Then brainstorm how to divide out the group of gymnasts who may or may not fit, and who may need an alternative exercise based on their issues. Its important to recognize that the range of motion a gymnasts hip, shoulder, or other joints display are directly related to their underlying anatomy. The way someones hips or shoulders are shaped, unique rotations of bones, certain anatomical variations, or issues along the entire body chain, can all have a substantial impact on the amount of flexibility a gymnast can display during skills. Although I highly encourage people to review it and read the evidence for themselves, their thoughts follow in line with the ideas noted above related to changes in sensation or tolerance of stretching, rather than true muscle tissue changes. I agree that research is conflicting on the theoretical mechanisms and effects of soft tissue work, but it seems to be making some positive effect that supports its use. Wilk KE, Andrews JR, Arrigo CA. Department of Exercise and Sport Science University of Utah Most gymnastics coaches would agree that flexibility is an essential aspect of gymnastics training and performance. Just as with the sleeve of a shirt, depending on where your arm is in space, different parts of the shirt sleeve are more taught. This capsular and ligamentous hypermobility is not inherently a bad thing, as it is part of what makes a gymnast good at the sport. Opplert J, Babault N. Acute Effects of Dynamic Stretching on Muscle Flexibility and Performance: An Analysis of the Current Literature. However, in my twenty-five years of being a gymnast, a gymnastics coach, and a Sports Physical Therapist who treats hundreds of gymnasts per year, flexibility is by far what I get the most questions about. For choreography or specific drills, this may be very appropriate when not pushed quickly to extreme ranges of motion. Sands and Mcneal have a few fantastic chapters on flexibility in recent Strength and Conditioning text books (39-40). Hip Arhtroscopy and Hip Joint Preservation Surgery. Alongside this, there is a lot of confusion or misunderstandings about what happens when gymnasts stretch, why it helps increase range of motion, how much stretching is suggested as beneficial to improve flexibility, and how to make changes show up in skills. 2014 Jan; 46(1): 131-14. Background Anatomy and Understanding Hypermobility, Beightons Testing and Links to Capsular Laxity. Ive been fortunate that now after learning from many people and textbooks, I really have a good handle on the concepts that seem to work, and those that dont really tend to make a big difference in the long term. North Am J Sports Phys Ther 1(1):1631, 2006. Its my opinion that using ankle weights under high speed (like in leaps, jumps, leg kicks, running, gymnastics skills/drills) willbe very challenging for gymnasts to control due to the long weighted lever arm. Now let me tie this into why I no longeruse of ankle weights. I suggest these to outline the complexity of the human body, in hopes that people are more cautious in some flexibility decisions they make. More specifically, the inferior glenohumeral ligament and capsule, as well as possible parts of the middle glenohumeral ligament and capsule. In Llyod RS, Oliver JL, Strength and Conditioning for Young Athletes: Science and Application. The same argument can be made for the hips of gymnasts. Elastic band openers, shoulder circles to mat laying on stomach, PNF techniques Dynamic flexibility is often the focus during warm-up exercises. Speaking beyond the research on this idea, I think light soft tissue work and static stretching may have the most impact on blood flow or lymphatic drainage. These common active structures limiting overhead shoulder flexibility we want to focus on making more mobile. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc. This can happen statically for a period of time (static stretching), with the use of momentum and holding of end range (dynamic or active stretching), or sometimes with muscle contractions and stretching together (PNF or proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation). I generally recommend that not stretch have more intensity than a 3 or 4 out of 10 (0 is no discomfort, 10 is extreme discomfort). Many gymnasts may be limited by their bony alignment, differently shaped hips, or less mobile capsule/ ligaments. Your legs should be at a 90 angle. imo group link. Strength Work to Opposite Side of Joint We do not want to excessively relax the muscular tissue and increase lots of joint motion before we then subject them to extremely high forces. Zollner AM., et al. There may be a lot of variation on exact exercises/stretches included in your athletes' warm-up, but do try to include ALL of the following components: Most healthcare providers that I have talked with feel the major benefits of self-soft tissue work are increasing blood flow and allowing muscle relaxation. You may remember the shoulder joint has a very shallow socket, which allows for lots of motion but then creates a situation where stability is needed. Again, as presented by Beardsley and Skarbot, Self-Myofascial release does not appear to impede athletic performance acutely or