By Susannah

I chose a few videos of me doing gymnastics in my living room (and right outside my apartment) because I think it reflects a general shift I’ve experienced from working out in gyms to being forced to work out from home, as well as the trend of purchasing exercise equipment online. I am just one of many people now doing workouts in the living room that we would usually do elsewhere.

I am just one of many people now doing workouts in the living room that we would usually do elsewhere.

Until everything closed down, my favorite day of the week was Wednesday, because that’s when I went to club gymnastics practice! Growing up, I did competitive gymnastics from age 4 to 18. Starting graduate school at UD, I could not wait to get back in the gym and join the club gymnastics team. I joined in 2018, going to only one practice a week, but I managed to get skills back, stay active, and make friends with the undergrads involved. With campus and everything closed I knew I would be missing gymnastics like crazy, so the day after learning that classes were canceled, I ordered an expensive(-ish} mat off of Amazon and it arrived at my apartment within a few days.

Since that moment on I’ve been working on maintaining and learning fun combinations of skills in my living room (and outside sometimes when the weather is nice). Doing gymnastics in my living room and posting “social distancing gymnastics updates” (or something along those lines) on my Instagram story has become a way of staying active, happy, and sharing something interesting with my friends from time to time. My mom also loves when I send her my videos. I’m very excited that I can now do back handspring layout step outs, when previously I always stuck to only back handspring back tucks (although I don’t plan to try them on the beam anytime soon-if ever). Gymnastics in isolation has given me something to look forward to and let me set little improvement goals (whether specific skills or flexibility)!