March 13, 2014

Frozen Peaz Review

Disclaimer: Frozen Peaz provided me with a discount code for 30 percent off to purchase this product for review.

As someone who has struggled with shin splints and stress fractures, I’m always constantly icing my legs after any type of activity (running, ballet, etc.) as part of my regular recovery routine. Your typical ice pack makes it difficult to target a specific area (especially on my legs) and tends to lose its cool pretty quickly.

So when I first heard of Frozen Peaz, I knew I had to try them out. They’re flexible hot and cold wraps that come in all sorts of shapes and sizes depending on what your need is. They’re a bit on the pricey side, but totally worth it.

Here’s a little bit of information about them via their website:

The secret to the performance of FrozenPeaz® packs is the unique Clear Ice™ Solution. Unlike gel based beads and pearls, the VirtualPeaz™ in FrozenPeaz packs won’t break down with frequent usage. And unlike colored gel packs, the VirtualPeaz are floating in a non-toxic Clear Ice Solution that is free of preservatives, petroleum-based products, and animal by-products. The ingredients in the Clear Ice Solution are 100% natural! So natural that they are certified by the Natural Products Association (NPA).

Frozen Peaz

My Frozen Peaz arrived super quickly (they ship via Amazon Prime, too, if you’ve got it) and I was surprised to find that they were pretty heavy–a lot heavier than I expected, and a fair amount heavier than your typical ice pack. I ordered a single large wrap for my shins/calves.

I’ve been using the Frozen Peaz ice pack for about a month now and its the only ice pack I’ll use now. It stays colder than most other packs (I can get at least 20 minutes in on each leg at a time) and conforms to my legs really well (ignore my messy bedroom, I had just gotten home from class):

photo (5)

 

The only cons I really have are a) they are heavy and therefore tend to fall down if I try to get up and move around and b) they don’t conform to my calves (from underneath) as much as a would like. They still work better than anything else I’ve tried.

Frozen Peaz has been nice enough to offer 15% to all my readers if they use the code “Ballet.”

How do you deal with ballet-related injuries?

Filed Under: Ballet, Info, Outside Class, Reviews, Running Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment
June 7, 2013

Any advice on overpronation?

Ballet shoes, showing the dancer's feet in fif...

 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Overpronation is when your feet roll inwards too much towards the big toe side of the foot. It happens a lot when dancers try to “fake” their turnout using their knees and ankles instead of their hips (guilty here). It was brought to my attention last class that I should instead be trying to distribute my weight equally among my toes and place it more back on my pink toes as well (people in this dance.net forum recommend the same thing.) I tried to maintain this throughout class, but it was tough–and I feel like the rest of my technique suffered and my arches were crazy sore throughout class. Sigh.

My overpronation is probably the cause of all my ballet-related shin splints which have been really bad as of late and haven’t been much motivation for me to get to ballet class. Since getting new sneakers and running more often, my running shin splints have been reduced to almost nothing (almost).

I know that overpronation can be created by forcing turnout (you can try it and see for yourself) but I also know I overpronate when I stand “naturally”–which I figured was caused by the fact I am one of the most flat-footed people ever–especially since new sneakers have helped. So I took to the Internet to try to get more of a solution…and pretty much came up with a variety of different explanations…and no real answer.

Some say that overpronation is purely a technical problem (sure, I can correct it, but it’s still how I naturally stand and feel like I have for a while). Others say it’s caused by being flat-footed. Others, ankle weakness.  A lot of websites recommended orthotics (which won’t work with ballet) others say if it’s not caused by flat feet, that’s not a solution. My head is spinning.

Advice anyone? I’d appreciate help whether you know about overpronating in runners or dancers.

 

Filed Under: Ballet Class, Blog, Etc., Info, Outside Class Tagged With: , , , , , 11 Comments
October 15, 2012

Injury Woes

I finally went to my university’s Student Health Services for my leg/ankle pain again this morning, and didn’t get great news. I was told it’s probably tendonitis (again…I just dealt with this in my right ankle a few months ago and took a significant amount of time off) and I’d have to spend a good month off of ballet (I’ve already cried because of how heartbreaking this is to me). I’m headed to my university’s hospital this afternoon for an x-ray to check for a stress fracture.

So while this means lots of time for stretching (I’ve been keeping up with the 30 day challenge and I’ll have a picture up later today since we’ve hit Day 7–one week–I can proudly now say that my nose can touch my knee while I’m reaching for my toes!), I was wondering:

For those of my ballerina friends who’ve unfortunately been injured before, how do you stay in ballerina shape while you can’t dance/how do you deal with boredom?

 

Filed Under: Ballet Tagged With: , , , , 6 Comments