The Basic Reason Ballet Can Be So Beneficial

spinal stenosis

As an exercise type ballet is almost completely unique for the lack of any momentum building. This lack of momentum is the reason that ballet is both very challenging to do and does not "feel" like any other type of exercise and also why it can be a powerful tool for improving the condition of the spine and general musculature of the overall body.

As ballet developed the language of movement needed to match physical movement with beautiful, soaring classical symphonic music it had to create a series of body positions to which the dancer returns in between practically all steps, leaps or turns being done. Along with these body positions - which all emphasize the long line and spiral form of the body - the technique of maintaining specific leg and arm alignments relative to the body core and each other ensure that ballet dancers have that "floating" or "effortless" look about them once properly trained and yet are doing things that any athlete would find extremely challenging. Ballet is not about the most height or speed or number of spins, it is about making anything being done by the dancer look effortless no matter how high or fast or how many spins are done.

The overall result of this language of movement along with the technique of exactly placing the legs and arms enables ballet dancers to "come out of no where" when preparing to leap or turn or change direction and this is why ballet needs almost no momentum to be done correctly. This lack of momentum combined with the constant struggle against gravity to keep the spine as tall and long as it can be, the legs stretched out and the arms extended through the shoulders, stimulates a large array of skeletal muscles in ways no other exercise form can.

This is also why I have seen personally ballet training enable several scoliosis patients to gain a much improved spine and skeletal muscle conditioning which fought back against the scoliosis and avoided them having to have rod implant surgery and even enabled them to eventually ditch the body brace.

Now to be clear, ballet is not a guaranteed or certifiable treatment. For one thing, it must be taught correctly. As with any physical therapy, if it is done or presented wrong it is completely useless. However, when the technique is taught correctly and done over a mid-term time frame of 2 to 5 years, time and time again striking improvements to students have occurred and not just with scoliosis but also with weak knees, excessively tight muscles of the feet or legs, and even headaches if those headaches were being triggered by poor spinal conditioning. A chiropractic adjustment is what fixes an out-of-alignment spine, but to condition the muscles to do a much better job of holding the alignement, ballet is simply a wonderful exercise to do.