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Soreness vs. Pain - A Dancer's Dilemma
Disclaimer – This article is being provided for general
information only. It is not designed to take the place of a
qualified medical opinion.
What is Pain?
Pain is a complicated process in which our nervous system
communicates important information to us. Pain warns us to pay
attention to our bodies. It tells us that we are in danger of
damaging or hurting ourselves, such as when we get too close to a
hot burner on the stove. Pain can be acute or chronic. It is a
subjective experience. Acute pain typically gets our immediate
attention, like the dancer who comes down from a leap incorrectly
and sprains his/her ankle. The dancer KNOWS that his/her ankle is
injured, and their body’s response is one of protection – don’t even
try to walk. Thus, acute pain is easy to define (pain that is
extremely sharp or severe). Chronic pain can be more challenging
to define and to separate from soreness – especially for dancers, as
they appear to have a higher pain tolerance than much of the general
population.
When I listen to a dancer describe what he/she is feeling, I
remind myself that sensation is relative information. For example,
if one has been out in the snow, room temperature tap water will
feel hot, but if one has just been out in a hot bath, that same tap
water will feel cool. We all have different relationships with our
bodies. Some dancers are more acutely aware of small changes and
know when something is wrong in their bodies; while other dancers
will have their muscles go into spasm before they notice a change in
how they feel.
Improving our ability to listen and respond to messages, such as
pain, from our bodies is important to being able to maintain
long-term health. It is also important to remember that these
responses, which influence how we experience pain, are emotional as
well as physical. An example of an emotional influence would be a
dancer who is concerned about being taken out of a role. He or she
may downplay or deny any pain to keep that role. Looking at the many
physical and emotional influences upon pain helps to explain why
dancers will have greatly varying responses to the same injury.
There can be a fine line between soreness and pain. More often
than not, I see dancers NOT paying attention to their messages of
pain or allowing the initial messages of soreness to become pain.
Seeing how hard it is to define pain, let’s go to the easier task of
defining situations that may create soreness.
What is Soreness?
Dancers often will feel temporary muscle soreness after a class that
has been particularly challenging or when new choreography or
movement styles have been introduced. This soreness can be caused by
overworking the muscles without the proper warm-up for that movement
patterning. Combinations in center and across the floor typically
use different sequencing and patterns of movements than a barre,
modern dance, tap, or jazz warm-up. Depending on your individual
body type and structure, some movements will suit you better and
feel natural, while other movements challenge your physicality. For
example, I am a dancer of normal flexibility and strength. A few
years ago I was in a piece that was choreographed by a dancer who
was little, wiry, and fast moving. The piece was filled with small
precise, fast movements that weren’t a part of my dance vocabulary
(think of a robot gone crazy). The day after our first rehearsal I
woke up to incredible muscle soreness in my upper body.
Sometimes
you will feel soreness begin during a long class or rehearsal. This
soreness may be caused by fatigue of doing too many repetitions of a
specific movement. If at all possible, when you feel the soreness
begin, try to take a few minutes and rest or try to stretch the
involved area if you have been strongly contracting it. Your body is
giving you a clue that if soreness is respected in its early stages,
you can prevent more damaging muscle strain from occurring.
You may
feel muscle strain the day after a class, usually upon awakening.
What you are actually feeling are small tears in the muscles and
connective tissue caused by overly forceful stretching, movements
that you are not accustomed to, or a combination of the two.
Generally, you’ll feel stiff, achy, and uncomfortable as you begin
to move and stretch. Typically these feelings will ease as you
continue to wake up and move. It may take a few days for the
soreness to decrease, depending on how much you overworked the
muscles. For example, if a dancer hasn’t danced all summer, and then
starts the fall semester by attending a 2 hour modern class followed
by a ballet or jazz class, that dancer is bound to feel sore the
next day.
Growing Stronger
A
muscle grows stronger when it is gently stressed beyond its normal
workload. The above example of the dancer taking the summer off and
returning immediately to several hours of classes per day describes
aggressively overloading of the muscle. This soreness may take
several days to disappear, depending on the dancer’s quality of body
care. The best way to minimize soreness and pain is to maximize
training. The following guidelines will help to minimize and work
through soreness as quickly as possible:
- Proper
nutrition is essential for the body to repair itself easily and
quickly, even from small muscle tears. Protein and good
carbohydrates (such as vegetables) should be well represented in
the diet. Grains and sweets should be minimized.
- Proper
hydration is important. A general rule for hydration is to drink
one quart of water daily for every 50 pounds of body weight. This
does not mean soda, juice, coffee, tea, or sports drinks. The body
can only utilize about a cup of water an hour, and will flush the
rest through the kidneys. Sipping water, all day long, is the best
way to stay properly hydrated. Generally, thirst means
dehydration.
- Warm
up muscles with movement, such as brisk walking, easy jogging, or
marching in place, prior to stretching gently. This approach will
help to dissipate any waste products, such as lactic acid, while
conditioning the muscles and preparing them for class or
rehearsal. It’s amazing how many times I see dancers walk into
rehearsal without a proper warm-up. Taking class in the morning
will not count as a warm-up if your rehearsal isn’t until late
afternoon.
With practice, dancers will learn to decipher the body’s messages
as either soreness or pain. Dancers need to know that pain is always
a cause for concern and should be respected, especially when trying
to determine the pain’s origin. Soreness, on the other hand, can be
safely addressed through careful attention for a few days. I believe
we all have an inner physician, a voice of knowledge, that will give
us guidance on deciding what is okay soreness (or good pain as some
describe it), and what isn’t. We simply need to learn to listen.
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