Okay, Yan Mingyong is back AGAIN!

Alright guys, so the last thread was a flop since Yan Mingyong was only in the gym for a week, but he is back again! And this time he brought a friend. He should be here for 1 month training in Shanghai before he heads to Japan for the Toyota cup and then back in Shanghai for another month or so.

His friend is this kid named Wang Hu, or something like that. Apparently this kid is ranked #2 all around in the world for college gymnasts! He has to be amazing because the kid is from Guangzhou which has the #1 men's team in China.

Anyhow, he came to the gym and came by and was like "hey, I'm back!" We made some small talk and it turns out that his shoulder has been messed up since world cup. He got a cortisone shot just last week and is just starting to train again. Anyways, he did his usual 2 hour warm-up, stretch, shoulder rehab workout, stretch, and then we talked for a little bit more. He told me that he was going to start events and stuff next week!

This time, I have to get some good footage because there is no way he can dick around for an entire month. On top of that, he has to prepare for a meet. I am disappointed though because I don't think I will get to see his high-bar, pommels, or p-bars routines. There is no team competition at the Toyota cup so he is only going to compete rings.

Oh, at the end of practice, he brought his dog into the gym. The dog got scared from all the people and pissed in the gym.

That's it for today, but hopefully, there will be lots more to come!

Peace!

HAHAHAHAHAHA nice story with the dog!

on the more serious side i appreciate you doing this, it is really really exciting

Razz said:

on the more serious side i appreciate you doing this, it is really really exciting

I am also looking forward to the information and media!

Thanks

I gues you meant "from a world championship" and not "from a world cup". Because only a Chen Yibing did compete on the last two world cups at Osijek and stuttgart after a world championship.

We are awaiting for some good informations and tips :wink:

I would like to ask some general questions about how gymnastics is run in the younger ages for mens gymnastics. Any incite would help.

I believe from what I have watched online that most boys in China become very serious at age 7-8 ...can you say about how many hours and day these athletes train?

and of this time what you say is the is the ratio of time spent on physical prep/skills?

Would you say there is an order of importance as far as what events are trained more frequently or some that are started later?

Thanks for you updates of the ongoings in you gym , to me is fascinating to here your side of things!!!

Sincerely,

Jacob

Nothing huge yet for those 2, Wang Heng and Yan Mingyong. I did see Yan Mingyong do pommels for the first time today and I do have to say that he is no Qiao Qin, but his circles and all could be worse! I am expecting those 2 to kick it into gear later next week.

Coach Marks: I will go into more detail on your post later. I actually just woke up at 5AM because my apartment is freezing!

Anytime my friend I will be patiently waiting so take your time.

Jacob

I'm really interested to hear about his training some more. You should ask him if he ever tried to train the victorian.

sasquatch said:

I'm really interested to hear about his training some more. You should ask him if he ever tried to train the victorian.

I have actually asked him that and he has problems with the back of his right shoulder so he can't put too much pressure on that area. Thats the spot where he got that corisone shot a week ago.

Coach Marks said:

Anytime my friend I will be patiently waiting so take your time.

Jacob

It's funny that you mention this because I have been over here training in Shanghai for a year now and I am constantly seeing new and shocking things; both good and bad. An old friend that trained with me in when I was in the states and I, we shoot e-mails back and forth about our training and our daily lives and other crap. The mail has replied back and forth and now consists of a chain of about 350 e-mails. There is a ton of stuff in there.

If my friend makes national team and wins a big meet, we are seriously thinking of publishing the chain of e-mails and making it into a book hahaha. There is a TON of useful information in there, though, with regards to training and gymnastics. I will get back to you on the differences of training though! Maybe I will make a new thread in regards to that info!

Thanks for your patience!!

Peace!

I know that's silly but...how long can he hold an iron cross?

More pertinent question: how long does he hold position in training? He prefer time quality (es.10 maltese of 3 sec) or quantity (3 maltese of 10 secs)? (Obviously one should train both of them!)

I would quote Wang, but I'm not sure how to on my phone. Cool, that's too bad about his shoulder. I wonder how close he would have been if his shoulder was fine.

Felipe said:

I know that's silly but...how long can he hold an iron cross?

More pertinent question: how long does he hold position in training? He prefer time quality (es.10 maltese of 3 sec) or quantity (3 maltese of 10 secs)? (Obviously one should train both of them!)

Defenitly more then 30 seconds.

No it's not so obviously Most likely he does a diffrent variations of malteses, malteses with added weights. And malteses with 10 seconds once a month or two.

But Wangtang6911 will say more with his inside information.

Just a quick OT: Gregor you held the cross for like 45 seconds or something? and maltese how long?

Razz said:

Just a quick OT: Gregor you held the cross for like 45 seconds or something? and maltese how long?

