Gymnasts Essay

Gymnasts are more vulnerable to the onset of distorted eating than other teenagers in society, due to the very nature of what makes for athletic success in the sport. Gymnasts’ bodies have to be young, healthy, petite and muscular, therefore they have to do large amounts of conditioning and eat the proper amounts and type of food. The main factor to gymnasts being vulnerable to distorted eating is because they are at very young ages when they excel in the sport. Gymnastics is structured around young fit bodies, so these athletes are facing a lot of pure pressure and big decisions at young ages. They may start to restrict their diet because, in the sport, it is expected for them to have petite and fit bodies and they are receiving pressure from their coaches and others opinions. A Canadian study of youth gymnasts at an average age of 13.4 years old, reported that 10.5% saw themselves as overweight, 27% were worried about the way they looked and 39% reported dieting behaviors (momsteen.com). When gymnasts restrict their food intake it will not enhance their performance, instead it will harm it because of their weakened bodies condition. They decide to reduce their food intake because of what their body, as a gymnast, is supposed to look like. With the average age of gymnasts being 13.4 years old, they are at the age where it is very easy to feel insecure about their body due to others around them, but it is very unhealthy for high-level gymnasts to not be fueling their body with the proper foods thy need. The sports nature also plays a large role in how far the athletes will go for success. Gymnastics is a very involving sport that requires very long training hours for the young athletes. The proper amount of training hours for the ...

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...is reducing food intake. When the young gymnasts restrict their diet, they do not realize how they are harming their body and how much danger they are putting it in. http://www.examiner.com/article/osteopenia-eating-disorders-and-teens also says, that once you have lowered your bone mineral density there in no way that you can get it back. This means that when you are classified with osteoporosis, you will always have it and there is no way that you can go back to having strong bone mineral density, and your body will be prone to fractures for the rest of your life. This disease makes your body very weak and fragile, which is opposite from a gymnasts ultimate goal of having a muscular and strong body. Overall, the “Female Athlete Triad” is a very serious condition, and it puts gymnasts bodies in a great amount of danger for injuries, or later in life complications.