Waking Your Inner Child Through Adult Gymnastics

I’ve seen so many people awaken their inner child in my adult gymnastics classes. Read on to see why you can do it too.

Once upon a time, our inner child was lost. Years of adolescent cringe and the subsequent learning how to “adult” led our wide-eyed, fearless nature to be sidelined. At some point past our 20th birthday, we spent more time and energy navigating the turbulent waters leading to grownuphood. At the same time, we also started to feel a quiet calling for…something. 

There’s a name for it. It’s called yearning. For the child we left behind.

For many, it’s a yearning for returning to play. To have the freedom to leap, jump, and soar. Adulting requires composure and narrowing of our scope to successfully fit into a box that will enable us to feed a family and keep a roof over our head. The abandon of childhood doesn’t fit that mold.

Adult focus comes with a price. We have too many things to do and not enough time to do it. Our attention to ourselves gets lost. The health of our minds and bodies are often sacrificed for the things that we “have to do.” With little attention paid to the movement and play of our childhood selves, our rambunctious, inner spark dims. And as we age, we feel it.

In this post, I am going to make the case for adults to consider gymnastics to revive our inner child. While it seems a little “over the top” for your average adult, indulge me for a few moments.

Why gymnastics?

Gymnastics is the most all-encompassing fitness/wellness activity I can think of.

• It’s the best version of cross-training. Gymnastics covers every aspect of fitness: strength, flexibility, mobility, cardio, balance, coordination and power. You can tailor every workout how you want. You can go easy or hard.
• If you’re injured, there’s still plenty you can do to maintain your fitness levels. You can focus on fundamentals or drill more complex movement patterns.
• Gymnastics is a practical application of physics. As we jump, twist and flip, we learn how our anatomy moves in space on different surfaces.
• Your functional movement improves. As you fortify your physical abilities, you’ll notice that will translate into your everyday life functions. You learn how to fall safely. Improved balance and coordination makes you less likely to slip and fall in the first place.
• Psychologically speaking, gymnastics teaches us how to address fear and anxiety. It helps us create habits in order to master new skills. We can improve our self-concept and redefine who we think we are. And with all the happy hormones that are released, we feel pretty great after a workout.

Who should consider gymnastics?

Older people wanting to move more

Maybe you’re in your third, fourth or fifth decade and looking for a new way to get yourself inspired to move. Running doesn’t do it for you. Crossfit is way too intense. You cringe at the idea of joining a gym and pumping iron with the sweaty, smelly 20-something dude-bros and pursuers of a snatched waist.

Once retired gymnasts

Maybe you were a gymnast as a child and haven’t done so much as a cartwheel in 20 years. But you’ve watched every summer Olympics since you were a child and your heart races every time you see a stuck landing or a spectacular face plant. You remember the things you used to do and have visions of your body moving that way again.

Always wanted to flip but never did

Maybe you’ve always wanted to take a gymnastics class, but convinced yourself that it’s too dangerous, too hard, too…(fill in the blank with an anxious reason not to even consider the possibility). You appreciated the courage and grit of those that pursue gymnastics, but try it yourself? Never.

I’ve met all of these people. I’ve interacted with them online. I’ve seen them as they cautiously walk through the door of our gym. I was one of these people.

And then, they actually take their first adult class, like I did when I was 36. I see the joy that emanates from their solar plexus when they jump on the trampoline for the first time. I see the connection with their inner child, the gymnast they’ve always dreamed of being. The epiphany that arises from accomplishment and the ensuing addiction to moving in every direction. It is a feeling I wish I could bottle and sell to anyone considering taking the leap.

It is the inner child waking up, coming to center stage, and basking in the spotlight.

Fortunately, I’ve moved into a personal space where I can help adults experience that awakening.

Becoming an expert

I’ve felt all of these things. This is why I always came back to the gymnastics gym. I started coaching adults because I knew exactly how they felt. And I wanted to provide a safe, supportive, fun environment to get their feet wet and start to explore what their bodies were capable of doing.

A couple of years ago, I started a Fundamentals and Mobility class at Flipper’s Gymnastics in Ramsey, NJ. It filled the gap between nothing and the open gym/advanced classes we offered. To me, it opened a door for adults to take that wary first step into a world that was once off-limits.

When an adult takes class for the first time, that door swings wide open for their inner child to emerge and their bodies to experience true play. I can see the calculus behind their eyes from the very first exercise we do together. “How can I bring myself back to this? How can I put this into my busy adult schedule? Why didn’t I do this a long time ago?”

I smile, because I know that feeling. It’s the same one I had almost 18 years ago when I took my first adult gymnastics class. Since then, I’ve had that same feeling every time I set foot in the gym.

