Take a single course, take a handful, or take them all and finish the certification. Gymnastics sports-medicine education built by Gina, delivered live and on-demand through Allied Health Education, in two tracks: one for practitioners, one for coaches. The full certification runs 15 modules and 27 CEU hours, and is valid for 3 years. Full-time PT, PTA, and Athletic Training students receive 50% off, contact info@alliedhealthed.com.
Every course stands alone. Take them all and they add up to a certification.
Gymnastics history, physics, motor development, and skill progression: equipment, kinesiology, and how skills are built.
This course is part 1 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. The course will discuss the origins of the sport of gymnastics, development over the years, and the physics and kinematics of gymnastics movement. The sport of gymnastics requires an immense amount of strength, balance, flexibility, and skill that need to be progressively taught and mastered before advancing. The skills and their values which create the points and scoring system are based on this progression. Proper performance of skills will diminish the likelihood of injury and increase performance quality. This course will walk the medical professional through understanding body shaping, equipment demands, the mental and physical stress on the body and possible barriers to success, as well as proper technique.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Module 1
Module 2
Strength, flexibility, and physiology; clinical decision-making in analysis, etiology, and diagnosis; effective application in treating gymnastics injuries.
This course is part 2 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. The sport of gymnastics requires an immense amount of strength, balance, flexibility, and skill that need to be progressively taught and mastered before advancing. Also, proper treatment for gymnastics-based injuries often include teasing out acute vs chronic etiology and possible biomechanical contributions. The algorithm of narrowing dozens of possible outcomes per body part to a select few prior to proper diagnostic imaging needs to be efficient and is supported by both experience and evidence-based practice. Proper primary and secondary diagnoses can determine treatment applications, total rest/ relative rest times, and proper return to sport protocol. Combining sport specific mechanics of injury knowledge, clinical assessment, movement/video performance analysis, and diagnostics will give practitioners the most accurate diagnosis. Specific knowledge of mechanism of injury, mechanics of performance, and skill progression in order to treat the primary, secondary and tertiary effects of acute or chronic diagnosis is also imperative. This course will walk the medical professional through advancing the understanding of body shaping, strength demands for the sport in general and event-specific, flexibility techniques in training and in the clinic as well as periodization suggestions/research summaries. Participants also will get a review of manual therapy techniques and modalities that are effective and culturally accepted within the sport. The topics of injury identification, treatment and sport progression will also be included.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Recognition, management, and return-to-sport for head injuries in gymnastics.
This course is part 3 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. Concussion in sport is a topic with a vast array of research in recent decades- most on contact sports and helmet-based activities. Gymnastics has always been a concussion risk due to the accuracy required of skill performance and the slight margin of error often needed for increased risk of landing awkwardly, rotating, or falling. Because of the high velocity of flipping, rotating, and landing, and timing that often hovers in the tenths of seconds realm for decision making, risks for head injury have risen. Air awareness/sense is important for proper hand and foot placement and a sense of verticality for skill performance. When this is compromised, exposure to potential injury increases. Returning to gymnastics requires full multifactorial recovery and restoration of physical, emotional, neurological, mental, and trust components of one’s self. Slow and proper progression with medical monitoring is key to the safest return to sport with decreasing risks involved. Pearls will be given for event and skill-specific progression to include readiness, safety, confidence, and performance.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Prevention, predisposition, common injuries, treatment, and return to sport for the spine.
This course is part 4 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. Spine injuries in gymnastics are both prevalent and can be decreased with identifying risk factors, proper body training and preparation, and adherence to body mechanics. Both acute and chronic back pain exist throughout the sport regardless of age. Identification of the etiology from performance analysis to movement pattern identification is equally as important as diagnostics and subsequent protocols. This course will bring awareness to movement patterns and trends related to chronic spine diagnoses and a niche, sports-specific return-to-performance that combines proper rehab techniques and future re-injury reduction.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Shoulder, elbow, and wrist: the gymnast's most-loaded joints.
This course is part 5 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. Upper extremity injuries in gymnastics are prevalent uniquely because of a combination of both weight bearing and non-weight bearing activities. They can be decreased with identifying strength, movement, flexibility, and stability risk factors, proper body alignment and preparation, and adherence to body mechanics in the arms and spine. Both acute and chronic upper extremity pain exists throughout the sport and can vary with practice volume and skill difficulty. Identification of the etiology from performance analysis to movement pattern identification is equally as important as diagnostics and subsequent protocols. This course will bring awareness to movement patterns and trends related to wrist, elbow, and shoulder diagnoses and a niche, sports-specific return-to-performance that combines proper rehab techniques and future re-injury reduction.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Hip and knee, plus lower leg, foot, and ankle: prevention through return to sport.
