Muscles

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Dec 212011

The anatomy of muscles is a huge subject. This website is designed to be a simple handbook and will not go into deep details about all the muscles in the human body, but we will focus our attention on the basic knowledge and the main groups of muscles that every coach should understand.

Contents

1 Anatomy Overview
2 Core Muscles
3 Neck
4 Shoulders
5 Chest
6 Biceps
7 Triceps
8 Abdominals
9 Thighs (Quadriceps)
10 Back
11 Glute
12 Hamstrings
13 Calves

Most people when they think about muscles, they think strength, but forget that muscles are also very important for stability, flexibility and of course strength.

Strength is usually gained by working the muscles with heavy loads.

Flexibility is usually gained by stretching the muscles.

Stability is usually gained by tightening the muscles.

The human body consists of three types of muscles:

Cardiac
Smooth
Skeletal

Cardiac Muscles are found only in the heart and pump the blood around in our body.

Smooth Muscles surround or are a part of the organs in our body.

Skeletal Muscles are the muscles that are attached to bones in our body by bundles of collagen fiber also known as tendons.

Cardiac and Smooth Muscles are called involuntary muscles, because they cannot be consciously controlled. Skeletal Muscles are what is known as a voluntary controlled muscles, meaning that we can consciously control them.

Note: Muscles work by converting chemical energy into tension and contraction. Muscles can pull, they cannot push!

It is important to understand that this article is only focusing on the groups of muscles and not what the groups are made up of. A good example to illustrate this is the “hamstrings”. The hamstrings is a group of muscles comprised of three different muscles “semitendinosus”, “semimembranosus” and the “biceps femoris”. Most people use the word “Hamstrings” and since this is a handbook and not a detailed website about muscles we will only be focusing on the muscle groups and in this example we would refer to the “hamstrings”.

Anatomy Overview

This is a compressed overview of the muscles anatomy. The human body contains over 600 muscles and such detail is not necessary to understand how gymnastic skills and drills effect each muscles. Understand what muscle groups are effected and should be warmed up is more than enough knowledge for an effective training.

Core Muscles

The core muscles are defined by the abdominal, mid and lower back, hips and glutes.

Having good core muscles is vital for stability, balance and flexibility.

Note: I have tried to research a lot on the definition for a core muscles. It seems that there are many different definitions for what parts of the body define the core muscles. I have highlighted in the illustration what seems to be the general idea where the core muscles are located. I have some people looking into this and will update the definition when I know more.

Neck

Muscles in the neck need to be flexible and tight when needed.

Flexible when the gymnast comes in a situation that requires the neck to bend that was not intended. Any injury to the neck is dangerous and MUST be prevented, a flexible neck is NOT a reason to do skills were the gymnast is not ready!

Tight when the gymnast executes their skills. The head and neck position for most skills are in the neutral position and tight.

Shoulders

Good shoulder muscles are important, so gymnasts can hold an elongated body position like the handstand. They are also need to be strong enough to handle impacts were the gymnast needs to push off with hands and shoulders i.e. when doing handsprings.

Chest

The chest muscle is one of those muscles coaches generally do not think enough about. The chest muscles is very important to balance out the gymnasts strong back muscles. Having a strong chest and abdominal muscles will create a stability when executing gymnastic skills.

You might already be training your chest muscles without you even knowing it. A lot of exercises give an indirect workout for the chest muscles, like push ups, handstands, handsprings.

Biceps

The biceps is probably one of the best known muscles and is also one of those muscles that can really get big fast.

In tumbling we are for the most part only interested that the biceps muscle can be tight (tension). It is important that both the biceps and triceps work together to create strong tight arm.

Just like the chest muscles this is a muscle that gets a lot of indirect attention from other exercises.

Triceps

In tumbling we are for the most part only interested that the triceps muscle can be tight (tension). It is important that both the biceps and triceps work together to create stability.

Just like the chest muscles this is a muscle that gets a lot of indirect attention from other exercises, but not as much as the biceps.

I recommend that coaches add a couple of exercises that are more focused on the triceps. Push ups with elbows along the sides of the body is highly recommended.

Abdominals

The abdominal muscles are part of the core muscles section.

It is very important to train the abdominal muscles and the all the other core muscles, or else you will have an unbalanced core section. I see lots of gymnasts train abdominal muscles and very little on everything else (please do not be one of those gymnasts).

There are countless number of exercises for the abdominal muscles. Do not get stuck with one exercise when working on the abdominal muscles. There are many muscles that make up the abdominal section and you need to work on all of them.

Fyi: Everybody has a 6-pack, the question is how much fat is covering the 6-pack!

Thighs (Quadriceps)

The thigh muscles are probably the strongest muscles in the body for most people. Gymnasts uses their thigh muscles for putting power into their skills and absorbing impacts on landings.

Back

Muscles in the back are very important to create a stable and strong upper body. Your chest, back and core muscles are what decides how tight and stable a gymnast is able to execute a skill.