The No. 3 LSU gymnastics team has figured out the most important element to sustaining success this season after its season-high team finish of 197.425 at the Metroplex Challenge on Jan. 31 — physical fitness. 
Paying attention to detail is something LSU has found to be important in its progress this season. The Tigers benefit from being comfortable with their physical fitness and being able to solely focus on their technical details.
“We are on the right track,” said LSU senior all-arounder Rheagan Courville, who is second in LSU history with 23 career all-around titles. “We can use this past weekend to get better. There is nothing major that we need to fix, we just need to work on details. We have so much trust in each other that we can put any one person on an event and feel comfortable with that decision.”
Courville said she believes maintaining flexibility, strength and endurance throughout the season will continue helping the Tigers develop as a team.
“We have a goal to be the most prepared team, the most fit team,” Courville said. “We have a terrific program that works for us in order to keep our flexibility and strength all at the same time.”
The team follows a weekly schedule alternating between core work, circuit training and yoga to keep themselves as to being the most fit team in collegiate gymnastics.
“Every Sunday and Wednesday mornings, the team gets together to do yoga,” Courville said. “Followed by circuit training every Monday, which consists of a lot of abs and drills that really help for each event. It is not a lot of running or pounding. It is just enough for us to stay in shape.”
The Tigers have to stay smart about how much physical exhaustion they put themselves through this season. LSU coach D-D Breaux knows how important it is for her team to be physically conditioned to stay on pace for the expectations she has set for her team this year.
“It is critical,” Breaux said. “We cannot at any point let what we are doing with our yoga program and the program we have with our condition coach be confused with what we do in the gym. [Physical fitness] is just as important as to what we do with our nutritionists, academic counselors and coaches here on the apparatus.”
Breaux has seen what a physically conditioned team can bring to the national championship competition. During her term at LSU, Breaux has accumulated 10 individual national titles, 146 All-American honors, 116 Scholastic All-Americans and 54 All-Southeastern Conference awards. 
“Their physical fitness is by far the most important part of what we are doing right now,” Breaux said.
You can reach Christian Boutwell on Twitter @CBoutwell_TDR.