Unassisted Cross Pulls by 6'2" 200lb Norwegian Track Star

F-zEYIe0EKA

2004 and 2008 Olympic Champion (javelin) Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen performs two unassisted cross pulls during his physical preparation. It is especially interesting to note that Andreas is not, nor has he ever been a competitive gymnast; although he does list a gymnastics coach as an essential part of his personal "team". Andreas is 6'2" tall (190cm) and approximately 200lbs (88-93kg).

Visit Andreas' Website for additional information, photos and video clips.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Good stuff! I love seeing heavier guys do difficult gymnastics moves, it gives me some hope being >200lbs myself! :wink:

Little high in the cross but still pretty freakin impressive given he doesn't really do gymnastics and is that tall & heavy. Props.

:shock:

Schweeeeeeeeet.

yes nice work. I guess quite a large percentage of us will never get to the right depth let alone Andreas' depth.

Full marks!!

Coach Sommer said:

F-zEYIe0EKA

2004 and 2008 Olympic Champion (javelin) Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen performs two unassisted cross pulls during his physical preparation. It is especially interesting to note that Andreas is not, nor has he ever been a competitive gymnast; although he does list a gymnastics coach as an essential part of his personal "team". Andreas is 6'2" tall (190cm) and approximately 200lbs (88-93kg).

Visit Andreas' Website for additional information, photos and video clips.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

***********Awesome! maybe there's hope for a 250 pounder(at 5'10")!

Brandon Green

That is fantastic! I feel that pretty much all athletes can turn their hand to just about anything and be good at it. (Bastards!)

Coach Sommer said:

F-zEYIe0EKA

2004 and 2008 Olympic Champion (javelin) Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen performs two unassisted cross pulls during his physical preparation. It is especially interesting to note that Andreas is not, nor has he ever been a competitive gymnast; although he does list a gymnastics coach as an essential part of his personal "team". Andreas is 6'2" tall (190cm) and approximately 200lbs (88-93kg).

Visit Andreas' Website for additional information, photos and video clips.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

**************** I recall a Soviet sports review article about Soviet field athletes negleting "gymnastics" training in recent

(at the time of the article)times in favor of other methods. Guess they were making a mistake.

Brandon Green

Demus said:

That is fantastic! I feel that pretty much all athletes can turn their hand to just about anything and be good at it. (Bastards!)

I could be wrong, but I would guess you have to train the cross to get it. Someone spoke of a boxer able to do an iron cross, but nobody verified whether or not he had been training it. People lie. Just like the people who talk about how they never had a sober day in college yet graduate with a 3.3+ GPA. This guy, I know has trained to be able to do a cross. If you look at some of his other vids, he uses cross training aids.

Awesome video, he has a gymnasts build.

I wish I could practice the cross, but I still can't even back or front lever.

Dont forget that Andreas is doing an explosive sport (javelin) at the very highest olympic level where shoulder and back injuries are common. It makes perfectly sense for him to work his shoulders and arms. I think the point is that the cross is possible even if you are tall and heavy, but you still have to work for it. No surprise there :wink:

Her is a page in norwegian (it is about how to train smart so top athletes can avoid injuries. No english version available I am afraid) showing one of our other athletes using gymnastics in his preparation earliy in his career. The athlete tumbling is Kjetil Andre Aamodt who went on to win four olympic golds and five world championships in alpine skiing.

Ref: http://www.klokavskade.no/no/Skadefri/A ... etil-turn/

This is so cool! What do we get out of this?

Whatever sport you end up doing Gymnastic strenght training will always be an excellent base!

Thanks again for a so much insparation. I´ve been into waterskiing for the past 15 years. This year was the first season that I did´nt feel completly burnt out and sore in my body after the first runs of the season. This is thanks to you, this website, your book and also my son that is heavaly into gymnastics.

I started out this winter doing steady state Bl, Fl,TP, straddle sit and handstand work and I will mean that this has helped me alot within my waterskiing

Awesome !

I wish I had the chance when I was younger to get trained in gymnastics

Here is another video of him training for the world championships from swedish television.

Unfortunatly in swedish but anyway interesting

http://svtplay.se/v/1648579/gymnastiktr ... en_vm-guld

Andreas Thorkildsen wins at the worlds in Berlin. Congratulasions!

cdx said:

Andreas Thorkildsen wins at the worlds in Berlin. Congratulasions!

Must be the rings work.

Must be!!

More gymnastics training for javelin throwers!

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Great videos triangle!

It is great to see larger athletes using gymnastics like that. I am impressed. Cool videos, thanks for sharing.

From what I've read here and seen in general, doesn't handstand walking take less stability then standing still?

yeah I think they got it the wrong way round.

Yeah, dynamic balance is easier than static, I believe.

They both have their own quarks, I wouldnt call what he was doing handstand walking. He didnt control any part of the movement but just fell out of balance and caught himself. True handstand walking is done in a controlled manner, you should be able to stop and start at will, change directions, or do whatever you want. There are a few girls on my team that are very good at walking on their hands (they walk the length of the floor stop and walk backwards back to their starting point without coming down out of the handstand!) but they cannot do a static handstand at all. They always comment on my static handstand ability and I always comment on their walking ability . . . thay are basically two separate skills that require lots of practice and attention to get good at.

I have tried things like headspins (definitely a dynamic balance) and all I can say is I found them just as difficult as my static handstands were when I started out (actually I think they were harder). Maybe dynamics are easier to get good at than statics, but I just dont have enough experience with the dynamic stuff compared to the work I have put in on my static to really say.

From what I've read here and seen in general, doesn't handstand walking take less stability then standing still?

Yes, general handstand walking is easier than holding a controlled static handstand. The coach in the video got it reversed as far as which is more technically demanding.

Now that being said HS walking is an excellent conditioning/warm-up exercise. Generally for my advanced athletes I require 160' nonstop; beginning with 40' forward walking, then 40' backward walking, then 40' walking sideways to the right side and then 40' walking sideways to the left side. We usually do this in warm-up. Once they complete the HS walking circuit they may rest, however if they fall they must begin again from the start.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer