After struggling with my toe recently I did a little research and came up with the following hints and tips that are worth taking note of…

Are you suffering bunions, blisters, shin splints, cramps or tendinitis – just what are you putting your body through when doing what you love?  Start to look after your feet while you dance.  Learn how dancers can prevent and deal with common painful symptoms that occur from overuse.

1. Changing shoes regularly.

You should wear a different style shoes as much as possible because where there are pressure points in certain areas that become persistent and chronic you can develop bursitis or tendinitis.  Changing your style and type of shoe will vary the pressure point positions and help prevent one area from taking a battering all the time.  Ideally you should have at two pairs of practice shoes to best care for your feet and prevent symptoms of overuse, which occurs when there is a constant pressure placed on the same area of the foot.

2. Vary the exercise.

The feet of Dancers are normally quite strong anyway but strengthening and flexibility exercises can be helpful.  Try and avoid repeating the same move over and over again, especially if it requires inordinate amounts of pressure.  Constant repeated leaning or stretching on particular areas of your body or feet will add extra stress to your body that is best to avoid.

3. Seek help if you experience symptoms of pain.

If a problem persists to the point where you are in chronic pain it will pay to get someone to look at it. It might be something as simple as the shoe that you are wearing but prevention is always easier than the cure.

4. Dancing in your heels.

Don’t practice in your heels too much unless it is right before a competition when you need to get use to the height of the heel. That is why Bloch dance training shoes are so popular for practice sessions.  The muscle memory with a routine is basically what you are practicing, whereas your technique with the height and style of the shoe may only vary slightly. When you wear a higher the heel, it creates a more restricted hip action for a woman. It will put you forward and restrict a lot of what you can do while it will give you a lot of toe and ball of the foot pain, especially if you practice consistently in that height.  Experts recommend practicing in no more than a two inch heel and only practice with your extreme heels (3 or 3 1/2 inch heels) a week or two before your competition just to get used to the height.  Certainly don’t batter your feet in a three and a half inch heel for months before your competition or event.

5. Ice or heat treatment of aches and pains?

Which is best?

Heat will soothe you and make you feel good but only while you have the heat. It brings superficial circulation to the skin area but it can only penetrate as far as the dermis, which is the underlying tissue.  For heat to penetrate any further, you would need to 'cook' your foot gas mark…. (Not recommended).

Ice however can get to bone.  The benefit of ice is that it also has an analgesic effect because once it gets to the bone it numbs the area down.  It keeps the swelling and inflammation down and then when the ice is removed, there is a benefit in that the blood vessels immediately dilate to bring a lot of blood to the area to warm it up again and that's when the healing begins. Ice will penetrate right through muscle to the bone.

Many people use creams to treat aches or pains and psychologically it can make them feel great, experts actually recommend their use it if it makes them feel good, but physiologically speaking, ice is the best way to go for any healing, swelling, aches, pains, tendinitis or bursitis.

6. Shin Splints.

If you experience shin splints then you are basically suffering fallen arches and you will most likely need some form of support.  A shin splint occurs because when the foot is flattened there is a muscle that is supposed to hold the arch up that is attached to the shin and because it is pulling so hard to hold the arch up at the foot level it is also pulling at the origin of the muscle which attaches to the anterior edge of the tibia where inflammation occurs.  Get yourself a pair of foot orthotics, ice down the area and often your shin splints will go away.

7. Cramps.

If you get them at night, it is usually a result of over working them during the day.  If you get them while you are doing things, you are probably just pushing the muscle to the point of cramping.  You can also get muscle cramps as a result of dehydration so drink plenty of water and you may also need calcium or phosphorus in your diet, but they are more than likely a result of the exercise stresses you put your body through in your daily routines.

By Andrew Eldridge. Please be aware I am certainly no doctor and these tips have been gathered from sources available from the Internet,  If you have any genuine health concerns you should always refer to your own GP