Skipping lever work

Greetings,

 

Let me be honest. I'm finding it very hard to motivate myself doing Foundations these days (weeks).

 

I'm riding MTB a lot and doing Foundations as supplementary. Hence, in order to reduce time spend and maybe increase motivation I'm wondering to drop lever work. That is, only train for sPL, HBP, RC, MN and SLS.

 

My considerations on why I could drop lever work but not the others:

- I have some shoulder issues. Hence, I need to keep my shoulders strong and healthy. Thus, sPL, RC and HBP (particularly -im) is necessary for me.

- I'm riding MTB. Hence, strong and healthy legs is very useful. Thus, SLS is needed.

- As far as I know MN work develops great both core strength and healthy shoulders. Hence, what's not to like for me? Besides JC is considered a part of MN work. What's not to like?

- SL developes strong obliques and 'back chain' muscles (is this a bad translation?). However, MN developes obliques through 'Windshield Vipers' and 'back chain' muscles through JC.

- FL developes strong 'front chain' muscles (is this a bad translation too?). However, sPL, RC and SLS developes a strong 'front chain' too.

 

 

 

My question is then:

1) Is the considerations above totally nonsens?

2) What imbalances would arise from not doing lever work?

1- I think it's totally nonsense, front lever training when doing properly could only take you 5-8 min ( Think about FL/PE5,when doing mastery sets you will spend 5 minutes total on the working sets and 2 minutes 30s in the mobility) Basically you're going to save 8 minutes.

You'd miss on core work, and on some shoulder conditioning too (with body levers and the SEs) but it's true MN does that. Can't say if just MN is sufficient though. However, you'd miss big time on the bridge work, which very important, especially if you're not doing the Thoracic Bridge series.

 

Coach often says that the moves and progressions are here for a reason. I remember him telling a story in a podcast about an injury his athlete Allan had, that he rehabbed through SL work, only to hear Allan say something like 'Wow, I thought we did that just because it was cool.'  Point is, the fact that I can't tell you myself if it's important or not doesn't mean it isn't.

 

edit: chuchodani's point is very valid too.

 

Ps: you could say posterior or anterior chain, but I guess everyone will understand anyway

If you skip your lever work...you will miss your lever work...

As chucodani said, it's about 8 or less mintues for each element so just do it.. Personally, I love the side lever work.

Why would you want to miss out on something as important as that?

You said you need healthy and strong shoulders, so what do you think Front Lever and its mobility are for aside from core and lats strength?

A well balanced body is far more injury proof than the opposite. In fact, without lever work injury will sooner or later welcome you.

If you're well organised and focused, GB Foundation training session simply can't take more that 90 minutes of your day time.

The nature of the Hollow Body shape makes FL work totally different from MN work, and builds exactly the kind of core stability one needs for mountain biking. 

 

Similarly for SL work. 

 

Basically you're skipping two of the most important elements for  your sport.

This is strictly my opinion but I think the FL work prescribed in Foundation, aside from straight arm work, is what really separates GST from pther types of calisthenics. The work you put in the hollow shape is probably the most important thing you get out of a gymnastics based program.

 

The way it teaches you full body tension is something that will apply to all exercises, especially when you master it so that this "tension" is relaxed.

 

If I were you, I'd would do less overall volume, such as for example dropping one training day rather than dropping FL work altogether, if you're having motivation issues or have symptoms of overtraining. I'd look at that from that angle, because the alternative of doing only exercises that you like and skipping the ones you don't kinda of nullifies the point of following a program .

 

Edit (I thought you were just dropping FL):

 

As for SL, it's great for your back. You should do it to balance the work from MN and FL. SL will also build oblique strength and flexibility which is a problem for most desk-bound adults. Once again, I'd probably look at reducing your training load during the week rather than removing exercises.

I also thought you were just dropping FL work, but the little anecdote about Allan still kinda answers the question. And also, note that windshield wipers are in the SL progressions, not in MN. So no oblique work if you drop SL.

