I dance competition (international latin) since 1990 and I always thought it would get better: Cramping in toes and feet. Usually during hard training but also during competitions (!!!) Does anybody have any ideas what would help? Is it the high heels? (So why do I never have any problems with heels during the day or when going out?) I take enough magnesium/calcium. That is definitely not it. I also drink enough during practicing, usually about 1-2 quarts of gatorade or similar. Does anybody have an idea? Thanks for any tips.

I'm a man and I used to have problems with pain and cramping of tharch right at the ball of my feet. I tried various insoles and arch supports with varying degrees of success.

However, I seem to have found the cause of my problems. After buying a new pair of shoes that had a wider fit, the pain went away. My latin shoes are tighter and they hurt my feet if I wear them for more than an hours. I concluded that my foot pain is related to shoes being too narrow for my feet. Narrow shoes do not let my metarsis (ball of the foot) spread out properly when weighted.

My partner also had similar problems until she found a pair of shoes that allowed her to adjust the width. (FYI: they are "Elegance Sultana's")

However, my feet to get stiff and tired after a long day of dancing. I found that massaging them for five minutes with a foot-roller massager seems to work the best.

Blair

A good way to avoid cramps is too eat a banana after a good workout, lesson, or competition. Another thing you can try is a mineral supplement of Dolomite. Dolomite is a natural source of calcium and magnesium. These are important for maintenance of bones and teeth, and for normal muscle activity, helps prevent muscle cramps or spasms.

good luck
Larinda

I've actually found my feet give me less trouble since I started dancing than before. Sure, after a long day they will hurt, but training to dance has given them the strength to recover and me the tools to deal with it.

As a man, latin heels are still taking some getting used to. Fortunately my latin coach has this little seating area in his studio that is four inches higher than the dance floor - usually serveral times my warmup I'll go plant my toes on that so I can stretch the ankle downwards.

I also try to alternate stretching my feet in the curled up and extended directions. Our standard coaches have us doing strength exercises for toe rise and ankle rise, with opposing stretches afterewards, and that is helping a lot with building up a tolerance for putting a moderate amount of weight into the toe of the moving foot in latin. Sure, sometimes I feel my foot start to cramp up (especially if I'm holding a position for a while thinking about technique) so I drop more onto the ball of the foot to get a bit of stretch in the arch... or go find the ledge if it's the calf that is complaining.

Other things that help are social dance shoes with nice think insoles for having fun after a long saturday of classes and practice. And of course a tub of hot water to end the day!

We had some visiting instructors last week for a 6-hour seminar. During breaks, they had everyone take their shoes off, lay down, and prop their feet up on the wall. (A chair would work just as well.) The idea was to elevate the feet above heart to alleviate the edema from pounding your feet all day. Don't know if it'll help your problem, and I can imagine some situations in which doing it might be, um, awkward, but....