial. 

It is important to remember to get into stretches slowly as opposed to rushing into them, and then to hold the stretches still, and then come out of them again slowly. Also, breathing needs to be remembered. Breathe normally, and then emphasise the stretch when exhaling.

Rehabilitation

Rehabilitation exercises are used to return the body to its original state of fitness after suffering from an injury. They are used to gradually build up the strength in the body again. This is achieved through the repetition over time of various exercises and drills. There are many different types of exercises to choose from, depending on the area and type of injury of course, including:

1.  Foam Roller Exercises - this is where a cylinder of dense foam is used to roll out the injured area which relieves the tension there and helps to recover the body
2. Plyometrics - these are strengthening exercises which strengthen the muscles in the injured area, and these can include jumping, bounding and hopping movements. They increase the power in the muscles. This is important for athletes to use.
3. Resistance bands - this is a method where you use a band of slightly stretchy material in order to gradually build muscle in an injured area. This works especially well for ankles and other joints.

In the choosing of a rehabilitation plan, it is important to seek personal medical assistance, and everyone is unique and their bodies and muscles will react in a different way to that of anybody else.

Injury Prevention

In order for dancers to prevent injury, they need to always make sure that they are wearing properly fitted clothing and the correct footwear depending on the style of dance. For example, in ballet, they should be wearing ballet shoes. In addition to this, they need to make sure that they are constantly drinking water and hydrating themselves, as lack of hydration can lead to lack on concentration which, in turn, can lead to injury. They also need to remember to resist the temptation to dance through pain, as this can lead to making an injury much worse. They also need to pay very close attention to the correct technique. They need to make sure they know the limits of their own body and not push themselves to far too quickly, and lastly, they need to make sure they are always performing a proper cool down and warm up.

It must be noted that teachers and parents have a role in injury prevention as well as the dancers themselves. They need to make sure that they do not put pressure on the dancer to progress too quickly or attempt movements too high above their skill level. Additionally, parents and teachers need to make sure that ballet dancers do not progress on to do pointe work before their ankles have finished developing in terms of strength. The age of 12 is usually considered the minimum, however it should more so be based on their strength. It needs to also be considered that a dancer is not trying to conform to idealisms about their body shape, as this can lead to eating disorders which can then lead to lack of hydration and nutrition and poor dietary habits, which can then lead to lack of focus and concentration which can lead to injury. 

It is also up to the teachers to create an atmosphere where the dancers are not encouraged to dance through high levels of pain, and sit in silence in a lot of pain. The dancers need to feel safe to say if they are at their body's limits so as to not injure themselves further by trying to dance despite it. Students must also be encouraged by their teachers to commit to their warm ups and cool downs and the teachers must ensure the equipment is safe and ready for use. It is also the responsibility of the teachers to tell the students when they are ready to move on to the next level of dance.