Too much gymnastics too fast can hurt your jumps and make injuries more likely
Monitoring the detrimental impact of congested training periods on the strength levels and landing forces of young female aerobic gymnastics
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When young gymnasts did more practices in a short time, their jumps got weaker and their landings got harder, which could lead to injuries. Doing the usual number of practices helped them jump better and land safer.
Surprising Findings
Increasing training by just 30% (from 4 to 6 sessions) caused measurable declines in explosive strength and landing control in only two weeks.
Many assume elite youth athletes can handle heavy loads, but this shows even small increases can backfire quickly.
Practical Takeaways
Avoid increasing training frequency by more than one or two sessions per week without a recovery period.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
When young gymnasts did more practices in a short time, their jumps got weaker and their landings got harder, which could lead to injuries. Doing the usual number of practices helped them jump better and land safer.
Surprising Findings
Increasing training by just 30% (from 4 to 6 sessions) caused measurable declines in explosive strength and landing control in only two weeks.
Many assume elite youth athletes can handle heavy loads, but this shows even small increases can backfire quickly.
Practical Takeaways
Avoid increasing training frequency by more than one or two sessions per week without a recovery period.
Publication
Journal
Heliyon
Year
2024
Authors
Dong Ma, K. Zhao, R. Silva, Ke Wang, Qi Xu, Zijian Zhao
Related Content
Claims (5)
When young female gymnasts who train regularly add extra workouts for two weeks straight, they might lose some of their explosive jumping power compared to sticking to their normal routine.
When teenage girl gymnasts go from training 4 to 6 times a week for two weeks, their muscles and coordination get worse over time, especially in the second week — meaning piling on too much too fast might hurt their performance.
Teen girl gymnasts who train four times a week steadily get better at jumping power and handle landings more safely over a month, suggesting regular but not overloaded practice helps their bodies adapt and absorb impact better.
If you slowly increase your workout volume over time, your body adapts and you're less likely to get overly tired or burned out compared to jumping into intense workouts all at once.
When young female gymnasts train six times a week instead of four for two weeks, they hit the ground harder when landing jumps, which could make injuries more likely.