Adding Gymnastics to my business....

I just found this website and have been spending a large amount of time ( too much time! ) readin all the information on it. I am a Personal Fitness Trainer and Body-weight Strength Training Instructor (BST) in Houston,Texas. I've been a personal trainer for nearly 12 years and train clients out of my personal gym in my home in Houston. My website is located at:

Mike Stewart Fitness

http://www.mikestewartfitness.com

However, gymnastics and "urban fitness" (Bartendaz, B-Rock, Hannibal) etc., has made me rethink the old standby of weight training for my clients. I made my way to this website after watching the fitness videos on YOUTUBE from those black gentlemen in the Bronx and am simply amazed at the level of fitness for just simple style gymnastics on straight bars in the park. This website however better explains gymnastic style exercises to the layman (thats me).

What I am seeking to do is to introduce gymnastic exercises into my business. I am not sure where to proceed first, to be honest ... but I think I can provide some type of gymnastics training to my clients from this genre. Most personal trainers (as most of you know) are horrendously out of shape, the personal training vocation follows the IFBB style of training / nutritional supplementation, and as such, normal people (who work 40-hour a week jobs) simply cannot make a go of it. I've seen this now for nearly ten years. I would like to start making a slow change to gymnastics or "urban gymnastics" as I call it as a supplemental style of training for clients ... but not sure where to start.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

My thanks to those who put this site together.

Regards

Mick

IMO, the most important step you can take is to attend Coach Sommers certification. Second, buy the book and read it over 10 times. The book will also tell you what kinds of equipment you need. Third, incorporate the exercises into your own training so that you can gain first hand understanding of them. Fifth, go back and read every post by Coach Sommer and Ido Portal on this board. Simply click on their names and then "search user posts" or something like that.

You pose an interesting question. Though I wouldn't think you'd get a necessarily unbiased opinion on a gymnastics forum... However, I say consider a few things:

Would they be satisfied with the long preparation time and lack of seeming progress initially?

Would they be patient enough to follow exercise progressions so that they don't injure themselves?

Would your clients enjoy giving up or reducing use of their weight stack and other assisted exercise machines?

Would they be happy knowing that gymnastics doesn't provide the large muscle mass gains you get from heavy weights?

I look around the gym I go to and I see lots of people happy running on the treadmill and doing a few bicep curls. Oh, there are a few other methodologies such as crossfit and TRX, but really they just skirt around gymnastic training. It depends on what your clients might find satisfying.

jl5555 said:

Would they be happy knowing that gymnastics doesn't provide the large muscle mass gains you get from heavy weights?

Not to hijack the thread, but have you ever seen a high level gymnast (yes, that question is rhetorical)? Gymnastics exceeds heavy weight training in shoulder development and is at least the equal in bi's, tri's, and back. Weights only beat gymnastics for hypertrophy in chest and legs.

Just look at Ivan and his friend in their video on the other thread. Pretty swole dudes, a lot better than what you typically see when you walk through most gyms in America.

Hypertrophy is SIMPLY a matter of adequate calories/protein combined with progressive increases in tension and sufficient time under tension (TUT).

In the personal training world, you are just limited by time with your clients unfortunately. It really gets down to your most bang for your buck besides their goals.

I think some people might like the bodyweight exercises more than the barbell exercises until you start getting past the super basic progressions. As well, a lot of people don't take to inversion all that well at first, being uncomfortable with it due to fear or the issues such as the blood going to your head and face (and possible popped capillaries).

For the personal training world, I think it becomes another awesome tool in the box.

As well, the use of a lot of BW exercises would probably depend on their goals. All of them should be able to deck squat, pullup, pushup, situp but it varies person to person and whether we are talking soccer moms or HS girls playing ball sports or normal joes. I've heard a lot of trainers prefer to develop the basic locomotion patterns in some clients before bringing out the barbell, especially if they lack the basic ability to move (which is staggering to me but I see it all the time).

Actually, the first thing is to read all the available GB articles and buy the book/video since the next seminar isn't till May. You have some time.

As well, that urban gymnastics for Bartendaz has a website and DVD out.

Despite all of the book's information being on this website (as most of us have read it), you should buy it yourself. It condenses everything.

