Conditioning

Conditioning is one of the most important -- but sometimes the least fun -- aspects of working out. Generally, if you are enjoying what you are doing, you work harder, perform better, and improve faster. The best way to keep conditioning and stretching fun is to keep it varied. Variety in a conditioning program not only makes it more interesting, but also makes it significantly more effective.

What follows is a list of exercises and conditioning sets that was designed to develop strength for gymnastics, although it's just as useful for general fitness.

The numbers of reps and sets have been omitted, because those numbers will be determined by the individual's fitness and strength level. A good basis is that you should be able to do two or three sets of the same number of reps. For example, if at the end of three sets of ten leg lifts, the last few are done with great difficulty or with assistance, then ten reps is a good number. More or fewer reps can be done, or weights can be used to change the difficulty.

Be sure to lower through the motion slowly, because the negative motion is more effective for building strength than the positive motion. Most of the exercises contained here are for general conditioning, especially for gymnastics.

Exercises

Push-Ups

We all know what they are, yet there is a wide range of ways they can be done. Here are some varieties to try. Any of these push-ups can be done on the floor, parallel bars, or parallettes.

The Basic Push-up: Prone position, body tight and slightly hollow. Toes on the floor, hands below your shoulders. Lower yourself to the floor and push back to the prone position. No arching, bending, or pikeing is allowed. Keep your elbows close to your sides, as this will isolate your arms better.

Knee Push-up: Fairly self-explanatory. Like a basic push-up, but your knees are your anchor point rather than your feet. This makes the motion easier.

Hollow Back-Press to Handstand: Sort of a push-up, sort of a press. Start by lying on your stomach with your hands near your hips. Lift your heels and push up to handstand, then reverse the motion. If you start in a seal-stretch and rock forward, it makes the move significantly easier.

Handstand Push-up: In a handstand, lower as far as you can go and push back to a handstand. This can be done against a wall, either with your back to the wall or facing the wall. Facing the wall in the handstand will force a better technique.

Tricep Push-ups: Place your hands on a bar or block about waist-high. Feet in front, arms back. Lower down till you are almost sitting on the floor, then push back up.

Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups

This is a list and explanation of various kinds of pull-ups.

Basic Pull-up: Hang from a bar with your hands about shoulder width apart. They can be done in an over-grip or an under-grip. The change in grip will change what muscle groups are used and how they are worked. Both kinds should be done for conditioning. The pull-up should be done so that your chest is touching or close to the bar.

Wide Arm Pull-up: Hang with your arms wide in an over-grip. Pull up so that either your chest touches the bar or the back of your neck touches the bar.

L-Hang Pull-up: Hang in an L in either an under-grip or over-grip. Do a pull-up, maintaining the L position.

Pull-up to Lever: Starting from a bent arm, hang with your chest to the bar, straighten your arms while dropping your shoulders back and lifting your toes to a front lever, then pull back to a bent arm hang.

Muscle-Up: Starting from a hang on rings, pull up high, shift your shoulders over your hands, and push up to support.

Hang to Handstand: Start in a hang on rings, do a muscle up, then a press to handstand. Greatly helps with stability on rings, and will wear you out quickly.

Sit-Ups

The abdominals are some of the most important muscles in the body for gymnastics and many other sports. Having strong abs is crucial to being successful in many skills, or just maintaining form in most skills.

Basic Sit-up: Lie down on the floor on your back with your knees bent or straight, and someone or something holding your legs or not. Sit up to an upright position.

Crunches: Lie down on the floor on your back, with knees bent or straight, and legs elevated or not. Bring your head up and in, and lift your shoulders off the floor by rounding your back as much as possible. Holding your arms above your head will add to the resistance.

N-ups: Yet again, lie on your back, this time lying flat and completely stretched out. Bring your arms in and shoulders forward while simultaneously bringing your legs up and in, so that the top position is a tuck on your back.

V-ups: Begin like N-ups. Bring your arms and shoulders up, while lifting your legs to finish in a V position.

Various Leg Stuff

Some different ideas for developing leg strength and power.

Mountain Climbers: Start in a push-up position. Bring one leg forward to a tuck position, then in quick succession switch which leg is tucked. This will work your shoulders a bit, too.

Calf Raises: Stand on a step, block, chair or other firm stable object. Stand so that the balls of your feet are supported and your heels are suspended. Lower down so that your calves are in a stretch position, then extend your feet to stand on toe. This can be done with your feet turned in, out, or neutral.

