Athletico Health Resources

Co-author: Megan Partain, SPT

Have you ever wondered how your favorite cheerleaders spend hours tumbling, stunting, and holding each other up in the air? Well, in cheerleading, it comes down to a little more than just sheer talent but incredibly strong and stable shoulders. Athletes with decreased shoulder strength are prone to injuries like dislocations, sprains, and strains. Current research suggests that regular shoulder strengthening exercises can help prevent these types of injuries. The following exercises are recommended for tumblers and especially indicated for main and instep bases, as well as back spots.

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Gymnastics, the sport most watched in the Summer Olympics, engages viewers because of the extreme strength, balance, agility, accuracy, and endurance required to compete. Years of training tax the gymnast’s body to the utmost because movement refinement through repetition exposes the gymnast to many repetitive stress and traumatic injuries. While gymnasts range from the 5-year-old tumbler to the elite Olympian, a unique factor for this sport, no matter the level, is the requirement of using arms for weight bearing. Such compressive and twisting forces affect the entire arm, especially the wrist. Approximately 88% of gymnasts reportedly experience wrist pain according to one study.

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Cheerleading and gymnastics are incredibly demanding sports requiring strength, flexibility, and precision. Yet, they also carry a significant risk of injury, particularly in the lower extremities.

The prevalence of lower extremity injuries in cheerleading and gymnastics worldwide has increased significantly over the last decade as both sports have evolved^1,2. One study, including 6-to-17-year-old gymnasts, found that the lower extremity was the most affected site of injury (60.5%), with the ankle/foot and knee joints accounting for 49% and 27% of injuries, respectively. This study also found that 10-to-12-year-olds and 13-to-17-year-olds were at greater risk for lower extremity injury due to increased growth rates compared to 6-to-9-year-olds².

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Gymnasts require significant strength, flexibility, and stability to compete in their events, whether they’re at the amateur or Olympic level. During their events, gymnasts place 2-4 times their body weight through their upper extremities (shoulder, elbow, wrist, and hand). Upper extremity injuries are common, especially in younger athletes. There is a common misconception that pain is part of the sport, but the truth is you don’t have to compete with pain. Let’s look closer at five of the most common upper extremity injuries in gymnasts and exercises that can help improve strength and reduce the potential risk of these common injuries.

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A feeling of popping or snapping in the hip with certain movements is a very common complaint, especially among young athletes. Consistent snapping or popping with pain is a clinical sign of snapping hip syndrome, otherwise known as “dancer’s,” hip. This condition is often seen in athletes who play high-mobility sports but is more prevalent among gymnasts, cheerleaders, and dancers, specifically ballet dancers. Three types of hip snapping that occur include external, internal, and intra-articular. Below are tips to lessen the severity of pain and strategies to prevent the occurrence altogether.

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The Olympic Games have a special way of bringing increased interest, awareness, and excitement to the sport of artistic gymnastics. With Simone Biles’ recorded floor tumbling pass height at the summer 2024 Paris Olympic Games achieving over 12 feet, it is imperative that she and gymnasts of all levels land safely. There are approximately 4.57 million artistic gymnasts in the United States¹. As gymnasts progress through the sport, the difficulty of the skills increases, and the skills become more dangerous. Gymnastics has one of the highest rates of injury in any girl’s adolescent sport². One recent study reported that 91.4% of elite gymnasts sustained at least one injury per season³. Another study reported that approximately 70% of gymnastics injuries occur during landing tasks⁴.

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Gymnasts require a lot of hip mobility to perform their amazing skills. These advanced and dynamic skills can lead to pain in the hip joint that is more than just muscle soreness. Both male and female gymnasts can suffer from hip pain. One common hip condition is hip impingement, and we will discuss what that is as well as important details for gymnasts with hip pain.

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Tumbling activities put a lot of force through the spine and can put more stress on the lower back in certain circumstances. Tumbling athletes occasionally have an injury and report a “broken back.” What does this really mean? For the purpose of this blog, we will focus on the lower back or lumbar region only. We’ll dive into what a broken back is, and how recovery may look with a goal of returning to tumbling sports such as cheerleading or gymnastics.

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