Former gymnast check in. Do you have any pains associated

[alfredo]

with your activities? Right now my wife (in her AARP years) is experiencing reoccurring pain in her lower ribs and front of her pelvis. It appears it could be associated with the uneven bars and some balance beam accidents.

The reason I am asking is as a warning to parents who might consider gymnastics as an activity for their kids.

It also left her with eating disorders.

Think twice about gymnastics.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. We've started hearing some similar things in cheering. Kids who tumbled a lot having

joint pains, and flyers who didn't stretch their "bad" sides are now having back issues because one side is much tighter than the other. We're now taught to limit tumbling on hard surfaces and to stretch both sides of our kids equally.

I'm sorry you and your wife are hurting. :(

[alfredo]

3. She was also a cheerleader. She was the first on her squad

to bring gymnastic moves to the sport (jr high). One of her squad mates went on to be a pioneer in competitive cheerleading. She coached several national teams in the 80's and 90's. My wife got an athletic scholarship to San Francisco State, but got really homesick and came back home.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. That's very cool! :^) (And I can understand coming back home. I went to

school just 3 hours away from home and still got homesick. :()

[alfredo]

6. The only time I was ever homesick was when I was in Colorado.

I missed the lush green embrace of our hardwood forests.

[muffin1]

2. The daughter of my ex-boss was heavy into gymnastics.

She broke several bones over the years. She was also obsessed with working out (eight hours a day in an UN air-conditioned gym).
She recently had to quit for unrelated issues, and she seems much happier now.

[alfredo]

4. Nothing compares to "straddling" the balance beam.

I had an old girlfriend that had that happen to her. She said the bruising was horrible.

[muffin1]

10. Oh, god!

That hurts just to think about it! :scared:

[alfredo]

11. Yeah. I'm an old amateur cyclist, I am familiar with "unwelcome meetings."

[alfredo]

24. Kinda makes your eyes water. It's a longer fall on the balance beam.

You pick up a lot of speed by the time the beam says Hello!

[mnhtnbb]

7. I had a hip replacement 4 years ago that I trace to an old gymnastics injury

which started arthritis on that side. The other side is fine.

I was 56 when I had the hip replacement and 17 when I had the gymnastics injury.

[alfredo]

8. All that beauty comes at a great cost. I hope my wife's

pain can be treated with anti inflammatories.

[mnhtnbb]

20. I was bone on bone, using a cane and could barely get around the grocery store

by the time I had the surgery. Yes, it's expensive. Fortunately, our insurance picked up
the tab.

Hope the anti inflammatories work for your wife.

[alfredo]

25. The Diclofenac is working well.

[KT2000]

9. Life catches up!

Just had an MRI of the neck and the dr said he woud expect to find such results in someone who did rodeo.
I can't figure it out. I was never into any sports and did a mild exercise routine most of my life, along with walking.
Was in a few car accidents.
If he had said such results were common in people who watched too much TV I could understand.
Damage happens!

[alfredo]

12. The car wreak is the likely source. I am disabled from a life of labor and sport.

Carrying mail Was the final blow. After 10 years of retirement I can still feel the strap of my mail satchel.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. My Dad was a rural route driver, and it blew his hernias out multiple times. Between loading the

boxes into the car and then twisting and reaching across the seat ad infinitum, the job really did a number on him. He wound up taking a medical retirement a couple of years early.

[alfredo]

14. I was a RR carrier before I switch. That's a hard, dangerous

job, but I loved it. Your upper body gets savaged with that job. You leave the office with mail stacked up to the roof, and in your lap. Your car's suspension is bottomed out and you are banged around by every bump and pothole. Your spine gets savaged. You can't use the AC in the summer, and in the winter, the heater is useless except on defrost.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. He told us some hair-raising stories about sliding down some seriously icy hills, and how

management was always trying to get the drivers to finish their routes faster and faster. It was alarming, the rise in fatal accidents among rural route carriers. :(

On the plus side, he saw a lot of wildlife, and got to chat with some nice people when they picked up the mail (or if he dropped it off, like he would do for some shut-ins.)

[alfredo]

16. I slid down an icy hill and flipped my jeep. Two drunk farm

hands came by and asked if I needed a wrecker. I said no, just flip me upright and I will be OK. I was strapped in so I was hanging upside down. They righted my jeep, I got out adjusted the mirrors, put them mail back in order, and drove on. Luckily Most of the mail was strapped into the flats, and only a handful was out of order.

I drove an old postal jeep the last years of RR carrying. Loved that death trap. With chains, I could deliver on any road. The above accident happened because the ice was so hard, the chains couldn't get a grip.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Wow! That had to be scary and painful. :^( Dad never did that but it sounds like he

came close a few times. He always drove Jeeps, SUVs, and trucks.

[alfredo]

19. Not painful, though I did have some bruising from the seat belt.

[Xithras]

18. I have a bad knee from a youth spent on a skateboard.

Football, gymnastics, skateboarding, cheerleading...it doesn't matter. If you spend your youth beating your body up in physically active sports, you're going to feel it later in life.

But what's the alternative? A youth spent in front of a video game console? Chess?

As a parent, I have no problem with the fact that my kids are active in sports, or that my older son is a daily skateboarder. The point of life is to live.

[alfredo]

21. It's the pressure when you edge toward the elite that

raises the risks. You have to hit harder, jump higher, run faster. That's where the stress and injuries multiply.

[AngryAmish]

22. My liver is probably shot...

[alfredo]

23. Ball park beer will do that.