Gymnasts and weights?

Hi

Is it common for gymnasts to steer clear of weights or do they use them?By weights I mean dumb/bar bells etc not ankle weights and the like.

Thanks

It is very common for weights to be used for prehab elements and certain aspects of conditioning. There are also a lot of programs that steer clear, but you see more and more weight training for elbow and shoulder prehab as time goes on.

You also see a good bit of supplemental strength training using weights with rings specialists.

Pretty much every collegiate female gymnast will spend 2-3 days in the weight training room/hall. Some elite female programs will use them as well. Rybacki I know does. It's creeping more and more with some of the gyms that are not elite but run L9/10s.

UC Berkeley MAG did not though and I suspect most other collegiate MAG programs in the US wouldn't either. They are used at the OTC but the programming I saw from there did not include any Olympic Weightlifting work. I don't even recall it using squats and deadlifts and was relegated to bench and press mainly during a hypertrophy phase.

In other countries they do. At the regional level, it's very much up to the region and coaches. My friend from the Ukraine said they often did squats when he was a kid (12 or 13) with partners on their back.

Both Byers Sacramento and Airborne Gymnastics were using weights in their program. Airborne had a small CF in their gym but mainly focused on strength and power. Justin eventually didn't use CF after awhile but enjoyed some aspects of it (he's now at Berkeley in the women's program). Byers Sac sends their girls to WarriorZFitness which is a sports complex in the same city. CrossFit, OlympicLifting, local HS sports training. There are shared contacts between Byers's and WarriorZ. WarriorZ's owner is a cool guy and good WLer I trained with once at Glenn's (awesome day trip).