1 – Jumping
Jumping is a foundation for gymnastics. It’s great for building muscle and for warming the body up fast! While you can certainly use a trampoline, it is more natural to get your body used to jumping on the ground. If you have knee injuries, however, you may not want to go the natural route!
Use your whole body when you jump. Raise your arms powerfully to aid your jump and keep your core working.
Land softly. Bend your knees on the way down. Your feet will be grateful and you’ll train your body to land the proper way with the least chance of injury.
Some types of jumps to add into your workout include some of the basic gymnastics jumps.
- Straight Jump – Try to jump as high as possible
- Tuck Jump – Bring your knees up to your chest at the height of the jump.
- Straddle Jump – Bring your legs apart in a straddle and land together.
- Split Jump – Preform a front split in the air with one leg forward and one back.
- Leaps – Jump one foot at a time, landing first on it, then the back foot.
- Long Jump – Jump as far as you can with feet together.
2 – Kick Steps/Leg Swings
Walking while adding a straight-legged kick to each step is a nice way to work your hip-flexors. You can add variations such as doing it on toes or adding back-kicks while traveling forward or backward.
For smaller areas, I like leg swings. Kick your right leg up and bring it back down and up in back (keep your hips level!). By bringing your leg up in back, you are working both the front and back of your upper legs. Repeat quickly 10 times and then switch legs.
Now kick your leg up and out to the side doing each leg 10 times quickly.
