Dance Advantage » Health and Wellness

Nutrition On The Move: Germ Fighting Greens

Joanie Johnson — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:00:44 +0000

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Pack a daily dose of Vitamin C filled greens to go. [Photo ©Rachel Blumenthal

You are gone from morning to night with your jam-packed schedule. How in the world are you supposed to get your daily dose of greens without having to spend a fortune on purchasing food to go?

Greens that have been cooked the night before are surprisingly still tasty as leftovers. (Don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it!)

Broccoli Rabe (pronounced rahb) gives you half of your daily requirement of vitamin C. This powerful antioxidant is going to help your body fight off dangerous free radicals – a defense you are going to need when your ballet partner comes down with a cold!

Broccoli Rabe(...)

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Protecting Your Toesies For Pointe

Lauren Warnecke — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:22:17 +0000

I started pointe at age 9 –

(too young by some teachers’ opinions, but that’s another article), and my teacher was thoroughly set on having all of her students wear pointe shoes without padding. Her philosophy was that if shoe fit correctly then there wasn’t any need for padding.

That’s a nice theory but, unless you have a custom-made shoe, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a shoe out there that will mold exactly to your foot. The other problem with this particular teacher’s point of view is that she required all of her students to wear Capezio brand pointe shoes. There’s nothing wrong with Capezio shoes, it’s just that if you’re going to make dancers dance on pointe without padding and request a “perfect fit”, then you had better give her as many options as possible!

Still, I walked out with my shiny new size 3 Capezios and a year later I had ingrown toenails, the beginning of bunions and bunionettes, and nearly constant abrasions and blisters. There just wasn’t a Capezio shoe that fit my foot with enough efficacy to wear it without padding.

I eventually changed studios and, at age 14, I essentially started over. I was asked to go to a professional pointe shoe fitting by a woman named Sylvia.

Sylvia, a purest in her own right, always started with Grishko and very rarely strayed to other brands, only allowing lamb’s wool as padding. This time, however, I got a bit lucky and wound up with the Grishko Elite, which happens to be the best shoe out there for my foot.  I haven’t bought another shoe since.

I’ve recently been working on developing an e-course about pointe preparation and came across Nichelle’s great article on pointe readiness during my research.  I found all the comments and differing opinions about shoe types, brands, construction, and padding options really interesting.

Even when I found “my perfect shoe”, I still needed padding.

So, the focus of this post is to break down your options and help you get to the bottom of the pointe shoe padding conundrum.

I’ve tried pretty much everything in my shoes, including:(...)

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Nutrition On The Move: A Nerve Calming Salad

Joanie Johnson — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 17:15:07 +0000

Soothe those pre-performance jitters with this cooling and calming salad. // Photo by Janet Hudson

Its opening night and the butterflies are about to explode out of your stomach!

You know you should eat something but can’t handle anything too heavy. Before you grab a packaged, processed food, remind yourself that your body won’t recognize that as real food and it’s going to consume more energy to break it down and figure out where in the world to store it. This salad is light, fresh and the mint will help settle those pre-show jitters.

Break a leg!(...)

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Nutrition On The Move: Breakfast Of Champions…Or Dancers!

Joanie Johnson — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:00:55 +0000

A bowl of sugary, processed cereal is not going to energize you for the day. Start your morning off right with a whole grain like kasha.

We all know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It’s not all that effective though when we are scarfing down a bowl of sugary or processed cereal before we run out the door. Mix up your morning routine with a whole grain. The complex carbohydrates will slowly feed your body energy and keep you fuller for longer.(...)

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Nutrition On The Move: Ball-O-Energy

Joanie Johnson — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:00:58 +0000

These little snacks travel well in your dance bag and give you the perfect combination of nutritional energy to help you last until dinner.

Ball of energy. That is probably is how most of your friends and family describe you. They can’t imagine having the amount of energy that you do in order to make it through your day as a dancer. Little do they know, you are armed with secret dancer, nutritional advice.

Pack these and eat them when you need something that is going to hold you another hour or so until your next meal. The sugar in the apple juice will give you a quick boost of energy while the combo of complex carbs, fats and proteins will go to work to help stabilize blood sugar, release sustained energy.

Ball-O-Nuts

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Yield: 10-15 balls

Ingredients:(...)

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Is Cross-training A Good Idea?

