Aly Raisman Shows Us How To Get The Perfect Gymnastics Hair Bun | Body Scan | Women'S Health

So many gymnasts that I know, including myself, we are so type A in the gym and we're such perfectionists in the gym, but then we're so clumsy outside of the gym.. I was always that kid at the restaurant that was spilling drinks everywhere, I was making a mess., I mean I was just kind of all over the place., Hey guys, I'm Aly Raisman - and this is my women's health body scan. For me personally, when I have a Good workout, I feel more calm and I feel more connected to my body.. That is a very different answer than I would have given you a couple of years. Ago.. If I were training, I would have probably said a good workout to me is when I pushed myself as much as I can push myself over the limit and I leave the gym feeling completely exhausted.. That is not my mentality about working out at all anymore.. I think I pushed myself enough for most of my life. So now I just want to leave the gym feeling refreshed feeling more connected to myself and just making sure that I feel more calm.. When I was younger, I used to get made fun of by the boys in my class.. I remember in fifth grade and in seventh grade for my arms.. They would say that I looked like I was on steroids and that my muscles were disgusting and I would not wear tank tops because I was so self-conscious and when I look back now, it's so eye-opening to me to reflect on it because a couple of boys That were so young who didn't even understand, probably what they were saying and hurtful was.. I allowed them to kind of define how I felt about my arms and because they said something a couple of times at recess. I believe that, because they said it, everyone must assume that or that it's the truth, and that is something I still work on to this day of just because somebody doesn't approve of something that I'm doing. I can't let someone else's opinion define me and obviously there are so many more important things in life than how my arms look and my arms were a crucial part to my success in the sport.. So I try to think about that and I try to look at different parts of my body and how they help make me the person that I am and helped me become. The gymnast that I was. When I was younger, I used to be so self-conscious. I have bunions on my feet and I was so self conscious about my feet and then I was really really close with my grandmother who we called Bubby and she passed away in 2011 and I was very, very close with her and she had bunions too.. So I'm guessing, I got them from her and it's so funny as you get older, how things that used to seem like the biggest deal in the world, don't matter, but one of my biggest insecurities used to be my feet and now that I'm older and I Like feel so connected to my Bubby who's no longer here and she had bunions., I don't care that I have them and sometimes when I look down - and I see them - I think of her but yeah my feet. First, obviously, for gymnastics have really helped me be really strong and in gymnastics there are so many risks of you actually rolling your ankle or even when you're on the beam you can like land. The beams, only four inches. So, even if you land a little bit off, you can really injure yourself., There's so much room for injury in gymnastics.. So having strong ankles is so important.. I think. Typically, a lot of gymnasts have shorter hair, so they can wear their hair in a ponytail. But I've always had longer hair., So I would wear it in a high bun and I really like it. It made me feel very confident wearing it.. So basically, what I do is I'll. Just flip my hair over and just take some time shower, get my hair wet and I would brush it out, which I don't have here, and so I would get it really slick.. I would put it probably about two ponytails in.. Let me see if I have one: oh, I do have one here., So I would do ponytail.. This would be wet if I was competing - and I would just actually twist this to get it nice and tight and depending on how it was looking. Sometimes I would add a little bit of like hairspray or something and twist it and see if I can see myself And yeah and then I would use actually like 15 hair elastics, because I didn't want to fall out and we're flipping around so much. And then I would put some bobby pins in to make it neater and you know clean up.. I have a bunch of fly aways here., So I would just put a bunch of bobby pins in and a ton of hairspray a bunch of hair elastics.. I would always have extra hair elastics in my bag because I do have a lot of hair and it's thick and if you imagine you're flipping radically and stuff, it does come out easily.. So that's that's what I would do, but actually I really can't.. I can only see the small square box, but I think I did it. Okay, it's hard to see.. I survived my gymnastics career without any broken bones.. I had some a couple of like pre-stress fractures.. I think I had one fracture. If I remember correctly., I didn't have any completely broken bones and I was at a friend's