start from scratch

No problem - call it like I see it.

Hmmm. Yes, my flexiblity could use some work for sure. It's not something I've been able to address much using

traditional passive or active stretching, pnf , karate training, julstro (trigger point), especially the hamstrings.

I'm hoping that gymnastics will - much like yoga would - if I could stand yoga. But I can't. I do have a therapist working

on releasing my hip which is jammed up. One release may lead to another ....

Personally I find that I'm only motiviated to train if I have a performance goal. I'll train for

for tennis matches, I'll train for running races. So I need to have a routine that I'd like to perform at some point, even if it will take a year to be able to do. Mabye there will be an old-farts gymnastic competition someday like there are masters

competition in swimming, running, etc

focus on rings then, I guess it's the apparatus most suited to adult newcomers. Postpone floor and vaulting expectations for a while. Parallel bars should probably be your second focus as both high bar and pommel horse are on a very steep learning curve.

As far as a performance goal can go, I'd say the basic ring strenght routine (1 and 2) should be on top of your list.

Introduce swinging practice from the beginning on both SR (still rings) and PB (parallel bars). I'm gonna be ecstatic the day I'll perform my first dislocate. Here's how to guide yourself through your routine goal settings:

http://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/Rings/

http://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/pbar/

Hope it helps.

I think I'm developing elbow's tendinitis or some other elbow's issues, I feel discomfort in my left elbow, I guess it's because of an old injury on left shoulder which force my elbow and wrist to work harder on support and other strenght elements, besides I've been putting too much enthusiasm on MU, ignoring how hard the transition felt on elbows. So even now that I've perfected my morning routine I have to take it easy and rest my arm for a week or so from strenght training.

Anyway that's what I came up with for 5-7am sessions:

warmup

(from pilates beginner mat curriculum)

-the hundred (10* inhale-exhale)

-the rollup 5*

-the single le circle (5* clockwise, countereclockwise - each leg)

- rolling like a ball 6*

- the single leg stretch (10 * each leg)

- the double leg stretch 10*

- the spine stretch forward 5*

3*30 shoulder bridges (pulling hips up)

hindu pushups 10*

reverse plank with knees bent (table) 20sec

from yoga:

cobra 10*

cow and cat 10*

camel 10sec

bow 2*10sec

strenght from GB prerequisites 1 min each:

-plank

-reverse plank

-hollow

- arch

- pb support

- chin up dead hang

mobility

hips:

- adductor flies 3*15

- sumo squat 3*15

- hold 30sec isometric on side split

- hips extension (10* front, side, back - each leg)

- deep lunges 3*15 (each leg)

- hold 30sec isometric on front splits

shoulders (all with theraband, from ido's vids):

- external rotations 15*

- lateral raise to 45 degree 15*

the following 3 to be performed with arms up, arms wide open, arms down

1- clockwise rotations 10*

2- counterclockwise rotations 10*

3- back and forth 10* (hold final position 10sec)

- scapula pushups 10*

- overhead straight arm pull down 10*

- whippet 10* (planar rotation)

- dislocations 10*

- shoulder floor extensions (no bands obviously)

wrists:(very piked at the hips)

-dorsal and palm stretch 4 position each 20sec hold

-roll around 10*

-dorsal pushups 10*

-wrist pushups 10*

-first knuckle pushups 10*

-fingers pushups 10*

-fingers hopping pushups 10*

ankles:

seated band loop around foot

- side to side 20*

- up and down 20*

- circles 20*

FSP strenght

HS facing wall 3*30sec

frog stand 4*15sec

german hang 4*15sec

back lever tuck 4*15sec

front lever tuck 4*15sec

L-sit low 4*15sec

XR hang straddle 4*15sec

burgener warmup 5*(with a dowel):

-down and up

-elbows high and outside

-muscle snatch

-snatch land

-snatch drop

-hang power snatch

5min rope jumping.

I know it's pretty long, but becoming supple it's my top priority.

that is awesome!! and I'll be pinching some ideas to augment my morning training. hopefully I can motivate myself into making more productive use of my early morning hours.

