So come on and get your groove on and dance the pain away!
It is often your job that actually causes back pain.
Think about those who work in construction, healthcare or even those who dance for a living. Well, those areas are all prime types of employment that can cause back pain.
Most people love their job and aren't willing to give it up even if there has been an injury and recurring back pain as a result.
Construction workers are quite physical in their every day work. While healthcare workers are prone to back pain because of the lifting, pulling or pushing either patients or equipment that is part of their job.
Dancers also have a very physical job and much like an elite athlete they can suffer from back pain. Most often this back pain resides in the lower lumbar region. Research studies have shown that at least twelve percent of all dancers will suffer some type of lower back pain during their career. Regardless of the job, the more spinal movement that is required in order to adequately complete the job tasks, the more opportunity there is for injury.
Strangely enough, a certain portion of dancers' back pain is not actually an injury but rather pain from simply overusing the back and all the muscles. Dancers spend their days either training, practicing or performing and because of that brutal schedule there just is not enough time for the back to rest and recover. Caused without question by overuse, dancers' back pain is typically categorized as fractures, inflammation of the vertebrate, mechanical or disc related. But the challenge becomes if dancing is your career you must determine how to deal with the back pain which has resulted from the abuse of your career.
Currently there is a program in the United States that is working with back pain in dancers in an effort to help them to get back to the activity and often times the career they love.
This program uses dance to help strengthen the back and improve flexibility. The founder of this program found she felt so much better physically during the time she was taking dance lessons preceding her wedding. After realizing what a difference it made for her, she thought perhaps it could be beneficial to others.
This doctor changed her interests from her current career path to pain management and then searched for a couple of excellent dance instructors who could help others to achieve the improved feeling of health that she had achieved prior to her wedding.
The program begins with a complete medical review of the patient's condition and the reason for their back pain. The patient is then assigned a unique healthy dance program that includes three sessions a week which use both light exercise and one on one dance lessons. The thought is that perhaps dance can provide that little extra boost to help with flexibility and movement that many are missing as a result of the pain.
The focus is not simply on the dance steps but rather on helping the patient to obtain and maintain correct posture.
The instructors work individually with the students to help correct posture. Often it is something as simple as tilting a head or straightening a shoulder just a bit that will quickly improve the patient's posture resulting in less pain and more movement during the class.
This new program continues to grow and is now being used by not just dancers who are currently suffering from back pain but also by dancers and just regular folks who are looking to use dance as an activity to reach their back health potential.
So think about it, maybe you too can dance your back pain away!
