Posts Tagged ‘legs’

What you say to students makes a difference in improving function

By Suzanne Martin, PT, DPT

Virtually all dancers treasure their legs and feet. Legs give us the power to enjoy the greatest feeling in dance: flying through the air. In my favorite childhood dream—perhaps a precursor to my love of leaping—the air would flow through my hair as I soared over houses and trees.

Did you know that your arms and legs started out identically in the womb, as “limb buds”? They differentiate as they develop. Notice how a newborn baby’s arms and legs look similar and are almost the same size. Changes occur when the legs begin to bear weight. When a baby begins to walk, at around 1 year old, the pelvic and leg muscles thicken and the feet become tough and desensitized. A dancer’s training imitates that process. Repetitive, precise motions ultimately yield the familiar dancer’s leg shape, and calloused feet result from jumping and prolonged half-toe positions.

Because the legs create our basic dance foundation, they suffer the most injuries. The knees are often the first to give, with such injuries often prematurely ending a dance career. Let’s take a look at proper use of the legs, both functionally and artistically, in terms of elevation and good leg-to-foot biomechanical connections.

Dancers strive to use their legs as articulately as the arms—but moving the long line of the leg is a biomechanical feat, much like the action of a drawbridge. Anatomically the leg is composed of the thighbone (femur), the two bones of the shins (tibia and fibula), and the 26 bones of the ankle and foot (talus, metatarsals, and phalanges). Moving all that requires a function that starts at the top of the low back, deep within the abdomen.

Using language to improve function

The leg
In dance lingo we call the elevation of the leg an “extension,” but what’s really happening? The hip is doing what we physical therapists call a “FABER”: flexion, abduction, and external rotation, as the iliopsoas complex works with the external hip rotators.

Teachers often tell students who are striving to increase the height of the front and side “extension” to lift the leg from underneath. There is some truth to this seemingly counterintuitive instruction. Technically, the deep hip flexors, the iliopsoas and iliacus, elevate the leg past 90 degrees.

Think of the thighbone, the femur, as being shaped like a hammer without a claw. There’s tremendous variation among people in the distance between the hammer’s head and the point where it joins the handle (the femur shaft). This shape and distance determine whether a person is bowlegged (many men) or knock-kneed (lots of ladies). Interestingly, the more bowlegged you are, the greater your potential is for a very high extension due to the longer distance between the hammer’s head and the shaft of the femur (though men tend to be limited by a narrow pelvis).

Two images related to lifting from underneath provide crucial guidance in a développé. The iliopsoas complex, which originates deep within the abdomen, attaches to the leg just below where the hammer’s head meets the handle. So a good cue is to tell students to feel the legs starting at the waist and lifting from where the groin meets the inner thigh.

Also, the muscles on the back of the thigh, the hamstrings, help by holding the weight of the leg, just as the triceps help hold the lifted arms up against the pull of gravity. Muscles work in “force couples”: the ones on top help lift the limb and those on the bottom help hold it in space.

Think of developing the leg like a spider’s, in small segments. This image works because it allows the trunk to stabilize as the lengthy leg telescopes out from the center of gravity.

Knees
Moving farther down the leg, we come to the vulnerable knee. The knee is literally caught in the middle between the hip and the ankle; controlling the leg from these two areas is important in lessening wear-and-tear on the knees.

How often do you tell your dancers to straighten their legs? It’s a common correction when the foot is off the floor, especially in arabesque. Dancers often respond by hyperextending the knee to give the look of a straighter line, when in reality they might not be fully extending the hips. One way to correct this problem is to work on the “pull-up” of the gluteus maximus and of the calf, high up at the knee. You need a combination of hip and knee extension (pulling up from the kneecap) in order to have an optimal neutral line of the leg. Activating hip extension blocks hyperextension of the knee.

Lining up the joints of the lower body gives dancers power in jumps and leaps by directing it from the waist to the foot instead of dispersing energy in diverging directions.

Another common problem is increasing hyperextension by pressing back on the knees when standing or going into relevé on half-toe. This breaks the biomechanical chain of action along the leg and often leads to the problem of sideways-slipping, dislocated kneecaps in young, undeveloped dancers.

