Metabolic Conditioning

Let me first preface this by saying I realize I'm about to display a high level of ignorance by asking these questions.

The vast majority of the information I find in BtGB and on this message board is related to building a foundation of basic gymnastics strength. Is there information on here or in the book related to metabolic conditioning? The only thing I've found in BtGB referencing metcon is Appendix C where it talks about metcon being more efficient if you already have a solid strength base. I'm looking for something a little bit more aerobic-oriented I guess. I saw in a recent WOD that shuttle runs were included, so I'm trying to include more exercises that are similar.

Also, what effects does gymnastics training have on weight loss?

I really appreciate if anyone can educate me a little bit or at least point me in the right direction

Thanks,

Brandon

If you look at the current mainpage and back over the year, you'll see a few WOD's like this:

Complete four rounds:

40' Wallabys

5 Hopping HeSPU

5 Germans

5 Swinging Dips

or

Complete four rounds:

30m sled/tire sprint

40' Senders

20 Arch/Hollow Snaps

Generally they have 2-3m rest periods and are one modality (pushing/pulling, lower body, a bit of a mix sometimes). I'd say they typically last around 2-3m per round because of performing the exercises (even scaled) and moving from station to station in the gym. These really suck and will wind you.

A few times I played with combining pushing and pulling mini-wod's or the whole kit and kaboodle or doing a push/pull followed by a lower body set. Instead of doing 3x5 weighted box jumps/SLS+glute-ham with 3-5m rest periods, doing them as rounds.

You can also take a look at some of the DrillsandSkills WOD that are basic gymnastic GPP for 3-4 rounds or 7-10m. Also played with 3-5 gymnastics exercises with 20/10, 30/30, 45/15 on-off schemes for 4-5 rounds.

I'd say gymnastics training stresses the body so there is that stimulus besides burning calories and that "afterburn" effect of intense training but weight loss of course is probably 80% nutrition based. One of my mentors stated that if the nutrition wasn't there, it didn't really matter what kind of training was being done as there wouldn't be much of an excess body weight loss or strength gains.

You COULD set up your gymnastics workouts to be more of a metcon by treating everything as a round, and doing one set of each exercise with little or no rest, but you will be sacrificing some strength gains as a result, because you won't be able to keep up the high intensity. In other words, you'll eventually be burning energy through a pathway that yields less energy per second, which won't allow a) maximal strength output or b) optimal recovery between sets for the purpose of strength training. If your goal is metcon, that's ok. If your goal is strength, that's not the way to go. For someone like you who seems to want something of a more balanced approach, try switching up your workouts. Do one as a pure strength workout, and the next time you come across a similar WOD(or whatever you do) try performing it as a metcon!

Remember, these exercises are nothing but tools. How you use them determines what your results will be! If you use them in a metcon format, you will develop excellent metcon. If you use them for strength work you will develop excellent strength. If you use them for endurance, you'll develop great endurance. If you use them for work capacity you'll develop great work capacity. Choose your goal and format your workout to get there! If you have multiple goals(more than two or three is both impractical and may honestly be beyond your ability, so pick the most important ones, like strength and metcon as examples, and alternate), alternate similar workouts(like upper body or planche work or leg work, whatever) between the goals.