How do gymnasts recover physically and mentally from tough training regimes?
Olympics.com spoke to Ellie Black, Aleah Finnegan, Jordan Chiles and Melanie de Jesus dos Santos about the techniques they use to balance optimum training with recovery ready to go back the next day for more.
Artistic Gymnastics
“At the beginning, (the training start time) was the change that upset me the most,” said artistic gymnast Melanie de Jesus dos Santos, citing the most challenging aspect of moving from France to her new base in the United States in early 2022.
The 7am start time at the World Champions Centre in Houston, Texas was rather a rude awakening for the Martinique-born de Jesus dos Santos who was used to a rather more leisurely 10am beginning in France.
The training hours were the same, around seven hours a day, six days a week, but an adjustment was required of the 23-year-old who ended up leaning right into the change.
A 5.45am alarm call now greets de Jesus dos Santos, despite living just 10 minutes from the gym, which allows her to "get up quietly", she said at the US Classic in August.
“When my alarm rings, I take my shower, I listen to music, I have breakfast, in short I take my time before starting training,” she explained.
The morning workout ends at 10.30am, when she heads home, eats something, relaxes a bit then heads back to training from 2pm-5.30pm.
"In the end, I like it because starting early allows you to finish earlier and allows more time to recover. And I like it because it gives me time to chill in the evening,” says the four-time European champion now.
Learning what works for each individual is not just a matter of what happens in the gym, it's the recovery period afterward that enables a return to training, mentally and physically ready, day after day. So how do gymnasts maintain the equilibrium between optimum training sessions and maximum recovery?
Ellie Black: "Don't keep yourself in a high stress mode"
"I think one of the biggest things is, after you're done for the day, I like to at least talk a little bit with my coach and go over the day and how it went," said Canada's Ellie Black, a three-time World medallist. "So, what the next few days are going to look like, what we need to work on. I think mentally that allows me to look back on the gymnastics that I did and really pick out those really good things that I'm doing. "
Black is the stalwart of Canadian women's gymnastics, leading the side to a third-place finish in the team competition at the 2022 Worlds, securing a five-person quota berth for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, courtesy of the podium finish.
Should the Halifax-native be selected by her National Olympic Committee for the Games in France, Black would be heading to her fourth Games, hoping to improve on her best ever finish of fourth, on beam, at Tokyo 2020.
Her longevity in the sport is about training smart, both mentally and physically, she says.
"Sometimes we only focus on the negatives and it's hard to see the positives. So, for example, I didn't have the greatest bars day at a practice the other day, but it was a really beneficial practice because if a mistake happens, I got to practice those. And then if you're in that situation, you feel like you've already been through it.
"So, I think it's just that little debrief. It allows you to bring yourself down and to recover and not keep yourself in that high stress mode, because I think it's really important to conserve some of your energy as you're building and preparing in the recovery," said Black.
"Then, for me, the nutrition is really important – making sure you're getting enough water and you're getting enough proper nutrition after you're done training and before the next practice."
Managing injuries, or weaknesses, during training is also paramount, with Black only recently returned from an ankle injury.
"For my ankle, I would do either icing or icing contrast, just for any kind of extra stiffness or if there is a little bit of inflammation in there, making sure that that's getting the recovery it needs.
"And physio is a big one as well. If there's anything that's stiff or causing some pain somewhere else, we'll work on that. And then for recovery also have the (recovery) boots that I use at home, which I love, the massage and all those handy tools that we have now to be able to recover the best we can and then get enough good sleep and rest and recovery.
"So, it's compiling all of those things physically and mentally to make sure that we're recovering and we're allowing ourselves to bring our energy up when we need it and then to bring our energy down to conserve."
Aleah Finnegan: "It's the little things"
"Gymnastics is a very gruelling sport for your body," says Philippines' Aleah Finnegan. "So just taking that time like icing, doing a lot of rehab, making sure you warm up correctly and warm down correctly, all those little things.
"It's like, I'll skip this today, but those things add up. And so really trying to put my attention to detail because it's like, 'Oh, I can do all these big skills', but it's also like I need to really focus on making sure my body is adequately prepared for those big skills. And not only physically, gymnastics takes a toll on you mentally," says Finnegan.
"So just making sure that my head is in the right space, just going into practice, going into these competitions, taking time to regroup. Maybe that could be journaling. Maybe that could just be like watching a movie with a candle on, just something to just kind of unwind your brain just because it can take a lot out of you."
Finnegan, who was originally a member of the US team from 2019–21, was part of the team that won gold at the 2019 PanAm Games but has gone on to win two bronze medals at the Asian Championships since opting to compete for Philippines having initially retired her elite gymnastics career.
That decision has seen her secure one of the 14 individual quota spots for her NOC for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games based off the all-around qualification rankings at the 2023 Worlds on 2 October.
Those lessons learned are right back front and centre.
* Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
* As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Jordan Chiles: "It depends what mood I'm in as to how I relax"
Jordan Chiles, an Olympic silver medallist from the US, cites the classic therapy loathed by most as one of her go-tos: The dreaded ice bath.
The Olympic silver medallist also has a massage but it's not the relax-a-thon you get at a spa – more a painful pummelling of muscles and tendons.
The 22-year-old does have some more pleasurable past-times too, though: "I'll go get my nails done," she told Olympics.com. "It depends on what my mood is that day. But most of the time, I just come home and relax and just maybe be on TikTok at some point."
It'll be on this social platform she'll likely come across the GB women's team who enjoy creating viral dance posts often involving sunglasses and lip synching.
On finishing her qualifying competition at the World Championships in Antwerp on Sunday (1 October), Georgia-Mae Fenton told Olympics.com what she would be doing with the two days break before the team final on Wednesday (4 October).
"Definitely going to rest and recover," said Fenton, who is also second reserve for the bars final on Saturday 7 October. "We'll probably have another photo shoot, get some TikToks going, maybe do a bit of shopping, just anything at all to keep our minds happy and clear going into the next comp."
Then there's a quick pivot to the matter in hand.
"But we have training as well to do," smiles the Brit, acknowledging the clock ticking down to finals time in Antwerp. "We're just working on the fine details now."