With all of the different gymnastics equipment that a gymnast uses at the gym, it can be a great idea to have some of the equipment in your home so that you can practice at your own convenience even at times when the gym might be closed.
When trying to figure what gymnastics equipment that you can buy for your house, there are two main things that you will have to take into consideration. This first thing is space, since obviously you are only going to be able to fit so much in your house, and it is very unlikely that you will have the 8 feet in height needed for a complete uneven bar setup such as your gym has.
The second thing that you will have to take into consideration besides space is money. Even if you had a huge house or a large garage that you planned on using solely for your gymnastics equipment, some of the larger items that are more gym quality can cost thousands of dollars easily.
There are a number of different things that you could buy in order to have your own home gymnastics setup, some of which can even be exactly like the ones that you would use in competitions, and these are especially great equipment to have in order to train at home.
Mat
Mats are an essential part of any home setup for you to practice your gymnastics. Mats are used for landing if you have any of the other pieces of equipment, but even more importantly these also provide you a safe place to practice many of the different flips and saltos that a gymnast has to learn how to do.
In terms of cost, these are one of the cheaper things that you can get for your home, and in terms of space these can quite often be folded up to be very small when they are not in use. All in all, these are something that you can have even if you are on a tight budget and live in a very small home.
If, on the other hand, you can afford to get more than one, mats are something that are sometimes capable of attaching to each other by the use of straps. This means that if you want to, say, practice a whole tumbling pass safely at home and you have the space to, that you can get more than one mat and attach them end to end in order to have a long runway of mats.
Or, another option is that you could even cover a whole room with mats if you plan on using that room for your gymnastics training and for nothing else. This can be a great idea for practicing your floor routine.
Balance Beam
The balance beam is something that you can get fairly easily, and it is even possible to get one that is almost identical to what you might use in competitions. While the 4 inch wide and 16 foot long beam itself might not take up a whole lot of space, you should keep in mind that you will want to have enough space on either side so that if you fall off during practicing that you will not hit anything on the way down.
A balance beam is also something that can be gotten for a reasonable price, and it is even something that is fairly straightforward to make yourself if you are handy. This makes it much more affordable, and the only thing that you will have to think about is the space.
If you are just going to be practicing certain moves on it, then the balance beam does not need to be the full 16 feet in length. Another thing that can be changed is that is you are a young gymnast you can get some balance beams that are meant to be laid right on the floor.
These are sometimes referred to as floor beams and they are great for gymnasts who are not yet entirely comfortable doing some of the things high up off of the ground. This can also make it safer to practice the moves that might end up with a fall. Sometimes these can be folded up when they are not in use, which also saves some on space.
Bar
As mentioned, if you wanted to have a whole uneven bar setup like what you would use in an actual gymnastics competition, you would need to have a ceiling that was at least 8 feet tall. However, that would just be for the bar itself and would not give you so much as an inch between the bar and the ceiling and you would at the very least need 5 feet more in order to do a circle on the high bar.
Price wise, bars are one of the more expensive pieces of gymnastics equipment that you can get for your home. These often take up a fair amount of space as well since they not only have to have the bar, but they also have to have a good support setup in order to make sure that the bar can support the weight of the gymnast on it.
The bar is something that almost no gymnast has in their home like it is in the competitions, most home bars only have one bar to them, though you can find ones with two bars. These require a bit more space of course, but they are the only way you can practice things like bar changes while you are at home.
Foam Shapes
There is a wide variety of different foam shapes that you can get in order to help you with gymnastics. These are usually reasonably priced and most of them are easy to stow away when you are not using them.
One great example of a foam shape that can be used for gymnastics training is the octagon barrel, though the mailbox shape is also a good one that can be used in some of the same ways. For example, learning the bridge and the back walkover are both things that you will need to be able to bend over back for.
Having a foam shape is a way that you can support your back if you bend backwards over it and it is also something that can help you build up these muscles while giving you something soft that you can literally fall back on if you need to for any reason without trying to use something that might have a sharp edge to it.
Other foam shapes are flatter, like a mat only thicker. These are better than a mat when it come to things where you are going to deliberately going to fall. For example, if you are working on the first part of the back handspring then you will often fall into a foam pit in the gym at the end while you perfect the first part before you work on your landing.
Since having a foam pit in your home is not something that is exactly feasible, a thick square of foam – or even a small stack of foam squares – is a good substitute for when you are practicing at home.
Trampoline
A trampoline is something that is actually used for gymnastics training sometimes as a way to practice some of the different flips if the gymnast is having a hard time getting the right height needed for them. Some trampolines are made to be smaller than others so as to take up less space.
However, if you plan on using it for training then you will want to make sure that it is big enough to give you room to try your flips on it. These can be often far too big to fit in the house, which means that you will have to have a place outside for it.
This also means that you will only be able to practice with it if the weather is not raining or too cold for you to. On the other hand, unlike the other gymnastics equipment this is something that could be fun for other members of the family who might not be gymnasts.
