Saber2 Workout Log & Comments

Hey all I am semi new to the gymnastic training. I am also on Rosstraining.com as deadjustice but haven't posted in a while. Anyway I got into gymnastics because I am a bodyweight enthuthiast, the only weights I use are weight vests, medicine balls, and sandbag training. I fell into gymnastics because I see this will extend my bodyweight training for a long period of time. About me:

Age 26

Height 6'2''

Weight 185-190 "Allways fluctuating becauseI have a hard time allowing myself to get away from my former fighting weight plus it helps me ensure I monitor my diet"

Anyway this is my workout schedule so far:

Day 1: Pulling Strength

Front Lever 8 x 8s

Pushup variations 5 x 5 One Arm Push ups, PPPs, Suspended Flys with TRx-like straps

Glute Ham Raises 5 x 5 (these can be weighted, when I get there)

Core 5x5 Flags

Day 2: GPP/Intergrated Circuit Training/WOD or explosive strength

Day 3: Pressing strength

Planche work 5 x 6s

Pull up Variations 5 x 5-8 (With a focus on one arm chins)

Headstand pushups 5x5 (I need to separate these from the others because I want to improve these)

One legged squats 5x5 (weights ok but not there yet)

calf work

Core work

Day 4: GPP/Integrated Circuti Training/WOD

Day 5: The Blender

Here I will throw whatever I want into the mix. However I am thinking of it being more a multiplane pushes and presses that also incorporate core. IE L pullups, L dips. Nonetheless if my workouts slacked through the week I will probably make it a GPP

Day 6: Rest/ light work (this is when I will probably play with the back lever)

Day 7: Rest

I plan on going with the steady state cycle. My ownly concern is getting too bored and trying to increase when I shouldn't. Anyway please comment on what you guys think of this routine or modality.

Goals I invision as a direct result:

Iron Cross

Tuck Planche on rings

MUSCLE UP!!!

OACU

Handstand (unassisted)

Indirect result

Stronger pull ups either more reps or more weight.

So I have been following this now for about a month give or take a week. I am still enjoyin the workout but I feel my planche is getting sloppy. At first I was only doing 5x6s reps but upped it to maintain the 60s suggestion that Coach mentioned in his book.

Anyway Critiques are more than welcome. Thanks

Friday 3/19 Ran hills (if the whether is good I think Friday might be a hill day)

Mon 3/22

10 x 6s tuck planche

2x3 One arm chins

3x6 Front Lever pulls

1x5 Human Flag (This is feeling stronger)

1x5 Hannging Circulars

1x5 Hanging Leg Raises (Toe touches bar)

2x15 Floor Wipers

1x5 SLS on stairs 1x4 SLS on floor (Left Leg is stronger than my right so I am not sure if I should stay on the stairs to get an even workout or go to the floor to maximize the leg that can work)

I guess by the look of it my workout was more a core focus. I just wanted to ask that when you are finished doing the planche do your forearms "lock" up. By that I mean I feel such tension that I wait a few seconds before I let go of the parallettes. (My parallettes are regular push up handles, it gets the job done)

Tue 3/23

Conditioning

5 sets of:

20 Med Ball Slams

10 Plyometric pushups

10 Stair Jumps (3rd stair) I don't have a plyo box so stairs work for me

10 Explosive one arm rows with strong resistance band each arm

Random excercises

Human Flag 1x5

V-ups 1x15

80lb Sandbag Getup

Bridge work

I think I might focus my conditioning on density type workouts. Set time limit and try to do as many reps or rounds as possible.

3/24

Skill/Strength

6x10s Tuck Front Lever ( Legs are vertical and in a straddle position)

3x5 One arm Push ups

3x10 PPP

3x6s L sits

2,3,2,1,4 HeSPU

3x4 Hanging Leg Lifts (L to V)

I thought this was a good workout but tomorrow I have something in store for my conditioning. I feel like I have soley been focusing on my skill work and my conditioning is taking a hit. I know I have 3 days of conditioning but I look forward more to the skill/strength days. I am starting to log my weight and body fat and plan on doing it on a weekly basis, I am hoping this will cause me to be more disciplined about my diet.

If any of the viewers have any comments/suggestions please chime in.

3/25

Conditioning

As many rounds as possible (AMRAP) in 20 Mins

10 pullups

10 Sandbag Cleans

10 Plyo Pushups

10 knee tucks

I got 7 rounds not mad and not happy. I was hoping for 8-9 rounds. Nonetheless, this was definitely the conditioning I was looking for. I got this workout from Ross Emanait's Infinite Intensity, the workout originally calls for 10 dumbell swings per arm, but I try to avoid traditional weights unless absolutely needed.

