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oday’s fitness industry is
taking inspiration from, and
teaching elements of, many
different sports, both Olympic and non-
Olympic, as well as other physical
disciplines.
Consider for a moment the various
options that you or your industry colleagues
teach, or borrow from, in the sessions you
deliver – from Le Tour inspired cycle to
cardio kickboxing classes. Some of the more
widely ‘imitated’ Olympic sports include
boxing, weightlifting, swimming, cycling,
gymnastics and athletics (particularly
running), while non-Olympic sports include
power lifting (bench press, back squat,
deadlift) and kickboxing. And, of course,
we borrow balance and stretching elements
from yoga movements and Pilates exercises.
Taking inspiration from the sporting world
is a great way of keeping our offerings varied
and interesting to clients and participants –
but, of course, just because we are training
them using skills and exercises from
different sports, doesn’t mean we are sports
coaching. Rather, we are simply using the
skillsets of different sports to assist clients
in reaching their fitness goals. A personal
trainer’s role is to safely and effectively help
their clients achieve, and maintain, their
stated health and wellbeing objectives – it is
not to win a sporting event or competition.
T
Gymnastics and bodyweight
training
One of the areas of fitness that has seen
huge growth in recent years is bodyweight
training, in all manner of both traditional and
modern guises – it’s been sitting near the top
of global industry trend tables for a couple
of years now. Think Animal Flow, Box Pilates
and TRX, among many other variations.
As both a personal trainer and gymnastics
coach (as well as a former competitive
gymnast), it has been particularly interesting
to witness the fitness industry’s adoption of
bodyweight training elements of gymnastics.
For non-gymnasts, which is most of our
personal training clientele, being able to do a
handstand is something of a status symbol,
a goal to work towards. In response to the
increased interest in bodyweight training,
and handstands in particular, I created a
course to teach fellow fitness professionals
how to train clients to master the handstand.
As with the other sport-influenced
fitness training, the course doesn’t
teach this gymnastic feat as an Olympic
sport – it teaches skills which fall under the
terminology of the word gymnastics, and
which are also often classed as calisthenics.
How does gymnastics fit within
today’s fitness industry?
In the fitness industry, bodyweight
movements such as air squats, push
ups, pull ups and dips are, essentially,
gymnastics. We are taking skills from the
sport of gymnastics and applying them to
workouts. In fitness, the gymnastics label
is applied to any exercise in which you
move your body through a range of motion
(ROM) or extended range of motion (EROM)
without an external load. Isometric holds are
also considered gymnastics.
Thefreedictionary.com defines gymnastics
as physical exercises used to develop and
display strength, balance, and agility, especially
those performed on or with apparatus.
In addition to describing the competitive
Olympic sport, the term ‘gymnastics’ also
Impressive though the movement may be,
the ability to handstand hold is not just
about being able to do something that will
give them an awesome Instagram picture.
NETWORK SUMMER 2018 | 11