In recent years, I’ve combined my 30+ years of teaching experience with the 18 years of learning gymnastics as an adult. The result? I’ve become a great teacher to other adults dipping their toes in the water. I know how they think because I’ve thought their every anxious thought. I still feel them when I’m trying something new.

While I’m not an expert at every gymnastics skill, I have developed great expertise in parsing out how to approach gymnastics past your teenage years. I understand the fear of being taken out of your life from injury and I can coach adults through that. I can diagnose technique and form problems and communicate how to fix them, sometimes in multiple ways. I know that everyone learns a little differently and I’m not afraid to figure out which ways work with which people.

Most importantly, I can do all that in a way that makes people smile, sometimes laugh, and truly enjoy themselves while they do something really hard.

Is it really something I can do? 

I’ve had so many people ask me if this is something they can actually start as an adult. To which I reply, YES, YES, a thousand times YES!

Gymnastics is no longer relegated to the child. Our bodies were meant to be in motion and to stay in motion.  Why else would we feel better when we move and feel stiff and slow when we sit down? The worst part of adulting is getting up from the couch.

On my Geriatric Gymnast YouTube channel, I made this post showing me working through my challenges on bars.

In response, someone left this great comment about the necessity for us to keep moving:

I am a retired professional acrobat. Yes I did work with Cirque du Soleil, and other great companies. I admired every second of this. Keep going!!! In the physical therapy world we say: A body in movement stays in movement. We also say motion is lotion.

They are so right. Just when I think my body is caving in on itself, I get up and start to move in as many different angle as possible. After a few minutes the aches and pains start to dissolve (until I sit down again). I now look forward to my gym sessions if my body is hurting or tired, because I know that once I start bouncing, hanging and flipping, I will get some significant relief that ibuprofen doesn’t help.

If this 54 year old can feel better doing gymnastics, so can you.

How do I make that commitment?

Of course, it’s not easy. Making a commitment to ourselves, to the health and longevity of our bodies, requires focused intention.

So how do we move forward on that commitment?

Acknowledge all the reasons NOT to do it. Do it anyway.

There will always be reason not to do something. It’s hard to carve out a couple of hours in the week to get into workout clothes, get in the car, drive to the gym and shake off the cobwebs and fatigue of adulting. It’s cold. It’s rainy. It’s hot like the center of the earth. We are exhausted after work. Our kids have their schedules that we are responsible for keeping up. We have relationships to maintain. The list goes on and on.

But does it really have to stop you from doing something you want to do?

Make the decision to do this for yourself.

The question is, when will you make time for yourself? You schedule everything else for everyone else. Schedule something for YOU.

It’s like on an airplane, if the oxygen mask drops, you put yours on first, then onto those that need your help. WE need to be okay so we can take care of others. That means making the time, even if it’s more inconvenient, to spend some time on our own well-being. The long-term cost of ignoring the needs of our bodies is far too great, and it will catch up to us in insidiously surprising ways.

Make sure you are in good health.

That said, if we are going to make that commitment and venture into the challenges of gymnastics, we must make sure that when we walk into a gym, we are not a medical ticking time bomb. It is essential to be in good health with no major injuries lurking beneath the surface. This is where we must balance the reckless abandon of the inner child and the wisdom we have gained about ourselves as an adult.

No one wants to leave the gym in worse shape than when they walked in. And no coach wants to be caught off-guard by a client who suddenly falls apart when they’re trying a new skill. Safe skills acquisition is a two-way street. You bring your best, most intact self, the coach brings knowledge to train you carefully.

That said…

Find a gym where the coaches understand adult athletes of all abilities.

Do some research of the facilities and programs in your area. It’s important to have teachers and a community that supports you, where you are NOW. Every body and mind is different. Adults are not just big children. They need to understand the whys and hows of every skill and drill. They need to understand how to manage their anxious Lizard Brain. A young coach who trains kids will likely not cut it for the newbie adult gymnast.

Have patience and grace.

Remember, your progress will not be linear. You will likely be sore and not remember anything after your first workout. You’ll feel muscles you’ve never felt before, or haven’t felt in decades. But you will also experience something transformative. Your inner child will wake up and step into the light. When that happens, you’ll realize that there is so much more that your body can do!

Adults feel the creaks and cracks of age. We can get ahead of some of that. Movement heals. I didn’t make this up. People much smarter than me did. But it is a truism that I live by. The longer I sit, the worse I feel. Once I warm up, and the aches melt away (for a time), my inner Stacey girl takes over and surprises me over an over again.

If you find yourself yearning to awaken your inner child and have the inclination to give gymnastics a try, this is your formal invitation to find yourself a class.