Sore back

[Lahina]

My daughter woke up this morning with a very sore back. I'm sure it's muscular. (tender to the touch.) As the morning wore on it seemed to improve a bit. (I'm sure hot shower and advil helped) She said she had been working on arabesques and other back stretching positions in class yesterday. This is not the first time this has happened. My question is, what's the best back stretch she can do to prevent this from happening again.

[Mel Johnson]

The best way she can avoid this is to avoid throwing all the back stretches she can think of at herself all at once. Improvements in ballet are made gradually, one by one, and cannot be hurried along.

[Lahina]

Thanks for that advice...she's actually much better. I think she over did it in class. The teacher thought that she might need to stretch more after each particular excercise.

Edited July 20, 2004 by Lahina

[Victoria Leigh]

And, dancers DO need to get used to sore muscles. They happen. And they will continue to happen. Everytime they overwork, or work on a new type of class or choreography, or learn new types of movement. Then when they start dancing full time, the muscles hurt just from all the work. It's a way of life with dancers. Most develop a pretty high pain tolerance. Those who don't probably won't last very long!

[SeaMonkey]

If she's doing a lot of back stretches, a good way to prevent soreness is to do some forward bends to even it out a bit. Its not going to totally prevent soreness, but it helps a little

[Lahina]

Thanks for the response.