Running Stairs: Fairly self-explanatory. Run up flights of stairs. This is one of the best ways to develop strength and power in your legs.

Block Jumps (Fast): Stand on the edge of a mid-thigh-height block, with heels out. Jump backwards off the block and rebound back to the top of the block. Done in quick succession, this help develop explosive power for floor and vault.

Block Jumps (Slow): As in the fast block jumps above, but instead of rebounding, stick at the bottom and jump to the top of the block. This will help develop strength.

Pit Jumps: Just jump up and down in a pit, on a worn resi-pit, or other very soft, non-rebounding surface.

Squat Jumps: Keeping your back as vertical as possible, bend down deep, touch the floor with your fingers, and spring in a stretched position.

Squat Jumps Across the Floor: Start on one side of the floor or room. Bend down and leap as far forward as you can. Be sure to fully extend your body into a slight arch as you leave the ground. Challenge yourself to cross the floor or room in as few jumps as possible.

Medicine Ball Work

Medicine balls are a great way to help build power, and many of these exercises can be done holding a medicine ball. For example, try the squat jumps holding a 10-pound medicine ball. Do pull-ups holding a ball between your knees.

Reclined Throws: Get a partner. Lie on your backs with your feet toward each other, knees bent, about 10 feet apart (increase the distance to increase difficulty). Throw the ball to your partner. Use an overhead throw similar to an overhead soccer throw, except that you are lying down.

Rear Overhead Throws: Go get your partner again. Stand 10 feet apart. Whoever has the ball should turn around. Throw the ball backward over your head to your partner. Turn around to receive their throw.

Hollow Rock-Tossing: This exercise requires three medicine balls. You and a partner each hold a medicine ball between your feet. Lie on your backs with your feet facing each other (the distance depends on how far you can throw the ball). Take the third ball and throw it to your partner. As you catch the ball, rock back in a tight hollow, then rock forward and throw the ball.

Preventative Maintenance

Injuries in gymnastics and other sports do occur, but they can be minimized by conditioning specific muscle groups.

Wrists

Our wrists were not designed to do what gymnasts use them for. Some strengthening is called for to prepare them for the abuse. All exercises should be worked with both arms.

Find a racketball, tennis ball, or one of those stress ball things and squeeze repeatedly until your forearm is tired.

Set a newspaper on a table. Place your hand palm down near one corner and crumple it page by page with your fingers.

With a dumbbell in each hand, "nod" your hand, both palm-up and palm-down.

In a push-up position, push down with your fingertips so your palms come off the ground.

Tie one end of a reasonably strong string to a 3/4" to 1 1/2" rod. Tie the other end to a 2-to-5-pound weight. Hold the dowel in both hands with your arms straight in front of you. Roll the dowel till the weight is against it, then roll it back down slowly. Do this with palms both up and down.

Ankles and Lower Legs

The ankle is yet another joint we often push beyond its design specs.

Walk around on your heels with straight legs. Tighten your quads. You will feel a burn on the outside of your shins. This helps prevent shin splints. Don't do this if you already have bad shin splints. Let them heal first.

Similar to the above, but repeatedly lift your toes off the ground.

Get surgical tubing or a theraband. Attach one end to a fixed object the other end to your foot. Work all four directions of flex. In, out, up, and down.

Shoulders

Rotator cuff injuries are reasonably common, especially among male gymnasts.

Get our your stretch tubing or theraband. Work all for flex directions (in, out, up, and down) with straight arms. Use low resistance and high reps.

Hold your arm at your side bent at a 90-degree angle so your hand sticks straight out. Work rotations in and out with the tubing.

Other Random Exercises

Some other exercises that were not categorized above.

Arch Rocks: Lie on your stomach in an arch with your heels squeezed together and arms by your ears. Rock back and forth.

Bar Dips: On a set of parallel bars, start in a support, lower until your shoulders are almost level with your hands, and push back to support.

Cross Pull-outs: From a support on rings, lower slowly towards a cross as low as you can, and pull out back to support. Caution: Doing this improperly can lead to injury, so please consult a coach before doing this exercise.

Handstand Shoulder Shrugs: Do a handstand against a wall, preferably facing the wall in the handstand. Shrug your shoulders up and down without bending your arms. This will help to improve your block.

Handstand Walking: The name says it all. Just walk around on your hands -- forward, backward, sideways, and hopping around. This will develop strength and a very solid handstand. Remember to keep good form.

Hang to Handstand: From a dead hang on rings, muscle up and press handstand.

