Inspiring Through Adult Gymnastics

Last June, I published Why Do I Post So Much?, a reflection on all of the gymnastics stuff I put on social media. At the time, I had posted a video that was getting some attention (over 140K views, which is gargantuan for my little account).

As others commented how inspired they were by the skills I’ve been developing, I became even more driven to put up videos of my progress and regressions. I wanted to show real people the successes and fails that a real mid-life person goes through in her adult gymnastics training. Progress is never linear, but I strive to keep the line moving in a slightly upward trajectory.

Like I said, progress isn’t linear, and I wrote all about that too, posting videos and writing about what I was doing while I was healing. It was a long, frustrating, often sad process that took way longer than I wanted it to. Sharing my healing process felt cathartic and kept me accountable for the progress I knew I could make.

If anything, I needed to document the proof that I was slowly getting better, even though it felt like at times I was standing still. The injury affected everything in my life: at work, at home, and obviously, gymnastics. Documenting it also gave me something constructive to do in the down time, and there was a lot of down time.

Getting back to “normal”

It goes without saying that dealing with a broken foot is not fun. Being in mid-life, you heal more slowly than your average kid, which requires so much more patience and grace than I was often willing to give myself. Feeling like I was doing something constructive not only was a good distraction to pass the time, but it made me feel useful, like I could pass on the things I had learned to someone else who may have been going through a similar situation.

Physical healing

I was going stir crazy just sitting around and I needed to feel like I was doing something other than suffering muscular atrophy. Anything I could do that was non-weight bearing on my foot, I did. I knew that if I didn’t do something physical every day, it would be that much harder to come back once the bone healed. I wanted to maintain my strength and mobility in every other body part that was not broken.

Even with all of the work I did, I’d say that the recovery took about six full months to return to “normal.” To be honest, almost a year from the injury, I’m still healing. I still feel some physical remnants from the injury, like a stiff ankle that needs attention sometimes. I’m able to do everything I want without any pain now, so the bone has healed completely, but I’m always wary of doing anything that will cause re-injury of any part of my body, like my wonky shoulder.

Which brings me to…

Mental healing

The biggest setback at this point it is the ongoing mental reconditioning I’ve had to manage. I’ve written a great deal about Lizard Brain and how it works to protect us, sometimes going into overdrive when we least expect or desire it to be activated. Since my injury, Lizard Brain is always on ultra-alert. I need to work hard to put it to sleep: easing into things, taking my time, stepping back when I want to move forward.

Trying new things and advancing current skills is always on my to-do list, but there’s a significant pause and calculation that happens before I jump in. I’m much more likely to pass on something now, even if I know my body is completely capable of doing it. If my brain isn’t committed 100%, I step back.

The balance between taking safe risks and self-protection is all part of the process. If I want to keep moving forward, I have to give some deference to Mr. Lizard. I have to acknowledge where I am in any given moment and know that today may not be the day I have a huge breakthrough or advancement. Heck, I may not even be able to do what I did yesterday. But skills can return, if you give them enough time and space to emerge.

Focus on the fundamentals

A big focus for me has been on the basics, which is why I started teaching an adult Fundamentals and Mobility class. Not only is it good for my students, it’s great for me to constantly remind myself that I don’t need to (and shouldn’t) be on overachiever mode all the time. The small technical successes are just important as the big breakthroughs. After all, it’s mastery of the small stuff that makes the big stuff happen.

Read Commit to the Fundamentals to learn more about that.

Being seen

One Saturday morning, I was tagged in a seemingly random IG story. Someone, a real person who posts her flippy stuff in the IG universe, has been struggling a great deal for a long time. She’s also an adult gymnast who, for many big reasons, has recently been suffering major set back by a whole lot of life. I read her story over and over, and my heart just swelled.

Through her struggle, she had seen my stories, among others who have shared their stories of overcoming challenge, and that was helping her to stay mentally afloat. It was nice to know that parts of my experience are really helpful for other people. Sometimes, you just don’t know who you might be impacting when you put yourself out there.

Keeping it real and positive

I think, while there is so much damage that can be done on social media, it is up to us to change the narrative and flood the space with positivity. If we are true to ourselves, and are honestly sharing our experience, others will recognize a piece of themselves in that. I’ve had a lot of people say that they are looking from afar and encouraged to push themselves to venture into new things that inspire them.

For all of the nonsense that’s injected into the interwebs, it’s nice to know that people can unlock some of that inspiration from my little corner of the cyber-universe.

You can see my videos at the links below. Do all of the things: like, follow, subscribe, comment, etc. I love hearing from people who share similar experiences!
YouTube Channel: The Geriatric Gymnast
Instagram: @staceywritesandflips
TikTok: @staceytirro