Monica Cruz Quotes

A dancer's career is short - you just keep going until your legs pack up.

Certainly the life of a dancer is very difficult. The training is very hard and relentlessly grueling.

A lot of professional dancers become professional when they turn 15 or 16 years old, when they're still children. So you've trained every single waking moment up until that point for a career that could maybe only last 10 years, maybe longer if your body holds up, if your injuries are kept at bay.

I mean, I don't really remember playing a full season ever being 100 percent.

Every dancer has injuries, and your injury could happen that season that you were getting that one part that you've wanted to do your whole career. So you have to appreciate every single moment until it happens.

The first year with ABT I learned 13 new roles. Most were lengthy ballets, more complicated than I was used to. I have suffered from tendinitis since I was 13, and it flared up again until the pain was paralyzing. There were times I prayed I'd be sick so I wouldn't have to go on.

I did enjoy football, but the injury factor for me, you know, I had so many issues. I don't know how long my career would've been.

Dancers, you know, they have pain everywhere: ankles in the morning, or back or neck or ribs or knees or the muscles. You are never free of pain, you know.

Ask any athlete: We all hurt at times. I'm asking my body to go through seven different tasks. To ask it not to ache would be too much.

The thing about ballet that I never knew about is that it's one of the most excruciating sports that I've ever been a part of. I say sports because they train constantly, every single day.

When I initially committed to joining 'Dancing with the Stars,' I didn't realize just how physically demanding it would be for me. Unable to put forth my best effort, I felt it appropriate to step aside and give someone else the opportunity.

It's not like I've been vaulting my whole life. I haven't. So my body hasn't taken that physical beating. I'm still on the upscale.

Rugby takes its toll.

I'm one injury away from hanging up the racket at any time.

I would have to change my entire life if I went into acting. I dance eight hours a day, and then suddenly to be sitting on a set for 12 hours a day is a big difference for my health.

I wish there was a season where I was playing and didn't have no aches, no pains, no bruises, no nothing.

Injuries are a big factor when you're trying to go on a championship run.

If you're gonna do action movies, you're gonna get an injury at some point. It's inevitable.

Dancing is hard on all bodies, but I particularly kept getting injured.

Truth is, none of us professional athletes are ever 100 percent healthy. We just decide what we're going to tape up and push through without making it worse.

Injuries are a part of the game. Every athlete knows that.

Before I got injured, football was very easy, I didn't have to work out.

You're never going to go through a season with no injuries.

During the course of a 16-game season, everybody, in the end, is injured. It's almost as if pieces just get broken off, and you give up pieces or an appendage every year.

It's tough to play with an injury.