1 week in- have a few questions

I've been doing Gymnastic Strength Training™ for 3 workouts now, after picking up on Coach Sommer's book. I've been fascinated by the fact that bodyweight training can be better than weight traning. The only pieces of equipment I own is a pull-up bar and push up stands, and I use chairs for dips. But I've had a few problems that I hope you guys here can answer:

1) I've been following Killroy70's workout split these 3 days, and have been wiped out after each go. For those of you who haven't seen it, it's a 4 day split with planche, Front Lever, Back Lever, and Handstand work each day with push, pull, dips, curl and multi-plane pressing/pulling variations. Is this too much for a beginner. It takes me well over an hour to finish. Is this type of workout too much for a beginner? If so, what type of program should I follow (a precise split would be very appreciated, because I'm scared of making my own routine. It's not "paralysis for perfection", but if I'm taking time to do this, I want to be sure I'm doing it right.

2) When should I progress to more advanced static hold progressions? I can't hold a frog stand for 60 seconds, but I can do an advanced frog stand for 6 seconds. Is it time to move to a different variation?

3) I'm mainly interested in strength, because I've been weight lifting for 2 years without any major strength gains. But hypertrophy is also something I want to achieve. Will 5x5 for the push/pull moves (the non-static moves) be enough? I know all about caloric excess, don't worry.

4) How much Handstand work should I be doing? 60 second wall-handstands, just like other static holds?

The last question might be off topic, but I can't do a headstand push up, even with wall assistance (this might be because of my emphasis on "beach muscles" in the gym, so my shoulders are VERY underdeveloped). How do you guys get your feet up for the box HeSPU? How do you know how high the box should be?

Hope you guys can guide me a little, excellent forums by the way, goldmine

MB4

1. Are you sore or are you in pain? It's only been 3 workouts and it should get better or far worse. Give it at least 3-4 weeks.

2. at least 9-12 weeks. You are allowed to move to the next step if you can hold the current one for 15-20s and the new one for 3-4s.

3. yes

4. At least 60s. Ramp this up over time. It will take some trial and error to figure out the right volume without being too much with all the other stuff.

How do you guys get your feet up for the box HeSPU? How do you know how high the box should be?

When you do this, your hips should be in line over your shoulders and your legs should be parallel to the floor. Measure the distance from your tailbone to your fingertips.

Thanks for the reply Blairbob,

I was sore the first two days, but now I'm fine. It just seems like I run out of gas when I'm doing the second phase of traning, so L-Sit holds, Front levers, and Handstand work. I should probably rotate the workout so I'm not always doing Handstands last, at least until I can finish my workouts properly...right?

With the static holds, I've been training for one week, and couldn't hold a frog stand for even 2 sec's, and now I can do 25-30s, with an advanced frog stand of 6 s. So should I progress or not? Same with the Back Levers...but my Front Levers are severly lacking, it's probably due to the imbalanced training I did in the gym.

Thanks for the HeSPU, I thought it was a stupid question, but yesterday's HeSPU work was strange, I think I had the box too low.

Thanks a bunch

If it helps, I always do handstand work right after my warmup and before my actual routine. I believe I decided to do it like that because a lot of people on here recommended doing handstand work first. Also, on the handstands you should be pressing shouders to ears...and i find this hard to do when already fatigued. Try the handstand work before your routine. I think you'll like it. As far as getting gassed, I started with a mon, tues, thurs, fri routine and changed it to a mon, wed, fri routine so I could have a day of rest after each workout. Having never done gymnastic training before, I found each workout to be absolutely grueling. But it gets better as your body adapts. Good luck

Thanks Liosis, I did the handstand work first today and I felt I worked it much better. I'll keep trying the 4 day split for a couple of weeks, and see how that works out until I switch to 3-times per week.

Good to hear. It gets easier as your body adapts.

Keep on trucking.

Evaluate a few things:

1. Do you have enough fuel in the engine to complete the workout?

2. Front levers are bloody difficult, period. With some of my boys, I have switched to having them focus on pullups and body levers instead if they cannot hold tucked front levers properly for the minimum duration or if they cannot work them in the stated volume. Even the most basic of levers can be too daunting for some individuals, even in negatives I have found sometimes. I typically have them work skin the cats instead at that stage.

3. Try out the adv. frogstand possibly, but go back to frogstand if you start getting aches and pains in your joints.