***Part way through thought, sorry for the length of this, it ballooned on me and kinda turned into a confession of sorts. I was a bit of ego lifter? (not sure the proper gymnastics term for that.) Then I just kinda got in the flow of writing and it became more of a purge/confession. So I ran with so that I can start fresh and have some accountability going forward. (This totally skimmable and there's a TL;DR at the end, as I really just need some advice on increasing frequency of workouts and working through plateaus.) With that in mind, here's my confessions of being a former ego (novice) gymnast. (maybe that's better).***
Hello everyone,
So I'm finally getting back into the swing of things after about 8-10 months off. (Fell into a deep depression and started a business.. 2017 was a rough year.)
Any who, I've been performing my weekly workouts for about 3 weeks now, (minus a few days of being sick) and I'd like some advice on how to gradually increase my workload.
Background:
Growing up, I've always been more of a sprinter/explosive athlete, (so lower volume but high intensity, so sports like basketball, football, track (sprinter/throwing), weightlifting.) So after about 2 years of following the foundation courses and before my hiatus in 2017 I was at or around the following places:
FL: PE7: 4x2x10sec (God... these... This and RC PE6 were the bane of my existence... More on this later...)
Planche: SE3: 3x18sec (I'm most proud of this one) though I was still working on SE1s mobility.. (I'll probably get my a lot of flack for that... sorry coach... SE1 was just getting easy, but I was struggle busing on the mobility, so I progressed.)
Side: PE11: 3x1 (I could probably do more, but my form wasn't the best, as my shoulders were tight when I got my feet to the bar. So I'll need some advice on this at some point in the future.)
Manna: PE6: 4x3x10s (god these f***ing sucked... again anything endurance related = me sucking ass... *Major weakness.*)
SLS: SE9: 3x1 (though it should be noted, my ego was big on this one. I didn't test mastery on everything like I should have, as I knew I could already do pistols)
HBP: PE12: 3x2
RC: PE6 - (this was back when 60s was mastery) I got to 3x36 sec
HS1: PE11: 4x48sec (god I was sooo close... this hurts a little to write as I was actually working to keep my ego in check and bring my wrists to the wall..........)
HS2: PE6: 3x1 - was having trouble with these as I was doing them on a dip bar... I'd do more then this, but I wouldn't count my progress because I couldn't quite get my ankles to it. (Also I'll need to go back and work on the mobility more then anything as I was using 24 hour fitness [pretty standard weightlifters gym] during this time and was struggling to find ways to do the mobility on a lot of things. BUT I'm finally building some stall bars. Superrrrr excited for this!)
Wrist work: Was pretty much just doing 10 reps of each as I'd completed all the mastery. (I enjoyed progressing in this a lot more then I thought I would..)
So anything that was strength based (HBP, SLS, and Planche) I was crushing it. (Could have blown through the next several RCs as before I even got into GB I was doing pull ups for volume, L-sits and with weight - sometimes both. Best was like BW+75 pounds = 305 total). BUT just about anything endurance related (especially elbow), I would struggle at... (Well, kinda, I did well with some like HS work, but struggled with others.)
Now I also want to add this caveat, I was probably using my ego a bit more then I should have and I have since reset back to PE1 on everything (both cause I needed it with the time off and because during that time I reflected a lot on everything and saw that I was rushing and not using as strict form as I should have been, so I want to make sure I do things properly from now on.)
Also, I own all 4 foundation courses, Handstand 1 & 2, Thrive, all the stretch series and the ring course (I had to.. the curiosity was killing me..... hahaha) ]
Though coach, if you're reading this, I was NOT actually doing any of the ring exercises. I just really wanted to know what I was in for and what progress was going to be like.
Seeking advice:
So here's where I'm needing some guidance. With the above schedule, I was doing each workout 1/week, stretching after each workout. I'm now following the updated schedule (below), however I'd like to do more. I'm 24, and this is my sole sport/training that I do and I want to do this for the rest of my life.
