Getting Ripped While Gymnastics Training

A group of people that train at my gymnastics center have decided we want to get ripped this summer! For me that means getting down to around 6% body fat ideally. Currently I am training Foundation One, doing Capoeira 1 or 2 times a week, and training flips 2 to 3 days a week.

 

I eat a mostly vegan diet though I've been known to go into full omnivore mode from time to time. I am making adjustments to my diet to accomplish this goal, but I was also thinking of mixing in some HIIIT training as well. Maybe 2 to 3 times a week?

 

I was thinking about buying Insanity and doing that, but it seems alot of the movements they do are intended to build strength as well, and I feel I am already doing that with the F1 training. Also, I want my HIIT training to interfere as little as possible with my strength training. What do you guys recommend?

20 min KB swings fasted first thing in the morning, then go on with your day as usual.

or,

45 min to an hour fasted slow cardio (brisk walk preferably uphill) first thing in the morning, then go on with your day.

or any combination of the above.

 

Plus 2.78 craptons of veggies on odd days, alternating with 1.62 shitloads of the same veggies on even days... but Mr Naterman will be able to fine tune this to the half handful for you!

Just a heads up: you're probably going to feel like shit at 6% bf

FredInChina said:

20 min KB swings fasted first thing in the morning, then go on with your day as usual.

or,

45 min to an hour fasted slow cardio (brisk walk preferably uphill) first thing in the morning, then go on with your day.

or any combination of the above.

 

Plus 2.78 craptons of veggies on odd days, alternating with 1.62 shitloads of the same veggies on even days... but Mr Naterman will be able to fine tune this to the half handful for you!

 

For accurate measurement, could you clarify if this is the short crapton (US), long crapton (UK) or metric crapton (or SI craptonne)?

HAHA, well played George

Here's a thread from ages ago about a similar topic

 

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/7096-getting-lean-whilst-increasing-strength/

This may be blasphemy to say on a GST forum, but you may want to check out the '12 week body plan' from Ultimate Performance Fitness (UK-based personal trainers). These guys perfected the art of body (re)composition using weight training and nutrition Poliquin-style. I seriously doubt that you will have the energy to maintain your GST at the same time though. But hey, it should do the trick if you're just looking to get 'ripped'.

 

Note: I am not endorsing this program over Coach Sommer's GST courses, don't take this the wrong way

George Launchbury said:

For accurate measurement, could you clarify if this is the short crapton (US), long crapton (UK) or metric crapton (or SI craptonne)?

My word, is America STILL using the Imperial Crapton????

Charm said:

My word, is America STILL using the Imperial Crapton????

Kind of appropriate, since we ARE the Empire! :lol

 

 

Honestly, in this case I think we'll get our best results if we go with the quantum crap, because all of these other systems get confusing.

Quantum craps are easy to define, because what matters is whether or not you give a crap (belief), and how much of a crap you give.

 

Just know that you need to focus on how MUCH of a crap you give, and not in what direction you give a crap, because you just can't know both at the same time.

Michaël said:

This may be blasphemy to say on a GST forum, but you may want to check out the '12 week body plan' from Ultimate Performance Fitness (UK-based personal trainers). These guys perfected the art of body (re)composition using weight training and nutrition Poliquin-style. I seriously doubt that you will have the energy to maintain your GST at the same time though. But hey, it should do the trick if you're just looking to get 'ripped'.

 

Note: I am not endorsing this program over Coach Sommer's GST courses, don't take this the wrong way

Recomp is just about 95% nutrition, so I don't see why this would be horribly offensive.

 

The main problem with trying to do this with GST is that in order to maintain all your muscle mass you will need to work on variations that you can only perform a few correct reps with. Assuming, of course, that you're trying to do a fast recomp. This is not how Foundation is structured, and will almost certainly involve the development of bad habits.

 

The slower you go, the less of a deficit you'll have to use, the lower your intensity will have to be, and the more correctly you will be able to train GST.

 

Allow me to help, in practical terms:

 

Use a deficit of 20%. Research shows that if you are working your muscles 3 days per week (think the 5 day Foundation protocol... those who have the program know what I mean), and use a deficit of 19-20%, you will drop 5% of your body weight in 8 weeks, even in elite athletes, and that you will actually GAIN a very small amount of muscle while dropping nothing but fat.

 

You should be able to accomplish something similar with the Foundation program. I will suggest sticking to 3 sets per exercise, and taking the third set to failure so that you recruit everything you've got.

 

Do not go to failure on all sets, follow the given rep scheme for the first two.

 

Please note that this is NOT for ideal progress, this is for maintaining proper execution of exercises while also recruiting as much muscle mass as possible for the purpose of maintaining muscle mass during a caloric deficit.

 

 

 

 

Nutrition:

 

Get at least 2g protein per kg of bodyweight, and up to 2.8g per kg. Space this out evenly, in ~30g pulses.

 

For your carbs, stick with slow carbs all the time, including pre-workout. You may or may not want to use 50-60g of high GI carbs immediately PWO. The insulin spike will help preserve muscle mass.

 

For fats, eat balanced meals. Get protein first, then add the carbs you need (in the 40-55% of total calories range), and get the rest from fats. Make sure that you are creating the deficit from fats, but don't let fats fall below 20% of total calories.

 

Also, count protein as 3 calories per gram, not 4. Leave carbs at 4 calories, and fat at 9 calories, per gram.

 

The reason for altering the protein is that you expend 25-35 calories, per 100 calories of protein eaten, on the actual metabolism of turning the ingested protein into usable materials.

