Gymnastics can cause great hypertrophy!

[Longshanks]

I recently took a stock check after 3 months of the isometric beginners exercises to see where I was at weight/size wise to see if there were any improvements. Now to be honest I wasn't really expecting much hypertrophy as I've had problems keeping my weight up in the past. I've tried just about every weights routine available online (often causing me to loose weight) and I have strict morals against steroids for myself. I’ve been doing the isometric versions of the levers, handstand, planche, squats, calf raises and L-sits in SSC. After 3 months I've put on 9 pounds, inch on my thighs and chest and half an inch on my arms. My waist hasn't realy changed but I haven’t calorie counted other than just make sure I eat healthy food and protein shakes after training and before bed. I just wanted to say a big thank you to the moderators and anyone who's helped me out since I started this forum, I'm chuffed to bits. There’s a definite visable difference.

I'm just curious now though how gymnasts aren't even bigger really. Do gymnasts not supplement with protein or is it more likely the sheer volume that gymnasts training burns so many calories that there’s non left for hypertrophy?

[Neal Winkler]

They have to keep their weight down for optimal performance.

[Blairbob]

imagine how you many calories you burn if you work out 15-30 hours a week?

how much muscle did you have on before? have you looked at any rings specialists lately?

what WL programs were you using before? anything recognized or just something online or from muscle mags?

after gymnasts hit a certain point, they work a lot in low reps, high intensity.

[Longshanks]

I tried alsorts. Started with muscle group work each workout doing reps 10-1 (i.e legs one workout, Biceps & back another and chest and triceps another). I also tried whole body workouts each night (i.e. 1 set of 8-10 on all muscle groups) as advised by hardgainer sites. I also tried high volume work and strength training sets (i.e 3 sets of 5 squats, pull-ups and bench press), all to no avail. I often lost weight unless I eat enough calories that I just put on fat. Although I weigh a fair bit at 6'5'' I never realy looked musclular and wasnt realy solid.

I can see why 15-30 hours a week would keep your weight down. I've only been doing very abreviated workouts with 15mins stretching followed by an hour static work 3 times a week. Just had a look at the ring specialists, see what you mean now, some of em look like monsters! How much do big legs make a difference? Will it just prevent higher class rign holds later on or completely prevent even straddle or straight leg planche and lever work?

[Blairbob]

Basically big legs are stupid for rings and a lot of acro and skill work. Powerful legs are better.

[Hivoyer]

Gymnasts train in small sets for strength,so they don't get so much hypertrophy and the high rep things they do are usually partial ROM (wrist push-ups only move trough half of the wrists ROM),so their bodies are built for maximal strength with the least weight.Also if you have noticed all the top gymnasts are not very tall,so this means less useless body mass.For instance I'm very tall and since I was incredibly weak when i started exercising I had sore muscles and visible hypertrophy every time,even from just doing statics.Now I'm a little more in shape

[Longshanks]

Cant realy help the big legs now as they're the one area were I've been naturally big from years of kicking in Thai boxing. As much as I like the gymnastics training its a means to an end for martial arts realy so I dont think I'll loose sleep over not attaining a maltese in my lifetime. Thanks for the feedback though, I'll try not to make matters any worse with any high rep strength training.