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I disagree. The only thing gymnasts do is use their own bodyweight and as far as athletes go in terms of endurance and pound for pound muscle strength they can

I disagree. The only thing gymnasts do is use their own bodyweight and as far as athletes go in terms of endurance and pound for pound muscle strength they can not be beat.

tjogin 17y ago
Gymnasts are not at all as efficient about building muscle mass as body builders are. Gymnasts achieve great physical results in time, but nowhere near as efficiently as body builders do. This should not come as a surprise to anyone — for gymnasts, building muscle is a means to an end, and they don't want to build any extra muscle as that just weighs them down. For body builders, building muscle mass is everything.
- greenlblue 17y ago
  The whole point of the article was about health/well-being through exercise and my point is that the gymnasts strike a very happy balance between strength/fitness and well-being. Whereas body builders exceed a lot of bounds and maintaining that much heavy/slow twitch muscle mass can be detrimental to one's health.
  - tjogin 17y ago
    Becoming a gymnast is not a realistic way of adding muscle mass, unless this epiphany strikes you at about the age of seven. Even if you do decide to go the gymnast route, you'll still be lifting weights (though not until you've been at it for years, and you probably won't be making some newbie gym mistakes like prioritizing biceps), it'll just take longer to achieve results because you're mostly focused on acquiring the skill and technique to do actual gymnastics. As for your other claim, body builders do not accidentally add too much muscle. It is a wide-spread fear among people who don't exercise at all, but it does not actually happen. You absolutely, positively, won't wake up one day and realize that you've accidentally put on too much muscle. Accidentally putting on so much muscle as to be detrimental to your health would be akin to walking home from school or work and suddenly realizing you accidentally walked around planet earth and the soles of your feet have been completely worn down — you will not suddenly complete a journey that takes most people extreme dedication and hard work over many many years.
    - greenlblue 17y ago
      I didn't say go become a gymnasts. Anyone can do many of the conditioning routines gymnasts do to improve strength and technique. Push-ups, dips, crunches, v-ups, etc. are the most basic things most gymnasts do to strengthen their muscles and since most people are not going to be pushing boulders around I don't see a point in doing any kind of heavy lifting if you're exercising simply to reap the benefits of exercise. Also, I didn't make a claim about accidentally adding too much muscle. I simply stated that the kind of muscles that weight-lifting builds is different from the kind of muscles you will build if you don't use weights. I've done both and simple routines that I can do at home exercise more muscle groups without isolating specific areas and overall I feel much better.
seanos 17y ago
Gymnasts (at least at the elite level) use weight lifting as part of their training routine.

I disagree. The only thing gymnasts do is use their own bodyweight and as far as athletes go in terms of endurance and pound for pound muscle strength they can not be beat.

tjogin 17y ago

Gymnasts are not at all as efficient about building muscle mass as body builders are. Gymnasts achieve great physical results in time, but nowhere near as efficiently as body builders do. This should not come as a surprise to anyone — for gymnasts, building muscle is a means to an end, and they don't want to build any extra muscle as that just weighs them down. For body builders, building muscle mass is everything.

greenlblue 17y ago
The whole point of the article was about health/well-being through exercise and my point is that the gymnasts strike a very happy balance between strength/fitness and well-being. Whereas body builders exceed a lot of bounds and maintaining that much heavy/slow twitch muscle mass can be detrimental to one's health.
- tjogin 17y ago
  Becoming a gymnast is not a realistic way of adding muscle mass, unless this epiphany strikes you at about the age of seven. Even if you do decide to go the gymnast route, you'll still be lifting weights (though not until you've been at it for years, and you probably won't be making some newbie gym mistakes like prioritizing biceps), it'll just take longer to achieve results because you're mostly focused on acquiring the skill and technique to do actual gymnastics. As for your other claim, body builders do not accidentally add too much muscle. It is a wide-spread fear among people who don't exercise at all, but it does not actually happen. You absolutely, positively, won't wake up one day and realize that you've accidentally put on too much muscle. Accidentally putting on so much muscle as to be detrimental to your health would be akin to walking home from school or work and suddenly realizing you accidentally walked around planet earth and the soles of your feet have been completely worn down — you will not suddenly complete a journey that takes most people extreme dedication and hard work over many many years.
  - greenlblue 17y ago
    I didn't say go become a gymnasts. Anyone can do many of the conditioning routines gymnasts do to improve strength and technique. Push-ups, dips, crunches, v-ups, etc. are the most basic things most gymnasts do to strengthen their muscles and since most people are not going to be pushing boulders around I don't see a point in doing any kind of heavy lifting if you're exercising simply to reap the benefits of exercise. Also, I didn't make a claim about accidentally adding too much muscle. I simply stated that the kind of muscles that weight-lifting builds is different from the kind of muscles you will build if you don't use weights. I've done both and simple routines that I can do at home exercise more muscle groups without isolating specific areas and overall I feel much better.

seanos 17y ago

Gymnasts (at least at the elite level) use weight lifting as part of their training routine.