One way to find the proper lift is to have the dancers sit on the floor, straightening the legs in front of them. Then ask them to move the kneecap upward toward the hip without letting the heel leave the floor. Developing this coordination takes practice, but it is crucial in strengthening and saving the inner knee, as well as training the kneecap to track properly. Incorrect kneecap tracking grinds away the cartilage behind it. Prudent stretching of the front and sides of the thigh on a foam roller can take pressure off the kneecap and keep it tracking straight.

Ankles and feet
Completing the line of the leg are the ankles and feet. “Pull the foot” is a typical correction when the leg is elevated. But in trying to point the feet, dancers often merely curl the toes under and become confused when their teacher says to lengthen the toes instead.

Perhaps a more effective way to think about foot movement is to note the “wrinkles,” or creases, on the front of the ankle in demi-plié and above the heel when pointing the foot. Creating wrinkles in demi-plié allows the foot to open and soften into the action (dorsiflexion), becoming pliable. When it’s pliable, the architecture of the foot spreads the body weight out into the floorboards, rather than absorbing the stress and sending it up into the leg.

Thinking about making wrinkles helps dancers avoid tensing the front of the ankle, as evidenced by tendons popping out in demi-plié. Making wrinkles at the heel cord (Achilles tendon) allows full pointing (plantarflexion) and full use of the muscles that support the tendon. This action also helps to prevent sickling because true plantarflexion of the ankle uses the peroneal muscles on the side of the calf, which are responsible for the desirable “wing” effect in a pointed foot.

Coordinating hip action
One trick that coordinates hip action all the way down to the foot is to encourage dancers to roll the foot on a tennis ball. This action mobilizes the mid-foot bones and softens the soft tissue that serves as a biomechanical chain from the foot up the back of the leg to the back of the pelvis. It helps the whole line remain supple.

Dancers with hyperextended knees have ankles that are in what we call “relative plantarflexion,” or a partially pointed foot, even in standing. Softening the arch and stretching the plantar fascia (the strappy, soft tissue at the bottom of the foot) help position the pelvis vertically over the arches of the feet.

The arches, especially high ones, become more pliable with this technique, adding power to jumps and enhancing ballon.

A powerful lower body
Lining up the joints of the lower body gives dancers power in jumps and leaps by directing it from the waist to the foot instead of dispersing energy in diverging directions. Try experimenting with the exercises below in your classroom. Watch your students’ eyes open as they reach through their legs and soar into the air.

I have faith in you.

Visualize, Observe, Exercise

Visualize: Lifting from underneath in développé
Imagine two steps in leg elevation. Think of the legs starting at the waist to flex the hip at the inner groin. Then continue “extending” the leg in segments. Be sure to support the heavy leg by engaging the hamstrings.

Observe: Legs separating from the trunk
Lie on the back and bend the knees. Place the soles of the feet on the floor. Find a neutral pelvis, placing the hipbones and pubic bone in the same flat plane and keeping a small arch in the low back. Lengthen through the waist. Hold the pelvis steady and bend one hip to lift the leg; note the diagonal line of the crease of the hip line. The crease indicates that the leg has found separation from the torso, beginning the iliopsoas complex action.

Exercise 1: Iliopsoas complex trainer
Lie on the back in a half-toe, turned-out first position, knees bent and heels lifted. Prop up on the forearms and tuck the pelvis under. Tighten the abs. Slowly lift the leg by leading with the heel, not the knee, thus maintaining turnout. This trains the leg to lift from the psoas, not the quadriceps.

Exercise 2: Extend the hips to straighten the knees
Lie on your stomach with both hands underneath the forehead. Lift the abdominals up against the spine. Lengthen the tailbone down toward the heels. Tuck the toes and place the weight on the pads of the toes. Exhale and straighten the knees (they will lift off the floor) while making “smile lines,” creases between the buttocks and the hamstrings. Hold for 8 counts, then lower the knees. Slowly straighten and lift the knees again. Then point one foot, then the other, so that both feet are pointing with the hips extended. Hold for 8 counts, then relax.

Exercise 3: Half-toe elevé
Stand with toes pointing forward in parallel, feet about 4 inches apart. Hold onto a barre or chair for balance. Lift the kneecaps up toward the hips. Make smile lines between the buttocks and hamstrings. Lift the toes, then press the pads of the toes into the floor. Shift slightly forward onto the balls of the feet. Feel the arches lift. Then begin to elevé by lifting the groin toward the head. Feel like a space shuttle pressing up off the ground. As you lower, stay forward over the balls of the feet.