Problems of rhythmic gymnasts. Chronic gymnastics injuries

IN rhythmic gymnastics Chronic injuries occur more often than acute ones. According to the results of one of them, acute injuries amounted to 21.4%, chronic - 51.4%. Most often acute injuries rhythmic gymnasts localized in the area lower limbs- the foot and ankle joint accounted for 38% of injuries, the lower leg and knee joint - 19%, the thigh and hip joint - 15% (72% in total). In third place in the number of injuries were back injuries (17%). This high percentage of lower extremity injuries is associated with a large number of difficult jumps, which can result in a gymnast landing poorly. Acute foot injuries are quite common in gymnasts due to repeated landings and include subtalar foot dislocation, Lisfranc fracture-dislocation, and other fractures and ligament injuries of the metatarsals and toes. Dermatological problems often arise. It is believed that pain in the lumbar spine is one of the main traumatological problems in rhythmic gymnastics. Among the causes leading to pain in the lumbar region are excessive extension of the spine in the lumbar region. Achieving maximum amplitudes in movement can lead to acute injury. Repetitive excessive extension, flexion and twisting of the lumbar spine can cause micro- and macro-trauma to the vertebrae and intervertebral discs. The most common problems with lumbar region spine in gymnasts include spondylolysis, spondylolisthesis, compression fractures, damage to the endplates of the vertebral body and intervertebral discs. Flexibility, which is one of the main qualities of gymnasts, is developed through stretching exercises on the corresponding muscles, ligaments and tendons. Therefore, injuries caused by excessive stretching are inevitable in rhythmic gymnastics. The most common injuries in rhythmic gymnastics are posterior muscles thighs and groin muscles. The inguinal muscles are several muscles on the medial (inner) side of the thigh, located in several layers. The main task of these muscles is hip adduction (leg adduction). Muscle group back surface the thighs form the semitendinosus muscle, which attaches to the medial side knee joint, the biceps femoris muscle, which attaches to the lateral side of the knee joint, and the semimembranosus muscle. The main functions of these muscles are flexion of the lower leg and extension of the thigh. Most rhythmic gymnast knee injuries were diagnosed as tendinitis. The most common tendonitis in the knee area is patellar tendinitis, also called “jumper's knee,” which occurs as a result of prolonged training, numerous jumps and landings, which lead to microtrauma to the structure of the patellar ligament. Since training occurs too often, microtraumas do not have time to heal and accumulate. All this ultimately leads to inflammation and degeneration of the ligament tissue. Symptoms of patellar tendinitis include pain at the bottom of the patella, especially with weight bearing (jumping, landing) and bending the knee. Among acute injuries in rhythmic gymnastics, injuries to the ankle and foot occupy first place. Most often these are sprains due to inversion of the foot, however, injuries to the posterior tibial tendon, rupture of the Achilles tendon, damage to the peroneal tendon and synovial sheath, and fractures in the ankle area are possible.

Prevention of injuries in rhythmic gymnastics

The following measures are suggested to prevent injuries in rhythmic gymnastics:

1. The duration of training for elite athletes should not exceed 30 hours per week, for sub-elite athletes - 20 hours per week;
2. Stretching exercises should be performed for at least 40 minutes a day;
3. General physical training should not take gymnasts more than 5-6 hours a week.

In order to prevent pain in the lower back, you should carefully monitor the correct technique of the athlete and prevent the development of incorrect skills that can lead to such pain. Also, you should not force the development of flexibility in young athletes and force them to perform movements with a range for which they are not yet ready. Athletes should undergo ongoing medical evaluation for stress fractures in the lower back, leg, ankle, and foot. It is necessary to carefully monitor nutrition and body weight young gymnasts, prevent and eliminate dysmenorrhea, potentially leading to early osteoporosis.

Most injuries in rhythmic gymnastics are chronic. As a rule, female athletes do not pay attention to the malaise and continue to train. This is where chronic injuries come from, which are neglected and forgotten. This behavior leads to disappointing consequences. Here we can recall the sad story of Leysan Utyasheva, who continued to train with fractures of the scaphoid bone of one leg and divergence of the bones of the foot of the other leg. In addition to chronic injuries, of course, gymnasts are also susceptible to acute injuries, such as sprains, bruises and dislocations. They are easy to diagnose and go away quickly with timely and correct treatment.