house and I fell down the stairs and I broke my elbow.. I was walking down the stair, I was wearing boots and it was in the winter.. So maybe I had a little bit of like snow or some salt on the bottom of my boots or something and I just fell., But the way that I fell. It'S like I fell.. It was almost like I dove forward and I didn't tumble down the stairs.. It was almost like I skipped like eight steps and just jumped forward. I landed on concrete.. I remember all the blood was rushing to my head.. I was so lightheaded and I was actually more concerned that I was going to pass out because I had never experienced that before. Of literally like all the blood was just like rushing and when I went to the doctor. This doctor has worked with other athletes and he knew that I was done competing and he literally couldn't keep a straight face.. When he told me I broke my elbow., He was laughing at me because he couldn't believe. I got through my whole entire gymnastics career without any broken bones, and I fell down the stairs. Knowing gymnastics, it was so important to have strong legs to be able to tumble really high and to be able to do the skills that I was doing.. So I think, just from habit and what I'm used to do. I really enjoy working out my legs.. When I was training in gymnastics, I would do around 45 minutes to an hour and a half of conditioning every single day and that didn't even count. You know doing beam routines or bar teams or floor teams, which is still technically conditioning., You're still making yourself stronger.. So I would work out anywhere from four to seven hours some days and I was so drained by the end of the workout.. It didn't seem like it ever really got easier and you know I definitely don't have any interest in working out like that. In my life now., You know I started really doing Pilates when I finished gymnastics, but when I actually was doing Pilates, I realized I had been kind of incorporating Pilates conditioning into my gymnastics conditioning And you know for gymnastics. Everything is so precise and you have to be so strong and there are so many times where you might fall, you might mess up and there might be a risk of injury and so having those you know, all these different muscles really working together and making sure That you're strong enough to hold that is really important., So Pilates was really crucial for that.. One of the toughest things I struggle with for mental health is. I have obsessive thoughts where I, if I'm worried about something, if I do an interview, for example like this - and I worry that maybe I said something that maybe I wasn't clear enough on or I worry that someone will be offended by it or someone will misinterpret What I was saying., Even something as simple as like meeting someone new and worrying if they liked me if I said something wrong, I worry way too much, and I have this thing where it's really hard for me to just kind of let things go and I Think that comes from being a perfectionist and for my gymnastics career, a lot of that worked where I was able to kind of. I was a perfectionist and I was trying to analyze every little thing that I did.. I think I experienced a form of OCD.. I definitely feel that way. I mean I remember when I was younger. It was like really a thing when I was little to like knock on wood or knock on your head, and I remember I would have to do that. If I was like nervous about something - and I think it was the idea of gymnastics. You're really, even though you're working with your own body, sometimes it's hard to feel in control because you're doing so many new skills., You are flying through the air. You're trying all These things., I was very young and you know gymnastics can be very scary., There's times where the beam is four inches wide and you might miss the beam you might fall.. So I kind of came up with these things to help me feel more in control and more comfortable whether it was like knocking on wood, or I would tell myself if I touch the beam three times before I actually get up there to get a turn. I'M going to be okay. So having little things of like a superstition for me of like I know that for the competition I put 13 hair elastics in last time, and I did well I'm going to do the same thing.. It was like those little things that obviously the hair elastic doesn't make a difference, but I did those little things for myself to make me feel better., But in my everyday life now it's not. It doesn't serve me in the way that it did when I was training., So I'm working on breaking that habit being kinder to myself and recognizing that intentions are really important and I'm doing the best that I can and nobody is perfect.. So I'm working on giving myself the same kindness that I would give to someone else. [ Sports, Caster ] And there you go. In the last event of women's gymnastics, Aly rallies for gold.. Thank you guys so much for taking the time to watch this video and join me in following along Club Pilates for mind body tips. Every Monday,