Jump to content
Search In
  • More options...
Find results that contain...
Find results in...

is everything easier with less weight?


RachelGymnast
 Share

Recommended Posts

RachelGymnast

Yesterday I was at a gym and did my regular workout. There was a coach from Czech training with his group of acrobats who travel around and do shows.

I  talked to him a little and he watched my handstands and acrobatics a little. I tried some straddle planches, I hardly ever do them and although I can get into the position, I can only hold it for a very short time like 2 seconds maybe.

He talked to me and said I was really good, my V-Sits and Handstands and acrobatics are perfect and then told me that if I lose a little weight, everything will be so much easier.

I did worry about weight a lot when I was a child, although I was never fat. But I currently feel pretty comfortable although a little less would also be ok :)

I don't know, but maybe he is right? I searched for some videos and pictures on YouTube and noticed that all the girls are like super skinny and some are a lot skinnier than I am.

I am 5'4'' and I weigh 108lbs. 

Is it really true that the lighter you are, the easier body weight exercises like planches get?
I think yes! And also, you can do more pull-ups and push-ups  because you have to "pull-up" or "push-up" less weight!

What do you say?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RachelGymnast

I just went to the gym gym because I forgot something yesterday after training.

I managed to talk to one of the acrobats who trained with that coach.

It was a girl, she told me she is 17 years old. I talked to her a little and then I just asked her what their diet and training schedule looks like.
She told they train about 3 hours everyday, plus 2-3 shows a day. 
Then I asked what they eat everyday to keep themselves in shape. She said they don't get much. I didn't let up and asked what they eat everyday and then she said she will show me.

So, each of the acrobats had sort of a really big lunch box with all the food for one day in their gym bag.
It was their morning training so she hadn't eaten anything yet. 

This was in the box: 
3 eggs
4 potatoes the size of a fist
a few slices of cheese
1 apple
a ton of raw veggies (tomatoes, cucumber, carrots and something I have never seen)

She said that is what they get almost everyday, sometimes the veggie or fruit changes or they get rice instead of potatoes. On weekends they are allowed to get some milk.

Isn't that far too less? Where do they get the energy from to train sooo long?

I was not able to get a photo of any of them, but searched google and found pics pretty similar to how they look:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-UQAKirn2A2o/Tir_2NU-DHI/AAAAAAAAAXs/EVx1-xaD-cg/s1600/DSC_0109.JPG

 

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PIgm4uvmjIM/TiGh-sNpCEI/AAAAAAAAAXE/6qhe3--QCb0/s1600/1+arm+down+to+straddle+5.jpg

I think some of them are even skinnier.

How can you train for that long with so less fuel? I don't each much, really, but this seems like really not enough?

How much weight is ideal? Do you think I will have an easier time with planches if I lose a bit of weight?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kate Abernethy

I wouldn't worry about numbers. What you are looking for - for your body - is to minimise excess weight, eat healthily, and feel healthy... and train for planches  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Chris Garay

Hi Rachel,

 

This topic worries me. How old are you? 5'4" and 108 lbs is very light already. I would almost never recommend that an active female youth athlete attempt to lose body fat simply by eating less food. Rather, focus on quality foods first and foremost, and let your training and recovery do their job on your body. I believe a lot of forum members have seen some success nutritionally by adopting something like a Paleo-style diet with carbs tailored to their individual body composition and activity levels.

 

Good luck, and keep us updated.

 

Best,

Chris

  • Upvote 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

RachelGymnast

Hi Rachel,

 

This topic worries me. How old are you? 5'4" and 108 lbs is very light already. I would almost never recommend that an active female youth athlete attempt to lose body fat simply by eating less food. Rather, focus on quality foods first and foremost, and let your training and recovery do their job on your body. I believe a lot of forum members have seen some success nutritionally by adopting something like a Paleo-style diet with carbs tailored to their individual body composition and activity levels.

 

Good luck, and keep us updated.

 

Best,

Chris

Thanks for your reply. I am 22 years old and was a L8 gymnast but do not compete anymore

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Kasper Stangerup

From my point of view, losing weight to be able to do more difficult skills is a lot like using bands or other types of assistance; sure, it's easier to do the excercise, but then, it doesn't require (or develop) as much strength.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alessandro Mainente

 between 2 people, who is lighter needs less strength to move the same structure.

there are people who tends to say 2 objections:

 

1-people have a different height. in this case there are evident researches that discuss how, when we talk about the movements of the human body , the difficulty due to leverage between people comes out with at least 50 cm difference . athletes are around 20-25 cm higher . the difference is equally distributed so that is measurable only as fraction of cm's on the levers we are using to move.