According to statistics, injuries to the lower extremities are more common, since they bear most of the load. As a rule, gymnasts get injured if the technique of performing a particular element is not perfected. There are often cases when gymnasts engage in rhythmic gymnastics despite the doctors’ verdict. To practice rhythmic gymnastics you need good health, excellent immunity, absence of diseases such as myopia, scoliosis, flat feet.

Some of the most common injuries in rhythmic gymnastics are strains of muscles, ligaments and tendons. To prevent them, doctors recommend increasing the time for stretching.

No less rare is a knee joint injury associated with the development of jumping ability in gymnasts. Also, similar injuries often occur when performing the “grand jeté” element. To avoid such an injury, you should concentrate as much as possible during the jump and use the correct gymnastics training clothes during training.

Injury associated with inversion of the foot is also a common injury. In this case, absolute rest and a fixing bandage are important. In addition to ankle injuries, they are no less rare. chronic diseases: tendinitis (degeneration of tendon tissue) and stress fracture (microcracks in the ankle caused by constant stress).

HOW TO PREVENT INJURIES?

Let's list the techniques that can be used to prevent injuries: bending and deep bending, various turns and rotations; jumps and movements on hands in a lying position, rotational movements brushes; exercises with tennis ball and dumbbells, as well as rotating a roller with weights for muscle development; rotational and jerking movements, flexion and extension of the arms using gymnastic sticks and weights for the development of elbow and shoulder joints; rotational movements with and without resistance, rising on toes to a height of about 5 cm, walking on the toes in pointe shoes.

Also, to prevent injuries, you need to pay more attention to stretching exercises and follow a training regimen: do not overwork and exercise intermittently.

Date created: 09.10.2013 16:19:51
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“Match TV” is about the cruel underbelly of a beautiful sport.

From May 16 to 19 in Baku the championship will be held Europe in rhythmic gymnastics
The Russian team goes to the strongest lineup: sisters Dina and Arina Averina, as well as Alexandra Soldatova
Our website will show the tournament in full. Links to broadcasts are at the end of the material

Rhythmic gymnastics is known as an elegant and graceful sport. It seems as if the girls are fluttering over the carpet and easily performing beautiful elements. Looking at this, it is impossible to imagine what hard way sometimes reserved for athletes. You can learn about some severe gymnastic falls and injuries from Kamila Suleymanova’s material.

https://twitter.com/mrselezneva/status/494960136554053632

Gymnasts usually do not advertise their injuries and try to carefully hide them. But sometimes it’s impossible to hide it simply because everyone understands: if the leader of the team does not participate in several starts in a row, the reason is most likely an injury. In rhythmic gymnastics, unfortunately, this happens often. There are not enough fingers to list all the primos who over the years took breaks for treatment, performed with fractures, or left the sport altogether.

https://twitter.com/mrselezneva/status/465808112767991808

Sometimes on social networks you can see photographs of “artists” with hematomas and abrasions on their legs. It seems that athletes can throw and catch objects without any problems, but in fact, each new element has to be taught for weeks, or even months, in order to perform it accurately in competitions. In the case of truly difficult elements, every unsuccessful attempt in training leads to the following consequences.

Leaders are so motivated that they do not give up and achieve their goals despite their health. Of course, not all girls who start rhythmic gymnastics are able to withstand this. Many people think that gymnastics is entertainment: funny dancing, beautiful splits... In children's sections and clubs, maybe this is true, but in big sports everything is different. Training from morning to evening, day off - once a week. Essentially, adult work. With such a schedule, you can only find time for study at night, and there is no time left for your personal life.

https://twitter.com/mrselezneva/status/485458335572168705

The school that gymnasts go through is compared to serving in the army. Only there young men serve for a year, and after graduating from school or college. And girls are separated from their families at the age of 12-13 and not for 12 months, but until the end sports career. They live in this schedule for several years, training in the same gym. It turns out to be a kind of Groundhog Day. Not every adult can withstand such physical and, above all, psycho-emotional stress.

Injuries are the companions of any gymnast; they cannot be avoided in professional sports. I don’t know a single girl whose career hasn’t suddenly broken or gotten sick. Often, because of one sore, others begin to appear. And if the bruises go away in a couple of days, more severe injuries can erase years of work in the gym.

