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....

sorry, I didn't read well enough to catch that you already do the calcium and magnesium thing... good luck anyway!

Take care, they are your only pair of feet!
Cramps are caused by the pounding and gripping of the floor and always being on them. All feet need rest. A bath or foot rub can do wonders, especially if you can get someone else to do it for you. During the day you rest your off foot, the one you are not standing on. When competing your feet work extremely hard carrying your whole weight, jumping and twisting and stopping you. I know of no dancer who does not have this minor problem, it is the badge of honor of what we do. The classic poster of the ballet dancers bleeding foot in the broken down toe shoe is exactly the epitome of passion for the dance. Welcome to the club.
When you dance socially and when competing you do not need to pound the floor plus if you do not rush your learning and learn the exact technical way to do it, Repeating Correctly Under Supervision then you will use less strength and more finesse this will then relieve a lot of the cramping as your foot will not need to compensate for improper balancing technique. Your private coach is the only one who will see when you do this correctly for your body. Not every body type uses the same alignment!
This is a long and wonderful journey keep at it and be kind to your toes, they are your 24 hour transportation system.j..

joo

And the morning of a competition to, 4 a.m.

The top of my foot cramped so badly, my toes were in a claw position. Icing helped.

But I've just started to do a ballet class to supplement my dancing, and one of the things she has us do is stretch the feet. Which is not something I would ever thought of before. It's not something I can describe, but if anyone around you has done ballet, they may be able to show you a few stretches.