Calf Pain and Achilles Injuries in Dancers

Dancing has never been more popular especially with the ever popular celebrity Dancing competitions on TV. With more and more people now taking up the sport there are more people suffering injuries. The majority of injuries in dancers involve the legs and the foot. The foot is regularly forced into a hyper flexed position especially in ballet and tap classes. This causes the calf muscles and the Achilles tendon to become over worked and tighten. As a result, the biomechanics of walking can become altered causing injury to the foot, calf, knee, hip and back. It can also cause these structures to thicken up and become scarred. This makes them more prone to injury.

Bunions, hammer toe, ingrown toe nails and Morton's neuroma are all problems that can occur with dance. Also ankle sprains, metatarsalgia and arthritis are also common. So whilst it looks graceful and effortless, dancers very often have terrible feet. Many of these problems are caused by the foot being in a poor position, biomechanically incorrect and poor maintenance afterwards. As with any athlete, the more you look after your body, the less injury you will get. This includes stretching, joint mobilisations and graduated training programs. Listen to pain! Pain has a function of telling you if the body is not happy and damage is being done. If you address it immediately usually it can be resolved quickly. However if you let it continue, arthritis and other irreversible problems can occur.