Unuseable hyperextension

[balletmania]

This is a bit of a strange situation because I do have some hyperextension (as in, my heels come off the ground when I straighten my knees in a sitting pike position, and when I am doing the front oversplits with a yoga block the knee still touches the ground), but for some reason when I'm actually dancing it's near impossible to extend the leg completely. For example, during tendus, my leg doesn't look or feel completely straightened and developpe devant is just hopeless. Is this a common situation? What can I do to utilise my available hyperextension while dancing?

Thanks in advance!

x

[drdance]

Eeeeek! Is my first thought!

 

Hyperextension in the knees is not really something you should be prioritising. Pushing into it in an oversplit position and pushing down is especially risky as you can overstretch the ligaments in your knee, put pressure on the kneecap and cause instability in the joint putting it at risk of injury in the future. 

 

It sounds like you need to prioritise strengthening your knees and in particular, the VMO muscle. (vastus medialis). There are lots of things online that help with this.

[Anna C]

My first thought too, @drdance. 😱

 

Balletmania, please don’t risk injury by doing oversplits or any other extreme stretching.  Hyperextension/hypermobility is no good without the strength and stability to actually *use* it while dancing.  What you need is prescribed exercises to *engage and strengthen* your ligaments, including those in the back of your leg, instead of stretching your already mobile joints.  
 

You’re possibly having trouble maintaining extension while dancing because the overstretching is weakening your knees, instead of strengthening them.  Add to that that dancers with hyperextended knees & elbows should not “sit back” into them and lock them into hyperextension, but should pull up (which feels odd to start with, and as if the knee is bent, but is much better in the long run).

 

Hypermobile dancers may have nice lines, but they have to be extremely careful and diligent with their strengthening exercises, if they are too avoid injury.

 

I’d suggest seeing an experienced Dance Physio for a properly prescribed, personalised, exercise programme.
 

 

[Birdy]

I agree with what everyone else has said. My DDs school had all the students with hyper mobility do extra sessions with a trainer to learn specific strengthening exercises. Another reason you can’t maintain extension while dancing is because when you do the splits on the ground gravity is helping you. When you are dancing gravity is usually working against you. You need strength to pull up when dancing.

[balletmania]

Hi drdance, Anna C, and birdy, thanks for sharing your thoughts and I appreciate the concern!

 

Just wanted to clarify one thing to alleviate any worry: I don't really stretch my hyperextension at all, and I definitely don't "push into it" or "push down"! What I meant was that it automatically occurs when I do my splits, while not being present while actually dancing. If anything my knee is slightly bent at times which is confusing because as mentioned my leg seems to naturally have the required range...

 

Hope that makes you all a bit less concerned for my safety 

 

Thank you to drdance for evaluating that the culprit is likely the VMO muscle - I will try to incorporate more of those strengthening exercises into my routine. 

[Viv]

I agree with the other comments. In terms of "is this common", I think it's basically universal. There would surely always be a difference between "passive" mobility when you're sitting in a position using force or gravity to push into the range, and what you can use during actual dance movements. I don't think there's a single person in the world who can get as much range in, for example, a grand jete as they can get in a gravity assisted split stretch. I have pretty severe hypermobility and can fit an entire upright soft drink can under my heel while keeping my knee flat on the ground (done once to make my physio cringe and then promptly forbidden!) but I sure don't have 10 or more cm of hyperextension in my knee doing a tendu to second (which is surely a good thing because that would look horrific).

 

I think ignore the hyperextension thing and just focus on doing exercises to strengthen and straighten the knee. There's a world of safe resources out there for people who struggle with straightening their knee in ballet and those are where I'd look, rather than focusing on increasing hyperextension (particularly passively, which, as set out above, is very dangerous). In terms of the VMO, one of the exercises I was given to help me connect to the feeling of a "straight knee", rather than a bent or hyperextended knee, was to keep my heels flat on the ground, "pull up" my VMOs and try to get the back of my knee to touch the ground without the heels lifting up. Now that's challenging! I also found that working on my turnout helped both with safely tracking my kneecaps over my toes, and making the leg look better/straighter in some positions. If you can see a dance physio who can help with an exercise program, that might be helpful? 

[Kerfuffle]

I would see a dance physio if you can, they will be able to see how you are positioning yourself when you dance. My DD has hyperextended knees and has recently learned how to place her weight further forward. It’s quite technical but very important because then you will find you can balance much better which improves adage and pirouettes in particular. Hyper extension gives a really beautiful line and is very desirable in ballet it just takes longer to learn to use it correctly. 

[Colman]

You might have learned to protect your knee: if you have slight hyper extension (as do I) it’s very easy to bruise the inside of the knee joint when you lose control of it and go past straight, so you might be trying to avoid straightening it in order to protect it. If you have lots of hyperextension the problems are, I think, different.