- Gymnastics is so hard.
I just don't wanna be at the gym right now.
I'm glad I haven't broken a bone yet,
hopefully I didn't just jinx myself.
(rock music)
It is 6:30 in the morning,
day one of my new challenge for BuzzFeed.
I'm gonna be training like a gymnast for 30 days
and I am really excited actually.
When I was a kid I always watched gymnastics
and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.
I just thought gymnasts were so strong
and in control of their bodies and that is just not me.
I'm also pretty terrified because I am scared of everything
so the idea of flipping over kinda terrifies me.
When I was younger I was always really scared
to go on trampolines or diving boards
'cause I had this irrational fear that I would break my neck
or dislocate an elbow or something like that.
This will be a little different.
I'll be training with Paul Ruggary,
oh (bleep) that's not his name,
Paul Ruggeri.
So I enlisted the help of Paul Ruggeri
who is literally one of the best gymnasts in the world.
He has his own gym in New York now
where you can train as adults
and I really wanted to try it and I'm an adult
so I figured why not.
We'll see what happens.
I have 30 days.
Maybe after this I'll try and join the Olympics.
I just finished up one of those fitness projects
where I did 100 pull-ups a day for 30 days
and I finished that,
I was literally in the best shape of my life
so I thought, well if I'm in the best shape of my life
and I really wanna be a gymnast,
gymnast are so strong now's the time to do it.
I wasn't really just looking for physical transformation
with tighter abs or butt or bigger shoulders or whatever,
I really wanted to see how far I could go in gymnastics
and increase my flexibility.
So I'm working on my splits and this is as far as I can go
on day one so wish me luck.
I'm about to start my tumbling class
and I'm really excited for it
but I'm just so tired and I don't know how I'm gonna keep up
with this for 30 days.
- [Paul] And sit up.
- The major trick that I wanted to learn
was a front handspring
and it's actually much harder than you think.
Going into it I sort of thought okay,
you run and you put your hands down
and somehow your body flips over
and you can land it,
but there are so many steps to it
and when you're actually trying to do it
your mind sort of goes blank with everything.
Gymnastics is such a mind sport
that you have to remember all the steps
but you also have to let everything go
and just trust that your body
is going to do what you need it to do.
When I was learning front handspring,
we started doing donkey kicks in the air
and then eventually we built up enough momentum
to flip our bodies over
and at first you land on your back
and then on your butt
and then you'd try to land on your feet.
There's just so many things that could go wrong
and I thought about all of them as I was doing it
so it just took me a very very long time to land
but when I did land that front handspring after a while,
it was incredible.
I am finished with day one.
Just got done with the tumbling class
and it was really really fun actually.
I am very excited to keep going with this.
One day is done, 29 left.
It is day two of the project.
I actually feel pretty good.
I thought I was gonna be a little more sore.
I definitely pushed myself yesterday
so it's not for lack of trying.
Because I was doing so many workouts each day
and because I was actually training
like a competitive athlete does,
I had to remind myself that this is literally
their full-time job but for me,
I already have a full-time job at BuzzFeed
so this was a complete life style change.
Wake up and do a workout and then go to work
and then do another workout
and then sometimes another workout on top of that.
And I had to convince myself that it was normal and okay
and that my body would get used to it
but I was absolutely exhausted for that first week.
(light music)
My legs are pretty sore from yesterday.
(light music)
It is the beginning of day four of the challenge.
I am very tired and sore and I did not wanna do it
but here we are.
(light music)
Just worked on my tumbling for the last 90 minutes.
Feel like I'm not getting any better.
I was just basically working on front handsprings
the whole time and I just could not,
I just don't understand it.
I don't know how to keep my legs straight
and I don't know how to open up and arch my back
and have my arms, I just don't get it.
I'm so frustrated with myself.
Just to work on something for so long
and feel like I'm not really getting anywhere.
I know it's only day four.
Definitely gonna feel it tomorrow morning when I wake up
but don't have time to be sore
because I have to work out again in the morning.
During the second week of the challenge
I really wanted to focus on the front tuck
which is basically just a front flip.
That was the scariest thing for me
just because I don't like flipping over
and I thought if I'm gonna get hurt during the challenge,
this is exactly how it's gonna happen.
Just finished day 10, worked a lot on getting comfortable
with being upside down.
We worked on front tucks today
and I a not comfortable being upside down.
Everything in my body is telling me don't do this
so it's so frustrating because I want to do it
and I wanna be good at it
but I'm just not comfortable.
I just wish I had more progress by now.
Day 11 is officially done.
I just got done at the gymnastics gym.
There was no session with the trainer
or anything like that.
It was just an open gym.
So I worked on stuff that I already knew.
Was working on my front handsprings
and I was landing them for the most part
which is awesome, that's definitely progress
but I'm noticing that my arms aren't in sync
when I'm leaving the mat
so I just need to keep them together the whole time
in the same motion.
Just like straight the whole way.
Just need to keep working on it.
(upbeat music)
It is the morning of day 14.
On to my first workout of the day.
It is legs today so I'm not super excited
but I'm gonna work on handstands a bunch too
just because I really need to work on them.
My goal at the end of this
is to do a 10 second handstand just on my own
without the wall to help me
and I don't know if that's impossible to do
in just a couple weeks but I'm gonna try it
and hopefully I'll be able to do it.
The hardest part for me with the handstand
was making sure that my back wasn't arched.
I would tape footage of myself and watch it repeatedly
and just see that there was a curve in my spine
so I needed to really tighten up
and keep a hollow hold in my torso.
One of the things that Paul taught me was
to practice by doing push-ups.
