1. Holidays can be a Needed Recovery Time: If you had a particularly demanding Fall dance season, taking a break from dance can be the best gift for overall health. Now, I’m not advocating a total shut down status, but rather recommend taking any available opportunities for cross training, including yoga, Pilates, and gyrotonics. If you “must” dance, think about working on technical and strength skills that you don’t usually have time to address.
2. Strike a Solid Balance: Many traditional holiday dishes aren’t perhaps the most nutritious offerings. However, if you try to balance out the table with other selections that are more beneficial for overall health, you can still enjoy the unique offerings of the holiday.
3. Limit the Pre-Meal Snacking: Leave plenty of room for that holiday feast by reducing pre-meal snacks that might be tasty but commonly are full of unneeded salt, sugar, or unhealthy fats.
4. Slow Down and Slim Down at Mealtime: With a bounty of tantalizing foods, many people load up plates with large servings and then hurry through a first course to get to a second (or more) course. Use the size of your fist as a guide for a more proper serving size. Try to slow down between bites and wait for at least 20 minutes before going for another plate. Giving more time allows for a sense of fullness and less chance of overeating.
5. Make choices to Boost your Immune System: Vitamin C (commonly found in citrus fruits) can be beneficial for fighting infection, as can other anti-inflammatory items such as fish oil, flaxseed, ginger, and turmeric. Reducing processed foods and high sugar-content foods (can be tough with holiday sweets) can also be good for the immune system. Remember that moderate levels of exercise (4-5 days a week, 30-45 minutes a day) can support a stronger immune system.
6. Take the Family for a Turkey Walk Off: Speaking of exercise, rather than succumb to that post-Turkey nap, gather up family and friends and go for a brisk walk between meal and dessert. This will help overcome that food coma and give you more energy for the rest of the day.
7. Shop for Good Fitness: From grocery store runs to finding perfect gifts, shopping trips are another beloved staple of the holidays. While many might covet that prized close parking spot, parking the car farther away and getting in more steps can be a fitness bonus. If you are one to line up for precious deals, don’t be afraid to pass the time with exercise (push-ups, air squats, and even balancing on one foot) rather than just sitting or standing around. If you aren’t rushing to a particular sale, take time to window shop for 10-15 minutes before entering stores. Use the stairs instead of escalators or elevators and step up your shopping fitness for all year round.
8. Keep regular bedtimes and good sleep habits: During breaks from dance, school, and work, getting out of usual sleep routines can lead to less sleep and nightmares for the immune system. Younger children with less than 9-10 hours of sleep a night and teenagers with less than 8 hours of sleep are at higher risk for both illness and injury.
9. Be Truly Thankful: Part of good holiday health and fitness is the mental and emotional boost that comes from taking time to give appropriate thanks, especially for important people in your life.

The post Athletes & Dancers: How to Eat, Drink & Still Be Healthy Over the Holidays appeared first on Backstage Socal.

The answer is quite simple – focus on the basics. Here are some recommendations for keeping your body in shape and dance ready while at home – even without the studio or gym.

Stretches

In general, maintaining good mobility can help alleviate general aches and pains. Here are 5 lower extremity stretches that can be easily worked into any routine. The optimal time to incorporate static stretches are after working out. Hold each stretch for 15 to 30 seconds, and repeat 2-3 times.

Figure-4 stretch: While laying on your back, bend your left knee and cross your right ankle over your knee. Pull your left thigh slowly towards your chest until you feel a stretch in your hip.

Hip flexor stretch: Start by kneeling on one knee with the other bent at 90/90 in front of you. Squeeze your glutes so that your hips are in neutral position and slowly bring your torso and hips forward as one unit until you feel a stretch in the front of your hip.

Hamstring stretch: Sit with your legs extended straight out in front of you. Without bending through your low back, lower your torso towards your thighs until you feel a stretch in the back of your legs.

Butterfly stretch: From a sitting position, bring the bottoms of your feet together so that your knees flare out to the sides. For added stretch, you can use your elbows to press your knees down and lean forward slightly without bending through your low back.

