Stretch It Out

Creak, creak, creak…. Ouch!  What’s that the sound of?  Yep your beloved knees in pain.  We put our knees through so much pressure when we dance.  Everytime you hop and jump your knees are receiving the impact of the shock.  Unlike in some forms of dance like ballet and contemporary dance, irish dancers land from jumps with straight knees, which is far from forgiving on the joints.

How can we combat injuries?  Two words: strengthen and lengthen.  Yep that’s right we need to build up the muscles that support our knee as well as stretch those muscles and surrounding ligaments.  Let’s talk about the “lengthening” part of this duo today.

I’m dealing with some knee problems, hence my knowledge of all this.  Some of these things I’ve learned from going to physical therapy and others from reading about other peoples experiences and suggestions.  I focus on these areas whilst stretching for the health of my knees: The IT Band, hip flexor, inner thigh, outer hip, quad, and hanstrings.

If you can always start off by warming up your muscles a bit.  What’s easier to stretch a piece of leather or taffy?  Exactly!  You need to encourage mobility by warming up first.  I would suggest jogging moderately for 5 to 10 minutes until you break a small sweat and you can feel the heat coming over your body.  It takes longer for some people to warm up than others.  Another trick is to wear some thicker clothing like sweatpants and sweatshirt to create heat faster.  Just once more note before streching, hold all stretches for atleast 10 seconds.  That should really be the bare minimum.  Any less than that and you might as well have not stretched. 

Hip Flexor

I tend to place a pillow or blanket under my knee to insure that I don’t put any unwanted presurre on it.  Keep a nice straight back while performing this strech.  Don’t arch into your back to try and increase the stretch.  And always make sure that the knee out in front does not go beyond the ankle and foot.  You should feel it in the back leg at the top of the upper leg, where the leg connects to the hip.  You may also feel it in the inner thigh.

IT Band

When performing this stretch, the leg on which the it band that you are trying to stretch should be tucked behind the other leg.  For instance in this picture the focus leg is the one flat on the ground.  You can either perform it as shown below or I’ve seen it done with both feet facing forward.  I tend to shift my other leg towards the direction that I’m facing to allow a better stretch.  You should feel the stretch running down the outside of your upper leg.

 

Inner Thigh

Basically you have to seat in a wide squat so that your heels touch the ground.  Place your arms in  prayer position between your legs to help push your legs out.  You will feel the stretch in your inner thighs.

Outer Hip

With one foot on the ground and the knee bent, cross the other leg over the knee.  Your foot should be flexed and use your hands on the floor to push forward to get a good stretch in the outer hip of the leg that is propped up.

Quad

Start by sitting with one knee bent and the foot under your butt.  The other leg should be bent with the foot next to the knee of the other foot.  Hopefully that makes sense.  With your arms push your hips up until you feel it in the leg that is on the floor.

Shin

This is a nice continuation of the last stretch.  Not as much to do with the knee but still great.  When you come down from the quad stretch.  Push the knee of the leg you were just stretching up and you’ll feel a stretch in the in the front of the leg close to the foot.  This is probably one of my most favorite stretches.

Hamstrings.

With one knee bent and the other leg extened, reach forward with the opposite hand and flex your toes back toward you.  If you can’t reach the toes aim for the ankles or shin.

There you go!  Some great stretches.  All these stretches are important because all the areas that I’ve mentioned including, the hips, inner thighs, it band, quad, and hamstrings all connect to the knee and thus have an impact on how it functions.  So do your stretches and your knees will thank you very much!