Hollow Rocks: Lie on your back in a hollow position with your arms by your ears. Rock back and forth. Your lower back should be curved so that the rocking motion is smooth.

Hug-a-Twinky: Yes, it's an odd name. This is for the lower back, hamstrings, and glutes. On a vaulting horse, lie down so that your legs are dangling and the edge of the vault is at your lower abs. Lift your heels as high as you can, so that you are essentially standing on your chest, then lower slowly. Another object can be substituted for the vault.

L/Straddle L/V/Manna Press Handstand: Starting in an L/V/Manna on parallel bars or the floor, press handstand, then lower back to start position.

Leg Lifts: Hanging from a bar, bring your toes to the bar, keeping your legs straight and breaking your shoulder angle as little as possible. This can be done by bending your knees and lifting your knees to your elbows. This is one of the best ab exercises around for strength.

Manna Swings: From a support on parallel bars, swing slowly to a manna, or as close as you can get, then lower back to support. This should be done in as slow and controlled a manner as possible, with the back swing being minimal or non-existent if possible.

Seated Straddle Leg Lifts: Sit in a straddle position, then lean forward slightly and place your hands on the floor. Lift your legs up and back as far as possible. The farther forward your hands are placed, the more difficult the exercise will be.

Seated Piked Leg Lifts: Sit in a pike, and reach forward so that your fingers are past your knees. Lift your legs. Again the farther forward your hands are placed, the more difficult the exercise will be.

Note: In a "pike" position, the legs are straight out, and the hands touch the toes, with the nose as close to the knees as possible.

Skin-the-Cat Pull-outs: This can be done either on rings or bars (high or parallel). Start in a hang. It starts like a leg lift, bent or straight, but continues through a basket position to a skin the cat. If you have flexible shoulders, continue to roll through to eagle grip. Then, reverse the process (rotate forward) until you return to the position in which you started. This works the shoulders (both back and front), abs, lower back, and serratus.

Straight Body Lifts: Lie on your back, with a sturdy support within arm's reach above your head. Hold onto the support and lift your body straight to a candlestick position. Try and stay as open as possible with no arch. Lower back to the floor slowly.

Upper-Arm Shrugs: Get in an upper arm support on P-bars (a support with the bar resting across the back of your bicep and tricep, arms bent to about a 110-degree angle, and your hands on the bar). Then shrug up and down. It's kind of like doing the "funky chicken."

Windshield Wipers: Hang on a bar. Lift your toes to the bar. Then rotate your body back and forth so that your legs behave like windshield wipers. Your hips will rise a little as your toes go to the side and down.

Some Nifty Sets

Here is a compilation of various conditioning sets to help keep conditioning interesting, in no particular order. All numbers can be changed to suit your ability. The numbers are just to give an idea of ratio. Be creative; making up sets like these will help endurance, and keep routines fun.

Set A: 5 over-grip pull-ups until the back of your neck touches the bar, 5 under-grip pull-ups, 10 leg lifts, all without coming off the bar.

Set B: On parallettes, L/V/Manna hold for 3, press handstand, 3 handstand push ups, lower to straddle L, press handstand, 3 handstand push ups, lower to L/V/Manna hold for 10.

Set C: Dead hang on rings, kip support, L press handstand hold 10, lower to support, 3 cross pull-outs, fall back to inverted hang, front lever, back lever, front lever, back lever.

Making Parallettes

The parallette is a very useful piece of exercise equipment that can be made quickly and cheaply. The parts you need can be found at your local hardware store:

About 6 to 9 feet of PVC or ABS pipe (decide how much you need based on the measurements below).
Four T connections.
Four elbow joints.
Eight end caps (the diameter can be 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches, depending on the size of the person to use the parallettes).

Directions for assembly:

Cut two 10-14 inch pieces of pipe. (These will be the portions you hold onto.) Stick an elbow on both ends of both of these pieces.
Cut four 3-8 inch pieces, depending on the height you want, keeping in mind that the elbows and T joints will add to the total height. The most important part of this step is to keep all these pieces the same length. Place these in the other end of the elbows, and attach the T joints to the free ends.
Cut eight 4-6 inch pieces. depending on the base width you desire. Wider is more stable, but takes up more space. Place these pieces in the available slots in the T joints and cap the other ends. You now have parallettes.
You will want to score the surface of the grip portion of the parallettes with a wire brush or scouring pad so that chalk will stick to it for a better grip.

Other great resources for fitness and conditioning: