*2.1. Participants*

Participants were recruited from a local gymnastics club. The inclusion criteria were: (1) healthy female athletes, (2) participation in competitive artistic gymnastics for 3–4 years, (3) weekly training for at least 4 hours, and (4) age range between 9–11 years. Athletes who had any musculoskeletal injury from the previous 6 months were excluded from the study. Seventeen premenarcheal female artistic gymnasts aged 9.7 ± 0.8 years, with body mass 33.7 ± 7.3 kg, height 1.38 ± 0.10 cm and Body Mass Index 17.4 ± 2.4 kg/m2, participated in the testing procedures. All procedures were in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the local university ethics committee (approval no. 1198). Parents and participants were informed about the experimental procedure and signed an informed consent. All participants had an athlete's health card validated by the Hellenic Gymnastics Federation.
