Strengths of Gymnastics

Gymnastics, according to an article in About.com, is a sport where the athletes, called gymnasts, perform acrobatic feats like leaps, flips, turns, handstands, and more on an piece of apparatus such as a balance beam, or with a piece of apparatus like a rope or ribbon.

The site also mentioned that according to Oxford Dictionaries, gymnastics is "Exercises developing or displaying physical agility and coordination. The modern sport of gymnastics typically involves exercises on uneven bars, balance beam, floor, and vaulting horse (for women), and horizontal and parallel bars, rings, floor, and pommel horse (for men)."

Contrary to non-fan’s knowledge, gymnastics has two types: artistic and rhythmic. The first type of gymnastics, the most commonly known one, focuses more on performing on the apparatus, while the second type is focused on performing with the apparatus.

(For in-depth introduction on rhythmic gymnastics, please read: What is Rhythmic Gymnastics)

There are multiple benefits (physically, emotionally, and mentally) to joining gymnastics, for us personally or for our kids. There are other articles that talked about that, but here we would discuss four strengths of gymnastics.

Core and Grace

Gymnastics is very good at developing our or our kids’ core power as it often features extreme back bending. Such stunts are very dangerous for our lumbar spine and back muscles. This is why gymnasts train hard to strengthen their core to stabilize the spine, thus lessening the risk of damage.

Aside from core training, gymnasts also practice grace. Gymnastics is basically dancing, and a good dancer shows grace in her movements. They are expected to hold their posture elegantly and impeccably, which is why their training is similar to classical ballet. However, gymnastics is not simply just dancing, as gymnasts have to move with their prop or apparatus in a way that complements the music.

Flexibility and Strength

Flexibility and strength might seem like two contradicting traits a person’s body should have, as it means that to be flexible, one must have soft or weak muscles and to be strong, one must have hard muscles. It seems that you can’t have both at the same time, but this is where training for gymnastics is great at.

Gymnasts do drills to strengthen the soft areas of the body and to increase the body parts’ stamina. Also, they do exercises to make the legs, hips and spine really flexible to perfect a beautiful and graceful routine. According to Sports Physical Therapy Institute, one side of the body can become tighter than the other because of the nature of the movements the gymnasts make, so it is important during training to focus on maintaining whole-body flexibility and stretching.

These are just some of the strengths of gymnastics. To read more fitness and gymnastics-related articles, visit our educational blogs. Experience a fun and imaginative gymnastics training, come and enroll today at Bianka Panova Sport and Art Academy :)