 

I agree with dritar, tell us about your schedule and we'll see if you can just reduce overall volume and still benefit from all the exercises. You don't need much volume if Foundation is just "supplementary" work for you and you don't care much about the end goals.

My schedule is:
Tuesday: MTB interval + FS stretch

Wednesday: MTB technique/skill

Thursday: MTB interval + MS stretch

Saturday: Either MTB interval or just some MTB touring

Sunday or monday: GST + TB stretch.

 

However during winter I might change thursday MTB interval for some GST if I can motivate myself.

I have thought on changing my focus to a 3 set approach in stead of a 5 set approach. Maybe just untill I've mastered the 'high rep' elements.

You will find that at certain point all the different FBE's and FSP's will merge together.

The situation will be that if you want to move forward you need something that you have previously cancelled from the schedule or, probably, you will develop strong imbalances. 

injury begins with imbalances.

As a fellow (ex)-MTB-er and someone who started strength training a couple of years ago, but only started GB training in August, here is my 2 cents for you:

 

"Lever work" aka the hollow body position is the fundamental position for any gymnastics type training. If you are not working on it then you are not doing gymnastics training.

 

Your plate is currently full, and you want to add more food to it. Trust me, I've been there, done that, got the T-shirt. You have to decide what you want to focus on and the rest will be nothing more than assistance work. If you want to ride your bike (even more so, if you want to ride competitively) you have to ride a lot, which not only takes time, but eats into your regeneration capabilities as well. I don't know what kind of riding you do, but my experience is that after doing a full-blown 2-3 hours XC session you will not want a heavy strength training session the next day. Well, you can do that of course, but both will suffer and you will burn out very soon.

 

That said, I found that during the winter it is best to focus on strength training sessions during weekdays, and keep riding to a minimum (and only for fun). Then on the weekend you can have one longer ride (4-5 hours). This would ensure that you maintain your endurance fitness, and you can actually make progress with strength. I had one season like that and I came back as a stronger and faster rider in general (and had my first podium finish ever ).

 

Instead of gymnastics, you might want to look around for other types of training. For example, I had lower back problems on the bike, and that led me to the discovery of kettlebell training which not only fixed my lower back, but actually made it one of my strengths. But whatever you do, focus on the core first (-> kettlebell swings and turkish getups are great foundation elements), so if I had to prioritize the gymnastics elements I would certainly put the hollow body position first (although I'm not sure that you can still call it "gymnastics" if you leave anything out...). Also, mobility and stretching are definitely worth your time, depending on your current strength perhaps even more than straight-on strength training.

 

And finally: strong and healthy legs are the least of your worries. I can do SLS just fine without any specific training (ok, I had to work on some hip mobility first). However, what I found to my greatest surprise was that my back squat was particularly weak, even though I could do SLS with a 16kg bell I could barely BS my bodyweight properly. So test your BS and if you find yourself in the same shoes then you will know that you'll need another thing on your plate...

Not sure what you can do here. It seems to me like your schedule feels like you are an "in-season" athlete and you are doing one big F7 session on the day you do TSB.

 

Maybe you could try breaking up the GST work into smaller sessions, instead of doing one F7 session on Monday or Sunday. Let's say that for example you could do the SL and FL exercises on Wednesday and that way you have a smaller session on the TSB day.

 

Maybe someone with practical coaching experience can comment.

All cyclist have one major problem...very short hip flexors. This is because you are adapting to being in hip flexion all the time. The best exercise to combat this is the hollow body rock. To do the hollow body rock you need abs that can control the trunk without the psoas in a shortened position.

If you are limited in time the priority for a cyclist is:

1. FL series

2. Front split stretch

3. sPl for shoulder stability

4. Thoracic bridge

5. The rest

Even if you get the Foundation exercises done once a week combined with your cycling you will improve really well. There is no problem doing 1-2 exercises before your cycling.

I agree with Mark.

getting my hip flexors stretched and strengthening my abdominals has helped very much in the health of my knees and shoulders from years of abuse from BMX.