Blisters: the enemy of the get fit dancer

A must have for new dancers!

There is nothing worse than getting a blister, especially if you are a dancer. Every new dancer needs to use blister prevention cream - this stuff is worth its weight in gold!

Dancers can be prone to getting blisters on their feet, especially after they have started wearing new dance shoes.

Blisters, for those that do not know, are actually your bodies way of protecting itself from harm. You get a blister on your foot (for example) when something really irritates the skin, over and over again.

Imagine you have just got a new pair of dance shoes - the perfect accessory to your contemporary dance costumes - and they are perfect ( FYI - you can learn more about contemporary dance costumes on this awesome guide), perfect that is aside from the fact that they rub a little bit on your toe. But you expect that with new shoes, don't you? You will break them in soon enough, and its not as if its actually sore, is it?

Well that rub on your toe will happen with every single step that you take. Its not long before you have rubbed the skin on your toe thousands of times. Its not a great place to be, because all that rubbing is going to damage the skin a little. Left to continue, it would eventually damage the skin a lot. In a bid to protect itself from more serious damage, your body forms a blister, which is uses like bubble wrap to protect the skin thats getting damaged. So blisters are a good thing...

But dancing on a blister will drive you mad with pain, and will only serve to make it much worse. Its no lie to say that a blister on the foot can disable a dancer, since rest is the only real way to get rid of it.

So whats the solution for the dancer looking to get fit?

Avoiding a blister is preferable to dealing with one, so steps (no pun intended) should be taken to make sure that you do not get one in the first place. In real terms this can be done by only wearing really comfortable shoes for dancing in. New shoes should be broken in gently before using them for your classes. You can wear them around the house for short spells, until you get to a point where they do not cause any discomfort.

That being said, every dancer needs to keep a good supply of blister treatments

This will be a bigger problem for formal dance shoes than dance sneakers, but the same rules should apply. Its better to be a little over cautious, than to limp out your class with a blister!