The traditional ballet class includes grande plies at the beginning of class, even though they are not a good thing to do before being warmed up.  There is a lot of strain on the knees for all grande plies except in second position.

I’ve heard this at the three NYC Ballet annual wellness workshops that I’ve attended. As soon as I learned this, I stopped including grande plies (except in second position) in the first combination at the barre.

The other night I read an article in Fitness Magazine about moves to avoid when exercising. Plie squats were listed. The reason stated is that any knee bend that forces your knees to go past your toes, excessively stretches ligaments around the knee and could tear cartilage!

Looks like we need to break tradition.