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Clements, Lucie. (2022). Rest and sleep [Lecture to BA1 dance science]. 6 October

Clements, Lucie. (2022). Psychology and Injury Recovery. [Lecture to BA1 Dance Science]. 18 November

Scott Curtis, D.O. (202AD) Benefits of heat therapy for lower back pain, Spine. Spine-health. Available at: https://www.spine-health.com/treatment/heat-therapy-cold-therapy/benefits-heat-therapy-lower-back-pain (Accessed: December 1, 2022).

De'ath, S. (2022). Injury management and Types of injury. [Lecture to BA1 Dance science]. 21 October

Suni, E. (2022) Stages of sleep, Sleep Foundation. Available at: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/stages-of-sleep (Last accessed: November 7, 2022).

Tucker, J. (2021) How many alarms should you set?, Headspace. Available at: https://www.headspacegroup.co.uk/how-many-alarms-should-you-set/#:~:text=The%20impact%20of%20your%20morning,be%20harmful%20to%20your%20health. (Accessed: December 1, 2022).

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Dr. Alexander Baldwin, P.T. (2021) Healing strategies: Rice vs meat, fitness. Available at: https://www.fitness-forum.com/single-post/healing-strategies-rice-vs-meat (Accessed: November 8, 2022).

Clements, L. (2022). Rest and sleep [Lecture to BA1 dance science]. 6 October

Clements, Lucie. (2022). Psychology and Injury Recovery. [Lecture to BA1 Dance Science]. 18 November

Scott Curtis, D.O. (202AD) Benefits of heat therapy for lower back pain, Spine. Spine-health. Available at: https://www.spine-health.com/treatment/heat-therapy-cold-therapy/benefits-heat-therapy-lower-back-pain (Accessed: December 1, 2022).

De’ath, S. (2022). Injury prevalence and prevention. [Lecture to BA1 dance science]. 20 October

De'ath, S. (2022). Injury management and Types of injury. [Lecture to BA1 Dance science]. 21 October

(no date) And the dance goes on: Psychological impact of injury - by Lynda M. Mainwaring, Ph.d., Donna Krasnow, M.S., Gretchen Kerr, ph.D.. Available at: https://www.citraining.com/Psychological-Impact-of-Injury.html (Accessed: November 8, 2022).

Suni, E. (2022) Stages of sleep, Sleep Foundation. Available at: https://www.sleepfoundation.org/stages-of-sleep (Last accessed: November 7, 2022).

Tucker, J. (2021) How many alarms should you set?, Headspace. Available at: https://www.headspacegroup.co.uk/how-many-alarms-should-you-set/#:~:text=The%20impact%20of%20your%20morning,be%20harmful%20to%20your%20health. (Accessed: December 1, 2022).

Villines, Z. (2022) Cognitive restructuring: Steps, technique, and examples, Medical News Today. MediLexicon International. Available at: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/cognitive-restructuring (Accessed: December 2, 2022).

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Periodisation has proved for myself to be very productive. I feel the weekly timetables have helped me in terms of getting sufficient amounts of rest between classes. Our breaks are short enough for me to relax and recharge in order to be in the right mindset for the next class. When going into a lecture i feel i'm able to concentrate better after having time to do what i need to prepare myself. I feel that's important as going straight into the another class might increase my tiredness and lead to possible burn out or lack of focus and any longer in our break would perhaps leave me feeling unmotivated.

Our schedule lets us build up in the first few days to the middle of the week with Wednesday being our most physical day so that we can peak at the right time getting the most out of our practical classes. Our last two days include more lectures and classes such as mindfulness and reflection. I feel that this personally gives me time to settle, look back on the week and observe my strengths and areas of improvement.

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Through learning about sleep patterns I’ve realised how beneficial it is for us to have an adequate sleep schedule in order to perform well both cognitively and physically.

The average athlete/young adult needs 7-9 hours of sleep per evening in order to perform well. If you have less than 6 hours of sleep for 4 consecutive days you will experience impaired cognitive performance and mood as well as disturb glucose metabolism, appetite regulation and immune function (Clements, 2022). All of these can have serious effects on a dancer which is why maintaining a sleep schedule of 8 hours a night is crucial.

Additionally, sleeping for longer than the recommended hours will most likely increase tiredness as you could interrupt the ‘deep sleep’ stage (stage 3) meaning that you wake up more tired as a result (Suni, 2022).

With this information I have been stricter over how many hours I sleep as oversleeping is an issue for me as someone dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome. One thing specifically that helped me keep up with this was i stopped setting so many alarms for the morning and i also tried not to hit snooze when they went off. Doing this regularly has significantly improved the quality of my sleep.

'You’re not really resting or sleeping well between the alarms because the most restful parts of your sleep cycle have already happened. The repetitive awakenings disrupt sleep quality and are the most inefficient way of trying to get extra sleep' (Tucker, no date)

Since creating an acceptable sleep schedule, I have felt many of the benefits throughout my classes. For example in ground based, a class that is both highly mentally and physically challenging, i found that i could process information a lot quicker and pick up an exercise with more ease. it is necessary that I am in the correct state of mind in order to safely and effetely take part.

Proper amounts of sleep allow me to mentally keep up and perform at my optimum and as the course becomes more physically demanding with longer hours it is necessary that I am in the correct state of mind in order to take part. I intend to maintain a healthy sleep Schedule so that I can physically and cognitively perform at my optimum and remain safe during class.

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In our Injury psychology lectures we discussed the stress injury model created by Williams and Anderson in 1998 which focuses in on our cognitive appraisals and how individuals usually respond to Stress. One of the key sections of the diagram is the personality section and one of the key personality traits when responding to stress is the perfectionist trait. Majority of models suggest that personality can affect the stress response which in turn can impact psychological responses (Clements, 2022).

