Habits to maximize progression

Hi, I was just reading a thread about "how long to get through F1". In this thread the main message that I got was that progress is fastest with consistency and hard work. I am not trying to rush through it, but I want to make the most of it, and maximize my progression. So, what are the specific habits that I can develop to gain strength/mobility. For example, did you do some daily stretching? How often did you do the upper/lower/core elements per week. Any lifestyle changes outside of GST that contributed to your progression? Any other type of training that enhanced your gains? Anything to avoid because it set you back?

i appreciate any wisdom. 

Hi Valerie,

Thanks for reaching out and welcome to the GymnasticBodies community!

Great questions. You're definitely right, in order to succeed in GST patience and consistency is the key. In order to maximize your progress with F1 I would recommend to do the Stretch courses and H1 simultaneously with Foundations. You can also add some daily limbering on your days off or after your workout as a cooldown where you pick a couple of stretches from the series that you struggle with the most. 

I reccomend to begin doing the Foundation workouts once a week to start with. One common mistake is trying to rush through/skip progressions. Make sure that you master each element with good form both on the strength and mobility element. If you're not sure you can always submit a form check either here or via email. Please take advantage of this service. 

Also once you master the different exercises and moving forward on the progression you can add previously mastered elements to your warmup. In this way you always refining the basics and ensuring a strong and solid foundation  

Personally speaking and thanks to scar, that crosses over my carotid artery, in my neck. I am forced to focus on developing the type of "Raw"/Brute strength that is a result of tendon development.  I keep working on a step until I can complete it for up to eight workouts in a row.

Thanks for the tips.

The stretch series has been a significant boost to the foundation progressions. Consistency and stretching has brought me the best progress. 

Great to hear Michael, please keep us posted with your progress  

Weighted mobility. Everything for me started to work when I put Jefferson curls, weighted pancakes and dislocates front and centre in my warmups 3x a week. Didn't miss a session on them for 6 months. Now I am getting the results I should have before that.

Other than that I have consistently found working slower advances faster. Working to keep the reps a little higher works better for me; refining shapes; not being reluctant to dial back when I have a mobility or rehab breakthrough that requires me to relearn a position. Even if it's only say 2% better in a handstand, every bit adds up and leads to the next fix.

While I think I am a work in progress and not at a very high level, I regularly smoke a fair few athletes I train with, so workin slowly is by no means slow progress. I keep two principles in mind when I'm tempted to do too much;

In pro sports no one cares how hard you trained; only how it comes together on game day.

And

Coach's athletes did their conditioning *before* their skill work (which is what they were there to train and compete in).

So eyes on the prize of performance, accomplished via patience hard work is great but it's no good if you can't work hard again tomorrow.

For a single habit for success, form checks. We want to help and we are brutal in our nitpicking at times, but it's all because we are absolutely certain you can accomplish it

That is really helpful!

Is there something that describes how to do the weighted mobility? I have the stretch series, and I can tell that it will make a huge difference, but nothing in there talks about weighted mobility.

Can you also describe your warm up? So far, I have been doing the animal walks and daily limber from fundamentals.

thanks for your help

The weighted mobility is incorporated in the Foundation series. 

The daily limber from Fundamentals is great as a warmup. You can also add some light cardio such as running or jumping. Me personally I also like to warm up with previous mastered elements from Foundations  

Great. I'm still at the beginning, so I will get there soon.

In addition the drills I mentioned, which I have found the most beneficial to carpet-bomb mobility over 90% or so of the body, are described in articles on the GB site

On 1/9/2017 at 1:01 AM, Jon Douglas said:

Weighted mobility. Everything for me started to work when I put Jefferson curls, weighted pancakes and dislocates front and centre in my warmups 3x a week. Didn't miss a session on them for 6 months. Now I am getting the results I should have before that.

Jon, would you be willing to elaborate on this a little bit? I'd love to know what your programming looks like for these elements.

The best way to progress through Foundations is to develop a good warmup. The primary reason for this is because this warmup can be done anytime, anywhere, everyday, good days, bad days, off training days, on holidays/vacations etc. And the best thing about it is you never realize how much you have done when the year is over.

Leo, what does your warm up usually consist of. I have been playing around with different ways to warm up, but I definitely could use tips from your experience. 

Today, I did 20 min skipping, animal walks from fundamentals, and dead hangs. I'm still only on the PE1/2 in the progressions, so I'm still muddling my way through.

