I'm, having a internal struggle between lifting weights and doing the program honestly as it is written. For awhile now I have been trying to balance lifting and gymnastic bodies. Not much of a surprise I have made little to no progress in both. So with all that being said I'm going to try this again from the beginning, that being said what kind of equipment should I get for myself if any and has anyone added running or sprints in to their training? I guess if someone could give me kind of an overview cause I'm stumped. I'm looking for any input from someone who is doing the program to the T or has made it their own. Any input or help thanks.
This forum is archived information and is no longer active.
Had gymnastic bodies for awhile
Started by rjersey26, February 3, 2016 · 4 Replies · 339 Views
first question, what kind of weights are you lifting? if you're doing OL, it can be done 1-2x depending on your recovery, after mastering F2 per Coach Sommers recommendation. granted, if this isnt your goal then you have to learn sooner or later through continual education that your muscles, be it trained or untrained, a finite pool of capacity to recover. if you are hitting the same muscles 4-7 times a week as a beginner you gotta hold your horses! dont be so redundant, as in replicate the same kinds of movements like doing a workout of 20 different types of pushups coupled with front and lateral delt raises. you need to choose which kind of fashion you want to train and stick to it and become the best at doing the particular exercises from a biological standpoint. don't make the mistake of lifting weights and not using full ROM or stretching, at the very least.
second question, what are your goals? based on them you can take action! example, doing X exercise makes me much better at doing X exercise. like the correlation people see with having a solid planche and being able to bench press pretty heavy. it still helps that if your goal is to bench heavy, you need to bench heavy. we have a body and multiple modalities make us move through it in a particular way. in addition to undertaking the commitment of a lifestyle choice, make sense if you're choosing it because it's visually or "at face value" appealing or if its for the long haul, something that creates champions. then do like the champions do.
as for program details per Foundation / Handstand or any other GB Online Course, that will have to take place on the GST Course Forums.
Found this old comment of yours:
I have been thinking of dropping the the upper body movements and just staying with deadlift and squats. I can always use a weight vest and dip belt to give myself that extra umpf. Plus being in the military it makes more since to train like an athlete than a powelifter. I'll be trying out foundation one while deployed and try to post an update on how i have progressed. Thanks for the info.
Could you share your results in these last 2 years? (Without too many details about F1 since it's an open forum).
Squats and deadlifts + gymnastic training for upper body seems to be a quite popular way at the moment, so i'm curious why didn't it work in your case.
I'll chime in since I've recently started (a little over a month ago) combining m Foundation and Handstand training with some powerlifting-style training. It can work (at least it does for noe 
), you just have to be smart about it. If you'd like to know how I personally structure my training o balance these two goals, I'll be more than happy to share it with you. Just ask 
First of all, you need to ask yourself what is your primary goal: is it to be strong at lifting weights (i.e. being a powerlifter, even without competing)? Is it to be great at bodyweight training? Or do you just train for general strength/health?
In the first case, which is my current situation, doing the big three lifts and some basic accessory work specific to them will be essential. You can then add the F7 elements around it. Chances are that you will be doing some kind of pull-ups anyways, so why not using the RC progression? Same goes for pretty much all other elements of Foundation (as a side note, I've mastered all the SLS elements before starting to use weights for my lower body again). The only thing that kind of make the two goals collide is your bodyweight. Now, the times of fat powerlifters are finally over (sort of, kind of), but it's not a secret that to get strong you have to eat a lot. I've managed to gain mass staying fairly lean, but obviously any more lb that you gain will potentially hinder your GST progress (even if that lb is muscle). Again, it comes down to your goals and what you decide to prioritize.
If your goal is to be awesome at GST, I would just add one lower body strength session during the week. Use the exercise from the SLS to warm up and then do some squats, deadlifts and, if you are able to do them correctly (or you have a good coach to teach them to you) the olympic lifts.
If you train just for general strength both GST and weights are awesome means to get where you want. Just do what you like more, I promise you you are not going to die if you don't bench press and , likewise, you are probably going to be fine even if you can't do levers or have a pancake.
As for Handstand work, I just do it on "off days". I like being fresh as HS are more a skill than a feature of strength. And since the intensity is quite low, it works very well as active recovery or GPP work.
I hope this can be helpful in some way!
PS: All of what I've written is based on personal experience and on my own opinions. I'm not a coach, I'm not an expert on any of this stuff. I just happened to find something that works for me, an d you can do the same, but know that it will take some trial and error.
Some good suggestions here