Former crossfit enthusiast, two weeks into F1

I'm currently trying to figure out where I "belong" in the Foundation One curriculum. I finished my second week a few days ago (started at the very bottom), and I did not find the workouts very challenging. So far I have been supplementing them by doing extra incline push ups, weighted dips (full ROM), and weighted pull ups (from a dead hang). I was a big fan of crossfit style work outs for a long time, and I did a small amount of bodybuilding prior to that, so I have some strength foundation to start off with. I understand from lurking about the forums and reading through F1 that prior strength does not always translate very well into gymnastics.

I started my third week today (I prefer working out on Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tues because it's easier for me to time my nutrition), and I went ahead and upped it to week 5 of the PE1 one stuff. I found myself sweating a lot, and it was definetely a much better workout, but I still don't feel it was very challenging. Should I continue doing week 5, or should I progress forward another week? I really don't want to hinder myself in the long run by skipping core training, as I am completely new to gymnastics, so I don't really know what to do at this point. Any help/tips you could provide is very much appreciated.

Also, as a secondary question, I've carried forward my dynamic warm up from my prior workouts because I did not know the proper form for any of the exercises I was going to be performing at first. I feel like it's been working fairly well so far, but I wanted to get everyones take on it.

100 jumping jacks

2 minutes of jump rope (or "jumping in place" if I don't have access to a rope at the time)

15 forward leg swings each leg

10-20 push ups

Lunges with a medicine ball (not sure how many, just go across the gym once or twice)

Sometimes I throw in another light exercise or two depending on what I'll be working that day. This usually takes me about 8-10min.

Is this okay or should I be switching over to a different warm up? Again, thank you for any help you may be able to provide!

Michael Bowen said:

I'm currently trying to figure out where I "belong" in the Foundation One curriculum. I finished my second week a few days ago (started at the very bottom), and I did not find the workouts very challenging. So far I have been supplementing them by doing extra incline push ups, weighted dips (full ROM), and weighted pull ups (from a dead hang). I was a big fan of crossfit style work outs for a long time, and I did a small amount of bodybuilding prior to that, so I have some strength foundation to start off with. I understand from lurking about the forums and reading through F1 that prior strength does not always translate very well into gymnastics.

 

I started my third week today (I prefer working out on Fri-Sat-Sun-Mon-Tues because it's easier for me to time my nutrition), and I went ahead and upped it to week 5 of the PE1 one stuff. I found myself sweating a lot, and it was definetely a much better workout, but I still don't feel it was very challenging. Should I continue doing week 5, or should I progress forward another week? I really don't want to hinder myself in the long run by skipping core training, as I am completely new to gymnastics, so I don't really know what to do at this point. Any help/tips you could provide is very much appreciated.

 

Also, as a secondary question, I've carried forward my dynamic warm up from my prior workouts because I did not know the proper form for any of the exercises I was going to be performing at first. I feel like it's been working fairly well so far, but I wanted to get everyones take on it.

100 jumping jacks

2 minutes of jump rope (or "jumping in place" if I don't have access to a rope at the time)

15 forward leg swings each leg

10-20 push ups

Lunges with a medicine ball (not sure how many, just go across the gym once or twice)

Sometimes I throw in another light exercise or two depending on what I'll be working that day. This usually takes me about 8-10min.

Is this okay or should I be switching over to a different warm up? Again, thank you for any help you may be able to provide!

If you followed the instructions, the actual workouts would be challenging to anyone (it's that humbling). You'd go to week 12 for all of the exercises listed, attempt mastery with perfect tempo/form (along with the mobility exercise for that specific exercise), and IF you did do well, proceed to the next level. (Example: RC/PE1 --> RC/PE2)

Continue to do so until failure of week 12's mastery test for each one. Then go back to week 1 to start your 12 week cycle, for each one, after figuring which ones need work.

As far as warm ups go, I'd suggest doing the regressions of each of the exercises you'd do normally. (It does not take much to do this with..say 2-3 sets and perhaps 5-10 repetitions. Adjust as necessary.) Jumping Jacks would be fine to keep or simply jumping rope works as well for 5 mins for the first warm up exercise to perform. As long as you get your blood flowing, you should be fine.

If you have a foam roller around, use that as well. (Doing it afterwards would be wise as well.)

Don't ever supplement "extra" exercises that Coach did not prescribe as this will lead to a nightmare of set backs in strength gains alongside with recovery issues possibly. He's carefully crafted this program to be done exactly as outlined so that no other form of exercise work will be needed to done. If you do.. chances are you're only shooting yourself in the foot.

You need to get out of the "more is better" Crossfit mindset and just follow Coach's instructions as layed out.

First of all welcome to the gymnasticbodies community

Concerning your first point about beeing unsure where you stand right now with the elements:

Haven`t you tried the week 11 set/rep scheme for every single element ? This would give you a quite good direction concerning where to start with each element. For example

(1) if you manage to perform the sets/reps of week 11 of a certain element and its mobility pendant as well with perfect form then you are good to go to the next PE.

