'Essential' GST moves.

Well, a bodybuilder friend of mine dragged me to the gym to try out some deadlifts, and what can I say, I'm addicted.  It looks like for the time being, I'm going to be focussing a lot of my attention on barbell training.  I know GST is more holistic, but I'm afraid at least as far as I'm concerned it's just not as fun.

 

That being said, I still want to attain some GST moves at some point, like human flag and press handstands, so I'm not giving up completely.  I'd like to retain what I've got so far for when I come back to GST in the future.

 

So I'm wondering what I'm going to have to make sure I include in my programming in order to retain the most benefit.

 

I'm assuming I'll need to include planche and front lever work at the very least, as well as dislocates and active compression.  Also hand balancing, but that's really more skill training than strength training and I don't have to worry about that.

 

Anyone have any other ideas of what I should be training?

Funny.  I left barbell training for the reason that it was boring.  I got tired of doing basically the same lifts for years on end.

Regardless of your source of resistance, be it plates, bodyweight or resistance bands, you always need mobility work. I'd say the most important thing to do would be to continue with the mobility progressions in Foundation and Handstand. 

 

If you want to maintain your GST abilities, then you should do some maintenance work. Low to medium volume and intensity sets about twice a week. 

 

Have fun with the barbells. 

Same as Daniel for me.
Ill just echo Joshua on the mobility, and add only that in your position I'd redouble my efforts on the mobility (frequency and intensity).

bipocni,  I've only known you a short time, and you have changed your training program at least 3 times.  There are many training programs that will work for you, but they will only work if you stick with them.  There is always a period of early gains (Fun!), followed by a period of slower gains (plateau...boring...).  If you are always jumping from program to program, you will have an illusion of making great progress, but you will not end up any stronger.  Therefore, you should find the program that is most fun and enjoyable, and make a committment to do that and to struggle through the plateau's, and to keep a good log, so that you can see what happens.  Small adjustments may need to be made in the programming over time, but the basic programme, so to speak, should remain the same.  This is why GST is great. It gives a programming model that will accomplish all of this and more and has goals that may be many years into the future. Most of us will not outgrow this programming.   It seems like you like bodyweight work.  Don't give up the ship for the barbells.  You will be bored in a matter of months.  Stick with the GST through your plateaus. Mix in some weighted squats and deadlifts for variety's sake.   push through it!  You can do it!!

I can't agree more with what MT Nordic said except for the part where he tries to convince you to stick with GST. You're clearly looking for something other than what GST is giving you. This is either because GST isn't the best program for you or because you currently have unrealistic expectations that won't change until you fall on your face a little more. You've obviously been unfulfilled with Coach's program for some time now, so go explore other options; GST will still be here if you realize you've made a mistake. 

Daniel Burnham said:

Funny.  I left barbell training for the reason that it was boring.  I got tired of doing basically the same lifts for years on end.

same is true for me. especially if you hit a certain level and you have to fight for every kg on the bar without seeing visible results (because a loaded bar will always be a loaded bar whereas a straddle planche for example looks different than a tuck planche).

The essentials are laid out in the Foundation series.

 

If you are going to go to standard weight lifting keep the following in mind. "Bigger back than chest." The human body gets most of it's pressing and pulling strength from the back, shoulders, and core muscles.

It takes more discipline than most people possess to avoid exercise ADHD.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Just wondering, how far along are you in your GST?

I feel like there's a point you hit where there's no turning back and you'll keep going until you achieve the skills.

You could probably get the human flag with weight training alone, it probably won't look so sweet though. 

MT Nordic said:

bipocni,  I've only known you a short time, and you have changed your training program at least 3 times.  There are many training programs that will work for you, but they will only work if you stick with them.  There is always a period of early gains (Fun!), followed by a period of slower gains (plateau...boring...).  If you are always jumping from program to program, you will have an illusion of making great progress, but you will not end up any stronger.  Therefore, you should find the program that is most fun and enjoyable, and make a committment to do that and to struggle through the plateau's, and to keep a good log, so that you can see what happens.  Small adjustments may need to be made in the programming over time, but the basic programme, so to speak, should remain the same.  This is why GST is great. It gives a programming model that will accomplish all of this and more and has goals that may be many years into the future. Most of us will not outgrow this programming.   It seems like you like bodyweight work.  Don't give up the ship for the barbells.  You will be bored in a matter of months.  Stick with the GST through your plateaus. Mix in some weighted squats and deadlifts for variety's sake.   push through it!  You can do it!!

First of all, I find it impossible to disagree with anything you've said.  It's all very good advice.

 

Problem is, I wasn't looking for a lecture on why I should stick to GST.  And believe it or not, I don't feel this is 'workout ADD' either.  I've had that before, and this doesn't feel the same.  It's just....  Have you ever deadlifted?  There's just something so primal about it.  It feels freaking awesome!  And there's a huge host of benefits to be found from it, as long as I'm careful.

