11 Benefits of Gymnastics That Will Get You Up On The Parallels

We’re sure that everyone has managed to turn on the Olympics at once point in life and stopped on the gymnastics competitions. When you watch gymnasts, it seems almost like they are superhuman machines built to do flips and some really insane things. The fact of the matter is that you don’t need to be a superhuman Olympian in order to do gymnastics. Even beginners can do gymnastics and it’s actually not that hard to learn, especially when you begin at a young age.

The benefits of gymnastics are very numerous and widespread. Gymnastics can make your bones stronger, make your mind function better, increase your happiness, and help with balance and coordination too, among many other things. Keep reading if you want to find out just how many different benefits come with engaging in regular gymnastic exercise!

Benefit #1: Bone Building Benefits

Something that is extremely beneficial about engaging in a regular bout of gymnastic exercise is that it can go a long way in helping you build bigger and stronger bones. Bones are built thanks to a type of exercise known as weight bearing exercises, otherwise known as exercises which force you to hold up your own weight for a prolonged period of time.

Weight bearing exercises include things like running, jumping rope, and of course gymnastics too. Gymnastics involves a ton of being on your feet, and all of those jumps and flips force you to land on your legs, thus putting a whole lot of weight on them. Moreover, many gymnastic maneuvers involve putting weight on your arms, such as when you use the parallel bars.

These types of exercises, weight bearing exercises, train your bones to become stronger in much the same way as your muscles get bigger. The process is just like when you exercise your muscles and they get bigger. Bone building exercises cause your osteoblasts to lay down bone mass due to the pressure you put on them, thus causing them to be activated.

Therefore the more weight bearing exercises you do, the more bone mass will be created, ultimately making your bones thicker, denser, and bigger. Stronger bones are essential to maintaining a healthy body, especially in your old age. Strong bones are crucial for preventing broken bones and for preventing degenerative bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Each time you land that flip with perfect form your bones will grow a little bit stronger!

Benefit #2: Increasing Flexibility

One of the biggest benefits that you can get from doing gymnastics on a regular basis is that it can help to greatly improve your flexibility and your range of motion. First of all, gymnastics requires you to do a lot of extensive stretching before you get into any routine or try any gymnastic type movements.

This is because of course gymnastics involves a lot of moving in various ways in which most human bodies are incapable of, or at least aren’t used to. Stretching for gymnastics in itself will increase your flexibility.

As we just said, gymnastics, at least if you want to be good at it, also requires a lot of flexibility and the more gymnastic maneuvers you do, the more flexible you will become. It’s kind of funny because gymnastics both requires you to be flexible and also increases your flexibility at the very same time.

Being flexible is quite important because it will help to prevent injuries such as pulled muscles and the hyperextension of joints. This is especially true as you age, your joints tighten up, and your muscles become less limber.

The more gymnastics you do, the longer you will stay flexible for as you age, and of course, injury is also a big concern as you get older, something which can be prevented with some simple stretching and gymnastics. There is also the fact that being more flexible will improve your everyday life, plus it has some great benefits in the bedroom too.

Benefit #3: Teaching Social Skills & Making Friends

Something that is fantastic about gymnastics is that it teaches both you and your children a wide variety of social skills, all of which are necessary to lead a normal life and be a successful adult. The first social skill that a child, or even you, can learn from gymnastics is how to talk to other people and make friends.

Unless you or your child is some kind of extreme athlete that has a personal trainer and private gymnastic sessions, all of the gymnastics will be done in a group setting with other people of the same age. There is no better way to make friends and learn to engage in conversation than by being a part of the same activity, and moreover being part of a team.

Another thing that gymnastics can do is to help you or your child learn to respect authority and to listen to directions. After all, you can’t learn gymnastics on your own and a YouTube video is probably not the best way to go anyway.

It takes a certified and experienced gymnast to teach gymnastics and you will only be able to learn everything if you listen to instructions, pay attention to authority, and have respect for the person who is teaching. Respect for authority and the ability to follow directions are both crucial skills to have in life because you won’t be able to hold down a job without them, plus building relationships won’t be so easy either.

