Foundations Equally Good for Males and Females?

I've been recommending the Foundations and Handstand Courses to my friends that want to be be both strong and have good mobility.  One of my female friends asked me if it is equally good for girls.  Since the course is designed to teach the 7 Basic Gymnastic Strength Training™ Exercises I figured it s/ work extremely well for both males and females.

 

Any comments so I can be better prepared to answer this question in the future?

I think the GB facebook page is a pretty good answer.  https://www.facebook.com/GymnasticBodies/photos_stream

 

It seems to work for these women:

 

 

 

have those girls been doing gymnastics forever though?

We should outline some good arguments for women to try foundation, including non-athletes.  I am trying to convince my wife to do it.  We should be able to articulate the benefits that might be specific to women, and how women may respond differently to the training then men, if they actually might.  I would guess that more men are doing Foundation, but I know that we have women on the forum and who do Foundation.  My sense is that Foundation would be equally good for females, but maybe in a different way.   I am speculating.   

 

Men and women gain strength through the same process:  Progressively challenging the body with more difficult movements.  Men tend to gain strength faster than women.  But the photos above show that women are capable of doing some pretty awesome strength movements.  I don't think any movement in F1 (and probably F2) is out of the reach of a typical (hardworking) woman.

 

Women tend to have better flexibility than men.  This will enable them to progress through many of the mobility elements where men get stuck for a long time.  On the mobility elements, these flexible women might have the problem of being too flexible and need to focus more on the strength aspect than the flexibility aspect of the iM.

 

Foundation builds strength and mobility in anyone who works at it.  It is a well-rounded program and will find and fix weaknesses, whether you're male or female, young or old, tall or short, big or small.

It’s kindof an odd question.  Does it matter if it’s equally good for men as for women? 

 

On the one hand, the program trains the human system, so as long as you’ve got one of those, you’re eligible for improvement through GB training.  But after that, whether or not the program succeeds depends on the individual.  What are your goals?  What is your level of commitment?  What is your injury history?  What is your starting point?  What is your body awareness?  What milestones of success will keep you engaged?  All of those things matter a whole lot more than whether you’re XY or XX.

 

There are some skills where women, on average, might have a harder time than men, on average.  The HBP progression comes to mind.  And the opposite is probably true as well, with moves involving PPT positioning coming to mind.  But this whole system is not a race to see who can finish all four foundation courses fastest, and nobody is “women on average” or “men on average.”

 

If the question is, Can a woman who is interested in this type of training, who can work hard and follow instructions, and who has some basic movement competence/body awareness find success training GB?  Well of course. 

 

Rather than asking if it can work for Womankind, the better question is whether this type of training is a good fit for this particular individual.

If the question-behind-the-question is whether the progressions are so hard that someone who isn't a strong guy with the ability to do 50 pushups and 25 weighted pullups can still do it, then the answer is easy:

 

If you're committed and can follow instructions, you can participate in the program and see improvement.  There are ways to bridge leaps (volume or skill-based) that seem too big, and there are regressions for even the starting moves.  You just need to be a grown-up about it and ask for modifications if you need them.

On 9/24/2014 at 12:02 PM, Laurén Salemi said:

have those girls been doing gymnastics forever though?

Nope.

All of those girls started from scratch and were 'home grown' with GB.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks all for the responses.  As I mentioned at the beginning, I know Foundations addresses the 7 basic Gymnastic Strength Training™ skills plus it has added mobility so I had been recommending it to  both my male and female friends; however in light of my female friends question I wanted to be more informed on the subject.

 

So, if I understand both men and women gymnasts should be able to perform the 7 GST?

They may require a light spot of the final HBP elements, however everything else is well within most women's capabilities.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Great, thank you!

My guess (and Coach can correct me if I'm wrong) is that a lot of the women shown in the course promotional photos were already flexible before they began Foundation. To me this just serves to highlight how important flexibility is to fast-tracking progress and why we should all be making it priority number one.

Cheers,

N

neil gillies said:

My guess (and Coach can correct me if I'm wrong) is that a lot of the women shown in the course promotional photos were already flexible before they began Foundation. To me this just serves to highlight how important flexibility is to fast-tracking progress and why we should all be making it priority number one.

Cheers,

N

Not entirely correct. One of them was flexible prior to the start of their training. The rest have developed their mobility through our mobility programs.

And the one that was flexible, formerly had no muscle at all.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Thanks for the reply, Coach. In that case, I can't wait for S1 even more now! ;-)

neil gillies said:

Thanks for the reply, Coach. In that case, I can't wait for S1 even more now! ;-)

 

Everyone always says that prior to their first S1 workout!  

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Coach Sommer said:

Everyone always says that prior to their first S1 workout!  

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Haha. Bring it on!

s1 is a stretch course??

Roddy Cardona Valderrama said:

s1 is a stretch course??

Yes.

Roddy, you went thru one of the S1 protocols at the very end of the Cornwall GBS.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

thanks coach now i remember that very painful experience

Rather than asking if it can work for Womankind, the better question is whether this type of training is a good fit for this particular individual.

Foundation builds strength and mobility in anyone who works at it.  It is a well-rounded program and will find and fix weaknesses, whether you're male or female, young or old, tall or short, big or small.

 

I think the above two quotes sum up my feelings on the subject.

 

Coach once typed that a quality program will attract quality individuals or something to that effect.   At the time I thought that was pretty arrogant, but as I near the one year mark I do understand what he was trying to convey.    It's not just about the buy in for smart programming to get you to cool end goals, rather it's whether you think you are the kind of person who can be honest with yourself (who here hasn't had to eat humble pie?), put attention to detail (the camera doesn't lie!)  and to put your time in even when you don't feel like it (you mean on vacation too?)   

 

 

 

Very nicely stated, Jennifer.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

All I can say is: go for it! It works for both, women and men! I think there could be some differences in the beginning and throughout the course. For example, my brother who is just going to gym too look good for the girls , he can do like 30 Handstand Push-Ups. But his form is awful! Ask him to climb a rope with legs straight out in straddle or pike... NO WAY!

So she should definitely try it, it is really a great workout! Also, she could think about getting Handstand 1+2, they are great as well. 

Have fun training!

Gymnastics is a formal "language" of human movement.

 

The only prerequisite is being "human".

Coach Sommer said:

Everyone always says that prior to their first S1 workout!  

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Looking forward to reviewing the course outline, but not my first practice session.

Warning noticed, pain inevitable.