It’s become widely known that weight bearing ankle mobility is part of developing a full ranged, properly executed squat. Many people understand the common compensations that can develop such as limited depth, the knees rolling in, or lower back/hip soreness. Considering this concept, the same parallels exists between weight bearing wrist mobility and a properly […]
Last week in Part 1 of this article, I went over the background and current research concepts for a lot of gymnasts I have been treating with micro instability based hip injuries. This week I wanted to talk about one more contributive factor, and then dive into all of the practical treatment concepts I think gymnastics as a […]
One of the areas I have spent the most time researching, treating, and brainstorming on is hip pain in gymnastics. When first starting to treat many gymnasts, I couldn’t quite seem to wrap my head around why so many athletes suffered from chronic, debilitating “hip flexor strains” and groin pain that caused them to lose months of […]
Every gymnast, gymnastics coach, strength coach, and medical provider knows that appropriate core development is essential for success and reduced injury in gymnastics. There are hundreds of gymnastics specific core strength exercises to pick from (presses/stalders, L holds, leg lifts, planks, arch/hollow rocks, etc), many of which need to be done on a regular basis. However, as I […]
As I’ve talked about many times, the fears and misunderstandings about using external loading in gymnastics continues to be an uphill battle. The reality of the situation is that when the correct choice of exercises are properly taught, implemented, and programmed, there are enormous benefits for gymnasts. One of the exercises I feel falls into […]
Over the last 4 years I’ve been really fortunate to learn from a lot of great Olympic Lifting coaches, and also treat a huge number of people training Olympic Lifting movements. Unlike gymnastics, Olympic Lifting was something I was not as familiar with. So, I wanted to take a few years of doing it myself, […]
The very commonly seen “pike arch” and rib flared handstand is something many gymnastics coaches and athletes are frustrated by. Although to the average person it may not seem like a big issue, in reality to the trained coach or medical provider it is known to be a something that can haunt a gymnast for […]
One of the most common areas I see gymnastics overlook is reactive balance control work, especially in the frontal plane. During strength programs, we usually are good a programing larger muscle groups and even preparing for power/speed. We often time overlook how huge reactive balance work is for both performance (staying on beam, single leg […]
Over the last year I have been teaching, writing, learning, sharing blogs, and talking more with a lot of people in the gymnastics world. I try my best to be very transparent with people who follow my work, explaining as much as I can and offering all of the resources/literature that fuel my ideas. Through all of my […]
For almost all gymnastics programs, the summer training cycle has finished and teams are now moving towards pre-season. In order to maximize performance and reduce the risk of injuries over the entire competitive year, gyms must approach this 3-4 month period with a well thought out plan. To help readers out, I wanted to share some […]
