Maybe a slightly misleading title here - perhaps you are thinking how to time-manage your workouts with your ordinary life obligations. But that's for another time. We're talking BALANCE as in handstands, head balancing and so forth - the acrobatic art which requires not only a good sense of balance (inner ears working overtime) but strength in the shoulders, upper body and core. Enjoy the examples and maybe give the 'art' a try. You'll enjoy it - we certainly do!  We begin in Tanzania. An acrobatic gymnast 'top' in the making, there. Wait for it...   One for the current heatwave weather...   Finally, we can't resist this little kid in handstand advertising his gym - one in California which has recently produced world-champion acrobatic gymnasts...      

"The Naked Art" - yes, if that title grabbed your attention for the wrong reasons, look away now! It is a literal translation from the Greek of the word GYMNASTICS, and back in the day it was a collection of different sports, performed naked by boys and teens and only guys were allowed to watch. It included athletics, wrestling, discus, shot put and stuff like that. The word now describes a totally different collection of activities usually NOT performed naked(although most guys prefer to train shirtless!) - by both boys and girls. The guys get six activities: parallel bars, high bar, floor tumbling, rings, vault and pommel horse and, incidentally, that horse is the one item directly remaining from Olympian days - the pommels (handles) themselves were on side saddles designed to be be ridden on real horses by ladies in long skirts.  In one language we are aware of (German), the work Gymnasium actually means 'high school' and the word for gymnastics is TURNEN , which a...