By Jackie Barbano, PT and Hilary Jones, PT
It has been said that ballet ranks with football as one of the most demanding sports of all. This makes sense if you consider that whenever dancers jump, their bodies absorb twelve times their body weight each time they land. Dancers may jump in excess of 200 times in class, and as they prepare for recitals they often take their regular classes during the week in addition to recital practice. When you multiply the number of jumps in a dance routine by the number of run-throughs in a given rehearsal, this adds up to significant physical stress on muscles, joints, and bones.