Every time gymnastics is on at the Olympics, we all stare in awe at the strength, skill, and flexibility it takes to master the movements. There’s no denying that gymnasts are some of the most incredibly well rounded athletes, but their skills also translate into other areas of training and sport.

We spoke to Max Whitlock, Mirafit athlete and team GB gymnast to talk about the transferable skills that come with gymnastics training and how you can incorporate them into your own workouts.

Why You Should Use Gymnastics In Your Workouts

“Gymnastics is the one sport that can help everything else. I always say gymnastics is the best foundation building sport. It teaches you so many skills in terms of body control, agility, and learning how to fall. It also teaches you coordination, teamwork discipline, it’s a massive all-rounder sport. Gymnastics is going to help whatever else you do.”

You don’t need to be a gymnast to incorporate gymnastic style movements into your training. Most, if not all gymnastics movements require core stability, bodyweight strength, and flexibility. These three elements are essential to nearly every other sport. If you’re into Powerlifting, you need core strength to avoid overloading your spine. Does it help weightlifting? Absolutely, if you don’t have a full range of motion throughout your body you won’t be able to complete movements such as the snatch.

And don’t forget, sports such as CrossFit have now added a gymnastics element to their workouts. Being able to hold movements such as handstands are crucial for CrossFit training.

“I’ve trained with a lot of people with different backgrounds and different sports and they’re all now seeing how gymnastics can benefit them. It’s so transferable. Now you see everyone in CrossFit wants to be able to do a handstand, and gymnasts really master that.”

How to Incorporate Gymnastics Into Your Routine

One of the most versatile pieces of equipment that can be used to perform gymnastics style movements are parallettes and mini parallettes. The skills you master using this piece of equipment can be transferred to other elements of your training.

“Parallettes and dip bars are massively important and you see the link with gymnastics there. Having the right equipment is absolutely key.”

Parallettes are two bars that run parallel with each other and can be used to perform body weight and callisthenics exercises. They come in two sizes. Full sized parallettes are 92.5cm high and have been designed for exercises that require a lot of elevation from the floor such as dips and inverted row. On the other hand, Mini Parallettes are only 36cm high and have been designed to increase the difficulty of your bodyweight exercises. When you’re slightly elevated from the floor, this creates more depth for a greater and more challenging range of movement.

The biggest advantage of using parallettes is that you can target most muscle groups with minimal equipment. Using parallettes requires a lot of core and shoulder strength and stability because for many exercises you are holding your bodyweight off the floor. You can create a full body workout using just parallettes, or you can use it as part of your training to focus on certain muscle groups.

Where to Start with Parallettes

If you want to start incorporating gymnastics movements into your training then first things first, you need the right equipment. Parallettes and mini parallettes are a great place to start because you can do such a variety of movements with them. You can also practise at home before transitioning to a gym. Max recommends:

“Join a local gym and get active in any way you can. Gymnastics is the one sport that can help everything else.”

Parallette training tip: When holding onto the parallettes, it’s essential that you keep your wrists straight. Bending your wrists means that you’re loading them incorrectly and might cause strain or even injury. Keep your wrists stacked so that they can take the weight of your body. We’re all starting somewhere, fortunately parallettes can be used no matter what your previous level of training. The most important thing is that you stay consistent with your practice and you’ll see results. We’ve broken some parallette exercises down according to experience levels.

Beginner Parallette Exercises

• Incline push ups

• Resistance Band assisted dips

• Inverted grip row

• Tricep dips

Intermediate Parallette Exercises

• Dips

• L-Sit

• Pike push up

• Planche lean

Advanced Parallette Exercises

• Handstand push up

• Planche hold

• V-Sit

• Handstand hold

Having Max as part of the Mirafit team brings to light the different ways that you can improve your health and fitness through exercise.

“I really want to enter the fitness space where I can have an impact on many more people and help them with their healthy lifestyle. Keeping active is something that’s really important to me.”

Our range of parallette and mini parallette bars are the perfect starting place to discover your inner gymnast or just practise a few cool moves to show off next time you’re in the gym.

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Tags: Equipment > Dip Bars ; Exercise Type > Conditioning