Pressure pain assessments of a previously injured and non-injured contemporary dancer prior to and following eccentric exercise : a bifocal case study / Madison McGrew (2017)

A dancers’ definition of pain threshold has been described as “the amount of pain you can withstand while still maintaining a certain level of performance.” While a high pain threshold seems advantageous, it may interfere with the body’s perceived need to protect itself, which can hinder performance as well as any attempts at clinical intervention. Research into dancers’ perception of pain has generally compared the dancing population with the non-dancing population. However, no studies to date have looked at factors that could influence pain perception within the dancing population.

This bifocal single-case study explores the pressure pain perception of two contemporary dancers differing in injury history immediately prior to and at two times following eccentric exercise. Repeated measures ANOVA revealed there was a significant effect of time on mean pressure pain threshold at the quad at the p < .05 level in both dancers [F(2,10) = 8.236, p=.008; F(2,10) = 36.479, p=.000]. Visual analysis of data from pressure pain threshold, tolerance, and stimulus ratings revealed meaningful trends that suggest the previously injured dancer was more sensitive and more tolerant to pressure pain stimuli, especially in relation to a conditioning event. Findings in this study indicate that dancers differing in injury history respond to experimental pain differently. A dancer with an extensive injury history may exhibit dysfunction in descending pain modulatory pathways and a decreased capacity for conditioned pain modulation. However, such a dancer may also exhibit an increased capacity to endure pain. More research is needed on the influence of memory traces and neuroplasticity in the pain perception of dancers.