• Question: When a gymnast performs the slipts and similar, things, do they tear their cartilage? If they do, does it give you arthritis?

    Asked by knighto to Ellie on 10 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Eleanor Parker

      Eleanor Parker answered on 10 Mar 2014:

      Hi Knighto,
      That’s a really good question. Gymnasts and other professional sportspeople train very hard for many years and cartilage is very clever in that it makes itself stronger if you use it more. So gymnasts and athletes will have strong cartilage that is more difficult to damage.
      However, gymnasts and sportspeople push their bodies to the limits, which means they sometimes have accidents and injure themselves. If they injure their joints it is usually the ligaments (the strong tissue that holds the bones together) that get hurt not the cartilage, but sometimes they do hurt their cartilage. When this happens the cartilage will become less strong and sometime in the future the athlete is much more likely to get a type of arthritis called post-traumatic osteoarthritis in the joint that they damaged.
      But don’t let this out you off gymnastics or any other sports! The chances of getting this type of injury and an injury bad enough are extremely small and only really occur to elite sportspeople. Besides the fun and other benefits your body gets from sport far out-weigh the risk 🙂
      Hope that answered your question.

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