Summer Intensive Essentials
We’ve had the pleasure of reviewing Apolla Performance products on The Whole Dancer blog before – you can check out our last review here! Well, since then Apolla has come out with some incredible new products that we got to test out here at The Whole Dancer.
The K-Warmer
Last year, Apolla Performance released the K-Warmer (Kinesio Warmer) their fresh take on leg warmers. These leg warmers are different than any other leg warmers on the market, not only do they warm your legs, but they also offer compression. They took the compression technology that goes into their shocks and applied it to the K-Warmer.
The K-Warmer measures at 29 inches total with 21 inches of leg compression, 4 inches of fabric around the ankle, and 4 inches of stretchy fabric for the top of the thigh (that isn’t compression). As someone who is 5’6”, the K-Warmer came up to almost the top of my thigh, but I did not have the ankle part over my heel. When I did have it over my heel it came to mid thigh.
Because of the compression technology, the K-Warmers fit and feel more like a compression sleeve than a legwarmer. That being said, when I wore them for class and then took them off during barre, my regular tights almost came off with the legwarmers. For this reason, I do not think they would be best for wearing backstage in between pieces when you need to quickly add or remove layers.
They do keep your legs very warm. I wore my K-Warmers over capris length leggings in 30-degree (Fahrenheit) weather, and the cold never seeped through them. While wearing them during class, my legs were very warm by the second tendu combination.
The K-Warmer is the perfect leg wear for muscle recovery. I wore my K-Warmers for the first time two days after I ran my first 5K. At that point my muscles were VERY sore. Wearing my K-Warmers definitely gave my muscles relief and helped me get through my cross training at the gym that day.
The K-Warmer is the ideal leg wear that optimizes muscle health and recovery during your warm-up, cool down, cross training, and everything in between.
The Joule
The Joule is another newer product from Apolla and it looks a lot like a standard ankle brace. Unlike a standard ankle brace – it’s supportive but not restrictive. As someone who experienced “chronic” ankle sprains throughout my dance training and career, I wore a lot of ankle braces.
Most of the time they limited my mobility so much that I couldn’t fully point my feet and I didn’t feel like I was able to keep wearing it as I moved towards recovery. The Joule however would have been great support as my ankles recovered and regained strength. They provide similar support to taping but without the hassle.
By wearing the Joule you are able to actually combat inflammation while you’re dancing. So if you’re prone to flare ups – it works wonders. In addition to the actual compression it provides, the Joule offers arch support as well.
According to Apolla, “When you don’t have support in your arch, the force of dancing yanks on the plantar fascia at the insertion points and causes inflammation. To keep strong arches, it is good to give them support in class and after during recovery.”
Did I mention you can wear them under ballet shoes and they offer a multitude of colors – various skin tones and even ballet pink so they can be worn more discretely than a brace as well.
I’ve worn my Joule’s to take class and to teach as well. You can even wear them when you’re traveling to provide some compression to once again reduce unwanted inflammation. They’re machine washable and totally versatile. I consider the Joule to be a dancer necessity. Even if you don’t have ankle issues per-se you would benefit from wearing these during or just after class to help your feet and ankle’s recover!
Head over to Apolla Performance and check out the Joule and K-Warmer. Have you tried either of these products? We’d love to hear your take! Share in the comments below.
