Ballet update - Comeback ep. 1 : the injury and making the plan

hey everyone and welcome back to the blog, I have a secret to confess. I broke my toe, and it's been broken for almost 3 weeks. I have recently been absent from th blog, and had been going through bit of a motivation rut after breaking my toe as I had to drop out of my intensive . However, I believe in taking bad things, and turning them into good ones, so I am using this broken toe, and using as my motivation. I have kept up my regimen of pilates and (light)weight training, alternating every weekday between arms and abs and lower body(also 30+ minutes of stretching per week). However, I really haven' been able to dance or really do any kind of cardio.

I decided to make a blog series out of it to keep me accountable, and just to share how I'm getting back into shape for anyone else going through a simile situation. I am planning to post a new episode each week until I'm back at full strength, detailing how I'm feeling, my truing each day, and my progress.

The plan:

Step 1: let the toe properly heal. As much as I want to get back to dancing and running, its just going to be harder if my body isn't at 100%. I had to learn choreography, and even though I was mostly making it, I attribute that to the slower healing of my toe, so now I am trying to stay off it as much as possible.

Step 2: Motivation. Once my toe is healed, I'm really going to need the motivation to get back into dancing shape. I'm obviously motivated to a certain extent on my own, but I also used some external motivation, such as purchasing some new leotards (I will pot a mini haul of two of my favs so be on the lookout for that), signing up for another online ballet intensive that I really want to be in shape for, and impress the artistic directors, and I have also been immersing myself into more ballet, watching ballets, documentaries, watching ballet you tubers, etc.

Step 3: Back to basics. Once my toe can take it, I'm going to take it easy the first few days, just doing a barre class, and try putting on my pointe shoes and doing some relevès. I will do more ballet-centeric workout, focusing on pilates and lots of stretching as always.

Step 4: Work hard. Once I get into the swing of things, I will really have less than 2 weeks until the start of my summer intensive, so I am going to need to work as hard and fast as I can. I will do a full ballet class every day, an hour of pointe work, practicing lots of turns, variations, and woking on my stamina, as well as doing some of my workouts to continue building my strength.

Step 5: Have faith, and be patient. It is going to take some time, and my body is going to need some time to adapt. I also my not be in the exact place I was before my injury, and before quarantine, and that's okay. As long as I really push myself (within reason), and do everything I possibly can, I will know that I did my best, and for me, my best is enough.

And that is pretty much my plan. I can't make too may plans yet, because my toe isn't fully healed, but I have a stash o new Leos, and freshly sewed pair of new point shoes, and a body that is antsy to dance! Thanks so much for reading this, and make sure to like this post if you are excited for the next episode, and want to see more posts about my ballet training. Make sure to comment, and subscribe to my email list to get notified every time I publish a new post!

stay safe, stay healthy, stay healthy,

xoxo,

mali nicole

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