Starting Days 1-6

Hi All, Just catching up on Robb Wolf podcasts and came across the one with Coach Sommer. So glad I did. I am a 58 year old woman who did 3 day per week strength and olympic lifts work with a good coach for almost 4 years. I feel like I really improved on my strength in those years, but about 1 1/2 years ago, pulled a hamstring muscle in my right leg  just bending over, which can still bother me today if I carry a load low and in front of me (like a bale of hay, for example) for a distance or have to hike up a long hill without stopping. I particularly felt it doing cleans and snatches, and then developed some piriformis issues, so decided that maybe olympic lifting was not where I wanted to stay. I am not interested in being hurt - I want to be healthy and strong. I have always been strong but also pretty inflexible. I now have a home gym where I reduced the weights some from where I was and still do back and front squats, presses, deadlifts, and benches, none of which bother the hamstring at all. Hearing about this program was like fate - exactly what I wanted and definitely need. I am on Day 4 and loving every minute of it. I can get into position pretty well with Crab but can't move worth a darn, and Ape is a big challenge to get the heels down, despite all the years of squats. Good news is wrist mobility is great and the body positions are not too bad. Looking forward to the entire series and moving into Foundations next. Thanks for the program!

Hi Laurie,

Welcome to GymnasticBodies! Glad to see you are making such great notes of how your body is responding to the lessons. The restrictions you described with both crab and ape are very common. I suggest working on them each day, before your new lesson, and you will see incredible improvement over the month. As you progress, feel free to add in other particularly difficult exercises into this routine. The courses to follow like Foundation One will then address these deficits even more specifically. In no time you will be cruising around in both of these!  

Everyone begins GST with all sorts of areas that need attention so don't worry; the fun and rewards of the courses are found in the process of improving them. Let us know if you have any questions along the way and enjoy!