![]() ![]() You’ll increase your flexibility tenfold. Just think of how many cool party tricks you’ll be able to pull off! 3. This probably isn’t a good reason to do gymnastics if you have no other interest in it (ok, it’s a really bad reason), but even doing a backflip, a freestanding handstand push up or a cartwheel into a handstand forward roll will get you a “wow” response from your friends every time. Gymnasts have a level of strength that most normal people would consider near superhuman strength-but even training in gymnastics as an amateur will get you upper body strength, core strength and power like no other workout can do. Holding yourself upside down for long periods of time, flipping through the air, using rings and bars and all the other amazing stuff involved in gymnastics will get you seriously strong. You might not have guessed it, but gymnasts are the strongest, pound for pound, of all the Olympic athletes. ![]() I believe this is an incredibly important thing to do to keep pushing your personal boundaries, to gain confidence and new skills, and to keep that youthful hope and enthusiasm we all started out life with alive.Īnd whether you decide to try out gymnastics or opt for another sport, my hope is that you always keep learning and pushing yourself so that you’re always growing as an athlete-and as a person in general.īut that being said, here are 8 reasons you should do gymnastics as an adult: 1. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may have noticed that I’m constantly recommending you to try new sports, activities and to go beyond your current personal limits. Just to prove it to you, here’s a very awkward/dorky video of a few of the skills I’ve been working on so far (hopefully I’ll have a much more impressive video for you in a few months): Yet despite all these things, despite the fact that I know I’ll never be an amazing gymnast, I’ve never had more fun. But, now that I realize I need to work on it, I’ve been paying attention to it more. I still need to increase my back flexibility, something you don’t really think about when you’re doing stuff like burpees, push ups and squats. But I’m learning to work around them and further strengthen with these new movements. I will always, I think, have shoulder issues. They hinder rather than help me (the average height of an Olympic gymnast is 4’9″-I’m a foot higher than that). My arms and legs are way too long for normal gymnastics. ![]() It’s a good thing I didn’t take ballerina classes instead-I would have sucked at them. If you hadn’t noticed from any of my videos, I’m always just a little awkward, and that’s probably never going to change. I am still not “graceful” doing any of these exercises. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of all the floor, rings, and bar skills I have the potential to learn. I can now officially do cartwheels, roundoffs, kickovers, back bends, forward rolls, straddled forward rolls, pike jumps, handstands into a forward roll… you get the drift. I’ve made leaps and bounds of improvement. Adults Can be Gymnasts, TooĪs of writing this today, I’m six gymnastics classes in. It truly felt like I was going back to the basics. I went home and practiced my handstands, tried to stay straight while doing cartwheels, did shoulder shrugs to strengthen my shoulders (which have been a lifelong weakness of mine) and back bends to gain flexibility. Let’s just say that for a fitness professional and someone used to working out hard, often, it was an incredibly humbling experience. By the end, my shoulders were shaking, my neck sore, my hair dripping with sweat. I kept forgetting to point my toes (apparently, there’s actually a reason to do this). My flexibility (especially in my back) needed improvement. Sure, I’d played around doing some cartwheels, bridges and freestanding handstands here and there since I’d learned them as a little kid, but the truth was that I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. My first gymnastics class in 21 years was tough. ![]() But until that time when I decided I was too cool for it (a decision I very much regret), I thought gymnastics were awesome.Īll that flipping, and being upside down, and the jumping around, and the foam pit-what could be more fun than that?įast forward to a few months ago, and I decided it was time to try it all over again. I did gymnastics up until I was probably in first grade, at which point I decided they were too “girly” and promptly stopped going (it probably didn’t help that even back then, it was obvious that I didn’t have a gymnast’s build). If your answer is not since you were six years old, I can relate. When was the last time you did a cartwheel? Swung upside down on the rings? Or jumped on a trampoline? ![]()
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