‘You get to play like a kid again’: the joy of gymnastics for fitness

Gymnastics Bodies, says Tan, is the “original gymnastics training method”, while adaptations are increasingly called simply “body-weight exercise”. The model and fitness coach Roger Frampton has devised his own gymnastics-inspired “Frampton Method”. His book, The Flexible Body, will join the hordes of exercise books released in January and his Instagram account, with images of him balancing on his hands, toes pointed aloft in endless variations, has 35,000 followers (although some may just be there for the swimwear shots).

But, rather than aiming to whittle the body into a fashionable shape by burning maximum calories, the emphasis of gymnastics is on flexibility, movement and strength. Gymnasts’ bodies may look unachievable, but Tan – who looks as if he probably sleeps in a human-flag pose – believes that “this is the way that, as animals, our bodies should naturally be”.

#olderpeople #gymnastics #flexiblebody