Back injuries, how common are they in dancers?

Lower back injuries are statistically second only to ankle and foot injuries in the dance population. While not as common, a back injury can be significantly debilitating in terms of function, engaging in training and performance, and has a significant impact on mental health if left untreated.

I work with dancers from a variety of skill levels at my clinic, and one of the most common complaints regardless of style or level I hear from dancers is the prevalence of persistent lower back pain. Most of the time a patient won’t even comment that they have low back pain unless I ask specifically “do you get low back pain?”. Such questioning is often shrugged off as “it’s normal everyone else has a sore back” “it’s part of dancing” “all dancers have it”.

Let’s dispel that myth right now, it is not normal to have persistent pain, end of discussion. Perhaps a culture of “no pain no gain” which was more popular in the past continues to persist even now in the culture of dance studios. This is a terrible shame, and accounts for high drop out rates in the long term.

What are the most common presentations I see? I work more often with adolescent and pre-pubsecent dancers which, if you know from reading my blog, back pain in children is not normal at all. In fact, statistically the majority of low back pain presentations in this age group are diagnosed with pars defects and skeletal abnormalities such as scoliosis. Why is this the case? because the tissue of the young reacts very differently to changes in load. The right amount of load promotes boney growth, too much and we risk impeding growth and damaging tissue.

So message is, back pain in dancers is unfortunately common, of low back pain we see in children it is of insidious origin and must be addressed quickly to avoid future drop outs and chronic back pain.

If you have any questions about this blog or would like to have an assessment with me I work out of my clinic in Bowral and you can easily book online.