in the short term. Scand J Med SCi Sports, 2010: 136 144. Front Splits. Andrews, J., Reinold, M., Wilk, K. The Athletes Shoulder. But, the timiing protocols for these studies were insanely more than and human does, so its likely not the main case for increases in muscle length. Also, aggressively pushing a gymnast down in a split or not taking the time to break down why someone is limited can also lead to serious injuries. Picture 3 is a lat stretch where the athlete sits If these joints are subject to ongoing stretching past their normal end ranges of motion, it can significantly increase the risk of injury. All of the studies that did show a change in range of motion from various techniques (static stretching, PNF type, more dynamic stretching) did not push the subjects into very extreme pain or use excessively long periods of stretching past 2 minutes. Role of the Acetabular Labrum and the Iliofemoral Ligament in Hip Stability: An In Vitro Biplane Fluoroscopy Study. Acute Effects of Stretching on Passive Properties of Human Gastrocnemius Muscle-Tendon Unit: Analysis of Differences Between Hold-Relax and Static Stretching. I feel this approach not only makes more sense from a gymnastics technique point of view, but also incorporates a lot of current scientific research on flexibility, soft tissue work, and human movement. It appears that a combination of mechanical factors (18, 25, 27-29), as well as neurological factors (18-21, 24, 25-26)), are reasons behind why regular stretching increases range of motion. They often struggle quite a bit to lift their legs even against gravity alone. Remember we want to focus on the active muscular tissue, not the passive ligament or joint capsule tissue. Knee Surg Sports Traumatol Arthrosc (2016). Am J Sports Med 2011 39: 85S. Within the sport of gymnastics, a large majority of athletes who get involved have underlying natural hypermobility. Second, most times there are a lack of pre and post-tests (line splits, checking objective shoulder flexibility screen against a wall) to see if what is being used for exercises is effective. The anatomy and theory, as well as some of the joint based material for this blog are taken from that chapter. Wall ankle flexibility tests were used to measure the range of motion changes, and ultrasound imaging was used to look at the changes in the muscle tissue that relate to extensibility like passive resistive torque, muscle stiffness, tendon stiffness, fascicle length, and pentation angle. If you are more curious about learning the medical side of hip injuries in hyper-flexible athletes, I highly recommend reading these articles. After having various conversations about flexibility with people in the gymnastics community, the safety of training over splits is typically the biggest question. In my mind, definitely not. Phys Sportsmed. Long term changes that have minimal injury risk do not tend to come from short-term, high intensity and high force methods often seen in gymnastics. 2013l 8(5) 601 616, Hart E., et al. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 25(6):36479, 1997. However, the rationale for this is in a different context. To protect the gymnasts in our care and to protect ourselves against possible allegations of poor practice, coaches must carefully consider their . The main way people approach increasing the flexibility of the active structures is through regular stretching. The research in the world of hip micro instability, labral tears, hip stress fractures, and other injuries commonly seen in gymnasts has been rapidly developing in the last decade. Wilk KE, Arrigo CA, Andrews JR. Current concepts: The stabilizing structures of the glenohumeral joint. I do not mean to imply that every report of pain should be panicked over, and that simple muscular strains are not a common occurrence. The search was conducted on PubMed, WOS, Scopus, Sport Discus and Google Scholar databases, and . Scand J Med Sci Sports. Int J Sports Med. I hope that this guide can be a place for everyone in gymnastics to find some useful information without feeling so frustrated and overwhelmed. Her ankles are very lax and she also tends to hang out in the down and in position that may predispose it to roll. In conjunction with this, due to the gymnasts underlying lack of static stability from the ligaments and capsule, they will need absolutely pristine strength, physical preparation, and dynamic stability from their muscles around the joint. In my experience, excessive force, excessive duration, and the incorrect placement of a foam roller or stick massager can have opposite effects. These gymnasts were born this way. I have found that many of the traditional general stretches we use as go to methods for increasing flexibility do not have proper assessments preceding them or may not have anatomical considerations in mind. In short, stretching the toe point more may be exaggerating this imbalance, leading to issues both in their injury risk for inversion sprains as noted above but alsoother ankle injuries. Other forms of stretching like PNF, dynamic stretching, and others appear to be effective when regularly done, Consistency over intensity is a key concept everyone in gymnastics