Annotated Gymnastics Research Abstracts: Br J Sports Med 1999 Dec;33(6):414-6 Silent meniscal abnormalities in athletes: magnetic resonance imaging of asymptomatic competitive gymnasts. Ludman CN, Hough DO, Cooper TG, Gottschalk A BACKGROUND: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) produces exceptionally detailed images of the intra-articular structures of the knee. Recognizing the range of MRI appearances within a normal population is therefore necessary in order to avoid attributing a greater significance to these than is clinically justified. OBJECTIVE: To compare MRI appearances in asymptomatic gymnasts with those in a less active population in order to identify findings that may be seen in the absence of significant pathology and thereby aid the clinical management of this athletic group. METHODS: MR images were obtained from 24 knees of asymptomatic competitive American collegiate gymnasts aged 18-22. The menisci were evaluated according to established grading criteria, and compared with a group of controls matched for age and sex. RESULTS: Grade 3 intrameniscal signal abnormalities are considered to be highly correlated with meniscal tears. When compared with control group, the experimental group of gymnasts had a significantly different distribution (p<0.001) of grade 3 intrameniscal signal changes, preferentially involving the lateral meniscus. The overall incidence of grade 3 changes (13%) in gymnasts was not, however, significantly different from the incidence in the controls. CONCLUSIONS: A knowledge of these MRI appearances is important when evaluating the lateral menisci within this group of athletes to prevent unnecessary treatment or intervention. This is particularly pertinent when the imaging findings do not closely correlate with the site of symptoms. [Interesting study. The meniscus is a relatively thick piece of cartilage in the knee that cushions and lubricates the movements of the knee. Although the title led me to believe that I was going to read about gymnasts showing „hidden¾ or „silent¾ meniscal abnormalities, the results of the study were more mixed. What the study showed is that the menisci (particularly lateral) of gymnasts had a different distribution of signal changes (signals from the MRI), but the overall incidence of these changes was not statistically different from that of the control group. So, the jury is out regarding whether gymnasts show a greater incidence of meniscal tears.] ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- The effect of training volume and growth on gymnastic performance in young women. In „Pediatric exercise science (Champaign, Ill.)¾. v. 11(4) Nov 1999 pgs 349-363 Richards, J.E., Ackland, T.R., and Elliott, B.C. Thirty-seven females, aged initially between 10 and 13.5 years, completed a mixed longitudinal study over 3.3 years to investigate the effect of training volume and growth upon gymnastic performance. Gymnasts undergoing high volume training (mean - 30 hrs/week: Group 1) and moderate volume training (mean = 15 hrs/week: Group 2) were tested at 4-month intervals on growth measures including height, mass, skinfolds, and segment lengths, as well as the strength of lower limb, upper limb, and trunk musculature. Functional gymnastic development was observed through the assessment of generic, whole body rotation tasks, a vertical jump, and a v-sit action. The high training volume gymnasts were significantly smaller but markedly stronger than those gymnasts in Group 2 despite the size disadvantage. Consequently, Group 1 gymnasts were able to produce higher velocities for front and backward rotations and a faster v-sit action. These training group differences remained significant after initial size differences were taken into account via an analysis of covariance. [Training volume of 30 hours per week, as we know, represents sort of a high intermediate training volume. Sadly, without element counts and so forth, we really can¼t know what this „volume¾ contained. There are a number of measures of volume, and hours per week is among the most crude and broad. The longitudinal nature of this study is very important. More studies of this nature are needed, particularly with regard to child athletes and growth. The results are pretty self-explanatory, those gymnasts who were training with a higher volume showed enhanced performance capabilities when compared to those training with a lower volume. However, when you read the study you find that the high volume training group were „talent- identified¾ gymnasts from the Western Australia Sports Center while the low volume group was from a local club. Although the authors did analyze their data while controlling statistically for body size, they did not appear to control for initial talent differences. Moreover, by the end of the study (162 months) only 4 gymnasts remained in the high volume group. In spite of these issues, the study points out what everyone in gymnastics probably already knows. Smaller gymnasts who train longer (and probably harder) become better athletes than gymnasts who train fewer hours and train less intensely.] ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- J Pediatr Orthop 1988 Jul-Aug;8(4):458-60 Injuries in children associated with trampolinelike air cushions. Olsen PA During a 7-month period, we registered 112 children who had been injured in an amusement park. Despite the large number of other playground apparatuses, 78 injuries were associated with jumping on three giant air cushion trampolinelike apparatuses. Moreover, the air cushions caused a significantly larger number of severe and moderate injuries than did other apparatuses (p less than 0.01). Thirty-one percent of the injuries were fractures or growth plate lesions. Seventy percent of the children explained that they had either been pushed or had lost their balance because of the constantly changing rhythm of the canvas. We therefore warn against this trampolinelike apparatus. [The „battle¾ over trampolines and in this case „trampoline-like¾ apparatuses is going to continue to generate heat. I think it is important that the gymnastics community, who often uses trampolines and is thereby often considered local experts, be familiar with these issues.] ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- Low-back pain in adolescent athletes. Kujala UM; Kaprio J; Salminen JJ; Erkintalo M Taimela S Med Sci Sports Exerc 1996 Feb;28(2):165-70 In this 3-yr longitudinal study we investigated the occurrence of low-back pain and anatomic changes in the low back in relation to loading and injuries among 98 adolescents: 33 nonathletes (16 boys, 17 girls), 34 boy athletes (17 ice hockey, 17 soccer players), and 31 girl athletes (17 figure skaters, 14 gymnasts). During the 3-yr follow-up, low-back pain lasting longer than 1 wk was reported by 29 (45%; 95% CI, 32%-57%) athletes and by 6 (18%; 95% CI, 7%-35%) nonathletes (P = 0.0099). Acute back injury was reported by 17 of 19 subjects who also reported low-back pain (89%; 95% CI, 67%-99%) and by 2 of 63 of those without prolonged low-back pain (3%; 95% CI, 0%-11%) (P < 0.0001). Among 43 girls participating in baseline and follow-up MRI examinations of the lumbar spine, new MRI abnormalities were found in 6 of 8 reporting acute back injury (75%; 95% CI, 35%-97%) and in 8 of the remaining 35 girls (23%; 95% CI 10% to 40%) (P = 0.018). In conclusion, excessive loading that involves a risk for acute low- back injuries during the growth spurt is harmful to the lower back. [This was a descriptive study that doesn¼t offer many surprises. However, it is important to know that the authors didn¼t really have any measure of „load¾ other than training time. I think that such a measure is crude at best. Moreover, the incidence of spine abnormalities as revealed by MRI doesn¼t always correspond to overt symptoms. Without more precise measures of training load, specific to the spine, the results of such studies will be constrained.] ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- Resting metabolic rate and energy intake in female gymnasts, figure-skaters and soccer players. Fogelholm GM; Vuori IM; Oja P; Sievanen HT Taipale SA; Kukkonen- Harjula TK Int J Sports Med 1995 Nov;16(8):551-6 We examined the hypothesis that lean female athletes, as compared to other female athletes and controls, have a greater deficit between reported energy intake (EI) and estimated energy expenditure (EE), and a reduction in resting energy expenditure adjusted to fat free and fat masses (REEADJ). The subjects were 12 gymnasts and figure-skaters (lean athletes), 12 soccer players (normal-weight athletes) and 10 normal-weight, untrained, controls. Body composition was calculated from a 3-compartment model (underwater weighing and dual energy x-ray absorptiometry). REE was assessed by indirect calorimetry. Physical activity and EI were estimated from 7-day records. EE was calculated using activity records and REE. REEADJ was similar in all groups (p > 0.05). EI was 8.29 (SD 1.84), 7.04 (SD 2.23) and 8.95 (SD 1.68) MJ.d-1 in controls, gymnasts and soccer players, respectively (p = 0.06). In gymnasts, reported EI was 3.19 (SD 2.63) MJ.d-1 lower than estimated EE. EI minus EE in controls was -0.18 (SD 1.80; different from gymnasts, p < 0.01) MJ.d-1, and in soccer players -0.47 (SD 1.89; different from gymnasts, p < 0.05) MJ.d-1. Low reported energy intake in gymnasts might reflect their attitudes on diet and body image. [MJ is simply a measure of energy intake - like calories. I have considerable trouble with diet records as the primary means of determining energy intake (i.e., food eaten). After having sat on the bus during previous „testing camps¾ when the national team gymnasts were asked to return their diet records, I have often overheard the athletes making up records, failing to remember what they ate, and basically rendering such measures utterly invalid. Therefore, I don¼t trust diet recall records. Determining energy expenditure via activity records is also suspect. In this case the athlete simply writes down what they do/did during the day. I¼ve never seen these types of things done with the national team athletes, but I suspect the validity will be similar to that of the diet records. In defense of the study, sometimes there is no choice but to use these types of measures because anything better would be exponentially more expensive and thus impractical. But we should interpret the results of such studies with considerable caution. Moreover, to conclude that low energy intake by gymnasts may reflect attitudes on diet and body image, in my opinion, goes way beyond the data. In such studies we should also be interested at what point in the season was the data collected, how accomplished are the gymnasts, and how hard were the gymnasts training.] ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- Lumbar mobility and low back pain during adolescence: a longitudinal three-year follow-up study in athletes and controls. „American journal of sports medicine (Waltham, Mass.)¾.v. 25 (3) May/June 1997 pgs 363-368 Kujala, U.M., Taimela, S., Oksanen, A., and Salminen, J.J. In this 3-year longitudinal study, we studied lumbar mobility and the occurrence of low back pain among 98 adolescents who were free of previous severe low back pain: 33 non athletes (16 boys, 17 girls), 34 boy athletes (ice hockey and soccer players) and 31 girl athletes (figure skaters and gymnasts).During the follow up, low back pain lasting longer than 1 week was reported by 29 athletes (15 boys and 14 girls) and by 6 non athletes (3 boys and 3 girls). In multivariate analyses, participation in sports and low maximal lumbar flexion at the baseline predicted low back pain during the follow up among boys; however, these factors accounted for only 16 % of the variability between the groups with and without low back pain. Among girls, decreased range of motion in the lower lumbar segments, low maximal lumbar extension, and high body weight at the baseline were predictive of low back pain during the followup, accounting for 31 % of the variability between the groups. The girls in the lowest tertile of maximal lumbar extension at baseline had a relative risk of 3.4 to have future low back pain compared with those in the highest tertile. We conclude that the low individual physiologic maximum of lower segment lumbar extension mobility may cause overloading of the low back among athletes involved in sports with frequent maximal lumbar extension and that it predicts future low back [Here is an interesting study that showed that girls with low range of motion of the lumbar spine, low maximal lumbar extension, and high body weight were MORE likely to have back problems. The amount of variability accounted for was modest, but this study shows that the more flexible you are the better for your lower back.] ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- The contribution of anthropometric characteristics to performance scores in elite female gymnasts. J Sports Med Phys Fitness 1999 Dec;39(4):355-60 Claessens AL, Lefevre J, Beunen G, Malina RM BACKGROUND: Aims of this study were: a) to identify anthropometric variables correlated with gymnastic performance, and b) to predict performance scores from a combination of anthropometric dimensions. METHODS: Experimental design: correlational analysis and a stepwise multiple regression were used. Setting: Subjects were participants at the 24th World Championships Artistic Gymnastics, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 1987. Participants: A total of 168 female gymnasts (mean age: 16.5 +/- 1.8 years) were investigated. Each gymnast participated in all events. Measures: An extensive battery of anthropometric dimensions was taken on each athlete. The somatotype was estimated. Skeletal maturation of the hand-wrist was assessed. Competition scores for the four individual gymnastic events (balance beam, floor exercise, vault, uneven bars) and a composite score for each gymnast were the dependent variables. RESULTS: Moderately high, significant correlations (p < 0.01) were observed between skinfolds and endomorphy, and gymnastics performance scores, r varying from -0.38 to -0.60, for biceps skinfold and the score on balance beam, and for endomorphy and the total score, respectively. The correlations suggest that gymnasts with more subcutaneous fat and higher endomorphy have lower performance scores. About 32% to 45% of the variance in gymnastic performance scores could be explained by anthropometric dimensions and/or derived variables, but endomorphy and chronological age are the most important predictors. CONCLUSIONS: There is a relatively strong relationship between several anthropometric variables and gymnastic performance in a sample of elite female gymnasts, but the associations are not sufficiently high to predict performance scores on an individual basis. ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- Effects of weight training on selected strength and anxiety variables of prepubescent female gymnasts. International sports journal (West Haven, Conn.)