Better at Being Bad
Why I started adult gymnastics.
By Garrett de Jong - February 2024
I have always thought of myself as an endurance athlete. My body has adapted to long distance running, cycling, hiking and more recently, cross country skiing. As a result, I did not have or felt I needed a huge degree of flexibility. This did not bother me one bit. Sure I stretched, but it was never a priority or a goal. Eventually, I realized that I was becoming a pretty crummy overall athlete. For example, the odd time I would play basketball or ultimate frisbee, I was shocked at how much I struggled.
When I lived in Centretown, I used to walk to work. Along the way, there was a gym called “Kazam Gymnastics”. Initially I thought “Kazam” was the name of an intense former Russian Olympic gymnast. I was wrong. When I finally looked it up, it turned out to simply be “Kazam!”, the energetic catch phrase used by Alex, the gym’s founder. Their slogan was “it’s never too late to be awesome!” Despite my anxiety around trying any non-endurance sports, I decided to give it a go. I bought a three-visit pass; my first class was a mobility class. I was sore for a week afterwards. I knew immediately that this was something my body was deprived of for years.
I was sore for a week afterwards. I knew immediately that this was something my body was deprived of for years.
Let’s rewind a bit. Another reason I had enough confidence to try out adult gymnastics was that I told myself to only “try it out”. Even if I loved it, I imposed a limit on myself. In my earlier days as a runner and triathlete I definitely had an unhealthy relationship with the sport.Once I started something new, I needed to get really good at it. There’s a saying: “addiction is giving up everything for one thing, and recovery is giving up one thing for everything.” With gymnastics, I had established more flexible expectations for myself before starting, which made it all the easier to try it in the first place!
My goal at Kazam was to take a much broader approach to my fitness. In the past I wanted to be a specialist, whereas now I see greater value in being more of a generalist. What sold me on this idea was David Epstein’s book “Range”, which makes the argument that even the best “specialists” started as strong “generalists”. I was excited to see whether this approach would provide any delayed gratification to my running and skiing.
As a running coach I create “periodized” plans. For the best results, these plans start off general and become more specific as we approach race day. I am doing a very similar thing here, but on a more macro scale.
Last spring I was at Kazam 3 days a week doing a variety of strength, mobility and gymnastic skill classes. But once summer rolled around, I changed my gym membership to more intermittent classes to simply maintain some of my gymnastic strength while I started to run more. My body felt great! I repeated the same cycle in the fall and now in the winter as I cross country ski. And guess what? My body feels great on skis!
When I started at Kazam, I was terrible. But I immediately got excited about being bad because this provided an opportunity for immense growth. Getting better at being bad is my new goal in life. I wonder what I will be bad at next?