Lauren Warnecke — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 13:46:42 +0000

The question of whether or not to cross-train has been a controversial one among the dance community. Ask five experts and you are likely to get five different answers.

My take on cross-training:   Do it!

Athletes of nearly every discipline from long-distance runners to gymnasts to curlers integrate cross-training as a part of their preparation. Professional sports teams often employ Strength and Conditioning Coaches to prescribe and monitor cross-training activities that are specifically designed to enhance their performance.  Many dancers, too, belong to gyms to stay fit during layoffs and breaks, and as a diversion from the monotony of their regular dance schedule.

Types of cross-training (in a nutshell):

Yoga and Pilates are a typical choice for cross-training among dancers, however there are benefits to incorporating other types of activity such as running, swimming, and weight training. Generally speaking, exercise can be broken into two main categories: aerobic/ low-intensity and anaerobic/high-intensity. In the field of exercise science, there is increasing debate over these labels and how accurately they describe exercise, but for the purpose of this article we’ll go for it.

Aerobic conditioning(...)

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Burnout, Obstacles, and Overcommitment

Nichelle (admin) — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:27:39 +0000

Chantale Lussier-Ley is a mental performance consultant based in Canada who has worked extensively with dancers. I interviewed her to get some professional insight on how parents should respond when their child says, “I want to quit dance.”

And she had more great advice for parents in her guest post, How To Nurture Positive Rivalry in Competition and Dance at Home (There are more positive rivalry posts to come, by the way! Look for an installment especially for teachers and for students.)

This time, we asked her a few quick questions on Burnout, Obstacles, and Overcommitment.

Here’s what Chantale had to say:

DA: Burnout has been defined as:

“an exhaustive psychophysiological response exhibited as a result of frequent, sometimes extreme, and generally ineffective efforts to meet excessive training and competitive demands” (Weinberg & Gould, 1995).

Can you help us better understand burnout?(...)

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Nutrition On The Move: Lasting Energy With Lentils

Joanie Johnson — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 13:00:31 +0000

Long days call for long, lasting energy. Lentils will give you a nutritional boost.

It’s only 10am, you’ve got a hard day of rehearsals ahead and you are already feeling lightheaded from your sugar dropping. Save yourself by prepping a quick, lentil salad the night before.

The iron in lentils will give you long lasting energy while their source of soluble fiber will help stabilize your blood sugar.(...)

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Nutrition On The Move: Flavor Boost Your H2O

Joanie Johnson — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 13:30:00 +0000

Cucumber Water is the perfect way to boost your electrolytes after a class.

H2O is the absolute best thing for you to drink during class or a performance. Sports drinks contain too much sugar and energy drinks are pumping you full of caffeine and a laundry list of ingredients that you can’t begin to pronounce. But sometimes you are craving something more than water to quench that post plié thirst.

Try mixing it up with cucumber water. In the less-than-5-minutes it takes to prepare, you’ll be feeding your body vitamin K for bone strength, Vitamins A and C for fighting germs, and you’ll be getting a healthy boost of potassium and electrolytes as well!

CUCUMBER WATER

Prep Time: 5 min       Yields: 2 Servings

Ingredients:

(...)

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Fatigue and Injury: Making room for rest

Lauren Warnecke — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 13:33:39 +0000

"Exhausted Dancer" by Edgar Degas - Wikimedia Commons

Muscular fatigue is something all dancers will experience from time to time.

Fatigue is characterized by a decline in the body’s ability to produce force in muscular contractions. In other words, you have to work harder to produce the same results, which further fatigues the muscles.

Fatigue is good.

If you ask an exercise physiologist, fatigue is not only good, it’s an essential component to making adaptations to muscle. The formula for building strength is fairly simple:

Work to the point of fatigue

Rest and recover

Work to the point of fatigue

Rest and recover

… and so on, and so forth. The idea is that each time you are working it takes a little longer to get to the point of fatigue, giving you increased endurance in whatever activity you are doing.

When fatigue is not so good.

Because of the body’s inability to produce as much force during a state of fatigue, each movement is going to require more effort and “oomph”, for lack of a better term.

This often creates a situation where you are compromising technique and placement to try and recreate the same level of performance as when you are not fatigued. As I mentioned in my checklist for knee injury prevention, performing when you’re fatigued puts you at a higher risk for incurring an injury.

