The 4 Must Know Points on Hip Flexor Pain for Dancers

There is hardly a dancer who has never had some hip pain at some point. 

For Latin and Rhythm dancers, it is extremely common, but Smooth and Standard dancers are very much at risk too.

When people describe hip pain, they can mean pain in the front/groin area, the side near the edge of the pelvic bone, or in the top of butt. 

The most common pain is the front/groin area, which is often referred to as the hip flexor given that muscles in this area have a major role in hip flexion.  

It is so common that every dancer should know each of the 4 Must Know Points on Hip Flexor Pain for Dancers.

1. Understand Hip Flexor pain - Hip flexor pain is most commonly the result of over-stretching or tears in the muscle fibre.

• If the muscle fibre is modestly over-stretched or there are a small number of tears, you may feel discomfort but not have any impact in your ability to move and function. This will generally heal in time as long as there is no aggravation. In some cases, this kind of pain or discomfort is a recurring problem, which means that you need to understand the cause, to ensure that you can plan how to prevent it.
• The more tears there are in the muscle fibres, the more likely it is that your ability to move will be impacted and the greater the severity of pain or weakness.
• Sharp pain, swelling, weakness or loss of function requires professional attention.

2. Causes of Hip Flexor pain - One common cause of hip flexor pain is a sudden sharp contraction of the muscle during an explosive action.

• This type of pain is more likely with inadequate warm-up, or excessive extension during a movement.

Pain can also develop over time as a result of repetitive movement.

• This type of pain is most likely the result of misalignment of the feet, or knees or general weakness in the hip, thigh or even the core and buttocks.

Another reason for hip flexor pain is simple lack of attention to this important area in stretches and strength training.

• Muscle weakness, lack of flexibility, or tightness in the hip and upper front and back thigh, are all risks for hip pain.

3. Understand Hip Tightness - Hip tightness may occur in anyone in response to injury, overuse or stress. Dancers are particularly prone given repetitive flex and rotation of the area.

To determine if you have tight hips try this:

• Lie down on a table. Put your butt on the edge of the table and let your legs hang off the edge.
• Then pull your knees to your chest and hold them there with your arms.
• Next, let one of your legs go back to hanging off the edge of the table. Have someone observe the location of your knee on the leg that is hanging down, compared to the position of your hips on the table.
• Your knee should easily hang below the edge of the table.
• If your knee stays above the edge of the table or in line with it, then your hips are tight and you need to pay very focused attention to building flexibility, to avoid injury. Massage will be beneficial to increase blood flow and decrease spasms and additional care may also be needed.

4. Preventing hip flexor pain - Prevention requires attention to flexibility, strength and good body mechanics. If you are medically able, consider the following exercises.

Hip Flexibility

• Warm up your muscles and stretch to increase your range of motion. There are several exercises that will increase the flexibility of your hip flexors over time. One great stretch is called the butterfly stretch. In this stretch, you sit with your back straight and the soles of your feet touching each other. Lower your knees to the ground as far as you can without feeling pain.
• A deep squat works well as long as you do not have any issues with your knees or back. Stand with your feet slightly outside the line of your hips. Point your toes 45 degrees to each side. Squat down to almost a sitting position with your weight on your heels and your back straight. Make sure that your knees do not buckle-in by placing your elbows on the inner side of each knee to ensure stability. Turn your head fully left, then fully right to slightly increase the energy of the stretch on each side
• When you are at a competition, you can warm up your hip muscles and increase your flexibility for dancing by holding a chair or the wall and swinging one leg forward and back in a controlled manner. Start with a lower swing or run in place until your muscles are warm, and then increase the range of motion of the leg by swinging it up and back as far as you can.

Hip Strength

• The knee-to-elbow exercise increases strength in your hip flexor and your core. Kneel with your hands on the ground, directly below your shoulder, so that you are square on all fours. Then extend your legs back, as if you are preparing to do push-ups. Pull your belly button into your spine and contract your abdominal muscles to stabilize your core. Bring your knee forward until it touches your right elbow. Then straighten your right leg and bring your left knee forward to touch your left elbow. Continue to alternate back and forth for one minute. Rest for 30 seconds and then repeat the exercise for another minute.
• Straight leg raises can be done while sitting on the edge of a chair or while lying down. Lift one leg three to four inches off the ground while holding that leg straight. Hold for 5 seconds. Rest. Repeat 15 to 20 times.
• Leg extensions are great for hips and also strengthen the muscles in the buttocks. Lie on your stomach or kneel on all fours. Extend one leg backwards, hold straight, and raise it 3 to 4 inches off the ground. Hold for five seconds. Repeat 15 to 20 times for each leg.
• Another basic simple exercise is to stand while holding a chair or wall, then take your knee up toward your chest as far as it will go and hold it there as long as you can.