During this term my back injury has caused a considerable amount of stress and frustration due to many different factors including having to sit out of class, fear of falling behind or not improving and therefore losing confidence and motivation. After studying this diagram i have used it to look at how i have responded to my injury and how can change my approach so that i can relieve the amount of stress.

Because my Back injury has impeded on my ability to perform, my perfectionism has caused me to become frustrated during class especially ground based as it such high intensity and i have found it incredibly hard on my back. Furthermore, this has increased the amount of stress i have been experiencing as a result.

However by using the diagram and reflecting on how i respond to stress i have practiced a few strategies on how i can manage my stress levels which will assist with my recovery and lower the risk of injuring myself again. A few of these strategies include simple breathing exercises, imagery and setting realistic goals for myself. I try to stick to these goals and use these tactics in class (and out of class) as much as possible as i believe they are beneficial and worth it. I am interested to see how they work for me in my different classes throughout next term.

In the attached video i'm doing a ground based back exercise. This was a hard day pain wise and normally i would have given up and decided to step out of the space but instead i persevered and tried to calm my breathing so i was able to continue. I stopped and readjusted myself at certain points to make sure i had the right technique so that i was happy with the way i was working rather than being hard on myself. This is the more positive attitude i have developed to help me in class.

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During our second dance science lecture on injury management we discussed the four vital stages of injury rehabilitation. Restriction, restoration (and consultation), re-acquisition and Refinement. In order to understand the first stage (restriction) the acronym MEAT is used to outline the key questions you should ask when dealing with injury (De’Ath 2022).

M - What ADL movement is safe to continue with?

E - What exercise modifications are needed?

A - Is pain relief needed?

T - What treatment is required?

Whilst studying about the importance of injury management, i have utilised this information in order to manage my own back injury. Since exploring and using MEAT i feel that I’m able to start slowly transitioning from the restriction phase into restoration phase of my injury. I've found this method incredibly useful as someone dealing with a long term injury who used to push through injury and pain without thinking, in order to carry on dancing. As i continue through higher education and my training gets tougher i feel that exploring this method will hopefully let me see some progression.

For ground-based technique i assessed which parts of the class caused negative pain to my back and which parts were okay to continue with. Since the class contained a lot of floor work that was unsuitable for my back i had to restrict how much of the class i was able to participate in. However, during the parts of the class that were off the floor (such as the warm up, basic exercises and focus groups) I adapted what i needed to in order to cause the least amount of strain on my back so that I’m able to partake in class as much as possible whilst giving my back a chance to recover.

In the video shown above i adapted some of the movements to make them more to be more comfortable for my body that i was capable of doing. In the last part of the phrase we come up into our front stab with the weight mostly on our head, as this move puts a lot of strain on my neck i decided to simple keep my head off the ground and take the weight through my hands to come up. After this there is a roll that requires us to go up into a high shoulder stand (high shelf position) and roll back without our feet touching the floor. Instead of this i opted for a simple back roll that my body was used to doing.

I believe that ground-based technique is the class that challenged my body the most in this term because of the significant amount of floor work. Since we are starting our  floor work classes next term it is important that i continue to use these methods and techniques so i am able to get through the classes as smoothly as possible and help myself when i am struggling. I plan to continue this throughout my training so that i am able to manage possible future injuries.

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After learning about the use of heat i have a better understanding about when it's needed, how to use it safely and what the true benefits are. It is important that heat is used for chronic injuries that is why i find it more suitable for my own back problems rather than ice. However when my back pain first occurred i applied ice as it was the very beginning stages and i was advised to use it in that period of time.

Since my injury has become long term i've never found much relief in any form of medication but i always found comfort in having a hot bath. I've since learned that this is due to many different reasons. Heat therapy increases the speed of blood flow to the muscles and stretches the soft tissues around the spine, if applied regularly it can decrease stiffness and reduce pain giving you more range of motion and strengthened movements (Curtis, 2021).

I like to use either a hot water bottle or heat pads for 15 to 20 minutes at a time so as not to damage any skin tissues. Typically before i go to bed to minimise pain so my sleep isn't disrupted and also in the morning before school to reduce the stiffness after i wake up. I will sometimes apply deep heat cream during the day if i am feeling particularly stiff so i can feel the benefits before class and be ready to fully participate.

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After learning more about good and bad pain i have been feeling a lot more clarity about my own pain and how i should be treating it. I now understand that because my injury is long term and has been causing me chronic pain for a few years now i have lost touch with what pain is actually good and isn't stemming from my injury. Since this realisation i have felt braver in classes and able to push myself a little more within specific movements.

For example in pilates i can now really give in to the back stretches without fear of going too far and injuring myself more as i know the difference between the good and bad pain. Now if i feel the negative pains starting during an exercise i can stop myself and take a moment to go back to where is comfortable as i'm now much more aware of my limits. The video above is a time lapse of my pilates class demonstrating some of the stretches i'm now more confident doing.

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The dance practice i will cover today is:

Ground based foundation

I chose ground based technique as my main dance practice because i've found that applying my dance science topics to this class in particular has been very beneficial for me. I think a lot of my discussion points are relevant to other areas of practice as well so there will be mention of other classes.

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My topics for this assessment will be:

- Injury management
- Psychology & injury
- The spine
- Sleep and rest

I'll be discussing these topics as i relate to them very well due to my own personal experiences and struggles i'm currently facing and will be referring to throughout this padlet. Therefore i found researching and practicing these topics incredibly helpful.