must follow. Atraumatic Hip Instability in Patients with Joint Hypermobility.Operative Techniques in Sports Medicine. These gymnasts typically have natural flexibility but may struggle to build strength and power during training. This is closely related to the one above, but many of the wobbly ankles come about because the gymnast has lots oflaxityoverall. I will dive into this more below. This allows for more inherent weight-bearing stability but may limit the natural mobility the hip can achieve. Sports Med. The thought process is that by following the anatomy of the shoulder joint and latissimus dorsi, teres major, and pec musculature 62-64, this version of an overhead flexibility drill biases stretching the soft tissue that needs attention and takes the pressure of the often already hypermobile shoulder ligaments. I will get a bit nerdy outlining the mechanisms, but then I will offer a practical application type summary for people to apply in training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. Clin Biomech (Bristol, Avon). 2014. The Approach to the Evaluation and Surgical Treatment of Mechanical Hip Pain in the Young Patient. When this acquired excess in joint laxity is paired with a lack of strength, lacking technical development, high repetition, and fatigue in not fully matured athletes, this may have a variety of negative consequences. While puberty can make a big negative impact on flexibility, I feel that the cultural norm of gymnasts just automatically getting tighter as they age is overexaggerated. Its my opinion that the sport of gymnastics has yet to use a systematic, individualized, science-based system to flexibility methods in training. This shallower hip socket, and natural hypermobility, creates a situation where the gymnast cannot afford to have limited dynamic structures for protection. As mentioned we have to be cautious not to overtax their already hypermobile hip capsules and ligaments during flexibility training. Keeping this in mind, we need to seriously consider that gymnasts have open growth plates and can suffer from ischial apophysitis or growth plate stress fractures if we blindly force split motion. Like in the shoulder, natural mobility of the hip allows them to move through a greater motion. Examples of gymnastics skills that require dynamic flexibility are a walkover and a handspring. It should be considered to be a skill with many pieces that must be broken down to achieve success. 2018 Feb;48(2):299-325. doi: 10.1007/s40279-017-0797-9. Some may have a combination of dysplasia, hip socket rotations, femur rotation, and different pelvic alignments. Being able to achieve a full over split, or even a regular full split for that matter requires many things to be going well from a movement point of view. I more hope to highlight that assuming ongoing pain reports are no big deal and can be trained through, rather than thinking critically about the situation, can be very problematic. Undue force to these passive structures becomes problematic over time as the high force of gymnastics can cause injury. Again, these are just my thoughts. Some of the gymnasts could be born more lax and likely have been successful in gymnastics because of it. 2009. While it is true that male gymnasts need extreme behind the back shoulder motion for pommel horse and pbars, I think there are much better ways to get it than being aggressive with behind the back stretch. In all cases except two, (Janot et al., 2013; Peacock et al., 2014) there were no changes in performance measures following any of the SMFR protocols used. They can also partner with healthcare providers who are versed in this information to either to teach in-services to their staff or teach the gymnasts themselves. This is commonly tested with something called a Beightons screening. Dave Phys Ther. Ehmke, R. S. (2006). It will be much less explanation, and more just videos and examples on how to help. I strongly feel that gymnasts must earn the right to do over splits and must be mature enough to do them safely. 90 Minutes of Must Hear Gymnastics Coaching Expert Advice, Master the Basics: Gymnastics Drills for Kips, Fly Aways, and Giants, Nick Ruddock Shares His Best Uneven Bar Methods for Giants, Flyaways, and Cast Handstands, Understanding and Treating Back Pain in Athletes, 5 In-Season Gymnastics Tips for Maximizing Meet & Routine Performance, Gymnastics requires significant amounts of flexibility and mobility, which makes it a primary area of training, It can be very confusing and easily overwhelming, especially with the rapid increase in scientific advances and the internet, Anyone working with gymnasts should have an understanding of basic anatomy and physiology before assigning flexibility drills, Although research is conflicting, there appear to be both neurological and mechanical reasons as to why regular flexibility training increases range of motion, Its crucial that proper methods are used to reduce joint stress and bias the stretching of soft tissue structures, especially in hypermobile athletes, Static stretching has a role to play in gymnastics but must be used correctly and at the right dosage. 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