The importance of rest zzz.

Towards the end of last week I had a complete crash. I hated being away from dance, time went slow but I couldn’t push myself to physicalize it for risk of burning out. I had to take a day off! I known its an idea that is presented to us dancers as if its the end of our career. I’m writing this because resting is just as important as doing and finding the balance is difficult. Its something I’m struggling with, and after 2 months of dance every day I needed a day off.

I’m sure many of us have heard about “rest days” in fitness. Fitbit say they are essential to prevent injury, performance endurance and mental edge among others. It seems that it is written into every training programme. Anything from just running, to weightlifting it is shown the importance on resting every working muscle.- as a society we acknowledge that a form of fitness takes a mental and physical toll on our body that needs time to rest before re-working that muscle. The rest period is given to allow the muscle fibres to repair and in this process we become stronger.

Dance on the other side, doesn’t hold the same mentality. As I’m dancing I may be working my legs more than my arms, or back over feet one day but the entirety of the body is used for flexibility, mobility and endurance. As a result many muscles are re-used day in and day out without a rest. Contrast this to going to the gym. Monday biceps, Tuesday hamstrings... Not only are we isolating muscles we are also allowing them near enough complete rest in the next session. In addition, you will be doing anywhere from 1 hour to 10 hours of dancing a day, in contrast to a maximum of 3 hours fitness over the course of the same 24 hours. Some exercises may be “harder” in a gym but they are not stressed and endured for half the time they are in dance or adapting pace working from fast to sustained tempo, pushing the muscles in another way. Surely then rest is too needed in dance.

As a proffesional or at university you will be dancing 5-6 days a week with the "weekend" as your free time. Perfect. But- get given the mentality (and strive for) constant improvement. This is not done without extra work. We get given practical alongside theoretical work to do outside of class, as well as strengthening and flexibility drills to keep performance constant. Even on rest days we are doing AT LEAST an 1 of dance. Doesn’t sound like too much? Imagine on already aching and exhausted muscles and mind you discover new routines on your ever changing body, EVEN IF. YOUR NOT SORE, YOUR BODY IS WELL-WORKED. Our muscle fibres may not have been torn the same as in a session in the gym, but it does not mean they aren’t affected. In ballet we work on increasing turn out in a range of motions (which can cause stretch and tears) and then even sustaining and pushing higher will break even more fibres. In contrast to the gym where one muscle group is affected, having weaker supports in the upper and lower body will affect the bodies performance the next day. This is why most dancers hear “listen to your body, its not the same everyday”. Each class our body changes due to this breakdown, and then our limit of how far we push is affected by this- go too far and you’ll have an injury, not enough and you won’t improve or stand apart from the competition.

Dr John Beradi states how muscle soreness in running will last upto 2 days, and then recovery begins, in contrast to weightlifting where it can take between 7-14 days to recover. These are all approximations as each person and environment varies. As dancers, from this, we can see the endurance and strength meaning we need at least a week to recover. Those reading weeks are placed at good times,giving our body enough time to fully recover before we go back to day in day out and run on our built up endurance and will power. As dancers, we have learnt to work outside of our ideal body, being tired and sore and yet still push for greatness. If your body is sore- if you are tired BE PROUD. We keep going. BUT know the line of where an injury can occur. Even 1-2 days off allows the muscles to rest and begin recovery (to sew the initial fibres together) so there is some support. If not, the remaining muscles have to work over time to compensate for this loss and they too will wear out until you cannot do anything.

BY NO MEANS AM I SAYING DO LESS DANCE, IF YOU WANT TO BE PROFESSIONAL YOU NEED TO PUT IN THE TIME, but learn how far to push yourself on days, learn new massage tips to help aid recovery and don't force anything that your body isn't ready to do (as you feel you "should" be able to do it, or you were able to but today you can't).

For me these months I have been pushing as much as I can. Researching, viewing, creating dance material for an awareness of mine and others body capabilities. Playing catch up on technique. I can promise even watching dance tips and techniques can become very tedious on the mind as you try to recite everything you see and put it into your body without dancing full out. I am SO proud of how far I have come and where my confidence is- and by no means am I’m saying ‘just do what is asked of you to get there-' YOU. WONT. Always push for more.

As a dancer you need to do more. If you are not natural at something, work harder to get it to keep you on par with the naturals. Want to go further than them? Train longer than they train plus the time it takes you to get to there level. Its a LOT of work. BUT don’t forget to REST. What good is a mind with corrections and ideas that cannot perform with a sparkle as they did too much the day before.

Push, do as much as you can and see how it affects you for a week. Do bare minimum and test for another week. Finding the perfect balance is ever changing, as our needs are too.

Hang in there.

Don’t be too hard on yourself.

Everything cannot be fixed in a short space of time.

Breathe.