Being a trainer for 12 years, I would imagine someone like you could watch youtube videos of gymnasts and create exercises similar to (if not the same) from their motions.

trianglechoke7 said:

......Gymnastics exceeds heavy weight training in shoulder development and is at least the equal in bi's, tri's, and back. Weights only beat gymnastics for hypertrophy in chest and legs.....

Which is probably, what, about 95% of the weight training regular gym rats do?

We're talking regular people here, not high level anything. People engage personal trainers for a few reasons but primarily they are looking for motivation. Sometimes they are looking for variety or specialized training due to injury or other issues. To be successful however you have to be able to do what the clients want and do it in a reasonable amount of time otherwise they will lose interest (ie stop paying you...)

Look, I think incorporating gymnastic/body weight moves into a personal training regimen would be awesome. I personally love the progress I've seen in myself and am very proud of what I can do now that I couldn't do a year ago. People at my gym see me and think I'm sort of a freak but I just tell them it takes a bit of time and some attention to detail and they could do it themselves but you can see in their eyes that they just don't believe you. So there is this inherent bias against gymnastic/body weight training that exists that you have to overcome to convince people to persue your system (ie pay you...)

Blairbob said:

...whether we are talking soccer moms or HS girls playing ball sports or normal joes. I've heard a lot of trainers prefer to develop the basic locomotion patterns in some clients before bringing out the barbell, especially if they lack the basic ability to move (which is staggering to me but I see it all the time).

As well, that urban gymnastics for Bartendaz has a website and DVD out.

I don't know that it's enough just to say you're going to incorporate gymnastic/bodyweight training into your business. People can find most of that at crossfit, etc. I like what Bob says above and maybe incorporate a speciallized angle such as bboy training or parkour. Sell that to teenage boys who aren't doing karate or things like that...

I would have loved doing this kind of training when I was doing karate. Our sensei and shihan frequently had us working on L-sits and rope climbs and a lot of other BW conditioning (a hard/soft style of Okinawan Naha-te). It's also where I learned how to do SLS and frogstand to handstand.

The primary issues are two:

1) Trainers fail to understand how to properly progress through the bodyweight strength progressions; e.g. pushups before dips, dips before HSPUs, German hangs before BL etc.

2) Many people fail to appreciate how large a load bodyweight actually is on more advanced elements.

These two errors compounded on top of each other will indeed lead to unnecessary injuries.

As for the comment of simply creating your own movements, nothing could be further from the truth. Correct progressions must be employed in order to enjoy substantial progress and to allow the body to adapt accordingly. Education is key.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Adding in the rings for pull ups, dips, and front lever work will make a big impression on anyone training for athletics.

You'll want creative marketing, for sure, but to be the most successful trainer you can be you need to learn what people are doing for specific sports or activities, and start practicing those things. There are plenty who will argue otherwise, (and I can take any client and disprove them by training them myself for a month) but you can't be a top quality trainer without having the experience of actually training YOURSELF to a high level in whatever type of training you offer.

I think the best thing you can do for your clients is to think about what everyday people need to be ready for. Carrying laundry, lifting the dog food bag, goofing with the kids, occasionally sprinting after the dog or toddler waddling off towards the street, etc. Kettlebell swings, ring support work and eventually dips, ring pull ups, bar pull ups, weighted and bodyweight squat variations(depending on the person and what they want), PROPER push ups (I have yet to meet more than two trainers who actually know what this means), and HLL progressions will give you a relatively quick and productive workout for people who need real world strength. They'll have more fun, be healthier, and you'll be able to offer proper workouts what are better than what people can get in the gym without springing for tons of equipment.

In the end, it's all about catering to whatever the largest client pools in your area are, but a plate loading kettlebell handle or two like mine(60 bucks each, far cheaper than even light kettlebells, and these can safely go well over 90 lbs), a set of xtreme rings, a 300 lb Olympic weight set and a 350 dollar power rack, along with some homemade adjustable sandbags, and you're ready to rock your clients' worlds without breaking the bank! You'll do better by them and yourself. All that together is less than 1000 dollars.

That's my personal opinion, anyways. Good luck with your business!

I agree with Blairbob about the inversion.

Basic things I have been able to apply into my clients routines: L-sits, leg lifts, all basic forms of pulling with the rings and XR dips. anything like a handstand starts to get into muddy water with most people but at the same time I have taken people (over 225lbs) to straight chest to wall handstands and have utilized all I know in preventative measures.

Nice! People always freak out when they see big guys doing handstand stuff.