What to do When Your Gymnast is Stressed

Gymnastics teaches us life lessons. True,  but it also comes with a boatload of stress. Ways of dealing with stress, in my opinion,  are LEARNED techniques.  Not often will a coach sit a gymnast down and say, “This is how you relieve stress.” In fact,  a gymnast might not even understand what stress is in the first place. It’s our duty to explain to all young children what stress is and how to deal with it in a positive way. 

Here are my top 10 stress relief ideas for gymnasts:

1. Sweat it out with conditioning. Easy way to get that frustration out and build up muscle.

2. Dance your butt off. Turn on your favorite jam and dance away.

3. Focus on one small goal at a time. Getting your back handspring on high beam is awesome, but so is getting it on the line, on low beam with mats stacked up all the way, on low beam with one mat down, on low beam with 2 mats down, etc. They are all awesome goals, go get them!

4. Take a step back & work on basics. Forget what's buggin' you and work on basics which is ALWAYS needed. 

5. Get a massage. A real one, not just one a teammate or your mom does, unless your mom is a licenced massage therapist. In that case send her my way. 

6. Eat more fruits and veggies. YES!

7. Laugh hysterically for no reason at all. And then, laugh at yourself for laughing hysterically for no reason at all. 

8. Take a loooooong  hot  bath. My mom's trick, it works!

9. Go to bed earlier. Your body needs more sleep than the average person to recover from all that conditioning you did to get that frustration out. 

10. Reminisce on your accomplishments. Please don't forget how far you've come so far, your accomplishments are what make you who you are! Put on all your medals at once, take some fun photos I would love to see them.