Common Gymnastics Injuries And How To Prevent Them

Gymnasts of all ages look elegant while performing gymnastics. However, injuries are common, precisely due to the complexity of the skills. An interesting fact is that there are a few main reasons why injuries occur and they are ways to actually prevent them from happening in the first place.

In the content below, you will learn all about the common gymnastics injuries and how to refrain from getting them.

Common gymnastics injuries

Because gymnasts use the entire body while performing skills in gymnastics, they are more prone to injuries that may occur on almost any body part. As such, injuries that affect the arms, legs, neck, and back may occur. Anyway, the common injuries are as follows:

We will also add that bruises are common too, but there are considered as minor injuries that do not require medical assistance. In addition, all of the common injuries we have listed above are not considered life threatening. They do require medical assistance, but spending nights in the hospital is not required.

What are the causes of gymnastics injuries?

You may think that the causes of this injuries are due to the poor equipment's used or having a poor coach. However, we will reveal that they are not the actual cause. The main causes are actually:

1) Insufficient Strength

Insufficient strength is one of the most common reasons for an injury in gymnastics. The decreased strength in arms, legs and core muscles will affect the gymnast when performing a specific skilled move. Due to the low level of strength, a gymnast may fall and hit the bar, ending up injured on the floor. Therefore, it is very important to get a gymnastic bar with rounded corners. Also, to minimize the falling impact, it is mandatory to get a good gymnastics mat.

2) Imbalanced of Strength

3) Poor Balancing

When the balance of a gymnast is poor, it is difficult for them to perform a specific skill and do so accurately. This often results to injuries. It will most likely not be a problem for children who have started participating gymnastics at an early childhood. 

However, for those who enter gymnastics at a later age, their flexibility and balancing may not be as good, hence, learning the right steps and body postures from a good coach is very important.

How To Prevent Injuries From Happening

If you are looking for a way to prevent any gymnastics injuries we listed above, there are a few things you can do. The first one is to make your core, arms, and legs stronger. As such, you will literally eliminate the first common reason why injuries occur. 

Besides that, it is important to pay a close attention to the balanced strength improvement. In other words, you must have both sides of your body equally strong.

Last but not least, improve the balance of your body. There are a lot of exercises that are not limited to gymnastics for balance improvement. By improving your balance, you will be able to perform each skill as perfect and accurate as possible, eliminating the possibility of an injury.

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