So You Think You Can Dance fans have been eagerly anticipating the return of Alex Wong to the show as an “All-Star” cast member following his withdrawal from the show due to a ruptured Achilles tendon.

If anything good came out of that situation, it was this tribute rendition of his “Nappy Tabs” hip-hop routine with Twitch and a “genuine dance super-star”….

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvGg1PNKtx0

A couple weeks ago, Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe announced that Alex would, in fact, not be returning to the show this season due to the fact that he has now ruptured the OTHER Achilles tendon during an audition for a different reality dance show.

Mr. Lythgoe went on to say that “this just goes to show what you have to put your body through in order to be a dancer.”

That’s where I start to have a problem with this whole situation….

Dancers work long hours. Depending on your personal level of endurance, you may be put into a situation where a performance or rehearsal comes at a time of the day when your muscles are already at the point of fatigue.

Ask any dancer if s/he feels comfortable telling their director “I’m sorry, I can’t perform tonight, because my muscles are at the point of fatigue, placing me at a greater risk for injury.”

Yeah… that’s not going to happen.

A dancer friend of mine once told me that she was cast in a very exhausting, athletic piece, and was required to perform a dress rehearsal full-out one hour before the performance began.

I would imagine that the reality TV dance craze of SYTYCD, America’s Best Dance Crew, Dancing With the Stars, etc. follows approximately the same model, by having rehearsals a short time before taping to save the celebrity guest judges from having to come on two separate days.

My friend said to me, “…it’s like asking a football team to play an entire game right before the game starts.” How can we possibly ask dancers to perform at the same level when their bodies are physically exhausted, and not expect them to eventually become injured?

Is this really, truly, what dancers have to put their bodies through in order to be successful?

Make Room For Rest

One possible answer to this conundrum is training dancers to have increased endurance by following the fatigue – rest – fatigue – rest model that I’ve mentioned above, but this, of course, requires that we actually adhere to the REST.

In dance, the body is our instrument. Unlike guitar strings, you can’t buy Achilles tendons every time they break – you only get two.

It’s our responsibility as teachers, choreographers, directors, (and executive producers) to create an environment that respects the rest required to protect our bodies and maximize performance…during performances.

Now it’s your turn:

Dancers: How do you monitor signs of fatigue?

Teachers/ Directors/ Choreographers: What advice can you offer dancers about protecting their bodies from fatigue and injury?

© Lauren Warnecke for Dance Advantage, 2011. | Permalink | Category: Blog, Career, Dancing, Health and Wellness, Performing, Understanding the Body | Who's talking about this article?

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Have Your Barre and Eat It Too!

Nichelle (admin) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:35:47 +0000

Portable snacks are a must for busy dancers. But so are healthy snacks.

Finding something that’s grab-and-go yet meets the nutritional needs of a dancer is frequently a challenge.

In fact this was the challenge Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre principal, Julia Erickson set out to conquer in her kitchen in early 2010: To create a better energy bar for herself. One that tasted better and was made from ingredients she could pronounce.

What she whipped up caught the attention of fellow dancers. She made more, selling an early version to PBT’s summer students. Recognizing a need in the dance community, she teamed up with friend, partner, and fellow dancer Aaron Ingley and formed a business.

With an aim to raise the barre on nutrition and encourage healthy eating habits in the dance world and beyond, they created Barre, a real food bar made with natural ingredients and superfoods like hemp seed, flax, and dates “by dancers for ~~dancers~~ everyone.”

Barre’s first flavor, Pirouette: Cinnamon Nut Twirl officially launched on July 5. Not only have Julia and Aaron shared a few samples of their tasty triumph with me but they’ve agreed to share their story, their mission, and their own tips and ideas for eating healthfully on a dancer’s schedule with Dance Advantage readers.

Dance Advantage: I suspect you’ve tried a lot of nutrition and energy bars, and maybe even depended on them at times while on the go as dancers. What changed your mind about the effectiveness and nutritional value of the majority of bars out on the market?

Aaron Ingley: Nutrition bars have become really big business in the last ten years and there are gazillions on the market. In the beginning they seemed like a godsend for dancers—easy to eat between rehearsals and, in the beginning, decently healthy. What has happened since then is that everyone and their brother started making bars to turn a quick profit and the quality of ingredients suffered. (...)

