Positive Aspects of Gymnastics Training: Benefits for Students’ Health
The need for gymnastics activities in schools that would be suitable for non-professional audiences is supported by gymnastics’ various benefits for physical health, including promoting the development of good motor skills in children. In preschool and school settings, gymnastics training involves a variety of age-appropriate exercises, such as stretching and basic acrobatic activities (Amrilloyevich & Khairullayevich, 2022). Children’s involvement in these exercises is known to support the formation and improvement of the key movement skills required for everyday activities, for instance, running, avoiding physical obstacles, and lifting objects (Amrilloyevich & Khairullayevich, 2022). Gymnastics training in school settings is, therefore, conducive to healthy movement in daily life.
Additionally, gymnastics can support physical health by improving postural control in sitting correctly, implying the benefits of fostering this form of physical activity at school. For instance, a basic twelve-week gymnastics training program for high school students tested by Jaime-Gil et al. (2021) has been shown to cause meaningful improvements in balance on three body axes. The improvement on the anteroposterior and the craniocaudal axes exceeded 50%; on the mediolateral axis, the balance improved by 43% (Jaime-Gil et al., 2021). Based on a thematic analysis of the participating teenagers’ self-reflection diaries, the participants also reported perceived increases in overall body control in the post-intervention period (Jaime-Gil et al., 2021). Postural control enables maintaining a sitting position without excessive fatigue, promoting a smoother movement of the extremities and addressing the risks of falls and the resulting injuries (Jaime-Gil et al., 2021). With that in mind, fostering gymnastics education in school settings can be beneficial to students’ overall physical well-being.
Gymnastics training, especially rhythmic gymnastics, effectively reduces the effects of sedentary lifestyles by improving muscular strength, which is a core component of physical fitness. In their experimental research, Xu et al. (2020) tested the adapted rhythmic gymnastics program in a sample of school-age children with intellectual and developmental conditions. Being specifically prone to adopting inactive lifestyles that contribute to obesity and poor health, the sample demonstrates how gymnastics benefit children who do not exercise enough. After completing the program, the intervention group faced significant increases in abdominal and upper extremity strength compared to both their baseline results and the control group (Xu et al., 2020). Having stronger abdominal muscles involves crucial positive implications for success in daily activities and the prevention of barriers to holistic well-being, such as persistent back pain (Xu et al., 2020). Upper limb strength is also linked with a better quality of life as it guarantees independence in tasks that involve carrying and removing relatively heavy items (Xu et al., 2020). Due to these effects on muscular strength in physically inactive populations, there is a need for gymnastics training in schools.
Negative Aspects of Gymnastics Training: Injury Risks and Body Image Issues
Despite its multiple positive effects on individuals’ holistic well-being and health, gymnastics training in schools can also have negative aspects. Similar to most sports, gymnastics is fraught with the possibility of getting injuries from overly intensive training, incorrect exercising techniques, unreliable or low-quality equipment, and other factors. The comparison element often present in physical activities in groups is another possible disadvantage. These mental and physical wellness factors call for more informed approaches to gymnastics training.
Firstly, gymnastics exercises, despite being positive for overall physical development, expose children to intense physical activity, thus creating the risks of injuries. From retrospective research focusing on young gymnasts, particularly boys, it is known that gymnastics exercises predispose individuals to specific types of injuries (Ahmad et al., 2021). Although acute traumatic injuries, including bone fractures, are not extremely widespread, overuse injuries are prevalent, especially when it comes to apophysitis and strains (Ahmad et al., 2021). The risks of lower extremity injuries resulting from gymnastics training are especially common in individuals that have not reached adolescence (Ahmad et al., 2021). Legs, arms, spine, and the head and neck region represent the most common locations of gymnastics-related injuries (Ahmad et al., 2021). Considering this, coaching and training mistakes can be costly for students’ motor functioning and health.
Aside from injuries, gymnastics training in schools can sometimes contribute to mental health concerns by causing unhealthy comparisons and affecting those vulnerable to developing body image issues. According to cross-sectional research focused on school-age girls, the fact of undergoing rhythmic gymnastics training, whether competitive or not, is positively correlated with a desire for a thinner body (Zaccagni et al., 2019). Compared to their female peers playing gymnastics, other teenage girls tend to have more realistic and attainable body ideals, whereas gymnastics training predisposes one to view extremely skinny bodies as perfect (Zaccagni et al., 2019). Body image dissatisfaction, being a negative evaluation of one’s natural body, can lead to various dysfunctional behaviors, including excessive exercise, eating disorders, or even self-harm (Donti et al., 2021; Zaccagni et al., 2019). Basic gymnastics activities as part of physical education classes do not involve the same comparison and psychological pressure as elite competitive sports (Donti et al., 2021). However, it is still possible that the need to perform exercises in front of others can exacerbate children’s pre-existing body image issues, especially among overweight students and those with the endomorph body type.
References
Ahmad, B., LaBella, C. R., & Wolf, S. F. (2021). Boys gymnastics injuries: A 9-year retrospective review.The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 1-5.
Amrilloyevich, T. O., & Khairullayevich, S. H. (2022). The importance of sports gymnastics in the development of young children. International Journal of Culture and Modernity, 16, 36-43.
Donti, O., Donti, A., Gaspari, V., Pleksida, P., & Psychountaki, M. (2021). Are they too perfect to eat healthy? Association between eating disorder symptoms and perfectionism in adolescent rhythmic gymnasts. Eating Behaviors, 41, 1-7.
Jaime-Gil, J. L., Callejas-Cuervo, M., & Monroy-Guerrero, L. A. (2021). Basic gymnastics program to support the improvement of body stability in adolescents.Journal of Human Sport and Exercise, 16(3), S1063-S1074.
Xu, C., Yao, M., Kang, M., & Duan, G. (2020). Improving physical fitness of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities through an adapted rhythmic gymnastics program in China. BioMed Research International, 2020, 1-10.
Zaccagni, L., Rinaldo, N., & Gualdi-Russo, E. (2019). Anthropometric indicators of body image dissatisfaction and perception inconsistency in young rhythmic gymnastics.Asian Journal of Sports Medicine, 10(4), 1-8.