I believe that as a competitive dancer, dancing four hours almost everyday, and doing the most non-normal things with my body, warm up should be taken very seriously. Every sport should plan for a warm up and cool down.

Throughout the years of my dance career I have had injuries here and there but nothing super serious. When I was younger I could wake up do the splits, put my leg behind my head, and go right into practice.

Right now I´m having trouble walking. I´ve had hip pain for about a year now and the pain is gradually getting worse and worse.

I needed to learn my lesson, my body isn’t eight years old anymore. I can’t just go right into dancing all out right away. I need at least an hour to warm up.

I totally regret not giving myself that warm up, it’s caused me to sit and watch my teammates do what I love most. It’s probably one of the hardest things to watch, it makes me so sad.

It is all up to me to fix my hip. Every chance I get, I have to ice and heat my hip, stretch, roll out and go to physical therapy.

To all athletes, make sure you are ready to go with a full warm up. To do this raise that heart rate and stretch. Itś not worth the risk of getting hurt.