CHAPTER 3 - PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES

Table of Contents

1. FLEXIBILITY
1.1 What is Flexibility?
1.2 Why is Flexibility Important?
1.3 What Limits Flexibility?
1.4 How Can Flexibility be Increased?
1.5 Selected Exercises
2. STRENGTH
2.1 What is Strength?
2.2 Why is Strength Important?
2.3 What Limits Strength?
2.4 How Can Strength be Developed?
2.5 Selected Exercises
3. POWER
3.1 What is Power?
3.2 Why is Power Important?
3.3 How Can Power be Developed?
3.4 Selected Exercises
4. ENDURANCE
4.1 What is Endurance?
4.2 Why is Endurance Important?
4.3 How Can Endurance be Developed?
4.4 Selected Exercises
 CHAPTER 3 - PHYSICAL ATTRIBUTES
1. FLEXIBILITY
1.1 What is Flexibility?

"the range of possible movement in a joint or series of joints"

passive range:
limb movement by an external force
active range:
limb movement by one's own muscular force
joint specific (e.g. compare your hip flexibility with your wrist flexibility)
is definitely possible to improve flexibility

1.2 Why is Flexibility Important?

Three main reasons:

allows for aesthetic movements (e.g. a scale)
many skills require flexibility (e.g. front straddle roll)
less likelihood of injuries (e.g. neck flexibility in the case of falling while rotating
backward)

1.3 What Limits Flexibility?

Muscle, connective tissue, tendons, ligaments

active flexibility limited by muscular strength

1.4 How Can Flexibility be Increased?

Static stretching:
needs to be in excess of 1 minute in order to relax the stretch reflex
ballistic stretching:
bobbing or bouncing into a stretched position
probably best to use this technique less than static stretching since stretch reflex
can result in injuries
assisted stretching:
partner/coach pushes the gymnast into a stretched position (e.g. hip flexion)
note the importance of teaching children to do this GENTLY … easy to injure your
 partner
passive stretching: simple pressure provided by the partner
passive stretch and hold: partner stretches, gymnast attempts to hold it
general rules for stretching:
be warmed up
stretch slowly
relax muscles which are being stretched
stretch regularly and often (e.g. at home)

1.5 Selected Exercises

check the text for graphic examples of exercises designed for the following areas of
the body:
shoulder flexibility
trunk flexibility
hip flexibility
leg flexibility

2. STRENGTH

2.1 What is Strength?

amount of force a muscle can generate

increased by progressive loading
adaptation of hypertrophy through use and atrophy through disuse
types of muscle contraction:
isometric - no change in length of a contracting muscle
concentric - length of a contracting muscle becomes shorter
eccentric - length of a contracting muscle becomes longer (this is the most strong
form of muscle contraction due to assistance of friction)

2.2 Why is Strength Important?

three reasons:
safety (e.g. in falls)
skills (e.g. L-sit and MANY other gymnastic skills … can't be done without a high
 level of strength)
related attributes (e.g. power, muscular endurance … have to be able to do
something once before you can do it 30 times!)

2.3 Limits Strength?

gender (males > females)

developmental age (e.g. pubertal growth spurt and increase in strength of males)

2.4 How Can Strength be Developed?

need to load muscles so that they are required to do more than they usually have to
do
use activities which cannot be done more than 5-7 times
10 sec max isometric contraction also effective
emphasize the notion of "training - not straining"

2.5 Selected Exercises

follow these rules:

strength increases only incur in muscles which are exercised … choose an
exercise which involves the exact muscle group which you want to train
strength gains only come in the range of movement which is involved in the training
exercise and at a speed which is similar to the movement speed used in the
exercise
Level I only is concerned with strength development (and flexibility development) of
muscles crossing major joints:
shoulders
elbows
trunk
hip
legs
check the text for graphic examples of exercises designed for these areas of the
body
 3. POWER
3.1 What is Power?

rate of doing work

3.2 Why is Power Important?

one of the most important aspects of gymnastics … have to move a body part quickly
important to emphasize the aspect of speed in training (i.e. as opposed to
development of brute strength)

3.3 How Can Power be Developed?

include "normal" gymnastics-type activities, but emphasize the speed aspect

3.4 Selected Exercises

check the text for graphic examples of exercises designed for the following areas of
the body:
elbow/shoulder power
trunk/hip power
leg power

4. ENDURANCE
4.1 What is Endurance?

the ability to resist fatigue

either cardio-respiratory or muscular … in gymnastics by far the most important type
is muscular endurance
4.2 Why is Endurance Important?

necessary in order for a gymnast to train

… practice requires repetitions, and repetitions are only possible if the gymnast has
enough muscular endurance to produce them

4.3 How Can Endurance be Developed?

have to do something in excess of 10 times in order to develop endurance

4.4 Selected Exercises

check the text for graphic examples of exercises designed for developing muscular
endurance