Gymnastic Bodies High Rep Training

Hi,

I just started the Foundation One course about a week ago and I am enjoying the exercises so far.

It is a very different approach to training than what I am accustomed to. I have come from a calisthenics based background, working on dips, pull-ups, push up progressions. The mentality among a lot of calisthenic trainers is that is you want to improve your strength then it is best to do sets in the 1-5 rep range. If you want hypertrophy go for 8-12 reps, and anything above that is muscular endurance and won't improve your strength per se. As a result of this, my training before I started GB involved doing 5x5 sets of pull-ups, chin-ups etc, advancing to the next progression (close grip pull-ups, uneven pull-ups etc) when I could achieve that standard.

So I was interested to find out that in the GB course a lot of the progressions involve achieving 5 sets of 15 reps, which, relative to the training I have been doing prior, seems like a ridiculously high amount of reps, more in line with crossfit than conventional strength training.

Pavel Tsatsouline says that "performing more than six reps per set hinders strength development", and that is the philosophy I have followed thus far. So I am wondering, if working towards strength standards such as the Straddle Planche and Rope Climbs, why does the GB method involves high rep training?

I am open to this method but if someone could point me towards an article or explanation as to why this approach is advantageous over a low rep strength training based approach I would be very appreciative. It would be nice to understand more about the philosophy behind this approach to training.

Thanks.

High reps are referred only on the exercises who need these reps. to be more specific, the beginning exercises are made so that you train muscles for their respective physiologic aspects. if you have fibers which meet fatigue in between 12-15 reps (intermediate) why do I need to train them on 5 reps? that's not makes sense for an optimal development of the resistance to fatigue. No more simple than this.

The high rep work is in Foundation 1. High reps increase blood flow and blood flow helps with improving the quality of fibers: muscle, tendon, and ligament. Since any and every person coming to GST is in a different state of dishevelment and physical disorder, this blood flow then helps reset all these structural issues and gets people back to the same levels of flexibility, range of motion and requisite strength to do the types of Tsatsouline training you reference. If you look at F2, 3, or 4, there's plenty of hypertrophy training and muscle building. The training in F1 will still provide certain strength benefit though and your mobility will greatly be restored so it won't be in vain.

OK thanks for your responses. It is interesting to note that the course will develop towards lower reps when it gets to more specific elements.

Cheers.

Another interesting point repeated elsewhere on the forum is where coach laughed at 15reps being 'high reps' try 50reps

I also came across that way of thinking with bodybuilding around 10 years ago (the framework of reps where anything + 12reps being endurance)...but recently I've noticed a trend among respected 'personal trainers' incorporating x20rep squat routines, x 50rep leg press routines into their training plans - just food for thought.

High reps can produce hypertrophy too. https://www.strengthandconditioningresearch.com/promotions/heavy-loads-for-strength/

However, as more knowledgeable people have said, I do believe that the point of Foundation 1 especially, is to give the joints and tendons sufficient time and stimulus to adapt, and also provide basic mobility. This then forms the foundation on which higher strength and gymnastics skills are build on.

8 hours ago, Paul Gray said:

Another interesting point repeated elsewhere on the forum is where coach laughed at 15reps being 'high reps' try 50reps

I also came across that way of thinking with bodybuilding around 10 years ago (the framework of reps where anything + 12reps being endurance)...but recently I've noticed a trend among respected 'personal trainers' incorporating x20rep squat routines, x 50rep leg press routines into their training plans - just food for thought.

I workout at Gold's Gym in Venice (the "famous" one) and you see all the pro bodybuilders training high reps as well. Legs, as Paul said, in the range of 20+, up to 50, up to 100 at times. Different stimuli —> the body will respond. 

Some extra insight that I got from the coaches and going to the seminars as well as my own training:

1. Being able to do a certain (difficult) element is not equal to being ready to productively use it in training.  I like to compare this to weight training: if you can lift 100kg with a lot of effort, this does not mean that you should start using 100kg all the time. Training at 60, 70 or 80kg still creates plenty of stimulus in the respective rep ranges and gives your connective tissue not such a hard time and allows it to adapt.
2. Training (easier) elements for higher reps translates surprisingly well to the harder elements afterwards.  I noticed this with for example push-ups and dips. I was stuck on HBP/PE2 for quite a long period and spent a lot of training time on push-ups.  When I did a dip to demo it for someone it felt quite a bit easier than ever before, just from training the push-ups.

1 hour ago, Koenraad Van Leemput said:

Training (easier) elements for higher reps translates surprisingly well to the harder elements afterwards.  I noticed this with for example push-ups and dips. I was stuck on HBP/PE2 for quite a long period and spent a lot of training time on push-ups.  When I did a dip to demo it for someone it felt quite a bit easier than ever before, just from training the push-ups.

This is definitely what I have been experiencing in Foundation Series and Handstand One. Whenever I hit a Plateau/Wall, I just go back to the very first element and master it with better form. In return I get better in the later progressions and understand my body more.