Calf stretch: Start by standing and facing a wall. Bring your toes up and press them into the wall and lean forward slightly until you feel a stretch in your calf. Repeat this with a bent knee.

Core

Keeping your core strengthened is key to the prevention of injuries to the shoulders, muscles in the back of the neck, front of the chest, lower back, and hips. When dancers think about core or abdominal exercises, they usually think that means sit ups and planks. Though these exercises can be effective, there are many more that can also be extremely effective. Many of the most popular core exercises are performed on the floor. However, the issue is that when you dance, you are standing up. With this in mind, adding core exercises in a standing position, either in a squat, split squat or single leg position can improve the benefit of core stability exercises.

The result of standing core exercises is a more stable dancer that will develop a better base for movement and reduce future injuries.

There are an infinite amount of core exercises that can be performed in a standing position and be extremely effective. One simple exercise that needs little equipment is the Pallof Press. It is a great anti-rotational exercise that works the abdominals, low back and hip musculature and helps create a more stable dancer. To perform this exercise, start with a resistance band attached to a fixed point. Facing ninety degrees from the band, start in a squatted position with the band in both hands and pulling your body sideways or laterally. With the hands at your chest, press the arms out, extending the elbows all the way. The resistance of the band, will pull back towards the fixed point. The objective is to resist this force. The resistance does not have to be too high. The biggest focus is to stay nice and stable as the arms extend directly in front of you. To add difficulty, change from a squatted position to a split squat position.

At some point studios will reopen and dance will resume. By stretching and keeping your core strengthened, performers will be able to return to the floor and stage more rested, healthy, and injury free.

Chris Phillips is an Athletic Trainer, Strength and Conditioning Specialist and Sports Safety Specialist with over 25 years’ experience in professional hockey, football, dance, cheerleading, and soccer. Chris has worked with hundreds of professional, Olympic and Hall of Fame dancers and is the owner of Compete Sports Performance and Rehab in Lake Forest, California. For more information, visit http://competesportsperformance.com/

The post Don’t Lose Your Step: Tips For Dancers to Stay in Shape in Isolation appeared first on Backstage Socal.

First of all, follow those social distancing and home isolation orders and ensure your families and friends follow them also. This isn’t the time for get-togethers or in-person group practices. This is the time to protect the lives of vulnerable people and healthcare providers.

As a pediatric and sports medicine physician, many of the injuries I see are due to overuse and overload – too much activity, often amped up too fast or too soon for younger bodies. With many overload/overuse injuries, not only it is a volume thing that needs attention but often there are mechanical issues that need attention. For example, weakness in the central core areas (back of the shoulder and hip/lower back) can create poor function and pain in elbows, knees, legs, and feet/ankles. These weakness patterns can be in part from rapid growth and also due to too much activity and built-up fatigue.

Some just need a break – time away from repetitive activity to heal these types of injury. The usual response I get when recommending rest centers around a variant of “I/we don’t have time to rest.” Often, I’ll recommend rehabilitation exercise programs to address those issues. Even with the most diligent of dancer, it’s quite difficult to recover and get stronger/better while continuing to push through all the usual rehearsal and competitions.

Now, these types of focused exercises and movement education aren’t just designed for the injured. Many studios and institutions incorporate strength and conditioning exercises as part of regular training. Commonly, time is usually not an ally. Either performers have limited (or no) time to get the full benefit, or they are trying to complete these programs while again pushing through rehearsals, performances, and competitions.

Well, in the midst of the overwhelming COVID-19 pandemic, now there is time for rest – for active recovery exercises, for trying something different.

So, if I am giving some professional recommendations for young dancers and performers, I’m going with the following (pay special attention to 7-9).

1) Maintain appropriate social distancing.

2) Rest. This does not mean becoming a couch potato.

3) If you are in a high volume/repetitive similar action activity (jumping and leaping), take some time away. You may be shocked at how much better you feel with that relative rest.

