Monthly Archives: June 2018

Nutrition in Gymnastics

On Friday, June 15th, we had an exciting visitor to Viking Gymnastics & Dance! Andrea Rudser-Rusin, a registered dietician and athletic trainer, came to talk to our USAG team gymnasts about the importance of nutrition and healthy eating habits for athletes. Ms. Rudser-Rusin works as an individual consultant on nutrition matters with SportWise Nutrition and Consulting, LLC, as well as teaches sports nutrition at DePaul University in Chicago. She has a bit of familiarity with gymnastics but has mostly focused on swimming and running. However, her advice holds true for all sports!

Andrea began her visit by sharing her background with the gymnasts and asking them about their experiences with cooking and eating. She brought pictures and diagrams (linked and starred* below) to help everyone follow along. Andrea asked the gymnasts (and parents!) what they like to eat and cook, giving some gentle advice about what of the childrens’ favorite foods were good and what might be a little less beneficial. Apparently, Nutella is not the healthiest option of condiment! Who’d have thought?!

When and What to Eat

Andrea passes out her handouts, linked in this article.

After introducing the audience to some general food tips, Andrea went through the first couple of her handouts, which included information on how best to re-fuel* throughout the day as well as pie charts and descriptions of healthy and balanced meal options for both days of regular exercise* level and days of high-intensity* workouts. The basic advice was to make sure all meals are balanced in terms of nutrients, and that athletes should make sure they eat something about every three to four hours, focusing on small, fuel-rich snacks in between meals. She recommended a website called myplate.gov to help figure out how to make sure we have the right balance of nutrients in our diets. My Plate is the new and updated version of the food pyramid that us adults learned about back in grade school. Andrea also shared a modified My Plate more geared towards athletes, whose nutrition needs are slightly different from the general public’s.

Get Those Nutrients!

As for the specifics of what an athlete’s balanced diet should look like, Andrea broke it down into different nutrient groups. Three of the most important for athletes specifically are protein, carbohydrates (which Andrea also calls “fuel”), and dairy. These three nutrients provide much-needed support to the departments of muscle health and healing. Both of these are extra important for athletes, who put more stress on their bodies than non-athletes. After these three nutrient groups, Andrea talked about fruits, vegetables, and grains, saying “Stuff from the ground has carbs, or fuel, that our body uses to jump around and explode off the mat.” She further emphasized the importance of eating a variety of these ground foods, as “no one food fixes all!” and of not overdoing it on the grains. When in doubt, she said, “let’s get back to the basics and eat real food!” With this advice, Andrea provided a “grocery shopping list*” with recommended food options from each of the above categories, with plenty of blank spaces for families to add their own favorite healthy options.

After going through the handouts, Andrea asked if the audience had any questions. This led to more specific discussions of certain food-related topics. She told us how to cook an egg in the microwave, what sorts of health bars are the best to eat and which ones to avoid (the fewer ingredients the better!). She also told us what kinds of nuts, fish, or veggies make the best meal and snack choices. Ultimately, we should regularly refuel our tanks with a variety of healthy foods, focusing on as natural of foods as possible for the highest concentration of important nutrients like calcium, healthy fats and sugars, carbohydrates, protein, iron, and fiber. Unhealthy “junk” foods can of course still be consumed (she’s not crazy!), but we should control the amount and frequency with which we eat them and eat them in addition to healthy alternatives, not instead of them.

Nutrition Conclusion: Moderation and Balance Rule the Day

The woman calls on a gymnast raising her hand with a question.

Andrea finishes the visit by answering questions from the audience and reminds us all to maintain healthy and balanced nutrition habits!

To close, Andrea revisited her most important pieces of advice and gave some recommendations for places to find more information. She recommended eatright.org, the online home of the Academy of Dietetics, as a source of information and said to watch out for nutritionists whose names are not followed by RD, the degree for registered dieticians, as they may not have the same educational background as those with a formal degree. She repeated her advice to consume a wide variety of balanced foods with each meal and in-between-meals snack, emphasized the importance of eating in the morning and after workouts (even when those workouts immediately precede sleep). Coach Gena finished off the evening by tying Andrea’s words into gymnastics here at Viking. While Andrea talked only to our competitive team families, we wanted everyone to have access to this important advice. Healthy nutrition habits are crucial to athletes at every level of involvement in their sport, and the Viking Gymnastics & Dance family wants to make sure everyone has the opportunity to learn how to take care of themselves at home to get the most out of their athletic endeavors here at the gym!

Thank you so much to Andrea Rudser-Rusin for coming to talk to us, and we hope you all learn as much from her as we did! Bon Appétit!

Summer Gymnastics: Why You Should Still be in the Gym over Break!

As school lets out and the weather warms up, many gymnasts choose to take a break from their sport. This can seem like a good idea, to give the body a break and focus time on more classic “summer activities.” However, for a sport like gymnastics that is so dependent on progression (building up from one skill to the next, more difficult skill) and constant maintenance of strength and flexibility, taking a long break in the summer can really hurt a gymnast’s development in the sport. Gymnastics, like many sports, requires regular practice to maintain and improve your skills and fitness level. However, unlike most sports, gymnastics is more dependent on actually going to a gymnastics-specific facility to get that practice in. Therefore, simply staying active over the summer does not quite do the trick. This is for a couple of reasons:

1. Muscle Memory

A silly picture of a brain with arms and legs lifting a barbell as if to work out.

