Gymnastics, CF and ME experience by RF_Guy

I will try to combine all of these in my workout schedule. I have been doing that for about 9 months now with some success working on basic gymnastics skills on my own. Until now my schedule was CF/Gym/CF/Rest/Gym/CF/GYm. Starting from now I will try to incorporate Gymnasticbodies WOD .

A bit about myself:

I am 38 y.o. 175lb around 8-10% BF.

I have been doing CF for about 18 months. Before that pretty much nothing for 15 years . First 9 months I did just main page CF WOD and later (because of lack of progress in heavy lifts) started doing a combination of gymnastics/ME/CF metcons. Doing combination proved to be a much better approach. One year later I am still improving in all three activities. Progress in gymnastics was slow but I think I am getting there little by little.

Current lifts 1RM:

DL: 420

B.Squat: 350

SP: 180

DHPU: 25

Kipping PU: 46

Weighted PU: 125

Push-ups: 80

One legged squat: 25

Current gymnastics skills:

HS up to 1 min

HSPU: 4

B.lever 10 sec

F.lever 5 sec (just got it a week ago)

Adv. tucked planche 8 sec

L-sit (parallettes): 45 sec

Shoulder stand on rings

Basic strength rings routines: #1, #2, #3 (can perform not more than one time in a row)

I will follow this schedule for now:

1st Day: Gymnastics skills + WOD

2nd Day: Gymnastics WOD + CF metcon (short)

3rd Day: ME + CF metcon (long)

4th Day: Rest

WOD

Complete four rounds:

20 Front Lever Pulls

10 Negative Back Pulls

Planche (adv.tucked) + F.lever hold x10

did only three rounds of WOD : 10 FLPU and 5 NBP (10 sec). So hard...

Jan 17, 2009

Perform three sets of the following:

Wide grip MU, Bulgarian Dip, forward roll to support, Bulgarian Dip, forward roll down to hanging L, Crank, Reverse Crank.

3x5 Body Levers (did 3x4)

That stuff is so hard, I am absolutely hooked! Rings routine felt very good, I was familiar with all movements. Body Levers were new and very hard, I had to tuck just a bit in order to do 4 of them, I tried one fully laid-out but there is no way I can do more than one in a row at this point. Going slowly up/down is OK, but reversing felt like DL PR.

Shoulders were completely destroyed by gymnastics but I pulled through CF WOD anyways.

For time:

155 pound Power clean 15 reps

30 Ring dips

155 pound Power clean 12 reps

24 Ring dips

155 pound Power clean 9 reps

18 Ring dips

155 pound Power clean 6 reps

12 Ring dips

155 pound Power clean 3 reps

6 Ring dips

time: 14:00

I was not out of breath but had to do single dips at the end. If I feel not fully recovered next 3+1 I will cut second day metcon in half. Ideally it should be 5-10 minutes WOD, but I just could not stop today.

Jan 18, 2009

10 GHD Sit-ups

10 Hip & Back Extensions

95 pound Thrusters, 30 reps

50 Pull-ups

30 GHD Sit-ups

30 Hip & Back Extensions

95 pound Thrusters, 20 reps

35 Pull-ups

50 GHD Sit-ups

50 Hip & Back Extensions

95 pound Thrusters, 10 reps

20 Pull-ups

time: 25:16

huge DOMs from yesterday. Last set of GHD Sit-ups were brutal. Much needed rest tomorrow.

__________________

Hey! I've been following your log on the cf forums. Is this where you're keeping your log now?

Hey Chris, I will keep both logs updated. That way I can get input from both CF and Gymnasticbodies communities.

I am so happy that Coach started posting WOD! Completely new level. Please, keep it coming...

Rest day

I am feeling rested already. So for now I will keep my new schedule as planned.

I did some HS walking yesterday evening. This is something I should do more often. I can only do 4-5 steps in a row right now, it is much easier for me to keep still HS than walking.

Jan 20, 2009

WOD

Complete 3 giant sets of each of the following:

Embedded BL (1-2 reps) + Yewkis (3-5 reps)

Embedded PL (1-2 reps) + Erbs (3-5 reps)

Embedded FL (1-2 reps) + Russian Leg Lifts

Finish with 10 Bridge Wall Walks (did not have enough time for those).

Practiced HS walking for 5 min for WU.

Started with easiest Embedded holds:

2 full BL rolling out of tucked 4 sec (jumping is too hard on elbows) + 3-4 Yewkis

2 Tucked Pl on the floor 4 sec (much harder than on parallettes) + Erbs (did 3 negative from HeS to tucked planche)

2 Almost full FL 4 sec (foot on ankle) + 3 Hanging Leg lifts 5sec

Next time Embedded holds will be done from Inverted hang.

Jan 21, 2009

WOD

WU: Still HS

Complete as many rounds as possible in 15 minutes:

10 Box Jumps

20 jumping SLS (single leg squat)

30 RLL (reversed legs lift) in headstand (scaled down to 20, first time doing those)

two rounds and 10 box jumps

So after all that jumping shoulders hurt the most .

