Managing your Pole Dancing injuries and ENHANCING your performance with Chiropractic !
Aerial sports, such as pole dancing or silks, have recently been gaining popularity as a form of fitness, combining dance and acrobatics. Many new, recreational athletes are joining pole sports every year. According to the International Pole Sports Federation, this emerging sport is so popular, that it could be a future Olympic sport.
Understanding Potential Risks:
In research conducted in a hospital in Greece in 2016, they found that of pole sportspeople coming into the hospital, 29.4% of patients suffered from low back and hip, strains and contusions, 20.6% suffered from knee sprains and contusions, 17.7% suffered from wrist sprains, 14.7% suffered from ankle sprains, and 5.9% suffered from neck (cervical spine) strains. There is therefore a potential risk of developing a joint injury while performing pole dancing and other sports.
Aerial arts have different postural requirements, which means different injuries can result. This means that while you need to develop flexibility, you also need the strength to support your joints. They are at particular risk, because during different pole sports, your muscles are contracting at their end ranges of length, where they are very vulnerable to injury.
There is also a lot of demand on your upper body, and especially when you perform counterintuitive positions that your brain is not used to performing. Most usual forms of exercise are done with your body in its normal upright position, which your brain has maps to control, due to its constant experience of being in this posture. However, with aerial exercise, you are using your body in positions that your body (and brain) isn’t used to.
Especially early on in learning these sports, your body hasn’t yet formed appropriate balance and postural maps for these positions. As aerial performers can tell you, when you do inversion-type exercise, your left from right, back from front, and up from down can suddenly become a lot more complicated. Your balance and spatial perception is tested in a new way which can put your body at further risk of injury.
We used to think that our brains were ‘hardwired’ and our body simply responded to its commands. But with recent research on the brain and neurology, we know that the brain is mouldable and can change depending on information that it gets from the body.
The Role of Chiropractic Treatment in Preventing & Overcoming Injuries:
In order for your brain to form new maps it needs information. Chiropractic manipulation forces the nerves in your body to send messages to your brain making it more aware of what’s happening out there. So replacing a missing sensory input early on can reduce or even prevent many structural pathologies or “pain generators” before they arise.
At Waterloo Chiropractic we treat many different sports injuries, including those caused by aerial sports, from disc injuries in your back to ankle and shoulder injuries. We tailor treatments to deal with the specific needs of our patients. Having a physical therapist who understands your special needs can mean the difference between a series of ongoing injuries or a chance to enjoy your sport.
To book in with a sports chiropractor whose special interest population is dancers, please book with Sue Tyfield – Chiropractor
http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/51/4/363.2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24530068