So just make sure that my elbows
are sort of coming in this way instead of,
I guess when I do a handstand my hands are like this
but I wanna make sure that they're straight
and pointing at you.
If not you're arms gonna be in and bent
and that's just a lot harder to keep the straight hold
and then a hollow hold too.
It's so tough.
During the third week of this challenge,
I was sort of getting tired of all of the workouts.
I decided to change it up a bit
so I did a 20 by five,
to celebrate my 20 days
so I did 20 sets of five reps each
of goblet squats and then five pull-ups
and then five push-ups.
It was also a test for myself
to see how strong I was getting
because I don't think I would have been able to
complete that whole workout beforehand
and I completed it in just under an hour
which is absolutely ridiculous.
Pretty tired right now.
I'm feeling it but back in the gym later today.
(playful music)
I just finished day 24 I think, just tumbling classes,
and it was good, it was with the advanced class
so definitely felt some pressure
but yeah, we worked on back handsprings, back tucks,
I worked on that, they worked on other stuff.
It was fun, I did my first (dog barking) back tuck
and I did it off of, I did it from a height,
which was even scarier and yeah, it was terrifying
but I did it, I survived.
(playful music)
It is day 26 of the challenge on a Friday
and only a couple of days left of the challenge so
really really have to push myself.
There's an opening tumbling class tonight
so I don't have an instructor working with me
but I get to work on
whatever I'm comfortable doing on my own
so I'll be trying to do front tucks and front handsprings
pretty much all night because I really want to be able to
land them by the end of the project.
I'm gonna be mad if I can't so see what happens.
(upbeat music)
That was the best gymnastic class I've ever had.
I landed my front handspring
and my front tucks several times.
I was talking to one of the trainers,
he said you can't say you officially learned a skill
until you land it three times in a row
so that was my goal to land the front tuck
at least three times in a row and I did
and I don't know, I'm like ectatic right now.
I was so worried this morning.
I was like there's only five days left of the challenge
and I don't have anything to show for it
outside of a cartwheel and a round-off
but now that I landed the front handspring
and the front tuck,
I'm just feeling so much better about this.
I did it.
(clapping)
That's so cool.
I don't even remember what day it is,
day 20-something,
there's only a few days left in the challenge.
I just had a handstand class
and then right after I had my tumbling class.
Both were super fun.
Handstand class was very tiring.
It's pretty much just an hour shoulder workout
but then we had the tumbling class.
The instructor was really impressed with my front tucks
so then we sort of went a layer passed that
and we did front pikes
which are basically a front flip
but my legs are straight the whole time.
I don't know, it's cool to do new things like that.
Now I have a new thing to work on.
Hopefully I can figure it out before the challenge is done.
Yeah, only a couple days left.
(rock music)
It is day 29, challenge is almost done.
Just had my tumbling class
and we worked on round off back tucks.
(rock music)
I haven't really done back tucks before
but for some reason we just went into round off back tucks
so I was feeling pretty adventurous I guess.
(upbeat music)
But yeah, so I have tomorrow
and hopefully I'll be able to successfully do them
without a spotter.
(rock music)
Spotter tonight said he wasn't really doing anything
by the end of it, he just had his hand there
to make sure I wasn't falling off the track I guess
but yeah, he said it was basically all me.
Which is pretty impressive.
One more day.
- Nice.
- It is day 30.
I just finished my tumbling class,
which means I am officially done with the challenge
and I don't want it to end.
I really really enjoyed it.
I was getting really frustrated with myself
in the first hour 'cause I was trying to do
two front tucks in a row.
I probably did, I don't know, out of my first 50 front tucks
I probably only landed like three of them.
I was just getting so frustrated
because I knew the skill, I learned it within the last week
and I've done it so many times
and now I just forgot it
and then as time went on I sort of got it back again
but I couldn't do the two in a row
so I was getting a little upset
that I just took a break and then I came back
and I tried to do my round off back tucks.
- [Guy] Yeah that was good.
- I'm okay.
Yeah I didn't really need a spotter for those
and I'm just kind of proud.
I think going into the challenge
I really wanted to learn a round off back handspring
but a round off back tuck is more impressive in my mind
because I don't put my hands on the ground.
I feel like it's a harder skill.
I don't know, I'm just really excited
but I'm sad that the challenge is over
and I wanna keep going with it.
So I went into the project doing an unattractive cartwheel
and half of a handstand for like a second
and by the time I finished I was able to do cartwheels,
round offs, front handsprings, round off back tucks,
front tucks, cartwheels on the balance beam,
I got a lot more flexible throughout this challenge too
so it wasn't just a physical transformation
and learning tumbling passes.
My splits got a lot better.
You can tell in the before and after pictures.
When I first tried a split
I had absolutely no idea what I was doing
and then the after picture it's much more relaxed
and controlled even though I'm just trying to hide the pain
of the stretch in my face
But I just got a lot more flexible and in tuned with my body
and I fell in love with gymnastics and with tumbling.
I want to keep doing it forever.
I just think it's so cool to be able to
not do something and then teach your body to do it.
Yeah, it's just a lot of practice.
I could barely do a cartwheel when I first started this
and 30 days later I'm doing round off back tucks.
I don't know, I keep saying it's ridiculous
but that's because it is.
It is literally just ridiculous.
It takes so much practice to learn
and then to master all these skills
and I just have so much respect for gymnasts
because they're just so strong and fit
and in control of their bodies
and I have a piece of that now
by training like them for 30 days.
From the kid who worries about everything
and is scared of everything,
I'm proud of myself for doing 300 flips tonight.
I did it!
(light music)