Arms and Shoulders

Hey gymnasts!

There aren’t a lot of sports that require athletes to spend so much time standing on their hands or swinging their bodies around their shoulders. So, as gymnasts, you have a unique task - keep your shoulders and arms strong enough to do amazing skills.

Common injuries arm and shoulder injuries include

• Gymnast wrist (stress injury at the growth plate of the radius. The radius is the arm bone that ends on your thumb-side)

• Elbow OCD: Osteochondritis dissecans at the elbow (wear of the cartilage of the elbow)

• Rotator cuff strain or tear (strain or tear of the muscles that keep the arm bone attached to the shoulder girdle)

• Shoulder impingement (pinching of structures at the top of the shoulder)

• Shoulder labral tear (tear of the cartilage that surrounds the shoulder joint)

If you have pain, you should consult a medical professional to guide your care - especially if you can point to the spot that hurts with one finger, if your pain has been going on for more than a week, or even if it doesn’t hurt all the time but it keeps coming back.

Elbow OCD is something you want to catch sooner rather than later - it can be the difference between resting a few weeks and having surgery and having to rest for up to a year. Gymnast wrist can lead to one of your arm bones growing longer than the other which may result in the need for surgery. Keeping you shoulders mobile and strong in all ranges of motion is important to start from an early age but especially as you get into the higher levels which require big swings on bars.

Here are some exercises to keep your arms and shoulders strong.