Week Four:
Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds.
You need to know how to move your body. The ability to move one’s body weight effortlessly and with confidence will transfer in strengths across the board in your training and daily life.
Plus, 76% of standard CrossFit benchmark Girls contain gymnastic movement. That’s a pretty big emphasis on gymnastic movements.
Gymnastics will improve performance in any other sport, as well as improving overall fitness and functional strength. How many people can deadlift or back squat their body weight or more, but can’t pull their own body high enough to get their chin over the pull up bar?
Gymnastics is all about resistance training. Studies have shown that resistance training improves joint health, maintains muscular development, and improves cardiovascular fitness. The conditioning involved in a progressive gymnastics program focuses on functional strength, and it will also help prevent injuries.
Everyone has to be aware of safe progressions. Adults have a higher risk of injury than children. This is due to larger body size. A 180 lb adult will hit the floor with a lot more force than a 60 lb child. Even though the adult has more muscle mass to buffer the impact the possibility for injury is increased. Secondly adults recover slower than children. Proper progressions and a focus on safety is critical.
Think about how the average gymnast looks and moves. You can advance your training by first learning an effective hollow position, along with the opposing arch. This core control and positioning translates into almost every other movement in CrossFit.
It also has a high degree of transferability into any other sport and everyday life. Learning superior core control safeguards your low back, teaches great posture, and makes you stronger. From here we learn to continue core bracing while applying force from the hips or shoulders.
Almost everything in CrossFit is dominated by the hips, specifically hip extension. If you are doing CrossFit correctly you should be able to snap your hips open effortlessly.
On the other hand, gymnastics is a refreshing break from the hip dominated world and really teaches you to tap into your shoulders. Have you seen the difference between a gymnastics kip and a CrossFit kip? The gymnast will pull all that power from the shoulders whereas CrossFitters will use the hips.
If you are going to be doing anything with a pull up bar or rings you better learn what your lats are and how to turn them on.
Everything starts with a good progression – the hollow position, active shoulder, emphasis on the lats, and then begin your movement. There is an easy rule to remember for safe shoulder positioning: actively push or pull your shoulders to directly oppose the force being placed upon them.
If you are hanging from a bar the force is pulling them up so you retract into your socket. If you are holding a barbell overhead you actively push into the bar driving the bar away from you.
Even if you never fully attain all of these gymnastics skills, the strength and coordination will help in other movements. This was recognized back in the 1940s when the U.S. Navy adopted gymnastics to be a part of their regular training routine. It forged stronger bodies, allowed for better spatial awareness, and made the sailors more fearless. How many of you would like that yourselves?
Gymnastics is fun. Learning how to tumble, flip, swing, and come as close to self powered flight as is possible is a blast. Gymnastics is anything but boring. There is always another step to learn.
We will be introducing a Gymnastics Class here at the gym this spring/summer!