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THE FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE ABOUT MIKENASTICS RELEASED IN MAY 2008 FROM A MINNEAPOLIS BASED MAGAZINE CALLED "THE RAKE" WRITTEN BY BRIAN VOERDING
They don't know what to expect, and why would they, they're just passing by with dogs or strollers on this sleepy Coon Rapids sidewalk, and out of nowhere a stout bald man wearing nothing but cutoff jeans or tight shorts comes bolting down the side yard, throws his hands forward, leaps toward a padded sawhorse, and, if all goes well, flips up and lands on his feet.
They stop, some of them, cheer him on, call out that he should be in the Olympics. Cars slow down or honk, and more than once they've circled the block and stopped to watch some more. Because who can help it, watching this middle-aged man launch himself at homemade gymnastics apparatuses, and actually, as it turns out (if they watch long enough), doing it pretty well?
Not that Mike Geronsin notices. Or at least tries not to. He'll put on headphones and rest for three minutes and then take off again toward the vault and—assuming, again, that all went well, that he flipped up and over and landed on his feet and held the pose for three seconds—he'll clap his hands and clamp them on his hips, chuckle to himself, peer into an old VHS camera mounted on a tripod, and announce: "That's a ten right there." Or, "I stuck it."
Twenty-five repetitions—why twenty-five? It's always just twenty-five—and then on to the next exercise.
Geronsin, better known to the cult following of his public-access shows as Mikenastics, never tried gymnastics until ten years ago, when he was alone in his home for the first time. (The above 1969 photo is just him goofing around on a clothesline bar in the backyard of his parent's house.) "Everyone has voids, feel they were deprived of something in their earlier years," he says. "At forty-three, the youngest of my three kids moved out. I've been through two marriages that failed. You get to my age and you start thinking to yourself, 'now what, where do I go now?' You start recalling what you enjoyed in your previous life, and for me, that was gymnastics."
It wasn't so much something he enjoyed as it was an absence he regretted. In high school, after acing routines in gym class, he was asked to join the gymnastics team. But his wrestling coach talked him out of it, and Geronsin never had another chance: He dropped out after his sophomore year.
So there he was, a quarter-century later, with an empty house and that void and the nagging idea that even though he didn't like change, he needed to try something new.
He briefly considered buying professional equipment, but it was too intimidating, too polished, too expensive. So he built some. The high bar, steel piping attached to his deck. The basement practice floor, a rubber mat on top of plywood on top of 168 regulation foam squares. The rings attached to his garage rafters, first wood until he broke one and now steel from an industrial supply company. The vault, a sawhorse wrapped in Styrofoam, the poleless pole vault, a mini trampoline and a bamboo bar set on sticks anchored by tires, the balance beam, a slab of wood on top of two stools, and so on.
He sized everything for indoors because he couldn't bear waiting out winter, and besides, he had that space to fill. For the poleless pole vault routine, for instance, Geronsin sprints from an upstairs bedroom down the hallway and into the living room, where he leaps on the trampoline and dives over the bamboo bar.
He developed a personal scoring system. Seven for completing the exercise, and a point for each second, up to three, that he holds the landing. For certain exercises, like rings and the high bar, it's seven for getting up and ten for holding himself upside down for three seconds. Sometimes he practiced routines a few times a week, sometimes almost daily, rotating them. He loved it. He couldn't believe he had waited this long to try. He obsessively recorded each routine's results. The void began to vanish.
Nobody was going to see any of this. Geronsin started recording his practices only so he could critique himself. Then one day his son asked if he could put together a highlight reel and send it off to public access channels, just for fun.
That first video, "Backyard Gymnast," established the crucial elements of a Mikenastics video. An hour long, broken into segments featuring Geronsin doing different routines and trying to break records (records being the top number of successful attempts in twenty-five tries), each filmed from a single angle.
Sometimes it's a lonely-looking shot, a little voyeuristic, the camera set across the room or the yard, shaking sometimes when Geronsin comes down hard from a vault or floor routine. It's what Geronsin wants, the solitude, the lack of distractions. "I've been my own coach, I've been my own camera man, I've been my own performer, I've been my own cheerleader. This is myself, you know?"
When the first Mikenastics aired in early 2002, a funny thing happened: Geronsin got fan mail. Just a few emails a day but steady, and not from who he expected, which was, say, a guy in his 50s inspired to start exercising. Most mail came from college kids and twentysomethings who raved about the program, declared Mikenastics the best thing on television, requested their favorite routines for upcoming episodes.
Geronsin doesn't understand the attention and doesn't try to, but it nevertheless drove him to continue releasing Mikenastics episodes, one a year or so. The observer effect is noticeable in newer episodes—he talks to the camera between attempts, makes jokes, there's music in the background, and Mikenastics 5: "Staying Alive" features a lengthy discussion between Mikenastics and a fake interviewer (he played both characters). But it works and makes the episodes, already curiously entertaining simply because Geronsin is both earnest and talented, even more alluring.
Geronsin sends his episodes to practically every Minnesota public-access network. Mikenastics is currently broadcast on twelve networks in over sixty cities, making it quite possibly—assuming potential audience, anyway—the biggest public-access show in the state. But he's not seeking fame. Advancing the Mikenastics brand and his public image, replying to all that fan mail, thinking up new activities for episodes—lately he's introduced stilts, long-distance basketball shooting, and the limbo-—is simply an extension of the original hobby.
