Recommended Approach for Intermediate One

I had a question about how best to approach the Intermediate One course. I'm 6'4"/200lbs and my only background prior to subscribing to GymFit has been regular pull-ups, dips, rows, etc. After coming across Coach Sommer on some podcasts, I fell in love with all his ideas, especially the concept of taking it slow and steady and letting the body build out strength and tolerance gradually. Therefore, I'm a huge fan of this approach and no matter how many pull-ups or other body weight exercises I can do, I will be scaling myself down to the level of Intermediate One and following the course religiously.

This is where I have some questions about what the recommended approach is to follow Intermediate One:

1. Is this the right place to post questions about Intermediate One? I could not find a forum specific to Intermediate One, that's why I'm posting it under Foundation One, which I know Intermediate One covers.
2. Given my commitment to religiously following the course and sticking to it, I was hoping to get some guidance on when I should be increasing reps. The course starts off at 3x3r, and my intention is to stick to this until I can do perfect clean form for each rep and set, without any weakness throughout the range of motion. This is my understanding of what Coach Sommer refers to as Steady State Cycles. The idea is to not try to increase reps every week but rather stick to a particular cycle for up to 12 weeks. However, the course itself does not suggest this (nor does it suggest the opposite), so I was wondering if I should be thinking in a SSC mindset for Intermediate One? Or is the idea that 3x3r is too low volume to make any progress, even if you stick to it for 12 weeks, due to the progressions being beginner progressions. Would that mean that I should try to progress through the early progressions until I hit harder ones, before incorporating SSC? Any guidance in general with regard to this would be much appreciated.
3. I have been told numerous times that my height is a huge disadvantage when it comes to gymnastics strength training. Regardless, I'm dedicated to sticking through this. Are there any differences in how I should be approaching some of this stuff due to this disadvantage? Are there certain things I should pay extra careful attention to? Are there any specific problems I should watch out for?

TL:DR I am a big fan of Coach Sommer's SSC approach to strength training and would like to apply it to Intermediate One. Is this recommended? Should I stick to 3x3r or 5x3r on beginner progressions for months? Or is that approach reserved for the more advanced courses?

On 12/13/2024 at 6:44 PM, Ismail Tigrek said:

I had a question about how best to approach the Intermediate One course. I'm 6'4"/200lbs and my only background prior to subscribing to GymFit has been regular pull-ups, dips, rows, etc. After coming across Coach Sommer on some podcasts, I fell in love with all his ideas, especially the concept of taking it slow and steady and letting the body build out strength and tolerance gradually. Therefore, I'm a huge fan of this approach and no matter how many pull-ups or other body weight exercises I can do, I will be scaling myself down to the level of Intermediate One and following the course religiously.

This is where I have some questions about what the recommended approach is to follow Intermediate One:

1. Is this the right place to post questions about Intermediate One? I could not find a forum specific to Intermediate One, that's why I'm posting it under Foundation One, which I know Intermediate One covers.
2. Given my commitment to religiously following the course and sticking to it, I was hoping to get some guidance on when I should be increasing reps. The course starts off at 3x3r, and my intention is to stick to this until I can do perfect clean form for each rep and set, without any weakness throughout the range of motion. This is my understanding of what Coach Sommer refers to as Steady State Cycles. The idea is to not try to increase reps every week but rather stick to a particular cycle for up to 12 weeks. However, the course itself does not suggest this (nor does it suggest the opposite), so I was wondering if I should be thinking in a SSC mindset for Intermediate One? Or is the idea that 3x3r is too low volume to make any progress, even if you stick to it for 12 weeks, due to the progressions being beginner progressions. Would that mean that I should try to progress through the early progressions until I hit harder ones, before incorporating SSC? Any guidance in general with regard to this would be much appreciated.
3. I have been told numerous times that my height is a huge disadvantage when it comes to gymnastics strength training. Regardless, I'm dedicated to sticking through this. Are there any differences in how I should be approaching some of this stuff due to this disadvantage? Are there certain things I should pay extra careful attention to? Are there any specific problems I should watch out for?

 

TL:DR I am a big fan of Coach Sommer's SSC approach to strength training and would like to apply it to Intermediate One. Is this recommended? Should I stick to 3x3r or 5x3r on beginner progressions for months? Or is that approach reserved for the more advanced courses?

HI Ismael....

well to make ti simple...

the main problem is technique so use the private forum to have a check of your exercise and if it is ok and you can complete a fixed number of set and reps move on, this is the correct process.

Height can be a problem but one of my strongest athlete can do this 

   and this 

so

if your weight is more on the upper you will have less advatageous...

if you kacl of muscles probably you should include more isolation work for biceps, triceps, shoulders etc

if your mass is in the lower body you need more muscels in the upper to compensate for it.

Thank you @Alessandro Mainente for your response.

As a follow-up question, is it correct for me to be following the example weekly schedule that the Intermediate One course generates? Or should I be creating a custom tailored schedule suited to my needs? Specifically, I'm worried that this schedule might just be meant as an example to showcase the variety available at GymFit, but not intended for actual use. Currently, the schedule only has me work each Foundation chunk twice a week (ex: Foundation Upper Body on Monday and Thursday). Will this provide enough weekly volume/repetition to build strength? Or am I supposed to tailor it so that the chunk I want to improve in I end up doing at least three times a week?

18 hours ago, Ismail Tigrek said:

Thank you @Alessandro Mainente for your response.

 

As a follow-up question, is it correct for me to be following the example weekly schedule that the Intermediate One course generates? Or should I be creating a custom tailored schedule suited to my needs? Specifically, I'm worried that this schedule might just be meant as an example to showcase the variety available at GymFit, but not intended for actual use. Currently, the schedule only has me work each Foundation chunk twice a week (ex: Foundation Upper Body on Monday and Thursday). Will this provide enough weekly volume/repetition to build strength? Or am I supposed to tailor it so that the chunk I want to improve in I end up doing at least three times a week?

well, if you have the knowledge to build up your own workout you can look for more personalyzed work. 

twice a week it is usually enough.

4 hours ago, Alessandro Mainente said:

well, if you have the knowledge to build up your own workout you can look for more personalyzed work. 

twice a week it is usually enough.

Okay so the course is meant to be applied as is, and doing each exercise only twice a week, and working on all seven skills weekly will allow me to progress steadily as long as I stick to it?