Mid Thirties, No Gymnastics Background, Is Manna possible one day?

I'm trying to set expectations for around 3 years from now. I'll be 37 then. I want to be realistic.

My question goes out to the coaches that saw their students with a similar background of mine achieve these moves. And to members with a similar background of mine that got there.

My athletic background: Ran a marathon 4 years ago. Did 2 years of Krav Maga after that. 1 year of CrossFit after that. A few months ago started GST.  

0 background in gymnastics and 0 flexibility. My life from 0 to 27 had no consistent training in anything athletic.

Given that I'm consistently following the GST curriculum, can someone with my background achieve Manna, Straddle Planche, and the other 5 moves in 3 years time?

p.s I've seen many videos of people in their 60s and up do similar things, but my guess is that they've had early training in these things. Pure speculation.

i hear a voice in my head confirm that when Coach says "if you train hard" means training every day, being honest with what you're doing and tomorrow takes care of itself as for how serious you are about the mobility as you are about the strength and eating well + sleeping, you'll do about the most you can do

as a point of reference, i've been active but mostly in sports never in training per ce in strength + flexibility besides what i did in kung fu for a few yrs and they were not intelligent at all with programming and the training per ce, on the other hand, something is better than nothing

for taking the time i needed on mobility, im feeling im going to reach a moment i can get more consistent progress in term of progressions bwcause the progress in strength is hard to ignore no matter how much time you need to spend on your weaknesses.

/2c

Thanks Keilani.

I always find your posts very informative and interesting. You add a lot of value to the community.

I'll quote Coach as well who said "Nobody can tell you how far you are going to get". The only relevant thing is what you're doing right now. Everything else is speculation and a distraction. If Coach told you that manna is absolutely impossible for you no matter what, would you give up? There are a lot of great skills to master before manna.

I think the only way to reach your potential is to have perfect focus on your current training, but at the same time not limiting what might come tomorrow.

I'm just trying to improve one day to the next, and when I'm 70, to be this guy:

edit: I also just had to add this other quote from Coach that I just saw in Adriano Flo's signature that also seems relevant: "It is impossible to say where you will be 12 months from now; however I can tell you exactly where you are today. And unless you get started today, that is exactly where you are going to be tomorrow as well". - Coach Sommer

It is impossible to say if you achieve things in 3 years of time. Even if you never could achieve manna in your life, you can still keep training towards it and become stronger, more mobile and better in the progress while learning many cool looking skills such as V-sit, straddle-sit and so on. The whole concept of just wanting to learn certain skills and then wondering if they are even capable for you, makes no sense to me. The focus should be on getting stronger and enjoying the progress and then finding out what you are capable of.

There is only one way to find out if you can achieve sPL or manna.

Couldn't say on a manna, but Id be surprised if you didn't have a straddle pl personally

I'm just going to say for one thing, how many people even your age (which is young to me) would even begin, let alone make a commitment to, a program like this? 

You are already ahead of the game. 

Thanks guys. When I master 5x15 pushups I'm already 5x better than my for mer self.

But the answer that I'm looking for is something more scientific (semi?) and objective. Someone that didn't take advantage of their early malleable and lean muscles, can they achieve the 7 moves later in life?

Some people claim it's impossible, but in general they either aren't dedicated enough, or don't have the proper focus on mobility.  Poor progressions don't help either.

I think the best chance you have is to follow Coaches programming.  We have a couple people around here that are pretty close to achieving it thanks to Coach.

Some of these things remain to be seen. There are few adults who have gotten manna. Probably due to both mobility issues and lack of training knowledge.

Plenty have achieved front lever. The bent arm exercises really don't have as much "youth" aspect to then so I would say definitely yes. Also I don't think straddle planche would be too difficult provided you put the work in and get decent pancake flexibility. There is no hard and fast rule. Your body type and training dedication will dictate how long it will take you to get there. For most adults manna will probably take longer than the rest. Of course time will tell.

Nobody knows exactly how far you can get, and it doesn't matter anyways. What does matter is that if you don't dedicate yourself to your training now, you'll never find out. You have access to a world-class training program, and the support of a community full of dedicated coaches and athletes. Now is the perfect time for you to start. Don't worry about where you might hypothetically be in three years; worry about how you can get the most out of your training today. 

The pursuit of excellence is its own reward. If you train hard for the next 3 years, you may or may not achieve a manna, but either way your body and mind will have grown much stronger than they are today. 

