WAG Recommendations for "fun" core workouts?

[Deleted member 26368]

One of DD's coaches recommended that she work on core conditioning to help with bars skills, especially for improving her tap swings. DD is training Xcel Gold, age 11. She's not a fan of core work, though (me neither, LOL). Any recommendations for engaging core workouts for gymnasts?

TLDR: Good core workouts for kids who don't like core exercises

 

[Livelovegymnastics]

Choreographed core workouts are pretty fun! If you give youtube a search, there are a ton of options for a variety of different songs. My personal favorite is the one to Baby shark

 

[Coach Kate]

Choreographed core workouts are pretty fun! If you give youtube a search, there are a ton of options for a variety of different songs. My personal favorite is the one to Baby shark

There's also one to uptown funk and who run the world (girls)! They're both really fun and pretty easy to pick up.








As a teenaged gymnast, I found I really enjoyed Pilates (mat), even though it went slow. I liked the attention to detail and the stabilization work. 15 years later, and I am still really into it!

Another fun one is hula hooping. I actually use it to train handstand shaping with littles - try it with feet together and arms up by ears! One foot is another good challenge. I still hula hoop as an adult, too, but now I use a weighted hoop, which I am not sure I would recommend on non-adult bodies because it can be a lot. You have to ease in, only 5 minutes a day at first and then slowly build into it. I did it for an hour my first day and ended up with awful bruises. Now I can do an hour no problem!

 

[Deleted member 26368]

There's also one to uptown funk and who run the world (girls)! They're both really fun and pretty easy to pick up.








As a teenaged gymnast, I found I really enjoyed Pilates (mat), even though it went slow. I liked the attention to detail and the stabilization work. 15 years later, and I am still really into it!

Another fun one is hula hooping. I actually use it to train handstand shaping with littles - try it with feet together and arms up by ears! One foot is another good challenge. I still hula hoop as an adult, too, but now I use a weighted hoop, which I am not sure I would recommend on non-adult bodies because it can be a lot. You have to ease in, only 5 minutes a day at first and then slowly build into it. I did it for an hour my first day and ended up with awful bruises. Now I can do an hour no problem!

We've done the Uptown Funk one before, so we'll have to revisit that one. Hula hooping is a great idea, too! Never would have considered that one. She can hoop, and I guess it's time for me to learn anyway. Even as a child, I could never coordinate my movements enough to hoop for more than a few seconds!

 

[JBS]

This is fun... we have a couple of them...

Stealth Core Trainer

Stealth | Get a lean strong core, while playing games on your phone.

www.trystealth.com

 

[Deleted member 26368]

Update: The struggle continues.

Thank you all for your recommendations, though! Had a talk with DD's coach again and she discussed how DD's swings are weird and pikey, LOL. I honestly think it could be that my kid just isn't getting the timing down. It sounds like she arches and hollows at the wrong times so the result isn't great. Coach is really dedicated to working on this, because she's concerned about DD hurting herself with such an awkward movement. I don't watch practice so I have no idea what it looks like, and no video.

Bars, I tell ya. Any suggestions on how to flip a switch to go from "fish flopping out of water" to Shilese Jones would be appreciated, LOL.

 

[Coach Kate]

Update: The struggle continues.

Thank you all for your recommendations, though! Had a talk with DD's coach again and she discussed how DD's swings are weird and pikey, LOL. I honestly think it could be that my kid just isn't getting the timing down. It sounds like she arches and hollows at the wrong times so the result isn't great. Coach is really dedicated to working on this, because she's concerned about DD hurting herself with such an awkward movement. I don't watch practice so I have no idea what it looks like, and no video.

Bars, I tell ya. Any suggestions on how to flip a switch to go from "fish flopping out of water" to Shilese Jones would be appreciated, LOL.

We use a side station with a floor bar and a foam roller. The foam roller goes under their thighs when they are face down on the floor holding the bar with straight arms -arms by ears. Engage core muscles to lift to hollow and then change to arch.

We also do "whip taps" which are essentially the shapes without the huge movement. Hanging from the bar, I like to do hollow arch hollow relatively quickly, and then pause before going again. I also wonder if single tap swings would help - starting and finishing on mats that form a channel.

 

[gymnastkiley]

One of DD's coaches recommended that she work on core conditioning to help with bars skills, especially for improving her tap swings. DD is training Xcel Gold, age 11. She's not a fan of core work, though (me neither, LOL). Any recommendations for engaging core workouts for gymnasts?

TLDR: Good core workouts for kids who don't like core exercises

I recommend Chloe Ting ab workouts on YouTube, as they are short in length but have great results.