Difference in injury profile in Trampoline and Artistic Gymnastics

Abstract

The trampolines and artistic gymnastics have a high incidence and severity of injuries, with many differences in the elements, movements and demands. The purpose of this study was to compare Trampoline and Artistic Gymnastics’ injury profile. The sample was 33 athletes, 80% female and 20% male, 14 artistic and 19 trampolines gymnasts. The mean age was 11 years for artistic and 17,2 years for trampoline gymnasts. The survey was done by analyzing records of competitive level gymnasts, seen in the Physical Therapy Department of a Brazilian private sports club, in 2010. Athletes who suffered no injury, or not sought medical care in physical therapy were not included in the study. The incidence was 84 injuries in gymnastics sports, 27 in artistic and 57 in trampoline, the mean was 1,9 injury per athlete for artistic and 3,0 for trampoline. According the kind, 52% was acute injuries and 48% was chronic, in both modalities; 36% happen in right side, 34% in left side, 5% in both sides and 25% in no specific side. The most common trampoline injury was low back dysfunction (26,3%), and in artistic gymnastic ankle sprains (25,9%). The upper limbs injuries happen often in the artistic gymnasts, especially in the wrist and shoulder (22,2%). Leg injuries, mainly periosthitis, occurred only in trampoline. The most injuries were ligament and tendon in artistic and muscle damage in trampoline. The stress fractures occurred in both types of gymnastics. According to the injury mechanisms, the majority in trampoline was skeletal muscle spasms and in the artistic was nonspecific pain, related to overuse, like tendinitis and joint dysfunctions. The difference between the trampoline and artistic could be seen in the different profile injuries. The upper extremities are used as weight bearing limbs in artistic gymnastics, so high impact loads affect directly wrist and shoulders with specific injuries that occurred only in modality. The low back overload in trampoline is clear with high number of injuries which appear to result from repeated microtrauma caused by repeated jumps. The high incidence in lower limbs is always reported in literature and is supported in this study. Some points are similar, like the proportion between chronic and acute injuries and laterality. The risk of gymnastic injuries seems to be proportional to the level of the athletes, this was is possible to confirm in this study, in trampoline with higher mean age the injuries frequency was bigger than artistic.