Things I noticed, I need to practice on volume of pullups, because ever since I started a focus on gymnastic training my set volume on the bar has dropped. Strength went up no I just need to reinstate some endurance. So I think I will try gtg and do 1 set of 10 every day and slowly increase.

3/29

5x6s tuck planche work

3 x10s Advance Frogstand

3x3 assisted OACU

3x5 tempo Pullups strict form

3x6s L sits

3x5 L-V leg lifts

3x3 HeSPU

Overall a decent workout I was lacking motivation at first but the planche work felt good.

3/30

Conditioning

10 rounds of

10 burpees

10 med ball slams

Time 12:14

This was more challenging than I anticipated, but I am glad because I haven't done burpees in a while.

4/05

Conditioning

Last week felt more like a back off week so I just rolled with it. This week I am hoping to amp it up again.

Yesterday felt like a bad day (diet wise) so today was conditioning. I did tabata intervals (8 rounds of 20s work 10s rest) for 3 excericse

2 handed 80lb KB swings

Medicine Ball Slams

Jump Roping

This was a real good workout to start the week the heart beat was up to around 170bpm, and I felt exhausted. All in all a good workout tomorrow I will be doing my usual monday routine and this week the pullups go from 10-11 per day.

Personally I think you've got too much going on. I see you as doing way too much work on similar muscle groups back to back. Doing strength work on push ups and then doing conditioning with them the next day is going to short circuit your attempts at strength gains. Look at your program. Anywhere that you see things like that, you're going to get better results by having at least 1 actual rest day for the muscle group in question, and possibly more.

Thanks Slizzardman

Iast week was rough, I caught some nasty bug so I licked my wounds.

4/12

Today was light too (bugs not completely gone but at least getting better)

5x6s Tuck Planche

3x7 Pullups (Strict Form)

3x7 Tempo Bodyweight rows

1x5 Flag

1x5 Standing Ab wheel rollouts

1x15 V-ups

Handstand work. I was trying to go unassisted but didn't work then I walked myself closer to the wall and then fell.

Notes: Not a bad workout, obviously not the intensity I would have liked but I must crawl before I run. Not sure what I am gonna do for tomorrow conditioning. Definitely will be taking slizzardman's advice, so maybe tomorrow might be a stretch day instead.

I initially skipped the advanced frog stand, but since I have started training it specifically I honestly think no one should skip it. Hell, I can hold a somewhat ok bent arm straddle planche now and I haven't even started training tuck planche yet. I'm doing 4 sets of 20 seconds advanced frog with 60s rest per set. I do this 3x per week and it is almost silly how fast everything is improving. I wish I had done this the first time around. I'm seriously never doing work sets under 15 seconds again for any static.

I agree with slizzardman on this one.

I think doing the advanced frog stands has really helped my balance, elbows, and wrist joints. I can do the flat tuck planche quite easily when I first started as well, but advanced frog stand was really hard for me, so I thought there must be some inherent development I will be missing if I skipped these and moved on later. I think because my elbows and wrist joints have gotten stronger, I will be able to lean forward more, and my later progressions for planche will be easier.

I think that's exactly what happens. In fact, I think advanced frog is the most important step now.

also to note, i started training advanced frog stands on parallettes first. That strengthened my elbows. I then moved to floor, which is still strengtening my wrist and balance.

When I can do 8 sets of 15 seconds without falling over in between, that's when i'll start tuck plance, focusing on leaning as much as I did on advanced frog stand.

Can't wait to see how that goes! I'm going to work up to 5x30s before I start tuck. Actually, I'm not going to be doing tuck at all. What I will be doing is using the advanced frog to do a "flat tuck" advanced frog and then slowly take more weight off my elbows every few weeks until I am in a freely supported flat tuck. At that point every few weeks I will extend an inch or a few out into the straddle. In my mind, at least, and so far in practice this has turned out to be an excellent tool. I'm already nearly in flat tuck advanced frog with no problem. The extra wrist strength from this is great! Later this summer I'll be taking weight off my arms little by little! This is very exciting to me

hmm that is an excellent idea. I think I would prefer that over doing the tuck/flat tuck because it 'll teach me to continue to balance and using the amount of lean I presently need. When at tuck/flat tuck right now, i'm not leaning nearly as much. I will totally use this protocol. Great progression idea. Btw, are you using floor or paralletes?

also slizzard man, when do you recommend moving up on statics.

I noticed you wrote:

I wish I had done this the first time around. I'm seriously never doing work sets under 15 seconds again for any static.

