Gymnasts are widely renowned for their incredible displays of strength, flexibility, skill, grace and power. There are few sports in the world that challenge an athlete through such a wide variety of challenges, requiring excellence in the full spectrum of physical qualities. Very few sports can measure up to the diverse physical challenges of gymnastics. Men's gymnastics includes six events: floor exercise, vault, still rings, high bar, parallel bar and pommel horse. Up until 1954, the competitions even included track and field events, including the broad jump, pole vault, 100m sprint, shot put and rope climb. Today's gymnasts no longer compete in the track and field events, but the level of difficulty has risen greatly since those times. Watching professional gymnasts pull off a variety of double back flips (some with twists) may seem intimidating, but the benefits of gymnastics come long before reaching that level. All gymnasts have incredible strength-to-bodyweight ratios, strong postural muscles, incredible upper body strength, flexibility and good leaping abilities. Try your hand at gymnastics and you will develop the same attributes, just maybe not to the same degree as the pros.
For the average person just looking for a workout, within gymnastics you will find many challenging bodyweight exercises and apparatus that will push your limits. As an example, the muscle-up on rings is a basic skill for the gymnast. On a scale from A to E, the muscle-up falls under the easiest category, A. However, it is hard to find people that can perform even a single rep, even amongst athletes. Watching the rings event is one of the most impressive exhibitions of strength that can be seen. The Iron Cross, revered as a superhuman strength move is still only B-level. The possibilities for progression within the sport of gymnastics are endless.
One problem with most models of fitness is that they only consider measurable qualities, such as strength, flexibility and endurance. What they fail to take into account is what you can actually DO. For example, performing ten handstand pushups against a wall requires strength, but does not imply that a person can perform a single one freestanding. Performing handstand pushups for high reps is no big deal to a gymnast who finds challenge in freestanding handstand pushups on rings and inverted iron crosses. When you think in terms of what you can do, you will quickly realize the value of trying gymnastics and the expansive skill set it has to offer. After taking a few months of classes, most people will learn to hold a decent handstand, perform forward and backward rolls, smooth cartwheels and round-offs and perhaps back handsprings, punch fronts (front flip from a run) and back tucks (backflip). The foundations are set for the advancement into more advanced skills like freestanding handstand pushups. Gymnastics has a well established (and still growing) curriculum with a seemingly endless variety of challenging skills to learn. If you stick around long enough to learn the basics, you will have a new set of bodyweight exercises to add to your repertoire. If you keep going, you will become proficient on a variety of different apparatus and you will acquire a skill set and a level of fitness that will place you far above your peers. You will not only do better at what you did before, but do things you have never done before.
My favorite event in gymnastics is the still rings. It requires upper body and torso strength that is unimaginable. As I said before, a muscle-up is an exercise at the most basic level. Slightly more advanced skills like the Iron Cross are seen by most people as the pinnacle of upper body strength. However, there are even tougher strength moves beyond the cross. Furthermore, in competition, the real test is how well the performer can sequence together a string of strength to strength combinations. To make things even tougher, deductions are made if the rings sway too much and if your muscle shake during strength positions. In the beginning, you learn the tap swing, which will later become a giant swing, meaning that your body goes in a complete circle around the rings. The tap swing is different from swinging on a bar, where your body rotates around a fixed axis. On rings your body and the rings become a standing wave. Your feet and the rings both move, but your chest stays in the same place. This exercise requires excellent grip strength- imagine a bodyweight kettlebell swing! It is also a dynamic core exercise. Pullups and dips are another staple, until a muscle-up can be performed. The rings make pull-ups much easier on the arms because they rotate freely and make dips much more difficult because the rings have to be stabilized.
