Men's gymnastics is comprised of six events, all of them produce loadings to the upper extremity but specifically, the pommel horse demands repetitive and high intensity wrist impacts on a rigid structure, with sustained periods of body weight support on the wrist (Marklof et al, 1989). In a study of elite male gymnasts (Mandelbaun et al., 1989) the pommel horse was the apparatus associated with the most wrist pain. Most of the gymnasts begin at a young age to do this sport, therefore their wrist growth plate is a zone with critical injury options. The purpose of this study was to measure the force applied by the gymnasts during the execution of circles on a mushroom apparatus used to improve techniques of the pommel horse.
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