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Customizing Your Tap Shoes: Health and Comfort

Tristan Bruns — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 13:36:26 +0000

In Deconstructing a Tap Shoe, I discussed the use of orthotics as a means to prevent and treat foot ailments. But what if you could achieve the same results by modification? Modifying your tap shoes for health and comfort is like cutting out the middle man and can make tap dancing much more enjoyable for those with new and/or congenital foot disorders.

For Health and Comfort

Tracing your feet is an option that gives the shoe maker a good idea of the width and length of your foot. Put your foot on a piece of white paper and trace around it. Be sure to do both feet. Consider this: A foot exists in three dimensions, while tracing your foot only deals with two. Information like the height of your instep and certain deformities may go unnoticed. Tracing is a good tool, but an even better idea may be to…

Send in a photograph of your foot. By taking pictures of all the sides, the shoe maker can get a 3-D model of your foot. A trained eye can spot problem areas that may be treatable by shoe modifications.

Spot stretching is useful for people that need accommodations in specific areas. Using a tool like a ball and ring stretcher, a distinct area in the shoe can be stretched, which can alleviate discomfort for bunions, calluses and corns, exostosis and heel spurs.

Plastic parts can be remolded. Certain parts of a tap shoe may contain supportive structures made out of hard plastic. Plastic can be found in the counter, a built-in structure that sits behind the heel of the foot and is used to stiffen the back part of the shoe, and the toe box, a protective area built in to the front of a shoe to protect the toes. These parts can be remolded to better suit a dancer’s individual requirements.

Padding can be designed into the tap shoe during its construction to support all parts of the foot, including(...)

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Learning to Cook for Dancers

Guest Contributors — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:32:34 +0000

All athletes are in need of special nutrition plans that will ensure that their bodies receive the full range of nutrients they need.

When you practice a specialized physical activity such as dancing, certain muscle groups and metabolic processes in your body are stressed more than those of the average person, necessitating an increased amount of certain nutrients that will help your body to build extra strength in these areas.

Dancers in particular burn many more calories and expend far more energy than the average person. In order to thrive, you will need to learn how to prepare healthy, balanced meals that are specially formulated for your rigorous physical activities. Though this sounds daunting and indeed can sometimes be a challenge, you won’t need to go to a cooking school to accomplish this task. You can save time (and money) by simply carrying out a little research of your own.

Nutritional Needs of Dancers

Many dancers are required to possess a very lean, limber physique. However, universities suggest that restriction of nutrition in a dancer’s diet can lead to chronic fatigue and even muscle failure. In fact, dancers need quite a few more calories than most people in order to ensure that they can produce the considerable energy that their bodies need they need to perform well. Despite the popular aversion to carbs prevalent these days, dancers should be sure to eat large quantities of complex carbohydrates, such as whole grain breads and pastas, throughout the entire day. After a strenuous workout, you should consume a protein-heavy meal or snack to provide your muscles with the amino acids that they need to rebuild. Your diet should also be supplemented with extra calcium to ensure adequate bone strength.

Fortunately, adjusting your cooking habits to provide this type of diet is easier than you may think. It is all a matter of keeping track of what goes into your body, and adjusting your cooking techniques in order to suit your specific needs.

Whole Grain Help

First of all, replace all (...)

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The Achilles Tendon: Dancer Injury and Prevention

Lauren Warnecke — Thu, 26 May 2011 13:35:25 +0000

Of body parts in the dance world, the Achilles tendon is perhaps one of the more infamous.

What’s in a name?

Achilles was a figure of Greek Mythology refuted as an infallible hero of the Trojan War – infallible, of course, except for the small injury to his heel that killed him. Consequently, the term “Achilles Heel” is used to describe the greatest weakness of an individual, and the small tendon connecting the calf muscle (triceps surae) to the heel bone (calcaneus) is called the Achilles tendon.

Tendons are the fibrous, elastic structures at the end of each skeletal muscle.

Their job is to connect muscles to bones, and to store elastic energy (that is then converted into mechanical forces acting on the bone, enabling movement to occur).

Tendonopathies

Injury to any tendon is universally referred to as tendonopathy.

The most commonly injured tendons in dancers are the Achilles tendon, peroneal tendons, posterior tibial tendons and Flexor hallucis longus (FHL).

