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Gymnastics - got a trick back!

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I just have to celebrate, so I'm dumping it here. hehe. I got my first gymnastics trick back! Meaning that this is something that I could do as a kid, but haven't been able to pull off as an adult... until tonight! I forgot how good this feels! :becky:

It's nothing big and fancy, just a pull over on uneven bars, but this now means I can get up on the bars unassisted. :banana:
 

MaineSkiLady

Angel Diva
Hey, that IS good. I remember struggling through this in high school....which was deep into the last century. Lost the splits years ago. :frown:
Bravo!
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
My splits are pathetic, as is my back bend. :P I'm pretty sure I'm the most inflexible person in the class.

Sent from my SGH-i667 using Board Express
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Oh, except my wrists which are apparently freakishly flexible.

Sent from my SGH-i667 using Board Express
 

Mom of Redheads

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Congratulations to you!

But I just have to ask - speaking as an ex-State Champ gymnast from oh, further back than I care to remember - gymnastics as an adult? Um, why?

Is this the latest exercise craze? Do you teach and need to occasionally show how it's done? You must be still relatively young, I'm guessing! I could still do some tumbling in an open field into my mid-twenties... but now? I fear I'd land on my head and none of my joints bend! LOL... I'm not sure I could do a cartwheel! You're either brave or insane... (or working up to the half-pipe?)
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Congratulations to you!

But I just have to ask - speaking as an ex-State Champ gymnast from oh, further back than I care to remember - gymnastics as an adult? Um, why?

Is this the latest exercise craze? Do you teach and need to occasionally show how it's done? You must be still relatively young, I'm guessing! I could still do some tumbling in an open field into my mid-twenties... but now? I fear I'd land on my head and none of my joints bend! LOL... I'm not sure I could do a cartwheel! You're either brave or insane... (or working up to the half-pipe?)

I might be insane, or a glutton for punshiment. If I'm brave, it's probably only because I'm insane and don't know better. :wink: I'm not all that young, mid-30's, and hadn't done gymnastics since I was maybe 16? I don't coach, just do it for fun. You know, it does seem to a bit of an exercise craze right now for adults, and I'll take it! I had looked for adult classes when I was in my 20's, and nobody every offered anything other than "open gym," which well... sucks because it's not really a structured class. Now there are actually a few adult classes here and there!

You don't miss it at all? I really do love gymnastics. I only quit as a teen because I never liked competing, but competing was the only way I could keep attending the higher level classes outside of the once a week beginner class. After 3 years of being on team, I was just done. I hate people watching me, stage fright!

If you were an ex-State champ, I would bet you could still do more than you realize! I was never all that good, and didn't even start gymnastics until I was 13. While your cartwheel might not be perfect anymore, I bet you could do one and quite a few other things, as well. Most of the muscle memory is still there. The biggest issues I've run into have mostly been strength/flexibility losses. I also miss how fit I was. I've never been as fit as I was when I was a gymnast. I hate going to the gym and exercising for the sake of exercising, so this is a good way to get my exercise that's still fun for me.
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
DH is going to PT for his shoulder surgery and he took in a picture of himself from back in his college gymnastics days. He's on high bar, in inverts. Anyway, he showed the PT and the guy was appalled (in a funny way)! Then DH showed him how you jam through to get to that position and he was even funnier.
 

Mom of Redheads

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I didn't know that gyms ran adult classes. I checked out the programs at several gyms in our area when I wanted to sign up DD, and I can't say I noticed adult classes being offered at any of them... but, these places are packed! I can't see them giving up space/coaching time when the gym is so full of kids!

You're nice to say I could still do some things. Maybe! I was hardcore - 30 hour a week training, extra dance classes, traveling, getting out of school early - the whole 9 yards. But I gained too much weight during puberty; my coach got negative and punitive when we started to have national recognition as a team, and it just got... not fun! So I quit my private team at the end of 8th grade (over 30 years ago for me) and did some high school competitions just for fun and to be with friends at school. I "lost" skills and tricks every year, because I knew more than the high school coach, and she couldn't really spot my tricks (much less new ones) anyway...

Gymnastics today bears little resemblance from the sport I practiced! When I quit, the vault was still smaller, and the highest level gymnasts in the country (the "elite" class) were more or less the only ones beginning to roundoff onto the springboard and do giant swings on bars, with just a few exceptions... so maybe some events would be familiar to me - but others - not so much! And while I enjoy watching in the Olympics, I actually miss some of the artistry that was lost on the floor and beam. Google Maria Filatova (circa 1980) on YouTube and your jaw will drop at her beautiful floor exercises... Anyway, I was one of the least flexible gymnasts on my team, and that issue has only gotten worse for me. It'd take months of flexibility work before I could do much of anything without risking hurting myself I think... and it would take probably more than a year to be able to do a glide kip! I agree that gymnastics is good for certain elements of "fitness" - strength, flexibility and maybe some sprint-type-cardio - but at least for me, I think gymnastics is too far in the rear view mirror for me to be interested. There are other, less high impact activities like yoga, and trying to find a leotard would probably make me feel worse than putting on a swimsuit! LOL...

