My experience with GST

Hi,

would like to share some of my experiences I made in the past 26 months being a member of this great community.

I am 56, 186cm and 80KG; my main sport activity is/was running. Personal bests (from last year)

Marathon: 3:22:44

10k: 41:46 (my dream is to run below 40 minutes)

Don’t know exactly when but there was a day when I realized that endurance is not enough to stay fit & healthy in a long run. Mobility and strength is as least as important. With this idea I did some search in the Internet and found this community.

When I started with F1 my goal was to move forward as fast as possible and manage mastery soon. As you can image this approach didn´t work well. After a few months I was exhausted and reduced the weekly workload. And after some more months I even stopped doing any GST training.

In January 2016 (during a Ski trip) I took the decision to restart with a different approach. Today I am half way in F1 for most exercises and in F2 for some other. I am very happy about my progress. Here some of my lessons I learned and what I changed in my life:

GST is a kind of lifestyle. You have to integrate in into your daily life. I am quite sure that I will do GST in the couple of years.

My schedule is:

M: F4

T: F3 + H1

W: F4

T: F3 + H1

F: F4

Sa: F3 + H1

So: MS and FS while my wife is watching TV (for the German readers: during Tatort)

TS (still very challenging for me): I do when I have some energy left during the week.

When I am in vacations I do less; when I am on a business trip I use the day(s) as deload day(s).

I am not member of a Gym. I train at home. This saves a lot of time because you can start immediately whenever you are ready.

I use paper and pen to track my training. In each training session I want to be better than in the last one. Many times I do micro steps like 5*30reps, 5*31reps, 5*32reps to reach e.g. 5*60reps. This takes more time but this way works great for me.

Exercise I don´t like (e.g. like Vertical Pike Walk) I do more than in the schedule. Doing so it changes the “relationship”; today Vertical Pike Walk is one of my favourite exercises.

GST is the cheapest hobby/sport you can do. You just need gym trousers. Ok you have to pay for the shower but that´s it. So doing GST saves you quite a lot of money in comparison to other activities. Take this money and invest it in the BEST equipment you can buy/affort. Can´t imagine a life without stall bars anymore.

Follow coach Sommer´s tips but more important: be your own coach; listen to your body and change things if necessary.

Be active in your everyday life: On a map of my city I have drawn a 5miles circle around my house. Whenever I have to reach a destination within this circle I use my bike and not the car.

As a WarmUp I do some of those exercises I mastered in the past and every second day in addition JCs. I increase the weight by 1KG every month.

Before I sleep I try to visualize next days training. This is a good preparation for and as a side effect it helps me to fall asleep.

I read most forum articles and watch every “form check video” and all the valuable comments from the forum coaches.

I do videos from myself and compare them with the mastery videos.

MS: I use the “120s Isometric Middle Split” exercise as an indicator of my progress. I started with 125cm  (3 months ago) and now I am at 160cm. (Distance between left and right foot).

FS: I use the “90s Vertical Lunge Bent” as an indicator of my progress. I started with 72cm  (3 months ago) and now I am at 138cm. (Distance between wall and feet in front)

Hi Dieter,

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Congratulations on your achievements  patience and consistency is the key. And most students realize after some time that there's no point of rushing through  

7 hours ago, Dieter Wichmann said:

Exercise I don´t like (e.g. like Vertical Pike Walk) I do more than in the schedule. Doing so it changes the “relationship”;

I always do that too  it's all about habits. We can learn how to love anything.

Great post, @Dieter Wichmann… I also always read all posts, all form checks, and always try to analyze the videos myself before I read the coaches' answers. It's very educational.  This entire community here is amazing!!!  

You sir are on track

10 hours ago, Dieter Wichmann said:

during Tatort

How come it doesn't kill you to do two stretch series in a row?

Hi Leonard,

again TS is very challenging for me. Couldn´t do TS and (MS or FS) in a row. 

There was one post by a trainer saying (hope I remember right) that on a scale from 1 (no pain) to 10 (painful) you should do stretching with an intensity of 3 to 4. In addition I do some short breaks between certain exercises. I know it´s against the rule but it works for me.

And - because I am a runner - my endurance capabilities are not so bad...

Hope this answer your question?

Best regards

-Dieter

Hi Dieter,

Thank you very much for this post. It is both motivational and instructive. I will use this to give to some of my friends who are thinking about starting GST to get an idea what it is all about.

Greetings,

Hermann

You do GST every day?! Wow, your recovery is tip-top. That is impressive on so many levels. Kudos to you for having everything dialed in. 

Great story Dieter.  Have you researched the Movement Course?  A month after starting Movement One, I had noticeable improvements in Foundation and Handstand training.  Nice work!

Hi Mark,

I do the Movement training when there is time left and sometimes as the warmup.

-Dieter