bench press, leg press, lat pull down

I have never done any kind of strength training until about 1 1/2 years ago when I started gymnastics. 

The only thing I did and still do is a few pull-ups, dips, push-ups, squat jumps and leg lifts as part of regular gymnastics training along with a lot of handstand presses.


Today I went to the gym with my brother, just for fun. He is training everyday and his main purpose is just to look good for the girls

I wanted to try how much weight I can bench press, lat pull down and leg press.

I had no idea of how to use the machines or what to expect, so it was pretty funny.

Here is what I could do:

Bench Press: 121lbs

Leg Press: 308lbs

Lat Pull Down: 150lbs

I am 5'4'' and exactly 110lbs.


I don't like this kind of weight training at all, I think it is super boring. But does it help for gymnastics strength? Does it help for press handstands? And should I be able to bench press or leg press more for my weight?
Do you work out with weights?

 

it is completely irrelevant to gymnastics, dont even bother doing it

korija said:

it is completely irrelevant to gymnastics, dont even bother doing it

 It was just for fun today, I tried it because I had some free time. I definitely won't do it anymore, because I don't enjoy it at all. I even wouldn't do it of it would help me. I just wanted to know if anyone here does it and if somebody could tell me if I am too weak for my bodyweight

katlinchen said:

 It was just for fun today, I tried it because I had some free time. I definitely won't do it anymore, because I don't enjoy it at all. I even wouldn't do it of it would help me. I just wanted to know if anyone here does it and if somebody could tell me if I am too weak for my bodyweight

Whether you are too weak for your body weight should be measured in terms of GST and not weight training.

The weight room champion is rarely the champion of skills. There are many ways of measuring strength, but one should not pay too much attention to that - it will not help you get stronger and it will not help you to enjoy the journey to become stronger.

Those numbers are very good for your bodyweight; especially without specific training on them.  This simply demonstrates the efficacy of GST. 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

But does it help for gymnastics strength? Not really at all. Especially with machines. Possibly if a gymnast was in the rehab stage or as an accessory exercise.

And should I be able to bench press or leg press more for my weight? See below for bench press. Leg press is generally used for older individuals in rehab scenarios and bodybuilders looking to build size in their quads.

Yes, I workout with weights but it is centered around the Snatch, Clean, and Jerk, Squats and accessory exercises for those 3 competition lifts. I've never really been into Bodybuilding per say but I messed around with some machines after HighSchool during my college years as I was getting into gymnastics. 


Pretty decent bench press for your BW being BW+. I've never tried to Lat pull down BW+ because staying in the seat always became an issue as it would approach my BW (besides I typically always worked pulldowns in 8-15rep schemes). It was always a significant goal for women to work towards a BW BP in the weight room in HS and College as an athlete. You're somewhere between Category 4 and 5 (out of 5) according to Mark Rippetoe/Lon Kilgore's strength standards

Leg press depends on whether it was inclined or horizontal and how ROM. Horizontal have been more difficult IMO but also they tend to be pulley based so they are limited by weight compared to an inclined leg press with multiple loading arms. I don't really think Leg Press is that useful as I used to do it a bunch and it was more work putting on and taking off #45 plates compared to the effort necessary for Back or Front Squats. It can be used for leg hypertrophy after squats if you're into bodybuilding. 

Honestly, I don't think I've ever seen a female push for a 1rm Leg Press nor have I looked up videos of them doing so on YouTube. I just did and basically found some poor ROM inclined leg presses of 4-800# by females. More like half ROM if that.

If you can Lat pulldown BW+, you don't really need to do them at all. I like to do them BehindTheNeck for flexibility reasons but I guess I could do BTN pullups instead. 

I no longer Bench Press with a bar as it irritates my left shoulder too much. I've been meaning to BP with dumbbells but it hasn't been done since March or so and I typically do standing DB presses or push presses with a barbell or DB.

I haven't done a leg press in running on 15 years. I stopped after I got sick of moving lots of plates. In HS at a BW of about #148 I leg pressed #660+2 of my friends sitting on the machine. I could do 1100-1200 during college but that also means using about 20-26 plates which is pretty ridiculous. Especially since my BS wasn't really going anywhere at #350. We had fun dismantling the legpress machines that were in GoldenBear's gym and cannabilizing their weight plates for weights to use on L-pullups.   


The Lat pulldown machine is often used for individuals who are not strong enough in a gym to do a pullup as an assistance exercise toward building toward that pullup. I've been programming it for our young male Weightlifters because some of them need the BTN flexibility and some are not yet strong enough to do legit pullups (they are on flex arm hangs and body rows for the most part.)

I'm not a huge fan of bench press for gymnasts but I do know a few coaches who will use it with females as an assistance exercise for upper body pressing development in athletics obviously. Oleg liked the BP and PushPress for his girls especially as standing/push presses are good core strengtheners. I'm just wary of the bench press for shoulder flexibility and of it's tendency to irritate shoulders. It's easy enough to scale appropriately for upper body strength by using different variations (vertical instead of inverted, horizontal instead of vertical, inclined instead of horizontal).

korija said:

it is completely irrelevant to gymnastics, dont even bother doing it

Thats a bit of a stretch. You can still build a LOT of strength combining GST work with traditional weight lifting. I would hardly consider it irrelevant or not worth your time

Yeah, but she's an actual gymnast, so just building strength in ways that don't help perform routines might not be worthy of her time. 

Thank You all for your input. I never considered starting lifting weights. It was simply for fun yesterday. 

Although I do think that lifting weights could help in some parts of gymnastics, especially for men, I also think it is not necessary and focus should be on GST.

Although I felt a little tired afterwards, it was just totally different from a gymnastics training workout! A day of gymnastics is definitely more exhausting for me than simply lifting heavily. After a day of gymnastics I feel also very tired in my mind, because of all the skills you do and you need to be tight ALL THE TIME, even if you just stand on the beam. And in press handstands for example, you use every muscle rather than just one isolated group.