Awesome Gymnastics

After a failed attempt to do a backflip in real life, animator Nikita Diakur thought it would be safer to have a digital stand-in perform the maneuver. With the help of engineer Maximilian Schneider and machine learning tech based on the paper Deep Mimic, he attempted to nudge his avatar in the right direction to achieve his gymnastic goal.

Colin Furze was asked by the makers of Warframe to build a machine that could let him jump and fly like the characters in the game. So he got to work doing what any mad inventor would and built a massive gimbal that uses hydraulics and a counterweight to let him bounce around like he’s in a low-gravity environment.

Gymnastics were always difficult for us. So color us impressed with this video of Michael Lewis performing 27 front flips in just 20 seconds. We’re equally impressed with the cameraman, who managed to keep him perfectly centered in the frame without tripping over himself while running. The backward version is just as entertaining.

Athlete Dmitry Politov shows off his impressive core and leg strength by running up to a street sign, planting his feet on its pole, then locking them in place to stand sideways. The hold he uses is called a toehook, which is used in rock climbing and bouldering. He posted a video that explains how he performs the move.

A while back, we saw a video of three people jumping through the same hula hoop. This trio of gymnasts from Hoops Désolé Circus has a different take on the idea. One guy holds the hoop, then they each jump through it in sequence. Here’s the same routine at full speed. Only the last little bit is an effect.

Kristina Makushenko is a world champion in artistic swimming. We watched in awe as she performed this seemingly impossible trick in which she maneuvers from a standing position through a 360º loop by precisely controlling her body and breathing. Her upside-down moonwalk is equally bonkers.

If you catch enough air on a trampoline, it’s not terribly hard to do a single or even a double backflip. But Ernest Brenchley from Radial Flipz is an overachiever, and with the help of a few of his friends adding some extra spring, he managed to pull a record-setting 8-rotation backflip before coming in for a landing.

(PG-13: Language) Not to be confused with RocketJump’s awesome clip by the same name, in this video, Olympic skier Andri Ragetti performs a choreographed sequence of balancing exercises as he freeruns his way through a Rube Goldberg-inspired obstacle course. He says it took him 232 attempts to get it right.

In their PAC-12 meet against the University of Utah, UCLA gymnast Sophina DeJesus pumped up her fellow teammates and their home crowd with her trendy floor routine, where in between her flips she pulled off dance moves like the nae nae, the Quan and the dab.

Al the Jumper shows exactly why he’s been given that name, as he performs an incredibly dangerous stunt – jumping over two bikes bearing down on him at nearly 70mph. One wrong move, and both Al and the bikers are toast.

Freerunner Dominik Sky, shows off his ability to fling his entire body through windows and other tight spaces. While he makes it look easy, he says it took a year to compile, and he sustained many injuries along the way.

Stuntman Damien Walters shows off more of his incredible athleticism, gymnastic skills and the giant size of his balls in this compilation he posted to celebrate hitting 500,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel.

Gymnast Alexander Bayturin (aka “Baityk“) shows off his incredible upper body strength, agility and the sheer joy of what he does, as he plays on a set of backyard monkey bars he uses for practice.

Stuntman/Parkour artist Damien Walters and his acrobatic friends skip the foam-rubber gym mat and test out some of their tricks on their bouncy new AirTrick mat. Now imagine a room with these covering the walls and ceiling.

The girls on this gymnastics team take a break and hand over the floor to a guy named Danikka, letting him show off his best floor routine. Despite the silliness, he can still do way more flips than us.

How does this happen? We know lots of cats who can bend, stretch and contort into positions people wish to master in yoga, but this pretzel cat takes the cake. Seriously, how does this happen?

There’s no shortage of inspired acrobatics in this compilation of some of the best of tricking and parkour from around the world. We appreciate seeing the names with the talent too. (Thanks Ian!)

Australian gymnast Joel Pocklington never travels without his video camera; to our horror and delight he’s crafted a madcap compilation of face plants, belly flops and runaway stunts. (Thanks Stephen!)

From wheelies to handstands, Ines Brunn offers us a uniquely choreographed mixture of artistic bicycling, spandex and gymnastics on a fixed gear bike in this entertaining video. (Thanks Paul!)