INJURY NETWORKS

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2 December 2021
By Sophie Potter

I believe all injuries are related; even though my knee injury was caused by landing a jump with the wrong placement, I really think it happened as a result to a lower back injury I had a few years ago.

A week before my knee injury we had a class with Fabiano, and at the end we stood still and tuned into our bodies to see if after the session we felt any different. Usually, I notice fuzzy sensations or a more calm sense of focus however, this time I felt more. I could feel the strongest pulling sensation coming from my right hip, as if a rope was attached to my pelvis and someone was pulling on the other end. I mentioned this to Fabiano who said that he could see this in my body as I was twisting. Fabiano advised me to follow the pull, so I simply walked in a circle over my left shoulder and miraculously it was gone.

I was shocked at how strong the feeling was and how simple it was to fix, it made me realise how important it is to listen to your body and do what feels natural to fix it.

That following Friday I injured my knee resulting in a hospital trip and crutches for four days. As I was sat out for a week I had time to really think about my body and how this might have happened. I remembered Fabiano’s class and the sensation I felt, and then it hit me how everything is connected… I have lower back pain due to my previous injury which was causing the alignment of my hips to be off, and this alignment issue was the cause of my knee injury!

I think the most important part of having an injury is knowing when to start increasing the workload and how much to push yourself. The first two days after my injury I did very little movement to give my knee time to rest and give my body/knee time to process what happened and how it needs to fix itself. Then, on the third day of crutches I began to do short distances without them and on my final day I increased the distance and began to do stairs on my own but very slowly. Because I had given my body that time, by Wednesday I was ready to start dancing but at 40%. The following week I was back dancing, pain free, at around 60%, and two weeks after I’m dancing fully again which feels amazing!

For anybody dealing with an injury, the best thing is to keep a positive attitude. For me I continued to stay involved with my classes, asking teachers what I could do in class time to keep engaged and focused on carrying on my training.