The most famous recent story happened with Yana Kudryavtseva. Being number one on the national team and two-time world all-around champion, in the summer of 2015 she seriously injured her foot.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBHvBJGFfj7/

Kudryavtseva missed half the season. After such breaks it is difficult to return to sports shape; many people prefer to simply end their career. But Yana was able to recover, bring her broken leg, untrained during treatment, into the required condition and compete further, winning Olympic silver in Rio, which did not become gold only because of an absurd mistake in an exercise with clubs.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BiXYQ2HFA_0/

Serious injuries did not spare the 2014 European champion among juniors Yulia Bravikova, at that time the leader of the Russian youth team. It was planned that she would go to youth Olympic Games to Nanjing, but was prevented by injury, which, as was said, does not come alone. Bravikova had to endure two operations on her knees and several fractures - because of them, the athlete spent two years not in the gym, but in hospitals. By the standards of rhythmic gymnastics, this is a career-deadly break. Because Yulia was able to return to big sport and the Russian national team, it was nicknamed the “Phoenix bird”.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BjpFbsTlpiS/

At the most inopportune moment, injuries occurred to another team member - two-time champion world and Europe by Alexandra Soldatova. For the second year in a row, she missed the continental championship for this reason. As stated Main coach Russian national team Irina Viner, the cause of injury this season was Soldatova’s indiscipline, due to which she gained five kilograms of weight in a week. As a result, the bones of the left leg gave way. Now Alexandra is recovering and preparing for the World Championships, which will be held in September in Bulgaria.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGoM8_ptOhk/

But, unfortunately, not everyone manages to return. World junior champion 2016 Alina Ermolova, who was called our Olympic hope, eventually for a long time walked on crutches. We couldn't stand it hip joints. Alina left sports and now conducts training camps, passing on her skills to the younger generation. But she is only 18!

Many gymnasts had a difficult fate, but the best of them did not give up. Fragile girls sometimes show a truly steely will.

Injuries in artistic gymnastics are not uncommon. And this is due to the fact that this type sports includes a number of quite difficult exercises on gymnastic apparatus, as well as floor exercises and, accordingly, vaults.

Gymnastics is a sport on which not only certain technical skills of a person depend, but also the training of flexibility, endurance, coordination of movements and a sense of balance.

Usually, gymnastic exercises included in the training program for athletes involved in various types sports. For both women and men, floor exercises are considered the most dangerous. They are the most common cause of injuries in gymnastics.

types of injuries

Injuries in artistic gymnastics occur:

when performing a jump at the moment of landing;
during exercises on the balance beam, rings or uneven bars;
while performing a vault.

Most often, men's knees and knees are injured in gymnastics. ankle joints. Female athletes are more susceptible to ankle and elbow injuries that occur when performing exercises on the uneven bars at different heights. In addition, gymnasts experience knee and ankle injuries on other apparatus.

Injuries in artistic gymnastics in men most often occur when performing exercises on the rings. Immediately after the rings, according to the degree of injury, are the parallel bars, then the horizontal bar, vault and pommel horse.

consequences of injuries

Injuries received as a result of gymnastics are the main reason for athletes leaving professional sports and ending their careers.

Statistics show that out of 100% of athletes who retire from sports, approximately 1 person and 7 women end their careers due to the following types of injuries:

rotator cuff injury, located in the shoulder joint
scaphoid fracture
cruciate anterior ligament rupture;
tear of the medial or lateral meniscus;
osteochondrosis of the elbow joint
arthremfit of the ankle joint
primary hip dislocation;
fracture of the lower extremities;
severe spinal injury.

Deaths often occur due to injuries sustained during gymnastics. The most famous of them are the injuries that occurred to the Chinese gymnast San Lan, the Ukrainian athlete Elena Mukhina, and the American Julissa Gomez. All these cases served as the basis for the world to start talking about injuries in artistic gymnastics and the fact that this sport is the most dangerous of all existing ones.

You shouldn’t deny yourself your dream if it is to do gymnastics. The main thing is to be extremely careful and careful, and if you get injured, immediately consult a doctor. Remember: your health is in your hands!

October 26 is All-Russian Gymnastics Day. Both artistic and rhythmic gymnastics are beautiful sports, but is it worth sending a child there, won’t it cause harm to his health? We offer 10 arguments against.

Back diseases

Back problems are the most common complaint among gymnasts. The lumbar and thoracic spine are especially affected.

