Hi my name is Joy and I'm twelve years old and I have been dancing for
nine years and I have a few questions... I just had knee surgery in
December to remove a cyst on my meniscus and I am doing physical
therapy right now and I'm going back to ballet class in two weeks. How
do I get my strength back in my leg without strengthening the other
leg at the same time? Do you think I could do my pointe work at the
barré? I hope you can reply to this email.
Thanks, Joy
Dear Joy,
I'm sorry to hear about your knee and I wish you a speedy recovery. Physical therapy is a great way to train just the one leg and just the muscles that you want to work on. And
those guys really do know what they're doing so, honestly, my best advice would be to talk to your physical therapist about getting yourself ready to be back in the game. When you do go back to class, perhaps doing a few extra exercises on the leg that had surgery could help balance you out. I have three words for you... Plies and relvees. Do them on both legs, do them on one leg, do them during the day, do them at night. This is honestly one of the best ways to get that strength back into your leg.
But first and foremost, talk to your physical therapist. They know your body and they know what you need to do to rehabilitate that leg. If your doctor/therapist have given you the OK for pointe work, I would start as soon as possible.
Just remember not to push your pain threshold. It's good to work hard but, especially when recovering from an injury, sometimes you have to reign it in.
Thank you for submitting, Joy! I hope this helps and if you have any other
questions don't hesitate to ask.
Good luck,
Rhiannon -
I have been experiencing a similar issue to Joy. As you may know, I have tendonitis in my right ankle/foot. I've been in a boot and obviously exercise has been limited.In March, Maine State Ballet is performing Cinderella and one of my roles will be the Persian Princess. This requires wearing a two piece costume that leaves about 4-6 inches of my stomach exposed... Ideally, I'd like to be in shape for this and it's difficult to do so when cardio is limited!Instead, I've been doing my best to eat well (lots of oatmeal, fruit, and eggs) and have been doing ab workouts every other day. Mostly, just by following exercises on YouTube videos. It's amazing the resources we have access to nowadays. I can pop onto YouTube and find belly-burning exercises that have really given me results. I'll show you some of the videos I've been using:
Who says injuries have to slow you down?!
Thanks for reading, lovelies! Don't forget to follow in the upper right hand corner and "like" us on Facebook!
Hope everyone's having a good week and gearing up for February vacation!
Rhiannon -