cherrybaby

Hey!
I'm learning how to 'isolate my stomach muscles' (aka moving my stomach around and trying to belly roll. For only doing for two weeks, I have actually managed to isolate it quite well in my opinion. Here's my problem, whenever I do it, normally a little bit after wards my stomach really starts to hurt. It's not a cramp or anything, just a pain. Has this happened to anyone?

Mouse

sounds like you may be over doing it a little.

Moon

I think it's muscle pain, like Mouse says, you may be over doing it a little and your belly is not used to it yet.

Lydia dubai

Hi Cherry baby...dont forget after your tummy work to strech the other side...lay down on your tummy face down and hold your enkle,s(hope i spell that ok?) and pull untill only your belly is on the floor and try to rock back and forwardt so your muscle,s are streching again the otherway that will help if it is a muscle problem.....Lydia

charity

there are only three reasons i can think of for muscle soarness, lactic acid, muscle swelling, and injury.

lactic acid accumulates in tissue due to normal muscle metabolism, if you dont cool down after intensive muscle workout, it pools in the muscle before it can be removed. this soarness subsides within hours.

if pain persists for a day or two, muscle swelling following muscle workout could be the cause. this is also normal. muscles swell during healing and "heat" is a symptom of swelling and immune functions, which is also normal.

injury is from overworking, not properly warming up, etc. in that case, take a break for a few days. if pain persists beyond 2-3 days, do not resume activity.

abdominals heal reasonably fast. unless you have deep muscle damage, which in this case, is not possible.

if you have isolated your muscles fairly well in a matter of weeks, i cant help but think you are doing a hella lot of isolations.

..

samsied

I agree with what others have posted, but I have a couple more questions for you.... What kind of pain?

Do you ever do your isolations after eating? As you may imagine, it is not a good idea to do a lot of ab work after a big meal.

Are you breathing normally when you do your ab isolations? I use to get sharp cramps when I did twisting mostions (similar to "stitches" from running). An experienced dancer pointed out that is often due to holding extra tension in the muscles and/or holding my breath. In both cases making an effort to continue deep, relaxed breathing can diminish or prevent this kind of pain. Since she told me this, I have found I only get these cramps when twisting for a very long time.

Also, do you experience pain any time other than dancing? I ask because severe belly pain can be a sign of some serious illness. When I was a new dancer I also had gall bladder problems and if I danced when there was already inflamation I felt a lot of pain. The dancing did not cause this problem at all, but at first I incorrectly attributed the pain to abdominal cramps from dancing.

It sounds like you are probably experiencing the regular exercise/muscle healing pain that most of us experience while our bodies adjust to this new way of moving. But if you find that you have a deeper or persistant pain that exists outside of dancing you may want to have it looked at by a medical professional just to be safe.