Win Free Tuition to the May GB Seminar!

Rules:

1) Train primarily with the Gymnastic Bodies program. You may of course add additional elements as you see fit, but your primary mode of training should be the GB Program.

2) You may post photos here in this thread, post training and skill videos on YouTube, links to your training blog in the Workout Log forum; whatever you think will convince your fellow forum members to vote for you. Remember to be appropriate.

3) The contest will run through April 15th. At that, I will start a poll for the forum members to vote for their favorite contestant. On May 1st, I will announce the winner, who will then receive Free Tuition to the May GB Seminar! The winner will be responsible for their own transportation and lodging.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Sounds Intriguing. Im definitely in, if just to meet some of the other hardcore peeps out there. Im on the other side of the country so i doubt i can gather the resources to even travel for something as amazing as that. But to me true beauty is the tone of a hard earned body. Sculpting for thy self a masterpiece, sharpening the mental blade, and embracing the burn of the fire of your own energy, feeling the true strength of your own will. yea, im on par with that. Here's to a great run with the GB program, and a deep thank you for all the effective advice!

I would really like to do this, but there is no way I would be able to afford the transportation, let alone lodging and food.

Perhaps I'll take part in the activities anyway, just without planning on being voted for...

Good luck everybody and thanks Coach.

I will join in on this. I have a link to my blog/log in my signature as well as a link to a few pictures I took a few weeks go. I will try and get some videos up but school keeps me busy. I currently working on getting my hand written log transferred over to my online log.

It’s smack in the middle of dissertation time for me :? :shock: :!: , so I may be a late entry into the game. I hope I will be able to participate, but for now I'll plan on maintaining a reserved optimism about my chances. :wink:

I think this is a genius idea. It is definitely going to help me stay committed and chart my progress. Coach Sommer, did you happen to see all of the great things Robb Wolf was saying about your program on his blog? http://robbwolf.com , I follow your site and Crossfit.com, so it was pretty neat to see Robb advocating your book so much after I had already read it. Thanks a lot

-Brandon

Well, I all ready have an update. Yesterday I got my first full ROM Head stand pushups against the wall! At the beginning of my previous steady state cycle I could barley do a HeSPU Negative, which was a blow to my ego because I thought I could do a full HeSPU when in fact I was only doing about half of my ROM. But after finishing my first steady state cycle I had the negatives down easy, but my confidence in doing a full press from a headstand was horribly low. So, when I kicked up to a head stand to try the full HeSPU I decided to hold nothing back and, with hands shoulder width apart, I pressed to a handstand. The first 3 reps were, to my surprise, not that difficult but the next 2 sets really had me huffing and puffing I was of course rotating my HeSPU with my pulling exercise, L-Sit Pull Ups, which was an active contributor to my huffing and puffing as well!

I think I am going to try and video tape my workouts next week to capture what my 'heavy loading phase' looks like. And then re-film everything in about 8 weeks to see what my 'light loading phase' looks like, should be an interesting comparison.

I think from now on I am just going to edit this post with updates, links to pictures/videos etc, so this thread doesn’t get clogged with update posts.

Edit 1: I have updated my journal in my signature with EVERYTHING out of my workout notebook. I just scanned everything in and posted the images. I have a decent explanation about how I got started, my programming, history and results as of right now.

Edit 2: Feb 12, 2009

I updated my log and I decided to add a bit more structure to what I do before and after my basic strength work. Basically I am trying to streamline everything so I can get as much out of my gym time and work capacity as possible. I have been unofficially trying this out over the past few weeks and I think I have learned enough about my recovery and work capacity to make the experiment a permanent part of my schedule.

Edit 3: Feb 14, 2009

My straddle press handstand was a no go yesterday. I am REALLY close to being able to pull my feet off the ground. Yesterday I pulled all the way to the very tip of my big toes but I just couldnt quite get the last bit of weight off the ground.

Edit 4: Feb 18,2009

New blog post about the awsome transfer between my front lever work and L-Sits!

Edit 5: March 06, 2009

School has been nuts so I have been forgetting to update this post but I have been posting on my blog. I just posted about how I got consistent 6 circles yesterday and almost got a Korean dip.

If you have any questions shoot me a PM or post here.

Thanks

Ricky

Hi there, I'm new to the forum and new to GB. I have been a CrossFitter for a little over a year and I started gymnastics at about the same time. I am a personal trainer and an athlete in Portland, Oregon. The skills I am currently focusing on are 1)Muscle Up 2)Handstand Presses 3)Front HS 4)Back HS, and some others including some Parkour skills. I'm excited to enter the contest to win tuition to the seminar! If nothing else, it will help me focus on my goals! I started a blog the other day so that you can see my progress, I will post my wods on here and on my blog, as well as videos and pictures. Looking forward to training hard!

My first post. My oldest son (12 y/o) and I (35 y/o) attempt as much of the WOD's as we can handle. I began doing the FL and planche progressions back in '06 after I found the article on Dragondoor.com; a runner's build doesn't help much but I have an indomitable spirit and will, one day, have a full pike planche. Anyway, 2 years ago I couldn't even balance a frog stand and had to do it against a chair. Now I can get a straddle planche for a few seconds. My training over those years was off and on as I was finishing law school and I am married with 5 children--pretty busy all the time. Now, having passed the bar exam, I can focus more because I now have a day job.

