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10 Exercises You Can Do at Home to Improve your Gymnastics Skills

 

We’ve put together a list of 10 exercises you can do at home to improve your gymnastics skills. These are all skills you can learn and improve at home.

The list below has gymnastics exercises you can do at home without any home gymnastics equipment.

Maybe you take a gymnastics class once or twice a week and you want to take your gymnastics to the next level without having to pay for more gym time. Or maybe you are already on a gymnastics team and want to keep improving your gymnastics while you aren’t at the gym. There are many ways to improve outside of the gym and here are some exercises that can help you do that.

We’ve made a video, if you prefer to watch:


1. Spider-man against the wall:

Spider-man against the wall (this link has a picture explanation) is a way to work on your handstands. The handstand position is one of the most important positions in gymnastics. Gymnasts do handstands on floor, on beam and on bars. Cartwheels, round-offs, back-handsprings and front-handsprings are all performed by passing through the handstand position. Spider-man against the wall is basically a handstand against the wall, but it’s a way to practice handstands with correct form.

To do spider-man against the wall stand with your back against a wall in your house. Put your hands on the floor in front of you, and one at a time put your feet on the wall. Walk your hands closer to the wall as you walk your feet up the wall, until your stomach is touching the wall and you are in a handstand position. Keep your head neutral but look at your hands with your eyes. Hold this for as long as you can before coming down. While you are in the handstand concentrate on tightening up all your muscles and think about pulling your feet up to the ceiling. This is a great way to practice good form because the wall forces your body to be absolutely straight.

Here are other helpful articles to improve your handstand:
4 Tips to Hold your Handstand Longer

5 Handstand Drills for Beginners

2. Sprints:

Practicing sprints are a great way to improve your Vault skills, and you can practicing running fast anywhere. Great vaults are quick and powerful, so the faster your run–the more power you will have during your vault.

3. Splits:

Working on your splits is a way to improve your flexibility at home. The split shape shows up frequently in gymnastics; the split shape is seen in leaps and jumps. The better you can do splits on the ground, the better you can do them in the air.
Here is more information on improving your splits at home:

How to Improve your Splits

5 Exercises to Improve your Flexibility

4. Pull-Ups:

Another great exercise for improving your gymnastics skills at home is pull-ups. You can practice your pull-ups at home by installing a pull-up bar in one of your doorways. A pull-up bar (here is a great one from Amazon for less than $30) is a great piece of home gymnastics equipment.

5. Scales:

Practicing your scales at home will help you improve your balance, flexibility and strength which are all crucial for gymnastics. If you aren’t sure what a scale is, stand on one leg and lift the other leg directly in front of you for a front scale or directly behind you for a back scale. Try to stand as long as you can without losing your balance. Learn the 3 types of scales and how to upgrade yours from an “A” to a “B” skill.

6. Jumps:

Improve your jumps by practicing straight jumps at home. Keep your body as tight as possible and jump as high as you can while maintaining your body position.

Jumps To Practice: Straight, Tuck, Straddle, Pike, Split, Wolf, Half Turn, Full Turn

7. Leaps:

Gymnasts are required to do leaps on both beam and floor in their routines. Practice makes perfect so practice your leaps at home. Concentrate on keeping your legs straight and coming as high off the ground as you can. Also make sure the angle you make with your legs is even on both sides.

Here are more guides to improve your leaps:
A Split Leap Workout You Can Do At Home

5 Drills to Improve your Split Leap

8. Turns:

Turns are requirements in both floor and beam routines, just like leaps. You can practice your turns at home on the carpet or on the kitchen floor wearing socks.
Here are more gymnastics turn resources:

3 Drills to Improve Your Gymnastics Turns

Deductions in a Full Turn

9. Conditioning:

Any conditioning exercises that make your muscles stronger will help you improve
your gymnastics. Gymnastics is one of the few sports that uses most of the muscles in your body. Push-ups, Sit-ups, calf-raises are all great exercises to increase your muscles strength. You can track your progress getting stronger.

10. Your Routine:

If you have a gymnastics routine, you can practice it at home without the tumbling skills. This is called a “dance-through”, when you do the routine practicing just the dance elements. The more you practice your routine, the less likely you are to forget it at a meet. So practice, practice, practice at home!

I hope these exercises help you improve your gymnastics at home. You might also be interested in skills you can practice at home on your home gymnastics equipment.

