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

I'm in the same boat as you Nash.  I'm 34, three kids, a career and I'm back in school.  Not the most athletically gifted person either.  But I believe whole heartedly that if I train right and consistently, watch what I eat  (ie. cut all the garbage out at least), and stay focused I can achieve all the F7 skills including the manna.  It may take 5-7 years, but if you want it bad enough it can be accomplished.  And like someone else said, even if you aren't able to do one look at all the other benefits you will have received from training.  Good luck and I look forward to watching you progress.  Don't give up!

Nash and Xcel,

Same here.  34, three and a half kids.  Been involved in sports most of my life, but nothing too serious (except volleyball).  Never had anything comprehensive to follow that was so well put together until F1.  Seriously enjoying the journey right now.  I think it's possible for us to get a manna.

44 years here.

For me it's the journey more than the destination. That is not to say I am not going for Manna. I am. And I believe I'll get there one day. In the meanwhile, this program is the most fun I have had in working out. The progress I made in the past 3+ months made me realize how poorly I had been training in the gym before...for years.

I'll just give you my personal example. When I started F1 a little over 3 months ago, I needed 5 layers of comforters under my back to be able to do a deck squat. Today, I mastered this PE with perfect form. Arch body is a different story altogether and I am now back at week 5 and the ROM is nothing to write home about. But I will persist with it because I know if I keep pounding at it I'll master it too. Same with Manna...I'll keep pounding at it.

Like someone said above, we are way ahead of our peers in terms of this cool strength stuff we are doing. Most will even dread the thought of doing something like this. We are probably in the top 0.0001% of our age group. How cool is that!!!

T-Nat

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

I know the feeling man.  I'm 52 and after 7 months of Foundation 1 I'm still struggling with getting a perfectly clean set of PE1 Manna Week 1.

The way I look at it is I want to be strong and move well and the Foundation Series are the best out there for gaining all around strength combined with mobility.  I feel better and move better now than I have in a long time and I can tell it is from practicing the Foundation Series (although I still wish I was 19 again

On the road to trying to achieve the Manna I will iron out weaknesses that will help bullet proof my body and I'll achieve some pretty cool skills along the way even if I never fully Master the  Manna.

Hello group,

My name is Chris and I am 44 years old.  I'm just starting the H1 and F1 programs and have absolutely no gymnastics background at all.  My athletic background has been a bodybuilder approach up until 5 years ago then I went into a  CrossFit phase.  Within the CrossFit genre, gymnastics has impressed me on several fronts.  The strength aspect is mind blowing but beyond that is healthy joint mobility and flexibility.  Having separated my right shoulder and 3 knee surgeries my goal is health and longevity.  Even though I am closing in on 45, I will take this program as far as I can.  I know I will succeed after reading all the supportive and constructive comments on this site.  My belief is that gymnastics provides for a more well rounded athletic person than any other  "system" that is being marketed.  Strength, joint health, range of motion, flexibility, coordination, balance, motor control, neuromuscular connection... the list goes on.  Thank you all and I will be picking your collective brains to keep my training moving forward.  Take care and God bless.

Chris

I'll chime in...

I'm 39, have 5 year old twins, 6'4" tall and 210 lbs, with zero gymnastics experience.  Yet I'm fully expecting to achieve everything displayed in the video on the main page.  

Ok, by "fully expecting" I mean "not likely but it would be awesome" so I'm just trying to enjoy the journey. 

As I get older, and with my focus on strength & mobility for long-term health, I'm really enjoying the integrated mobility.  I've never encountered anything like it, and I've dabbled in tons of programming across many disciplines. 

So even if I can't ever achieve the awesome moves I'm hoping for, it will still be worth it. 

Here's the video, if you haven't seen it...

I'm fourteen; Straddle Ups don't get much less brutal.

Robert Frase said:

 

 

I'm 39, have 5 year old twins, 6'4" tall and 210 lbs

 

 

With twins that size you'll need to get fit !!!   

First off, I'm 43-years-old (just for perspective, though I don't think it matters a lot).

I struggled like hell to sign up for F1 & H1, primarily because of the "usual suspect" excuses: i.e. too much investment necessary, yet too many responsibilities, too many this...too many that.

So I lurked on this website for probably over one month just trying to decide whether I could find time to do the Foundation and Handstand series....After a long "internal" debate, I decided to sign up, but I still wasn't sure I had the discipline to see it through.

My training has not been the best, but I'm righting that ship day-by-day.

Part of the motivation comes from seeing the remarkable progress of those that have been consistently training from day one, and trying to visualize where I could have been had I not been so erratic.

Back to the subject of whether or not one can do manna. It's pretty simple: There are a fixed set of progressions to manna. Coach has laid them out to us.

All we need to do is just focus on mastering PE1 and then PE2, and then PE3, until we have finished the last PE before manna.

Yes, it's simple. No, it's not easy.

So rather than fretting about whether or not we can achieve manna. Why can't we fret about mastering PE1. Then mastering PE2 after that. Then PE3 after that?

And, to take it a step further. Rather than fretting about mastering PE1, why can't we just worry about doing tomorrow's work out?

Finally, for anybody who's interested in this subject, there is a book entitled "Mastery" by George Leonard.

There is also a book by the same title by Robert Greene that I haven't read, but deals with the same subject. (I'm going to get this one perhaps as well.)

Atticus, thanks for the above 

That's February's self-development book sorted.

So maybe I'll join the "I'm that old" thread .

over 30y, no kids though . Started GB when my clock went past 30.

My target is to get iron cross when I'm 37y old (or earlier, in fact if it arives later it will be still good), this also means to achieve other IC preparation milestones on the way, so potentially good list of skills to achieve. May not happen, but I'll give it a go.

3ys ago full BL was the target, a lot of work and it materialized, FL still hasn't arrived, but I can be stubborn, then when sorted onto next milestones.

Ah yes, finishing F1 before I turn 38y is another good target (so far going very slowly) .

Hi everyone,

First post here. Im in the same boat. Im mid 30's, have been lifting, martial arts, doing some type of sport since highschool. I bought F1 and H1 after taking last year off due to injuries. Weight training just hasnt been treating my joints well. After an AC sprain and an S1 disk problem, i re-evaluated my posture/movement and noticed deficiencies. Short story long, i need a way to get stronger, move better, and(hopefully) teach this to my clients with minimal equipment.  

As far as getting a manna, hey, you dont know until you try.