Physiotherapy For Gymnastics; The Most Common Injuries

The sport of gymnastics demands a lot from the body. It puts a huge amount of stress and force on the muscles and bones of each athlete.

To sum up, here are three most common types of injury are:

• Traumatic - Collision with ground or pole while performing a routine. Can be anywhere from bruising to bone breakage.

• Overuse - Overtraining muscles and body part, leading to lack of recovery and adding to exhaustion and weakness that can cause injury.

• Overstrain- Pushing your joints beyond the normal range of motions causing muscles and ligaments tears. Pulled muscles, strains and sprains are all extremely common.

At Ballsbridge Physiotherapy, our physiotherapists can help injured gymnasts by carrying out a detailed assessment, reducing pain through various treatments and devising a strengthening program to return to post injury.

The most common injuries seen amongst gymnasts include; wrist sprains, elbow dislocation, ankle sprains, anterior cruciate ligament rupture (ACL), Achilles tendinopathy.

Most importantly, seeking physiotherapy immediately following injury assists in preventing recurrent injury and residual issues later in life.

However, gymnastics injuries happen to everyone from young amateurs still learning, to top athletes. In the recent Olympic games in Rio De Janeiro, French gymnast Samir Ait Said suffered a broken leg, German gymnast Adreas Toba tore his ACL and British gymnast Elissa Downie landed badly and injured her neck.

Above all, here at Ballsbridge Physiotherapy, physiotherapy treatment may include soft tissue work, taping, dry needling and joint mobilisation, dependent on assessment findings. Our physiotherapist's can help identify areas of weakness and dysfunction, and appropriately devise a rehabilitation or injury prevention program accordingly. If you would to book an appointment for assessment and treatment, contact us here.