4) If you’re worried about losing conditioning, technique, timing and precision, realize that without coordinating with other dancers, close-up coaching, and proper surfaces, it is hard to maintain high-level precision. Also realize that, unfortunately everyone else is at the same disadvantage, so take the best care of yourself.

5) If you have connections to on-line programs, enjoy the benefits of social interaction with coaches/instructors/fellow performers. This is a key time for some of that general strength and conditioning work that we talked about earlier. Some sports medicine professionals are still available in offices and many have developed on-line exercise programs. Don’t be afraid to reach out and use this time to your best advantage, but make sure you are getting sensible advice and very importantly…..

6) Please do use common sense when exercising at home. For example, trying to do repetitive leaps and jump combinations on the kitchen tile floor may put unnecessary stress on your legs. I have also talked with coaches and instructors who are cautious about assigning exercise programs- they worry about risk of injury due to lack of supervision.

7) I’m going to challenge you to look at things differently, especially if you see yourself as a single activity athlete. Let’s make a goal of not just trying to be a better dancer, but rather look for ways to become a better overall athlete. Can you jump more efficiently (without knees caving inward)? Can you work on making the muscles behind your shoulders more effective? Here’s the chance to work on those injury rehab/reduction or general strength programs that you somewhat tried (or never really began).

8) Speaking of looking at things differently, here’s my second and somewhat linked challenge – find something totally new (or something you haven’t done in a long time) and just do it! Go on a hike (social distance alert again), play board games, or write in a journal. Do something that you haven’t had time to do until now. Go out and do some free play. Add something new. Get creative and add things to past activities. Let kids direct what’s going on and have less adult organization and outcomes.

9) Get those 8-9 hours of sleep. This is always vital and especially now in stressful times. Try to keep a good schedule with regular bedtime and awakenings. Before going to bed, write down 2-3 things that went well during the day and you are grateful for. These positive habits of gratitude can help with feelings of lack of control that many are experiencing at this time.

At some point dance will resume and most performers will eagerly return to the floor and stage more rested, healthy, and hopefully injury free. On the flip side, some might realize that after time away and doing other things, they don’t miss dancing or performing at all, or at such a high level of intensity and time commitment. Both scenarios are quite likely and should be considered “OK.” All performers and athletes should be given full permission and opportunity to make decisions about future activity choice, level of intensity, and time commitment.

Dr. Chris Koutures is a dual board-certified pediatric and sports medicine specialist who practices at ActiveKidMD in Anaheim Hills, CA. He is a team physician for USA Volleyball (including participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics), the U.S. Figure Skating Sports Medicine Network, Cal State Fullerton Intercollegiate Athletics, Chapman University Dance Department, and Orange Lutheran High School. He offers a comprehensive blend of general pediatric and sport medicine care with an individualized approach to each patient and family. Please visit https://activekidmd.com/ or follow him on twitter (@dockoutures).

The post Dancers: Social Distancing and Home Isolation – Now What? appeared first on Backstage Socal.

SO WHAT ARE BONE STRESS INJURIES?

In describing bone stress injuries to patients, I often use the analogy of bending my penwhile bored in class one day.

If I just start trying to bend my pen, the pen doesn’t bend much. This represents normal bone.

As I continue to play withmy pen, it does start to bend more. This represents a stress reaction where the bone is softer and less able to resist continued load. A stress reaction will create swelling (bone edema) on a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) study. No true fracture line will be visible either on the MRI or plain x-ray study.

If I’m really bored in class, my continued bending the more weakened pen eventually will cause it tocompletely break on one side. This represents a stress fracture where a fracture line is seen on one cortex (outer lining of the bone) on either MRI or plain x-ray.

Even more attempts to bend my pen may result in breaking it in half. This represents acomplete fracturewhere the fracture line is now easily visible on either MRI or plain x-ray.

WHEN DO YOU SUSPECT A BONE STRESS INJURY?

If there’s that history of pain after progressing with too much, too fast, or too soon of dance activity, I worry about a bone stress injury. If there is an injury that just doesn’t seem to get better, I worry about a bone stress injury.

