{"id":310150,"date":"2021-07-28T16:00:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/what-olympic-gymnasts-can-teach-us-about-improving-our-physical-balance\/"},"modified":"2021-07-28T16:00:01","modified_gmt":"2021-07-28T13:00:01","slug":"what-olympic-gymnasts-can-teach-us-about-improving-our-physical-balance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/what-olympic-gymnasts-can-teach-us-about-improving-our-physical-balance\/","title":{"rendered":"#What Olympic gymnasts can teach us about improving our physical balance"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#What Olympic gymnasts can teach us about improving our physical balance<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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The acrobatic handsprings, somersaults and twists performed by world-class gymnasts at the Tokyo Olympics are among the most complex skills humans can perform.\n <\/p>\n

But at their heart is an instinctive process that can help teach us mere mortals how to stay safe from falls as we move much less spectacularly around our own environment.<\/p>\n

To complete acrobatic maneuvers, gymnasts need energy. In most cases, this energy comes from the jump performed at the start of the element, often after a run-up to gain momentum.<\/p>\n

But the power in the jump has less to do with the power output of the gymnast’s muscles, and more to do with the power generated by the springy floor, or by the springboard in the case of a vault, as well as the elasticity of the gymnast’s own tendons. <\/p>\n

To optimize the power of the spring from the floor or springboard, the gymnasts have to perfectly set the stiffness of their own spring\u2014the spring of their legs\u2014to get the most power. You can see this process in slow motion in this video<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When walking or running on a hard surface such as concrete, our joints flex and extend a lot in each jump as our muscles control the joints\u2014compare the video below to the one linked above. But on a springy trampoline we don’t flex our joints much, instead keeping our legs straighter and using less muscle work. That’s why we can jump for much longer without tiring on a trampoline.<\/p>\n

To perfectly “tune” their leg spring to make the most of the springy surface, gymnasts pre-activate their muscles before hitting the floor to begin their jump, using dozens of muscles to adopt a very specific joint configuration that delivers the perfect leg stiffness.<\/p>\n

Then, when hitting the ground immedia<\/a>tely before takeoff, a variety of reflexes can be triggered that can influence muscle force and alter leg spring stiffness. The gymnast has to compensate for these in advance because the contact time with the ground is too short to make any reactive adjustments during takeoff.<\/p>\n

Getting this right takes countless hours of practice, over many years.<\/p>\n

What happ<\/a>ens when the gymnast then moves to the beam, which is much less springy? They have to adapt their muscle activation to generate a different amount of leg stiffness. They have to be able to tailor their jumping technique with exquisite accuracy to cope with different surfaces.<\/p>\n


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