I had a pretty busy but fun-filled week last week.  Aside from my usual training and work outside of the gym, I celebrated my 25th birthday.  I kept it fairly low key but had a very nice day full of surprises. I definitely wanted to take this opportunity to say a quick thanks to all the people who wished me happy birthday!

As  I get older, I like to reassess where I’m at physically, especially in this demanding sport called gymnastics.  They say age is just a number, but is it true?  I definitely feel young in my mind, but I’m not sure if I can trick my body (physical) into thinking the same.  As I get older, I’m realizing more and more that I don’t recover as quickly as I used to when I was a teen.

What this also means is that I’m taking less turns in training.  However, I’ve come to realize that this is not a bad thing at all. Because of the limited turns, I’ve learned to make sure that every single turn on the equipment is meaningful and that I’m making a deliberate effort to make a change.  When I was younger, it didn’t matter how many turns I took.  My body would rebound instantly.  I could make gradual changes and it didn’t matter, as long as I was moving in the right direction.  This definitely isn’t the case anymore….

If I did the same thing, my body’ll disintegrate for sure.  But at the same time, I do believe that taking a ton of turns when I you’re young can be beneficial.  A ton of the skills I trained when I was younger are ingrained in me and I can rely on muscle memory to get me through them.
Different age = different training style, I suppose.

Speaking of age, school is starting back up again.  Not that this has much to do with me as I’ve already graduated but I’m seeing new students and their parents roll onto campus.  I remember my first day of college…green and inexperienced but the great thing for me was having grown up in the Stanford gym.  Although academics and school life was tough to get used to, I found comfort in the gym as I trained there my entire life.  Anyway, I’m hoping to find some time in my schedule to be a volunteer assistant coach again this season.  Good luck to all the new students coming in!