(2)If you can handle week 11 but had some problems finishing the it properly or your form wasn`t that stable you could start at week 9 and try mastery after one minicycle again.

(3)If you can`t complete the mastery scheme but didn`t fail completely then you could start at week 5.

(4) Last but not least if you fail completely in terms of sets/reps you should start at the very beginning (week 1)

I think your warm up is just fine to begin with. Later on when you progress with the PEs you could add the already mastered elements to your warm up as well but you don`t need to of course.

I hope i could help you a little bit

Take half an hour and carefully re-read the document materials of the course.

Don't be in so much of a rush to progress. It's true that most initial progressions won't feel all that challenging in the first weeks, but you'll be happy you went through the program properly instead of rushing it later on.

Plus, just because you don't feel exhausted after a workout, doesn't mean your training won't have an effect. It's probably hard to do though coming from a crossfit background where you feel like puking after every workout, but have confidence in the process!

First, thank you all for your quick responses. Second, apparently I need to work on my reading comprehension skills haha. Don't know how I missed the section about testing out each of the elements, but I did!

FredInChina said:

Take half an hour and carefully re-read the document materials of the course.

-Well put!

 

 

Don't ever supplement "extra" exercises that Coach did not prescribe as this will lead to a nightmare of set backs in strength gains alongside with recovery issues possibly. He's carefully crafted this program to be done exactly as outlined so that no other form of exercise work will be needed to done. If you do.. chances are you're only shooting yourself in the foot.

Adding in some extra stuff ok as long as it does not interfere or go beyond what the individual is capable of (i.e. trying to do later progressions) there is nothing wrong with doing other movements to keep them as long as they are not the focus of your workouts and are not hindering progress.  Its true that the program is pretty much all inclusive the way it is, but you are welcome to add some sort of metabolic conditioning with it provided that the movements in the conditioning are not contradictory to what I said above.  

Daniel Burnham said:

Adding in some extra stuff ok as long as it does not interfere or go beyond what the individual is capable of (i.e. trying to do later progressions) there is nothing wrong with doing other movements to keep them as long as they are not the focus of your workouts and are not hindering progress.  Its true that the program is pretty much all inclusive the way it is, but you are welcome to add some sort of metabolic conditioning with it provided that the movements in the conditioning are not contradictory to what I said above.  

Isn't that why you should follow exactly as Coach outlined considering you may be possibly overreaching not overtraining? Thus disrupting your recovery for a day or two? The metabolic conditioning in the actual workouts themselves should suffice enough without tacking on more. I can only imagine seeing people who are beyond the foundation basics getting away with this and adding on because they can and need to for supplementary work.

Brisk walking is the only viable thing that I can see being totally safe for any athlete, with any sport, without compromising your recovery into overreaching. It isn't exactly "metabolic conditioning"...it would be more or less just simply getting your blood moving on any given day when you feel like it. You should train hard but know your limits.

strongyetagile said:

Brisk walking is the only viable thing that I can see being totally safe for any athlete, with any sport, without compromising your recovery into overreaching. It isn't exactly "metabolic conditioning"...it would be more or less just simply getting your blood moving on any given day when you feel like it. You should train hard but know your limits.

Really....? No, I don’t think so. You are entitled to your opinion, but should be careful not to declare it to be a dogma packaged in a generalization like “You should train hard but know your limitsâ€. In my experience, the world of athletic training is way richer and more diverse than you make it out to be. And that also applies to the micro cosmos of GST Foundation practitioners. 

For example, I am sure that, like me, there are quite a few (very serious and dedicated) F1/F2 and H1 practitioners, who see GST as an excellent way to improve their overall athletic ability while continuing to train seriously for their other sport (including, maybe, brisk walking). In my case, I have already noticed that my rowing technique is benefiting from my Foundation training. Besides four days of F1/F2 and H1 training, I train quite seriously three times a week on the water (35 to 45 km/week), and can only tell you that my GST training is not suffering from it.

In fact, the strength-endurance training of rowing (sprints, interval etc.) is a very welcome break from the tedium that I otherwise would experience if I were “only†doing the Foundation training. The combination for me is fantastic. And, most likely, that is also true for quite a few other Forum members.

I agree. I am mixing F1&H1 with a daily running schedule with great overall results.

The potential for overtraining is very real but you have to take personal responsibility for your own individual situation at some point. I don't train for 3 hours a day like real gymnasts do, because I don't have that level of conditioning - I'm satisfyingly stuffed after 60 minutes of solid training.

People take on F1 for their individual reason, and will be attracted to certain aspects of the program based on their interests. Hand-balancers will supplement the HS exercises, break-dancers will supplement the HBP exercises etc. As long as nothing interferes with the conditioning of anything else, it's all productive and taking you where you want to go. Bottom line is you buy an info product to enrich your life, not to submit yourself to a life ideology or cult.

