Injuries
I’ve been slowly rehabbing myself from a wrist injury that occurred about two months ago. Since then, I’ve been taking it VERY easy to avoid re-injuring the wrist and I still get warning twinges that let me know when I need to back off of it. I’ve just recently started bearing weight on that wrist at all—which means that I just started inverting again a couple weeks ago—but there are still a lot of moves that are on my “no fly” list.
I was going to classes but nearly everything made my wrist feel wonky and I was scared of making it worse. I was teaching but I was doing everything on one side, and avoiding a lot of tricks, and it was really awkward to teach my advanced students without being able to demo things comfortably. I tried to focus on what I could, working around my injury instead of pushing through it. After all, I want to be pole dancing till I’m old and very, very wrinkled!
So, I pushed my students a little harder on abs and made up a few new oblique-targeting moves that I joyfully unleashed on students. We worked on more core and conditioning, like headstands into layouts, and invert prep drills. In class for myself, I forced myself to think more outside the box and find ways of interacting with the pole given my new limitations. I spent more time in class working with my classmates and cheering them on, instead of on the pole myself. I’m not going to lie: I definitely, definitely went through a period of complete and total frustration with my wrist. Some days were awful. Some days… were better.
As I get my range of motion back, and feel the wrist healing, I am finding myself ecstatic at the small victories: realizing that my straight-legged chopper is actually stronger than it was before, and easier. That my press up from a flag into a brass monkey is smoother despite not having done one for months (shelved because every time I did it, I got a cramp in my pec- OUCH). All the mental work I’ve done in coming up with new combinations, has made it much easier to think of transitions into and out of new tricks that I’m working on. And I got more time to live my life outside of pole, having a fantastic 30th birthday and an amazing vacation in Mexico with my boyfriend. Coming back from injury is like rediscovering what your body is capable of. I was emotionally and physically rejuvenated.
It’s been said that there are three steps you have to complete to become a professional dancer: learn to dance, learn to perform, and learn how to cope with injuries. Pole dancing is really, really difficult, and I am fully aware of how strenuous and ridiculous it is that we are asking so much of our bodies. It’s sort of inevitable that whether or not you sustain an injury directly from poling (mine was actually not on a pole), you will– at some point in your journey—need to learn to deal with one. Acupuncture, massage, and rest do wonders for strains and sprains. Icing and traumeel at first sight of a bruise or soft tissue contusion are a wonder. Learning to recognize when you are overtraining (not giving your body appropriate rest in between workouts), is a must. And feeling out your emotional state is just as important—are you feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, depressed? Is a pole session going to be therapeutic or put you on the verge of tears?
One of the biggest things I learned from my wrist being messed up (dislocated several bones and put tears in the ligament): if you have the miniscule wrists and forearms of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, don’t try to tough it out through 3 hours of handstands without paying more attention to your body! But in all seriousness– I’ve had injuries in the past—a minor strain in a deltoid, a pulled hamstring (put any flexibility training on that leg out of the question for nearly a year), an oblique that was all out of wack. Every injury has forced me to be more in touch with my body and pay more attention to what it is telling me.
I’ve also found that as time passes and I mature, my mindset has changed a lot and I’ve really been trying to think of setbacks and challenges as positive learning opportunities. And now that I’ve stopped putting as much pressure on myself, I don’t think of an injury as time when I’m “falling behind” or “losing ground” on the pole dancers around me. I’ve tried to really give myself the time that I needed to heal properly, and I know that I will come back a little different—maybe I will always baby that wrist a touch, or maybe I will always be a little gunshy about putting my wrist in certain positions—but I don’t mind that so much. I feel like I’m getting to better understand my body and I will only move forward from here.