These include simple back pain, curvature of the spine, spondylolysis (fracture of the vertebral arch), spondylolisthesis (slipping of the body of one vertebra from another), compression fractures, damage to the endplates of the vertebral bodies and intervertebral discs; with inadequate treatment, protrusions of the intervertebral discs and hernias can occur. .

Rhythmic gymnasts can be diagnosed with scoliosis and hyperlordosis as early as 6-7 years of age. Scoliosis occurs due to uneven load on the right and left. Hyperlordosis (excessive lumbar curvature) - due to the excessive arching in the lower back that is required of children.

Sprains

Sprains are a common injury for gymnasts, even the youngest ones. Muscle stretching itself is a painful procedure, performed with the help of a trainer who puts pressure on the stretched muscles, lengthening them. Some children cannot stop crying and screaming.

It is very important here not to overdo it and act smoothly. But sprains, as a rule, occur not during the process of stretching, but during exercise, when the load on the muscles is sharp and intense.

Diseases of bones and joints

Pathology of bones and joints occurs in gymnasts against the background of chronic overload and microtrauma. Most often, deforming arthrosis, osteochondropathy, chondromalacia, and chronic lesions of the capsular-ligamentous apparatus are observed. The knees, ankles, and elbow joints are especially affected.

In rhythmic gymnastics the weak point is the knee joint, ankle and foot. The menisci, cruciate and lateral ligaments of the knee joint are often damaged, osteochondropathy, muscle damage, and tendon ruptures are possible. Fractures are common. Of course, injury is more likely when a child plays sports professionally (from 3-4 years of study).

Risk of serious injury

Serious injury can occur in any sport, but gymnastics is one of the most dangerous. And these are not only injuries that imply the end of a sports career, in some cases they are not compatible with life. Impacts from projectiles, falls, spinal fractures, fractures are especially dangerous cervical spine when landing on your head.

In rhythmic gymnastics the risk of acute serious injury is low.

Pain

Child gymnasts often complain of pain. Muscles hurt after training, during stretching (sometimes to the point of tears), due to microtrauma or a full-fledged injury that has to be treated, due to which you miss training. We can say that such children get used to pain. However mental condition under constant conditions pain gets out of balance.

Diet

In rhythmic gymnastics, from a very early age you have to monitor your weight. It’s good if the child is one of the lucky ones who can eat everything and not gain weight. If each candy adds grams and centimeters, the diet can turn out to be very strict and exclude not only fatty foods, sweets, baked goods and fast food, but also seriously limit the child’s nutritional intake.

One foreign study showed that gymnasts consume only 80% of the calories they need per day, which leads to delayed sexual development, growth, and osteoporosis (which in turn increases the risk of fractures).

Heavy workload

Already in elementary school, the child will have to choose what to prefer: study or sports. Daily training, training camps, and trips to competitions leave virtually no time for studying. Lessons are learned on the go. Even rest is subject to a schedule. Often such children are deprived of proper sleep and suffer from chronic overload.

Responsibility

Children who play sports professionally cease to be children. Their life turns into a series of training and competitions, successes and failures. They don't have time to play or chat with friends. They are responsible for all the huge investments that parents made by sending their child to big-time sports. Serious victories are expected from the baby, and he is always afraid of not living up to expectations. The psychological burden on such a child is no less than the physical one.

The need for a full examination

Often, parents, rejoicing at their child’s good flexibility, send him to rhythmic gymnastics, not suspecting that such activities cause maximum harm to him. The fact is that with weakness of the ligamentous apparatus (which is manifested by their slight extensibility), the risk of injury is highest.

Children with weak ligaments are more likely to experience sprains, dislocations, subluxations, tears, and curvature of the spine. They are contraindicated heavy loads. This often becomes clear after the onset of chronic pathology.

Weakness of the ligamentous apparatus can be a hereditary feature or a symptom of a disease. In any case, before entering the section, you must undergo a full examination. In the future, during serious training, health monitoring is necessary.

The importance of choosing a coach

Many parents choose a coach based on his degree of merit and the number of famous students. However, an equally important criterion is the number of injuries among his students. It is the coach who must feel when it is possible to press and when it is time to stop; when to cheer up and when to protect the child from injury.

A good trainer must know how to develop the body harmoniously, so that joints and ligaments do not suffer, and there is no distortion of the spine; who can do it at all, and who should choose something else, since the risk of harm to health is too high.