Dance Injury - Hamstrings Essay Example for Free

Dance Injury Hamstrings Essay Dance is an art form. Professional dancers pride themselves for being able to express complicated emotions through the artistic interpretation of movements. Like athletics, dancers are very prone to physical injury, that is, their work requires intense physical training in which often result in mild or severe injuries. This essay will attempt to investigate and understand what is the hamstring strain or tear injury, how it occurs, and ways to prevent such injury. A dance piece is constituted with a variety of movements displayed by the human body. One of the primary functions of the skeletal system is to provide support and shape while the muscular system is to provide a range of movements by moving the different limbs of the body. Therefore, the kinesiology muscle of a dancer that directs the leg into amazing moves is complicated. The hamstring muscle group consist of three muscle; the Biceps Femoris, Semitendinosus, and the Semimembranosus. The hamstring muscle group is located at the back of the thigh. According to â€Å"The Anatomy of Exercise and Movement†, the Bicep Femoris is the largest and most lateral of the three hamstring muscles. It has ‘the long head’ and ‘the short head’ making it a bicep muscle. Its primary purpose is to contract, consequently helping in hip outward rotation. As for the other two hamstring muscles, the Semitendinosus and Semimembranosus are completely synergistic, doing the same actions together. Working at the hip, both muscles extend and are active in internal rotation (pg.144). All three muscles in the hamstring muscle group have the same origin, which is the Ischial Tuberosity, also known as the sitz bone, situated at the bottom of the pelvis bone. Even though the F asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf hamstring muscle group have same origins, each muscle has a different insertion, the Bicep Femoris; the head of Fibula (bone) and the lateral of Tibia (bone), Semitendinosus; proximal of Tibia, medial to Tebial Tuberosity, Semimembranosus; Tibia. The hamstring muscle group helps in extending the leg backwards and bending the knees. Hence, this specific group muscle helps in producing dance movements namely ‘plies’, ‘passe’, ‘attitude devant’, and ‘arabesque’. The hamstring strain or tear injury can be a pull, a partial tear or a complete tear of the muscle. The strain or tear is to be found at the peak of elongation velocity when producing movements. This injury occurs when the hamstring muscle group is ‘strain’ beyond its normal length whilst producing a certain eccentric contraction movement. A strain or tear can also happen when the muscles are challenged with a sudden load or work to produce a movement or several movements. â€Å"A common problem in dancers is imbalance or asymmetry that can result in hamstring injury. The imbalance could be muscular or structural.† (livestrong.com). An example of such imbalance is when a dancer is dancing with a tilted pelvis. This can result to an over emphasis on the quadriceps muscles and only stretching the hamstring group muscles. Livestrong.com continue to name a list of reason how the hamstring group muscle can be injured when a dancer overstretches and ‘overuse injur y’. Overstretching seems to be contradictory, as part of being a dancer is to be flexible. Most dancers have a similar mindset. If the leg extension is not long or high enough when performing movements such as a ‘battement’; he or she simply needs to stretch out the tightness. This action can result to severe muscle strain. Consequently, the ‘overuse injury’ can occur simply from working on a specific dance technique or dance movement for too long. Without proper strength in the hamstrings, and rest for the muscles, the hamstrings undergo continuous tension and this can result in tears and fatigue (livestrong.com). There are other factors which increase the likelihood of suffering a hamstring strain or tear injury. Age, flexibility of the hamstring muscle group, as well as tiredness and lack of fitness are namely some of the contributing factors to this injury. The hamstring strains or tear can be graded according to the severity of the injury. Grade 1 consists of minor tears within the muscle. A grade 2 is a partial tear in the muscle and grade 3 is a severe or complete rupture of the muscle (sportsinjuryclinic.net). The symptoms of a grade 1 hamstring strain are; the injured dancer may feel a slight pull or tightness and minimal swelling in the posterior thigh. Consequently, he or she will be aware of slight discomfort when walking. Following