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An Injury Prevention Program for Professional Ballet: A Randomized Controlled Investigation

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This research, conducted at the Department of Orthopedics and Sports Medicine at the Houston Methodist Hospital in Texas (USA), investigated the effectiveness of an injury prevention program (IPP) designed to reduce the risk of injury in professional ballet dancers. The primary outcome was the number of injuries sustained and reported per subject during one year (July, 2016 - August, 2017). The research group designed the IPP targeting the core, hip abductor, hip flexor and hip extensor muscles. Of the 52 dancers (belonging to the Houston Ballet company) eligible for the study, 39 decided to participate. However, 11 dancers in the intervention group did not complete the IPP for at least 4 consecutive weeks, so they were not included in the analysis.   Control group Intervention group Mean age 26.6 ± 4.0 years 27.2 ± 5.7 years Gender 10 females, 9 males 6 females, 5 males The results of th...

The Validity of the Session Rating of Perceived Exertion Method for Measuring Internal Training Load in Professional Classical Ballet Dancers

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This study, conducted by a group of scientists from the United Kingdom and Switzerland, investigated the convergent validity of session rating of perceived exertion (s-RPE) with objective measures of internal training load (TL) in professional classical ballet dancers. The main objective of this study was to investigate the validity of s-RPE as a measure of internal TL in professional classical ballet dancers by examining convergence with two validated measures of TL derived from heart rate (HR). A correlative study design was used between April and October 2019. Data on HR and s-RPE were collected from 22 dancers (belonging to the Royal Ballet) in a total of 218 ballet classes and rehearsals. However, 11 dancers completed less than 9 sessions, so they were not included in the analysis. Repeated measures correlations revealed very large positive relationships between s-RPE and objective measures across all sessions  (r = 0.81 ± 0.11 ). Based on these results, the s-RPE metho...

Acute Effect of Toe Cap Choice on Toe Deviation Angle and Perceived Pain in Female Professional Ballet Dancers

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This study conducted by a group of scientists from Italy, Croatia and Qatar, investigated the acute effect of the use of different types of toe caps among professional ballet dancers on pain perception and toe deviation angle. Ten young professional dancers (18.6 ± 3.8 years old; 14.4 ± 2.9 years of training; 10.3 ± 3.9 hours of training per week) volunteered to participate in the study. Among the inclusion criteria was the diagnosis of hallux valgus by an orthopedist and/or sprain of the medial collateral ligaments of the first metatarsophalangeal joint (MTP) verified by a sonogram or magnetic resonance imaging. In two sessions separated by 72 hours, each participant used a  standard commercial or a customized prototype toe cap . During these sessions, an anteroposterior x-ray was taken and a visual analog scale was administered for pain perception after each situation. Significant amelioration was obtained when the customized toe cap prototype was used both for toe deviation angl...