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The Difference Between Soreness and Pain

Definition of Pain

Pain refers to the sophisticated process in which our nervous system relays significant information to us. It directs us to pay attention on what are happening to our bodies. In case that we are in danger of hurting ourselves, like for instance when we get too close to a hot burner on the stove, pain relates such information to us. Pain is a subjective experience and it can be either acute or chronic.

Acute pain is easy to define (especially the pain that is extremely sharp or severe). It gets our immediate attention. For example, the dancer comes down from a leap incorrectly which resulted on spraining his/her ankle. The dancer KNOWS about the injury in his/her ankle because of the pain felt. It is a normal body response and it serves as a protection and warning not to try to walk. In the other side, chronic pain is not that easy to define. It is more challenging especially in its separation from soreness-especially for the dancers because they appear to have higher pain tolerance than much of the other people.

To maintain long-term health, we must be able to improve our ability to listen and respond to such messages from our own bodies. We must remember that these responses, which influence how we experience pain, are emotional as well as physical. In case of the above situation, after what happened, the dancer is concerned whether he/she will be taken out of a role. To keep that role, pain denial is common. Looking at many influences, both physical and emotional, upon pain helps to provide explanations why dancers will have greatly varying responses to the same injury.

There can be a fine line between soreness and pain. More often than not, most dancers DO NOT pay attention to their messages of pain or allow the initial messages of soreness to become pain. Seeing how hard it is to define pain, let's go to the easier task of defining situations that may create soreness.

Soreness Defined

Dancers often will feel temporary muscle soreness after a class that has been particularly challenging or when new choreography or movement styles have been introduced. This soreness is caused by muscle overworking without the proper warm-up for that movement patterning. Combinations in center and across the floor typically use different sequencing and patterns of movements than a barre, modern dance, tap, or jazz warm-up. Movements depend on your individual body type and structure. Some movements will suit you better and feel natural, while others challenge your physicality

Sometimes during a long class or rehearsal, you will feel soreness begin. This soreness is caused by fatigue of doing too many repetitions of a specific movement. When you feel the soreness begin, if possible, try to take few minutes and rest. You can also try to stretch the involved area if you have been strongly contracting it. Your body is giving you a hint that if ever soreness is respected in its early stages, you can prevent more damaging muscle strain from occurring.

Usually upon awakening, you may feel muscle strain the day after a class. What you are actually feeling are small tears in the muscles and connective tissue caused by overly forceful stretching, movements that you are not accustomed to, or a combination of the two. Generally, feeling of stiffness, ache, and uncomfortable are experienced as you begin to move and stretch. These feelings will relieve as you

continue to wake up and move. It takes few days for the soreness to decrease, depending on how much you overworked the muscles. For example, if a dancer hasn't danced all summer, and then starts the fall semester by attending a 2 hour modern class followed by a ballet or jazz class, that dancer is bound to feel sore the next day.

What To Do?

A muscle grows stronger when it is gently stressed beyond its normal workload. The above example of the dancer taking the summer off and returning immediately to several hours of classes per day describes aggressively overloading of the muscle. This soreness may take several days to disappear, depending on the dancer's quality of body care. To minimize soreness and pain, training is to be maximized.

The following guidelines will help to minimize and work through soreness as quickly as possible:

1.Eat the right kind of food. Proper nutrition is essential for the body to repair itself easily and quickly, even from small muscle tears. Protein and good carbohydrates (such as vegetables) should be well represented in the diet. Grains and sweets should be minimized.

2. Drink water. Proper hydration is important. Drink one quart of water, not soda, juice, coffee, tea, or sports drinks, daily for every 50 pounds of body weight. The body can only utilize about a cup of water an hour, and will flush the rest through the kidneys. Sipping water, all day long, is the best way to stay properly hydrated. Generally, thirst means dehydration.

3. Warm up and do some stretching before anything else. Warm up muscles with movement, such as brisk walking, easy jogging, or marching in place, prior to stretching gently. This will help to clear out any waste products, such as lactic acid, while conditioning the muscles and preparing them for class or rehearsal. Taking class in the morning will not count as a warm-up if your rehearsal isn't until late afternoon.

With practice, dancers will be able to learn how to decipher the body's messages as either soreness or pain. They need to know that pain is always a cause for concern and should be respected, especially when trying to determine the pain's origin. Soreness, on the other hand, can be safely addressed through careful attention for a few days. We all have an inner physician, a voice of knowledge that will give us guidance on deciding what is okay and what isn't. We simply need to learn to listen.