Going through gymnastics articles you read a lot about the gymnasts taking time off for back problems, mostly the lower back and bulging discs. At the gym also, a lot of the girls get lower back pain from time to time and water down their practices/routines, adding some more specific exercises / flexibility also. [quote]Sacramone: The summer of 2004 was a very hard one for me, after missing the Olympic Games I found out that I had a bulging disc in my lower back. I had to take some time off to heal my back[/quote] http://www.insidegymnastics.com/content/show/newsarticle.aspx?articleid=109&zoneid=1 [quote]A back injury caused Vise to withdraw from the 2004 U.S. national championships. She competed on uneven bars and balance beam at the 2004 Olympic Trials, though several moves demonstrating her extreme flexibility had to be removed.[/quote] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollie_Vise [quote]Soon after the Olympic games ended, it was discovered that Carly had a couple of bulging disks in her lower back. The problem has apparently been festering for years, but had somehow gone without notice. Carly announced after the injury was made public that she would be taking some time off from gymnastics to nurse the injury. Even at full health, Carly would not have been able to train as intensely after the Olympics as she did before because of her new tight schedule.[/quote] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carly_Patterson [quote]After Lausanne, Marinescu was diagnosed with a fractured vertebra and announced her decision to quit gymnastics. A decision, she claims, that cost her dearly. Legendary Nadia Comaneci had offered to take her to the USA for an operation, but, according to Marinescu, when Comaneci approached Adrian Stoica, General Secretary of the Romanian Gymnastics Federation, he simply said: "There's no use making this effort. She's abandoning gymnastics anyway, so it doesn't matter". Stoica currently serves as president of the FIG's Men's Technical Committee. With her gymnastics days behind her Marinescu says she realised she was of no more use to the system that had created her. "They exploited me to the maximum, they ignored all my pains, which were proving that there was something wrong with my back, and here is what I became. And this only happened because they wanted to prolong to the maximum the time when I could have been useful to the team," she says.[/quote] http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=437 Related: "V-ups with ankle weights on, hurt lower back?" http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=1453&highlight=back "What do you do for lower back pain?" http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=961&highlight=back+pain "Tight hamstrings,flexibility/stretching impt for back too!" http://www.gymchat.com/messageboards/viewtopic.php?t=1599&highlight=back+pain