Gymtastic Gymnastics

If you have heard anything about the sport of gymnastics, then you have probably heard about gymnastics in the Olympics as well. Gymnastics is one of the most popular sports in the Olympics and the top gymnasts often are very well known after they compete in the Olympics. Have you ever wondered what it takes to be one of those young gymnasts competing on a global stage? It is a lot more than you might generally think. The US Olympic Women's Gymnastics team consists of only 5 members who are chosen by a committee that watches the gymnasts very closely to make sure they pick the best ones to compete in the Olympics. Most aspiring-Olympians practice 40+ hours a week and opt for home-schooling programs instead of attending school so they have more time to practice. Many people think this is bad for the Olympians because they are not getting a good education but others argue that it is all worth it.  Once a gymnast gets past the committee and makes it onto the 5 member team, the

How did gymnastics become a thing? Who came up with the idea to walk on hands, do flips on a 4-inch beam, swing on bars, or flip over a vault? They all do not seem like typical human tasks that were necessary for our development, so why did we start doing them? Although we many never know the actual thinking process that was going through people's heads as they invented gymnastics, I can tell you a little bit about how gymnastics has changed through the years to get to what it is now. It all started in the early Greek civilization at the same time running, jumping, swimming, throwing, wrestling, and weightlifting were becoming a thing to help development. They began to do vigorous gymnastics exercises that included both men and women. It was highly valued in ancient Greece as it was one of their most fascinating sports to watch. Later, after the Romans conquered the Greece, they developed the Greek's version of gymnastics to a more formal sport. They used the gymnastics ski

Gymnastics is a very strict sport with many rules that gymnasts have to follow. This is not just rules like "you can't fall off the beam" or "you can't go outside of the lines on the floor." The rules get insanely more strict than that. Some of the rules seem like a complete joke when you read it, but the judges take it very seriously. Believe it or not, here are some crazy rules that all competitive gymnasts must follow: 1. Gymnasts cannot touch their clothes during a routine There are a lot of times in the middle of a routine where a gymnast's leotard can become uncomfortable. Whenever the gymnasts are not competing, they can adjust their leotard as much as they want as it cuts into their necks and hips. Once they salute to the judges and begin their routine, no matter what event it is, they are not allowed to touch their leotard at all to adjust it. Even if you have a wardrobe malfunction, you have to continue your routine or get a huge deduction

There are many different aspects of gymnastics, both good and bad. It is up to you to determine if the positives outweigh the negatives to make the sport worth the effort. Some people believe that the sport is too harmful for the body and that too be good in gymnastics you have to put it ahead of school. Others, like me, believe that gymnastics is one of the only sports that work nearly every muscle and aspect of your body and each individual can choose how much they want to get involved in the sport. I will dive a little deeper into each of these perspectives so you can determine your own opinion on the sport, but I will also provide information on why I think gymnastics is one of the best sports for children to participate in. Benefits The overall and most obvious benefits of gymnastics are the ones that have to do with the body. Gymnastics has great skeletal benefits, giving gymnasts greater bone density. Gymnasts also have stronger muscles. Their legs may not be as strong as a s

When I was doing gymnastics, my practices lasted about 4 hours on a regular day. During those 4 hours, approximately 3 of them were spent on the actual events in gymnastics while the remaining hour consisted of our warm-up and cool-down. I will explain a little bit more about what this consisted of and why we spent a quarter of each practice doing it. Warm-ups and cool-downs consist of both  stretching  and  conditioning , which I have elaborated on in my two previous posts. If you want more details on them, the link is connected to the words above. I will talk a little bit about stretching and conditioning in this post, but in a more broad sense. Warm-ups are important in gymnastics because gymnasts need to get their blood pumping to get their muscles ready for the physically demanding practice they have ahead of them. There are a great variety of different warm-ups that a coach can have a team do, and they regularly switch up the warm-ups to keep the gymnast well-rounded. Most

"Conditioning" is a term in gymnastics that basically consists of different exercises to strengthen core, leg, and arm muscles. This is a vital component of gymnastics because a lot of the skills in the sport require great strength and cardio. Gymnasts typically condition for half and hour to an hour at the end of their practice so the conditioning does not wear them out in the beginning of practice, making them too exhausted to perform well on their events. Conditioning consists of many different exercises that single out a specific part of your body. There are exercises for your core, arms, legs, cardio, specific skills and events, etc. There are hundreds of different ways to condition for each of these sections but gymnastics typically does not use weights to exercise. What I mean by this is that we do not do the bench press or squats with weights. Gymnasts focus on working out using just their body and gymnastics equipment such as pull ups on the uneven bars. Core str

Stretching is a very crucial part in the sport of gymnastics. Gymnasts typically spend about half an hour stretching before practice, fifteen minutes after practice, and have tiny stretching breaks in between events. The reason gymnasts spend so much time stretching is because they try to stretch every muscle in their body that they have the ability to stretch. Most sports have time set aside to stretch in the beginning of practices, but do not go as in-depth as gymnasts do because gymnastics requires so many different muscles. In this post, I will give a brief overview of how gymnasts stretch and how they make it effective. Stretching is best when your muscles are warmed up and relaxed. Before gymnasts begin stretching, they typically do some type of cardio workout for a short amount of time. This can be running laps around the floor, doing energy-demanding exercises for a certain amount of time, etc. Anything to get their heart pumping and warm up their muscles to get ready for str

There are many different types of gymnastics, explained in my post titled  "The Different Types of Gymnastics"  but today I am just going to be focusing on women's gymnastics. Most of this blog is revolved around women's gymnastics because that is the sport I am familiar with. In this post, I am going to be talking all about the 4 different events in women's gymnastics: floor, vault, bars, and beam. Each event is unique in their own way and they all require different skill sets, flexibility, and strength. I will talk about each event in depth, including the components, scoring, and skills associated with each. Floor Exercise: The floor exercise is typically the most entertaining event, for both the gymnast and bystanders. The floor routines have music and dance choreography incorporated into it, allowing the gymnast to express their personalities through the type of music and dance they choose to include. Throughout their routine, gymnast must blend together

When most people hear the word "gymnastics" they think of the most widely-known type of gymnastics: women's gymnastics. This is most likely due to the fact that women's gymnastics is one of the most watched summer Olympic sports due to its intense and impressive nature. What many bystanders of the sport of gymnastics do not realize is that women's gymnastics is not the only type of gymnastics. The definition of gymnastics according to Merriam-Webster is "a competitive sport in which individuals perform optional and prescribed acrobatic feats mostly on special apparatus in order to demonstrate strength, balance, and body control." Women's gymnastics is the most widely known sport that fits into this description, but other types of gymnastics that I will be introducing in this post include men's gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, and aerobic gymnastics. Women’s Gymnastics Most people are knowledgeable on this type of gymnastics, but I