on, grade 2 hamstring strains or tears may be associated with occasional sudden twinges of pain when producing a movement. As a result, gait will be affected and limping may be present. Moreover, flexing and applying pressure to the knees may cause pain. Therefore, a dancer with grade 2 hamstring strain or tears might be unable to fully straighten the knees. Finally, walking will be severely impaired in a grade 3 hamstring tear resulting to the need of walking aids. A dancer will feel severe pain particularly when producing a knee flexion. In addition to all that is mention, a grade 2 and 3 hamstring strain or tear may indirectly affect one’s posture. This is a result of impulses transferred by the nervous system from the hamstring muscle group to the Central Nervous System (CNS). The CNS consists of the spinal cord and the brain, transmitting impulses from the spinal cord to the brain. There are 5 pairs of sacral plexus in the spinal cord, containing four sacral nerves, which branch out, supplying sensory to the muscles attached to the pelvis, buttocks, and part of the lower limbs. The sciatic nerve, which branches out from the sacral plexus, is the longest nerve of the body and is responsible for the pain associated with the hamstring group muscle. â€Å"The nerve supply becomes impeded by excess pressure or damage and pain, is experienced in the hips and buttocks down through the knee to the ankle.† (An Holistic Guide to Anatomy and Physiology, 2006, pg.213). It is vitally important that treatment for a pulled hamstring starts immediately. The most important phase for treatment is the first 48 hours post-injury. Treatment of hamstring strains or tears will vary depending on the type of injury, its severity, and the needs and expectations of the patient. However, treatment can be generally divided into two types; Non-Surgical treatment and Surgical Treatment. Most hamstring strains heal very well with simple non-surgical treatments methods such as R.I.C.E, an acronym for Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. A dancer who is experiencing a hamstring strain should take rest, and avoid activities that strain the muscle group. In addition, he or she should apply cold packs several times a day on the straining area but not directly onto the skin. Also, the patient should wear an elastic band for compression to avoid more swelling and blood lost. To reduce swelling, he or she should recline, elevating the leg above the heart level. After R.I.C.E, dancers who wish to rehabilitate from a hamstring strain should get physical therapy treatments to restore the range of motion and strength. Surgical treatment is most often performed for tendon avulsion injuries, where the tendon has pulled completely away from the bone. Like treatments, the duration for a full recovery from a hamstring strain and tear injury vary depending on its severity. A grade 1 injury will probably take seven to ten days, a grade 2 injury will take four to six weeks however a grade 3 injury can take up to 4 or more months. â€Å"One of the most important methods of preventing a pulled hamstring is to warm-up correctly. This has been scientifically proven to reduce the risk of hamstring strain.†(sportsinjuryclinic.net). Warm-ups should gradually increase in intensity. Moreover, most dancers often fail to understand the importance of strengthening exercises. Dancers focus too much on stretching the muscle, lengthening but making it week and unable to support the range of motion when dancing. Boyd Bender, a physical therapist for the Pacific Northwest Ballet stated to strengthen the hamstring muscle group, dancers should also strengthen the quadriceps muscle group. This is because these muscle groups work in concert. If trained correctly, the strength ratio should be 60% of quadriceps muscle group and 40% of hamstring muscle group, with each muscle group supporting and complementing each other to prevent injuries. (findarticles.com). On top of dance technique classes, dancers should also add Pilates and Gyrotonic class for dynamics of stretch, strength, and movement for a well-rounded regimen. Dancers should also include stretching bands when practicing technique. With the use of stretching bands like Thera-Band, dancers not only refine their technique but also strengthen their muscle groups. The body is the instrument for a dancer. Every dancer should aim to achieve optimum capacity of his or her body through warm-ups, body conditioning, technique classes, stretching and cool-down. In conclusion, dancers should never work their body recklessly. Like all instruments, it should be refined and well taken care of.

Huck Finn :: essays research papers

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Modern American (1885) 1. The Author and His Times Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Clemens, was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835. When he was four, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, the setting for many of his books. His father died when he was 12. After his father died, he went to work as a printer ¹s apprentice and eventually as a printer in Missouri, St. Louis, and New York often writing a few works himself for periodicals. He worked as a printer and a reporter selling much of his work to newspapers. He continually moved from town to town. In 1857, he decided to move to South America to make a fortune there. He boarded a riverboat and headed for New Orleans where he would arrange the rest of his trip. However, he never made it past New Orleans and never into South America. He begged the riverboat to teach him how to pilot the riverboat. The riverboat pilot agreed to teach him for $500. Mark Twain went west during the civil war and established himself as a writer during this time. He wrote humorous stories about his experiences which lead to a job as a newspaper reporter in 1862. The following year he began signing his work  ³Mark Twain, ² a riverboat term meaning two fathoms deep. Mark Twain went to Hawaii in 1866. This trip was the beginning of his career as a travel correspondent. The next year he went to Europe and wrote a successful book there titled, The Innocent Abroad. In 1876, he published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. This book was such a success that he decided immediately to write a sequel. The sequel, which became much more complex than the original was published seven years later in 1883 and titled, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. After Huckleberry Finn, Twain wrote nearly a dozen more books but none were as successful. By 1939, Twain had lost all of his money investing in various schemes and inventions, almost all of which were failures. After this, he went on a world lecture tour and was able to pay his debts by 1896. While on the tour, one of his daughters died. His wife later in 1904. In 1909 his daughter died leaving him unhappy. 2. Form, Structure, and Plot The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn consists of 43 chapters and is told in the first person with

Bahram Ahmadi

A programme of work for the implementation of a strategy is a large set of coherent guidelines that include several activities in the program so as to achieve certain objectives. It involves several processes including organising, coordination, developing, designing, training, building, developing, growing, closing, etc. In any program strategy for a project, the objectives of the organisation play a very important role.The project program strategy gives importance to the manager that would be responsible for carrying out the operations of the project, the timing and the nature of the activities, and the dealing with specific tastes of the customers. Project program strategy is highly specific to a project. However, there may be more than one strategy to be employed to meet the objectives of the project. During the planning stages, the managers would sit down to develop a strategy.These strategies are developed so as to be appropriate with the characteristics of the organisation, hum an resources, geographical location, social features, politics, etc (Walter, 1999). For each project in an organisation, the program of work (workflow as such) is managed independently. The project manager would be looking at several limitations in the resources, including time, money and the scope.A project may fail due to several reasons (including deficiency of resources, lack of goals, conflict issues, problems with the customers, etc), and the manager would have to anticipate these problems right during the initiation of the project and ensure that a problem-solving process is enabled. Each project manager would be determining the ongoing processes in the project through monitoring and evaluation of the performances.The project manager would have to adopt different strategies so that the organisation could achieve certain objectives and hence reach a desired goal (Brentani, 2003, Walter, 1999, University of Texas, 2007 & Rad, 2006). The process of developing a strategy for the project is very simple. The managers would have to sit down and decide the various objectives that need to be achieved by the project. The means of achieving such objectives need to be discussed. The manager should involve other parties including the administration, the portfolio manager and the stakeholders.It may be very difficult to come to a consensus if too many people are involved in the process. This is because several people may have different values, outlines and approaches. The process of setting up the objectives, determining the goals and the ways of achieving them is very tedious and could take a long time. The manager should associate the strategy needed to achieve the objectives. During the final stages, the manager would have to also ensure that the strategy/ies adopted help to meet the objectives (Walter, 1999)On the other hand, portfolio of the project management is an approach in which various projects in an organisation are treated as smaller portions of a much l arger venture (with respect to investment and resource allocations). The project portfolio management would be functional right from the initiation of the project to the very completion. Certain instruments are utilised in the portfolio project management to help the managers (including planning, allocation of resources, evaluation, monitoring, analysing, standardization, etc).This can be considered as a centralised instrument required to effectively handle several projects in an organisation and to study the performance of several projects that may run in an organisation. It can be utilised to compare and contrast various projects. One very important feature of project portfolio management is to determine the costs, expenditure, benefits, investments and other features of the project. In recent years portfolio management has turned out to be a very important aspect of planning, especially in IT firms.IT companies would be managing several projects and programs running in various pa rts of the world through an effective portfolio management system. Studies conducted in the past have demonstrated a little less than half of the IT companies are unable to meet their targets due to inefficient portfolio management (Oracle, 2007, Stanford University, 2007 & UMT Consulting Services, 2007). The portfolio manager mix of projects should be such that the resources of the organisation are utilised effectively.They should be selected in such a way that the risks are significantly reduced. The portfolio manager is in a good position to priortize the projects and accordingly allocates the resources. He should be able to select the project based on their ability to fulfil certain criteria (Crow, 2004 & Oracle, 2007). A portfolio management system would be much broader and would include several other processes such as defining the opportunities, bringing those projects into the focus that would be able to achieve some objectives, monitoring of the projects, etc.Portfolio manag ement should be considered to be an art rather than a science. Frequently, portfolio managers would have to work with the fund managers of the organisation, so that there is effective use of the money. Portfolio management is frequently utilised in several developed, and slowly developing nations are moving towards effective portfolio management (Crow, 2004, Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). A portfolio management system is often utilised by an organisation to bring about success in the project (as many projects could be effectively be handled simultaneously).A portfolio may be funds or resources and can be utilised by the organisation to increase returns over a very short period of time. An organisation would observe that the resources available at any point of time would be less than the amount of resources required by a particular project. Hence, one of the main objectives of the portfolio managers would be to effectively manage the resources of several ongoing projects. The managemen t of the organisation needs to sit and figure out what the commitment of the organisation would actually be.As management of an organisation is a dynamic process, this exercise has to be done from time to time. Besides, actually managing several resources including human resources, logistics, IT, support systems, etc, time also needs to be handled. The management should be very much interested in ensuring that the portfolio management processes are enabled properly. The organisation should ensure that the interests of each and every protject are enabled. If a project is not performing properly, the ideal plan would be to discontinue it, if the organisation does not have the resources to handle it.A proper flow of information of the project should exist so that the process of monitoring is effective. It is very important that the projects be managed in a formal and official manner. The data that would be flowing would be much more accurate and effective in ensuring the objectives of the organisation are met. There should be a clear flow of data between the programs, projects and the portfolios (Brentani, 2003, Walter, 1999, & Rad, 2006). In the portfolio management, all the projects that are ongoing in the organisation are chosen and a standardised fashion of evaluating them is utilised.Portfolio management is very much required for the production, development and the utilisation of ideas and intellectual property in various projects in an organisation. The portfolio manager would be performing various tasks such as reallocating and promoting the staff members (as per their characteristics) in various projects. Thus it can be seen that if an organisation has a very good portfolio manager, he would be using the human resources very efficiently (UMT Consulting Group, 2007). The entire framework of portfolio management involves three steps, namely creating, selecting and managing.The goals and the strategies to be adopted in the portfolio management are made keepi ng in mind the characteristics of the organisation. Accordingly, new opportunities that are present should be identified and resources allocated. The objectives have to be prioritised and the tasks and activities that are to be done are selected. Finally, it is also important that the project be managed in the most efficient and organised manner (UMT Consulting Group, 2007). Many organisations do not have any portfolio management process running.Only the companies that feel that research frequently perform it and development is vital for the well being of the company. Only about 10 % of all organisations in the industry do have a strong portfolio management system in place. If a portfolio management system were not in place, then all the projects in the organisation would be given equal amount of importance or authorisation. This would result in all the projects that are going on in the organisation are given equal amount of resources (Rad, 2006).In an organisation, the project or t he program manager would ensure that the project could achieve its objectives. On the other hand, the portfolio manager would ensure that the operational activities and the maintenance programs in the organisation are smooth and functional. The team leader and the middle scale managers usually do the project management. On the other hand, the higher staff members including the administration do the portfolio management.The higher management of the organisation would be concentrating on the portfolio, rather than the functioning of each individual project (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). In a project or a program management, the team leaders and the manager would ensure that the staff members meet the specific goals of the project. The organisations main aim would be to deliver quality products or services. The portfolio manager would instead be ensuring that the goals of each and every project are in tune with that of the organisation.In the project management, a lot of importance is g iven to completing the tasks on time and ensuring that costs are limited. On the other hand, the portfolio management would be concentrating to a very less extent on fulfilling completion tasks on time and using the minimal amount of resources. The members of the portfolio management team would include the leader, the stakeholder, advocates, project managers and the office managers (Brentani, 2003, Stanford University, 2007 & Rad, 2006). The project or the program management should work in coordination with the portfolio management.Several processes in the project such as selection of the resources, prioritisation of the targets of the project, and the resource allocation should be performed in the most appropriate manner. The decision-making of the project needs to be very active and dynamic in nature. Informed decision-making and resource allocation is very important for the project to function properly. The project or program manager has to ensure that certain structures or a fra mework in the organisation is in place before the functional activities can be carried out.The project environment should be such that the objectives kept in mind can be achieved. The program manager and the portfolio manager should ensure that an environment is created that would be conducive to achieving the objectives of the organisation. The project members should function as a team so that the objectives are met. The team working on the project should have the skill, experience, knowledge and the competence to carry out the tasks of the project.One of the main reasons why projects do not succeed is because they may take long time to produce the results or may consume a lot of the resources. To ensure the project is effective (to ensure completion of the tasks) and efficient (completion of the tasks with appropriate use of the resources) in its objectives, it is very much needed that both the project management and the portfolio management work in close coordination with each ot her (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). The management activities of the portfolio management would be repetitive in nature.On the other hand, the management activities of the project management would be cyclic in nature. If the portfolio manager can take care of the functioning of all the projects, then the organisation can be considered to be very competitive. If a project does well, it would have an impact on the functioning of the organisation, but also on other projects (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). Portfolio management would definitely help the organisation to grow, expand and develop. The wealth of the organisation would increase with an effective portfolio management strategy.The portfolio manager would be bringing in various assets (including infrastructure, support systems, financial resources, human resources, logistics, etc) and securities into the organisation. He would be considering investing in various ways including growth stock investing and value stock investing. From t ime to time, the objectives of the organisation would vary and hence, it is the duty of the portfolio managers to vary the investment pattern in the organisation. A greater amount of flexibility would be required.The management style of the portfolio managers should also vary depending on the needs (Brentani, 2003). A portfolio manager and the program/project manager would be concentrating on different characteristics of the project. The portfolio manager would be using the PPM (project portfolio management) tools, whereas the project manager would be using the single-project management tools. The PPM tools would ensure that the functioning becomes more and more efficient, the costs are effectively distributed and the profits of the organisation are increased.It also ensures that the organisation is following a particular framework whilst managing the projects (Brentani, 2003 & UMT, 2007). Each project has to be carefully planned and implemented in the organisation. The entire proje ct management should be done in phases. The project management tools would ensure that the staff members make effective use of the resources in the organisation and ensure completion of the targets that are required within the project. The project manager would have to motivate the staff so that the work is improved in quality and the