FritsMB said:

 

Really....? No, I don’t think so. You are entitled to your opinion, but should be careful not to declare it to be a dogma packaged in a generalization like “You should train hard but know your limitsâ€. In my experience, the world of athletic training is way richer and more diverse than you make it out to be. And that also applies to the micro cosmos of GST Foundation practitioners. 

 

For example, I am sure that, like me, there are quite a few (very serious and dedicated) F1/F2 and H1 practitioners, who see GST as an excellent way to improve their overall athletic ability while continuing to train seriously for their other sport (including, maybe, brisk walking). In my case, I have already noticed that my rowing technique is benefiting from my Foundation training. Besides four days of F1/F2 and H1 training, I train quite seriously three times a week on the water (35 to 45 km/week), and can only tell you that my GST training is not suffering from it.

 

In fact, the strength-endurance training of rowing (sprints, interval etc.) is a very welcome break from the tedium that I otherwise would experience if I were “only†doing the Foundation training. The combination for me is fantastic. And, most likely, that is also true for quite a few other Forum members.

 

I actually wasn't aiming to declare this to be dogmatic at all. Quite the opposite. I'm saying be very fine balanced in your approach. If you are saying what I said is dogmatic then when our guest Ido had a say in combining weight lifting and body-weight training (combining two totally different styles of training), he kept emphasizing to work hard and not try to focus on too many things at once rather than trying to do it all thus actually being truly dogmatic and overkill.

Jumping into cardio on a high intensity level can set someone back a few days if they are either at fairly deconditioned level or unadjusted to that level of intensity. (I believe Coach said somewhere he couldn't believe how bad it was for those coming into GST being deconditioned so he made it very laid out and easy to plug in where you need to work on with mobility and conditioning.) You must take small steps to allow your body to adjust to the load alongside GST training. I believe I stated in an early post if you are more advanced, you can get away with adding additional extra activities at your discretion.

I'm also one of those serious athletes that knows that trying to do multiple things at once is fine but emphasizing one specific sport en devour is for the best optimal results long term. Or better..cycling through just 1 specific training style if you're in an off season or non competititve (say for example 3 month bouts) for getting the most out of it. (Football, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, Karate, Taekwondo were some things I did previously up until now with Powerlifting and attempting to combine GST without compromising gains too hard either way.)

You'll get results doing multiple things..however doing it will just make your gains very slow, if not, discouragingly unapparent if you're going straight in without assessing the weak points to the planning of their routine impacting recovery ability.

Again..just opinion (or possibly fact if I wrote down that planning schedule thus making it science), focusing on one thing at a time, through meticulously planned cycles will yield the very best results. (If you goal is to do multiple things as I'm sure many people on this forum want to do.)

strongyetagile said:

I actually wasn't aiming to declare this to be dogmatic at all. Quite the opposite. I'm saying be very fine balanced in your approach. If you are saying what I said is dogmatic then when our guest Ido had a say in combining weight lifting and body-weight training (combining two totally different styles of training), he kept emphasizing to work hard and not try to focus on too many things at once rather than trying to do it all thus actually being truly dogmatic and overkill.

Jumping into cardio on a high intensity level can set someone back a few days if they are either at fairly deconditioned level or unadjusted to that level of intensity. (I believe Coach said somewhere he couldn't believe how bad it was for those coming into GST being deconditioned so he made it very laid out and easy to plug in where you need to work on with mobility and conditioning.) You must take small steps to allow your body to adjust to the load alongside GST training. I believe I stated in an early post if you are more advanced, you can get away with adding additional extra activities at your discretion.

I'm also one of those serious athletes that knows that trying to do multiple things at once is fine but emphasizing one specific sport en devour is for the best optimal results long term. Or better..cycling through just 1 specific training style if you're in an off season or non competititve (say for example 3 month bouts) for getting the most out of it. (Football, Basketball, Soccer, Baseball, Karate, Taekwondo were some things I did previously up until now with Powerlifting and attempting to combine GST without compromising gains too hard either way.)

You'll get results doing multiple things..however doing it will just make your gains very slow, if not, discouragingly unapparent if you're going straight in without assessing the weak points to the planning of their routine impacting recovery ability.

Again..just opinion (or possibly fact if I wrote down that planning schedule thus making it science), focusing on one thing at a time, through meticulously planned cycles will yield the very best results. (If you goal is to do multiple things as I'm sure many people on this forum want to do.)

I don’t even know where to start with an answer to your last post. So, just let me say that I don’t bear you any ill will. I did not want to insult you by calling the main point of your first post dogmatic and too limiting. I just wanted you to be aware that, if you know what you are doing, you can combine GST with another sport without much of a problem. Even more, for me (as a serious practitioner) that works better than doing either one of the activities by themselves. A true case of the whole being more than the sum of the parts; i.e. good old synergy. Take care, and don’t forget to have fun.