PRO Exclusive: Physical Health in Circus with Yasmine Mucher – Managing Chronic and Overuse Injuries
In this CircusTalk Original Video Series, Certified Athletic Therapist and former professional aerialist Yasmine Mucher will be educating us on all things physical health for circus artists. From general maintenance and wellbeing to specific care for various acute and chronic injuries, this series will teach you how to understand and manage your body, as well as provide practical steps you can take towards optimal wellness. The Physical Health Series will be a valuable resource for circus artists of any discipline, however, the information within the episodes should not substitute individualized diagnosis and treatment for injuries that require immediate medical attention.
From Toronto, Ontario, Yasmine Mucher is a Certified Athletic Therapist, Registered Kinesiologist, and CSEP Certified Personal Trainer. She started training in circus arts in 2008, specializing in all things trapeze. This sparked her love and curiosity for the capabilities of the human body, but pain and injury exposed to her the lack of research, and practitioners knowledgeable in the area of circus arts and the needs of the artistic athlete’s body. Graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology from Dalhousie University in 2017, and an Advanced Certificate in Athletic Therapy from Mount Royal University in 2020, throughout her education and thereafter, Yas worked as a circus performer and coach for people of all ages, applying scientifically informed methods to her own and her clients’ training and reaping the results.
This episode will cover all things overuse injury. Compared to acute injuries in episode two, which have a specific mechanism and moment of time that we were injured, overuse injuries occur more slowly overtime. “Chronic” refers to an amount of time. Depending on the definition, an injury with an acute mechanism can become chronic if it takes an extended amount of time to heal. In this episode, we will go through common chronic/overuse injuries for circus performers and management strategies for each. Specifically, tendinopathies, bursitis, pubalgia, and ganglion cysts. After that, we’ll finish off by talking about managing hypermobility. While this is not an injury, we can’t talk about training as circus performers without addressing hypermobility.
During the video, there will be references to videos in the “show notes.” That’s this space right here! Reference back to this page to view the exercise videos on the topics discussed.
Tendinopathy:
1. Exercises for tendinophathy management and joint strengthening for the knee, hip, shoulder and elbow areas.
2. Tape strapping technique to help distribute forces across the injured tendon and reduce pain while training.
Pubalgia:
3. Core bracing, pelvic floor activation & aductor strengthening exercise for pubalgia management.
Bursitis:
4. Foam roller techniques to relax the muscles surrounding knee and wrist bursaes.
Ganglion Cysts:
5. Tendon Gliding technique to help manage the symptoms of ganglion cysts and keep range of motion active.
Hypermobility:
6. Exercises to help strengthen hypermobile joints and proprioception.
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