Yes when i was going for maximum endurance....Maltese cca. 15 seconds. Now I don't do long durations anymore.

Alright guys. He is finally starting to move around again. Tonight was the first time I saw him on the rings in person and his strength was absolutely nuts!! His positions are not as good as Chen Yibings, but I think he is stronger. After 2 weeks of just doing his stupid warm ups and shoulder conditioning, he went up there and did a azarian maltese, bounce maltese, press to planche all with no problem! It was disgusting!! The back of his left shoulder is hurting now so he is getting it massaged tonight and might need another shot sunday to try and take care of the problem. His next meet is in 3 weeks. He will be in competition shape in the following weeks so I will definitely get videos!!

Also, something interesting he said. I remember him saying that the bench press was very important and this was his reasoning. The bench press motion strengthens your front shoulders and your chest. These muscles are very important for keeping a hollow chest while holding a maltese or planche. This might explain why his front shoulder is abnormally large!

Another thing is that he now has a skill named after him in the code. Apparently, it is called the Yan Mingyong and it is an azarian planche! He does the azarian into maltese and pushes to planche right away. I will definitely try to get a video of that in the coming weeks too!

Thats all for tonight folks! My right shoulders messed up so no real training for me.................. if anyone cares hahahaha

Later!

Ofcourse we care about your shoulder! hope it gets better soon

Interesting about the bench press, maybe i shouldn't completly neglect it as i used to, though I think it would be more important once you are in higher level (able to hold maltese for example) and not before you are training to hold maltese??

here's his move:

vlvcn4BUc10

Dang, I HATE that china blocked youtube! On top of that, I don't have a VPN so I can't get past this stupid government firewall.

Also, his friend that trains with him on national team said that Yan Mingyong held a straight legged planche for 30 seconds.

Don't expect from him to do wonders after injury as he did in the worlds. Give him a time and you'll see his magic holds in perfect line! I think they have preaty the same finesse in lines (Chen Yibing and Yan mingyong). I saw in my own eyes Chen, because we were in the same apparatus in the same round together with Jovtchev.

30 seconds planche :shock: :shock: :shock:

Wangtang6911 said:

The back of his left shoulder is hurting now ... I remember him saying that the bench press was very important and this was his reasoning. The bench press motion strengthens your front shoulders and your chest. These muscles are very important for keeping a hollow chest while holding a maltese or planche ...This might explain why his front shoulder is abnormally large! ...

This would appear to be symptomatic of a classic bench press muscle imbalance. Mingyong is capable of a truly tremendous 130kg bench press at a bodyweight of 50kg. However given the location of his shoulder pain and training history, my assumption is that his rowing strength is nowhere nearly as developed as his horizontal pressing strength. Massage therapy and shoulder prehab are both important components of shoulder health, however unless the underlying causation of the problem is attended to (in this case a severe muscular imbalance between the anterior and posterior delts), focusing on treating the secondary symptoms will ultimately fail to properly address the situation.

In the long term, utilizing a maintainence routine for his bench press coupled with an aggressive emphasis of building his rowing strength to a level complimentary with his horizontal pressing strength should greatly alleviate this issue.

In the short term, it is very important to understand that cortisone shots simply block the pain and are not causing accelerated healing of the area. This creates a tremendous problem as the athlete now has a perceptible drop in their level of pain and usually uses this opportunity to increase the intensity of their training. However the reality is that the athlete is now actually increasing the damage to the injured area without their conscious knowledge; in essence this is the physiological equivalent of pouring more gasoline on a burning house rather than attempting to put the fire out :shock:. Once the numbing effect of the original coritsone shot has worn off, the athlete is now faced with an injury that is far more painful and serious than it was prior to receiving the shot.

Unless great care is taken, it is quite common for this situation to digress into a cycle of repeated corizone shots, with an ever-decreasing duration inbetween the shots until the area is finally so damaged structurally that no further high level training is possible.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

These Yan Mingyong threads are my favorite things to read, they're filled with great information. Hope your shoulder heals soon, Wang.

So true, Coach. I hope he approaches this injury the right way and keeps himself healthy!

I still have to wonder about the true benefit of the bench press. I've read of guys pushing 300 lbs. for reps at bodyweights of 160 lbs., and even after years of training body weight they are nowhere near a good straight arm planche hold. Unless, it helps yout to break through plateaus by periodizing in a concurrent fashion.

JL said:

I still have to wonder about the true benefit of the bench press. I've read of guys pushing 300 lbs. for reps at bodyweights of 160 lbs., and even after years of training body weight they are nowhere near a good straight arm planche hold.

Yes, this is absolutely correct. Regardless of how strong your bench may be, if the proper straight arm strength progressions have not been adhered to and meticulously followed, the super strong bench presser will be no closer to a planche than your average joe who struggles with bodyweight.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer