Yoga and ballet: restore your balance.

If you are a ballet dancer, you've no doubt learned to accept some level of chronic pain as a fact of life. It typically shows up in your knees, lower back, hips, and feet, which bear the brunt of long rehearsal hours. Instead of ignoring it, why not address the imbalances that contribute to it?

Ballet dancers spend a lot of time turned out, causing an imbalance between weak medial and lateral rotators, located in and around the hip, and a tight iliotibial (IT) band, which is a thick group of fibers running along the outside of the thigh. Yoga can strengthen weak muscles and elongate overly tight ones, as Alfonso Martin, principal dancer at Tulsa Ballet, has discovered. He had a tendonitis in the patellar tendon, or "jumper's knee," so he went to Ken Randall, a Tulsa physical therapist. Randall found that Martin's quadriceps and IT band were tight while his internal rotators were weak and recommended yoga.

The key to healthy, pain-flee joints is equal strength from all sides. "Think of the joint like a tent pole," Randall suggests. "If one cord is too tight it is going to pull the pole out of line." Yoga postures help stretch what's tight, and strengthen and stabilize what's weak. A class takes the body through a full range of motion, toning the muscles on all sides of a joint to keep the bones aligned and the joint stable. You not only work the same muscles sequentially, but also the pairs of opposing muscles (your quadriceps and hamstrings, for instance).

Remember that any repetitive motion causes wear and tear on a joint. This damage begins silently in the cartilage where no nerves exist. You won't feel any pain until the bone itself starts to wear down. Sometimes all you feel is a dull achy sensation or muscle fatigue after class. Doing yoga will help you notice what's going on in your body before pain or injury occurs. Here are three poses that can help:

Triangle Pose (Trikonasana)

Stand with your feet wide apart. Turn your right foot out 90 degrees and your left foot in so that it is slightly pigeon-toed. Stretch your arms to the sides. Moving your left hip to the left, stretch your right arm out over your right leg. Folding from your right hip crease, bend to the right, and place your right hand on the floor on the outside of your right leg. Extend your left arm straight up toward the ceiling, and lengthen from both sides of the waist evenly. Externally rotate your right hip, taking care not to hyperextend the right knee, and tilt your belly and chest up toward the ceiling. To come out, plie on through your left leg and slowly stand up. Then repeat on the other side. This pose will strengthen the quadriceps, lengthen the hamstrings, and work the inner and outer thighs and hips.

Warrior II Pose (Virabhadrasana II)

Stand with your feet wide apart. Turn your right foot out 90 degrees and your left foot in so that it is slightly pigeon-toed. Stretch your arms to the sides. Staying upright between your legs, bend your right knee. Make sure the knee is tracking over your toes. Externally rotate the right thigh, drawing the buttock slightly under. Lift up equally through both sides of your waist, and release your shoulder blades down your back. Look out over your right outstretched hand. Repeat on the other side. If done correctly, this pose energizes and stabilizes the inner thighs and strengthens the gluteus medius muscles.

Pigeon Pose (Eka Pada Rajakapotasana)

Beginning on your hands and knees, curl your toes under and press back into Downward-Facing Dog. Lift your right leg up behind you in a Downward Dog split. Bend the right knee, sweep the right leg forward, bringing your knee to rest outside of your right hand. The shin should be parallel to the hip bones. Release the top of the left leg to the ground, rotating the thigh slightly inward, and press the top of your foot, shinbone, knee, and thigh on the mat. Gently fold over your bent leg. Roll your left hip toward your right heel and lengthen the left groin. Move your right sitting bone back, creating space between your hip and your waist. To come out, walk your hands back toward your right shin and slowly return to hands and knees. This pose stretches and releases the outside of the hip and the piriformis muscle deep in the buttock.

Linda Sparrowe is the author of several books on yoga, including A Woman's Book of Yoga and Health: A Lifetime Guide to Wellness (Boston: Shambhala).