Warning: Salsa can be dangerous to your health! ~ Salsa Circuit latin news| salsa music| salsa dance

Anyone who has been dancing salsa for any length of time has surely experienced that painful spike heel in the foot, the elbow that smacked into your head and nearly concussed you, that unwise move or sudden dip that nearly ended up giving either you or a partner an unintended black eye or severe muscle strain and, of course, the manifold bruises that are our usual ‘evidence’ of a hot night dancing at a packed, popular club. While you may emit a sudden yelp, limp off the dancefloor briefly and/or glare/curse at the particular dancefloor villain who inflicted your injury, usually you just chalk it up to a ‘normal’ hazard of the night or shrug it all off with a ‘no pain, no gain’ attitude. But what about SERIOUS dance-related injuries? Surely they just happen to the professional performers, teachers and international salsa stars, don’t they?

Well, I hate to tell you this, but NO! They can happen to anyone – and WILL happen to any keen social salsero/a eventually, if they are not careful – I should know, as I am currently (after 12+ years of frequent social dancing, 10 of which have also involved teaching regularly) dealing with: right-knee patellar tendonitis (from a previous ligament injury but exacerbated by dancing); left-hip trochanteric bursitis (all those spin preps!) and right-arm tendonitis (commonly called ‘tennis elbow’, but I refer to it as ‘Cuban salsa elbow’), not to mention quite pronounced bunions (from years of wearing too-high heels to dance in and doing frenetic pachanga/boogaloo swivels on the ball of the foot), all of which are overuse injuries caused by an excessive addiction to salsa! So, if you love your salsa (and of course you do, or you would hardly be reading this), please pay attention to the following warnings and advice.

WHY INJURIES HAPPEN

First of all, salsa (and mambo, of course) dance, whether we think of it as such or not, is effectively an extremely competitive sport. It is also in fact one of the most highly aerobic forms of exercise we can engage in, so it is going to be an immediate challenge for anyone who is unfit, such as those new to dancing or those who haven’t danced in a while. It is also always going to be difficult NOT to sustain an injury when you are: a. tired; b. have a previous injury or pre-existing medical condition; c. dancing in a hazardous environment (or with a hazardous partner) – but more about these later; or d. trying to do something your body is not yet practically prepared for.

As with any intensive sport, salsa requires many hours of training and practice, particularly if one’s aim is either continually to become better or, especially, the best. And let’s face it, from the moment any of us began dancing salsa, we have always wanted to get better. As we get better, we perhaps begin to compare ourselves with others, or decide we want to be at least as good as so-and-so. So we attend more classes, buy more videos to practice with at home, have more one-to-one sessions with teachers we admire, and attend congresses and workshops halfway around the world. And once we get really good and are acknowledged as such, either we are in frequent demand as teachers or decide we want to try our hand at official competitions – either way, we are now constantly exercising, constantly stretching and extending our muscles, constantly on the go, constantly taxing our bodies. So what is bound to happen at some point, whether we ever make it to a professional level or not, is an injury.

TYPES OF INJURY

One-third of all sports injuries are related to overuse; 80% of these are in the ankle, foot or knee, but can also occur in the calf, hip and lower back – so that is obviously relevant, since these are the limbs and body parts we are most constantly exercising when we dance salsa. Thus, if you are as addicted to salsa as I am, and do it long enough, you are quite likely to incur an overuse injury.

Of sports injuries in general, the most common are:

1)    sprains and strains – muscles and ligaments can be overstretched or twisted, causing long-term damage if repeatedly exercised as these can result in small tears in the muscle.

2)    stress fractures – repetition and force needed for various moves, such as those involving jumping – can eventually cause small (‘hairline’) fractures in the bones of the foot and ankle.

3)    tendonitis – this is a painful inflammation of a tendon (connective soft tissue that helps anchor muscles to bones), as in the Achilles tendon in the ankle or the elbow tendon, resulting in ‘tennis elbow’.

4)    blisters – usually from ill-fitting shoes or other clothing causing chafing to skin.

5)    toenail injuries – usually caused by wearing shoes that crowd and force the toes together, causing bruising of toenails or ingrown toenails (these are also a contributing cause of bunions, an often painful deformity of the foot that is usually hereditary).

6)      impact injuries – these are usually in the form of a bruise or impact to a joint from falling, or bumping into other dancers or nearby props or furniture.
Injuries specific to salsa:

Of the injuries that are specific to salsa dancing, most are incurred during spins and pivots, so are more likely to affect women than men. However, a few of these apply to both men and women. These include:

1)     Hip pain – Edie the Salsa Freak has already written on the topic of right-hip pain being prevalent in female salsa dancers due to the constant strain on that hip from preparation for spins on the right; however, as I am presently suffering from left-hip pain and know of other female dancers who, like me, originally trained in the Cuban-Colombian style of salsa, in which the man always leads the woman on her right to then turn her to the left, it is then actually the left hip that is bearing most of the strain of the spin in this style.

2)    Strain on the medial ligament – from constant bending/straightening of the legs and transferring weight from one leg to the other repeatedly, as we do in salsa and other Latin dances (eg merengue, cha cha cha).

3)    Shoulder, knee or hip dislocations – these are serious, though not uncommon injuries, which are usually the result of trauma to the ball-and-socket joint caused by forceful impact (as in a fall). However, the kneecap can also become dislocated through sudden twisting, and the shoulder can be dislocated when it is forcefully twisted into an awkward position, such as in a violent, jerky or improperly executed move or spin. Female dancers are more likely to be susceptible to knee dislocations as they may have improper leg alignment or their quadricepts muscle may be out of shape.

4)    Excessive dehydration and heat stroke – dehydration is the loss of water and salts that are essential to the body’s normal function; it occurs when the body loses more fluid than it takes in. If a person becomes dehydrated and cannot sweat enough to cool their body, their internal temperature may rise to dangerously high levels and cause heat stroke.

5)    Exercise-related migraine – one salsera I know told me that she had experienced a sudden, excruciating onset of migraine (having never had this before) after continuing to dance for several hours when she was severely dehydrated.

6)    Bruises and punctures – from forceful impact with other dancers or dancers’ high heels or jewellery. Some of these can be quite painful; if there is swelling or a wound is open and bleeding, it may be necessary to stop dancing and apply ice to the affected area, or to clean and sterilise the wound and then apply a bandage to prevent infection.

7)    Lower-back injuries – dancing on concrete or other hard-floor surfaces places a lot of strain on the spine and lower back, which may then become more susceptible to injury.

8)    Plantar fascial strain to foot – this is a series of fine tears in the sheet of fibrous tissues extending from the foot to the heel. It is one of the most common foot injuries experienced by dancers, and occurs as a result of a jarring strain to the foot from dancing on hard surfaces.

9)      I am sure there are many more that I have missed out; please feel free to add your comment at the end of this article if you or someone you know has experienced any other type of salsa-specific injury.

Source: salsaeditorial