Gymnasts & Posture: Straight is Great!

Gymnasts are sometimes the "victims" (or "culprits") of some of the worst standing postures.  For male gymnasts, the upper back muscles are so over-developed, it sometimes pulls the shoulders forward and the gymnast may look somewhat slouched:

The problem with habitual hollowing of the chest is that it causes very tight pectorals, front deltoids, biceps, lats and teres major. Apart from the excessive training and overdevelopment it gives the rectus abdominus, poor shoulder flexibility in female gymnasts and zero external rotator work can lead to bad shoulder injuries.

Gymnasts also mold and condition themselves to assume a "hollowed"-shape in so much of their training, when the human spine has a natural curve:

For athletes participating in sports like swimming and gymnastics, there is a need to assume a totally different body posture compared to other sports to be able to compete well. This posture can carry over to their personal lives as well, and one can easily identify a swimmer or gymnast by the particular way they stand, walk or carry themselves.

While football and basketball are “leg based” sports, swimmers and gymnasts have assimilated a decidedly hunchbacked posture because of the “hand based” orientation of their particular athletic activities. The hunchbacked posture in gymnastics is part of the sport’s proper form and is known as “hollowing out”. Constant training in this posture can lead to the athlete’s assuming the same form in the daily course of his or her life, which is potentially a cause for serious injuries in the knee, shoulder, neck and lower back.

The Fundamental Athletic position in most land-based sports requires the athlete to assume a medium stance with the hips back, and the chest and head aligned with the spinal curves. This posture enables swift movement forward, backward or sideways. It is the basic position assumed for squatting, dead-lifting and executing Olympic lifts, as well as to maximize leg, hip and back power during leaps and jumps.

A gymnast assuming the proper position hollows out the chest, pushes the head forward, tucks the hips in and contracts the spine. The only instance when a gymnast takes on the fundamental athletic position is during landings or dismounts.

Athletes beginning their gymnastics training at a very young age while their bones are still undergoing growth and development will encounter problems with the gymnastic posture. This is especially true when they reach puberty and the end of their growth cycle. The “hollowing out” posture, and even the specific manner gymnasts are required to run, can become a fixed posture for young gymnasts, and this can cause serious and long-lasting side effects when they are older.

Most gymnastics programmes aggressively cultivate this peculiar posturing in young gymnasts. Strength and conditioning exercises have been geared to develop exactly that training gymnasts in the required stance, thereby generating imbalance. This is a great disadvantage for female gymnasts who are made to forgo upper body conditioning altogether.

The rest of the article reads a bit strange to me- like an old wives tale as I don't know any current coaches who would ever ask gymnasts to land on straight legs; or who don't spend time on dorsi-flexion (think tumbling), simply because they spend time practicing releve positions for beam and dance.


Common in females also, is the archy pike- often a symptom of having a weak core and tight hip flexors.

3. The hips, abdominals and pelvis 
This is the area of the body where most of the problems occur. After coaching and judging for many years, I’m convinced that many times the gymnasts are not aware that they are standing with their “butts and guts out.” This needs to be constantly corrected on a daily basis. You will hear many coaches say “hips flat, pelvis tilted under, etc. In many instances, the hip flexor muscle in the front of the leg is so tight that it causes the pelvis to tilt and consequently pushes the hips back. A consistent flexibility program of stretching this muscle will help with the problem. The pelvis should be straight with the abdominals pulled in to straighten this line.