GYMNASTICS. - G. (from the Greek γυμνός = naked) is the art of moving the human body; in some cases, when it sets itself particular aims, it is also a science (medical, orthopedic, educational gymnastics, etc.).
The forms of gymnastics are various, and each has its own purposes; among the most important are mentioned educational, medical, differential, social, the so-called chamber gymnastics, rhythmic, apparatus, callisthenic, acrobatic, military gymnastics, etc.
An indispensable condition for the realization of any type of gymnastics is a precise psychophysical evaluation of the person who wishes or must exercise.
I. EDUCATIONAL GYMNASTICS
It is the basis of physical education (v. EDUCAZIONE: X. L'educazione fisica). It has become part of school disciplines, just as, in part, it is still carried out today in almost the whole world, through the work of Adolfo Spiess (1810-58), who around 1837 intuited and realized the conditions of simultaneity and rhythm of exercises, founding school gymnastics and initiating a true and proper school gymnastics for girls.
Spiess undoubtedly benefited the spread of gymnastics, but the abuse that was later made of methodical gymnastics distorted, in part, the true objective of gymnastics itself, arousing a genuine reaction tending to free physical exercise from those forms in favor of new forms.
Educational gymnastics comprises methodical exercises and gymnastic games.
Of the methodical exercises, the following form part: a) the commands, which have disciplinary and practical purposes, especially for gymnasium drills; b) walking exercises, which besides strengthening the lower limbs give grace and agility to the bearing; c) the elementary ones, which are the true analytical exercises for psycho-kinetic education; d) exercises with small apparatus (wands, clubs, hoop, stick, cane, club, supports, blocks, etc.), which, besides having specific purposes, offer a good part of the advantages of the elementary exercises, often improving their performance; e) balance exercises (beam and Baumann blocks, balance beam, basket, globe, etc.), which have great psycho-kinetic value in that, engaging the nervous system in a particular way, they favor calmness, stimulate attention and cause one to acquire courage; f) jumping and vaulting exercises (springboards, beam, vaulting horse, plinth, horse, etc.), which cause one to acquire agility, dexterity and courage; g) support and suspension exercises (climbing frame, wall bars, ladder, bar, bench, wall, gymnastic frame, horse, horizontal bar, parallel bars, rings, etc.), which have great efficacy for muscular development, especially for the upper limbs and the thorax. The practice of these latter exercises and the particular use of certain apparatus (horse, horizontal bar, parallel bars, rings, etc.) must be particularly graduated and distributed according to age and physical development, avoiding any strain, given their intensity; h) exercises in the classroom (gymnastics between the desks) must be practiced by pupils of the primary school out of didactic and practical necessity. They accustom one to order and discipline, possessing moreover a good physiological effect, particularly preventive and corrective against the onset of bad postures proper to primary school pupils. With gymnastics in the classroom the desk, a truly deforming instrument, by means of particular exercises, becomes an apparatus of compensatory gymnastics.
The methodical exercises, which have as their peculiar characteristic the precision of movements, today must be completed with gymnastic games, which by their spontaneity (imprecise movements), besides "recreating," possess an immense pedagogical-psycho-kinetic value.
II. MEDICAL GYMNASTICS. It is perhaps one of the oldest chapters of medicine; already several millennia before the common era the Chinese practiced it. Medical gymnastics has a predominantly physiological purpose. Cardiac patients, dyspeptics, the obese, individuals suffering from visceral ptosis, etc. benefit from medical gymnastics.
It is understood that here we are speaking of a gymnastics rationally dosed like a medicament and controlled in its effects like any other medical therapy. A specialization of medical gymnastics is orthopedic gymnastics, a branch of orthopedics, which avails itself, for the physical re-education of those with impaired motor functions, of gymnastics with and without apparatus, active and passive. Prosthetically fitted amputees, civilians and war veterans, in particular, find great benefit from such gymnastics.
III. DIFFERENTIAL GYMNASTICS
Its purpose is a true recovery of the individual's physical personality. It comprises: corrective gymnastics for those mild paramorphisms that are so frequently found among pupils of primary school; compensatory gymnastics for the imbalances caused by particular trades (occupational diseases of shoemakers, blacksmiths, laborers, etc.) or by natural tendency (left-handed persons, adenoid types, etc.) and gymnastics for the physically and mentally disabled (gymnastics for the blind, deaf-mutes, the demented, etc.).
IV. SOCIAL GYMNASTICS
The Swedes call it voluntary gymnastics. Its goal is the improvement of public health; it is the gymnastics that concerns everyone, from children to adults, from the well-off to manual and mental workers. This type of gymnastics varies from age to age both in substance and in purpose; in fact, while young people practice a developmental gymnastics, adults adopt exercises to preserve and strengthen health. Manual workers practice physical exercises suited to compensating for the negative effect of their daily work, while intellectuals practice a physical culture that varies according to the needs for movement that their occupation sacrifices.
