Developing cardio systems in gymnasts is beyond important, for both performance and safety. On the performance side, better endurance allows gymnasts to make it through full routines that have high-level skills. It also is what allows them to make it through an entire meet or practice without burnout out. Thinking beyond this, having a good “engine” […]
Nutrition is by far one of the most important, yet most intimidating topics in the sport of gymnastics. It serves as the foundational base for gymnasts to fuel themselves properly, be able to train hard, and also then be able to recover their bodies so they can perform well. As I have talked about in […]
I was really fortunate to meet Danusia Francis last year when speaking at GymCon with Miss Val and Nick Ruddock. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Danusia, she competed for Great Britain as an international elite, spent 4 years with UCLA Gymnastics under Miss Val, and has also competed in the 2016 Olympics with […]
Over the last month, I have been working like crazy to get some awesome guests interviewed for The SHIFT Show. Recently, I sat down with Jessica O’Beirne, who started the internationally famous GymCastic Podcast, to have quite a monster chat about gymnastics. It started out as me asking her to flip roles and join my […]
A strong, stable core is one of the absolute “must haves” in gymnastics. One reason is performance-based, as different events and the skills within those events require massive amounts of core strength. Creating “stiffness” in body shapes to absorb force allows good punching, lines, and handstand fundamentals. It is also integrated during shape changes as […]
I got a bit of a surprise for everyone! I’m really excited to share an interview I recently did with the legendary Valorie Kondos Field, or “Miss Val” as she more commonly referred to, who is the legendary head coach of UCLA Gymnastics. I’m really grateful that Val offered to jump on the podcast with […]
Hey everyone! Just a quick update today. Earlier in the year, I filmed about 200+ gymnastics flexibility, prehab, and strength and conditioning exercise videos. I also filmed a ton of lecture and screening videos on a variety of different topics people asked me about. This batch of videos was all centered around many of the […]
In this blog post, I outlined a handful of power exercise progressions for the lower body that I have found really useful. Due to how many people said it was helpful, I wanted to quickly put together a similar type of blog post for the upper body. In gymnastics, this type of physical preparation helps […]
There are a handful of very well-known sports scientists and researchers around the world. One of those researchers is Tim Gabbett, PhD. His work has been incredibly helpful to look at how spikes in training load are associated with injury risk and reduce performance, and also see how training harder and smarter may be protective against […]
In the first few years of starting SHIFT, the most common questions I got from email or social media surrounded flexibility, injuries, physical preparation, or skills. In the last two years, one new question has replaced these in the number one spot. I would argue it’s been more common than all of those other categories […]