Joshua Naterman said:

Kind of appropriate, since we ARE the Empire! :lol

 

Aaaaaaaand I'm just gonna walk the heck away from that particular conversation

Joshua Naterman said:

(...) you just can't know both at the same time.

 

Did you mean the Schrödinger's crap?

 

 

FredInChina said:

Did you mean the Schrödinger's crap?

 

 

Schrödinger's crap was a very important moment in the evolution of Craptonometrics

You are all overthinking this.

- If nutrition was 95% of the issue, then all of the healthy-eating non-athletic people in the world would look like Olympic gymnasts. However they don't, so let's move on.

- My own athletes are far more ripped than anyone else on this board. At one of the last seminars, Allan was measured at approx 4% bodyfat. Nor is he the leanest of my athletes. That title would go to Heath. And I can assure you that they are not following a special diet. Nor are most of the Olympic level gymnasts that you see on TV.

- Do cardio 1-2 times per week, focus on your GST training and eat non-processed foods. The rest will take care of itself.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach really knows how to "throw down"

 

Coach Sommer said:

- My own athletes are far more ripped than anyone else on this board. 

Coach Sommer said:

You are all overthinking this.  

 

- If nutrition 95% of the issue, then all of the healthy eaters non-athletic people in the world would look like Olympic gymnasts.  However they don't, so let's move on.

 

- My own athletes are far more ripped than anyone else on this board.  At one of the last seminars, Allan was measured at approx 4% bodyfat.   Nor is he the leanest of my athletes.  That title would go to Heath.  And I can assure you that they are not following a special diet.  Nor are most of the Olympic level gymnasts that you see on TV.

 

- Do cardio 1-2 times per week, focus on your GST training and eating non-processed foods.  The rest will take care of itself.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

 

Over the course of several years of heavy training, it is possible (indeed, common) to reach very low body fat without a special diet. However, the OP is asking about how to rework their body composition over the course of just a summer. Keeping in mind that the OP almost certainly doesn't train as hard as your athletes, the OP is not a teenager, and the OP wants results in 3-4 months, I don't think adopting a specialized diet and workout plan is overkill.

I have no interest in short term solutions as short term solutions are inevitably followed by long term episodes of falling off the wagon.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Getting ripped is a 2 way street you either work for it or your a lucky person who is naturally ripped 

Body composition is determined completely by your hormones.  Optimal hormone status can occur from solid training, or a combination of some training and a lot of good nutrition.  This is why elite athletes can be ripped while still not following any form of extreme diet.  However for most of the members here who have not been training since a young age and who are already a bit chubby or have a terrible hormonal status, would benefit from training and optimizing their diet as well.  It should be noted that these paths are all viable depending on your lifestyle and, genetics, but most importantly, your training.

- There is no doubt that a better diet will help.  

 

- However there can also be no denying that we have a tendancy to put way too much effort into looking for a "magic bullet".  More sweat and less daydreaming would bring most people would be much closer to their physique goals.

 

- Check out the GB photo album on our facebook page for photos of adult non-elite GB students who are in excellent shape.

 

https://www.facebook.com/GymnasticBodies/photos_stream

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

 

- I have no interest in short term solutions as short term solutions are inevitably followed by long term episodes of falling off the wagon.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

 

 

 

Coach Sommer said:

-  At one of the last seminars, Allan was measured at approx 4% bodyfat.   Nor is he the leanest of my athletes.  That title would go to Heath. 

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

WOW. Is there a picture of Heath anywhere in Foundation1 or H1?

 

Thanks 

Training is absolutely the most important and most powerful variable in optimizing your hormones and physique.

INA said:

... WOW. Is there a picture of Heath anywhere in Foundation1 or H1?...

There are several photos/videos of Heath in F2. Interestingly while the leanest, he is also the strongest on rings.

One time not too long ago, due to just finishing up a growth spurt, Heath's iron cross training had been restricted for several months. For some odd reason he and Allan decided out of the blue to have an iron cross contest. Allan got up and did a 10 sec Iron Cross; which was a personal record for him. Heath then jumped up and did a 15 sec Iron Cross. With no warmup, no apparent strain and without having trained crosses in quite some time. Allan just walked away shaking his head. He was annoyed but only a little as we have gotten used to Heath being able to do crazy things like this.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

There are several photos/videos of Heath in F2. Interestingly while the leanest, he is also the strongest on rings.

One time not too long ago, due to just finishing up a growth spurt, Heath's iron cross training had been restricted for several months. For some odd reason he and Allan decided out of the blue to have an iron cross contest. Allan got up and did a 10 sec Iron Cross; which was a personal record for him. Heath then jumped up did a 15 sec Iron Cross. With no warmup, no apparent strain and without having trained crosses in quite some time. Allan just walked away shaking his head. He was annoyed but only a little as we have gotten used to Heath being able to do crazy things like this.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coming from you, not exactly prone to hyperbole, that's frankly fascinating.

Coach Sommer said:

You are all overthinking this.  

 

- If nutrition was 95% of the issue, then all of the healthy-eating non-athletic people in the world would look like Olympic gymnasts.  However they don't, so let's move on.

 

- My own athletes are far more ripped than anyone else on this board.  At one of the last seminars, Allan was measured at approx 4% bodyfat.   Nor is he the leanest of my athletes.  That title would go to Heath.  And I can assure you that they are not following a special diet.  Nor are most of the Olympic level gymnasts that you see on TV.

 

- Do cardio 1-2 times per week, focus on your GST training and eating non-processed foods.  The rest will take care of itself.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

What type of cardio compliments GST and the Foundation series the best? I'm doing F1 now, 4 days a week and usually just do 5-10 minutes on a bike before starting...which may not be enough, I don't know