With years of competitive dancing and sporting pursuits, I have had many an injury - from concussions to torn ligaments and sprained ankles. Through rehabilitating those injuries, I have worked with a wide range of medical and allied health professionals – physiotherapists, remedial massage therapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, podiatrists and exercise physiologists to name a few. Acupuncture, ultrasound therapy, all sorts of creams and rubs, strapping tape, dry needling.
You name it, I have probably tried it!
Some therapies worked for me, some didn’t. Some really assisted me in the short term, whereas others supported me in the long term. I will always say that there is a time and place for all different therapies and what has worked for me, may not work for you. Rehabbing injuries is an individualised process. But my two biggest lessons that I learnt the hard way will apply to everyone:
Your injury won’t get better without adequate rest and a staged return to dance.
Your injury won’t get better without you taking responsibility and initiative in looking after it.
After my first ankle injury when I was 12/13 years old (involved a skimmer board and a few bad decisions) we went and saw a few different physios. I had some massages and was taught how to strap my ankle. I left with a sheet of paper and some exercises, which I then never did at home. I went back to dance after a few weeks as if everything was A-Ok and was dancing at 110%. That was the start of my horrible and horrendous journey of managing my constant ankle pain and sprains. If I had the knowledge then that I have now, I would have insisted on a gradual return to training and to make past-Dana do her exercises at home!!! Instead, a nasty cycle of ankle sprains started that continued well into early adulthood. My body mechanics shifted and altered to protect the injured joint and that started a host of other problems further up the chain.
My whole right leg “malfunctioned”. Knee and hip pain started that limited what I could do in class. I was using a heap of strapping tape and not functioning at my optimal level. I was doing ok in competitions, but reached a point where I was plateauing. It wasn’t until I started studying exercise physiology myself and understanding some more of how the body works, that it clicked how poorly my body was working. I started seeing an exercise physiologist who prescribed me an exercise program that essentially retrained my movement patterns and taught me how to use my muscles correctly. To help with this process I also saw a massage therapist who, through hands-on treatment, was able to release years of tension build-up.
With my body feeling better than it had in years, I was able to focus on my training with a new sense of excitement and energy. This saw me place in both State and National Championships and qualify for the World Championships. Then 2 months before I was due to fly out I injured a ligament in my knee and was essentially put on a no-dance order for 4 weeks. I was devastated. My training had to drastically change to focus on rehabilitating my knee so that I was able to dance in 8 weeks.
The temptation was to push through the pain and continue dancing. I felt that for every day I wasn’t dancing my goals were slipping further and further away from me.
But I didn’t push - I listened to the team that I developed around me (medical professionals, my dance teacher, my exercise physiologist) and didn’t dance for 4 weeks. I took the time instead to work on my mental strength, to work on the rehab exercises that were prescribed to me, to work on keeping the rest of my body fit and healthy. I made sure that I was sleeping well, that I was hydrated and fuelling my body with good foods, that I was foam rolling and stretching as needed. Then when I was cleared to return to dance 4 weeks before flying out, I made sure to follow a staged return with a gradual increase in intensity. Then before I knew it, I was on a plane flying solo across the world to compete in my first world championships and damn did it feel good to be dancing again!
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