I imagine that long term, I'll be able to just do each workout x2/week (except stretching) or something like that. But in the meantime, I'd like to gradually build into more. So I was just wondering how do I go about doing that? Do I focus on my strengths or weaknesses? What does the programming look like for that? When do I add the extra workouts in?
So for example, probably the biggest road block I was hitting (for over a year, I know, I should have come on the forum a lot sooner... again my ego...) was my elbow endurance. It was the reason I was making little progress on both my FL and RC. I was stuck on those for most of my time doing GB (just under 2 years). (I don't think I actually injured myself, luckily, but I was probably dancing on that razor blade and was just constantly struggling to make progress.)
So how do I build that? Just time? Go slower? Lose more weight (I was round 220 at the time)? Follow more of a Steady State Cycle? I was listening to podcast or something where Coach was talking about this with dead lifting. He mentioned he keep his athletes to 1 step (he used 135 pounds for like 15 reps or something as an example) and they stayed on that for 12 week blocks. I could see how I was really missing out on the deloading phase he was talking about. (Though this was a common theme for me. I was in such a rush to get to more advanced things I would never let myself fully develop with where I was.)
So if SSC is to be incorporated, is just to be used for weakness? Plateaus?
Essentially I'm hoping to do less intense but more frequent workouts. I don't know if I'll make progress as quick, but I'll get to do it more often, which I'll get to enjoy instead. And seeing as how this is really one of my main hobbies and priorities in life, I think that doing it more often will help me slow down. (sorry for all the tangents.. haha)
Idea: For the extra workouts, something I was wondering, would it be better to do half of the step I'm on, or go down a exercise or two and do full volume of that. EX: Back when I was on RC PE6, say I was doing Step 6 as my normal workout (5x18sec). On the extra workout would it better for me to do PE6 3x9sec? or PE 5, 4, or even 3 and do like Step 8 or 9.
OR, would it better to just not do extra of this, since it was a weakness and focus on something extra HBP. (Again, do I just do half or a quarter of whatever step I'm on, do I exercise or two and work on those more advanced steps?)
I apologize if this is too long or complicated, I'd just like some advice. I searched through the forms before posting this, but couldn't anything similar.
If this is more advanced advice then this forum is intended to provide, I'd be happy to pay for a mods time to help work with me on getting a framework set from which to work from.
I'd like to conclude this by saying that I'm not looking for answer I'll feel good about. I read a lot the suggestions on here and people usually want things to fit in to how they think it should (with mods and others often pretty telling them that's not going to work.) I don't want that. While I understand that I'm 6'2 & 247 pounds (right now... I'm stress eater and depression wasn't kind to me, but that's being worked, sweets and portion sizes. My Achilles heel. Always have been.) So I know it will take me time to get back into things fully, but I'm in this till the day I die (before my hiatus, I was going on 2 years of training. So this isn't a quick decision.)
I want to do what will make me the best gymnast possible. I don't care how long it takes.
TL;DR: I was an ego trainer? (again not sure on proper wording for that). Got extremely depressed while also starting a new business, so this lead me to take about 9 months off. Found it be very humbling, and am starting over from the beginning and would like to shift from being super intense each workout, to a more moderate pace and increase the overall frequency of my training.
For those workouts, do I work on strengths, weaknesses, what I feel like that day or some combo? How do I structure these extra workouts (same step as normal, only less reps, or easier things, with higher reps)? Finally, when do I do them, whenever I feel like? On days I just do middle split and movement? Or maybe extending core and Upper body days?
Thank you for reading this and for helping me in anyway.
Cheers,
Matt
P.S. Here's my current workout schedule. Just the standard one given.
Monday
Core
Tuesday
Middle Split
Wednesday
Lower Body
Front Split
Thursday
Upper Body
Friday
Handstand
Thoracic Bridge
Saturday
Movement
Sunday
Rest