A Balancing Act

Ever eaten so much you couldn't move after? How about laughed so hard you peed yourself? Or even study so much your brain turned to mush? Everything has a limit, and that includes yourself

No one is invincible, or a bottomless pit like Pac-Man. To be able to recognize when your body is at its physical or mental limit is a skill that can really improve one's life. You want to be able to study enough to retain the information, but not too much as your brain stops working. It's a little like drinking. The social idea is that the more you drink the happier you get, but that is not true. There is a peek to how relaxed you get and then after that the depression part of alcohol sets in and it only goes downhill.

Regarding gymnastics, and many other physically demanding aspects of life, pain threshold and bodily limits are HUGE! When you work out you want to push yourself far enough that you break down a little and your body heals and gets stronger, however, when you pass that thin line that is your limit, it results in injury.

After you pass that line is when pain may or may not set in. That is when it gets tricky. Those of you out there that can take getting hit by a bus, like a cool summer breeze, props. Those of you who think getting poked is like hitting your thumb with a hammer, you must have incredible sensory receptors. In any case, judging what’s harmful is important. Being harmful and painful are two different things. Pain is meant to tell your body, “Stop, I’m going to break.” Becoming tolerant to pain can be seen as "weakness leaving the body," but really you could just be becoming more prone to unrealized injury.

Story Time!

Life as a gymnast hurts. The splits are painful, strength runs your body into a wall, and then when you're just a few degrees off of something on, say high bar, you get a face full of metal. It hurts. I'd like to think I came into the sport with a little more pain tolerance than the average kid. This could be due to the fact that my younger sister would take my plastic golf clubs and beat me when we were younger, but I'm probably wrong. In any case, by the time sophomore year of high school rolled around my body was at a breaking point. Keep in mind everything in your body is connected. The year previously I had pain throughout my lower back and hip that had ceased to disappear. Sometimes, we aren't given the option to stop, even when we know something is bad for us, and my coach wasn't one to budge. December 5, 2012 the growth plate on my tibia snapped off and I had three screws put in a week later. It wasn't on anything difficult or strenuous, my body just broke. I had tolerated the pain for a year and a half, and finally it just -- snapped!

Now I am fully aware that this completely contradicts my post on perseverance, but you need both. It's the balancing act of the two that is the most difficult task. Push through, but don't put yourself in a position where you have to backtrack because of ignorance.

Gymnastics Fact: 1) Men's Artistic Gymnastics 2) Women's Artistic Gymnastics 3) Rhythmic Gymnastics and 4) Tramp-o-line and Tumbling (T&T). Men's and Women's artistic gymnastics are the branches most people know about. Rhythmic gymnastics is the style that involves balls, ribbons, and hoops. T&T is possibly the most unknown branch of the sport and it purely involves jumping tramp-o-line, using a tumble-trek (a long strip that is similar to a tramp-o-line, a mini-tramp (self-explanatory), and pure tumbling.

"Random question gymnasts get" of the day: Can you do the splits? The answer is yes, but not in jeans or khaki shorts (they'd probably rip).

Skill of the day: "Tak full." It's difficult to explain this one accurately in words so you should just watch.