This brain is working out its memory muscles!

Gymnastics relies on muscle memory, the learning method wherein the brain starts to memorize movements in a particular pattern, allowing a gymnast to perform skills without having to think about them. For instance, a roundoff back handspring would be impossibly difficult if you had to think about every single step of performing the series. Instead, your brain knows how to do the roundoff and can start preparing for the back handspring from the time you start your hurdle. Muscle memory is reliant on regular practice, or else the brain begins to forget the patterns it has learned. A long break from gymnastics can therefore cause the brain to forget much of what it has worked so hard all year to learn, making the process of relearning these skills much harder come fall. Having to spend time relearning what you had mastered previously means you will have less time to spend learning new things!

2. Equipment

A panoramic photo of a gymnastic facility, showcasing the different kinds of equipment important to the sport.

All of this equipment in the gym is crucial for safely practicing.

Another reason to remain in the gym over summer break is that gymnastics, unlike many sports, requires very specific equipment and safety measures (coaches who know how to spot, for instance), which makes it very difficult to practice it at home. While kids can practice many skills for a sport like baseball in their backyard, unless you have proper matting and expensive equipment set up in your house, practicing gymnastics is not really a possibility. Even if you do have some equipment in your home, doing gymnastics safely and correctly often requires the presence of a coach who can correct your form and technique. Practicing a skill at home incorrectly can lead to difficulties in relearning the skill properly when back in the gym, making the progression to the next skill much slower.

Ways to stay involved this summer

A photograph of children running around a floor; a pile of gymnastics mats is stacked in the middle of the floor as part of a game the children are playing.

These young campers participate in a group game of natural disaster.

Viking Gymnastics & Dance makes every effort to provide opportunities for all of our Viking students to continue to improve during the summer months. We have plenty to choose from, whether it be in classes, camps or clinics. Participating in summer camps can really help gymnasts concentrate on specific skills or hone their form, as camps are longer than a normal class period. Camps also include games, crafts, and team building challenges. They are a great way to spend a week (or weeks!) while parents are busy and children are sure to have a blast while maintaining all the skills they have worked hard to learn all year.

Summer training is not only important for gymnasts, which is why Viking’s dance program also has a number of exciting camps and clinics scheduled. Camps range from musical theatre to breakdancing and may be full or half day. Clinics are concentrated lessons in a particular genre and are a great opportunity to try something new or to improve skills in a favorite kind of dance. These opportunities are educational and fun ways of passing those long summer days, and they will help your child stay active and in shape during their time away from school.

A group of children pose for a silly picture after a day of gymnastics camp.

This group of summer campers poses for a silly picture after a day of fun at Viking.

For more information, please check out our website, call our front desk at 847-965-2700, or email us at info@vikinggymnastics.com!

Thanks, and have a lovely, fun-filled summer, from the Viking Gymnastics & Dance family!

Inaugural Dance Recitals

Viking’s Dancers Dazzle in Inaugural Recitals!

by Ms. Lynn

On May 20, 2018, Viking Dance held two inaugural recitals at the Niles North High School Auditorium. The shows were titled Debut, which felt appropriate as it was a hallmark of many “firsts.” Debut was the first recital for Viking’s budding dance program, as well as the first time many of its dance students had ever performed on a stage. Anyone familiar with Viking’s history will recall that the gymnastics program also developed at Niles North several years ago, so in a way, the recitals brought Viking full circle back to the place of its roots.

Ms. Jessica’s “Breathe Me” lyrical quartet strikes their opening tableau with a graceful intensity.

Each show presented a program of twenty-four routines featuring dancers ages three to fourteen. Audiences were treated to a hearty mix of styles in Ballet, Jazz, Lyrical, Hip Hop and Tap. Solos, duets, trios and small group dances were showcased with eclectic music and artfully designed choreography. The spirit and enthusiasm of the audiences were palpable and electric in the air. Thunderous applause was heard after the final movements of each piece were struck, and giggles of adoration were heard when the tiniest dancers captured everyone’s hearts.

It was truly a magical day. Parents and family members beamed with pride over their child’s accomplishments. Teachers teared up when their students took the stage because they know how tough the journey can be, and they know how much growth their students have undergone. Dancers entered the stage fraught with nervous excitement, but exited relieved, elated and stronger than when they first began.

Two dancers strike a pose in character on Photo Day.

These are the things that make dance worth it. It is why being challenged, practicing outside of class, working towards a common goal for months, and overcoming stage fright is worth it. Dance is transformative. It gives us power to shift our perspective and bring us closer into balance with each other and the brightest pieces of ourselves. It is a silent voice that loudly and boldly bursts throughout space. Sometimes it ignites a passion that is so deep

A ballet dancer fluffs the layers of her tutu.

, dance is the only thing that makes real sense in the world. I truly hope our dancers felt a flicker of that passion during their performances.

There were so many positive memories created on and leading up to recital day that we will cherish for many years. Our staff is incredibly proud of each and every dancer’s achievements this season and we are honored to provide such a beautiful experience for our youth. For the first recital, it sure was one for the books! We hope to see all of our wonderful dancers again next season ready to rock the stage!

We hope that our dancers will continue their dance training over the summer to continue improving their technique and heighten their love and passion for their art. We have a variety of fantastic summer offerings including dance camps and clinics!

Ms. Sara’s “A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes” ballet dancers confidently hold their ending pose for big applause!