project is able to achieve its targets.Only if the management practises of the project are appropriate, could it be able to achieve its objectives (Free Management Library, 2007, Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). The program strategy would be concerning a greater amount of internal issues with relation to the project, whereas the project portfolio management would be concerning the external issues. It is necessary that the portfolio mangers align their objectives as per the strategic objectives of each program.The portfolio processes should be customised to suit other management processes that would be functional in the organisation, simultaneously. Both pr ogram strategy management and portfolio management involve interacting with the clients, and hence demonstrate the importance of clients with respect to management and its processes (Stanford University, 2007). References: Brentani, C. (2003), Portfolio Management, Elsevier, Philadelphia http://books. google. com/books? id=8LJrilH_eEEC&pg=PT14&dq=portfolio+management&sig=x-IYrHl67RaZTocKedqv_fTBX3w#PPT16,M1Crow, K. (2004), A Practical Approach To Portfolio Management, [Online], Available: http://www. npd-solutions. com/portfolio. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Free Management Library (2007), Project Management, [Online], Available: http://www. managementhelp. org/plan_dec/project/project. htm, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Oracle (2007), Peoplesoft Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, [Online], Available: http://www. oracle. com/media/peoplesoft/en/pdf/datasheets/e_epm_ds_projportmgmt_41005. pdf, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Rad, P.F. & Levin, G. (2006), Project Portfolio Man agement, IIL, New York. http://books. google. com/books? id=PUavbSMdP7QC&pg=PA7&dq=project+portfolio+management&sig=Nwscmbzr4s8B_X2cHG26-1hiW9Y#PPA10,M1 Stanford Advanced Project Management (2007), Mastering the Project Portfolio, [Online], Available: http://apm. stanford. edu/courses/MPP. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Stanford University (2007), Portfolio Management Team, [Online], Available: http://www. stanford. edu/dept/its/projects/PMO/files/pmt. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18].Walter, S. L. (1999), Defining and developing program strategies, [Online], Available: http://www. sil. org/lingualinks/literacy/PlanALiteracyProgram/DefiningAndDevelopingProgramSt. htm, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Walter, S. L. (1999), Defining program objectives, [Online], Available: http://www. sil. org/lingualinks/literacy/PlanALiteracyProgram/DefiningProgramObjectives. htm, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. UMT Consulting Services (2007), PPM – Project Portfolio Management Consulting, [Onl ine], Available: http://www.umt. com/site/PPM-Consulting_60. html? PHPSESSID=9917b5631be27d19dbb1d077885e2866, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. UMT Consulting Group (2007), What's Really Driving the Importance of Portfolio Management? (DM Review, February 27, 2004), [Online], Available: http://www. umt. com/site/Why-Portfolio-Management_4. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. University of Texas –DIIA (2007), Project management tutorial, [Online], Available: http://www. utexas. edu/academic/cit/howto/tutorials/project/index. html, [Accessed: 2007, August.

Essay about The Glorious Stradivari Revolution - 1006 Words

The Glorious Stradivari Revolution Antonio Stradivari, a man known by many as on of the greatest luthiers of all time. The question at hand is why? From as early as the early 1700’s Stradivari was well known in the music world and still is. His instruments are reproduced in order to fool consumers into buying an instrument that has the same design as a Strad. There are also luthiers that try to replicate Stradivari’s beautiful design for their own satisfaction. Antonio Stradivari’s instruments have become socially and technically popular over time due to his superior craftsmanship, and for others, its large price tag. Stradivari’s life, affecting how his instruments were made, changed the perception of his instruments†¦show more content†¦How fine for instance is the semi-circular termination at the lower peg box? He was the inceptor of the slanting soundholes which influence the formation and free emission of sonorous tone. The Amati soun dholes are ‘set straight’ and to a certain extent cause a loss of tone†¦(Henley ch. 1, 15) Even as an apprentice he had begun changing the standard of the Amati violin, whose bar was set very high. Stradivari’s life as a luthier can be split into four different periods. The Amati, Experimental, Golden, and Decline. The Amati period, 1666-1699, was a period of time when he was under the apprenticeship of Nicolo Amati. Although the period is called the Amati period, his instruments then did not resemble much of Nicolo’s work. Stradivari was just in the beginning of his life as a luthier. The biggest changes of his instruments during this time period were the width and materials used. The next period was the Experimental period, which lasted from 1690 to 1700. During this period he experimented with both the varnish, and the length. Stradivari’s varnish had changed many times. It was thought that his varnish was what made his instruments sound they way they do. The climax of Stradivari’s work was known as the Golden period, which lasted from 1700 to around 1720. â€Å"All materials are carefully selected. Scrolls less deeply cut and beautiful ly carved, fine