Thanks to Coach Sommer

Hello All,

Just joined and came on to thank the good Coach for putting out Building the Gymnastic Body, which unfortunately I have just discovered.    

I have lifted weights for 15 years and at my peak I was able to bench press 350 pounds for reps at a body weight of 200 lbs.  After so many years of lifting however, my strength outside a limited range of motion was subpar in comparison.  Furthermore, the wear and tear on my joints and a long list of impressive injuries forced my to quit the heavy weights.  

I live and work in a place where it is of paramount importance to look and be as strong as one possibly can.  After much research into finding an alternative way of working out I discovered BtGB.  The huge variety of exercise and the straight forward and simple programming guidelines have been indispensable to me in rehabbing my body and building back an impressive amount of functional strength.   Further, unusual exercises such as Korean dips (working them for a month and still can't do them very well) have helped address dynamic shoulder flexibility issues.  Also, I am able to maintain a body-weight of 190 lbs at a height of 5'8 on just the exercises in the book.  

To someone who was until recently unfamiliar with gymnastic workouts this book has been a life-saver.  It is unfortunate that working out with weights has been so commercialized and  gymnastic style strength training has not.  

And so I would like to thank Coach Sommer for putting all this information out there, so many guys are beating their joints up getting strong in the only way that is available mainstream and only for commercial reasons.  Thanks for attempting to rectify a very biased mainstream workout culture, and save a lot of guys a lot of pain and money while providing a practical way to get really, really strong with minimal equipment.  

Sorry, I had to download the pdf version online, but when I am stateside again, I promise to purchase the book! 

Best Regards,

A

If you think BtGB is great you should check out the new Foundation Series.

Tons of new information and lays out all the programming you need for years!

Zach Daniel said:

If you think BtGB is great you should check out the new Foundation Series.

 

Tons of new information and lays out all the programming you need for years!

AND you can't download it.

BtGB is great, but not in-depth enough. Foundation will take you to an assured goal. BtGB MIGHT help you. If you have the money for F1, don't hesitate.

If you don't, fill in the gaps of BtGB by reading through these forums.

Welcome to the forum Aman Bashir

Arnan Bashir said:

(...) I live and work in a place where it is of paramount importance to look and be as strong as one possibly can. ...)

Out of pure curiosity, where do you live & work, and why is is so important to look and be so strong?

Thx for the replies guys.  When I can purchase the books and have them shipped to location I will get them.  Though, I haven't found any gaps in BtGB yet.  I had to read the programming chapter carefully, and I developed a simple program based on the recommendations: 4 days dynamic strength on a 3x3 or 3x5 scheme, push, pull, legs and core.  When that gets easy I move on to the next progression.  I work static as often as I can sometimes 5 days a week.

I have made good progress in the last 2 months.  Although I have experienced inconsistencies in the difficulty of the progressions due to my unbalanced development, for example I can easily do ring dips but not Korean dips. I fashioned my own rings with pipe and chains. Working on these progressions has been great for rehab purposes.  I got a 5 sec back lever off the bat but took two months of work to get a 3 sec L sit even though my abs are pretty strong.   Maltese push ups are a great substitute for heavy pressing until I can get a planche which might be never at my weight.  So it has been fun and rewarding working on the various exercises, not to mention that my joints feel phenomenal.  

If I am missing something please point me in the right direction.  

Fred I would rather not say, bc someone might take offense and I have no desire for that.  But It has saved me a lot of trouble

Fair enough, no trouble

As far as "books" are concerned, you should not worry about shipping: these (Foundation and Handstand) are online courses for which you purchase access to, then go online to view them.

hm have to look good and strong? Don't want to talk about it?

--> **** industry

Hi mates... What % of the my "100% max reps" have to work?? and how many sets?? I am referring to Korean Dips....

I Hope that you understand my speech