Stretching the limit

Dancers are renowned for their flexibility and to many non-dancers the main aspect that defines 'a dancer' is whether they can do the splits or not! It is without question that dancers have an increased range of movement in comparison to the average person, and often dancers coincidentally have a natural flexibility aside from that as a result of their training. Dancers spend a lot of time in the studio, their whole craft is based on the physical attributes of their bodies. Much time must be spent maintaining and enhancing their bodies, keeping them in top condition for what is required. Dancers must ensure they take time at the beginning of the class or rehearsal to warm the body up sufficiently with cardiovascular activity, and they must also take time afterwards to cool down properly. This is done through lowering the heart rate properly and stretching out their muscles, as this is much safer when they are warm. Recently the intensity of stretching has been discussed, as well as the different stretch techniques, such as static, dynamic and proprioceptive neuromuscular. When cooling down, dancers use static (still) stretches to elongate the muscles and improve the range of movement, whereas dynamic stretching is mostly used during warm up exercises, so the body moves through the stretch and isn't held there for long periods of time when the muscles are still cold. In terms of intensity, dancers often feel that if the stretch is more intense it will lead to greater flexibility as the muscle is being pushed to its extent. However, it has been thought that this may cause trauma to the muscle, and as a result it may be better to stretch with less intensity for greater results.