Self Care Practices for Dancers
Self care is any practice taken conscientiously with the intent to preserve or improve one’s health. Pole is a great practice that falls into this category most of the time and 95% of the time there isn’t an act of self care I recommend more than pole, but what happens when we spend more time at the studio than we do outside, what happens when we’re training 7 days a week, or if you’re like me what happens if you’re training 7 days a week and when you’re not training you’re teaching? The answer to that is, on the easy end, you get burn out. On the less easy end, you get injured or you begin to lose joy in your pole practice. Now, I myself know that getting ME out of the studio is a very hard thing to do, so I feel like i can not ask that of you but what I can do and I think is important to do is highlight ways we can further improve our health and commitment to self care , by diversifying our practice especially when we don’t want to stop moving! And doing so in a way that avoids burnout, injury and progressive dissatisfaction.
Rest and restoration
First things first, I know you’re not resting enough! Or maybe I’m Projecting and you are resting enough, are you actively contributing to your bodys’ restoration process. While rest is important for the repair of our physical body, restoration is vital to replenishing our mental and emotional reservoirs. Rest is the practice of ceasing movement so sleep, bed rotting, napping are all great examples of rest. It has been proven to aid in tissue repair, improving energy levels and reducing soreness and body aches. and is important for cognitive function, memory and a litany of other things. But restoration is different, it goes beyond just stopping all activity. Restoration is the process of rebuilding and is one of the most missed yet most important self care acts we can do as dancers. We ask a lot of our bodies, and thus it is equally and likely more important that we replenish our bodies. Some great ways we can restore the body with out taking too much time out of our dance practice is to engage in other types of movement practices that are less taxing on the physical body or are specifically designed to restore the body. Some of these practices include but are not limited to restorative yoga (don’t go taking a power vinyasa class in the name of restoration), going on walks, easy hikes, or getting nagas massages. Taking a stretch class, or taking a twerk class to still stay active but reduce the overall strain on the body is a great idea for restoration and pole plus has got some great options! Whether you wanna do sexy stretch with Starr virtually on Tuesdays or Twerk Sum with Leanna on Fridays, choosing to actively pour back into your body is a great way to practice self care even when you don’t want to leave the studio! I wish I could tell you we have a class in which we can collectively nap together, we don’t, still,chose a rest day, one day to not move and then come join us for some restoration so we can actively avoid burn out and injury together!
Proper Nutrition
The second most important thing to avoid burnout and actively practice self care is to engage in good nutrition habits. Imagine if you have a car that runs only on diesel fuel, that car is going to obviously have problems running on regular fuel, now imagine if you only give that care regular fuel for a prolonged period of time. You’re gonna open your car up to a plethora of mechanical issues that would cost so much to repair in the long run. That’s how important nutrition is for our bodies. Now I don’t mean go on a diet or only eat vegetables or cut out meet or any of the fads we hear about constantly, I mean making sure your body has what it needs to do what you want it to do. First begin with a balanced meal plan. You equally need vegetables as you need fats as you need protein as you need carbohydrates. Balance is the key to prosperity as a dancer. Also make sure to maintain your vitamin and mineral levels. Here are some vitamins that are necessary for muscle repair and restoration that we are often very low in
MAGNESIUM! Low magnesium levels have been linked to elevated muscle cramps and soreness, as well as muscle spasms and low energy levels. So pull out the epsom salt, grab some magnesium supplements from your local vitamin shop and help your body recover faster so you can train more!
Vitamin C; Vitamin C is vital for muscle repair as it is a powerful antioxidant that aids in reducing inflammation and thus increasing recovery rates
Vitamin D; we all know protein is important for muscle repair what we don’t know is that without vitamin d protein cannot synthesize. Vitamin D supports protein synthesis by binding to proteins in the blood stream for transport or storage. Without vitamin d our muscles get weak and protein synthesis slows down. Maintaining a balanced diet and ensuring we are taking our vitamins and minerals can be the deterrent from fatigue and injury.
Hydration
We don’t think of proper hydration as a self care practice
I know many people wouldn’t consider hydration an act of self care but a commitment to your body’s nourishment has drastic effects on body functionality. Researchers have found that even a 2% loss in hydration can greatly impact cognitive ability, mood, increase anxiety and depression! For our body’s, less water means less fluids in our joints to aid with bone and muscle aches. The average healthy adult needs 64 ounces of water a day, so if we made sure to drink 64 ounces of water a day we’d be less sore when we return to the studio and we’d be less mentally and emotionally drained, thus we’d be able to pour more into our bodies physically if we increased our water intake. But that doesn’t mean we’re have to be drinking water every second at the drop of the hat,
Here are some tips for staying hydrated if you don’t feel like carrying a gallon around
Incorporate water rich foods in your diet such as soups and smoothies
Eat more fruits with high hydration rates such as watermelon, cantaloupe, or cucumber
Focus on water retention incorporating sodiums in your diet but not table salt more like, potassium and magnesium and lastly
Carry the dang gallon if that’s what works for you
Stretching and Mobility
Tight muscles are at a higher risk of injury, there’s no way to sugar coat it. Now while we usually stretch at the beginning and end or our classes or training sessions to warm up and cool down our bodies but engaging in a consistent mobility improvement routine could reduce tension, relieve tight muscles, and improve our overall pole practice. Mobility is the ability for our bodies to utilize and maintain strength through various ranges of motion! This means stronger shoulders through out the full range of the ball and socket joint, this means the strength to pretzel our bodies in and out of those bendy shapes we love so much. See if you can block out 15-20 minutes once a week to specifically focus on mobility and watch how your practice improves, you’re in less pain after classes and you store less tension in your body! There are some great tutorials to be found on YouTube for this!
Mental Health Practices
We can’t taking about self care without discussing mental health! Now I am not a mental health professional so I’ll keep this brief and relegated only to my experience. I am a chronic over thinker and I want to do everything at once which means that I can constantly trying to be stronger, while improving my flexibility, while learning and mastering new tricks while trying to teach those to my classes while… while.. while…. It gets very overwhelming! A few coping mechanisms that’s I’ve utilized to help me be less over whelmed are
I prioritize what I want to work on and give it a designated period of time for me to focus on that and then move on, usually I find 6-12 weeks to be a good range so for 6-12 weeks I might just focus on strength building, or mobility. This practice helps me reduce the mechanical overwhelm I get with dance and keeps me coming back to the studio
Meditation + visualization, specifically sensation mapping; identifying and analyzing where in the body I feel any kind sensation and visualize there being a knot in that area and the more attention I pay to that knot the more it unravels and takes the strain with it! This has been so helpful to me with staying present in my body, it helps me manifest a healthy body and reminds me to let go all in one.
These are some of my go tos’, like I said I’m not a mental heath expert so if you want to attempt these do so at your own decision.
Cross - Training
You’ve Probably heard before that you should cross train! This is a great idea for building well rounded foundation for your pole journey! It’s also a great way to aid in avoiding injury and burnout because you can still train while diversifying your practice. As an act of self care it can help reduce boredom, create new pathways of thought and add some variety and fun to your current practice! Weight lifting is a great option for cross training, as well as CrossFit, And kick boxing. All of which can help you build the strength, stamina, and endurance you need for lengthy routines and increasingly difficult combos without over using the muscles we need to pole. But, they can simultaneously help add a little bit of fun to your fitness journey! think outside the box cross-training can be anything that keeps you fit and gets you using your muscles in a new and different way! try Rock climbing or Parkour or Soft Acro. You’ll be surprised how what you learn outside of pole can help you be a better dancer
All in all, Have Fun