Benefit #4: Getting Your Daily Exercise

The simple fact of the matter is that everyone needs a certain amount of exercise to stay healthy and working out on a regular basis is perhaps the number one way in which you can ensure a long and healthy life. It is recommended that children get at least 60 minutes of exercise per day, every single day and there is no better way to do that than with some simple gymnastics.

Furthermore, it is recommended that adults over the age of 18 get 30 minutes of exercise per day at the very least and you should do so at least 5 days per week. Sure, this goes for any type of exercise, but gymnastics comes with some many different benefits that it would be a real shame not to benefit from them.

Regular exercise has a really long list of health benefits, none of which should be looked past. Controlling weight and preventing obesity, preventing heart disease, preventing joint problems, increased mental health and happiness, and a long list of other benefits can all be attained just from engaging in some regular exercise in the form of gymnastics.

Benefit #5: Increased Balance & Coordination

Another big benefit that you can get from doing gymnastics on a regular basis is that it can help improve both your balance and your coordination. Gymnastics require you to have an insane amount of balance in order to be successful at it. You need to be able to stand and jump with one leg, balance on the beams, hold yourself up in certain positions, and you definitely need to be able to stick those landings.

Even if your balance is not that great yet, training and practicing day in and day out will slowly improve your balance, make you better at all of those gymnastic maneuvers, and will make your everyday life easier too. Balance is required for many parts of your daily life, plus it is helpful in your old age to prevent slips and falls which can cause serious injury.

Your ability to balance has to do with things in your body called proprioceptors. These things are the parts of your body that register positional changes and react to those shifts to keep you upright. The more you train these proprioceptors, the quicker they can react to positional shifts, thus helping you balance.

Engaging in regular gymnastics can also help to greatly improve your coordination. It takes a whole lot of coordination in order to stick those landings, grab the bars at the right time and place, and in order to judge the position of your body when you are doing summersaults and flips. Without the proper coordination, you aren’t going to be very successful at gymnastics, not to mention that you will end up falling on your butt over and over again.

Don’t worry if you don’t have the best hand-eye coordination right now, because the more you practice gymnastics the more it will improve. Having better hand-eye coordination is also pretty important in your daily life, even for things as simple as playing a friendly game of baseball with your friends.

Benefit #6: Teaching Discipline

The next benefit that you need to know about gymnastics, especially if you have children, is that it is a great way to learn to be disciplined. It is no secret that gymnastics is extremely difficult, more so if you perform gymnastics at the higher levels with all of those fancy maneuvers.

Since gymnastics is so difficult to master it takes a whole lot of training and practice to get good at it. Master gymnasts spend years, even decades, practicing to get that flip just right. It takes a ton of discipline to master those moves, and whether you are a child or an adult, that kind of dedication and time spent doing the same thing over and over again will definitely teach you and your children to be more disciplined.

Discipline is a really essential part of being a successful adult because you need to be constant in life. You need to show up to your job to make money so you can pay your bills, you need to pay all of your bills on time, and you need to take care of your family day after day, all things which require you to be very disciplined. There is no better way to learn discipline than at a young age, something which gymnastics definitely aids with.

Benefit #7: Muscle Building

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits that you can get from doing some regular gymnastics is that it is one of the absolute best things for building muscle. Have you ever seen professional gymnasts, such as those in the Olympics? Those people are built, like they are seriously muscular people. Not that they look like body builders because it takes lean muscle to be a gymnast, but none the less, they have some extremely strong muscles.

In order to execute those fancy maneuvers, you need to be extremely strong. Obviously, many people aren’t going to be able to do many of the things involved in gymnastics at first, but over time as you train, you will get stronger and you will be able to execute those moves. Not only do the various moves make you stronger by themselves, but you will also need to engage in various conditioning exercises and weight training in order to become strong enough to even attempt any of those fancy tricks.