Now, if a dancer can take the tip of their index finger and point directly to a single spot on a bone,I definitely worry about a bone stress injury. If there is any worry about a bone stress injury often x-rays and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) studies are used to make a formal diagnosis.

WHY DID I GET A STRESS BONE INJURY?

In my sports medicine specialist eyes, part one of the bone stress injury challenge is to make the diagnosis. Part two of the challenge is equally, if not more important – figuring out what might have caused the injury.

Bone stress injuriesare usually caused by high loads on normal bone, or normal loads on weaker bones. I will routinely see dancers who have been diagnosed with a bone stress injury and are looking for clues about causes and how best recover and reduce risk of future problems.

• High loads canbe from too much, too fast, too soon: Too many hours a week or days a week without rest
• Too high an intensity of activity
• Improper technique overloading a certain region of the body
• Too many reps (jumps, swings, kicks)
• Amping up too quickly when starting something new
• Not getting enough restorative daily sleep (minimum of 8 hours a night)
• Weaker bones tend to come from:
• Unhealed past injuries
• Not enough calories (often takes sports nutritionist to calculate dancer’s individual daily
  calorie needs)
• Limited calcium/Vitamin D intake (recommend 3-4 servings a day of dairy and other
  calcium containing foods)
• Low red cell counts and iron stores
• Adolescent and older females not having regular periods that build bone strength (potential problems if less than 9 periods in 12 months or more than 3 consecutive months without a period).

Yes, I definitely understand dancers being uncomfortable talking about food choices, caloric intake, and menstrual periods. However, these are important topics for bone health. Sensitive discussions that explain why these questions are being asked can help identify injury causes, reduce future risk and improve future performance.

HOW DO YOU GET A BONE STRESS INJURY TO HEAL?

Knowing the exact location and type of bone stress injury can contribute to a most accurate treatment plan. Knowing sleep and nutrition needs while having regular periods (for females) is key for current healing and future bone development.

The usual healing goal is to protect the injured area by keeping activity below levels that cause pain. This could mean no impact exercise (running, jumping or leaping). In some cases, putting limited or no weight on the injured body part (by using a cast/boot, crutches or a scooter) may be the best plan.

There are certain types of higher risk bone stress injuries that may even need surgical repair. Knowing your exact type of bone stress injury can limit risk of further complications by helping determine what you should and shouldn’t do in your recovery.

WHAT CAN A DANCER DO WHILE RECOVERING FROM A BONE STRESS INJURY?

Healing a bone stress injury doesn’t always make someone become a couch potato. This is where the concepts of individualized modifications and cross training come into play. Again, remember the primary goal of limiting activity below levels that cause pain.

So, for lower body injuries, this often may include non-impact activities such as using exercise bike, elliptical machine work, or swimming/pool workouts. Some performers may be able to mark steps, do upper body movements, and use barre/mirrors for dance classes. Others might be able to work on improving technique to reduce abnormal loads. There are even specialized anti-gravity treadmills that may allow running during the recovery phase.

Non-injured body parts can be used in carefully selected and supervised stretching and weight training exercises.

Working with a sports medicine specialist can design individualized recovery programs involving cross training that help reduce emotional stress and keep up levels of physical activity.

This blog post does not intend to diagnose or provide management tips for any particular bonestress injury, or for any injury or illness. With any suspected bone stress injury or other injury, please immediatelycontact us or your regular sports medicine specialist for evaluation and treatment.

Dr. Chris Koutures is a dual board-certified pediatric and sports medicine specialist who practices at ActiveKidMD in Anaheim Hills, CA. He is a team physician for USA Volleyball (including participating in the 2008 Beijing Olympics), the U.S. Figure Skating Sports Medicine Network, Cal State Fullerton Intercollegiate Athletics, Chapman University Dance Department, and Orange Lutheran High School. He offers a comprehensive blend of general pediatric and sport medicine care with an individualized approach to each patient and family. Please visit https://activekidmd.com/ or follow him on twitter (@dockoutures).

The post How to Heal Bone Stress Injuries in Dancers & Athletes appeared first on Backstage Socal.