I was working with our grandson, Asher, in our gym the other day. I had him doing box jumps onto and off of our plyo box, working on his coordination, technique, and balance. He's become a really good downhill skier in his first two seasons, and now that he's hitting jumps on the trails, I wanted to help him develop better jumping technique and body awareness. We have him workout in our gym as often as possible, doing a combination of bodyweight and some dumbbell and kettlebell exercises. At eight years old, I need to help him develop the right movement patterns while also maintaining his attention and focus on the exercise he's doing.



As I was training him, I started thinking about other ways he could develop functional movement skills outside our gym. He's clearly developing them from skiing, but as I was considering this question, my mind wandered to gymnastics.



I spent my junior year of high school at Northern Michigan University. They had an Olympic Training Center there, and I was chosen to attend as part of a small group of ski jumpers for the first year they offered the program. As part of our dryland training, we got to work out at NMU's gymnastics facility, doing tumbling exercises, working on the trampoline, and learning to do various flips into their foam pit.



Not only were these training sessions a lot of fun, but they also improved my strength, power, and spatial awareness tremendously. It's one thing to learn to move your body while connected to the ground. It's quite another to learn to do so while flying through the air. That's a skill needed in ski jumping and enhanced through gymnastics.



Gymnastics and Functional Skill Development



Few activities develop physical strength, stamina, and power while improving spatial awareness and reflexes the way that gymnastics does. Surprisingly, it's a rare form of sports activity in the United States. And, if people are involved in gymnastics, it's usually for kids and far less common for adults to participate.



Functional training has been a buzzword in the fitness world for at least the past 20 years. Functional training programs attempt to train people for the physical experience of everyday life. Bending, balancing, lifting, jumping, stretching and reacting to an unexpected environment.




FMS (functional motor skills) include locomotor skills (e.g., run, gallop, hop, leap, horizontal jump and slide); object control skills (e.g. catch, kick, overhand throw and dribble) and body management skills (e.g., balance, climb and forward roll) and provide a base for more advanced motor skills
Fundamental Movement Skills Development under the Influence of a Gymnastics Program and Everyday Physical Activity in Seven-Year-Old ChildrenCuljak Z PhD, Miletic D PhD, Kalinski SD PhD, Kezic A PhD, Zuvela F PhD. Fundamental Movement Skills Development under the Influence of a Gymnastics Program and Everyday Physical Activity in Seven-Year-Old Children. Iran J Pediatr. 2014;24(2):124-130.



It's important for children to develop these skills early on, but as adults become more sedentary, it's easy for them to lose these skills and develop bodies that are pretty dysfunctional. Squatting, bending, getting up off the floor, or jumping onto or off a box become awkward, injury-risking activities. Because your nervous system controls and coordinates movement, and it only retains abilities to do things that it regularly does, you have to use functional motor skills throughout your life, or you lose the ability to do them.



Although a fitness professional can help guide a client through movements that improve their movement skills, most people who hire a trainer or strength coach want to use their time to develop strength, power, and lean body mass. Taking 20 minutes out of a 50-60 minute workout session to work on balance and stability can affect the results of the overall program, not to mention that many of these balance and stability movements are pretty dull.