AN INTRODUCTION TO SAFE PRACTICE

What do we mean by the terms ‘Safe Practice’ and ‘Health and Safety’?

Safe practice refers to how we look after and take responsibility for our own behaviour, body and actions and that of the people we are working with.

Health and Safety is the legal term for policies, which are there to ensure the establishment and individual recognise potential hazards and risks and put in place measures to prevent harm occurring.

Your Safe Practice pack will help you to recognise the need for being aware of safe practice and the health and safety issues, which concern you as dancers.

WHY IS HEALTH AND SAFETY IMPORTANT?

HEALTH AND SAFETY

Recognise and identify risks in the workplace

Keep you safe and healthy

Know what procedures are in place

Protect the success of the business

Minimise potential risks Protect

people from harm

It is Law in every work environment

Why is safe practice important in dance?Avoid short and long term injury

Ensures you develop good habits not bad ones

Develops your responsibility and self discipline

Enables you to look after yourself properly

Keep you mentally and emotionally safe too

Work in close proximity to others- need to be able to trust

Avoid taking undue risk

Know how to assess the situation

How does each body part develop through Dance training?

Flexibility

Strength

Wider movement range in joints

Control

Co-ordination

Warm Up

Warming up appropriately and adequately allows the body to adjust from a state of rest to that of exercise and, if carried out successfully, improves performance and significantly reduces the chances of injury

A warm up is the act of preparing for an athletic event or workout by exercising or practicing for a short time beforehand.

The objective of the warm-up is to raise total body temperature and muscle temperature to prepare the entire body for vigorous activity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7CqWO1vj0M

A Warm Up should include:

• Circulation• Joints• Muscles• Nerves• Concentration/Relaxation

If you have finished a class during which you thoroughly warmed up, and you have another one later in the day, should you warm up again?

What is Cool Down?

The aim of the cool-down is to slowly reduce the intensity of the body

movement, allowing the redistribution of blood from the muscles to other

organs in the body and for the muscle glycogen to be replenished more

efficiently.

Benefits of Cool Down

• Cool-down helps to ensure quick recovery from exercise

• Cool-down ensures the removal of waste products such as lactic acid, if the waste product of exercise is not removed from the muscles there will muscle soreness the next day.

• Stopping exercise too suddenly can cause pooling of blood, which can cause soreness, fainting and dizziness

Cool Down should include

• Muscles• Circulation• Heart Rate• Blood/Organs

Quick Quiz!!