Muscles in place?

[wolfangel16]

Hi! I use to be a gymnast and a school project came up for an olympic sport. I of course picked gymnastics. I just really need to know which bones and muscles Gymnastics focuses on? Please help!!

 

[bogwoppit]

Every single one.

 

[gymgurl]

Every single one.

Technically speaking the tongue is a muscle (and the strongest relative to size), and except for pulling funny concentration faces i don't see the tongue of much use in gymnastics

 

[marie83]

You need to come to my club then! The girls often spend more time warming up their tongues than they do their bodies!

 

[gymgurl]

hehe same could be said for us Marie83! and my coach HATES it!

 

[pattymello]

It really is a whole body exercise however men's gymnastics does favor upper body with 4 of the 6 aparatus being almost entirely upper body. If you want some names of muscles to chuck into your report:
The core: abdominals, Erector spinae, and external and internal obliques are the main muscles.
back: latisimus dorsi, trapezius, obliques, teres major and minor.
chest: pectoral is major and minor, serratus anterior.
Shoulder: anterior, posterior and medial deltoid. There are a couple of ones of the surface of your scapula which I am not even going to attempt to spell.
arms: obviously the bicep and tricep.
legs: hamstrings adductors and abductors. The illiopsoas (hip flexors), quadriceps, gluteus and gastrocnemius.

This is in no way complete but they are a fair chunk of the main muscles used in gymnastics, however gymnasts do such complex and varied tasks that many of the smaller assisting muscles do a lot of work too.

 

[Kiwi]

Wow, I would have thought just about every muscle! I mean, for example, just holding onto the bar would use all the muscles that tense and flex your fingers and hand, and stabilise the wrist and so on. A gymnast standing in releve on beam would be using lots of foot muscles, deep core muscles and so on. (My DD even uses her lip muscles, tensing her lips and rolling them under to make her concentration face!)

 

[profmom]

My eight year old son informs me that learning L seats is difficult because there is no specific exercise to isolate and strengthen the hip flexors. This says . . . something . . . about both him and his coach.

 

[pattymello]

fairly sure you could isolate the hip flexors by doing an exercise like lying on your back legs in the air. Lower your legs to the ground while maintaining an erect trunk. Of course the abdominal muscles would do some of the work but as there is limited trunk flexion going on most of the work would be the hip flexors.

 

[profmom]

I was being somewhat facetious. The relationship between DS and his coach cracks me up. DS's coach is a bit mad, appropriately mad, about the technical, physical, psychological, physiological, and physics-related aspects of the sport. Practically each practice, he delivers a 5-10 minute dissertation on some such aspect to his L4s. Most of them have learned to focus on his face and not fidget while he talks and talks, but DS soaks it all up and comes home with a litany of "Coach says X, Coach says Y."

Last time he went to one of DD's meets, he kept better track of deductions than I did and maintained a running commentary along the lines of, "those swings are too archy/pikey! Coach would say that's a .2 deduction!"

If he gets nothing else from this sport, the kid should ace any anatomy class he ever takes.

 

[pattymello]

That's awesome. I also try and teach my gymnasts stuff about muscles and how exercise works. I don't spend much time on it though. And i have a feeling it goes over the top of most of their heads.

 

[iwannacoach]

That's awesome. I also try and teach my gymnasts stuff about muscles and how exercise works. I don't spend much time on it though. And i have a feeling it goes over the top of most of their heads.

Well maybe they need to get more brain "muscles" so they can grasp the meaning of the stuff you're talking about.

 

[pattymello]

Well maybe they need to get more brain "muscles" so they can grasp the meaning of the stuff you're talking about.

yep. i am sure with practice i will figure out better ways to convey the information as well.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

Every single one.

and including those not shown on an anatomy chart...