In short, all of the training you do for gymnastics makes you stronger, not to mention that gymnastics itself is a fantastic full body workout which will train every single muscle in your body. Stronger muscles mean better physical performance, plus it will help make your everyday life much easier too. Gymnastics involves your legs, arms, back, and especially your core, all of which will end up shredded after just a few short months of doing daily gymnastics. Carrying your kids around can get pretty tiring, but not if you have finely tuned gymnast muscles!

Benefit #8: Losing Weight

Have you ever seen an overweight gymnast? Yeah, we didn’t think so. It would be nearly impossible to do gymnastics if you are overweight. Moreover, if you do happen to be carrying around a few extra pounds, gymnastics can help you lose them in a flash.

Since gymnastics involves a ton of conditioning and requires you to be extremely strong and full of stamina, your only option is to train your butt off. It takes a whole lot of dedication, endurance, and strength to perform those maneuvers. So, if you are a little overweight you may not be able to execute all of the maneuvers, but as you train and keep practicing, you will surely lose weight very quickly, to the point where you can do everything the pros can do, plus to the point where you achieve the weight level you want to be at.

Professional gymnasts live on very strict diets and they train for endless hours, both things which will lead you to a lean and shredded body. Gymnastics is a very strenuous and calorie intensive sport that will help you burn fat and shred those extra pounds like no tomorrow. Even just the side training you do for gymnastics will do the trick.

Benefit #9: Increased Cognitive Function

Something else that gymnastics can help you with is to improve your overall cognitive function, especially your concentration and focus. It takes a whole lot of focus to train in gymnastics. It takes endless hours of repetition to execute pretty much any maneuver in gymnastics and to do that for so long you definitely need to be able to focus on the task at hand.

Your brain can be trained just like your muscles and bones, thus, the more you practice something like focusing on a specific task at hand, the better you will get at it. Focus is a pretty important virtue to master and it comes in handy in your everyday life. You need to be able to concentrate at your job so you can build a career, you need to be able to focus on your loved ones to meet their needs, and you need to be able to focus while driving so you don’t plow into a wall going 80 miles per hour. Moreover, gymnastics can also help increase your problem-solving skills.

Often in gymnastic when you can’t execute a certain move, it is because of the way you are doing it. Therefore, you need to be able to identify the problem, come up with a reasonable solution to that problem, and then execute the plan to get rid of the problem. Once again, problem-solving skills are essential to have for your everyday life.

Benefit #10: More Confidence

Another thing that you and your children will benefit from in terms of doing gymnastics is that it will provide a whole lot of confidence. It’s easy to gain confidence when you or your children are involved in a group sport because everybody has each other’s back and encourages each other to do better and to do more. Moreover, it will help increase your confidence because it will help make you healthier and better looking.

Everyone likes to be proud of what they see when they look in the mirror and that is a simple fact. Furthermore, having a skill like being an accomplished gymnast will definitely help increase your confidence because the next time you go on a date and the person opposite of you asks if you have any special skills, you can say you’re an expert at back flips!

Benefit #11: Better Mental Health

Finally, gymnastics can help you achieve better mental health, not only because you feel more confident in yourself, but because of the nature of exercise itself. Exercise, especially a lot of it, will cause your brain to produce an excess of certain neurochemicals, the most important of which is serotonin. Serotonin helps make you feel happier and produces a sense of joy and elation, thus it is a really great way to help combat things like anxiety and depression.

Moreover, another set of chemicals produced by your brain when you exercise is endocannabinoids. Endocannabinoids give you a sense of happiness, relaxation, and also help to reduce the perception of pain. As you can see, exercise such as gymnastics can put your mind at ease and increase your general happiness.

Conclusion

If you haven’t already gone out and looked up where the nearest place to practice gymnastics is, we would highly recommend that you do. As you can see, the benefits of gymnastics are very vast and will go an extremely long way in keeping both your mind and your body healthy. It’s a great way to get into shape and stay that way, not to mention that it’s a great thing to do for both kids and adults.

If you have any concerns, comments, or questions about you or your children engaging in gymnastic training, please leave us a comment and we will address it when we have an opportunity to do so!