 

For those that are worried: I've pretty much decided to stick with bodyweight for my upper body anyway.  Bench pressing and all that just doesn't appeal to me.  (Okay, I'll be doing pullovers and straight arm lat pulldowns on a cable machine, but still....)  So front lever, planche ect. is still on the table.  I'm just going to have heavier legs.  Doesn't mean it's going to be impossible, and I figure the strength I build from deadlifting has to have some carryover, right?

 

So even though I was looking for 'essential' GST moves, I figure this thread is a bit redundant now.  I mean, if I'm still doing all the upper body stuff anyway, that's pretty much all of GST, right?

 

Anyway, thanks for the support guys!  Don't worry, you'll still see me around the forum plenty. 

 

Oh, and MT Nordic:  I just got a weighted vest.  Does that count as workout ADD? 

Dead lifting isn't a good idea if you haven't finish SLS in foundation. Basically putting strength onto dysfunction

Hmms said:

Dead lifting isn't a good idea if you haven't finish SLS in foundation. Basically putting strength onto dysfunction

I don't believe this. Though it would be beneficial to work on the mobility aspect simultaneously.

Anyways I get what you're saying about the deadlifts. I feel the same way with military press for some reason. I'm going to start incorporating weights into my training soon and I'm sure it'll help.

There's other lifts that I don't care much for like bench press. I'd much rather follow the planche/PPU progressions.

There aren't many people who do both GST and lifting. Who knows what kind of strength it could create.

I, as many others, focus on heavy barbell training for legs but use GST primarily for the upperbody and all mobility work. The size gains in legs surely "harm" the progress of the upperbody elements but as long as you are willing to accept it, go ahead. The truth is that many GST elements are about leverage and heavy legs will slow down your progress with relative strength but not necessarily with absolute strength.

 

In the end it is all about goals and what you really want. I have chosen this way because I love it and been doing it for years. Some choose the 100 % GST and it is all good. 

Cody said:

There aren't many people who do both GST and lifting. Who knows what kind of strength it could create.

Good point. Coach mentioned two seminar attendees who overperformed his athletes. These guys were combining GST with oly lifting.

 

I think whatever the combination would be - it is always super important to consider it in terms of how dedicated, systematic and intelligent person is in the training, not everyone will be equally successful without quality and hard work put into it.

I don't see any harm in adding deadlifting, as long as it's not a max effort every time. I plan on doing some deadlifting now that the outdoor season begins.

I've been deadlifting for the past couple weeks-- very light at beginning of warmup for activation, as described by Coach in that one excellent F3 thread.

Actually bipocni I enjoy deadlifting and do it every week. I think it's a great exercise. I would get bored doing that solely and I really only do it because it helps work my sport of Nordic skiing. I also do weighted squats and plyometrics. The point was that you need to stick top a program. Frankly I think gst helps all sports and is a great program but I really don't care what you choose to do as long as you stick with it. And yes in some ways an exercise vest could be considered exercise ADD. You need structure in your programming to make long term progress and doing a little of this and a little of that or doing deadlifting for a while until you get tired of it and then doing whatever else strikes your fancy will not get you stronger. My intent is not to lecture you though I realize it sounds that way, but only to point out why you're not making progress over the past year and why that will continue to be the case until your approach changes. Good luck to you my friend.

MT Nordic said:

My intent is not to lecture you though I realize it sounds that way, but only to point out why you're not making progress over the past year and why that will continue to be the case until your approach changes. Good luck to you my friend.

I never said I wasn't making any progress (well, except for that one time I said I wasn't making progress....) Think of it as a tweak to my current program.  I was already following an upper/lower split, and I'm just going to have to integrate some of the lower body workout into my upper body.

 

As far as the weight vest goes, I think it could be a good way to bridge the gap between progressions.  I think I'm going to go with a weighted day and an unweighted day, and focus on either more reps or a further progression on the unweighted day.

Jon Douglas said:

I've been deadlifting for the past couple weeks-- very light at beginning of warmup for activation, as described by Coach in that one excellent F3 thread.

Yet another reason to get F3....

ForzaCavaliere said:

You could probably get the human flag with weight training alone, it probably won't look so sweet though. 

I heard someone say they got the human flag just from deadlifting, but that was on the bodybuilding.com forum, so....

 

I'll let you know once I get to a 2.5xbodyweight deadlift, yeah?

GST is not the be all, end all of strength training. It is probably the closest to being complete, but really people should be exploring all options. Not this "either or eye-ther" stuff. 

 

 

Cody said:

There aren't many people who do both GST and lifting. Who knows what kind of strength it could create.

Have you seen Jim Bathurst on youtube? He's got some monster lifts and has good GST abilities (planche, FL, etc.).

I had a 2.5 bodyweight deadlift and a 2x squat. I had no side lever unfortunately

Daniel Burnham said:

I had a 2.5 bodyweight deadlift and a 2x squat. I had no side lever unfortunately

Well, so much for that plan.....