The floor routine is where most people start their gymnastics training. Elements like the handstand can be learned most easily on the floor and carry over into all of the other events, since the handstand is a common position. Basics like the rolls, leaps and cartwheels can help to develop a good sense of dynamic balance and flexibility. I'm always embarrassed to do the leaps, because guys definitely do look a bit funny when doing them, but they are good for flexibility, agility and ankle strength. People have noticed that my calves look slightly bigger than the last time I saw them. I would attribute this mainly to the variety of leaping and jumping skills that we do. The basics are the tuck, straddle and split leaps/jumps. The difference between a leap and a jump is that in the jump you take off from both feet and land on both feet, whereas in the leap you take off and land on one leg. Additionally, the jumps can be performed out of rolls, which makes for some interesting variations of the deck squat. As you progress further, you get into round-offs and back handsprings, which sets the stage for more powerful back tumbling. These actions are very plyometric by nature and developing a unique kinesthetic awareness for being upside down.
Posture is one thing that is developed by most types of training. In gymnastics, it is an essential part of the presentation. In order for the body line to look right, a gymnast has to understand what a "straight body position" is. When you ask a group of people to stand up straight, you usually see every which way but the right way. The gymnastic approach to developing proper posture is rather interesting. First, you develop an understanding of the different body positions: arch, hollow and pike (see sidebar). By developing strength and tightness in each of these positions, you find the straight body between the arch and hollow positions. Secondly, learning a proper handstand absolutely requires a tight, straight body. Each joint has to align properly with the others; otherwise, your balance will be compromised. When you can demonstrate proper posture while inverted, standing up it is a piece of cake. From learning the basic positions and executing a variety of skills in those positions, you develop an incredible sense of body awareness. Gymnasts know intuitively when their bodies are arched or hollow. Gymnastics is Feldenkrais on steroids!
If you have experienced Scott Sonnon's excellent Maximology program, you will understand the value of sophisticating your movements. Unlike most types of training where the progression is always in the direction of more resistance or more reps, in gymnastics, the progression includes greater sophistication achieved in a variety of different ways. The first and most obvious would be going towards higher strength requirements, such as starting with a muscle-up (A level), to a cross (B level), to a planche (C level), all performed on rings. Another progression would be towards less stability, such as performing a handstand against a wall, then on the floor, then on bars and finally on rings. Not only do the rings sway beneath you, but they also move independently of one another. The handstand on rings is truly a spectacular exhibition of strength and balance. If you want to see a fine example of progressive training, check out this Parallette training guide. It contains a multiplicity of different methods of progression within the program, including: higher reps, harder balance, more complex skills, more flexibility, more integration, decreased leverage and extended ranges of motion. The author of the Parallette training guide is interviewed here this month. Another method of increasing sophistication comes from connection bonuses. In order to get a high score in gymnastics, you must connect various skills together seamlessly. For example, on the floor exercise, you see incredible tumbling passes, where double back flips are preceded by back handsprings and whips. Tying different skills together in gymnastics has the same training effect as it does in kettlebell lifting. For example, smoothly connecting multiple lifts together such as: clean, front squat, jerk, overhead squat, makes for a more sophisticated training session than doing the exercises separately. For gymnasts, this is not just another training option, it is a necessity.
Lastly, gymnastics is just a fun activity to try out. If you like pushing the limits, a gymnastics facility is the perfect testing ground. They have all the necessary pads and mats so that you can safely try what you have never done before. The gymnastics facility is like the ultimate playground for adults, you will want to be running around and playing on everything. Any fitness program can get tiresome after a while, so gymnastics is an excellent way to introduce some variety into your regimen.

Further resources:

www.adultgymnastics.com- Contains a variety of helpful articles and a directory of adult gymnastics classes throughout the country. If you cannot find one here in your area, check your phone book and call up your local gymnastics academy.

www.american-gymnast.com- An excellent training resource. The Parallette training guide is not to be missed! They also have a great online store with everything you will ever need.

www.drillsandskills.com- This website is an excellent guide to gymnastics skills, terminology and conditioning. The material here can keep your busy for a very long time.

Tulsa World of Gymnastics Tips- There is a nice selection of articles here on a variety of basic skills. This site is a good companion as you progress through your training.

USA Gymnastics- The official site of the United States Gymnastics. It is a good source of news and information.

FIG, International Gymnastics Federation- One of the best sources for news and pictures of international competition.