Gymnasts possess an ideal combination of strength and flexibility. Integrating gymnastic exercises into your upper body workouts provides challenge and variety that keeps muscles active while helping avoid plateaus.
Gymnasts require strong core muscles, including abdominal and back muscles, for proper training of gymnastics. This workout focuses on building these muscles while simultaneously improving balance and stability.
Assess Your Athlete’s Needs
At the core of any tailored training plan lies an evaluation that takes into account an athlete’s skill level, strengths, weaknesses and physical condition. Furthermore, discussion should take place with their athlete to uncover goals, concerns and motivation levels so coaches can collaborate to design workouts which promote progress while inspiring passion for their sport.
Gymnastics is an arduous sport that places great strain on the body, so maintaining high-level flexibility is crucial to reduce injury risks and facilitate movement more freely and more effectively absorb impact. Furthermore, this can prevent muscle strains or tears which are common among gymnasts.
Gymnasts looking to increase their flexibility may benefit from adding static stretching into their daily routines or performing dynamic stretches tailored specifically for their sport, while bodyweight exercises such as pushups, sit-ups, calf raises and different planche positions can help build core strength and build flexibility.
Gymnasts should also strive to vary how closely their workouts resemble competition throughout the year. General exercises should be used early in a training cycle while more specialized skills may be introduced later – this allows athletes to exercise at their optimal intensity without overtraining, which can decrease performance and increase injuries.
Gymnasts must ensure proper nutrition and recovery to fuel rigorous training, and for peak health and performance. A balanced diet that includes ample amounts of protein, carbohydrates, fats, fiber and water is required to maximize health and performance; also essential is drinking lots of fluids along with sleep strategies into daily schedules.
Create custom workouts easily in the SKILLCOACH app whether working with beginner or advanced gymnasts using this easy workout creator! Just select difficulty, exercise category, stance, impact level and focus areas before selecting duration and frequency intervals to build your custom routine – even customizing its name/description and tracking progress over time!
Set Realistic Goals
One of the hallmarks of gymnast success lies in her ability to set and achieve goals. Setting and meeting targets keeps an athlete motivated while working toward mastering her craft and helps guide her toward reaching her objectives.
Gymnasts may struggle to set realistic goals and reach them; to help overcome this difficulty, coaches should help their gymnasts set SMART (specific, measurable, action-based, realistic and time-bound) goals that are specific.
Setting gymnastics goals must be action-based; something the gymnast has full control and influence over. While having “big goals” like earning higher balance beam scores may seem appropriate, they do not qualify as actionable goals as the judges determine those scores; therefore creating a plan to raise start value and reduce deductions is what counts as “action.”
Break your goals down into smaller, more manageable goals to increase their likelihood of being met. For instance, if a gymnast wants to attend college gymnastics she could set herself an intermediate goal of reaching level 10 every year prior to being recruited by colleges; this will allow her to focus on reaching those intermediate goals rather than becoming overwhelmed by long-term ones of becoming an elite gymnast.
To ensure that gymnasts will complete what they set out to achieve, rewards should also be incorporated into the process. Gymnasts can use a chart or habit tracking app as a reward system, for instance earning small rewards like movie and popcorn tickets after practicing skills that she set as her goals every week.
Coaches should collaborate with their gymnasts to develop a gym-specific roadmap, which will assist them in understanding the steps required to meet their goals and serve as a reminder of their progression throughout the year. Creating such a roadmap is especially critical for younger gymnasts who spend hours each week at the gym and need motivation in order to perform at their best.
Create a Collaborative Environment
Gymnastics requires amazing physical strength and agility to excel, yet its benefits extend well beyond physical fitness. Gymnastics is a wonderful way to build confidence, discipline, perseverance and teamwork – not to mention providing gymnasts with skills they can apply in other parts of their lives.
Sport helps athletes develop mental toughness that allows them to overcome setbacks and failures, as well as manage other aspects of life such as juggling schoolwork with training schedules or dealing with high-stakes competitions using mindfulness techniques and leaning on support networks.
Furthermore, it’s crucial that gym cultures respect all voices – including both those of gymnasts and coaches. Gymnasts should feel free to express their opinions and perspectives even when they differ from those held by coaches; this enables innovation to occur and allows everyone involved to learn from one another.
Create an environment conducive to gymnasts taking ownership and staying motivated with their training plan and plan adjustments when needed. It also builds trust between athlete and coach that can keep their coaching relationship healthy.
As part of your gymnastics program, one way to foster collaboration is through group exercises in each lesson. This could involve gymnasts working together on handstand progression or performing form stretching with one another; or creating games requiring cooperation like tag or “in the hoop”, in which they must get all teammates into a hoop to win.
Finally, you can encourage gymnasts to work together by assigning tasks like setting up equipment or developing team routines. This is an excellent way of breaking them out of their comfort zones and into a cooperative mindset; when working together they’ll gain a sense of accomplishment that will boost their self-confidence and drive them toward more in the future.
Balance Internal and External Motivation
Young gymnasts require constant motivation, and it is the responsibility of coaches and staff to create an environment that fosters their success. This means fostering genuine coach-athlete relationships built upon mutual trust, curiosity and an interest in sports as a lifestyle pursuit.
Intrinsic motivation can often be more effective at increasing workout consistency than external motivators; however, sometimes an athlete needs an external push during tough training sessions; signing up for a race can provide that extra motivation that may otherwise go overlooked.
Working out alongside friends or family can also increase workout consistency by providing additional accountability. According to one study, individuals who exercise with others tend to have higher adherence rates compared with those who work out alone – perhaps because socializing and exercising together add a rewarding yet challenging element that makes their routines all the more fun!
Coaching staff play a critical role in maintaining workout consistency by encouraging an individualized approach to training. This may involve tailoring exercises according to an individual’s specific needs and goals while also showing proper technique demonstration. Furthermore, coaches provide advice and encouragement that may assist their athletes in reaching their goals more successfully.
As it’s also essential that gyms provide comprehensive training programs that prioritize progression and safety, it is also crucial that these programs address progression while simultaneously decreasing injury risks while increasing workout consistency by making sure foundational skills are mastered before moving onto advanced movements.
Also essential in training sessions is including dynamic stability drills that focus on building a strong core and shoulders. One such drill, known as Front Lever (a variation on pull-up), works to activate and strengthen core muscles while increasing shoulder stability and definition; its performance stimulates deltoids to provide added strength to the upper back region. Meanwhile, overhead kettlebell dynamic stability drills such as Loaded Carries or Turkish Get Ups can provide excellent solutions for developing both shoulder strength and flexibility while supporting the rotator cuff.
