February 17, 2006

Avoiding Injuries - Most of the Time

I've managed to keep myself healthy since I started taking jazz dance classes last year. I figured that if I did hurt myself I'd probably injure my knees during dance class or hurt my back.

But that's not what happened. About two weeks ago I was on an elliptical machine in a health club. It was a different health club than I usually go to. So that day I increased the resistance to make my cardio workout more challenging. And the next day I woke up in pain. I found out after going to the doctor yesterday that I aggravated tendons in both legs. So I haven't been able to dance or work out for two weeks and I'll probably have to wait another two weeks before I can take dance classes. A real bummer!

I figure that what happened is that the elliptical machine I was on was calibrated differently than the ones I'm used to. So I probably increased the resistance much more than I intended.

Since I started take performance dance classes last summer - I did some social dancing before than - I've been very focused on trying to stay healthy and getting in good shape. Before taking an Intro to Dance at Joy of Motion in June I was only in average shape in terms of flexibility, cardio and strength. Also, I found that dancing puts different demands on the body than sports I've played. So I decided that since I was 43 and had never danced before, I would be methodical about working out, stretching and, overall, staying in good shape.

About last September I bought two books that have been incredibly helpful:

The first is "Stretching" by Bob Anderson. On Amazon, this book gets 4 1/2 stars from 58 reviews. This book offers an excellent introduction to stretching with tons of illustrations and clear descriptions of how to do stretches for different parts of the body.

So when I do stretches outside of class I do a combination of stretches from this book along with stretches that we've done in the different jazz classes I've taken. When I started using this book, I focused mostly on my back, groin and knees - for the obvious purpose of avoiding injuries. Now I do different combinations of stretches each time I stretch. I'm sort of amazed by how much my flexibility has increased in about 8 months or so. I think most of my greater flexibility comes from my dance classes supplemented by this book. I still want to know why women are more flexible. Does it have to do with the hips and the lower back?

The second book I bought was "The Body Sculpting Bible for Men." On Amazon this book has 4 stars from 96 reviewers. Some of the reviewers are pretty critical of this book. What I like about this book is that it offers very clear descriptions of how to lift weights (mostly dumbbells and machine weights) for each set of muscles. I looked at a number of other weight-lifting books and most of them just weren't clear and were often confusing.

In October or so I started lifting weights for my upper body - biceps, triceps, shoulders, chest and back. For the most part I use dumbbells and a few machines. Then, about two months ago I started lifting weights for my legs - calves, quads and hamstrings. I thought my legs were stronger than they were. I've read the descriptions for the different weight lifting exercises many times to figure out the right way to do each one. I'm always tempted to tell guys in the gym that the way they're lifting free weights is completely counter-productive. But I don't think most people really want to hear that they are completely clueless about weightlifting - so I don't say anything.

I think that as a result of dancing, stretching, weight-lifting and cardio exercises I'm in better shape than I've been since playing soccer in college. But I'm just going to have to wait a couple more weeks before ramping up the physical activity again.

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