Never put a limit on what you can achieve, or listen to someones advice in that aspect, whether you can or cannot will never be known until you walk that path. You'll never know if your the exception to the rule if you don't go all the way. I have seen and heard of amazing things done by people who were told it was not possible. The human mind is the most powerful force on the planet, make it your tool.

I think the mindset to success in this program is to give little value to time.

I honestly have no problem spending 10 years on this, which I hope that I will. I enjoy it tremendously. It's actually fun. Uncomfortable fun.

After thinking about my question, I think it's really hard to answer it mainly because of my age and history. It's too specific. An easier question might be: how long does it take a 7 year old to complete f1-4?

Is there a specific place (or format) in the forums where one can document their overall progress on a monthly basis?

If not I think I'll just start a thread in f1 and keep updating it as I go. And another in H1.

Nash said:

I think the mindset to success in this program is to give little value to time.

I honestly have no problem spending 10 years on this, which I hope that I will. I enjoy it tremendously. It's actually fun. Uncomfortable fun.

After thinking about my question, I think it's really hard to answer it mainly because of my age and history. It's too specific. An easier question might be: how long does it take a 7 year old to complete f1-4?

Is there a specific place (or format) in the forums where one can document their overall progress on a monthly basis?

If not I think I'll just start a thread in f1 and keep updating it as I go. And another in H1.

start up a journal like Federico or just do a workout log. if you want forum participation, F1 forum, if it's for your eyes only, workout log

I know I will not be finishing F1 in 18 months . The program is great but somedays can be no end in sight. The point is how do feel on a daily basis overall I feel alot better since I started in march and thats all I ask for in a workout program. The overall effect is what counts to me.  Now go get that manna Nash.

m6shifter said:

Now go get that manna Nash.

LateStarter@46 said:

 

m6shifter said:

Now go get that manna Nash.

 

Sure.

On my will, the last line will read: Bury deceased in Manna position  . Done!

Nash said:

Sure.

 

On my will, the last line will read: Bury deceased in Manna position  . Done!

There you go.  The pressure's off now and you can focus more on the journey and less on the destination. 

Nash said:

Sure.

 

On my will, the last line will read: Bury deceased in Manna position  . Done!

You can do the "manna from heaven".

I am still trying to get past PE1 and the iM, but I'm in no hurry as all the other PE's and iM's look horrendous and I'm a few years older than you. 

It definately helps if you are younger, I was showing my 16 year old daughter the progressions and she can do pretty much all the F1 and H1 stuff up to PE3 and probably further, the mobility stuff was laughably easy for her,  she thought I was messing about when I demonstated my lack of mobility !       And I've improved too in the 4 months I've been doing it.

tfeal said:

You can do the "manna from heaven".

 

I am still trying to get past PE1 and the iM, but I'm in no hurry as all the other PE's and iM's look horrendous and I'm a few years older than you. 

It definately helps if you are younger, I was showing my 16 year old daughter the progressions and she can do pretty much all the F1 and H1 stuff up to PE3 and probably further, the mobility stuff was laughably easy for her,  she thought I was messing about when I demonstated my lack of mobility !       And I've improved too in the 4 months I've been doing it.

It does drive it home, doesn't it? I wonder whether the fact that kids progress so much faster is less strength relative to bodyweight and more that they move much more efficiently than those of us have some wear and tear on...

I'm 37 and I've had two kids ... so I'm not sure if I will ever achieve some of these movements ... But I'm going to give it a good go. There is no harm in giving it 100% and see what happens!

Hey we are doing better than most people in their 30s!! At lease we're not complaining about getting fat talking about what we "used" to do!

I'm 39 with 4 kids... ill bet all four kids it's possible with discipline, commitment, application, time and some coaching!

I'm 46.5 with 3 under-21 boys and other zoo animals  , I'm going for this manna.

(Despite current status of progress signature below).

The recent picture of Carmen Amara (Miami Seminar 2013, Manna Extension Drill) is absolutely inspiring.

I'm soon 47 have 3 doughters and I still hope to be able to do manna some day. It might take somewhat longer than for the yougsters though.

jvenna said:

I'm soon 47 have 3 doughters 

Dash, I've been trumped! 

Mind you, at least my water bill is low and the bathroom always available 

So, quite a few on this long road, nice to have the company. I'm looking forward to revisiting this thread in the future with positive news.