New Member getting a foothold

Hello all,

I'm new to the forum and have incorporated some very basic gymnastics movements into strength training for about 2 years now. I did Olympic weight lifting for 4 years and standard strength training before that. My main objective is to attain functional strength that can applied to sports (i.e. rock climbing: think John Gill here) and everyday living. Like many who have come to the forum, I am an outsider to gymnastics, intrigued by what I have seen gymnasts do and by what gymnastics can do for athletes. Jordan Jovtchev and Albert Azaryan are some of my all-time favorite gymnasts and my favorite apparatus, of course, is the rings. My particular interest is in the static strength moves that are performed on this apparatus.

When I got started, I worked with a very knowledgeable trainer once a week for almost a year and a half (and trained a few times a week on my own), but he lives far away from me, so for the last 8 months, I have had to make do training at home. Now my workouts are based primarily on a subset of the exercises presented in Jordan Jovtchev's Ring Strength video, in addition to rubber band training and basic static poses on the floor (plus weekly climbing gym sessions). Bulgarian dips (although Mr. Jovtchev doesn't call them that) are some of my favorite exercises on the rings. I've since ordered the DVD/book set from here and I hope to expand my training repertoire greatly.

Because of an injury that happened many years ago, I'm not balanced, meaning I have lots of strength and ROM in some planes of motion and less in others. This in not an uncommon problem, but while some people simply chalk it off to age (I'm 40), ignore the problem and limit their movements to compensate, I'm working to correct it rather than accept it as a limitation.

One of my concrete goals is to be able to do the cross unassisted and perhaps the Olympic cross as well. I don't know how long it will take, and I really don't care: I just know that it's entirely possible. Here, there's a large knowledge base and I look forward to making great progress! :-)

Very articulate.

What you say about planes of motion being limited and working to fix it rather than chalk it up to age is exactly what I am working on. You present yourself with far more experience than I have in these things. I like how you express a concrete goal. That is what I am trying to do, but all I can think of is getting an overall baseline, but that would be interpreted by Coach or someone who could tell me what a baseline would be. You have a concrete goal in mind for the rings and with the purchase of Building Olympic Bodies (from what I know of Coach's style), you will have what you seek... keep up the good work.

I am new here too. New member to new member... welcome.