If you’ve ever watched gymnastics in the Olympics, then you’re already aware of how great gymnastics training clearly is for improving strength and flexibility, not to mention being able to achieve incredible moves that the rest of us perceive to be impossible. But there are loads of other great benefits to gymnastics too.
10 Over the Top Benefits of Gymnastics Training
1. Helps You Develop Coordination
Any form of gymnastics requires good coordination, but did you know that learning gymnastics improves your coordination? That’s right – you don’t already need to be super coordinated before starting out. Every expert was once a beginner after all! The more you learn in gymnastics, the more your body adapts to holding what you would have once considered impossible positions, therefore improving your coordination. Having good coordination will not only make you better at gymnastics, but it will also help to improve your general alignment when walking, jumping and doing any other day to day activities. Brilliant!
2. Improves Flexibility
Even if the thought of touching your toes is something you don’t think you’ll ever be able to achieve, don’t worry because being flexible isn’t a requirement to start gymnastics training – thankfully! You’re probably wondering how you’re going to manage any of the exercises if you’re not already flexible, but training in gymnastics will help to improve your flexibility as you go along. This is because you’re doing various mobility exercises during the training to make your body more supple and reduce your risk of injury by gradually increasing your range of movement.
3. Helps Develop Strength and Power
Despite professional gymnasts making it look like the moves they do are easy, they really aren’t. I’ve learned from experience that even just walking along a beam without falling off is difficult, let alone doing handstands on it! So if you think gymnastics won’t give you a decent workout, think again! It is an incredible way to improve muscular strength and power because you will be using bodyweight training as a way to work both upper and lower body, while also strengthening your core. It’s not just lifting weight in the gym that will help you to develop strength; gymnastics is perfect for this too!
4. Teaches Listening and Learning Skills
For a gymnast, following instructions is vital to help prevent injury. Secretly, we all want to magically smash out some amazing moves in our first class, but realistically the majority of gymnastics moves take quite some time to master. It’s much better to listen to the coach and learn the correct technique rather than just taking a risk and going for it, which could potentially result in injury. The sense of discipline instilled by gymnastics training is incredible – from listening to instruction right through to applying it and performing the move, it’s clear how important listening and learning is.
5. Improves Self-Esteem and Confidence
Exercise in general releases endorphins, which make you feel happy, but it also helps to boost confidence and self-esteem. You know that buzzing feeling you get after a workout, right? Well, gymnastics will help you feel more confident in both your body image and abilities because of the positive impact it will have on your body aesthetically as well as what you are capable of achieving. It will also improve your belief in yourself, helping you to feel more confident! Therefore, propelling you to continue achieving more fantastic things both in your gymnastics training and in other parts of your life!
6. Provides Social Interaction with Peers
Whether you’re someone who loves to chat to everyone you meet or someone who prefers to keep to yourself, gymnastics has something for you. If you love the social side of it, then you’ll thrive on the communication within classes (because communication is one of the key things in learning new moves). Alternately, if you’re relatively shy then learning gymnastics will help to improve your social skills. You’ll be talking to your peers and classmates while learning new things. This will improve your social skills without you having to feel like it’s forced because every beginner will be in the same situation as you – eager to learn.
7. Teaches Goal Setting
It’s likely that before you even step foot in the door for your first gymnastics session, you’ll have a goal or two in mind of what you hope to achieve from the classes. Then after your first meeting, you might even have some new goals set. One of the best things about gymnastics is, goals are not based on how you look or what size dress you fit in; instead based on celebrating what your body can do! Don’t worry, though you will still be losing weight doing gymnastics training – you’ll just have loads of fun developing an impressive set of skills while doing it!
8. Develops Cognitive Abilities to Help in the Classroom or Workplace
Learning gymnastics involves taking instruction and applying it to training, so it contributes to developing an understanding of using initiative and working on something when given advice by a coach. This will not only help children with learning in school but also potentially adults in the workplace. Whether it’s, being respectful while allowing others to take their turn, or disciplined enough not to cheat on a test when the teacher is looking away. Gymnastics teaches far more than just physical training.
9. Develop Skills to Enhance Other Sports
Since gymnastics is all about bodyweight training and flexibility, this means the skills learned from it will be readily transferable to other sports. Not only will gymnastics training help you develop various skill sets you can apply to the sports themselves, but it will also strengthen your body for general activities and other forms of exercise. You will be making your body stronger and suppler in various ways that can help to improve your quality of life, making your mobility and agility better. What more could you want?
10. It’s FUN!
I couldn’t leave this point out because, in my opinion, exercise should be fun! And what’s more fun than learning how to do something new each lesson and achieving things with your body that you wouldn’t have even dreamed of before!?
