Introduction and some beginner questions

Hello everyone

I'm Kai from Sweden. I have always been amazed by gymnasts since the move they do just seems beyond physical law. Perhaps it is because I have always been a bit obesed. Few years ago I decided that I should do something about it. Long story short, with lots of running and weight training I got a bit stronger and much lighter. (60pound) ( Picture of Current shape if anyone is interested http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y122/kaizokoh/chest.jpg )

So now that I am in reasonble shape I thought that I should give basic gymnast training a go. Thanks to internet I found Coach Sommers article and now I'm hooked. I tried some of the training and they have proved to be quite challenging and fun. Also I discovered beside lack of overall strength my main weakness is flexibility and weak wrist. Regarding to flexibility I have done quite alot static stretching, although that I'm quite close to regular split and chinese split I can barely lift my foot higher than 90degrees for active stretching. So any recommendation for developing higher range of motion and stronger wrist?

PS: I would love some beginner program to work on too. And Coach Sommer if you see this, do you ship your book to Sweden? What is the shipping cost?

Do a search on wrist conditioning threads, I don't have the urls handy.

Start practicing hip extensions ( search ) and standing leg raises for time.

Thanks

I did find some threads yesterday targeting those area. Guess I need to learn how to search before I post.

George wrote about how to perform hip extension in stand leg raises thread.

Coach have video and description of wrist pushup.

I didn't find Standing leg raises, but I guess it must be very similiar to hanging leg raises used for targeting abdomal area with either straight for bent legs.

Stand, then raise leg with control. Do not bend the bend the base leg ( knee ) or lean forward or backward with the torso. Maintain proper posture by pushing the top of the head up and the shoulders down ( long neck ).

Thanks for the clarification. I shall include them in my current routine right away.

Gonna order the book once my paypal account get verified in 2 days. So except for the normal weight training that I do, I will include these to adapt my body for now.

5*30sec frog stand

5*60sec handstand against wall

5*15sek L-sit

5*10 reversed incline wrist pushup

3*10 Hip extension

3*10 Leg raises

Any comment on that? Too little?

reversed incline wrist pushup? is this at all like a bench dip? get two chairs and do regular dips.

if you can do a frogstand that long, it might be wise to move on to the straight arm frogstand at least.

Blairbob said:

reversed incline wrist pushup? is this at all like a bench dip? get two chairs and do regular dips.

if you can do a frogstand that long, it might be wise to move on to the straight arm frogstand at least.

Hehe, not sure what to call this exercise. It's just like the normal wrist pushup with my palm facing upward, but it feels a bit too painful to do them on the floor and not challenging enougth on my knees, so I do them with my hands a bit elevated from the floor while my foot are still on the floor to make it easier. And therefore the "reversed incline". It was an idea from another member, unfortunately I can't seem to find that post again. But kudos to him anyway.

I will try the straight arm frogstand. Right now my wrist is still feels to unflexible to bend over 90 degrees. So when it is overbending I have very little control over my fingers, and it usually ends with my face on the floor.

Turn it sideways...Even I can't be on my palms when figers are pointed forward, due to low flexibility and serious injurys (broken wrist, cronic pain-so much pain, that I couldn't write on a list of a paper for two years :shock: therefore two years of almost non training just core and trampoline) But I can do all sort of things on flor now, but wtih fingers pointed sideways.

That sounds really harsh, hope you recover soon.

I took your advice and tried a couple time with my hands turned side way. It was quite painful to have my entire weight supported only by the pollicis area in my hand. (Instead of the entire lower part of the palm) And the leaning forward part was a bit scary, I put a couple of pillows infront of my so landing on my face wouldn't hurt as much. Hopefully I will be able to do it on the parallettes after few weeks training.

I had this at the age of 12-14....

Just a small update

With some static hold training I got some noticeble gains in benchpress.