I'm doing great :)

It's spring, and people around here (IRL) seem to be getting tetchy, tense and a bit negative. And here online, amongst the plethora of threads, the vast majority are asking for advice/clarification (say on, that's what the community is for after all). I just wanted to take a sec and say I'm well satisfied, and my GST is doing fantastic.

I've been training here for about two years now, and while the wods took me a long way (noticably further than anyone I have rolled or sparred with), I had a lot of gaps in my... well, Foundation. The improvement of the whole from targeted work on those gaps is both rapid and dramatic. I feel fantastic, and I feel limitless.

I have F1 and am working on toppling the last couple of elements which are my particular sticking points.

I've bucketloads of energy as my workouts have shortened dramatically, and my study and work output have improved. I have H1 and I'm improving visibly every time I train, and these sessions are done in as little as 10 minutes. I am 100% confident the rest of the Foundation series will deliver the same and more.

On F1 days I follow Joshua's peri-workout protocol, and after the first couple weeks (of adjustment to mobility elements) I haven't had any DOMS whatsoever, and I never seem to run dry for longer than it takes to get my breath back. Thanks a ton for taking the time to detail your research, it's always an interesting read.

I feel as if the strength/conditioning/nutrition aspects of my physical pursuits have plain been solved (at this stage), and that brings a bit of welcome simplicity to my life. They're tidied away, and I can put in my time on my other pursuits (because I believe I deserve to achieve everything I want and am working to make it so). The benefits to my martial arts have been too many, varied and significant to go into detail on. And this is only at my level; thinking ahead a year or two is simply staggering.

I just thought now was as good a time as any to say thanks to everyone for the help and advice along the way, which I've gotten from just about all of you even if you didn't know it, and particularly to Coach and the athletes and developers for creating, producing and releasing such a truly comprehensive program.

I'm proud to be here and part of this, gentlemen and ladies, and invite you too to post up some good news on your current training to see us through spring fever Let's have a little positivity and hear some wins instead of how much I frigging hate RCPE6

(This isn't meant to be how great I am, just how pleased I am with my progress and happy with my time and money investments in GST. I had a good day and wanted to say thank you to the forum I keep checking at minimum once a day and astonishingly DON'T facepalm in frustration at the people off in internets-land)

To summarise, I'm doing great. How are Y'ALL doing?

My shoulders, even on their worst days, have been absolutely amazing compared to... oh, I don't know... the past 8 years or so! I am very satisfied. I'm sleeping better as a result, largely thanks to RC/PE1 and the first four mobility exercises in H1.

I'm just happy to have a good training template pre-made (it's a part of every GB product now, including F1-4 and H1, and on into the future) so that I can plug and chug, without wasting time trying to program gymnastic strength for myself.

Elbows are also doing MUCH better, and my handstand is improving at record rates as well! Of course, I probably have at least a year before I have open shoulders, but I am very happy with my achievements thus far!

Joshua Naterman said:

Joshua Naterman said:

I can plug and chug, without wasting time trying to program gymnastic strength for myself.

 

Elbows are also doing MUCH better, and my handstand is improving at record rates as well! Of course, I probably have at least a year before I have open shoulders, but I am very happy with my achievements thus far!

Plug and chug. I like that. Sort of combination yard-glass and locomotive.

Big congrats for the story so far, and keep fighting the good fight

Haha, I think it's the sudden outbursts of snow in late march that's upsetting everyone.  

I can't wait to train outdoors, but the new stall bars I built are keeping me happy inside

I have recently achieved hollow back presses (90 degree push-ups) and a momentary HS from HBP. My HS may be arched and sloppy since I never trained it yet, but it feels pretty straight sometimes. I have bought H1 and hope to achieve a solid HS this year.

More recently I have also achieved full planche push-ups with slow tempo and good form. One of my proudest achievements thus far. I have also bought F1-4 and hope to achieve a full lay floor maltese this year with my own training.

I hope everyone is progressing well and enjoying the journey. 2013 will be a great year with all these new products coming up. I would like to thank Coach and everyone in GB for this great website, community, and products.

Charm said:

I'm proud to be here and part of this,

I couldn´t agree with you more Charm. This community is awsome and has realy changed my life! Not only physicaly but also mentally. I think it is the people on this forum that make it so great, it reminds me alot of another community that I´m part of which is the skateboard community. It doesn´t matter how old, which backround, what social status etc you have. Everyone helps each other out and stands up for each other no matter what!

The sun is starting to shine here, sometimes that means I can't sleep, but other than that, doing great.

Being a member of the weak but flexible crew, I'm very happy to see how well following the courses has been improving my strength. Especially now, with these occasional days of not nearly enough sleep, I've been astounded that I'm still performing better than a year ago.

Cole Dano said:

(...) I've been astounded that I'm still performing better than a year ago.

Why?

In other words, my bad days now are better than good a year ago.

That sounds like it is going in the right direction then, good for you Cole

B1214N said:

I have recently achieved hollow back presses (90 degree push-ups) and a momentary HS from HBP. 

 

More recently I have also achieved full planche push-ups with slow tempo and good form. One of my proudest achievements thus far. 

Wow!  Do you have any videos of your GST accomplishments?  I always love seeing how far people have come working on GST and it sounds like you've accomplished quite a lot of what I hope to at some point.  

Cannister said:

Wow!  Do you have any videos of your GST accomplishments?  I always love seeing how far people have come working on GST and it sounds like you've accomplished quite a lot of what I hope to at some point.  

Sure, I will start making some videos during my spring break.

Great stuff

Being from out country Oz way it wasn't until I lived a few years in Japan that I encountered the whole 'four seasons with distinct changes' thing... back home it's basically 'too hot to go outside' or 'lovely temperature but wet.' Over there I noticed people getting more snippy around this time of year, based out of mostly restlessness (and yeah, probably shorter nights too). The snow here in Canada lingers a fair while, and it gets damn cold, but man this is a beautiful country I've only had the chance to visit the US once thus far, although I'm hoping for more.

I have another small update-- I got my first dislocates at shoulder width +10lb just today. I'm staggered how quickly it's improved. It's no hollowback press-- I have only negatives-- but the whole deal is progressing a bit at a time.

I look forward to following the progress already occurring and no doubt to accelerate~

My back lever is getting stronger rapidly, I've doubled then number of pistols I can do in a month (and I thought I was going slow!) I got my first barefoot pistol, my chinups FINALLY start from a dead hang and I've started sandbag training.

It's been to to take a chance to reflect like this.  It's too easy to get distracted by how much further you have to go, rather than how far you've come.

Bipocni said:

... It's too easy to get distracted by how much further you have to go, rather than how far you've come ...

Very true.

This "greed for the fastest possible progress" is also the reason most people get injured sooner rather than later.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

It is funny. I'm ambitious but patient; I just plug away at what's on the sheet for today and, completely disparate to my PLE it seems, my abilities rise. It's fantastic, I've not experienced a single injury thus far, and most of that time I was trying to figure it out myself (which meant trying to do everything).

It's very synergistic, surprising how little time it actually takes to stimulate adapation.

I always liked looking at your log Charm. Nice to see you're doing well

Hercules said:

I always liked looking at your log Charm. Nice to see you're doing well

Cheers I can't necessarily take credit for it, but I can certainly enjoy it!

This community changed my life too, but also the life's of people around me. I think that I've motivated around 50 people to start a healthy life and train. Each month at least one new person asks me how to start training. Today I've inspired 15 people, all whom were physically very fit, but they lacked the strength and skills that gymnasticbodies provided to me. I passed that knowledge to them. Once again, you guys changed my life