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Anyway...onto today's topic of gymnastics. I had the great fortune of being involved in many different activities as a child, from ballet to girl scouts to gymnastics. I've already mentioned a number of times (well...just many times in one post) that I love hiking, so Girl Scouts was probably my favorite because of the opportunities we had to travel and experience nature. (I feel like I'll have to make a post about what you learn from being in Girl Scouts one of these days!)
However, the activity that taught me the most about strength and fitness was gymnastics. In my opinion, gymnasts are the most impressive athletes. The are strong, flexible, and graceful. I began gymnastics at the age of five (I think) at Riverbend Gymnastics in New Orleans. I took a break and did studio dance and ballet before picking the sport back up age 11. I went to Crescent City Gymnastics summer camp and saw three girls doing an acro routine. I thought it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I wanted to do acro gymnastics.
Not sure of the difference between regular and acro gymnastics? Watch the video below. These girls are the 2010 World Champions
Now, I never got very high up there in difficulty. I did win third at nationals one year with my acro partner Alexis Thibodeaux performing at level 7, but I never got close to touching the skill-level of the girls in the video. (Alexis did pretty well for herself, though!) They sort of stop counting levels at level 10, and then you're "Junior Elite" or "Elite."
A combination of wanting to have an actual summer like the rest of my high school friends, not always having the right attitude, and the coach being a pretty terrifying person (I was rather meek and didn't deal well with the typical harsh gymnastics style of coaching) led me to leave the sport prematurely. I always wonder if I should have stuck with it a few more years, but at least I got to go on more camping trips over the summer =)
So, even though my gymnastics episode didn't last very long, I paid enough attention to learn a few things about fitness.
1. Strength work is key.
The coach had a poster of strength work on the wall that we completed after each 3 hour practice. That's right...we did tumbling, skill drills, and practiced routines for three hours. Then you complete strength work. Twice. It was a list of about 20 exercises. (Let's see if I can remember: crunches, v-ups, supermen, pushups, lunge jumps, squat jumps, pull ups, chin ups, squats with someone sitting on your shoulders, calf raises, sit ups, candle stick jumps, six inches, wall sit...and I can't remember the rest but there were definitely more.) So once we were done our practice, we went through the entire list twice.
In the years since quitting gymnastics, I have tried many times to complete the exercises on this list to see how fit I was compared to my 14 year old self. Any guesses on how that went? I haven't had much success, but recently I've been heading in the right direction! Some days, I loved strength work. Other days made me wonder why I was putting myself through the torture of being on a competitive gymnastics team. Looking back, I completely understand the purpose of strength work...it improves your overall fitness and muscle tone. It also gave us more endurance to complete those 3 hour long practices. And today I know that no matter how tired I am after a run, there's always some strength left for some push ups and crunches!
3. It's important to stretch...afterwards.
Being in our 20s means we don't have to worry about this too much. But if we aren't stretching now, it'll cause us problems later on in life. I learned some great stretching techniques from gymnastics, and I really never got injured due to a pulled muscle. I would caution you on the order in which gymnasts stretch. With so many wild body contortions that occur during gymnastics, gymnasts have to stretch before practice. But a runner, for example, would have an awful run if he stretched for a long time beforehand. A few quick, dynamic moves are best before a workout. Long, deep stretches are best done after a workout or on a different day entirely. I can still do splits, but I won't stretch a split before a run. Ouch. If you want to be more flexible, it takes time and practice. Yoga and Pilates can take you pretty far!
3. Being aware of my strengths and weaknesses.
There's nothing like a bunch of tiny, skinny adolescents kicking your butt in the gym to make you take a good hard look at yourself. I was a normal weight, and yet I was still the largest gymnast on the team. (Although, there was one really muscular 20 year old. She was strong.) All of these itty-bitty little people could do more strength work than I could. They could lift heavier people. They wobbled less than I did. They had energy for one more routine before they left. They kicked my butt.
I had a solid understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. I could do those v-ups and squat jumps all day long. Any skill that required ab or leg strength was no problem. I could not do pull ups, chin ups, or those dreaded handstand push ups. My upper body strength made those partner handstand tricks very challenging, especially with my second acro partner who weighed a good 30lbs more than the girl I worked with the year before. But do you think for a second we were allowed to make excuses? Nope. Doing that would only get you punish strength work...like doing more pull ups. I used to think punish strength work was just plain mean. I'm still not a big fan, but if my gymnast struggled to hold someone up, then it makes sense to give more upper body strength work.
My strength today is still imbalanced. I can still do squats and ab work all day while I struggle with upper body work. I'm trying to improve my upper body strength, and maybe one day I'll be able to do a few pull ups =) Attack your weaknesses. Don't avoid them. (Yet another piece of advice I should take more often.)
4. Why being strong is better than being a cardio queen.
Gymnastics very much resembles HIIT (high intensity interval training) workouts. During our routines, I would lift and throw a person. Then you had to perform dance choreography as well as throw in a few of the typical tumbling tricks. Everything was packed into a 3 minute routine, and by the time it was over my heart was trying to escape through my chest. Then you'd rest for a little bit. Maybe you'd practice a skill that needed tweaking. Then it was time for another routine. Except this time I would tire more quickly, and that feeling in my chest compounded. It's similar to sprinting.
I was more fit at that point in my life than when I could run a half marathon. Being able to run 13 miles is great, but it's not the same as being fit. I'm not saying don't run half marathons. I ran two, and if my ankle weren't so fickle I'd probably attempt a third. But it's important to remember the rest of your body, too. After your short runs, complete a quick five minute circuit of some push ups, ab work, and lunges/squats. Having strong legs is incredibly beneficial when you're running your heart out at the end of a race!
(If you want to hear more about strength vs cardio, listen to this podcast by Mark Sisson. He's not anti-cardio, but he's anti-chronic cardio and definitely pro-strength.)
5. How to apply work ethic
How do you move perfectly in sync with your acro partner? How do you complete a skills without wobbling or taking unnecessary steps? Repetition. We did routines over and over and over and over and over again. When we got closer to competitions, we would have to do a routine countless times one right after another. After a routine, I couldn't breathe and my arms were like jelly. Imagine that feeling and then hearing " Go again;" and after that next routine you hear another "Go again;" and after that routine you hear another " Go again." Exhausting does no justice to the way we felt once those practices were over. I didn't fully understand it then, but it gave me an early, real-life experience about giving it your all to accomplish a goal. (Yeah it's pretty cliche, but I often find myself surprised at how many adults don't understand what it really means to work hard at something.) I didn't always do a great job of putting this lesson to use during gym practice , but I always remember how hard we worked to achieve that 3rd place spot at nationals. If I want results (this applies to just about anything) I have to be willing to dig deeper past that point of exhaustion.
I'm bringing all of this up because I was inspired by an episode of Extreme Weight Loss that came on ABC this past week. The trainee, Georgeanna, used to be a gymnast. On the show, she starts with the "Fight of Flight" workout with Chris Powell. He knew she used to be a gymnast, so her first workout involved a ton of cartwheels. She was 315 pounds and cartwheeled up and down a football field.
By the end of the show, 365 days later, she lost 160 pounds by working out in a CrossFit gym and training with former gymnast Olympians! At age 45, she completed a back hand spring just because she wanted to. I thought she was incredible, and the show caused me to think a little bit about gymnastics. And that's why you are reading this super long post! (Which I very much appreciate!)
Question: Which gymnastics event would be your strength? Bars, beam, vault, or floor? I would LOVE to hear your responses, so please reply below!
Good night!
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