Leaping away from overuse injuries – A guide for dancers

Momentum Physiotherapy Blog Post

Author: Elizabeth Anderson, MPT – Student

Dance requires a combination of strength, flexibility, and coordination. Dancers often spend hours training in the studio, often doing repetitive movements to perfect a particular movement; making them susceptible to what we call “overuse injuries”. Several studies have found overuse injuries to be the most common injury dancers endure. 20-84% of dancers have a minimum of one musculoskeletal injury in their career (Ramkumar et al. 2016) and professional dancers can expect an injury at least once a year (Jacobs et al. 2012). Dancing may appear effortless, but to execute steps in a technical manner, bones, muscles, tendons, and ligaments are placed under excessive stress.

What is an overuse injury?

An overuse injury is defined by Marshall et al. (2011) as a repetitive, sub maximal stress applied to a tissue that occurs when adaptive capability of the tissue is exceeded and injury results. In summary: overuse injuries happen when the bodies adaption capabilities have  reached their maximum from the repeated movements. There are several risk factors for overuse injuries such as a sudden increase in workload, muscle and joint imbalances of strength and flexibility, improper nutritional intake and/or fatigue. Overuse injuries can include achilles and plantar fascia, foot stress fractures and overuse injuries to the big toe (especially for those on pointe).

Common Injury site:

The anatomical site most impacted by overuse injuries in dancer are ankles/feet, as found by studies conducted by Campoy et al. (2011) and Witkowski et al. (2012). Inadequate strength of foot and ankle muscles can cause compensations up the body chain.

Rehab Strategy:

Physiotherapy is a great option for those who have encountered an overuse injury. The primary goal would be pain reduction and then working to restore full range of motion and creating a balance between strength and flexibility (Witkowski, 2012).  Physiotherapy can fine tune proprioception (pre) and post injury and prevent re-injury.

  • Ensure proper warm up and stretch (not overstretching) prior to training (Solomon, 2017)
  • When possible, avoid repetition without rest within training schedule (Batson, 2011)
  • Watch frequency of training hours when approaching competitions/shows (Campoy et al. 2011)