In Sweden there are about 3,000 free gymnastics associations with over 300,000 members out of about 6,000,000 inhabitants. In Italy something of the kind has been realized through the after-work organizations.
V. ROOM GYMNASTICS
It has an essentially hygienic-aesthetic purpose. This type of gymnastics is very widespread in all social classes; the radio, with special broadcasts, has greatly contributed to this diffusion.
A characteristic of room gymnastics is that it consists of breathing exercises, analytical exercises without equipment and with small equipment that can be performed in a confined space. The advantage of such exercises is considerable for their daily practice.
VI. RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS
It is the feminine gymnastics par excellence; it aims at the education and harmony of the body through natural and free movements, with or without musical accompaniment. A very widespread system of rhythmic gymnastics is that of Emil Jacques-Dalcroze. With this system Jacques-Dalcroze sets himself the threefold aim of developing the rhythmic and metric musical instinct, the sense of plastic harmony, and the regularization of motor habits. Other systems have followed the one mentioned above.
VII. APPARATUS GYMNASTICS (artistic)
It has a competitive-spectacular character; it consists of tiring exercises; the parallel bars, the horizontal bar, the rings, the pommel horse are the typical apparatus of this gymnastics. These exercises, which must necessarily be integrated with intense jumping and running practice, are advisable only for subjects recognized as physically fit, endowed with particular aptitudes. Apparatus gymnastics, which also includes exercises of agility and dexterity on the ground, is part of the Olympic events (v. SPORT); in Italy it is under the control of the Italian Gymnastics Federation, affiliated with the Italian National Olympic Committee.
VIII. CALLISTHENIC GYMNASTICS
This is a form of gymnastics reserved for women, with predominantly aesthetic purposes.
IX. ACRONATIC GYMNASTICS
It has a professional-spectacular purpose. An exceptional physique, a contempt for danger and great technique are the requirements for such gymnastics.
X. MILITARY GYMNASTICS
Its immediate aims are the improvement of physical performance, the habit of discipline, and training to overcome the foreseeable environmental and technical difficulties of the future combatant. Methodical gymnastics, pre-sporting and sporting games, certain track-and-field specialties, and applied gymnastics form the basis of military gymnastics.
For athletic gymnastics v. SPORT.
Bibliography18 works
Michele Di Donato
GYMNASTICS AND THE THOUGHT OF THE CHURCH
The purpose that gymnastics sets for itself, of giving the body "that most noble instrument of the soul, agility and solid grace, health and true and good strength" (Pius XI, Letter, cited in bibl.), is appreciated and approved by the Church, which cannot "restrict its competence and its action to purely religious, exclusively spiritual things, as if the body, a creature of God just like the soul to which it is united, should not have its part in the homage to be rendered to the Creator" (Pius XII, Discourse cited in bibl.).
Gymnastics, in fact, contains in itself excellent positive pedagogical elements. Gymnastic movements, performed rhythmically and according to wisely defined methods (v. above), not only gather all the advantages of motion, of which the organism has need, correct faulty postures, decongest the brain, offer the spirit relief and cheerfulness, but are transformed into a precious instrument of education. For in gymnastics certain laws must be observed: obedience to commands, uniformity of movements, readiness of spurts, endurance; which contributes to giving a sense of discipline and to making it appreciated; these are elements decisive for the formation of a will strong and elastic as steel. Gymnastics, moreover, especially in school and when practiced in competitions, engages the spirit in emulation, in success, in victory over one's companions, and thus gradually engenders the feeling of being able, by willing it, to improve oneself not only with respect to the physical, but also in all other respects.
For this reason gymnastics must not lose sight of the sense of measure and of its original purpose. Therefore: 1) the education of the body must remain a means and not degenerate into a cult; as a means it must be and remain ordered to the end, which consists in the perfect and balanced formation and education of the whole man, to whom it is a help for the prompt and joyful fulfillment of duty, whether of study or of profession; 2) the exercises must be suited to age, sex, and the state of health and development of the organism; otherwise, instead of helping, they hinder the work of the spirit; 3) on the part of those who contemplate, as on the part of those who expose themselves to the contemplation of others, a sense of healthy modesty, of decorum, of gentlemanly ease, of mutual respect is required. Therefore not only are coarse vulgarities, unseemly postures, improprieties and boldnesses to be avoided, but also clothing that is too scanty or too tight-fitting, and exercises that aim rather at an unhealthy or, worse, morbid exhibitionism than at a true usefulness; 4) all the more must these observations and cautions hold when it is a question of women's gymnastics, whether in simple gymnasiums or, and above all, in contests and so-called athletic competitions. Sensitivity and attention to the delicate considerations owed to the young woman and the girl are founded on motives of a physical and moral order of pure common sense, intuited and felt, as if by natural instinct, by parents and teachers who are not prejudiced or led astray by exaggerated or false theories or by motives wholly extraneous to good and sound pedagogy. Everything therefore that does not accord with the reserve and composure that are so great an ornament and safeguard of virtue must be avoided, and every incentive to vanity and violence must be excluded.