Geronsin lives a quiet life. He works as a maintenance man for an apartment complex in nearby Blaine, tinkers with old cars, watches old movies, listens to old records, hangs out with his girlfriend. He hates change. He's never lived outside Coon Rapids, and the development he lives in was built on a field on which he and his high school buddies used to throw keggers. He's a decade into gymnastics and wants to be at it until he's a hundred.
"I like to think of my own life as an anchor; stop, hold it, everything is good right here, right now. What are we racing towards? Where are we going? Most people don't even know that, but they're going fast. I'm a stick in the mud. Life is supposed to be this flowing stream, and everybody's going with the flow. Well, I'm on the banks stuck in the mud, and everyone else is going by."
One time last summer on the high bar he swung up and once his feet pointed skyward everything instantly felt perfect, as if gravity and time had stopped, and he stayed there for three, four, five seconds before swinging back down and dismounting, planting his feet back on earth. A new record. You see on the grainy videotape that he can hardly contain himself, he's so happy. He's smiling and chuckling to himself like the moment won't ever end. "So super duper!" he says.
He stuck it. A ten, right there.
Hi my name is Mike. This is a form letter that I like my fans to read.
Please note: "I am not a licensed medical professional or gymnastics official.
Please consult with your personal physician prior to engaging in any athletic activity.
Similarly, please adhere to any medical advice or limitations advised by your personal physician.
Michael Geronsin Sr."
"Mikenastics assumes no reponsibility of possible injuries occurred if attempting these exercises."
"Mikenastics has no expertise in the construction of the equipment shown, and recommends that each individual use standard equipment provided by those who are in the business of constructing such equipment."
To whom in may concern.
The following is an informational form letter.
My eight videos have been cablecast in more than sixty six cities so far in and around the Twin Cities and Wisconsin through 15 public access cable companies.
Mikenastics 1 "Backyard Gymnast" is a motivational video for middle age people, cablecast in the winter of 2002.
Mikenastics 2 "An alternative to weightlifting" offers an alternative to weight training, cablecast in the spring of 2003.
Mikenastics 3 "Midlife Crisis" is an inspirational video that reveals a unique perspective of life, cablecast in the spring of 2004.
"Mikenastics 4 "Off Season Training" is an informational video revealing exercises that enhance performance abilities, cablecast in the spring of 2005 Mikenastics 5 "Staying Alive" is an entertaining somewhat commical self interview cablecast in the spring of 2006. Mikenastics 6 "Copping a good Attitude" is ment to illustrate how performance can be greatly enhanced with a good attitude cablecast in the spring of 2007.
Mikenastics 7 "Born to be Alive" is more reality T.V. and sports entertainment. Includes music, dance and obscure performances such as Limbo and stilts.Cablecast in the Spring of 2008.
The Best of Mikenastics is a blend of performances from the past six programs set to some origional music by Pat Boom!.
Mikenastics 8 "Eternal Teenager" reveals the reasons for his eccentric behavior. Program also consists of both public appearances and public performances with positive reaction from fans. Cablecast in early 2009.
On Sept. 19th, 2002, Mikenastics was interviewed on a live radio talk show (WTLX 100.5 FM) a sports and entertainment program based in Madison, Wisconsin.
My best records so far on the following exercises are:
High bar (6'7" high) was performed on July 7, 2002 with eight scores of 10 and three scores of 9 out of 25 routines. (ten being a minimum of a 3 second hand stand and nine being a 2 second hand stand.)My longest single handstand was performed on August 30, 2006 at 5.44 seconds.
Low Bar (Indoors 1 foot high)was performed on November 21, 2006 with a combined total score of 198 seconds which averages a 7.9 score per handstand for 25 routines.
Parallel bars (5'9" high) was perfomed on June 6th, 2006 with twenty two scores of 10 out of 25 routines. A combined total of a 1:73:67 second hand stand which averages 25 hand stands at just over 6.9 seconds each (again, a score of ten being a minimum of a 3 second hand stand.)
Vault (4'3" high) Front handsprings were performed without the use of a spring board on May 7th 2009 with 31 "stuck" landings out of 32 vaults (a stuck landing considered as no movement of your feet for a minimum of 3 seconds after contacting with the landing apparatus).
High dive (5'7"high) was performed on May 8, 2004 with 20 out of 25 successful dives. (using a 7" high mini trampoline)
Bicycle ride (1 day trip) was 89 miles performed on September 11,2009 to Isle, Minnesota. (using a 26 year old bicycle)
Stilts (3 feet high) 6,480 foot distance (1 mile and 1,200 feet) performed on October 18th, 2009. That is on a sidewalk 270 feet long twenty four times with a two minute rest period between sets.
Basketball "long shot" 5 baskets out of 133 attempts at 70 feet was performed on October 16, 2005.
Field goal kick was 30 yards performed on December 29, 2002.
I do perform rings as well which includes elements such as dislocate, back lever and L seat.
I am 5'6" 1/2" tall so of course equipment height is dependent on the athlete's height.
Take good care of your health and life will be much more fun to live! "The house that you live in is really your body"
Peace, Mike
Mike, I don't know what it is about your show but it calms me...reminds me I have spare time to just watch anything at first, and then it becomes addicting. Thanks for the other addiction! Hahaha. Thanks buddy, you Rock. DRB
dont you ever dare quit what your doing mike. i love your show. thanks for bringing joy and motivation to my family. you are one kickass son-of-a-bitch. keep up the good work rock star.
