The gymnastic exercises
The effect of gymnastic exercises:
- their effect can be portioned precisely: for the whole body or for a muscle group;
- they can be adjusted to age;
- we can also increase or decrease both the intensity and range of the loads;
- they can be applied for the improvement of the condition and the coordination skills, as well as for the improvement of the joint mobility.
- We select the type of exercise depending on what we would like to achieve; or we can also transform the exercises through their variation and combination, so that they are of the desired effect.
The movement structure of gymnastic exercises:
Spatial characteristics:
- every exercise has a starting position;
- the distance covered from the starting position to the finishing position is the range of the movement (change of location, change of position)
Temporal characteristics:
- the time span of the movement: the time elapsing from the start until the finish;
- the speed of the movement: it can be defined by the distance covered in a time unit.
- the pace of the movement: it depends on the speed, and shows the frequency, the number or the amount of movements per time unit (slow, average, quick, fast);
- the rhythm of the movement: the alternation of the spatial and temporal parameters (a line of basic forms of at times identical, at times different duration, according to a certain rhythm arrangement, which can be regular or alternating);
- the element of the movement: the period of the exercise, or part of exercise, while the movement is being performed, which is indicated by a number (a 2, 4, 8 or more – element exercise).
Dynamic characteristics:
- static effort: the external and the internal forces are in balance (there is no movement, but there is muscle tension, e.g. the position of sitting with the legs and arms raised and extended, trunk leaning, etc.)
- dynamic effort: through the interaction of the external and the internal forces, a movement takes place:
- if the internal force is bigger and it overcomes the external resistance, e.g. trunk raising, arm raising, etc., it is called an overcoming effort;
- if the external force overcomes the inner one, e.g. from standing descending into a supported squatting, letting down the arm, etc.: yielding or braking effort.
The alteration of the structural and load elements of an exercise in various ways is called the variation of the exercises.
The objective of the variation and the combination of the exercises:
- the improvement of the motor skills through the achievement of general and versatile effects upon the body;
- to increase, decrease, arrange properly the effects upon the various organ systems, or changing the effects;
- to generate the proper range and intensity of the burden;
- to make the training more diverse;
- the improvement of the movement and the repertoire of the exercises.
The devices of the variation of the exercises:
- The variation of the structural components:
- variations with the spatial components: with the starting position, the direction of the movement, the range of the movement, the final position;
- variations with the temporal components: with the time span of the exercise, with the pace, changing the speed, with the starting time and the time span of the accelerations and the decelerations, with the movements and the rhythm of the whole exercise, with the various rhythm patterns.
- The variation of the loading components:
- variations with the size of the resistance, the number of the repetitions, the series, and the resting times;
- The application of various tools.
