II. INJURIES, PREVENTION AND CURE

Chapter 4. The Thigh

The next area of trouble is not in a joint but in the muscles on the inner side of the thigh (figure 28), caused by the stretch that is required of them in all movements à la seconde. There is a corre­sponding pain recognised as "rider's strain" due to a similar pull. In dancers it may become very persistent and is found in quite young pupils as well as in the seasoned. There is no better method of invoking it than rushing to the bane and practising limbering exercises with leg raised on the bane before the lesson, instead of when the body is thoroughly warmed up. It can, however, arise without this culpable behaviour. It is caused by a few fibres of the muscle concerned having been overstretched or possibly torn at some time, and in the healing process they have become, as it were, matted together. They need therefore to be separated again and there are various treat­ments advocated to this end. Before resorting to them it is worth while trying self-help in the form of exercises which put a stretch on the painful spot. Thorough warming first is essential, either by a hot bath or by local heat. The victim should then put herself in a posi­tion when the pain is just noticeable and from this perform gently and rhythmically stretching movements to the limit of endurance. Such a position might well be one in which the leg is raised in second position on a low barre and the supporting leg bent and stretched alternately to get a further stretch on the painful thigh. Or the exercise could begin in a lunge position, both feet on the floor, swinging from side to side by bending

Figure 28.  Site of "Rider's strain”

Figure 29.
Easiest position for stretching exercise in "Rider's Strain"

the knees alternately; but the most favourable position can often be found by the performer. The essence of this cure... and it is astonishingly efficacious ... is slow rhythmic movement, and persistence in spite of a temporary increase of pain and in spite of its intensity over a period varying from a few days to a month. The author has found it remarkably effective even in pain of long standing for which much more serious measures have been advocated. For adults a preliminary few minutes of very deep massage before the stretching may speed the cure but in children it is not necessary.

This pain is quite distinct from a catch or click which besets some students in the mid or later teens in performing the unfolding of the leg in developpés and which is confined almost exclusively to that movement, is felt in the groin but is sometimes referred to the region of the hip, though not in fact affecting the hip joint itself. Its exact cause is difficult to determine, but it wears off in time and though uncomfortable need not cause the dancer any concern.