Gymnastic Classes

They can get caught on your leotard or gym clothes, on the equipment, mats or carpet. Earrings torn out of your ear - that’s gotta hurt. Rings can scratch the bars and pinch your fingers. No Valuable Jewelry Don t wear any valuable jewelry in the gym, especially into a loose foam pit. You may never find it or find only by pulling out every single piece of foam in the pit. Take it from the girl who lost her mother s diamond stud earring and spent three full days sifting through the pit and dust and dirt at the bottom of the pit to find it. She never did find the back to it. Tight is Right If you wear socks to class, make sure they fit tightly. You don t want them to come off in the pit and get lost. And you don’t want them to bunch up and possible create poor footing on skills or landings. What Not to Wear Don t wear hair ties with hard objects, like plastic balls, on them. Skills, like back extension rolls, or falls can press them painfully into your head. There is no place in the gym …

The complexity that routines entail increases the risk of painful injury and fatigue if proper preparations are not taken to ensure all-around safety. The most common injuries to the body are those to the ankles and feet, the lower back, knees, hands, and wrists. These can be due to overuse or simple stress. The lower body injuries are generally because of unbalanced landings, while the back experiences strain when insufficient stretching has been performed. Scrapes and bruises are to be expected, even if your gymnast is properly attired — so simply be prepared. Any injury to a gymnast s body can be detrimental to his or her performance in the future. Stiffness can result from lack of use of a limb or of the back if he or she is put out of the game for too long–that is, if the injury is serious. For the most part, as a parent, you will have to deal with less serious injuries (hopefully), and you will not need to visit the doctor s office to have them treated. In any case, the best c …