We can't do Walking HS ladders, so we did 3 sets of HS Wall Runs with 20 to 30 reps, spotting each other. Then we split off in difficulty; I did 1 set of 2 spotted Wall Pike Press HS's, then 3 sets of Wall Pike Press HeS's. My son did 4 sets of negative Wall Pike Press HeS's. We aren't able to do full wrist PU's, so I did 2x10 with one hand regular, one hand doing the flip; he did 2x10 using his knees with the same hand shifting.

I appreciate this program, the initial article by Coach, and all that it has spawned because it helps me stay fit without having to take 2-3 hours away from my family to go the gym. I can do these at home pretty inexpensively (I made my own rings with stuff from Home Depot). The extra exercises detailed on this site provide some great variety (We're saving up to get the book and someday some real rings). My fitness goals are long term, and with military disability in both knees and my shoulder, these exercises are good therapy and set the bar high enough for a lifetime of fitness progression.

Best regards,

Stephen

I'll be rooting for you, Stephen. This reminds me very much of Kallista Pappas and her father who are well known in the CrossFit circles. He is a stand-up guy and Kallista definitely takes names and kicks booty.

Wow, this is great! I have been doing your program for the past 2 months. I'm in!

Coach, you said to post pics in this thread and I can't seem to get it to work. Should we just post links?

Our workout log is titled Stephen's and son's workout log. Hope to keep it updated regularly.

~Stephen

Coach Sommer,

When you state 'you must primarily train with the GB program', does that mean the WOD's?

As I am following my own program using exercises from BTGB (as well as ones described on the forum, e.g wall handstands)

Ed

No, following the GB WOD is not a requirement; however basing your training primarily on exercises and movements contained within the Gymnastic Bodies forum, essays, videos and Building the Gymnastic Body is. You are more than welcome to create your own workouts or Steady State cycles if you prefer.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach,

I can't take the chance of not buying in at the $500 price, so I'll be getting my ticket before the end of Feb. So, people that already have a ticket, I assume, are still eligible, and they will get a refund if they win the contest?

Thanks

trianglechoke7 said:

I can't take the chance of not buying in at the $500 price, so I'll be getting my ticket before the end of Feb. So, people that already have a ticket, I assume, are still eligible, and they will get a refund if they win the contest?

Absolutely.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

This sounds like a great idea! I just recently started a 'gymworkout' blog which I've had a little trouble keeping up with since I just got sick towards the end of last month. Just wondering though - will there be any exclusions due to backgrounds? For example, I started gymnastics at 3 and competed J.O. till 18 y/o. I competed through class 1/level 10, but was average at best (a world of head/fear issues). I went to IGC once, but always wanted to go to Woodward. I've been out of serious working out for some embarrassing number of years now, and have been trying to get back into the swing of things ever since. I'm 25, just recently started working full time, and also recently stopped coaching (bummer, but necessary).

So basically, what I'm wondering is if anyone would be 'disqualified' due to already having a gymnastics background?

Thanks and good luck to all!

Nate

You and Steve are such ringers! I never was Steve's equal as I only was able to do some basic strength around 6 years ago and never had a B level skill on any apparatus but FX as most of my skills are/were compulsory level skills. Then again, front lever used to be a B and planche on floor is a B, I think.

However, I don't see any stipulation since it is merely the forum's overall favorite. Steve however does his own programming as does Gregor and a few others so that should DQ them. Maybe they are not if the skills worked and the programming models fit what is outlined in BtGB instead of just the GB WOD.

Blairbob said:

You and Steve are such ringers!

Are you referring to me when you say 'you'? Just curious - and sorry for my ... hmmmm, not sure what... but what do you mean by ringers? I'm sure whatever it is, it's all in good fun, but I'm just curious what you mean by that. Maybe I'm just not familiar with the board lingo yet. I do my share of lurking from time to time, and the youtube vids are great!

Yes, you. A "ringer" is someone who is not an amateur. Think of it this way. A ringer is say I bring in Gregor in an amateur competition for muscle-ups.

Ah - thanks for the clarification

Well, at least it's more of a progress challenge and not an end all strength competition. At least that's how I view it. Which is another reason I always loved the sport. Regardless of the competition, you could have loads of fun in the gym seeing your own progress of learning new skills that built on smaller ones - to which there's never an end to!

Yep, exactly.

Actually those like me and you can probably progress more than someone like Steve or Gregor where progress is more incremental.

I would like to see someone who is not advanced win the free tuition, as they need the instruction more. But, it is ultimately up to the board, so good luck to all!

I can't go to the seminar as i'm in Aus and just got back from overseas (haven't been able to read the forum for over a month, loving the wod's) but i wanted to link my youtube page just to share my training, I might start a blog soon as well. Good Luck to everyone.

http://www.youtube.com/user/Demus15

I'll try and give it a whirl; here's my training log:

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