W is for Weight Bearing

Crawling, climbing and supporting our body on our hands might look like simple movements, but these activities are helping to build strong foundations for much more.

Weight bearing means supporting body weight through the hands, arms or feet. For young children, activities that encourage them to push into the floor, support themselves on their hands or move their body over equipment help develop strength and stability throughout the whole body.

In Junior Gym and preschool gymnastics, weight-bearing activities are incorporated into play, circuits and gymnastics skills, giving children plenty of opportunities to strengthen their growing bodies through movement.

Why Weight Bearing Matters

Builds wrist and hand strength

Supporting body weight through the hands helps strengthen the wrists, hands and surrounding muscles, important foundations for both gymnastics and everyday tasks.

Develops shoulder stability

When children crawl, climb or hold themselves up through their arms, the muscles around the shoulders work to keep the upper body stable.

This stability provides an important foundation for more controlled movements further down the arm and into the hands.

Supports fine motor and writing readiness

Before children can develop precise control at their fingers, they benefit from strength and stability through their shoulders, arms and wrists.

Weight-bearing activities can help build this strong foundation for tasks such as drawing, writing, using scissors and manipulating small objects.

Strengthens the core

Weight bearing isn’t only an upper-body activity. Crawling, climbing and hand-support positions also require children to activate their core to keep their body stable and controlled.

How We Build Weight Bearing in Junior Gym

In Junior Gym, children practise weight bearing in lots of fun and age-appropriate ways.

Crawling

Crawling through tunnels, along pathways and over different surfaces encourages children to repeatedly transfer their weight through their hands and knees while coordinating both sides of their body.

Hand-support activities

Gymnastics activities that involve placing the hands on the floor or equipment introduce children to supporting some of their body weight through their arms.

These movements also provide early foundations for skills such as handstands and cartwheels.

Climbing

Climbing encourages children to push and pull against equipment while supporting and transferring their body weight.

Pushing movements

Pushing through the hands, whether against the floor, mats or equipment, helps develop strength through the wrists, arms, shoulders and core.

Building Strength from the Ground Up

Weight bearing is a wonderful example of how whole-body movement can support both gross and fine motor development.

A child crawling through a tunnel isn’t practising handwriting but they are strengthening many of the muscles and developing the stability they’ll later rely on for controlled hand and finger movements.

And at the same time, they’re building the physical foundations for gymnastics, playground play, kids sports and everyday movement.

That’s a lot of development happening during what feels like play!

The ABC’s of Junior Gym

This article is part of our ABC’s of Junior Gym series, where we explore the many ways movement supports your child’s development.

Each post focuses on a different skill or concept that children develop through Junior Gym and preschool gymnastics, helping to build:

• strong bodies
• confident movers
• active minds
• positive social skills

From Awareness and Balance to Confidence, Coordination and more, every letter highlights how movement supports whole-child development and school readiness.

Explore the other articles in the series:

• A is for Awareness
• B is for Balance
• C is for Coordination
• D is for Direction
• E is for Exploration & Effort
• F is for Focus
• G is for Growth Mindset
• H is for Hanging
• I if for Independence
• J is for Jumping
• K is for Kinesthetic Sense
• L is for Landing
• M is for Making Friends
• N is for Navigation
• O is for Overcoming Obstacles
• P is for Posture
• Q is for Quick Reactions
• R is for Rotation
• S is for Stability
• T is for Timing
• U is for Upper Body Strength
• V is for Vestibular System

Because when children learn to move well, they gain the confidence to explore, learn and grow.