Gymnastics Warm Up Exercises

Every amateur athlete should perform gymnastics warm up exercises before pumping iron. The primary reason is to warm up your body and muscles, as gymnastics requires intense muscle power. Warming up and stretching your muscles will prevent them from injury during intense gymnastics work out sessions. These warm up exercises should prevent you from spraining your muscles or worse!

1. The best way to begin your gymnastics warm up exercises is with aerobic exercises, which will get your body and muscles warmed up. To do this, you can simply jog around the gymnasium (or in one place) for between two and five minutes. Ensure that you have the right posture, as your arms should be correctly raised and your legs and knees need to be moving correctly. If you are unsure, jog in front of a mirror to determine the right jogging technique.
2. Another good gymnastics warm up exercise is to perform jumping jacks. Doing between 30 to 60 jumping jacks is a good number and makes for a great cardiovascular workout. Alternate between jumping up and down, sideways and front and back, making sure to keep your feet firmly together.
3. Warm up your wrists! This is an important (and often overlooked) part due to the tremendous amount of pressure placed on an athletes wrists during your typical workout. Keep moving your wrists to warm them up, which includes circular motions, stretching and flexing your hand, and pulling on your fingers of both hands. 
4. Bend and squat to warm up your back. Gymnastics warm up exercises shouldn't overlook your back. This is a crucial part that, if not warmed up properly, can lead to serious injury. Lean over as far as you can go to warm up your back muscles. Also, while squatting on your knees, bend forwards with your hands over your head. Keep repeating this to warm up your muscles.