What Can A Ballet and Dance Physiotherapist Actually Do For You?
So last time, I asked you “what do you think a Physio does?”. I put the same question to my instagram followers and got quite a lot of responses! Something that interested me was that a lot of the responses were very pain oriented, so I got responses like “assess injuries, give exercises and massage” and “helping people recover from injuries” and “a person what helps with physical pain and injury”. Among those answers, I got a few calling physios “wizards” and “magicians” which was nice, but I thought it was interesting that the idea behind physiotherapists is almost “negative”. So, what can a ballet and dance physiotherapist actually do?
While the idea behind physiotherapists assessing and treating injuries is 100% true, (and we love diagnosing and assessing your niggles and pains!) we do so much more!
Whilst I was dancing, and I’m sure a lot of other people can agree, I would only see the physiotherapist when something hurt. It wasn’t until I was older that I realized, if physiotherapists have the knowledge to increase my strength from an injury, surely they have the knowledge to make me stronger, faster, and more flexible too!
I decided to regularly see a physiotherapist to improve my technique. I wanted to get my legs stronger so I could keep them in the air for longer. My physiotherapist gave me strengthening exercises for my core and specific exercises that related closely to my ballet technique to get my legs higher and stronger.
And it worked!
Over the years I worked closely with my physiotherapists strengthening and lengthening my body as well as recovering from and preventing injury. Unfortunately though, sometimes people become chronically injured, and I was one of them. At 19, I was forced to quit ballet. It was then that I began my journey into physiotherapy to prevent this happening to others!
And boy did I learn a lot.
So, we’ve spoken about physiotherapists treating injuries and improving your technique, but we also help PREVENT injuries! Awesome right?! We work closely with you to understand the demands of your sport or job, all the way from throwing further to just being able to get through a 10 hour day to day desk job without pain. We set goals with you and work out a plan to keep you in tip-top shape so when you come to see us, it doesn’t have to be because you’re in pain!
Maybe we are wizards after all?
