Physically Returning to Dance: Tips on Handling Load Tolerance and DOMS
By Colleen Bickel, Local Physical Therapist and Dancer
It’s an exciting time of the year: the leaves are just starting to change colors, there is a crispness to the morning air, and most importantly, we are returning to the studio to dance!
While dancers usually stay very active in the summer, it’s not usually the same intensity or type of training as during the school year. You might have been swimming, hiking, biking, playing beach volleyball, etc. You might have been dancing but the daily dance classes and training were probably less intense or more intermittent. And the classes might have been virtual.
So, picture this. Imagine that you are a marathon runner. And in the training season, you run up to 50 miles a week. In the off-season, you run maybe 6 miles per week just to “stay in shape.” Do you think the first week back in your training season you should go directly to 50 miles?
It’s easy to say in that scenario, “absolutely not.” But, as dancers, we usually go from not dancing to a full schedule, giving 100% to every class. We do it because we are excited to return to the studio and we love to dance. We do it because we don’t want to appear lazy or disappoint our teachers. But this mentality does sometimes lead to injury.
In the world of Physical Therapy, we talk about “load tolerance of tissue” (tissue, in this case, includes muscle, bone, and connective tissue like tendons and ligaments). Basically, what kind of “loads” can your body handle and how quickly can you progress those loads. If you load too fast and don’t allow your body adequate time to rest and repair, then we end up with things like tendonitis, stress fractures, shin splints, or other “over-use” injuries. “Over-use” is pretty much “over-loaded” without adequate chance to rest and repair.
A less worrisome (but often not enjoyable) bodily experience after returning to dance is DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness). DOMS is intense muscle soreness that occurs 12-72 hours after an activity. If you are dancing every day, sometimes it’s hard to know what you are feeling sore from; is it today’s ballet class or hip hop 2 days ago?
So, what things should dancers do to mitigate DOMS and possible over-use injuries when returning to dance?
The two big categories for injuries and over-use are jumps and relevés. These are movements that our bodies need to slowly build up a tolerance for and we are likely not performing the same amount of them in our off-season. Ultimately, be thoughtful about the amount of repetitive loading that is occurring each day. How many relevés and how many jumps are you performing each day? You might need to limit this amount and then slowly increase it while also allowing enough time for recovery in between sessions.
When returning from a break, recommendations include:
Make sure you are adequately warmed up.
Be careful about overstretching before class. Focus on improving flexibility after class and perform a dynamic warm-up before class.
Don’t try to perform challenging movements when you are fatigued.
Limit the amount of relevés you are performing daily. Maybe you perform some relevés at barre during ballet but not every combination in the center. Maybe you perform relevés during pointe class but limit them in your ballet class prior. Remember it’s about the total number per day and your body’s ability to have time to recover before performing that activity again.
Limit the number of jumps you are performing daily. Possibly limit the height of your jumps as you slowly return to dance. Focus on building up your tolerance for jumping with smaller jumps and working on good alignment and mechanics.
“Be careful about overstretching before class. Focus on improving flexibility after class and perform a dynamic warm-up before class.”
The two big categories for DOMS are pliés/grandpliés and planks/push-ups. These movements utilize large muscles that will get sore! With DOMS, you should feel the soreness with movement or stretching but not with rest. The soreness should be in the muscle belly and not in a tendon, ligament, or joint.
If dealing with DOMS, recommendations include:
Perform light gentle movement. This could be walking, a light elliptical or bike cardio workout, or going through a dynamic warm-up. This maintains blood flow which nourishes the muscle to heal quickly and does not allow lactic acid to build up.
Research has shown that stretching and releases (ball rolling, foam roller, massage gun, massage session, etc) won’t affect it either way. Won’t make it better, won’t make it worse.
Avoid NSAIDs like ibuprofen. These interfere in the natural process of soreness, recovery, and adaptation.
Overall, make sure you are getting enough sleep and good nutrition. The body recovers while you are sleeping, so if you are not getting enough sleep, you are not recovering to the best of your abilities. If you are not getting adequate nutrition, your body does not have the basic building blocks it needs to recover.
DOMS should resolve with time. If the pain persists for weeks, if you are markedly worse AFTER class, or if the pain is sharp/burning/tingling/searing then you may be dealing with an injury and these factors should be respected. At this point, seeing a physical therapist may be a good idea.
Ultimately, you know your body better than anyone else! Let your teacher know if you need to limit movements and self-advocate for what you need! And just know that after a few weeks of slowly increasing your tolerance, you will be back in great shape and able to go 110%.