Body Mechanics - Good body mechanics is almost impossible without good body alignment. When you are mis-aligned, there will always be undue strain on one part of the body.

• Chronic hip pain might actually start with the feet or knees. Feet that are pronated (so your weight is disproportionately on the inside edge) or supinated (disproportionately on the outside edge) may be the source of the problem.
• Weak hips can also contribute to pronated feet, which reinforces problems.
• Typically, this is most immediately correctable with prescription orthotic shoe inserts. flexibility and strength exercises may also be required to ensure long term correction.
• Good technique is another aspect of good body mechanics. For example, a proper ballroom pivot with the turn on the ball of the foot requires hip strength but will not put the hips in an excessively stretched position, while poor technique may.  
• Other sources of misalignment are possible and may need to be diagnosed and corrected by a chiropractor.
• Other causes of hip pain include arthritis or bursitis. Bursitis in particular is a risk for athletes, given repetitive action or injury.
• If your hip pain is chronic, and 3-4 weeks of flexibility and strength exercises do not help, then professional support may need to be your next step.

Therefore, do everything you need to take care of your body, and this will help you to you keep dancing the way you want, for as long as you want!

When the discussion of mental health arises, far too many people dismiss it as something that only someone with some sort of diagnosed illness needs to be concerned about. 

But the reality is that everyone should make a point to prioritize their mental health just as they would prioritize their physical health.

Let’s look at three ways dancing does wonders for your mental health!

• Dancing Lowers Stress and Anxiety: According to studies conducted by The Arts in Psychotherapy, as little as one dance class could be enough to improve mood and reduce depression. When you're dancing, you are getting active and releasing the happy chemicals known as endorphins. These endorphins work to reduce anxiety, lower stress rates, and elevate your mood. So, if you're in the middle of a stressful project at work or having some personal issues at home, put on your dancing shoes.

• Dancing Creates Community and Ways to Bond: It is important to never understatement the value of a good community structure and the positive impact it has on a person's mental health. Some research has shown that dancing is a way to promote stronger connections and a sense of social bonding, and creating bonds with other people is a vital part of maintaining good mental health. So, if you're feeling isolated, head to a ballroom dance class and be a part of a community again!

• Dance helps with Social Anxiety: Many people suffer from social anxiety and it turns out that dance is an excellent way to minimize social anxiety. Because dance is expressive, it encourages people to put themselves out there in a light-hearted and gentle way. If you have found it hard to express your feelings lately, dancing can be a great way to get in touch with them again and confront any social anxiety.

If you’re looking for a dance class in your area Contact Us today.

Ballroom dancing brings with it a surprising number of health benefits and while it’s always a good idea to cross-train with other forms of fitness and exercise, ballroom dance provides most of the benefits you get from all other forms of physical activity…along with others unique to dancing. 

Ballroom dancing can help enhance memory, alertness, awareness, focus, concentration, reduce stress and increase confidence.

Physical Fitness

Obviously, the first thing most people think of is the physical side of dancing. 

It involves plenty of movement which keeps your legs moving and your heart pumping and, a German study of championship-level dancers found that one minute of the Jive or Quickstep at the highest level of dancing was equivalent in physical exertion to that of 800-meter Olympic runners.

You don’t have to be an elite athlete to get huge fitness benefits from ballroom dance and even if you just dance socially, you can easily burn 300-400 calories per hour in the Ballroom dances or more, if you include the Latin dances.

Dancing movements use primarily the muscles in the legs which are the largest muscles in the body but, other muscles are used in ballroom dancing that don’t see the same use in other dance forms. 

Holding your frame is a key aspect of ballroom dancing that involves the core muscles. 

You need a strong core to have great dance posture and to hold your arms in position for extended periods of time without letting your frame collapse. 

By learning to rise and fall and perform other dance movements you increase the strength of your feet, ankles, knees and of weight-bearing bones. This helps to prevent or slow the bone loss related to osteoporosis without the high impact requirements of other fitness exercises like running.

As you get more experienced as a dancer you begin to involve the use of your back and rib cage as well, to achieve more sophisticated technique and learn to breathe while you dance, allowing your body to receive higher levels of oxygen and building increased lung capacity through your dancing. 

Breathing is a powerful aspect of any effective fitness program and it’s built right into ballroom dance technique.

Mental Fitness

All forms of physical activity release chemicals known as Endorphins (these are hormones that interact with the receptors in your brain to reduce your perception of pain). 

Generated in all physical fitness programs, Endorphins also trigger a positive feeling in the body, while that euphoric feeling, also known as a “runner’s high”, can be accompanied by a positive and energizing outlook on life and helps reduce stress and decrease both blood pressure and ‘bad’ HDL cholesterol.

Swedish researchers studying teenage girls with stress, anxiety and depression saw a decrease in anxiety and stress levels among those who took up partner dancing. 