Dancing places frequent stress on the Achilles tendon. Achilles tendonitis occurs when the tendon becomes inflamed due to overuse, excessive pronation, bowlegs, tight Achilles tendons, or abnormally shaped heel bones (Hodgkins, Kennedy & O’Loughlin, 2008).

The likelihood of developing Achilles tendonitis increases if you use improper technique (Motta-Valencia, 2006).

Forcing your turnout causes the foot to pronate placing further stress on the Achilles tendon (Kadel, 2006).

Failure to press the heels into the ground following jumps, or to rise completely to full 3/4 toe in relevé, shortens the tendon and puts the dancer at further risk for tendonitis and/or rupture of the tendon (Kadel, 2006).

How can I prevent tendonitis?(...)

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Help! I Sweat A LOT In Dance Class!

Nichelle (admin) — Tue, 17 May 2011 18:41:10 +0000

A reader writes:

We all know dancers work hard and sweat. Thing is, I sweat excessively! When I dance, it starts from the very first minutes in class and then gets worse and worse!

That brings many undesired results: a) I smell bad, b) I’m sticky and watery so I guess it’s not appealing for my dance partner and I get embarrassed when he touches me, c) my leotard or unitard gets sweaty marks under the armpits, under the breasts, belly, back, waist, groin, buttocks (that means everywhere).

It’s so embarrassing! Most of my classmates do not sweat as I do. If you have any advice, ideas, solutions, article or anything else on this, I would really appreciate it!

Dear reader, I know this can be an embarrassing situation.

First, understand sweating during physical activity is normal and healthy.

Heavy sweating (unless it’s accompanied by pain, trouble breathing, or underlying health problems) may actually be a sign that you are more physically fit than your non-sweating classmates. At the very least it shows you have an efficient cooling system!

Do put your mind at ease and talk with your doctor to rule out any conditions that may be causing you to sweat excessively.

Second, don’t be (...)

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Dance Advantage » Health and Wellness

Nutrition On The Move: Germ Fighting Greens

Protecting Your Toesies For Pointe

I started pointe at age 9 –

Even when I found “my perfect shoe”, I still needed padding.

Nutrition On The Move: A Nerve Calming Salad

Its opening night and the butterflies are about to explode out of your stomach!

Nutrition On The Move: Breakfast Of Champions…Or Dancers!

Nutrition On The Move: Ball-O-Energy

Ball-O-Nuts

Is Cross-training A Good Idea?

My take on cross-training: Do it!

Types of cross-training (in a nutshell):

Burnout, Obstacles, and Overcommitment

This time, we asked her a few quick questions on Burnout, Obstacles, and Overcommitment.

DA: Burnout has been defined as:

“an exhaustive psychophysiological response exhibited as a result of frequent, sometimes extreme, and generally ineffective efforts to meet excessive training and competitive demands” (Weinberg & Gould, 1995).

Nutrition On The Move: Lasting Energy With Lentils

Nutrition On The Move: Flavor Boost Your H2O

CUCUMBER WATER

Fatigue and Injury: Making room for rest

Fatigue is good.

When fatigue is not so good.

That’s where I start to have a problem with this whole situation….

Yeah… that’s not going to happen.

Is this really, truly, what dancers have to put their bodies through in order to be successful?

Make Room For Rest

Now it’s your turn:

Dancers: How do you monitor signs of fatigue?

Teachers/ Directors/ Choreographers: What advice can you offer dancers about protecting their bodies from fatigue and injury?

Have Your Barre and Eat It Too!

Portable snacks are a must for busy dancers. But so are healthy snacks.

Dance Advantage: I suspect you’ve tried a lot of nutrition and energy bars, and maybe even depended on them at times while on the go as dancers. What changed your mind about the effectiveness and nutritional value of the majority of bars out on the market?

Customizing Your Tap Shoes: Health and Comfort

For Health and Comfort

Learning to Cook for Dancers

Nutritional Needs of Dancers

Whole Grain Help

The Achilles Tendon: Dancer Injury and Prevention

Of body parts in the dance world, the Achilles tendon is perhaps one of the more infamous.

What’s in a name?

Tendons are the fibrous, elastic structures at the end of each skeletal muscle.

Tendonopathies

Help! I Sweat A LOT In Dance Class!

A reader writes:

Dear reader, I know this can be an embarrassing situation.

First, understand sweating during physical activity is normal and healthy.

**Portable snacks are a must for busy dancers. But so are healthy snacks.**