Beginner in GB - Foundation One

Hi there everyone, my name is Jose. I'm a 32 year old doctor and sport enthusiast from Spain. In the past 4 years I was doing Crossfit at good level and before endurance sports such as triathlon. I decided to change the way I train and orientate it towards bodyweight movements since I think is more healthy, balanced and fun, and specially being quite disappointed with the CF hyper competitive vibe, community and conception in general. Nevertheless the so called "gymnastic components" of this discipline made me become even more interested in olympic gymnastics and Coach Sommer's methodology in particular.

After reading a lot of positive reviews and the recommendation of a friend and GB athlete from Germany, I purchased fundamentals (already completed first two blocks) and foundation one courses but I'm a little bit lost how to begin with it. Should I also purchase the stretch series and handstand one? Or does the three blocks (core, upper and lower body) already include specific stretching? I'm used to train 5-6 times a week with sometimes multiple sessions, but I would like to build strong foundations for this journey I have ahead of me, so any suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance and best regards.

Hi Jose,

Welcome to the forums! Happy to have you on board. 

The Foundation (core, upper body, and lower body) workouts will address mobility and strength in a progressive manner but the stretch courses are highly recommended to be trained each week alongside those. They will help fill in mobility gaps and accelerate your overall progress. The stretch courses will add three 45-minute stretch workouts to your week. 

If you'd like to add a little more training to your week, you can begin skill courses like Handstand One, Handstand Two, and Tumbling One. All three of those are courses that you can start right away. Those courses will complete your access to the beginner level curriculum and grant you access to the ideal weekly training schedule (Coach Sommer's recommended). 

We recommend you finish your last 2 weeks of Fundamentals before beginning other training like your Foundation workouts. As soon as it is, though, you can begin any or all of the courses I mentioned. 

Hope this helps! Please let us know if you have any more questions.

Thanks for your prompt reply Everett. So you think foundation one, HS one, movement (tumbling?) and stretching (5 training sessions plus 3 stretching sessions a week) would make an ideal training schedule after I'm done with the remaining fundamentals workouts right? When do you think I should incorporate splits? 

Hi @Jose Manuel Guerra,

I completely agree with Everett. You can incorporate splits (stretch series) as soon as you finish your Fundamentals Course.

Thanks @Leo Trinidad!

I'd like to add Handstand Two to that list. Although it is an intermediate level course, Coach has put in preparatory elements that can be trained right away. It is optimal to train these alongside H1. If you own both courses, your handstand workout will automatically integrate the two courses into one workout. 

Will do @Everett Carroll, thank you!

One last thing guys, because of CF and autodidact learning I'm able to do 3-5 strict ring muscle ups, skin the cat and and a few other movements. Should I buy the rings course and incorporate one day of rings traning in my schedule, or should I wait until I'm done with foundation one?

Hi Jose,

We strongly recommend finishing Foundation Four first or Foundation Two at an absolute minimum. Starting ring training before having properly conditioned the elbows invariably leads to injury.

Understood. Thanks @Pauline Taube

You're welcome, Jose.

I am looking forward to follow you progress through these courses  

Keep us posted on how you do with your training! 

On 7/5/2017 at 5:22 PM, Jose Manuel Guerra said:

Hi there everyone, my name is Jose. I'm a 32 year old doctor and sport enthusiast from Spain. In the past 4 years I was doing Crossfit at good level and before endurance sports such as triathlon. I decided to change the way I train and orientate it towards bodyweight movements since I think is more healthy, balanced and fun, and specially being quite disappointed with the CF hyper competitive vibe, community and conception in general. Nevertheless the so called "gymnastic components" of this discipline made me become even more interested in olympic gymnastics and Coach Sommer's methodology in particular.

After reading a lot of positive reviews and the recommendation of a friend and GB athlete from Germany, I purchased fundamentals (already completed first two blocks) and foundation one courses but I'm a little bit lost how to begin with it. Should I also purchase the stretch series and handstand one? Or does the three blocks (core, upper and lower body) already include specific stretching? I'm used to train 5-6 times a week with sometimes multiple sessions, but I would like to build strong foundations for this journey I have ahead of me, so any suggestions will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance and best regards.

Welcome Jose Manuel!

I m also from Spain. I m also doing all this courses and they are great. If money is not a problem I d recommed you to train them all. The only thing is that takes time to get used and to learn the movements. So I would add one course each week or at least whenever you feel comfortable. In your way you ll probably have to ask many questions and check your form. It took me like 3 4 months to add almost every course. You can certainly do it faster just depends on how fast you learn! I just don t want you to feel too overwhelmed with so much info. Take it easy, enjoy and keep on adding. Unless you have very good flexibility and mobility already the stretches courses will be essential to progress through Foundation. Keep in mind you have some discounts when you purchase some packs of courses. But this doesn t mean you have to buy all togheter at the begining, you can purchase the bundle later and they will make you the discount. For example you can pay now just for Foundation 1 and later buy F2, 3 and 4 for the same price you could have bought all togheter at the beggining. Remember that!

So welcome again and enjoy!

Hola @Antonio Alías Montoya, I went for F1, Stretching series, HS1 and Movement. Like Everett suggested I will be adding HS2, but I will wait until I'm done with Foundation One to add the second, it might take a while though, after doing my first stretch session of middle split I realised there's a ton of work to do when it comes to ROM and flexibility. Un saludo!

Jose

Enjoy!