This course is part 6 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. Lower extremity injuries in gymnastics are prevalent uniquely because of a combination of both weight bearing and non-weight bearing activities due to the triplanar motion and stress of the hip. Certain injuries have a higher prevalence also due to the contrasting demands of both flexibility and stability. Taking into consideration the rotational and angular velocity as well as varied landing surfaces, the hip, knee, foot and ankle are subject to an excessive amount of stress. Risk factors can be mitigated with identifying strength, movement, flexibility, and stability variables, proper body alignment and preparation, and adherence to body mechanics in the entire lower kinetic chain. Both acute injuries and chronic lower extremity pain exist throughout the sport and can vary with practice volume and skill difficulty. Identification of the etiology from performance analysis to movement pattern identification is equally as important as diagnostics and subsequent protocols. This course will bring awareness to movement patterns and trends related to hip and knee diagnoses and etiology using a niche, sports-specific return-to-performance that combines proper rehab techniques and future re-injury reduction.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
The psychology and physiology of gymnastics injury, rehabilitation, and pain.
This course is part 7 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. The psychology behind gymnastics as a sport, the gymnastics coach, the gymnast themselves, and the culture of the sport, adds layers and dimensions to the physical management of an athlete. It is important for the healthcare practitioner to respect the entire process of performance and injury psychology. Achievement in gymnastics will always include understanding how to motivate each individual athlete both intrinsically and extrinsically, and how to craft the environment, communication, and mental health component of the injury, rehabilitation, and the return-to-mat process. This course will expose you to the dynamic and institutionalized culture of the sport and the layers and variables that this adds to the diagnosis, etiology, and rehabilitation process.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Nutrition and blood chemistry in relation to injury treatment, prevention, and recovery.
This course is part 8 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. The sport of Gymnastics is easily one of the most demanding athletic commitments an athlete can make. The nutrition and health demands are complicated due to age, growth cycle status, fitness demands for performance, practice hour quantity, and an equal stress of anaerobic, aerobic, and power requirements. Fueling the body for all aspects of the practice, day, and training cycle can directly impact the level of success. Food, nutrition value, hydration, supplements, macro levels, recovery supplements all play a part in performance as well as fatigue. We will discuss the physiology behind performance, current concepts in the efficiency of recovery, eating habits, energy deficiency, as well as bloodwork and the connection to performance.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
A multidisciplinary, comprehensive approach to athlete care.
This course is part 9 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. In this course, we will talk about creating your health care “team.” Who is a part of this group for all athletes, and who is available as needed for individual cases? We will discuss the importance of the multidisciplinary approach to health care- proactive, preventative and reactive and the roles that many can serve for individual athletes and the aggregate team. The people may be in place, but equally important are the forms, the process and procedure for checking standards, documenting, follow through and more. Following SafeSport guidelines for respecting the privacy of the athlete’s health information has to be balanced with proper treatment team communication and information availability. We will touch on SafeSport and Athlete Wellness laws/guidelines for Mandatory Reporters, abuse (mental, physical and emotional) awareness and reporting/procedure guidelines.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Program analysis, efficacy, and compliance; building wellness/prevention programs; and health communication and marketing for gymnastics sports medicine.
This course is part 10 of a 10-part series which may be taken independently or as a part of Gymnastics Sports Medicine Certification (GSMC) offered by MedGym. Gymnastics is a sport based on a foundation of proper strength, flexibility, body control and basic movements that build on each other in combination or with the addition of added velocity. An athlete who has the basics mastered will increase their likelihood of more efficient skill advancement and performance that lessens injury possibility. Understanding where your athletes are in the continuum of progression is important. Where are the deficits? What is being worked at nauseum? Are you preparing the athletes for the next level of demands? Is there a coach or level that is favoring certain repetitive conditioning skills and ignoring others? Gym owners and coaches can use this information to better their program and motivate athletes to fully engage in strength, conditioning and flexibility whereas rehabilitation professionals can use this data for etiology of chronic injury and markers for full recovery and return to sport-specific training. Convincing the athletes themselves, parents, coaches, gym owners and the health care team of the relevance of this data and the time and organization needed to collect will increase compliance and better outcomes!
Synthesizing all of the information learned as a medical practitioner is difficult, and convincing stakeholders is the application. Interested affected parties include athletes, parents/guardians, current and future/community health care team, coaches, gym owners, National Governing Board’s and more. Having well researched (peer-reviewed and anecdotal) and vetted evaluations and applications is the base. Obtaining buy-in, value, and commitment is the key to making a difference. Health communication theories are used to explain how people establish their personal health beliefs and values, and the method and level of commitment people have to change. Within the gymnastics community specifically, buy-in of the entire support system is crucial. Learning how to do so increases efficacy and overall wellness.
At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:
Every course stands alone. Take them all and they add up to a certification.
The full GSMC-C path: anatomy, biomechanics, body-part modules, psychology, and nutrition. Understand the sport from a physical, physiological, and psychological perspective. Complete the two-day course, pass testing on the material, and apply it hands-on through case studies. Only the two-day course qualifies for GSMC-C. Contact medgyminfo@gmail.com to register.
The interactive one-day introduction for coaches and gym owners. (Certification requires the two-day course.) Contact medgyminfo@gmail.com to register.
