Do a quick internet search about dance, flexibility, and stretching, and sure enough you’ll get countless hits showing pictures of dancers in amazingly bendy poses and articles about how you can achieve this incredible flexibility. However, many of these articles suggest using some pretty extreme – and very unsafe – methods to get you there. They often advise using all sorts of weird and cringeworthy positions. They often tell you that you need to do things like push into oversplits in second and intense partner stretching. I also hear so many reports from the dancers I work with about the crazy and sometimes downright dangerous things that they and their peers are doing to try and improve their flexibility.
I just want to clarify one thing – I am not against extreme flexibility. I am against some of the risky, unsafe techniques that are often recommended to achieve it. Read on to understand why I, as a physiotherapist, am concerned.
Overstretching has unfortunately become ingrained in the dance world. Many dancers feel that overstretching is a necessary part of training. However, many extreme techniques are dangerous, potentially leading to injuries and long-term problems with joint instability and pain.
As a physiotherapist, I cringe every time I see someone intentionally practicing extreme overstretching. I see it all too often in my work, and all too often treat the resulting injuries. I regularly work with dancers who have suffered years of aches, pains, and recurrent injuries as the result of excessive mobility and joint instability from overstretching. Despite a mountain of evidence surrounding the risks of overstretching, many young dancers are being encouraged to use extreme techniques to achieve dramatic flexibility without understanding the long-term damage being done.
What is overstretching and why is it bad?
Overstretching involves pushing your muscles, joints, or both beyond their natural limits. For the sake of explaining the various risks, there are two ways that we can define “overstretching”. Both are problematic.
Firstly, and in the more basic sense, overstretching can be defined as pushing too hard or stretching too much during a flexibility session, causing traumatic damage to the tissues. This could be the result of pushing yourself too hard or from being forced into a position by someone else. In the short term, this can cause microscopic tears in the muscles, tendons and ligaments. This will likely leave you feeling extra sore or achy for a few days. The damage weakens the tissues, hindering your performance and leaving you more prone to injury. If the overstretching goes further yet, you can end up with a full-blown tear to the muscles or soft tissues, resulting in an injury that requires time off from dancing.
Secondly, and perhaps more concerningly, overstretching can be defined as regularly pushing a joint beyond its natural, physiological range of motion, such as in center oversplits. This leads to stretching of the joint capsule and surrounding ligaments. Over time, the ligaments and joint capsules that are meant to support and stabilize the joint become elongated and lose their ability to recoil. The ligaments and joint capsule are unable to stabilize the joint, which then causes excessive movement in the joint. The joints suffer undue wear and tear on the cartilage, leading to pain and potentially early onset arthritis.
It’s not just the cartilage at risk, though. In young dancers, whose bodies are still growing and developing, there is a serious risk of damage to the shape of the joint. This is particularly common in the hip socket, ankles and spine. Young dancers are also at a high risk of developing stress fractures in the spine and spondylolisthesis (slipping of the vertebrae) when the joints are pushed too far. Unsurprisingly, all of these things cause pain in both the short and long term and can lead to a host of long-term problems.
I love a good intense stretch session, I feel so loose and limber afterwards!
Well, yes, if you haven’t sustained a significant tear to a muscle or soft tissue, you may well feel good immediately afterwards, but the effects will be short lived. When you try to push a stretch beyond your limit, you trigger the body’s stretch reflex. This causes the muscles to tighten (the opposite of what you’re aiming for!) as the body tries to protect the joints and soft tissue. As you push against this stretch reflex, you put micro tears in the muscles and soft tissues. This leads to sore, achy and slightly weakened muscles, similar to the delayed onset muscle soreness after a strength training session. As the muscles and soft tissues repair themselves, you can end up with areas of scar tissue, which are stiff, rigid and inflexible. So, while you might feel super limber immediately afterwards, in the following days and in the long term, intense stretching can actually decrease your flexibility.
As long as it’s not painful, it’s ok.
No! The biggest concern with overstretching is the cumulative effect. A single session overstretching is unlikely to cause any long-term damage, but each time you push a joint beyond its natural limit, you are stretching the ligaments a tiny bit. It may not hurt at the time, but gradually over time, the ligaments get longer and longer, making the joint less and less stable. Add up this stretching over months or years and you end up with a very unstable joint. Unstable joints are painful joints. The internal joint surfaces suffer excessive and often painful friction, and this leads to early degeneration and early onset arthritis.
Dangers in young dancers
In young students, it’s not just the cartilage at risk, though. The shape of the bones and joints continue to change and develop until growth is complete, which can be as late as 16 to 18 years old. There is a very real and serious risk of permanent damage to the shape of the joints if they are aggressively pushed beyond their physiological range during growth. Anatomical changes, such as bony growths around the joint or the development of shallow joint sockets, can lead to long term, career ending pain and can leave an ex-dancer struggling with pain during day to day activities for the rest of his or her life.
Effect on performance
When the ligaments and joint capsule are elongated, the joint is unstable. The muscles, then, have to take over the work that the ligaments are supposed to do, and must work harder to help stabilise the joint. If the muscles are busy stabilising the joint, they don’t have the ability to produce as much force for other movements. In practice, this means lower jumps, lower extensions and grande battement, and slower petite battement.
Furthermore, as already discussed, unstable joints are often painful joints. If you are constantly in pain, even just minor, niggly pain, you won’t be able to perform to your best.
Intense stretching and extreme flexibility are just a part of modern, professional dance training
No! Professional dance does require exceptional flexibility, but there are much safer ways to achieve this than aggressive over stretching. Look at what is causing the movement restriction and work with your body, not against it. Often forgotten is that range of movement must be developed alongside strength and control. Without sufficient strength and control, excessive flexibility leads to weakened muscles and increased injury risks.
Conclusion
Excessive joint mobility and hypermobility (e.g. oversplits in second) are not the same as flexibility. It’s surprisingly common to see dancers with hypermobile joints but poor functional flexibility. Think about someone who can easily sit in the oversplits, but can’t do a developpé above 90 degrees.
There are many ways to safely and effectively improve your flexibility, even if you feel you’ve plateaued. Overstretching comes with a massive injury risk, both in the short and long term, and will not help you achieve your flexibility goals. If you’re struggling with your flexibility, feel free to contact me for an assessment or check out my individualised flexibility training program. Or please contact another experienced and qualified professional who can help you with safe and effective training exercises.
On a final note, I have to question the artistic necessity of overstretching – when will you use some of these crazy positions in real life choreography? Getting 1000 likes for a picture on social media might seem great, but it won’t get you a professional dance contract. Having solid technique and fantastic strength will. It is far more beneficial to work towards the skills you actually need for your career goals.
