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Step 1
Know the most common types of injuries and do your best to prevent them from happening. The 5 most common complaints among ballet dancers are: ankle sprains, knee injuries, hamstring injuries, hip injuries and back injuries. Stretching these areas before dancing may help you prevent future pain.
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Step 2
Treat ankle pain as soon as class is finished. This is the most common ballet injury and also tends to happen more than once in a dancer's lifetime. Treat the problem with the RICE method: rest, ice, compression and elevation.
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Step 3
Stop forcing perfect turnout, which can twist your knees and ultimately injure them. Turnout, which should come from the hips, is often forced through the knees and you end up paying for it with painful swelling and stiffness. Treat this problem with the RICE method and rehabilitation.
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Step 4
Stretch correctly before class to avoid the tightness in your legs that causes most hamstring injuries. When you pull your hamstring or surrounding muscles, it can be painful to move, walk and especially dance. Don't dance it out--rest and do easy progressive stretching to treat hamstring injury.
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Step 5
Treat hip injuries immediately to avoid future damage or surgery. Hip injuries happen mostly because of an increased pain in the groin that makes you twist your hips unnaturally when you walk, or from your hips locking up when dancing big moves. To treat this injury, rest and do strengthening exercises, staying away from any turnout during class.
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Step 6
Stop dancing and assess the severity if you develop a back injury. This happens most likely from fatigue, scoliosis, stress and hypermobility. Treat back injuries with physical therapy, alternating heat and ice, back and abdominal exercises to stretch and strengthen your muscles and massage.
