WAG walking on toes

[lovegymnastics22]

At DD's gym they have started an exercise during warm-ups where one girl walks on her toes across the floor (not releve, but on the toe knuckles) holding the shoulders of another girl that walks in front of her. They usually do two passes.

Is this a widely used exercise? Are there any short or long term medical downsides (I've been reading lots of threads on back issues from back walkovers and wrist injury)?

My DD is a pretty young level 3, but all the girls in the gym do it about once or twice a week. Should I be worried? I explicitly do not get involved with the coaching but something about this is rubbing me the wrong way.

 

[Deleted member 14190]

ummm no we do not do that

 

[Gymnastisism]

I don't think this is a common practice. It's used to stretch one's toe point, however it's all kinds of bad for your ankles and feet. Some elites do this though. Aliya Mustafina from Russia holds her toe knuckle stand for about 5 seconds before beam or floor.

 

[mumoftwogymnasts]

Ouch

 

[staceyb]

It's a bit iffy if their ankles aren't strong enough to hold their feet in the correct alignment.

 

[rbearclaw]

Our gym does it, level 3s and up. It helps with their toe point and foot flexibility, and none of the girls seem to have a problem with it.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

Great toe point should be through strengthening the foot, not stretching. One makes a gymnast stronger and prettier the other makes a gymnast prone to ankle injuries.

 

[Gymsanity]

Yikes, not under my watch with a low level/young child! Can do lots of bad and permanent damage. Check into ballet and see how long and how much training goes into it before they are even allowed to think about going on toe! Never like to say anything negative about coaches as sometimes there is a method to the madness or more to the story, but I would check into it. And yes with high level/older girls we do similar things.

 

[Bess]

I personally used to do this just because....and I would just stand like that for long periods of time too. It horrified my coach, parents, and friends. I don't think it helped anything but I also have no side effects...at least that I am aware of...I'm just one person but I did this for years as a little bit through high school and I am now just shy of 40.


Edited to say I am by no means endorsing this practice as it is a little creepy...guess I was just a creepy kid

 

[1canadiangymmom]

um, could this be partly the cause of my dd's very recently diagnosed tibialis anterior tendinitis?

 

[gymdog]

Personally I did this all the time when I was a kid and it didn't cause any problems. We even did it on beam, not just a padded floor. I've never had an overuse injury in my lower legs, ankles, or feet. So it's possible for this to cause no problems.

But I also would never use this exercise, because it's not recommended. Not really worth it because there are other exercises with less potential for problems.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

yikes! has nothing to do with increasing toe point. yikes!

 

[Quadqueen]

Wow. That's nuts.

 

[profmom]

The boys work on toe point by . . . sitting and pointing their toes. (And by getting yelled at to point their feet every time they leave the ground.) But my son sometimes does that toe knuckle walking thing on his own. I think he mostly does it to gross out his teammates. DD has other ways of disgusting people.

 

[coachalexia]

I do this all the time but i've got no idea if it does any harm

 

[MissLisa]

We would get in trouble for doing that at the gym back in the day. Coach hated it. I personally did do much like it, my toe points are not the best so it hurts! My friend did it all the time though, she was hyper flexible and could do crazy things like skip with her shoulders etc. yuck.

 

[Muddlethru]

My daughter started walking on her toes I'd say at 3 years old. I would always tell her not to do that. She still does it now every now and again. In my opinion, there are so many exercises to improve toe point. But I would not use this. That said Baryshnikov used to walk on his toes in some of his more contemporary pieces.

 

[Muddlethru]

We've done ballet stretches with some weight on the top of the toes, but have never walked on them.

 

[wheezy]

We just rock back and forth with feet under their tooshies.....

 

[Hayleigh]

My coaches do multiple point and kale stretches but not this one. We do sitting in pairs with one in pike while the other gently pushes against your toes while you resist.
We also do one leg straight out in front of us, with the other knee straight up, toes tucked underneath our feet, while carefully cupping and pushing our heels forward, while keeping allignment.
You also see a lot of girls in the higher level groups stood with one foot curled under to stretch their point, usually about 5 seconds before swapping to the other foot. Usually while waiting between goes.
Finally, we have a new theraband called a ballet band, which we use to stretch standing splits, occasionally with one foot with toes tucked under.