True. I rarely cut a session short unless there is something like illness wrong, but knowing my warmup includes a pretty comprehensive stretch means if that's all I get done, then discover it's not a day to train  after all, or get a call i can't ignore, it's still a lot more than nothing

Hi Valerie, what makes you stronger fast? EGO down and first-thing-first UP.

Usually the temptation to speed up the process will results of process failure. since the biggest limitation for all the world are exercise with flexibility limitation you can spend some more time on your weak points and restore them so that you can be enough prepared when the time will come.

7 hours ago, Valerie Morwood said:

Leo, what does your warm up usually consist of. I have been playing around with different ways to warm up, but I definitely could use tips from your experience. 

Today, I did 20 min skipping, animal walks from fundamentals, and dead hangs. I'm still only on the PE1/2 in the progressions, so I'm still muddling my way through.

I'd say 20 min skipping sounds like more than just a warm up. Warm up is just to get your body ready for the work ahead. I'd suggest cut that down to 5 mins and if you have energy left over at the end of your F1 training for cardio then add it in. The 20 mins skipping maybe easy enough if you are right the beginning of F1 but soon you'll be adding in more and more volume (sets and reps) and that 20 mins will have depleted energy that would be better spent on what your here for, F1.

9 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

what makes you stronger fast? EGO down and first-thing-first UP.

Amen. I was so in a hurry to get super strong the first month, I wanted to go from one progression to the next… after a month or two, I surrendered, slowed down, and now taking my time, enjoying the process. There are no shortcuts to building a complete strength. Consistency is the best practice. 

Haha! I've already been humbled by trying to move up too soon. I could easily do MN PE1 step 9, but when I tried to move up to MN PE2, I am completely unable to do a straddle up--so back to PE 1, and work on perfect form for a while before I move up. 

What I was originally getting was not trying to rush through things, but habits that have made progression possible. For instance, if I do the prescribed workouts without an adequate warm up or cool down, then sit all crunched up in a chair for the rest the day, I won't progress as fast or with the same quality as if I work on my mobility daily. So, I guess I'm looking for wisdom that comes from experience. So many of you who have been doing GST longer than me will have tried some things that definitely didn't work, and also developed certain habits around training that have really helped them. 

I come from triathlon training, and I would have lots of advice based on my experience for someone just getting into triathlon. I have no experience with gymnastics, and would love advice from those who are much more comfortable with this type of training.

so far, this thread has been super helpful--I know I need a good warmup, especially with weighted mobility. I'm still trying to figure out the specifics of this, but I am trying different things.

i value quality over speed, and I want ideas to get the best quality from myself

Don't worry guys, I tried moving fast too and ended up in PE1 and now Foundation One is one of my favorite courses  

On 22/01/2017 at 11:21 PM, Leo Trinidad said:

The best way to progress through Foundations is to develop a good warmup. The primary reason for this is because this warmup can be done anytime, anywhere, everyday, good days, bad days, off training days, on holidays/vacations etc. And the best thing about it is you never realize how much you have done when the year is over.

I'd be interested to know your warm up too. :-)

14 hours ago, Leo Trinidad said:

Don't worry guys, I tried moving fast too and ended up in PE1 and now Foundation One is one of my favorite courses  

Same.

I remember reading a GB success story about a guy who started over with PE1 whenever he got stuck on a step to find the weak link in the chian, and I've taken the same approach. When I get stuck, I do a hard reset on all elements. I figure, if I'm really as advanced as I think I am, I'll blaze through it. It's usually a humbling experience

2 hours ago, Benjamin Nutt said:

Same.

I remember reading a GB success story about a guy who started over with PE1 whenever he got stuck on a step to find the weak link in the chian, and I've taken the same approach. When I get stuck, I do a hard reset on all elements. I figure, if I'm really as advanced as I think I am, I'll blaze through it. It's usually a humbling experience

That'll be Leo, who you just quoted, that you're talking about ☺

Just now, Greg White said:

That'll be Leo, who you just quoted, that you're talking about ☺

HA, crazy...I had no idea!

@Samin Ishtiaq, my warmup is like the Fundamentals Course. No reps, sets, just moving and feeling what needs to be worked on/mobilize and do the early elements. Yes, going back to PE1 will be easy if you have really mastered the element. Endurance is easy to train and easy to lose too.  I have just realized that you really need time to be able to sustain your training that is why it is important to move/train as much as you can if you have time.