Preventing Overuse Injuries: A Dancer’s Lesson from the Garden
Throughout my childhood, my mother and I tended a garden in the back right corner of our yard, filled with vibrant hydrangeas, fragrant peonies, and rows of strawberries, cucumbers, and tomatoes. It was hard work—dirt under our nails, aching backs, cicadas humming around us, and sunburns forming. After weeks of dedication, our garden was thriving. We kept a consistent watering schedule and pruned carefully, avoiding overwatering or excessive trimming.
As time passed, we took on full-time jobs, leaving my father to care for the flourishing garden. Without guidance, he over-watered and over-trimmed, and soon, our cucumbers turned yellow and small, tomatoes grew wrinkled and sour, and our peonies withered away. We returned to a once-vibrant garden now tangled with weeds and spoiled produce.
Overuse injuries are as common in dancers as depletion is in an overworked garden. An overuse injury is a sports-related microtrauma that develops from repetitive strain on muscles, tendons, bones, or ligaments. Statistics indicate that 72% of pre-professional dancers experience overuse injuries, most commonly affecting the ankles, legs, feet, and lower back, and including injuries such as Achilles tendonitis, arthritis, and labral tears.
Insufficient rest during intense training leaves dancers exhausted and prone to overuse injuries. While overuse injuries often heal with rest as they are triggered by repetitive strain, the demanding nature of dance—and the pressure to constantly improve and perform—leads many dancers to push through pain, delaying or preventing proper recovery. Without rest, healing is delayed, and overuse injuries can worsen, much like a garden that cannot absorb nutrients without time to recover.
Additionally, dancers exert tremendous energy during rehearsals and performances, placing considerable stress on their bodies. Neglecting rest deprives the body of crucial repair time, increasing the risk of overuse injuries and burnout. Sleep is an equally important component of rest, as it releases growth hormones critical for muscle recovery. Without enough sleep, dancers experience reduced cognitive function, slower reaction times, and emotional fatigue, which increase the risk of overuse injuries.
Like our garden, which thrived with balanced watering and care, a dancer’s body flourishes when training incorporates adequate rest, ultimately reducing the risk of overuse injuries. Incorporating rest into a dancer's routine allows the body to heal microtears in muscles, tendons, and other structures caused by repetitive stress.
Dancers can modify their routines by reducing training hours, limiting high-intensity workouts, and incorporating regular rest days or weeks. Additionally, dancers can enhance the benefits of rest by increasing their sleep hours. Moreover, mental rest is equally important to help dancers relax and manage stress. Mental fatigue can be as harmful as physical fatigue, and incorporating mindfulness into recovery routines supports overall well-being. With these adjustments, dancers can thrive—like a well-tended garden—while protecting their physical health.
Just as gardeners follow specific guidelines and schedules to maintain their gardens, dancers can adopt similar practices for rest to avoid overuse injuries. To prevent overuse injuries, dancers should follow guidelines for rest and sleep, take restorative classes, and maintain social connections. Dancers are advised to limit training to 5 hours a day or less to reduce the risk of injury. Microdamage from high-intensity activities peaks 12 to 14 hours after training, making next-day rest essential. High-intensity sessions should be limited to 3-4 times a week, with at least two consecutive rest days and low-intensity training on other days as needed. A 3-4 week rest period after the dance season is also recommended for optimal recovery.
The Journal of Dance Medicine and Science claims that longer periods of rest (24 to 48 hours) are essential for memory consolidation of motor skills between training sessions, reducing overuse injury. Additionally, motor skill performance is known to continue and improve for over 24 hours following training, suggesting that a good night's sleep is the best ticket to improving motor performance. Getting eight or more hours of sleep is recommended to reduce a dancer's injury rate by 70%.
Rest does not just mean being inactive; one can engage in relaxing activities, like meditation, deep breathing, and yoga. These activities help down-regulate the nervous system by activating the parasympathetic system, which dilates blood vessels and increases blood flow to injured areas, accelerating healing. Dancers can find tutorials online, lead personal sessions, or attend yoga or pilates classes to incorporate these practices. Staying social during rest periods is also beneficial, as social interactions stimulate the hypothalamus—a part of the forebrain that releases oxytocin, a hormone that supports growth and tissue repair. If dancers maintain these guidelines and steps, they can heal and prevent overuse injuries.
By prioritizing rest and recovery, dancers can prevent overuse injuries and maintain peak performance, nurturing their bodies to thrive like a garden that blooms when given time to replenish and grow.