How Weight Training Has Improved My Gymnastics and Reduced My Injuries

About a year and a half ago I started taking personal training classes to improve my strength and help reduce gymnastics injuries due to muscle weakness in my body. Now I weight train because I love these types of workouts and I have seen dramatic improvements in my athletic abilities. Skills and exercises I have not been strong enough to do in the past come easy to me now. I also notice that I know how to engage different muscle groups to help me do certain skills. I feel stronger, more aware of my body, and healthier. 

In The Beginning

When I first started taking personal training sessions, I wasn't really familiar with weight training. All I knew was that body builders do weight training to build muscle mass. Before taking these classes, I had back pain. It wasn't from an acute injury and I thought it was due to over-training. I had a muscle-related back injury in the past and it took me nearly four months to recover. I started personal training sessions as a way to improve my back strength so that my mild back pain wouldn't turn into a serious injury, and prevent me from developing stress injuries in the future. 

At my first session, after I had told my personal trainer about my back pain, I was confused as to why he was having me do leg strength. He told me that my back pain was due to some imbalances and weakness in my legs and feet. I was skeptical, but I listened to him and we continued training legs. Besides leg strength, he also had me do thirty minutes of rolling out my entire body. After about a month of weight training a couple times a week and rolling out every day, I could already see a difference. My back pain was nearly gone, my legs were already a lot stronger, and my muscles were less tight. 

Concerns I Have Heard

My teammates and coaches expressed some concern when they heard about me weight training. My coaches were worried about me over-training and getting burnt out. In the beginning, I was also worried about this. I found that slowly increasing the amount of time doing strength helped me acclimate to my new training regimen and prevent me from getting burnt out, while keeping my energy levels the same. 

My teammates, on the other hand, were concerned that I was going to start looking like a buff body builder. Not going to lie, I was actually excited at the thought of looking like a body builder. How cool would it be to walk into a meet with all of your muscles showing? Unfortunately, I realized too soon that I actually have to train and eat like a body builder in order to look like one. So while I definitely do not look like a body builder, I do have more muscle than all of my teammates. 

Improvements I Have Seen

I have seen improvements in my athletic abilities, strength, and appearance. I have also noticed that my gymnastics injuries no longer come from stress or overuse due to a lack of physical strength, rather they come from accidents. 

The conditioning at my gymnastics gym is now a lot easier for me, because it's all body weight strength. Skills that I have never been able to do in the past come easy to me now, because I am stronger. I also know how to engage certain muscle groups to help me do my skills. Injuries from over-training have been significantly reduced, because the muscles in my body that used to be weak are now strong.

Not only do I look fitter, I am fitter. A lot of people might argue that weight training is for people who want to build muscle mass and have the "show" muscles, i.e. muscles don't actually do anything useful. The gym that I go to focuses on strength with mobility, so that you get muscles that "show" and "go." 

My Goals For the Future

For the next couple of years, I see myself continuing to weight train and build muscle mass. I have set a few goals for the amount of weight I want to lift and I work towards these goals every day. I see weight training as an easy way to gain muscle, however, it is only a stepping stone to greater things in my eyes. With enough strength I believe challenging things will come easier to me. I hope to apply my strength in new fields that will challenge my athletic and mental capabilities. I want to begin taking boxing and martial arts classes soon, and train skills and tactics that I will use for years to come. I have come to love movement and hope to learn all different types of movement in the future. 

I know that I emphasized a lot on strength, but stretching and recovery is just as (and in some cases more) important. In a future blog post, I will write about stretching and recovery. I think it's also important to note that kids under thirteen are not recommended to do weight training, as it can affect their growth and development. 

Comment below what you do for strength. Go hard, stay strong!