Have you heard of Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome AKA Female Athlete Triad?
Over 80% of athletes, including dancers and figure skaters are unaware of a highly prevalent condition known as Female Athlete Triad or sometimes, more recently termed Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome (RED-S)(Tosi & Dodson, 2019). You may find that you are in this category. It was many years until I got a first-hand experience of the manifestations of RED-S. Three weeks before my dance company’s spring recital I broke my arm in multiple places while mat tumbling in acro class. Since then, I have learned a lot about RED-S from my physical therapy education and my own desire to learn about and spread awareness of this condition.
Pronouns: she/her
By Emily Borders, DWC Ambassador
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Over 80% of athletes, including dancers and figure skaters are unaware of a highly prevalent condition known as Female Athlete Triad or sometimes, more recently termed Relative Energy Deficiency Syndrome (RED-S)(Tosi & Dodson, 2019). You may find that you are in this category. It was many years until I got a first-hand experience of the manifestations of RED-S. Three weeks before my dance company’s spring recital I broke my arm in multiple places while mat tumbling in acro class. Since then, I have learned a lot about RED-S from my physical therapy education and my own desire to learn about and spread awareness of this condition. This injury likely could have been prevented if I had been taking care of my body the way I should. RED-S is a form of energy deficiency that occurs due to excessive energy output or inadequate energy input. Basically, this occurs if someone is not putting enough fuel (energy) into their body to support their daily physical activity or they are doing so much rigorous physical activity that they are using up all their stored energy; both of these situations lead to an energy deficit and sometimes this can result as a combination of both. As you can imagine, these situations are common in dance training. Many hours of high-intensity dance training, a desire to maintain a certain body aesthetic and lack of proper nutrition, all contribute to RED-S being highly prevalent amongst dancers.
For me, proper nutrition and taking rest days was not strongly emphasized in my dance training. I developed a strong work ethic in dance, which I am grateful for and has shaped me into the person I am today. Due to this work ethic, I found myself extremely dedicated to my dance training. I would train for many hours a day 5-6 days a week, which would often turn into 7 days a week on a competition or convention weekend. I would sometimes even go to the gym after dance or on my day-off to get an extra workout in. If this sounds like you, or even if it doesn’t but you are still involved in dance or another form of physical activity at a high volume, I encourage you to read further and look at the following components to RED-S.
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RED-S or Female Athlete Triad includes a triad of symptoms. These symptoms include low energy availability, menstrual disturbances including lack of menstrual cycle or irregular menstrual cycle and decreased bone mineral density. Low energy availability can cause increased fatigue, weakness, mood changes, and increased risk of injuries. Decreased bone mineral density increases one’s risk for fracture, which is what happened to me. Injuries and chronic fatigue can be detrimental to a dance career, but these things can often be prevented by fueling one’s body with a proper diet to support high-intensity dance training and incorporating rest days. Endurance athletes including dancers need about 1.4 g/kg of body weight of protein per day, which I can guarantee is a lot more protein than most young dancers are getting. Another way to decrease your risk of this condition is making sure to add rest days and strength training into your routine. Rest days are vital to restoring energy that has been depleted during physical activity and allowing bones and muscles to recover and adapt. Rest days don’t have to look like sitting on your couch. Going on a walk or doing another form of light activity can be a great way to “rest” but still move your body. Furthermore, bones become stronger through weight bearing activities; lifting weights can be a great way to increase bone mineral density and decrease injury risk. Keep in mind that if you are already dancing many hours, nearly every day of the week, I am not encouraging you to add a day of weight training, but having your instructors add some weight training into class or replacing some dance time with cross-training will be beneficial to dance and overall health. If this doesn’t seem possible, making sure to get some weight training in during dance breaks or off-season is another great idea!
Factors that may increase one’s risk for developing this condition include endurance athletes, female gender, having an eating disorder, ages 12-24, and people who feel pressured to maintain a certain body aesthetic for their sport. If any of these seem to apply to you or you think you may be experiencing some of the symptoms described above, I hope you look further into this condition and take steps to prevent it. Don’t wait until a major injury occurs to make a change for your health. Feel free to email emily.stadt@outlook.com if you have any questions or check out the resources below!
Sources:
https://dancenutrition.com/relative-energy-deficiency-in-sport-dancers/
Reference:
Tosi M, Maslyanskaya S, Dodson NA, Coupey SM. The Female Athlete Triad: A Comparison of Knowledge and Risk in Adolescent and Young Adult Figure Skaters, Dancers, and Runners. J Pediatr Adolesc Gynecol. 2019;32(2):165-169. doi:10.1016/j.jpag.2018.10.007
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If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the emergency department, or call 911 immediately. Dancewear Center does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on dancewearcenter.net. Reliance on any information provided by dancewearcenter.net, Dancewear Center employees, contracted writers, or medical professionals presenting content for publication to Dancewear Center is solely at your own risk.