But seriously, good for you... and good for any gym that has an adult clientele... My daughter loves it, but she's still young, has all the various issues related to her autism, and still needs an aide with her or she'll run off and probably get run over by a vaulter in another group! If she ever did love it, seem motivated to excel and displayed talent - I don't know how I feel. Commitment to any sport at that level makes me very ambivalent. Lots of pros and cons to weigh... It was much simpler as a child - I signed up, enjoyed myself, picked up skills faster than most, kept getting "promoted," and my parents drove me to the gym. .... As a parent, I don't think I'd look at the situation in quite that manner...:decision:
 

altagirl

Moderator
Staff member
Hey, that IS good. I remember struggling through this in high school....which was deep into the last century. Lost the splits years ago. :frown:
Bravo!

Heh, you can get that back if you want. I went to a yoga anatomy seminar a couple months ago which was run by an orthopedic surgeon/yogi. He got his 80 year old mother to progress to doing the splits. Heh, I could never do the splits as a kid but now I'm closer than I ever was anyway, and still making progress.

And as much as I love working on handstands and whatnot in yoga, I'm not sure the high impact nature of actual gymnastics would be a good thing on my body. I have done cartwheels lately though. :smile:
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
DH is going to PT for his shoulder surgery and he took in a picture of himself from back in his college gymnastics days. He's on high bar, in inverts. Anyway, he showed the PT and the guy was appalled (in a funny way)! Then DH showed him how you jam through to get to that position and he was even funnier.

I don't think I know the backstory here... why did you DH need shoulder surgery? Please tell me it wasn't from years of abuse in gymnastics. I don't want to be this a year from now... :injured:lol.
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Gymnastics today bears little resemblance from the sport I practiced! When I quit, the vault was still smaller, and the highest level gymnasts in the country (the "elite" class) were more or less the only ones beginning to roundoff onto the springboard and do giant swings on bars, with just a few exceptions... so maybe some events would be familiar to me - but others - not so much! And while I enjoy watching in the Olympics, I actually miss some of the artistry that was lost on the floor and beam. Google Maria Filatova (circa 1980) on YouTube and your jaw will drop at her beautiful floor exercises... Anyway, I was one of the least flexible gymnasts on my team, and that issue has only gotten worse for me. It'd take months of flexibility work before I could do much of anything without risking hurting myself I think... and it would take probably more than a year to be able to do a glide kip! I agree that gymnastics is good for certain elements of "fitness" - strength, flexibility and maybe some sprint-type-cardio - but at least for me, I think gymnastics is too far in the rear view mirror for me to be interested. There are other, less high impact activities like yoga, and trying to find a leotard would probably make me feel worse than putting on a swimsuit! LOL...

Mom of Redheads... sounds like you were a lot better and there was a lot more pressure involved than the gymnastics world I knew. I started so late and wasn't all that good, and neither was my team, and our coach was all "meh, whatever..." haha. We had a soda machine in the gym that we all bought crap from, and I'm pretty sure there was never any discussion of weight. I really think gymnastics as a sport is a double-edged sword. At a more casual/recreational level, I think it's a great way to exercise and improve balance, flexibility, strength, coordination. But at a more competitive level, I think it can be a sport that takes a huge toll mentally and physically.

And I'm totally with you on the artistry being lost from gymnastics. The floor routines now are just a bunch of odd poses, spins, and tumbling that really seem to have nothing to do with the music playing, with a few rare exceptions. With the new scoring system it's like they don't have time to dance, it's all about cramming in as many points as possible before the music stops.

ETA: and there are no leotards in my class. :smile: I normally wear leggings w/shorts over them or bike shorts, and a tight athletic tank.
 

Mom of Redheads

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
DH is going to PT for his shoulder surgery and he took in a picture of himself from back in his college gymnastics days. He's on high bar, in inverts. Anyway, he showed the PT and the guy was appalled (in a funny way)! Then DH showed him how you jam through to get to that position and he was even funnier.

American gymnast Kurt Thomas at the peak of his career:

His high bar routine starts at 2:58 approx... even back then, doing the inverted giants wasn't terribly common. And nowadays? Pretty much non existant...
 

Jenny

Angel Diva
Tinymoose - No it wasn't from gymnastics, it was from snowboarding in the trees! He partially tore the bicep tendon, so they moved where it attaches and also took out some arthritis from the joint. And in the pictures they took they note that his rotator cuff is good, so at least one of his shoulders made it through gymnastics OK.

Altagirl - Lately my yoga instructors seem to be focusing on the splits, which I also could never do as a kid, so I'll be sure to check out that link. I still don't see it happening for my body, but we'll see. I can do a handstand now, and even take my feet off the wall for a few seconds, which is more than I could do before, too, so I guess you never know.
 

Ellen

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I finally read this thread. Good for you Tinymoose. It is good to do something challenging that you find rewarding. I worry enough about hurting myself doing yoga or pilates. I was avoiding the thread for a funny reason - I had misinterpreted the title and thought that you had HURT you back doing gymnastics! I am glad I was wrong as I just was not up for an injury thread. (I haven't read the ski accident tread either).
 

tinymoose

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Haha. No. :smile: No more injuries for me yet.

Sent from my SGH-i667 using Board Express
 

Mom of Redheads

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
The floor routines now are just a bunch of odd poses, spins, and tumbling that really seem to have nothing to do with the music playing, with a few rare exceptions.

OMG you made me laugh... as far as I can tell, current floor routines are a mix of tumbling and catching your breath while you wave your hands gracefully/artistically, snort...

But check this out. Talk about funny!

 

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