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Mobility Exercise’s To Boost Shoulder Health In Male Gymnasts (Part 1)

Although I do spend more time in women's gymnastics, I want to start offering more information to help take care of the male gymnasts out there. Growing up and training, I had my fair share of injuries and wished that I had some ways to proactively…
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How Many Impacts and Hyperextensions Do Gymnasts Actually Take?

Another set of the age old questions in gymnastics; "How much is too much?", "How much is enough to get a skill?", and "How much until we get nervous about injury?"A big concept that myself and other gymnastics healthcare providers talk about…
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Tracking Growth and Development To Reduce Injury Risk In Gymnasts

I'm always trying to wrap my head around ways to integrate current literature and science about injury prevention into gymnastics training. One of the areas I have spent a lot of time thinking on is growth and development tracking, and how…
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Follow Up To Gymnast with Shoulder Instability and Pain During Overshoots, Plus Shoulder Performance Drills

A few months ago I posted an article related to general hypermobility/instability causing shoulder pain in one of my level 9 gymnasts. I brought up some concepts that I think are very important related to flexibility training, dynamic stability,…
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How Much Flexibility Is Too Much For A Gymnast?

I've been touching on this concept a lot in the last year, and I think it's very important for the people involved in gymnastics to consider. Gymnastics is well known as a sport that requires an excessive amount of mobility and flexibility (I…
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3 Reasons Why A Gradual Return To Gymnastics Following Injury Is Key: Pain Science, Tissue Adaptation, and Psychology

I've been working on this piece for a while, trying to put together the different thoughts that have been buzzing in my brain for the last few years. Although I'm optimistic we can make a big dent in gymnastics injuries, unfortunately it is…
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Are Dips and “Skin The Cat” Type Stretches Dangerous For Female Gymnasts?

I've been brewing on this topic for over a year now, originally sparked one of Eric Cressey's articles on the possible dangers of using dips with baseball players.  Reading that article and some other literature made me start to scratch…
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5 Reasons Why I Don’t Push My Gymnasts Down During Splits – Part 2

The response to Part 1 of this post was incredible and ended up being one of the most viewed pieces of content on the site. I got some great feedback and it was awesome to see people enjoyed it. I think it's a topic many people involved in gymnastics think…
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5 Reasons Why I Don’t Push My Gymnasts Down During Splits – Part 1

Bet that title caught your eye as you were browsing. Well it's true, safe to say I haven't really pushed anyone down during splits or much of any flexibility for quite some time now. I had plenty of memories as a gymnast standing up after…
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Quick Overhead/Posture Pre-Hab for Gymnasts – Wall Angel Progressions

One of the common trends I see in a lot of gymnasts I work with are issues in their middle spine (thoracic spine) and shoulder blade. Many times the gymnast gets "wide back" and rounded forward chest, with the shoulder joints sitting forward/rotated…