Ballet Dancer/Back Pain

[MK2012]

My 15 y/o daughter is a ballet dancer. She has pain in her lower back when she arches backwards which is restricting movement. She has had an MRI and x-rays of the spine and both came back perfectly normal with a healthy spine, no inflammation, etc. She saw a chiropractor for a while and that did not help. Had physical therapy which also did not help. Her massage therapist found that her psoas muscle was tight, she has been doing exercises for that and her tightness in hips is gone but the pain with arching is still present. She has had the pain for about a year now. She has been in yoga for about a month also. Any help with getting this figured out would be appreciated. It's frustrating to me that she is in pain at such a young age and we cannot find anything to help! Thank you.

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[physiobob]

Hi MK2012 and thanks for your post. Back pain in a ballet dancer in their teens is very common, almost normal in some respects. She may have overuse of the pain segment or segments which can be helped by releasing of the psoas (hip flexors) however that would not be sustained unless the incorrect movement pattern is sorted out. It also requires her to have extremly good abdominal control in the backbend/arabesque to prevent the spinal segments 'slamming' into one another. Unfortunately when these segments become painful it is often after years of incorrect movement/support in that region.

An xray is unlikely to show anything in these cases unless there was a fracture (also common in dancers and gymnasts) however I suppose if the MRI is clear on that we can rule it out. You could of course get a bonescan to be sure it is not stress fracture related.

Yoga is useful to help her with movement control however something more dance specific would be better. I would look for a gyrotonic studio near where you live and try to get her in for some 'gyro'. Also we have not discussed diet and weight but it goes without saying that these aspects should be considered, where over or under, and if she is getting enough food and time to repair the demands on her growing body.

It would be interesting to hear from her ballet teacher/s to get their frank opinion on what they feel is going on as well. Hope this helps a little to investigate futher.

regards

PB :-)