Best Gymnastics Workouts
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Myth #1: Gymnasts need a gym.
Myth #2: You have to be a gymnast to do gymnastics.
No matter what sport you participate in, conditioning workouts for gymnastics will help you become a better athlete. In fact, gymnastic workouts can carry over to a variety of different activities and everyday movements to make you more flexible, balanced, and strong.
Better yet? You can easily fit gymnastics workouts into any space, including the comfort of your own home. It is important to practice gymnastics skills at home to significantly increase your ability to perform these popular movements with strength and confidence.
In this article, I am going to go over the gymnastics exercises that I consider essential for people who are aspiring gymnastics and want to hone their craft, or for people who are striving to be more well-rounded in their physical abilities.
Core Gymnastics Exercises
This first list of gymnastics exercises are top movements to incorporate into your routine when performing a gymnastics style workout. Not only do they get your heart rate up, but they also prepare your body to complete more complex or technical movements.
#1. Jumps
The ability to jump with power and explosiveness is critical to gymnastics and so many other sports or weight training programs.
You can practice straight jumps (jumping straight upward), tuck jumps (bringing your legs up as you jump).
Once you are properly warmed up, you can advance your jumping workouts to include the more technical pike jumps (bringing your arms and legs forward as you jump) or split jumps (performing a split in the air).
#2. Turns
In gymnastics, gymnasts need to turn in both floor and beam routines, and this requires balance and agility from the athlete.
Turns can transfer over to other sports where athletes need to quickly pivot in different directions.
A carpeted floor or wearing socks on a smooth floor can help you practice your turns with ease.
#3. Leaps
During gymnastics routines, a strong leap can differentiate an average routine from an excellent one.
Leaps need to be performed with power and control.
When practicing this gymnastic exercise, focus on covering ground as you move, your explosiveness from the ground, and extending your legs in the air.
Strengthening with Gymnastics
The technical movements that gymnasts perform demand strong muscles and a stable core. By practicing the following strength movements at home, you can excel your performance in the gym or studio.
#1. Pull-Ups
This popular exercise is an excellent way to improve your upper body strength and power when performing other gymnastics movements.
Pull-ups can be a particularly challenging movement for beginner and intermediate athletes, so I suggest purchasing a pull-up bar that can be easily added to your home (like ones that fit in home doorways) to give you the benefit of more practice.
#2. Spider-Man Against the Wall
This gymnastics workout is another movement that will strengthen your upper body and core, that carries over significantly to improve your handstand strength.
Facing away from a wall in your home, put your hands on the floor and walk your legs up the wall behind you.
Then, walk your hands towards the wall until your stomach touches it and you are in a perfect handstand. Engage your core and practice keeping your body straight and strong in this handstand position.
#3. Sprints
You might want to move this gymnastics workout outdoors to have more space: your goal with sprints is to run as quickly as possible for a short amount of time.
This transfers over to strengthening your Vault skills and overall cardiovascular health.
#4. Conditioning
Gymnastics requires overall strength and stability, so continue to challenge yourself with popular movements like planks, push-ups, burpees, and bird-dogs to increase your overall fitness.
I suggest training in high intensity intervals (HIIT) to support your conditioning.
Improving Flexibility with Gymnastics Workouts
In all gymnastic movements, your body’s flexibility and range of motion is put to the test. Expert flexibility requires daily practice, so here are a few movements to increase your mobility at home.
#1. Scales
Scales challenge your lower body’s flexibility and strength in small increments.
They require you to lift your leg in front of your body or behind your body in a slow, controlled motion while keeping your legs straight and hips square.
Scales are also the ultimate test of balance, making them crucial for balance beam practice.
#2. Splits
This classic gymnastics exercise is the true test of your flexibility and they can increase your performance and range of motion in so many different gymnastics movements.
Splits have to be practiced frequently if you want to improve at them, so that is why I suggest getting used to performing splits at home.
Important Notes for Working Out at Home
These are all effective conditioning workouts for gymnastics that you can easily perform at home, while keeping some important factors in mind. As with any home workout, you must be aware of your space. Ask yourself...
Are there any furniture items or overhead objects you could injure yourself on? Anything on the floor that could be a tripping hazard?
Is this a movement that should be performed in socks, or are bare feet or running shoes safer to avoid slipping?
These are just a sample of questions to consider before you set out to complete gymnastics workouts at home.
As well, conditioning workouts for gymnastics demand a lot from our bodies.
Always make sure that you are properly warmed up before performing gymnastics workouts and that you end your session with cool down stretching. Listen to your body to avoid any increased risk of injury.
While gymnastics workouts from home are necessary for advancing your athletic abilities, they should never compromise your safety.
Final Thoughts
As you have heard, practice makes perfect, and this particularly rings true for your fitness and sports related goals.
Use these at-home gymnastic workouts to give yourself optimal opportunities to increase your overall strength, flexibility, and power. In my opinion, it is what you do at home and outside of the gym that separates the average athlete from the excellent one.