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Getting to Know DWC Ambassador Emily Borders
There are more ways to be involved in the dance industry than just being a professional dancer. Community members like DWC Ambassador Emily Borders are proving this to be the case by partaking in community classes and studying physical therapy in hopes of making dance more accessible to a wider array of individuals. Read on to learn more about Emily’s personal dance journey, hopes for the larger dance community, and plans as a DWC ambassador!
A Local Dancer and PT Student on Increasing Dance Accessibility
Name pronunciation: Em-ill-ee Borders | Pronouns: she/her
By Madison Huizinga, DWC Blog Editor
There are more ways to be involved in the dance industry than just being a professional dancer. Community members like DWC Ambassador Emily Borders are proving this to be the case by partaking in community classes and studying physical therapy in hopes of making dance more accessible to a wider array of individuals. Read on to learn more about Emily’s personal dance journey, hopes for the larger dance community, and plans as a DWC ambassador!
Emily says that she was an active kid growing up, but it took her a while to realize that dance was her favorite activity. She laughs sharing that it took getting cut from her middle school volleyball team for her to pursue dance wholeheartedly. She danced and competed across many genres throughout high school and majored in kinesiology and minored in dance at Western Washington University. After graduating from college in 2018, Emily has been enjoying taking community classes, dancing around her living room, and trying out aerial silks. She is also in her second year of physical therapy school and plans to graduate in June 2023. Following graduation, Emily looks forward to helping make dance more accessible and affordable to all bodies, particularly to neurodivergent people.
In the larger dance world, Emily sees a great need to make dance teacher education more accessible and affordable as well. She also hopes to see more helpful and accurate information disseminated on how to be a healthy dancer, specifically information on how to nourish oneself, build strength, and cross-train in a sustainable way. For example, she thinks more dance teachers should be educated on how to provide screenings for the female athlete triad, as malnutrition, disordered eating, and a generally increased risk of injury are all common among dancers. Emily shares that when she was 19 she broke her arm by doing a simple cartwheel on a mat, an injury that may have been prevented if she and more dance professionals in the larger industry knew about phenomena like the female athlete triad.
When asked what her favorite thing about dance is, the first thing that comes to Emily’s mind is community. “I feel like my dance friends are probably my closest group of friends,” she says, sharing that they’ve spent so many long hours rehearsing together that it’s hard not to form a tight bond. To this day, the friends she’s made through dance are incredibly supportive of one another.
Emily also appreciates the creativity and artistry that dancers get to hone when practicing their craft. Particularly as an adult dancer, Emily has enjoyed shifting her focus in dance away from improving her technical facility and more on sharpening her artistic skills. “I love that there’s freedom just to move,” she says. Emily also loves that dance is a form of healing. “It’s just really helpful physically, emotionally, [and] mentally,” Emily says of the holistic nature of dancing.
Photo by Robert Borders
Emily says that growing up, she was extremely hard on herself when dancing. She says that being a perfectionist feels inherent in her personality, and can be exacerbated by principles widely disseminated in the dance industry. Dancers are taught that their work is never done - they can always get their legs higher, make their combinations cleaner, and generally improve their technique. But attaining perfection is impossible. For those struggling with this perfectionist mentality, Emily encourages them to acknowledge that this type of thinking comes naturally to them. She points out that having a lot of ambition and drive is helpful, but it’s important to also have balance. For Emily, acknowledging what she’s done well in addition to what she can improve upon is also useful for counteracting perfectionism.
Emily shares that she had been considering applying for the DWC ambassador program for a while. She had been following Dancewear Center on Instagram for some time and was impressed by the fact that the business strives to do much more than sell products. She loved seeing dancers from across the community use Dancewear Center’s platform to amplify their own messages as DWC ambassadors. Emily was hesitant about applying for the program because she hadn’t been dancing for a while and thought she may not be the best candidate. Nevertheless, she reminded herself that she’s a part of this community and has a lot of knowledge to contribute, which led her to fill out the application. As a DWC ambassador, Emily is looking forward to writing blog posts on topics she’s passionate about, especially sharing the physical therapy knowledge she’s gathered in PT school.
“I’ve learned a lot that I felt was lacking in my own life and dance experience growing up,” Emily says, sharing she hopes to give the physical therapy knowledge she’s learned today to others.
Keep an eye out for more from Emily Borders in the coming months!
Sources:
Disclaimer
All content found on the Dancewear Center Website, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and all other relevant social media platforms including: text, images, audio, or other formats were created for informational purposes only. Offerings for continuing education credits are clearly identified and the appropriate target audience is identified. The Content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this Website.
If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor, go to the emergency department, or call 911 immediately. Dancewear Center does not recommend or endorse any specific tests, physicians, products, procedures, opinions, or other information that may be mentioned on dancewearcenter.net. Reliance on any information provided by dancewearcenter.net, Dancewear Center employees, contracted writers, or medical professionals presenting content for publication to Dancewear Center is solely at your own risk.
Links to educational content not created by Dancewear Center are taken at your own risk. Dancewear Center is not responsible for the claims of external websites and education companies.
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