Can any ballroom dancers give me a super solution to soreness under balls of fee

Question:Gel pads did not help. Will I always be sore for over a week after dancing?

thank you.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Gel pads did not help. Will I always be sore for over a week after dancing?

thank you.

It really isn't a good idea to give advice on pain or soreness without knowing the cause and area. Sometimes advice good for one problem can actual exacerbate another problem in a similar area.

My suggestion is that any pain that has not gone away after 3 days of rest, or that recurs with increasing frequency should be looked at by a physiotherapist or doctor. Having said that, here are some ideas.

1. How long have you been dancing? If you've just started, then it may be a usual soreness from unaccustomed exercise. It could be delayed onset muscle soreness.

2. What type of dancing do you do? In ballet or jazz, you are often required to get up on your toes and hold that position. That requires the use of what we call intrinsic foot muscles, tiny muscles that are seldom stressed in most day to day activity. It may be a muscle strain in this case.

3. How comfortable are you with your footwear? Is it tight or loose? Tightness could restrict circulation, and cause pain as you work against it. Looseness could force you to use your muscles to work harder just to keep good contact within the shoe, and keep it on the ground.

In most cases, a few days active rest, off dancing, is the first thing to do.
Do not put a hot pack on immediately after an episode of pain. If you do you'll just aggravate any new inflammation that's there. Instead, ice the area for about 5 minutes. Icing should be done through a thin cloth. Take a break. Then repeat every hour or so. Keep your leg elevated in between.

After 2-3 days, you can stop the icing and start some heating. Place your foot on a hot pack for about 10 mins, followed by some stretching of the foot. The following website has some good pictures. The stretch I am thinking about is in the picture next to the one on ice massage.

www.med.nyu.edu/.../patients/injuries/...

It maybe a bit too much information, but should give you an idea of the types of injuries there are out there. I stress that each dancer is different and you shouldn’t use available advice in a cookbook fashion.

3. I would also want to assess your foot mobility and your general muscular strength, endurance, and tightness. Your foot, ankle, knee and hip mobility and control of movement and technique are things I would wish to assess too. Also, what about your footwear? How long have you had them? Do they give you problems? These are all very important as a deficiency in any of these could cause problems.

For these, you need to check with your dance instructor or a physiotherapist who is preferably a dancer or works with dancers himself, for assessment. In my own case, I dance salsa, and I've been able to treat patients with salsa injuries quite successfully only after I looked at the dancer as a whole.

You might think all this advice is a little excessive, especially if the pain isn't exactly preventing you from activity. However, what I find in many people is that they don't take a break precisely when it would have helped in getting full recovery. They continue dancing through pain, either through a misguided sense of gung-hoism, or because old-fashioned thinking suggests that one should train through the pain.

By the time they come to see us, the pain has already become chronic, with chronic inflammation, scar tissue formation etc, and then there's very little we can do about it. Heat, mobilisation, exercises and all can only do so much if an injury has entered the chronic stage.

One final word. Many dancers and athletes will tell me that there is no way they can rest completely. Sometimes they are in competition season and have to go for event after another. Other times, they are just psychologically unable to lay off.

My advice is to rest and consult a professional, but I know most people won't heed it until it gets really bad. So the next best advice to minimise damage is this.

1. Before your activity, warm up passively with a hot pack.
2. Then, warm up actively using dance specific movements, focussing on the foot and ankle, calves, knees and hips.
3. Dance.
4. If you feel pain and can stop, stop immediately. If you can't, stop as soon as you can.
5. Regardless of whether the pain is bad or not, ice the area for 5-10 mins. This will help to halt any new inflammation that flares up.
6. Elevate your feet for about half an hour.
7. Try to ice your foot regardless of pain every hour if you can. Sometimes there is a delayed inflammation response.
8. The next day, do some warm-ups as above, then foot specific stretches.
9. You can also do some intrinsic foot muscle exercises. One simple one is to sit down, then put your foot on a piece of paper. Without rising on your toes, keep your heel and ball against the paper, and try to scrunch it up between the arch. This exercise is easier demonstrated by action than through writing, unfortunately.

I hope the above helps. There's really nothing much else to say because you don't give much information. But nothing beats going to a physiotherapist or doctor. If not, confide in your dance instructor. Good luck!

Great answer, Greg!
I take it you're doing more Latin than Standard. Toe steps in Standard won't help, but they're a lot easier on the feet than the pounding in Latin.