The American men’s gymnastics team for the London Olympic Games have been announced. The following men have been selected to compete in the London games: Jake Dalton, Jonathan Horton, Danell Levya, Sam Mikulak, and John Orozco. These men competed in their respective events at the United States Olympic Trials and the men’s gymnastics Olympic committee evaluated those performances in order to determine who would represent the USA in London.
One of the most important aspects of gymnastic training is developing grip and back strength. Can you imagine how hard it is to perform on the rings, pommel horse, and split bar routines? Gymnasts make it look so easy, but these events require tremendous amounts of strength and power.
The simplest move that you can do to practice this kind of strength in your own gym or home is the pull-up. The pull-up not only works every aspect of your back, but works various other muscles and is a cornerstone for improving grip strength. Try doing multiple variations of pull-ups such as wide-grip, close-grip, over-hand, and under-hand. It may be very difficult at first; but, its the first step on the road to building the strength of an Olympian!
Check out this video to learn how to get started doing pull-ups.
