Just Because A Gymnast Doesn’t Have Pain, Doesn’t Mean There Isn’t A Problem

This week I wanted to share an injury situation that recently came up with one of our gymnasts, and touch on some areas I’ve been thinking on the last few months. I really think people in gymnastics would benefit from hearing and thinking about her story. Don’t worry, both her mother and her said it was okay if I posted about it. After discussing it with them they agreed it was important information to share for other gymnasts and coaches out there. The situation is certainly a bummer as I will talk about, but I think there are some larger concepts behind the story that a lot of coaches/gymnasts/parents/medical professionals could learn from to help other gymnasts out there. I had another post lined up for this week but I thought this one was more important to get out. So, I did a little late night 2 am writing session (thank you Dunkin Donuts) and put this together for and early post this week.

How A Gymnast’s “Tight Hamstrings” Can Really Be a Core Control Problem

Something really interesting happened to me the other night at the gym during practice, and I wanted to share the story. One of my level 8’s told me that she has “really tight hamstrings” and that for some reason no matter how much she stretches her splits or pikes they never get better. I know this gymnast personally, and I know that she is one of the most flexible/hyper mobile girls on our team. So naturally I was thinking there had to be more to this. I decided to take a few minutes to break it down and figure out if it was really a hamstring mobility problem based on a lot of the PT information I’ve been reading/listening to lately. What ended up looking light tight hamstrings and a restricted pike stretch was really a core control /stability problem, and by doing some corrective work I was able to fix what looked like tight hamstrings in about 5 minutes. It all started out with her showing me a pike stretch, where she said she felt a lot of pulling in the back of her legs because of her hamstrings and she could not reach her hands to the floor.

Pre-Test Pike Stretch Suggesting Some “Tightness”

Podcast Interview with Dr. Josh Eldridge from Gymnast Care

A few weeks ago I got asked to do a podcast interview for Gymnast Care with Dr. Josh Eldridge, and I’m really excited to share that it got released today through his website. I have been talking a lot with Josh in the last few months for how to help gymnasts reduce injuries and perform at their best. We talk about tons of good stuff including my background and why I started my blog, what the pre-hab model is about, how PT can help gymnasts, some common gymnastics problems/injuries, how coaches can use the info from my blog in their gyms, and much more. I’m really thankful and grateful for the opportunity from Gymnast Care, use this link to find the podcast:

http://gymnastcare.com/session7

Gymnastics Application of The Joint by Joint Approach (Pt 1): Concepts and Skill Examples

The “Joint by Joint Approach” is a concept created by Gray Cook, and it has been pretty popular in the medical/rehabilitation world for some time now. Many Physical Therapists, Athletic Trainers, and Strength and Conditioning coaches use this concept when working with patients, clients, and athletes.  Although I try to learn and pull from many different schools of thought, I personally am a big fan of Gray Cook’s ideas. In the last 6 months have been using it quite a bit to look into and break down common problems/injuries that gymnasts deal with. Side note I have to mention that inspiration for this post came from Dan Pope’s website which you can find in the references below, his article give’s a great breakdown of this concept.

The Joint by Joint Approach is certainly not a brand new concept, but applying it to gymnastics is on the newer end. I’m sure other people have published on tying these concepts together for the gymnastics benefits. It is not the only approach out there, and as with many ideas it works best when combined when all the other information available. However, I can say that it has really helped me to break down problems when I work with gymnasts (and all other types of people).  I have gotten some good results for complaints of pain, nagging overuse injuries, and increasing gymnasts skill performance from using this model as a framework. For this post I wanted to start by explaining this concept in a very basic way so coaches and gymnast can understand, and then I wanted to give some direct examples of how it applies to gymnastics. I think that it is really something all gymnasts and coaches can benefit from to better understand how to trouble shoot gymnastics skill problems, understand common injuries/pain, and help optimize performance.

The Joint by Joint Approach

Creating An Integrated Gymnastics Pre-Hab/Injury Management Model For Your Gym – What It Is, and Why It’s Important

This blog has been up and running for about 4 months now, and I must say that I have been amazed about what has come with it. I really feel lucky to be in the position I am, being able to work in both the gymnastics/coaching world and the Physical Therapy world every day. The biggest part I have enjoyed is that it has been the perfect avenue to promote learning for members of the sport and myself. By using the literature available, new concepts, and other people, I try to brainstorm on how we can take all the great information out there and put it into motion for gymnasts and coaches to use in their every day training routines.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had 3 gymnasts I coached in the past contact me to say they had major injuries (torn ACL, torn meniscus, torn Achilles), and that it is costing them their season this year as it has just begun . I have also had a handful gymnasts also tell me with season in full swing (no pun intended) they are pushing through ongoing or recurrent overuse injuries that always seem to come back despite resting/modifying practice. These ranged from ankle sprains, to lower back pain, to shoulder pain, to wrist pain, and so on. It made me really step back and think there has to be a way to get more gyms to practice preventative measures in their every day practices in an attempt to stay ahead/properly of these problems.