Tomorrow’s post: Sassy poling…
ANother terrific post! I feel like my shoulder injury has made me a better teacher, for all the reasons you said. It’s been a tremendous learning process for me and I am no doubt a better teacher and poler on the other side. Glad you’ve found the same!!! xo
And glad we’re both on the other side… =)
Hahaha! The day that you started us on the handstand/inverted pull-to-pole, my wrist was killing me! I was not able to do it, and was pretty bummed out with myself. I came out of class, and my fellow polers tried to cheer me up. I hate the feeling that there is something I can’t accomplish in class, and that everyone around me was progressing, and I wasn’t.
But would be distraught if I could not pole at all (anymore).
I do thank you for giving me an alternate way to place my hand… That’s how I was able to do it the last time. I also love that you incorporate anti-injury practices in our warm-ups.
ah HA! but, not every trick is right for everyone! Given the sad state of my wrist now, I know it’s going to be a while before I feel comfortable doing a handstand again. If your body has limitations it’s not something to get down about– there are so many other tricks to work on =)
[...] Athletic tape. I use this to wrap my wrists every single time I pole to give them some extra support and hopefully prevent dislocation of bones from happening again! [...]
[...] at least one class a month where everything is done just on the left side. My wrist may be better but my left side feels atrophied and awkward. Get it back up to diesel! I want to be back to doing [...]
[...] the course of rehabilitating my left side after working through a wrist injury, I’ve learned so much about my body, what it’s capable of, and how far to push it. [...]
I am approaching my date to return (March 2) to pole dancing classes at S Factor and NYPD after abdominal surgery in December; I was thinking about how much further behind I’m going to be and how much stuff I’ve probably forgotten. Doctor’s orders were absolutely no strenous activity, so I was also thinking about how out of shape I’ll be, etc…. and by chance I came upon this great post!! What a wonderful reminder to be patient with, listen to and understand my body! Thank you so much!!.
[...] have a pretty chronic case of bad wrists. It started by being way too gung-ho about handstands and back walkovers, and turned into having [...]
Hi Amy,
I’ve been having a lot of pain in my forearms. Basically any braced move just kills. Any tips? Should I do strength building? take a break? wrap during practice? Ice? hot?
It depends a LOT. If you have a lot of trouble with braced holds, generally it means that you are putting too much weight on the bottom arm and not pulling/supporting your weight enough with the top arm. I would definitely suggest taking a close look at your technique and making sure that in any hold where your bottom arm is low, that your top arm is carrying ALL of your weight with an engaged shoulder. Also make sure you’re not hyperextending the bottom elbow.
Great post, Amy. As an aging martial artist, now aerial dancer (including poles rigged from the ceiling but not attached at the floor), I am quite aware of needing to learn how to listen to your body and make corrections to your training at the earliest sign of trauma. I often look at those twinges as ‘course corrections’, suggestions to stop that way of training and find a way that keeps my body at ease (so to speak). To all of your excellent advice in this post, I would suggest deconstructing moves that are causing stress and see if there is a *different* way to achieve similar results. I offer this article on training for aging martial artists as additional thoughts for you (and all of us who want to be old dancers) to consider. Obviously, the reader will need to absorb the concepts rather than the details, but they are quite similar to our dancer body/mind needs. http://www.orlandokuntao.com/mf_aging_martial_artist.html
Thanks for your thoughtful comment Nataraj! I hope some people take you up on your reading suggestion, it was a lot of terminology that I am not familiar with but I welcome the opportunity to expand my knowledge
This is such an amazing blog you have made me feel so much better with my self.
Im a pole dancing instructor/ performer Saturday I had my first serious pole injury I done a handspring and dicolated my shoulder the depression has sunk in today that I can’t train and the worry of it not going back to normal but reading your blog has made me feel so positive and making me remember it’s early days. Thanks. Xx
Any advice for what you can do exactly on the pole with an injured wrist?
It really depends on how you injured it– if it’s a certain position or move that aggravates it, then you have to think carefully about how to avoid putting your wrist back into that position to avoid strain! You could always work spins and moves with the other arm.