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 By: Shannon Clark
While there are a number of different Olympic athletes that will draw attention both from the skills they present as well as their physique, gymnasts in particular catch the eye. Armed with poise and a high amount of muscle mass, they are very well-rounded athletes and are physically able to use the strength they possess to do a wide variety of movements. I recently sat down with Gina Paulhus, who competed with the USA Gymnastics Junior Olympic program for 10 years and now designs both conditioning and nutritional plans for gymnasts, along with combining her fitness knowledge to prescribe programs for non-gymnasts through her website, www.homeexercisecoach.com.
  Click Image To Enlarge.Gina Paulhus On The Balance Beam. Here are some of the things she had to say.
Their leanness, which primarily is the result of their 30+ hours of training per week, makes the muscle size they do have appear even larger. However, if you see them out and about in a t-shirt they will look 'small' compared to the average bodybuilder.
By adding explosive movements with bodyweight training, and occasionally ankle and wrist weights, plates up to 45 lb., or a weighed vest, or doing one-legged or one-arm movements to increase intensity, a greater training effect is achieved and the movements tend to correlate to sport-specific strength.
However, work in the weight room usually is helpful for the more mature college-age athletes so that they can develop the necessary strength to continue to perform gymnastics with a bigger, more mature body. Rehabilitation and injury prevention work may be done in the weight room as well. Injury Prevention Articles:
The cardio may be slower and steady such as a 30-minute jog, but more often involves interval work where there is a sprint followed by an easier recovery phase, or circuits with stations of exercises for all parts of the body with little to no rest in between. All gymnastics programs include lots of core conditioning including leg lifts, crunches, V-ups, handstand press work and planks.
 Click Image To Enlarge.Gymnastics Programs Include Lots Of Core Conditioning.
You will see some longer, leaner male gymnasts who aren't as heavy and some thickly muscled ones who are heavier. All of the successful Olympic-caliber gymnasts will have little to no excess bodyfat. Due to the long training hours and intense physical requirements, there is usually some leeway with diet because so much energy is being used up during training.
Although the gymnasts have a concern for nutrition and try to consume plenty of fruits, vegetables, and protein, they are not overly strict with their diets.
That being said, in the weight room you'd want to start with lots of core work: ab work, especially exercises which require stabilization and 'supermans' (lie facedown, lift arms and legs as high as you can; hold for 2 sec., lower and repeat). Then you'll want to do lots of jumping, rebounding and plyometric work. The majority of your exercise to get the 'gymnast look' would be lots of upper body conditioning. Plyometrics Articles: After developing a good base of strength with chest press, overhead shoulder press, bent-over rows, and lat pulldowns, move on to bodyweight training with a significant portion of your bodyweight. These exercise include chin-ups and pull-ups and handstand push-ups (use a spotter if you're new at this).
The upper body is usually the more challenging aspect to develop as the human body was not designed to walk around and 'jump' off its hands like gymnasts to. The shoulders are asked to function almost like hips do when you stand. That is why gymnasts are famous for their enormous shoulders. Gymnasts have adapted to the needs of their sport. Because upper body strength and control is more challenging and less natural for most athletes to develop, more time is generally spent on it during physical preparation.
To make it to the Olympics, you need to have the right training and talent-there's no way around it. Proper training can make a good gymnast, but without that extra gift of talent, even the most dedicated athlete won't make the Olympics. It's simply too competitive at that level.
Talent alone won't cut it, though-this sport is too hard. The average male gymnast puts in close to 20 years of work training 25+ hours a week to make the Olympics-even if they are super-talented. You have to love the sport to put in this much work for that long.
If a certain amount of base strength or explosiveness and ease of movement and spatial awareness just aren't there, it's not likely to be developed enough to ever have a hope of being Olympic-caliber. However, many gymnasts achieve a gymnastics scholarship for their efforts, and aside from that, gymnastics is a great sport that teaches important life lessons and serves as a great physical preparation for any number of sports. Plus, it's plain old fun!
 Click Image To Enlarge.Many Gymnasts Achieve A Gymnastics Scholarship For Their Efforts.
Sometimes there will be separate workouts for cardio or weight training, which can sometimes mean a third training session in the same day. Most gymnasts only get one day off from physical activity a week. There is generally no formal rest week scheduled in, but gymnasts will occasionally miss training time due to travel for competitions, vacations here and there, or time off due to injury. The year is usually planned out designed for the athlete to 'peak' during the most important competitions of the year, and following those competitions, training is sometimes reduced to allow the body to recuperate and injuries to heal. More conditioning and strength training is usually done in the 'off-season' during which there are few or no competitions, and more routines are performed during the competitive season to ensure the ability to safely execute the routines and earn a high score.
The gymnasts train every body part every day, which isn't optimal for hypertrophy, and is one of the reasons why their muscles don't grow in size as much as a bodybuilder who is training for size would. The muscles adapt to the demands of the sport and develop the ability to withstand the high volume and frequency of training. Gymnasts are not typically going all out to failure like a weightlifter would, at least not on a regular basis. Most do not do hard conditioning consecutive days in a row. They usually have 'harder' days interspersed with 'easier' days in their week. They usually taper conditioning work before major competitions so their muscles are fresh, doing something like half the usual volume (otherwise they would not maintain enough conditioning to get through the routines). If you are training to failure going after that gymnastics body, give yourself days of rest, because you won't be spending the amount of time the elite gymnasts do training, and you can push yourself harder and then give yourself a day to recover. This is the more efficient way to train if you are not an elite athlete spending 25+ hours in the gym. Recovery Articles: Gymnasts must train these amounts of hours to develop the technical skill and refinement necessary for their sport. Older gymnasts who have been on the international scene for awhile tend to incorporate more rest because they have already achieved the basic skills necessary to compete on the international level, and can get by with fewer hours, which is easier on their bodies especially as they get older.
Also, if you do not have the right body type to be a great pommel worker (light, with long arms and a relatively short torso) you will find the event frustrating. Many gymnasts have a particular event that is their own Achilles heel, but the pommel horse seems to be the one the men can struggle with the most. One false move and you're off the horse and it's a big deduction. For the women, the balance beam is similar. It's a very mental event that can be scary to train and even scarier to compete, because one false move or second guess and you could take a nasty fall that will devastate your score.
Gymnasts who excel at the 'leg' events such as floor and vault tend to struggle on events that require more upper body strength like the rings for men or the uneven bars for women, and vice-versa. The true all-around gymnast is becoming a rare commodity today-because it's a challenging feat for a single athlete to have such diverse skills and abilities. That's what makes gymnastics so special!
So, there you have an inside look into the world of gymnastics. There is no question about it, these athletes train long and hard to obtain the level of skill and performance they demonstrate while executing the movements. While many of you will have no desire to ever get up on the rings and perform, by learning about how they train and the principles they use, you can get your body looking more like that of these gymnasts you see on TV. Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here!
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[ Shannon ] When looking at a male gymnast's body, one thing that jumps out at you immediately is the size of the athlete's upper body. What type of training enables these athletes to experience so much muscular hypertrophy? 
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