Should Gymnasts Practice at Home?

Practicing gymnastics at home is one of the best ways to improve your gymnastics skills! Think about it…Beginner gymnasts only have an hour or two in the gym each week to work on their skills. Working on your skills at home will help you fit in more practice time. There are plenty of safe exercises and drills you can do at home to help you improve faster.

We recommend our SkillTrakker program. With just 15 minutes a day, you can practice drills and exercises to help you improve your gymnastics skills. You don’t need any equipment to do our program.  We feature a different skill each month, but also include strength and flexibility drills so you will be constantly getting better!

 

 

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View Comments (154)

  • i have a important question if your a first time gymnast will alot of injuries be constine

    • What level are you in? I know a lot of coaches like myself like to make sure their gymnasts perfect the skills rather than just know how to do it. It also depends on the gym you go to. There are some out there that keep their gymnasts in 1 level for way longer then they need to be just so they can do good at competition....

    • Your coach probably doesn’t think you are ready to move. He/she might believe that if you stay in that level, you will score higher. I really wanted to move up when I was in Xcel silver, but my coach made me stay in that level. I scored really well when I stayed. Just trust your coach! :-)

  • When i was in gymnastics i had an injurer and my doctor said i couldn't do it any more so i was wondering when is it ok for some one to come back to gymnastics??

    • Hi Angel, when i trained i was in that same position and I was conditioning but then as i thought i could never train again i decided to stop. but after a year i decided to get back into shape and asked my doctor if i could train again. He said 'As long as you be careful and dont do too many things that will risk hurting your knee again' (as i hurt my knee) i joined a gym and started to train again i couldnt do most things to start but i gradually got better.
      Don't worry if its hard at first but make sure you're not hurting yourself.
      I hope i helped
      Annie xx

    • What what is your injury? Did your doctor say you had to quit gymnastics forever? Or for just a period of time? It all really depends on what the injury is. If it is a broken arm or leg, those can usually be healed in about a year or two. But, more serious injuries such as neck, Back, spinal, etc. injuries can cause you to have to stop doing gymnastics forever. About two years ago I broke my arm doing gymnastics but I was back on the beam about a year later. Hope this helps! :-)

  • I recently took a break from gymnastics because of a knee injury. I am going to a camp in July to help me get back into shape for the next season, I am a level 7 and was wondering what types of conditioning and stretches should I do to help keep me in shape and limber.

    • Hi Destinee,
      I would say definitely keep doing splits, and bridges and stretch every day to stay limber. Here are some conditioning ideas: Use a pull-up bar to do pull-ups, leg lifts and windshield wipers (leg lifts where you move your legs from side to side). Work your abs by doing crunches, sit-ups, v-ups. Also do supermans (where you lay on your stomach and lift your right arm, left leg, then the reverse and then both arms and legs together) to work your back. Work your legs by doing squats, squat jumps, toe-raises and mountain climbers (assuming you can with your knee). I would definitely also do sprints for vault and for a cardio workout. I hope that kinda gets you started. Good luck with camp and I hope your knee is healing!

  • Hi I was wondering for beginners, How would you start gymnastic exercises?
    also im not exactly a beginner.. I did do gymnastics for 3 years and i was wondering for the stretches and exercises.. Thanks!! Bye!

  • I love gymnastics its my life and I love this website it really helped me to improve my gymnastics also I just wanted to say good luck to everybody and one day or now people would look up to because of gymnastics !!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you guys : )( :

    !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOD LUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    • What makes you feel that your coach is bad? If you really feel that your coach is Bad, maybe you can consider doing a little research on your computer for a new gym that is near your house.

    • Even if you don't have good coaches at the gym you should use YouTube videos so you can learn from someone else's perspective. I recently got back into gymnastics(at home) after about 3 years and with the help of YouTube I can do Level 5-6 tricks. But you must stay consistent and practice practice practice. Good Luck!

      • I don’t think turning to YouTube is a very good idea when it comes to gymnastics. If you want to learn basic skills such as cart wheels, handstands, roundoff‘s, or back walk over‘s then YouTube is for you. If you want to become a more advanced gymnast you should find a trained coach to avoid serious injury. Also, If you want to be a more advanced gymnast, finding a train coach is a good idea because then you will have a gym to train at. Gyms are good Because they habe safe equipment and certified coaches. It really depends what you were trying to learn. Hope this helps! Good luck with your gymnastics career!

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