Here are 10 tips for protecting your knees during dance: See video at: http://youtu.be/1E96XUHlSCw
1) Reduce your body weight, so less weight will sit on top of your knees. (easier to do if you can work out without hurting yourself!)
2) Don't wear really old workout shoes. Shoes lose cushioning after a while. Replace them!
3) During your warm up, be sure to bounce gently in your knees. Don't totally straighten your legs and lock your knees.
4) Knee circles can strengthen knees and legs. Start with your feet together. Bend your knees till you're in a mild squat, keep your feet on the ground, and draw circles with your knees on a horizontal plane. Try the same with your feet apart. Do both directions. Imagine you're circling a hula hoop around your knees. Include knee circles in your warmup, perhaps along with hip circles.
5) Many students tell me they can't do the hip rotator move that is common to hip hop or samba. It looks like the knees are moving side to side rapidly. But notice I called it a hip rotator movement. Your knees are not moving at all; it's like an optical illusion. It's all in the hip rotator. The key is to align your knees with your toes. Let your whole leg move as one unit, from hip rotator to toe, and the hip rotator does all the work. Maintain muscle tone in your inner thigh to keep control over your leg so the knee stays aligned with the toes. Also, if you press down into the floor with the ball of your foot, like you want to squish a cockroach, you will maintain pressure in your inner thigh and not let your knee flop around. It's when you get lazy, do it sloppy, not put foot pressure into the floor and not engage your inner thighs, that you can lose control of your knee and let it wander and twist itself. Always include a slow hip rotator movement in your warmup and gradually pick up the speed.
6) If you want to do the chicken move, where your knees come apart and together again, make sure your feet are rocking side to side so that your knees stay in line with your feet. If you attempt the chicken knees with feet flat on the floor, you will torque your knees and feel discomfort.
7) When doing lunges, don't let your knees go in front of your toes. Even when you're taking giant steps forward, for example in ballroom waltz, don't let your knees pass your toes.
8) Absorb shock during landing steps. After a jump or a hop or a big step, take up the landing in your knees by descending more after your foot touches the floor. In other words, cushion your landing. Don't let your foot noisily hit the floor: that would be crashing, not cushioning. Crash landings are too much impact on your knees. When you do knee raises and the knee is quickly coming up and the foot is quickly coming down and touching the floor again (common in Bollywood), don't think of it as stomping your foot. Your thigh and abdominal muscles should be so engaged and tense that they stop your foot from crashing just as it's about to touch the floor. If your muscles are stopping your foot, you shouldn't even hear your steps. Now the impact on your knees is ever so subtle.
9) Don't jump till you feel really warmed up. You may need to avoid jumping and stay low impact. Or maybe you can half jump (let you heels leave the floor). You can still have a lot of fun and get a great workout by staying low impact (keeping one foot on the floor at all times.)
10) If you have knee cartilage issues, try taking knox gelatin. Mix it in your juice. It's cheap and can strengthen your cartilage.
11) Use shoe gliders such as DanceSocks on your shoes if your are dancing on sticky floors. Sticky floors will not let your twist freely and could injure your knees.
1) Reduce your body weight, so less weight will sit on top of your knees. (easier to do if you can work out without hurting yourself!)
2) Don't wear really old workout shoes. Shoes lose cushioning after a while. Replace them!
3) During your warm up, be sure to bounce gently in your knees. Don't totally straighten your legs and lock your knees.
4) Knee circles can strengthen knees and legs. Start with your feet together. Bend your knees till you're in a mild squat, keep your feet on the ground, and draw circles with your knees on a horizontal plane. Try the same with your feet apart. Do both directions. Imagine you're circling a hula hoop around your knees. Include knee circles in your warmup, perhaps along with hip circles.
5) Many students tell me they can't do the hip rotator move that is common to hip hop or samba. It looks like the knees are moving side to side rapidly. But notice I called it a hip rotator movement. Your knees are not moving at all; it's like an optical illusion. It's all in the hip rotator. The key is to align your knees with your toes. Let your whole leg move as one unit, from hip rotator to toe, and the hip rotator does all the work. Maintain muscle tone in your inner thigh to keep control over your leg so the knee stays aligned with the toes. Also, if you press down into the floor with the ball of your foot, like you want to squish a cockroach, you will maintain pressure in your inner thigh and not let your knee flop around. It's when you get lazy, do it sloppy, not put foot pressure into the floor and not engage your inner thighs, that you can lose control of your knee and let it wander and twist itself. Always include a slow hip rotator movement in your warmup and gradually pick up the speed.
6) If you want to do the chicken move, where your knees come apart and together again, make sure your feet are rocking side to side so that your knees stay in line with your feet. If you attempt the chicken knees with feet flat on the floor, you will torque your knees and feel discomfort.
7) When doing lunges, don't let your knees go in front of your toes. Even when you're taking giant steps forward, for example in ballroom waltz, don't let your knees pass your toes.
8) Absorb shock during landing steps. After a jump or a hop or a big step, take up the landing in your knees by descending more after your foot touches the floor. In other words, cushion your landing. Don't let your foot noisily hit the floor: that would be crashing, not cushioning. Crash landings are too much impact on your knees. When you do knee raises and the knee is quickly coming up and the foot is quickly coming down and touching the floor again (common in Bollywood), don't think of it as stomping your foot. Your thigh and abdominal muscles should be so engaged and tense that they stop your foot from crashing just as it's about to touch the floor. If your muscles are stopping your foot, you shouldn't even hear your steps. Now the impact on your knees is ever so subtle.
9) Don't jump till you feel really warmed up. You may need to avoid jumping and stay low impact. Or maybe you can half jump (let you heels leave the floor). You can still have a lot of fun and get a great workout by staying low impact (keeping one foot on the floor at all times.)
10) If you have knee cartilage issues, try taking knox gelatin. Mix it in your juice. It's cheap and can strengthen your cartilage.
11) Use shoe gliders such as DanceSocks on your shoes if your are dancing on sticky floors. Sticky floors will not let your twist freely and could injure your knees.
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