Fitness for floor

[gymgurl]

okay, my floor has the potential to be awesome or so much coach tells me anyway but my big problem is my fitness. By the time I get to my second (and final) tumble pass I am exhausted and if it was anything remotely harder I probably would be unsuccessful despite being able to do harder skills on their own (i.e. layout rather than tuck). I was wondering if you guys had any suggestions on what I should do outside the gym to increase fitness for floor routines. At the gym we normally do 2 or 3 routines with 10 laps of the floor in the time it takes for the next person to do their routine and then 10 standing back tucks either off the air floor on the air floor or on floor depending where you are up to. After we have all done our 2 or 3 routines we do 4 of each tumbling row in a row and then we are done, I am still finding that I am not fit enough to get through a routine with my last tumble looking pretty despite having awesome tumbling (quote from coach) when not in the routine. I thought about going for runs but wouldn't that work on aerobic fitness and for floor routines don't we need anaerobic fitness? Anyway, any ideas?

 

[GymCoach11]

You need endurance exercise! Anything that gets your heart rate up, skipping/jump rope, running, swimming, cycling, jumping on the trampoline too. Floor routines are mostly aerobic exercise although occasionally your body might anaerobically respire though this is not often.

 

[iwannacoach]

Obstacle course. Create one that takes abot 80 seconds to complete. Incorporate some single repitition strength movements, acro elements, and dance while you move through the course.

 

[Esoteric]

We live exactly 1 mile from dd's school. On days with cooperating weather she skips rope the entire way there and back while I follow along on my bike. She has yet to become out of breath during any floor work.

 

[iwannacoach]

Mabel, Mabel, set the table......and don't forget dunno's quad-quad in the last pass!

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

That skipping rope thing sounds horrible! I had to skip rope for 40 min/day, twice a week for P.E. this year, on concrete. My knees did NOT thank me. But if you can find a softer surface to skip on, it is good exercise.

One thing you want to keep in mind is that your floor routine will be very intense exercise for short bursts of time. So being able to run a 10 mile race is not going to help you much. My coach recommends endurance training involving punching over blocks into front saltos (at the gym, obviously). We set up five or six blocks ranging from panel mats to P-bar blocks (on the lowest side) and punch over them. At the end you punch into a front tuck. You can also go backwards over the blocks. Another good thing is sprinting back and forth across the floor. We do about 12 of those, sometimes up to 3 sets. Also, sprinting mixed in with passes of RO-BHS-BHS-BHS.

 

[CoachAl]

endurance endurance endurance! We do an endurance cardio circuit for warm-ups at our gym. It consists of 15 mins of obstacle courses or stations. I try to set it up to incorporate a variety of things such as blocks, frog jumps, push up walks, stalder walks on beam (straddle the beam and walk using your hands), tumbling, etc. This way the gymnasts are working arms, legs, and core. Outside of the gym I recommend running workouts. Since your routine requires bursts of speed try running at an easy/moderate pace for 3 minutes and then sprinting for 1 minute, do this for 20 minutes total and then jog a cool down.

 

[iwannacoach]

Geez! Thanks a lot!!

 

[Granny Smith]

My dd's gym use the Insanity work out video as their warm up and it really has built up their endurance and also their muscles. Dd's floor routine is non-stop and I doubt she would of been able to make it through it if she hadn't been using Insanity. There are other videos as well that they use to "mix it up" but anything that is that intense has been helping!

 

[iwannacoach]

I like how, in our high tech world, something as basic and "old school" as Insanity has caught on with such a following. Jack LaLaine, in your funny little jump suit, YOU ROCK!!!

 

[SuperGirlmlm]

Since gymnastics this summer starts earlier than 7th grade did in the school year, I get up earlier. Don't worry, your not alone, I have to do this to, I take my dog running every morning before gymnastics. Also, every Saturday, I go swimming with my friend, and when conditioning, we do a five minute round off marathon on the tramp, OR a 10 minute non-stop jumping on trampoline.