¾. v.4 (1) Winter 2000 pgs 131-137 O¼Nan, D.A., Foxworth, K.R., Boling, R.B., and Henderson,L.E. Large numbers of children participating in vigorous, organized, competitive sports before reaching puberty may also be experiencing elevated anxiety levels which might have an effect on motor performance. Therefore, it is reasonable to ask the following questions: How much research has been done about preparing young children for these activities? Is weight training for the prepubescent athlete beneficial? Can stress experienced by the young athlete before and during competition be reduced by weight training? A review of literature revealed that the effects of anxiety on motor performance have been of great concern to practitioners and researchers. Considerable research has been conducted on the role of stress in society and competitive sports. However, few studies have addressed weight and strength training, strength gain, and anxiety levels in prepubescent female athletes. Those studies that do exist disagree as to the benefits of weight training and associated strength gains within this group. A thorough search yielded little research that has investigated weight training and its effects on anxiety. Therefore, this study was conducted among prepubescent female gymnasts in an effort to investigate the effect of a weight training program on selected strength variables and two anxiety measures, competitive trait anxiety and competitive state anxiety. Twenty-two prepubescent female subjects participated in a 20-week weight training program. Measurements were obtained for back and leg strength, bench press strength, and hip flexor strength at pretest, interim, and post test intervals. Anxiety measures were obtained using the Spielburger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the Sport Competition Anxiety Test. A one-way analysis of variance with repeated measures was utilized to analyze the data from the study, using a p < .05 measure of significance. A weight training program for prepubescent female gymnasts resulted insignificant strength gains in all three selected strength variables and significant decreases of competitive trait anxiety scores. Even though measures of competitive state anxiety were not significant, the data did indicate some decrease in this measure of anxiety. [This study attempted to determine if there was any relationship between weight training and anxiety in preadolescent female gymnasts. Twenty-two athletes were weight trained for 20 weeks. I¼m surprised that no significant increases in strength were observed in a five month weight training program. I will try to find this article and determine what type of weight training program was used. I¼ve frankly never heard of a 5 month study of weight training yielding no results in strength. Anxiety is often measured as a „trait¾ variable, which means how much anxiety you have and continue to have quasi-permanently. Trait anxiety is sort of a „hard-wired¾ level of anxiety. „State¾ anxiety refers to an anxiety level you might feel right now, and is not permanent. State anxiety is what a gymnast feels immediately prior to a competition, an event, or a skill, and then it goes away. I¼m somewhat puzzled by why any kind of relationship was assumed and thus a study was needed to determine if it existed or not. In other words, why did the authors bother to explore this issue. I¼m the first to admit that I¼m not up to date on sport psychology information, but again - I¼m not aware of a mechanism other than fatigue that might reduce anxiety through weight training.] ------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------- ---- Int J Sports Med 2000 Apr;21(3):210-5 Peripubertal pertubations in elite gymnasts caused by sport specific training regimes and inadequate nutritional intake. Weimann E, Witzel C, Schwidergall S, Bohles HJ Low body fat masses of elite female gymnasts are favoured for the current aesthetic appeal required for complex movements performed by the gymnasts. Optimal nutritional intake relative to physical training regimes is essential for pubertal development. Here we evaluate how high intensity training in combination with nutritional intake affects pubertal development. Twenty-two female (13.6 +/-1.0 years) and 18 male (12.4 +/- 1.6 years) elite gymnasts from national cadres were enlisted in this study. Skeletal maturation and hormonal levels of the hypophyseal, gonadal, and adrenal axes were estimated. Prepubertal and pubertal stages were determined, and body composition was measured using two indirect methods. Whereas female gymnasts showed bone retardation (1.7 years), reduced height potential, minimal fat mass (4.3 +/- 1.3 kg), no significant increase in pubertal oestradiol levels (17.6 +/- 4.2 pg/ml vs. 23.9 +/- 13.4 pg/ml), and delayed menarche (2.3 years), male gymnasts displayed virtually unaltered pubertal development due to different training regimes. Nutritional intake was insufficient in all gymnasts although to a lesser extent for male gymnasts. Intensive physical training of elite female gymnasts combined with inadequate nutritional intake can alter the normal pattern of pubertal development. In female gymnasts the onset of menarche can be influenced by keeping the amount of fat mass low. There is a peripubertal change favouring fat mass over muscle mass in females while there is a net gain of muscle mass during pubertal development in males.