Hello everyone, I am very excited to be taking this step in my training and I am very enthusiastic about what GB can do for me!
Some background.
My name is Aaron Lehmer, and I live in Des Moines, Iowa (a la Shawn Johnson). I was a swimmer all through high school and participated on a national team, but got a bit burned out by college (4+ hours a day from 11 to 19, I'm sure some of the gymnasts here understand) and pretty much stopped being athletic past my Freshman year. Fast forward a few years and I had gone from 190 to 250 (on a broad, 6'3" frame) and staring at my wedding photos in disbelief. Determined to rectify the situation I started taking Tae-kwon-do, but in my 4th practice the substitute instructor decided that since I seemed to have some natural ability I should do some sparring exercises that involved retreating quickly while kicking a strong and fast Brown Belt. Which is presicely when the ACL in my right knee ripped apart and took a fair amount of Meniscus with it.
Unfortunately mis-diagnosed by an Orthopod for a year, "Oh, it's just soft-tissue damage, we won't worry about the MRI. Wait 6 weeks and go back to TKD", and after my 3rd collapse in writhing pain months later "Maybe athletics just aren't for you. We'll do the MRI just to make you happy, but we won't find anything..... Oh my, you have serious knee damage and need immediate surgery" Let's just say the Dr. is lucky that I couldn't run him down and beat the living tar out of him.
In the intervening time though, in researching athletic fitness routines for fighters, I stumbled across Ross Enamait and Rosstraining.com. He and his site is probably know to many of you, and definitely worth checking out if you haven't seen them yet. Very hardcore, no BS, functional strength and conditioning. I have been using his system for about the past 3 years, in which time I dropped back down to 198, and am now at 220 with 14% bodyfat.
I am also a Moderator at http://www.thedailyplate.com, which is part of the Livestrong network. I do a lot there in the Exercise and Diet forums, run the HIIT group, and am now looking forward to going back to school and studying to become a Registered Dietician as soon as my hours change at my current job. The site is a great place to get a real look at your diet, BTW. It's main purpose is as a tool to track your food and let you know what you are REALLY putting in your body. It's very simple, and works like a web search for specific foods, and you can add foods or recipes. Check it out!
Now to the present. I am still enjoying good progress with Rosstraining, but I have always been a restless soul and have had my interest pull me in a few new directions. Specifically, I took a Judo class and fell in love with it. While I cannot get back into it for several months until I get earlier hours at work, it's great to have an actual athletic focus for my workouts again. It also raised a few questions for me about training that would correspond well to the strength needed in Judo. Ross's style is built basically for striking fighters, and so has a huge focus on aerobic/anaerobic conditioning, dynamic Core strength, explosive lower body, and not quite as much on upper-body strength. I found that even in my first Judo practice that there were definitely some athletic needs that I wasn't addressing with my current workout, and would need to be if I wanted to be competitive. There's no question that Ross offers the tools I would need to make it suit me, but when I thought about all the factors that would help make me a good, competitive Judoka;
Superior upper-body and shoulder girdle strength.
Peerless balance
Awesome pushing/pulling strength
Hugely strong grip and wrist strength
Flexibility
Static strength
When I put all these things out there, the avenue that seemed to encompass them all was gymnastics. So here I am, looking to try this GB thing out and see what it can do for me. I'm very impressed with the book, will likely end up ordering the videos and the rings. (have homemade rings right now)
But I do have some questions, and hopefully the nice folks here can help out.
Are there any specific concerns a relatively tall guy (6'3") should address starting out? Different progressions, initial skills to nail, pre-habbing joints, etc.
Is or has anyone else in here used gymnastics to complement their grappling, and what is your experience on the subject?
I still absolutely love my Rosstraining workouts, and would find it very hard to leave them behind to go to 100% GB type training. I have a fairly high Work Capacity, and I know my body well enough to know when I am pushing too hard and how to adjust. As long as there's enough separation in time between these 2 types of workouts, and as long as I keep my schedule well conjugated, do you think that they would work well together or might it end up as less than the sum of it's parts?
I'm also a huge fan of Westside Barbell, an immensely successful and very science-based Powerlifting center where a 1000+lb squat is nothing especially strange. I have their book and, if you are familiar with their methods, have had many thoughts on using Accomodating Resistance and speed/explosive work in conjunction with dynamic GB work in the future. Anyone else familiar with them and these methods? Thoughts on their usefulness in this area?
Thanks so very much all!
Aaron