What is your progression for attacking a static? say i'm at 15 seconds right now for a skill, but I can't do 15 seconds of the next progression, then what do you recommend?

Keep working your current static with longer sets. Once you're doing 3-5 work sets of 30 seconds with 1 minute rest you should find that your next progression is well within your reach. An alternative is to start with the harder progression, and when you get close to the limit switch to the previous progression, like tuck to adv frog for example, or flat tuck back to tuck. You figure out what time in each position works for you, repeat it for a few weeks, and then try extending the harder part until it takes the whole set. I would recommend using the second method with caution. Slow and steady is better with the elbow stuff.

You can also keep in mind that these positions are on a continuum. They are not separate, they are just easily identifiable steps from being tucked up to being in full lay. You can move an inch at a time from tuck to flat tuck, from flat tuck to straddle, etc. If you're doing 15s work sets you're not ready to start that yet. Be doing at least 4x20s minimum for safety! If you aren't using 60s rests start! You should be able to do this before you move on. If you can't, your body isn't ready for that extra inch of extension. You should find that with this method you make fairly regular progress. I think that this is how I am going to approach all of my statics from now on, personally. It's smarter than making such big jumps. You never get ahead of your tendons and you never put a huge amount of extra stress, so it's easy to make regular baby steps. It's the same way the old time weight lifters increased their lifts. They used globe barbells/dumbbells/kettlebells and added a few grains of lead shot each workout. After a few years they were all lifting monstrous weight even by today's standards. That's how it's always been done, the plate loading industry is simply more convenient and accessible. Doesn't mean that method works better, it just makes more money. The same concept of gradual increases is applied in many of these exercises. Just look at Coach's recommendations for the handstand push up progressions! Once you are doing good sets of HeSPU on the floor raise your hands by 1 inch a month. That's pretty slow, and it allows for safe and regular progress to be made without significantly more stress added at any one time. It's the WAY!

interesting .... so how does this sound to you?

start with 4x15 and work my way up to 4x20

at that point start playing around with inching away to the next progression.

Start also moving towards 4x30. At 4x30 , if i still can't do 15 seconds of the next progression, then add a fifth set in, and shoot down to 5x20 seconds or so and advance up to 5x30. etc...

Also, you mention 60 seconds rest, how do you combine them with multiple statics? I like to do static a, static b, static c in rounds with 30 seconds in between the statics, and 90 seconds in between rounds. And I do all my statics 3 times a week (PL, FL, BL). I did however just start my routine..

I like the sound of that. I normally do play with the advance frog tuck every other day but nothing structured. Also I try to add so many excercises that reducing the number of sets but increasing the time will help me out too.

yea i think i'll just make sure my times continue to increase each day, and I won't really specifically train the next progression until I feel I have a pretty solid form on my next progression for a solid 3+ seconds, and then I will just include it while working on the previous progrsesion

There's nothing wrong with what you're doing with the static a,b,c superset. Once in a while I would do straight sets with 60s rest just to test your endurance, but I think you will make similar gains and save time. Personally, I do pairs of the statics. I do planche and front lever together and I do 20s adv frog, 10s rest, 20s adv tuck front lever, 10s rest, repeat 3-4x. I like building the work capacity of the muscles that way. I don't really think it's better or worse than what you're doing, just different. It works with what I do lol!

4/14

Strength

4x Tuck Back Lever (12s) roll into front lever(15s)

3 x 5 Standing Ab wheel rollouts

3 x 5 Milkshakes

I wanted to do more but started coughing a lot (This damn illness needs to leave ricky f***ing tick) Anyway I was thinking how I might strucutre my routine to take into consideration Slizzardman's advice.

Monday Strength Press No more throwing back in with this just find more pressing excercises

Tuesday Conditioning Most likely jump roping and bag work, hill work, or an overall ab day

Wednesday Strength Pulling

Thursday Conditioning Here I will work on pressing moves like burpees and so forth

Friday Conditioning with a focus on pulling moves like high rep pullups

Slizzardman I am definitely looking forward to your critiques. Thanks

What are your goals? Are you going for a particular sport or just having fun?

I think that your approach will be good for generalized upper body performance, but where is your leg strength work?

Mostly having fun. I am doing gymnastics because I am more of a bodyweight enthuthiast and don't have access to a gym. Also I like bodyweight workouts because of my military past. I know the leg work is shotty at best. Some days I do single leg squats and others reverse ham curls. I have no desire to increase the size in my legs and I do a lot of jumping and squatting on conditioning days. But overall I am mainly going for the fun aspect.

Well, as long as you don't go overboard on any of your days you're going to have a great time! I look forward to hearing your progress over the rest of the year!