My ballet teacher has recently been starting class with a few floor barre exercises to get back to some of the basics before we jump into our actual barre routine. I was wondering if it's normal for my back muscles of be really sore from this. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, or if they're supposed to be sore because I'm working them. We've basically been doing things to correct hip alignment & keep our hips from shifting in ways that cause our dancing to be thrown off, nothing too strenuous, so most of my back has been on the floor. My teacher has corrected things I've been doing wrong, but he has said nothing about my back.

Is it normal for all of my back muscles to be so sore?

Do you mean upper, mid or lower back, the part of your back that's sore will tell us what muscles are sore and that will also tell us if it's a good or a bad kind of sore.

I teach a version of floor barre at my ballet studio and I find that one of the biggest causes of back pain (Lower to middle back) is because the student is not engaging and flattening the stomach muscles. If your pelvis is releasing, particularly if the legs are off the floor and the stomach muscles are not engaging properly or don't yet have the endurance then they will sometimes get a sore back. This usually goes away after a few weeks though.

Try and use the upper back and arms to help stabilise until the stomach muscles are strong enough.

Hope this helps

Em

There aren't any floor barre classes or teachers who do it in my area. Can anyone recommend a decent DVD I could get? I'm kind of hoping it'll help my extension, alignment and hip issues if I do it every so often....

Thanks in advance! (I did look at what was out there but don't know how good those various people are)

Our School uses a series of DVD's by Stéphane Dalle. It follows a great method which is quite fast paced so your body is building stamina too. It also has lots of really good stretches in-between and a killer stretch at the end.

If you have never done floor barre before I would start with the beginner level and listen to the coached lesson so you understand the basic principles.
You can get it here:
store.yumiko-online.com . . .

Em

Thanks so much for the info. I saw a bunch of those online and a few others and didn't know which would be best. I've not done a consistent floor barre - only snatches here and there.

Thanks again. I certainly will be starting at the beginning.

Thanks all. I think it might've just been due to my muscles not being used to that kind of movement and engagement, as that day was my first time doing floor barre. My back was much less sore two days later, and when we did floor barre again on Friday, I barely felt any soreness the next day.