Dance. Pain. Roll it Out!

People need to work out their muscles with a foam roller after dancing.

Many people don’t know they have knots in their muscles after they work out, or how to work them out.

What happens to your muscles after a dance class and how can you minimize the pain?

 

After a long day at the studio, your body will feel either exhausted or liberated. Either way, use a foam roller, especially on your legs.

The benefits of foam rolling have to do with the mobility of the fascia. Fascia is a fibrous layer of connective tissue that surrounds all of the muscles in our body. Without proper mobility, fibers of the fascia become cross linked and they bind to muscles and nerves, inhibiting normal motion and causing pain.
Source: Benefits of Foam Rolling….Even for Healthy Runners – Fleet Feet Sports West Hartford

There are so many different benefits to rolling your muscles after you have worked them through a class. There are also different types of rollers that can really work your muscles just based on how their made. Here is one that Jennifer Stahl loves:

From the company that brought you the original torture-device looking rollers that unkink all your knots, this new style adds an extra trick to its arsenal: traction.

Rather than trying to get deeper into the muscle tissue by just pressing harder, this roller’s bumps grip your skin to offer a cross-friction massage. By shifting back and forth, you can tug the muscle underneath whenever it isn’t responding to traditional self-massage techniques. This strategy felt particularly delightful on my calves.
Source: Meet Your New Favorite Foam Rollers – Dance Magazine

So once you have your roll, what next? Now you work the knots out of those muscles

Source: 13 Foam Roller Exercises For Sore, Tight Legs

So when you’re planning on dancing, make sure you roll after…you never know what kind of knots you got yourself into!