When I was younger I did gymnastics competitively and trained for a few days per week so went into it knowing I would not be able to keep up with 14-year-old me but still had hope.
As a child, I played a few sports, one of them being gymnastics and I was the strongest and fittest I have been in my life while doing it. Looking back, I thought about how much I enjoyed the sport which gave me motivation to train more.
So, I thought I’d go back and see how I would enjoy it as an adult – and if I would still have the same talent as my 14 year old self. When I was younger I did gymnastics competitively and trained for a few days per week a week so I went into it knowing I would not be able to keep up with my younger self but still had hope that I would be able to do many of the things that I used to do.
As my mum (another ex-gymnast) used to always say: “It is all just muscle memory”.
On a whim I looked up ‘adult gymnastics classes in Glasgow‘ and there were many options, I chose City of Glasgow Gymnastics Clu which has classes for adults on Tueday and Thursday nights and decided to give it a try. When I arrived at the class it was initially overwhelming to see the equipment that I was once so comfortable using that I hadn’t seen in so many years.
It was intimidating at first looking at the equipment I used to be so comfortable with, I walked in and saw the four-inch wide beam that I was able to flip and leap across but was now having a hard time imagining staying on while simply walking. Next, I looked over at the bars trying to fathom how I could even lift my body up onto them.
How I am keeping fit and having a throwback to my childhood by getting back into sports I did as a child.(Image: )
And the vault – which I had never been very skilled at – was standing at the side of the room with the springboard in front of it and I was struggling to imagine myself simply hopping on and off again.
Thankfully, there was no pressure at all and we were just encouraged to try what we were comfortable with. It was nice to be able to get the chance to retry so many things that I had not ever thought about trying again. I went over to the floor first as it looked like the least intimidating thing and started off easy by doing some cartwheels and I luckily remembered hot to do that.
The training was different to the way I trained as a child in the way that I was able to choose what I wanted to work on and make the class work for myself, with support from coaches, whereas when I trained as a child there was a set timetable for what we had to do each class, going back as an adult gave me much more flexibility to do the sport in the way I wanted.
This gave me the opportunity to slowly try the skills I used to be able to do in a safe setting with coach support available if I was ever unsure. It is safe to say that I had definitely forgotten some things and was absolutely humbled by the fact that I could barely even get up onto the bars, never mind attempt the skills that used to come to me so easily.
Slowly I built up to some more challenging skills and decided to do a back handspring, where you have to jump backwards and land on your hands, then land standing up.
Honestly I thought that the jumping backwards would be the hardest part as it is a mental game and it can be scary jumping back blindly but as my mum said it was muscle memory and I surprised myself as I was still able to do it (it wasn’t the most graceful thing I have done though).
Despite the challenges and the reality check that not training for so long does have an impact what you can do, the experience was amazing and like me you may surprise yourself with what things you can still do. I can say for sure that I will absolutely be going back to a gymnastics class and potentially even try to go back to some other sports I haven’t tried in a while.
The next day I woke up with sore muscles but really happy that I had found my love for the sport again and was already looking for the next class I would be able to go to.