 

2-people with the same weigh but different height . the lighter will say that he has a different body components and that for example that his strength could we weaker. i did a little research in the last period at i've discovered that the difference of tendons contributes on total strength generation only by 2%.

 

Aside these 2 objections I usually prefer to refer on inertia principle. it says that a body tends to hold the same stat of quiet or movement. if we assume the starting point of a pullup we need to break a state of quite. the force we need to apply is proportional to the mass of the body that should be moved. it is not a case that bigger gymnasts tend to have some problem on twisting but they can take advantage by their structure for the double front or back.

 

so being lighter is better? until certain point yes. BUT there is a point where muscles are needed in order to express certain level of skills. talking about the bicep brachii you need to consider that 1 cm squared of its section can generate a force of 60 N. more muscle section means more strength . at the beginning your body will try to compensate less section with:

-intramuscles coordination (frequency of rates)

-extramuscles coordination (muscles synergy)

at certain point about 20-22 fires / second the muscles becomes effete. at this point increase the muscles mass is the solution.

on the italian national team the work over the year is structured so that the amount of volume is used to improve strength and the hypertrophy approach is used as a last solution. e.g for rings specialist.

  • Upvote 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

RachelGymnast

Wow, that is a lot of information!

So, as I said I am 5'4'' and 108lbs. If I would drop 8 pounds, so be on 100lbs, would it help me in pull-ups and planches?

Back when I was competing, we had a russian coach and she was VERY strict. She always told us not to eat too much. She even said once she would prefer if we smoke instead of eating. She said it not only is easier but also better looking and I guess she was right!

How bad is it if you work out really hard and don't eat enough? I eat more than the acrobat at my gym and I think I wouldn't have enough energy if I only eat what they told me they eat...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Alessandro Mainente

be careful on loss of weight, you do not need to sacrifice muscles. also in movement that are legs dominant if you have legs muscles you have not too much solutions since legs are used every days.it is difficult to lose mass here.

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

At #108, that sounds pretty light for 5'4". Sad fact might be is you are just tall to be an elite gymnast/acrobat. 

For instance, Maddy Curley is listed at 5'4" at a weight of #117. She is a crossfitter/Grid athlete now but she's built pretty lightly compared to most of the other well known ex gymnast crossfitters (She was Nina in StickIt). Julie Foucher for instance is #135. Kristen Pope is under #130. Camille LeBlanc is #130. Of course, those women besides Maddy carry much more muscle mass than a typical gymnast though I think Gretchen Killberger was always pretty solid, even in college gymnastics (where there is a tendency for gals to have higher bodyweights as well).

Another interesting note is Mary Peck is 5'4" but weighed in just under 63kg towards the end of her collegiate career.

Aly Reisman. 5'1 #115. Obviously she has always been yoked.

Maroney is listed at 52.5-3 and #101-2. Compare that to yourself and your bodyweight would seem to be within reason.

How tall were those acrobats? Bare in mind, there is a rough average weight increase for every inch of height though this can vary with body types, muscle mass, etc.

Another issue is that very often in the EasternEuro/Soviet or Chinese mindsets (especially Chinese acrobats) is they will their athletes they are fat or weigh too much. Heck, this is a common sentiment by many of the foreigners going over to weightlift or do acro in china at camps. Even when they are 10-15% BF (males).

 

Here in the US, we might think at as a coach but heaven forbid we'd actually say something like that. Being employed is nice, and maybe if you're a foreigner, it might be tolerated if you were a really high level gymnast/coach. My butt would get fired in an instant or at least heavily reprimanded. I once got reprimanded because I said I was too weak/not strong enough to be spotting a teen gal and they took at she was too heavy and it got all misinterpreted. Leverage is also a factor being that I'm a hobbit and spotting can often aggravate shoulder/elbow/wrists over the years with lots of it.


And yes, when it comes to bodyweight exercise/gymnastics, in most cases weighing less is optimal.


