Dancers! Our Hips Don't Lie!

By Megan Cornish, Myotherapist 

Calling all my fellow dancers! Regardless of what style you specialise in, as a dancer myself I am well aware that keeping our hips healthy whilst engaging in our sport can be challenging. This can be due to excessive load passing through the joint, the positional nature of the style (e.g. external rotation of hips in ballet) or repetitive strain over time. These external influences can sometimes lead to the development of overuse injuries of the hip or sudden onset injuries which can be painful and make it difficult to continue to participate in dance and other daily activities. So let's talk about common pathologies that can affect hips in dancers and how we can keep our hips happy and prevent injuries from occurring. ​

Common dysfunctions that can occur at the hip joint as a result of load, wear and tear and repetitive strain in dancers are progressive onset conditions such as cartilage degeneration, bone spurs, gluteal and hip flexor tendinopathy, and/or hip impingements. Sudden onset conditions can consist of an injury to a soft tissue such as labral tears, muscular strain and ligament and tendon tears or in severe cases a fracture to the bone itself. Regardless of the onset, any of the above pathologies can cause pain at the side, back or front of the hip as well as causing possible referral to other regions of the body, most commonly down the leg of the affected side or the lower back. 

Although there are conditions that can occur at the hip joint, we can proactively do things to protect the healthy function of our hips and prevent issues from arrising. 

Dynamic Warm Up 
I'm sure we’ve all had our teachers take us through a high energy warm up routine before commencing each class and there is a good reason for this. Warming up our muscles prior to engaging in dance is super important to allow time for the soft tissues to get used to quick changes of direction and length which will prevent muscle strains and sprains. If you’ve ever done a fan kick and felt a quick pull in your hamstring you’ll know what I mean and your muscle was likely not warm enough to accommodate that movement safely. 

Cool Downs
Cool downs after dance are just as important as warm ups when it comes to injury prevention and treatment of delayed onset muscle soreness. This gives muscle tissue time to return to their usual daily functions whilst increasing circulation and processing lactic acid build up from strenuous exercise. 

Strengthening Core
This is an interesting one and is to do with muscular imbalances. When our core is weak there is less structural support happening through our lumbar spine and other muscles will overactivate to provide that stabilisation. Usually these will be muscles in our hamstring or hip flexor groups. When hamstrings and/or hip flexors overactivate, we get a recipe for potential complications at the hip joint so if we can share the amount of work these muscles have to take on with our core it can prevent that muscular imbalance from occurring.

Have a look at your feet! 
Next time you are standing barefoot have a look down at your feet and see if you can observe any rolling inwards or outwards of the ankle. You can even try a mindfulness exercise where you close your eyes and take note of where you can feel the majority of your weight distribution is on the foot - can you feel it more on the outside of the foot? Is there more weight through your big toe? Your heel? Ect. Foot health can tell us a lot about what the hip is doing and can be a contributing factor to potential hip complications arising. Investing in supportive footwear throughout the day is highly recommended for us dancers as our pointe, jazz and/or tap shoes don’t always provide enough arch support which can affect our hips overtime. 

Don't push through pain
My last point and arguably the most important is under no circumstances should you push through pain! Pain is your body’s way of letting you know that something isn’t quite right and therefore should never be ignored. My biggest piece of advice would be if you experience any pain, listen to your body, stop the movement causing pain, limit aggravating factors and get it assessed/ treated so that a cause can be identified and addressed before it worsens.

Myotherapists are musculoskeletal experts who are experienced and qualified in treating a range of musculoskeletal conditions such as dancers hip! As a dancer myself and experiencing my own hip complications I am fully aware of the impact this can have on not only your ability to dance but complete daily activities and live comfortably. If you are a dancer of any style and are experiencing hip pain I highly encourage you to book an appointment so that we can get you back to moving the way you want to!

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