Tons of Great USA Gymnastics articles

[Christopher Schwab]

So I was on reddit today, and someone linked to this:

http://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/articles_technique.html

I would link to the reddit post but I am on a mobile device, but its near the top of r/bodyweightfitness for those interested.

It has some incredible articles both new and old.

The most interesting one I found was this: Sound familiar? http://usagym.org/pages/home/publications/technique/1996/8/strength.pdf

Have fun looking through them, and post anything interesting you find!

[Rajan Shankara]

Thanks for posting this.

[Connor Davies]

I'll give it a proper read later.

 

I found this one interesting for two reasons:

 

1.  Look at how open her shoulders are during the pike press on the first page.  This clearly demonstrates the difference between a gymnast performing this movement, and your regular fitness 'expert.'

 

2. Just look at that ROM on the reverse leg lifts on the last page.  I'm incredibly greatful that Coach hasn't made us attempt that (so far.)

 

Also in another article I saw something similar to SLS/PE1 but with a full hollow body hold thown in the middle of the movement.

[Rajan Shankara]

One of the most important insights of modern training is that a highly developed level of strength cannot be maintained even by intensive performance of the event itself (Bührle and Werner, 1984). This insight has proven to be true in such very different events as swimming, cross-country skiing, and gymnastics. Gymnastics alone will not develop nor even maintain an adequate level of strength for advanced gymnastics (Oppel, 1967). Special conditioning must be performed, besides countless elements, combinations, parts, and full routines.  

 

This excerpt is the beginning of the article you linked. 

Sounds just like BtGB. The realization that Coach explained exactly : You don't have to train the skill to improve on it, but instead master the fundamental progressions behind it. What an amazing philosophy we have here. 

 

One of my favorite examples from Coach is the 150 MU's in 30 min. 

[Connor Davies]

One of my favorite examples from Coach is the 150 MU's in 30 min. 

Don't forget the guy that got bored and started doing backflips...

[Coach Sommer]

Actually it was 120 muscle ups in 15 minutes.  

[Rajan Shankara]

Even better

[Mikael Kristiansen]

Some interesting stuff. However there is one quote in there that is unbelievably misinformed:

 

"In one particular case, ignorance about hypertrophy training can be potentially catastrophic. 

When the coach is asking the gymnast to loose weight, while having the gymnast do a 

muscle hypertrophy training, the gymnast is in an impossible situation. Due to the 

hypertrophy training, the athlete is gaining weight no matter how little she or he eats."

 

This is just plain wrong and I cant understand how it could have made it into this article.

[Rajan Shankara]

Could you be specific Handbalancer? What is wrong and what should it say?

Perhaps we must view the quote while keeping the rest of the article in mind. Which is, strength and hypertrophy, and what that means to a gymnast. It may be the writer is looking out for the best interest of the athlete. In other words, asking the gymnast to exercise out of the range of their current diet is too demanding on the nervous system and injury could result.

Or perhaps your disagreeing with the thought of hypertrophy on a caloric deficit.

[Connor Davies]

Could you be specific Handbalancer? What is wrong and what should it say?

I'm not Handbalancer, but basically the article has it backwards.  You're not going to get bigger on a calorie deficit, you're going to get smaller, regardless of what training protocol you use.

[Rajan Shankara]

I would disagree.

My only evidence is myself. I can easily gain muscle without eating meat or dairy. Last year, on a vegetarian, veggie filled diet, without being allowed to snack, i gained 20 lbs of muscle. I usually gain muscle no matter what i eat, as long as my program is fit for hypertrophy. Thats the only evidence i have
 
 
 
i see the quote has a few more sentences that were taken out and might shed some more light as to what the writer was trying to explain, the full paragraph is as follows...
 
"In one particular case, ignorance about hypertrophy training can be potentially catastrophic. When the coach is asking the gymnast to loose weight, while having the gymnast do a muscle hypertrophy training, the gymnast is in an impossible situation. Due to the hypertrophy training, the athlete is gaining weight no matter how little she or he eats. In such a situation, disordered eating behaviors might seem to the athlete like the only solution. Muscle hypertrophy training is therefore potentially connected with eating disorders. "

[Michael Blythe]

I would disagree.

My only evidence is myself. I can easily gain muscle without eating meat or dairy. Last year, on a vegetarian, veggie filled diet, without being allowed to snack, i gained 20 lbs of muscle. I usually gain muscle no matter what i eat, as ling as my program is fit for hypertrophy. Thats the only evidence i have

I hate you!

[Rajan Shankara]

"Elite gymnasts who resemble body builders make a nice show, but poor gymnastics.  "

 

I wonder what Coach thinks about this quote from the article...

[Blairbob]

Bipocni, GetFit was made by my friend Yoshi Nakayama who I worked under in 2007-8 at Four Stars in Antioch, CA. He's now in Alaska or Seattle.

 

Great article! Yoshi also holds a Masters in Biomechanics. Loves trampoline.

I can remember when we were playing around rings one day and he did a backwards felge lower to cross. He said he hadn't done one in about 10 years ( he was in early 40's at the time ) and he bet he was gonna be sore the next day.

[Mikael Kristiansen]

RJS, it is arithmetic and physics. What you eat of course matters, but it is secondary; you must have a calorie surplus to gain weight. If you eat less than you spend, you WILL lose weight. There are very many other parameters on top of this, but this is the basic physics of things. Heavy resistance training is regularly used with people who are trying to lose weight as well as those trying to gain. Reason I reacted is because this is very common knowledge and the most fundamental principle of gaining or losing weight wether it is muscle or fat. 

[Rajan Shankara]

Well, yet again the teachings are coming true. Out of the blue, messing around with my brother, i pulled off two sets of two OAPU for both arms. Have never tried them seriously before, and when messing around i couldnt even lift off the ground. The two sets tonight were easy, and relatively clean feeling. My brother said " hey, your coach is right, wow"

[Tobias Sundelin]

Does anybody have a good idea where Coach´s program fits in in the strength article? 1-5 reps would be to decrease the strength deficit, but we dont have any rest between sets. And I guess its not THAT much hypertrophy (hypertrophy would be to do 12 reps, 3 sets to failure) 

 

Just speculating here, anybodys idea is welcome:)