I have no experience with formal dancing, but I have no doubt that it requires quite a bit of athleticism.

Although it’s generally not a problem to exercise with soreness, there’s a fine line between working through discomfort and pushing too far to the point of overtraining or injury. The “no pain, no gain” mentality is right up there with “more is better” in regard to the potential for exercise to be destructive. To an extent, some elite athletes need this type of mentality to be competitive in the sport, but I think the rest of us are better served by a more measured and conservative approach.

I was a dancer for 13 years of my life (3-15yrs old), and not enough people know (in my opinion) about how intense of a work out a dancer actually goes through. It of course also depends on the difficulty level of the classes, and how many and often you take them, but I was one of the ones who took as many classes as I could, spending almost 20 hours every week on dance classes, as well as extra competition team rehearsals on Sundays that would sometimes last from 4-7 hours. It was intense at times. Most of our bodies were used to the intensity, but we still got sore often and I remember how our teachers would always tell us that if we’re sore, it means that we are making progress, and the more reason to stretch out and use those sore muscles again the next day. Surprisingly, it did diminish the pain after a little bit, but I’ve heard over the years about how working sore muscles too hard can be a negative thing. It didn’t matter if we were crying from being sore from the day before, we HAD to work hard if we were there to dance that day.

It taught me to have great pain tolerance, though, actually. I’m really able to push myself through exercise and the saying, “no pain, no gain” is very simple for me. My problem, is the start. It’s hard to get motivated. But once I start, I can push myself to the end. (not over pushing, of course) It’s amazing how when I look back at my really athletic days, it makes me realize even more, just how much more energy I had. I was also a kid back then, but not exercising as much and not being as flexible definitely does change you.

You’ve inspired me to keep working hard on exercising more often. So, thank you.

Holistic, natural prevention, instead of reactive prevention (politically correct prevention, like useless pills, vaccines and many others).

Prevention is better than cure but many people just get the cliche a do not bother to look deeper on prevention!

Thanks a lot for the reminder.

meatlessmama – I’m glad you enjoyed the article! Yes, heels are a disaster for posture and walking biomechanics and can lead to a number of problems. They promote shortening of the calf muscles which can greatly restrict ankle mobility, and as described in the article, put additional stress on the knee as a result. It’s a shame what people will sacrifice for appearance.

Gary – As Mike Robertson points out in Bulletproof Knees, physical therapy is just enough to help you regain basic function and there’s much more that needs to be done to promote optimal function and resistance to pain and injury. Good luck, I hope the information in this article works well for you!

ægil – Don’t discount the importance of prevention! It’s much better to follow a maintenance routine to keep your muscles and joints functioning optimally than to wait until there’s pain or injury. It requires a lot less work to maintain healthy function than it does to regain it after it’s been lost. It’s also a lot less frustrating and painful!