Gymnastics is a very demanding physical sport requiring mobility, strength, endurance, and coordination. Athletes often train at high volumes each week involving multiple days per week, long daily training sessions, and competitions. Gymnastics is also one of the fastest growing sports for youth and adolescents over the last few years. The combination of high participation and training volumes has lead to an increase in both acute and chronic injuries within this athletic population.
A recent review of the research highlighted the risk factors which may predispose a gymnastics athlete to either an acute or chronic injury (Mekic et al. Int J Mol Sci. 2025). The most common gymnastics injuries involve the spine and extremity joints. Athletes may sustain low back pain, spinal strains, sprains, and stress fractures (spondylolysis). In the extremities, wrist, knee (including ACL tears), and ankle (sprains and achilles tendinopathy) injuries are most common. Authors reported the most common risk factors for these injuries include insufficient recovery between training bouts, incorrect mechanics and technique, as well as, repetitive loading of tissue. Proper injury risk reduction programs should include load management of training volumes and recovery, proper coaching and instruction, as well as, exercise programs to improve mobility, strength, and power impairments.
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