7 conditioning priorities for gymnasts

Sands, McNeal and Jemni have offer advice for “coaches who are seeking to simplify and coordinate their conditioning programs.”

Gymnastics conditioning can be distilled to a group of only seven fundamental movements. Coaches should be aware that gymnasts train movements – not muscles. …

With only a few exceptions, most gymnastics movements are multi-joint, multi-planar, and multi-directional. Simple uniplanar movements rarely mimic sport movements and result in a somewhat misplaced priority for training and conditioning.

Training for gymnastics conditioning consists of the following fundamental movements:

Shoulder flexion – casting, press handstands, planche

Shoulder extension – kipping, uprise, downswing phases of in-bar work

Upper extremity pushing – handstand, handstand push up, rebounding during hand contact phases

Upper extremity pulling – pull up, pullover, withstand the bottom of swinging skills

Jumping and landing – tumbling, vaulting, mounts, dismounts, dance movements

Torso and hip flexion – piking, tucking, leg lifts, forward somersault take offs, hollow body positions

Torso and hip extension – arching, back bends, walkovers, flic flacs, most backward take offs

Seven Fundamental Movements for Conditioning Gymnasts

This is similar to what we use in Canada though the terminology differs. Canadians call this kind of conditioning taxonomy the “prevailing body actions” of gymnastics.

Useful to set and evaluate conditioning programs. Right?

The same authors did a follow-up article: Circuit Program Design