They also saw marked improvement in mental health, while patients reported being happier than those who did not participate in dancing.

Numerous studies have found that ballroom dancing has significant mental benefits not found in other forms of physical activity and because it involves constant use of short-term memory, as dancers create new patterns of movement, ballroom dancing has been found to create more intricate neural pathways.

A variety of studies have associated ballroom dancing with reduced risk of memory diseases or cognitive impairments like Alzheimer’s and dementia. 

Researchers postulate that this is due to the constant use of intelligent short-term memory combined with physical activity and music which aid the long-term efficiency of memory pathways while one study in particular found that ballroom dance had by far the greatest positive impact over all other forms of mental exercise.

Building Confidence

Fitness is not just about your muscle tone and a healthy mind. 

One of the reasons people work so hard to get and stay fit is because it builds self-confidence, which enables them to be more productive in work and life. With confidence comes self-assurance that you can achieve other goals and the ability to resolve problems more easily by dwelling on positive outcomes. 

Learning to ballroom dance creates a life-long skill that empowers you in every aspect of your life and simply knowing that you have this ability is valuable, even if you don’t feel the need to discover how good you are through competition or medal tests.

For men in particular, the skill of knowing how to dance provides a natural connection to the opposite sex that can’t be matched by simply going to the gym. 

With this skill in hand, every opportunity to dance can feel comfortable and empowering and also improves their communication skills with women. 

While those who know how to dance can boldly get up on the floor with anyone and, that sense of accomplishment increases with every additional lesson you take.

Creative Self-Expression

We are all built with a certain creative instinct. 

For both men and women, ballroom dancing provides a natural outlet for creative expression. 

When you know how to dance, you can skillfully use music to express your own interpretation of the music and after only a few lessons you’ll begin to understand how you can move your feet and body in a sophisticated and visually appealing way. 

The rhythm you feel inside can be expressed in more ways than just tapping your feet!

Social Fitness

Ballroom dancing is a group activity and connects people beautifully in a world that is increasingly disconnected and, social media is not the same as social interaction! 

Being in a room with others who share your interest provides a sense of connectedness that can’t be matched by going on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram or similar platforms. 

Being physically in contact with others, holding onto another person during physical activity, is even better and beneficial to lowering stress and depression levels.

Studies have found that social media actually contributes to an increased sense of loneliness, leading to growing rates of depression while partner dancing on the other hand, creates a sense of belonging and community that reduces loneliness and brings people together.

Dance lessons offer a great opportunity to expand your social circle; lessons and social dancing builds connections and let you engage with people in a low-pressure environment where there are no expectations. 

It’s perfect for younger singles who want to step up their dating game, couples looking to reconnect and for adults who want to build a new life skill. Since the people you meet all share your passion for dance, these interactions often transition into lasting friendships.

Many singles spend a lot of time perfecting their online dating profiles...but consider, if you'd invested the same amount of time learning to dance with others, you'd have flocks of people wanting to be your dance partner. What's a more valuable investment for you? 

Most ballroom students seek something deeper on the dance floor than learning moves. Many want to make connections with other people. Here are some reminders about why the dance floor provides an easier way to bond with someone as opposed to the internet. 

Adventures lead to faster bonding

The saxophone melody builds in intensity and your shoulders shift to the conga drums not heard on your local radio station. You're looking into a stranger's smiling eyes and sharing all these exciting stimuli with them. You're in a new environment, and when you travel through the unknown with others you bond with them faster. 

Online dating often confines conversations to just that; conversations. 

On the dance floor, you communicate with your whole being; therefore, revealing more of your nature. Sharing your inner nature with others is great for trust building!

Meet people now instead of who knows when

Here's a typical online dating interaction: "Do you want to get coffee in two hours?" "I'd love to!" (Two hours later) "Hey, something came up. Raincheck?" Taking a dance class frees you from waiting to meet people. 

After all, it takes two to tango! People at dance classes are paying to dance with other people. They need you to get the most out of the experience. 

Meet 'tons' of people

A typical dance class involves pairs of students forming a circle around their teacher. 

After a minute or two of practice the teacher yells out, "Switch partners!" and you or your partner will move to someone new. 

At practice end, you'll have interacted with about 20 different people or 10 people twice. 

Laughter

Unlike in dating (where making the wrong move unfurls a red flag), making the wrong move in dance class is part of the fun! 

Someone witnessing our mistakes makes us more human in their eyes. The safety of texting someone over the phone can rob us of this. 

A lot of good-spirited laughter arises when dance partners forget what to do next and improvise. And when we do get it right, impressed looks follow.

Online dating can be dull, especially in an age where many of us stare at computer screens at the workplace. Gaze into someone's eyes instead, grab their hands and own your dance space with the pride of someone who tests themselves. 

You're going to meet so many interesting and lovable people on the dance floor. 

They'll view your eagerness to learn and grow as attractive.