Also, bare in mind too how much training those acrobats or an elite gymnast would be training towards how much you are currently. Most L8's would be training around 15hours a week, give or take a few hours, possibly towards 20. Being that you are of college aged, I'm not sure if you are training much more than half that. Keep that in mind
 

  • Upvote 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

RachelGymnast

Thanks for all your replies.

I counted together all the calories, protein, carbs and fats I eat on a regular day.

I eat 3 times a day. It is around 1400kcal, 200gr of carbs, 80gr of protein and 50gr of fat.
I usually have 1-2 more snacks a day, which is either a coffee with milk, ice cream in summer, etc. But not more than 200 kcal.

I am a student, I coach gymnastics 15-20 hours a week and I workout myself 4hrs a day (2 hours of events like tumbling, bars, vault, 1 1/2 hrs of conditioning and 1/2 hr of stretching).

Would you say this is appropriate?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're getting half as many carbs as you should under current recommendations. Other Macros are OK. Your rock bottom in take should be around 2,100Kcal.

 

If you look like her, you do not need to worry about losing weight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

RachelGymnast

You're getting half as many carbs as you should under current recommendations. Other Macros are OK. Your rock bottom in take should be around 2,100Kcal.

 

If you look like her, you do not need to worry about losing weight.

Thanks. Really, so you think I should eat more than that? I feel pretty good with it actually.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Christian Urrea

Aesthetically speaking, If you do have a physique like Victoria Komova then I would avoid losing weight at all costs!

2 cents from a man.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Romulo Malta

I´m with Chris about this and was going to say almost the same. It worries me that you might develop some anorexic tendencies, so please don´t get into a meaningless diet just because some radical/fanatic/outdated coach told you so. It´s quite common that people in the circus world in that region (and also in China) have a lot of misconceptions and training that resemble torture, so nobody with enough knowledge would refer to their concepts as ideal for health.

 

It also worries me when you said :

 

"Back when I was competing, we had a russian coach and she was VERY strict. She always told us not to eat too much. She even said once she would prefer if we smoke instead of eating. She said it not only is easier but also better looking and I guess she was right!"

 

Are you kidding or did you really mean you guess she was right? In the long run you would clearly notice the right answer and the consequences in your body...

 

If you look like Viktoria Komova you are perfectly fine, don´t worry. And like Cole said,  you definitely need to eat more. Try to eat at least 1g of protein per pound of body weight, so you could eat 108g of protein without feeling guilty. With your level of activity, 1400 kcal is too little! In your 2 snacks for instance, you could take two protein shakes to add more protein to your diet.

 

In my opinion, by eating more (and healthy) and increasing protein you can even get better strength gains than trying to lose weight in your situation.

 

In case of doubt, a balanced diet is better than any fanatical advice ;)

 

Take care

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Actually her protein intake is just fine for her body weight, More will not help. Otherwise, I agree.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Vincent Stoyas

Maybe. But that average recommendation is based on sedentary people. Endurance/strength athletes probably need more than that.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7550257

She's still extremely close even based off the upper extremity of the recommendation of that study. 1.8 g.kg works out to 88g of protein for her weight.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nicholas Sortino

You're getting half as many carbs as you should under current recommendations. Other Macros are OK. Your rock bottom in take should be around 2,100Kcal.

 

If you look like her, you do not need to worry about losing weight.

Using the IIFYM calculator at .9g of protein and .45g fat per lbs of bodyweight I got these numbers: 

 

                        CARBS   PROTEIN   FAT   FIBER    CALORIES

GRAMS per day 326.5      97.2         48.6    22 - 27        2132

 

I used her height/weight with intense daily exercise and eating at maintenance. 

 

So I don't think a few more grams of protein would hurt, but she definitely needs more carbs

 

At 0.8g protein/pounds you just drop 10g of protein and replace it with carbs

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours a day, 6 days a week. Eat more food. Not a lot more, just a bit more.

I'd say more food but do you get through your workouts without any perceived lack of energy? Or you continuing to progress of flatlining?

It does not surprise me a slavic coach would say that. There is a reason the girls would hide candy bars in the toilets under Bela.

If your bodyfat levels are close to Komova's, then you just need to give yourself time to progress on the planche.


Also, you are probably quite a bit taller than the Czech acrobats. Maybe, can't find any data on height of acro gymnasts. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Please review our Privacy Policy at Privacy Policy before using the forums.