First time doing HeS RLL, I can't say why but they were hard and I was able to do them in sets of 4-6 only. Also to keep balance in HeS shoulders had to work hard. SLS were fun, doing one legged jumping squat required some balance during landing and keeping leg in L-sit pointed toe position through the whole movement was not easy (I did my best even though I know it was not perfect). I did 10 more of those after WOD.

Jan 22, 2009

"Murph" no-split

1 mile run

100 PU

200 PushUps

300 Air Squat

1 mile run

do not start doing next movement before the previous one is completely done.

55 min (Oooopppsss! )

wanted to challenge myself today and did no-split "Murph". 1st mile and PU were easy but after that it was pure torture. It is so much mentally harder to do this WOD in order. Compared to "Cindy" split "Murph" result of 28 min it sounds and feels like completely different workout. I think I will stick with this painful version from now on.

Let me compliment you on your progress. I'm impressed. What a great combination of body weight and barbell accomplishments. This is essentially what I plan to do, though metcon is low priority for me.

How do you usually structure your ME days?

Hey Travis! Thank you for your kind words. Really needed to hear something like that today (having DOMs in my whole upper body today ).

I used to separate ME days from any other kind of activity using some westside barbell principals. ME day would consist of one ME lift, one supplementary exercise done 5x5 or 3x3 (good mornings, box-squat, etc...) with sub-maximal weight and one core exercise. Two workouts per week done in the beginning of the week, one for lower body and one for upper body plus one or two oly lifts (instead of DE) at the end of the week. Exercises should be changed every 3-4 weeks (depends on your level). For ex. your ME exercise is currently B.Squat. First week x5 (progressively increase weight until hit max or failed, it is important to get very difficult one-two last reps, you should really fight to lift it). Next week same thing for x3. Then next week and week after that heavy singles. After that switch to a different lower body ME exercise. There should be 3-4 exercises to use for ME days which you cycle one after another. I did B.squat, DL, G.Mornings for lower body. This approach was giving very good results for months. The only word of caution I am not sure if beginners can use that approach, Starting Strength program would be much more suitable for them.

But recently I decided to change focus and concentrate more on gymnastics. So now I am doing ME lifts whenever I feel like it, no supplementary exercises and usually after heavy lift I would do metcon. And guess what... lifts are still improving

I think that structure of workout is not that important and boundaries of what you can do within same workout to still get progress are very broad and can include many different activities.

Jan 23, 2009

Rest

some HS walking practice.

Hm, interesting. I did do a short cycle of Starting Strength a while ago before I shifted my focus more towards gymnastic training. I plan on using an SS inspired format (while I'm still able to make linear gains) for ME days twice a week, focusing on squats and DLs in the same workout. Actually, I'll probably deadlift once a week.

It's good to see what's possible, and what others have done mixing barbell and gymnastic training. Good inspiration, too, since I have no excuse not to succeed.

Jan 24, 2009

10 minutes in XR Strap HS

Finish with 2x10 Wrist Pushups

Did 5 min in Strap HS and 5 min in wall HS. Had to stop because my left shoulder started bothering me... and it took only 1 hour 10 min finished with wrist PU .

First time doing XR Strap HS. The trickiest part was getting into HS. It felt very awkward in the beginning and one time I actually rolled out of HS because my foot missed the strap. It got better after few attempts. I was able to fully lock-out only first 3-4 times. Very good WOD.

Jan 25, 2009

ME

DL x3: up to 385, then 395 only one.

Natural Leg Curls: 2x3 (cramps)

WOD

5 min max 24kg KB Snatches 106 (20-20, 15-15,10-10, 10-6)

Jan 26, 2009

WOD

"Nicole"

Run 400m

Max. PU

20 min

112 PU in 6 rounds (40, 20, 16, 16, 16, 14)

Felt tired today. Rest tomorrow

I think I will try to use conjugated method for ME.

Jan 28, 2009

ME

Good Mornings (arched)

x3 up to 185 then singles up to 205

Modified Hypers: 3x10

Gymnastics WOD

Complete four rounds:

5 Cast Wall Walks (4, 3, 3, 3)

10 Hopping HeSPUs (5x1)

40' Wallabys (30)

Finish with 2x10 Wrist Pushups

I did numbers in brackets. Doing first time every exercise. CWW were surprisingly not that easy. I was learning how to do HeSPU during workout, they got better towards the end, but far from anything near good. Wallabys were funny

Jan 29, 2009

Gymnastics

Perform three sets of the following ring strength series:

2 MU, forward roll to MU, XR L-sit, Bulgarian Dip, XR Straddle L, FL, BL.

Then 3x5 360s

Finish with 10 Wall Extensions

I had to modify it a bit because my rings setup is not high enough and I never tried Straddle L on rings: 2 L-MU, forward roll to MU, Bulgarian Dip, L-hold, FL, BL. Then Adv tucked 360s...

Evening

XR L-sit practice (yep, I can do those, not picture perfect though... and i lost balance a couple of times... but survived )

100 KB swings (24kg, relaxed): 3:50

Jan 30, 2009

ME

DB Shoulder Press: x3 up to 60, then x1 up to 75, 80 (failed)

CF Metcon

five rounds for time

50' overhead lunges

21 burpees

time: 15 min

every workout which has burpees in it is just killing me. I should do them more often... another thing would be good to figure out what is the weakest link in this exercise that is making it so hard for me.

I expected DB SP to be much harder than BB, but after all there was not that much difference in max weight.

Feb 01, 2009

Morning

DE

Low box squat 165# 12x2

Rev.Hypers 14, 12, 10

Evening

Embedded BL (1-2 reps) + Reverse Yewkis (3-5 reps)

Embedded PL (1-2 reps) + Korean Dips (3-5 reps)

Embedded FL (1-2 reps) + V-ups with lift (3-5 reps)

No idea what Reverse Yewkis are (and seems like no one else does from WOD discussion thread) so did Yewkis instead.

Embedded were done from inverted hang. Instead of Korean dips did reversed grip rings dips (these were pretty hard).

Feb 02, 2009

DE

bench press 135# 12x2

135# C&J

do 1 1st min

do 2 2nd min...

continue as long as you can.

9 rounds

yeah finally! Right on the bell.

wrist push-ups 2x10

9 rounds eluded me for so long... I was so happy that it did not even occur to me to continue. I just stopped at 9 and that's it. I can't dump the bar there so I had to lower the weight and reset after each rep. did not sleep enough last night, feeling tired. I will do gymnastics and short metcon tomorrow instead.

Feb 03, 2009

Morning

Not enough time for WOD so did static holds:

Adv. ticked Planche on parallettes max hold: 10 sec

F.lever foot on ankle max hold: 15 sec

then same two in superset order: Pl 5 sec + F.lever 7 sec

Finished with 1 min aggregated Straddle on parallettes 5 sec holds.

Back is still a bit rounded in straddle.

Evening

elliptical 1 mile

20 KB swings

elliptical 1 mile

20 KB C&J left

elliptical 1 mile

20 KB C&J right

elliptical 1 mile

20 KB snatches left

elliptical 1 mile

20 KB snatches right

time: 16:10

Feb 05, 2009

ME

Good Mornings

x3 up to 195, then x1 up to 225 (PR), 235 (failed)

Gymnastics

XR Push-ups plus: 3x3

Half-F.L. PU: 3x3

HS walking Ladders up to 8 steps (restarted 4 times because failed to do 5-6)

Wall Press HS 5x1

I think out of all great information from Coach Sommer's book the most confusing part is programming. There are many approaches listed and it is left up to the reader to choose what to use. For myself i noticed that doing multiple short sets of same static holds often works the best. I see very-very slow progress, but it is a definite improvement. Other methods I tried felt like there was no improvement at all.

I need to practice technique first. Also I will do different press/pull/core every day when I have gymnastics following progression from the book and then WOD.

I am not familiar with many movements Coach is giving in his WOD and I think I should not try to do them first time in giant set format. To be completely honest even most of the movements I know I can't really control while doing

giant set. I think for now I will still follow WOD but will do exercises separately or in a set with much longer rest periods than RX'd.

Feb 06, 2009

Gymnastics

still HS 4x30 sec

HSPU on parallettes (two boxes): 5x2, then 5x1

Reversed Yewkis (1/2 laid-out): 7x2

WOD

Five rounds for time of:

2 pood Kettlebell swings, 25 reps

25 GHD Sit-ups

25 Back Extensions

25 Knees to Elbows

time: 29:55

killed my abs. HSPU were very easy today. Still HS got much-much better after last week, when done in the middle of the room i used to hit it 50-60% of the time, now it is 80-90% and the only time when I am not stable is usually early in the morning.

Feb 07, 2009

Tabata day (it has been awhile) x6

Pull-ups: 15 ,14, 14, 13, 11, 10

Air Squats: 26, 25, 24, 25, 24, 25

Push-ups: 25, 19, 17, 13, 11, 10

Feb 09, 2009

DE

Low Box Squat

10x2 @190# 30 sec rest (55%)

Gymnastics

Planche + F.lever x5

2 rounds of

Em.B.lever + AOH PUx3 + Em.Pl + HSPU (free x2) + F.lever + Body Levers x3

1/2-1 min rest

I took a couple of days off, feeling tired. Also recently training sessions became too long for my schedule... modifying again.

This time less gymnastics unless I have energy and time. I will mostly follow book progression for strength/skills and do some of WODs.

3 ON 1 OFF

Fri: ME (low+sup) + gymnastics (static/core)

Sat: ME (high) + Metcon (short)

Sun: gymnastics (Pr/Pull/core) + Metcon (long)

Mon: OFF

2 ON 1 OFF

Tue: DE (low) + gymnastics (Pr/Pull/core) + Metcon (short)

We: DE (high) + gymnastics (Pr/Pull/core) + Metcon (short)

Thu: OFF