Recent sore legs:(

[BlleFille]

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem? Lately my teacher has been on at me about using my inner thigh muscles and glutes. He is totally right as I am not accustomed to engaging them very well! I am not sure if this problem is related but over the same period of about a week or a little more, I have been getting very sore stiff backs of thighs. It means that even though I normally have NO issue touching my toes and beyond, right now, I am stiff and achy when I try to do so.....all the way from the back of my thigh to the tops of my calves.

I am also right now not able to do my right split which is my better side:(

I know that this problem has only been with me for less than two weeks but am wondering what might be causing it?

 

My inner thighs are also a little sore but in a way I can handle. I am really working on engaging my inner thigh and glute muscles better, especially in pointe. Right now I am taking seven classes a week, two of which are pointe, one of which is a little more advanced.

This is up from one pointe class a week....

[Clara 76]

Can you find a PT who deals with dancers? It sounds like some sort of imbalance or overuse, but without seeing you, I just can't say for sure.

 

EDITED TO ADD: I had a thought that woke me up in the middle of the night- are you perhaps tucking your pelvis under in order to try to engage those muscles? Sometimes dancers do that which means that they still haven't been taught to identify the right muscles. Those are the wrong ones. They're right around there though.

 

There are some exercises I've written in a post somewhere around here to help dancers identify the right ones.

[Guest Sanchara]

OMG this sound exactly what I've been feeling! I had just assumed that it was just lactic acid and it would go away after a couple of days....and it really hasn't to the point where my legs are like a giant ball of knots.

[BlleFille]

I think I was using them wrong but now I have really identified them, thanks! I even got a compliment from my teacher about my turnout improving! Thanks Clara!

[Guest Sanchara]

what did you do to fix it?

[Victoria Leigh]

Sanchara, please note, by reading other posts, and by reading the Sticky threads in our forums, that we do not write in text message typing here on Ballet Talk for Dancers. We use upper case where it is supposed to be used, and punctuation where that is needed. You have a whole lot of posts in a very short time, which indicates to me that you not spending any time reading things here. We are a strictly moderated board, and our policies and rules need to be respected.

 

You also need to decide whether you are in the Adult Students category, or the Young Dancer 17-22 category. The Young Dancer forum is geared for upper teens through college years for dancers on the pre-professional track. If you are taking adult classes, then you need to post in this forum. If you are in pre-pro classes or a major in ballet in college, you may post on YD 17-22.

[Guest Sanchara]

Okay you can delete that post.

By the way I'm 21 and I train with a senior (Everyone I train with is en-point except one other girl) group not an adult class. But at the same time some of what is said in the adult area is very useful as well to me. I do read very quickly so I'm somewhat hurt that you accused me of not reading.

 

I will stick to my own group from now on.

[Victoria Leigh]

I'm glad that you are reading, and I think that staying with the Adult Students Forum is the place for you.

 

I'm not deleting your post, just asking you to be more careful in the future to post using regular English and not text message English. We have this problem with a lot of people, not just you, so do not feel along in being asked to correct this. We feel very strongly that the Young Dancers need to learn to write properly, and if the adults don't do that, it does not set a good example for them.

 

Thank you.

[Guest Sanchara]

I agree one hundred percent. Sometimes typos are inevitable however. I certianly had intended to capitolize that sentance.

 

Well I suppose in some ways the adult group is best. The adults here seem to be much more passionate dancers than the adults I trained with last year. *shudder*

(Oh....do you mind actions and/or emoticons. I find that they help communicate things that text alone can't -that would normally be expressed by the face and body language in real-life conversation...)

 

 

I am still curious to know what BlleFille did to fix her leg soreness issues as I'd really like mine to go away and never come back. What I'm talking about isn't the normal soreness I get the day after training. I train for two hours at a time twice a week and I'm still sore a week later. The micro-tears in the muscles should recover after fourty-eight hours (assuming that the athlete is consuming the correct quantity of protein and water). Sometimes when I start a new conditioning routein (my conditioning changes ever eight weeks) the soreness lasts up to three days. However, never bad enough that I'm still sore a week later - to the point where we were doing an exercise where we were holding the coup-de-pied position for a few minuts for conditioning in class last week and my calf muscle on the supporting side seized up rather painfully. Although I admit that I held it passed when I should have let it down but my teacher had told us that we would all be holding it for annother five minuts if anyone dropped before she instructed us to. I allready feel like an outsider so I didn't want everyone to be mad at me....

 

My vaulting coach has forbade me from attending ballet class untill the problem goes away.

[Victoria Leigh]

Emoticons are quite fine, Sanchara. I use them a lot.

 

Holding things too long, especially if you are possibly over-working a particular muscle group, can cause soreness. Two hour classes are long, especially for someone who has not had a great deal of training and who is only doing it twice a week. I will say, however, that I don't agree with a teacher using something like holding one thing for a long a time as punishment. I hope that she was jesting when she threatened that five minute thing.

[Guest Sanchara]

I don't know if she was. The first day of class she had us do crunches for an entire song, and then pushups for annother entire song.

 

Should I be using my enforced hiatus to seek out a new school? And in the mean time what can I be doing to stay in shape. I know it sounds silly but I'd like to eventually be able to dance as proficiantly as the pre-pro girls (sans pointe shoes).

 

I too have a philosophy of NEVER using conditioning of any form as punishment. It's a great way to kill that work ethic you worked so hard to instill in your athlete/dancer. (what I do do is progessivly increase the level of conditioning over the course of the year so that those athletes who do their homework have a more comfortable time of in-class conditioning than those who don't do their homework)

[Victoria Leigh]

Is this a ballet teacher we are talking about here? If so, why is she keeping you busy doing crunches and pushups when she is supposed to be teaching ballet? Yes, we all have a few exercises that we like our students to do, but ballet class is not a boot camp.

[Guest Sanchara]

Yes it is

 

Half of the class was conditioning.

[Victoria Leigh]

Sorry, but I have to disagree with that concept of teaching ballet. Teaching the students certain exercises for specific things is fine, but not using ballet class time to do these exercises. There is not enough time in ballet class for that. It needs to be done on your own or in a Pilates or other exercise type of class. With two ballet classes a week, you need the class to be ballet, not conditioning.

[Guest Sanchara]

Especially when I allready have conditioning from my gymnastics coach who puts a lot of love/time into customizing my conditoning routeins for my specific needs.

 

Should I be looking for a new school? If so where would I start?