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History of Gymnastics.

No one knows for certain how, or when gymnastics began.

Maybe the first gymnast was an early human, skilled at swinging from tree branch to tree branch. Old stone cuttings show that the ancient Egyptians enjoyed building human pyramids, and performing acrobatic activities, around 3000 B.C. About a thousand years later, the Chinese developed a version of gymnastics they called Cong Fu.

In the second century BC, men and women of Minoan Crete developed the art of bull leaping. In bull leaping the performer would run toward a charging bull, grab its horns, and, upon being tossed into the air, execute various midair stunts before landing on the bull's back, then dismount with a flip.

In the times of the ancient Romans and Greeks, gymnastics has been used to facilitate body development through exercise. The word "Gymnastics" derives from the Greek word "gymnazein" which translated means "exercise naked". In ancient Greece, three distinct programs of gymnastic exercise were developed: one for the maintenance of good physical condition, another for military training, and a third as part of a conditioning regimen for athletes.

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