Newbie's log

First things first, hello everybody!

I'm new to the gymnastic training so I expect constructive critics. A lots of

My name is Adriano.

Age: 24

Height: 1.81 m

Weight: 75 kg

Been working out since 13 or so. Tried everything; weights, calisthenics, swimming etc.

Before gymnastics, been heavily into Pavel's work; tension, low rep high intensity stuff. Pistols, one armed push-ups, pull ups... you get the idea. Then I read coach Sommer's article on Dragondoor like 2 years ago and finally got the book some 3 months ago.

Designed a routine and been consistent with it for almost 3 months now. Since I'm limited with the equipment, I redesigned some of the exercises (more about that later). Hope to make some vids soon to get professional comments

Been doing 4 workouts a week (mon, tue - thu, fri) but recently decided to do mon - wed - fri. I'm close to 25 now and kinda paranoid about my recovering ability. As I mentioned above, I'm new to this so I followed advices from the book to the letter, with as little dabbling from my side as possible. Also didn't want to play a hero so decided to start from the bottom, with the simplest of exercises. Which proved to be quite tasking afterwards :twisted:

But I have a nasty habit of talking too much... enough of this, this is what I do :

Before any dynamic work, I do static work, just as Coach ordered. Immediately before any pulling, I do tuck front lever, max time halved. The same goes with advanced frog stand and any pushing, tuck back lever and leg work, L-sit and core work. Frog stand is modified since my knees just kept sliding off my elbows. Very annoying. So I let the inner side of my thighs to touch my triceps while keeping my arms straight. Concerning the equipment, I workout at the park where a single bar is all I have. Well, few single bars, each different height, but that doesn't help much. Everything I do, I do 3X3.

Workout 1:

curl ups. these are very challenging without a partner. constant effort to keep the balance is... well... just lovely

single bar dips

weighted SLS

obliques exercise where I hang from the high bar and keep my legs curled at 45 degrees and keep contracting obliques. any name suggestions for this one is appreciated

Workout 2:

chin ups - L

HeSPU - box (one of the lower bars actually)

weighted SLS

RLL

Workout 3:

front lever rows - tuck

push ups where my hands are at hip level

weighted SLS

HLL - tuck

I pair push/press and legs/core. 2 minutes of rest in between sets (push - 2 mins - press - 2 mins etc).

Started November 9. till December 18 (6 weeks). Then had 2 weeks of rest, started January 4. again and I plan to keep this SS till February 12. That's 12 weeks straight.

That's it for now. Type ya soon.

P.S. Excuse my English, it's my second language.

Welcome aboard! Always good to see a new log. Keep us posted!

As I said before, i planed this SS to last 12 weeks. I had 2 weeks off after first 6 weeks. Didn't really notice that those 2 weeks affected my performance. Been doing the routine for the next 5 weeks and this would be week 12. Did the last workout on monday and decided to have rest of the week off and test myself on friday; try new, heavier variations of the exercises, see how much I progressed in static work and based on that, design a new routine that would start from the next monday.

Were those 2 weeks off a setback? I felt really fresh and strong when I started again, but having such a long break after initial 6 weeks needed to adapt my body to the resistance bothers me.

Is it good idea to have this mini-pause this week?

Any advice is appreciated.

I'm at my folk's place right now, testing my progress on a pull-up bar. So far so good.

My new record is:

flat tuck front lever - 11.2 sec; therefore 1 rep is 6 sec

tuck planche - 10.8 sec; 1 rep 6 sec

flat tuck back lever - 13.2 sec; 1 rep 7 sec

MSH bent manna - 9.1 sec; 1 rep 5 sec

I'm really excited, sticking religiously to previous routine seems to have produced far better results than I expected.

Moving to the dynamic exercises now. Update soon.

Moved to the next step of every exercise. It looks like this now:

Day 1:

reverse yewkis on a single bar

single bar dips with under-grip

weighted SLL

same as before, but legs are straight now

Day 2:

pull ups - L

HeSPU negative

weighted SLL

RLL - stall bar (I did those before holding on two vertical bars, one on the left and one on the right of my side, my back on the stall bar. don't ask me to explain. now it's clean stall bar RLL)

Day 3:

flat tuck front lever rows

pseudo-planche push ups

weighted SLL

HLL - half

I still pair static work with appropriate dynamic work. Increased weight with SLLs. Can't wait monday. Hooked heavily.

It's always better to have a mini brake rather then a long one. Two weeks is quite a long one, even for me on this level.

If you take a longer brake you must include in your schedule a very easy trainings every couple of days.

That was around new year. Continued to train with same intensity after that for 5 weeks. Is this going to affect my performance/recovery/adaptation now?

5 weeks is not long cycle this is mini cycle.

Probably you will need to adapt again and performance wont be good as it would be without such a long pause.

Did my new routine yesterday. No problems with static work. Yewkis were quite tasking. Did 3 3 2, felt that wouldn't manage to pull that last rep, so just stopped. Other stuff went more or less smoothly. Will update wednesday and friday. Feel really good about being able to do this new stuff.

Today was disaster. Had a really sh**ty day, but if I had to, I'd say 4 hours of sleep last night were the main reason. Had no problem with static work, but barely managed to pull all of the dynamic work. Feel quite exhausted and tired. Have to get some sleep.

Friday was OK. Struggled a little to complete push/pull. Core and leg went fine. Static work also. Feel little sickly today. If I get sick, I'll probably pause few days. In that case, I plan on going back to previous routine but will keep doing new statics. Too much pauses and intrusions to make quality progress.

After the trial week (last week), finally defined new routine. Doing all the new static positions and core & leg, but rolled back with most of the pulling/pushing. Seems like I didn't acquire enough upper body strength and proficiency with most of the movements. Definitive routine looks like this:

Day 1:

curl ups

single bar dips with under-grip

same as before, but legs are straight now

weighted SLL

Day 2:

pull ups - L

HeSPU - box

RLL - stall bar

weighted SLL

Day 3:

tuck front lever rows

push ups with hands at hips level

HLL - half

weighted SLL

Static work remains:

flat tuck front lever

tuck planche

flat tuck back lever

MSH bent manna

Started 1st of March and planning to do it for 10-12 weeks, 3 times a week, 3X3.

Starting from this week (03.15.), reduced from 3 times a week to 2 times; tuesday and thursday. Going on kettlebell monday - wednesday - friday. Hope this will work.