I've tried to include my FSP SSCs into the morning, but I just can't make myself do it, particularly on mondays and thursdays when I squat.

very impressed to see coach burgener's warmup in there. I always kinda sucked at oly lifting, but I do miss it. it's fun trying to throw as much weight as you're able up above your head in the sometimes vain hope of catching it!!

swarovski said:

focus on rings then, I guess it's the apparatus most suited to adult newcomers. Postpone floor and vaulting expectations for a while. Parallel bars should probably be your second focus as both high bar and pommel horse are on a very steep learning curve.

As far as a performance goal can go, I'd say the basic ring strenght routine (1 and 2) should be on top of your list.

Introduce swinging practice from the beginning on both SR (still rings) and PB (parallel bars). I'm gonna be ecstatic the day I'll perform my first dislocate. Here's how to guide yourself through your routine goal settings:

http://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/Rings/

http://www.drillsandskills.com/skills/pbar/

Hope it helps.

Yes, thanks for pointers swarovski! I saw the strength routine - don't have rings at home or a good place to locate them actually. Maybe in a walk-in closet? Am going to try to get more time on the ring at the class to work on it. It does seem the most natural to work on apparatus that I've tried.

If you've seen my 5 questions post (getting started) and have any feedback I'd welcome it.

Thanks much!

@pogo

I studied quite a bit of CFJ articles before deciding to commit myself to GB, I was looking for a smart effective way to get fit, to open my views, I mean I spent my rugby days mostly with hopeless coaches and too many injuries to cope with, but I knew, that given the opportunity, I had in me the mental toughness to get at new heights. Few concepts in CF are quite good indeed, still I don't agree on modality and programming, If one continuosly push his body to maximal effort, his progresses in the long run will be somewhat hindered. Oly lifts are a damn good training tool, shame we are overwhelmed by bodybuilding's concepts whenever weights come into play. I'm sure things will change, but I don't have time 10 or 20 years to wait before gyms around here will address athletic and not aesthetic development. My idea is to lay some advanced strenght and flexibility before switching back to speed, power and agility. Rugby programming usually see strenght training lasting a mere 6-8 weeks of things like bench press, lat and smith machine before other 4-6 weeks of endless running. Given such short time span and poor plans, foundations are never laid properly. I'm just gonna prove myself how bad long term player athletic development are laid out. I'm a level 1 rfu coach myself after all.

@futureisnow

glad you found interesting. I'm out of time right now, but I'll have a look at your posts. In the mean time, build yourself two rings, just some webbing with 2 buckle (the cheap one used to fasten motorbikes on trailes at most DIY stores) and a plumbing pipe for handles it's all you need to get you started with something like TRX trainer.

have a look at this post and its pics to see how to secure them to the ceiling.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4873

ye, I've got rather mixed feelings about crossfit. I was *very* deeply entrenched in the cultish behaviour about 5 years back; to the point of OCD. *everything* was about training and diet. was working from home, so I worked out on/off almost all day every day and pushed myself to crazy extremes. admittedly... I was pretty fit all up. not very strong, but stronger than the populous and had ridiculous amounts of strength endurance.

but it all gets a bit silly when taken to such lengths and I've since decided that 1) I'd like to get truly strong (no interest in gaining much in size because I find it very hard to do and really don't like the way I feel when I eat enough to start doing so) and 2) want a lifestyle that allows me the flexibility to be strong, fit AND a normal human being.

I do still love the attention that they've helped bring to oly lifting and gymnastics. it's part of the reason why I'm here; and why I have a power rack and oly bar with more weight than I can lift out on the back patio.

rubgy players are all so big, you kinda expect that their training would gravitate towards getting big and strong. but I suppose to an extent it's like everything else; those who are predisposed to such a body type are more likely to play the game.

@fin - ditto re the rings. any kind of rings are better than none, and they're the single best thing you could do for your upper body training. when I got my first set of rings, I hung them from a piece of timber that I laid across the manhole in the ceiling. I've also used them from a doorway pullup bar (as I've seen others here do). where there's a will...

haha... not ALL rugby players are huge, I used to be an example of that! that's the reason why my teammates labelled me "swarovski" a rather fragile utility back...

thanks for your point on CF, I agree with you on everything, honestly I got myself into this GB thing after discovering that MU and HSPU were the coolest things in their wod. I still have to manage equipment, space, place and FLEXIBILITY to start with oly lifts. Honestly, I can't perform any of those, I just tried out few CF WODs like angie or lucy back in may but I didn't like the exhausted feeling, it's a shame that a life in rugby didn't teach me much on power development. Still, It's something I think it's worthed learning after laying the right foundations on strength and flexibility, which will definitely takes ages as I first want to reach a good form 5sec IC and full splits... haha!!

well, any genuine athlete is an OCD case, probably the fact it's for a sport performance makes it "normal".

as for my morning routine, I overdid with lunges and leg work in general (as I'm resting my arms) and today I'm so sore that I can barely move!! gotta scale that volume down for a while.

Happy that you found it inspiring, it took me awhile to put it together but I think it's quite good now. The reason why I've put FSP in there as well is because WOD will then become too long to be managed at lunch break or after work. We'll see how it works.

I practically didn't do any workout since wednesday, my legs were still full in DOMS and I was trying to rest my right elbow.

This morning I started back with morning routine, trying not to overdo on lunges. feeling good though for gym class after work.

-the hundred (10* inhale-exhale)

-the rollup 5*

-the single le circle (5* clockwise, countereclockwise - each leg)

- rolling like a ball 6*

- the single leg stretch (10 * each leg)

- the double leg stretch 10*

- the spine stretch forward 5*

1 min each:

-plank

-reverse plank

-hollow

- arch

- pb support

- chin up dead hang

back:

hindu pushups 10*

3*30 shoulder bridges (pulling hips up)

reverse plank with knees bent (table) 20sec

cobra 10*

cow and cat 10*

camel 10sec

bow 2*10sec

L-sit tuck 4*15sec

XR hang straddle 4*15sec

wrists:(very piked at the hips)

-dorsal and palm stretch 4 position each 20sec hold

-roll around 10*

-dorsal pushups 10*

-wrist pushups 10*

-first knuckle pushups 10*

-fingers pushups 10*

-fingers hopping pushups 10*

shoulders (all with theraband, from ido's vids):

- external rotations 15*

- lateral raise to 45 degree 15*

the following 3 to be performed with arms up, arms wide open, arms down

1- clockwise rotations 10*

2- counterclockwise rotations 10*

3- back and forth 10* (hold final position 10sec)

- scapula pushups 10*

- overhead straight arm pull down 10*

- whippet 10* (planar rotation)

- dislocations 10*

- shoulder floor extensions (no bands obviously)

ankles:

seated band loop around foot

- side to side 20*

- up and down 20*

- circles 20*

hips:

- adductor flies 3*15

- sumo squat 3*15

- hold 15sec isometric on side split

- hips extension (3*10 front, side, back - each leg)

- deep lunges 3*20 (alternate leg)

- hold 15sec isometric on front splits

besides scratching my face on the maxitramp and wrecking my hands on the high bar, I did use my arms for skills and strength exercise after a week of rest, my left elbow didn't worried me, but today I don't feel it 100% right. let's see if it get worse in the next few days.

I felt very weak last night, my usual sleeping issues are probably the reason behind this.

Today I did morning routine anyway, I really want to gain some mobility in my joints and I think it's something I have to workout on a daily basis as the program I've laid out seems pretty well balanced even if I had to take the burgener warmup and the rope jumping out of it because I can't make that much noise in the flat.

I'm improving on floor skills, HS to forward rol are pretty natural now, positioning hands on the backwards roll is becoming easier (wrist flexibility I guess) and above all I'm in a position where I can start attempting cartwheels. Hahaha sounds silly enough but trying those as an adult it's very awkward. At least I can now do half of it, I have to start working those with simpler steps.

I was also able to perform a couple of swinging dips, no bad.

I'm pretty satisfied with last night gym class.

shame that I couldn't join gym class last night and didn't have time to workout as well, I just managed to perform a shorter morning routine. Today I wasn't rested enough even for that, I had an almost sleepless night.

Anyway I'm satisfied whenever I'm able to perform morning routine at least 5 days out of 7, just like I did last week.

I'm planning to start with a sort of complex training as soon as flexibility would no longer be a priority. Honestly I think I'll be going for never gymless program as is much easier to manage. I set the flexibility benchmark on:

- 10 knee (not piked) wrist push ups

- 10 shoulder dislocations (hands no more than 1 meter apart)

- 10 bridge wall walk

- 10 dowel overhead deep sumo squats (barefoot)

obviously all of them to be performed with control and perfect form. I'm still doubtious on bridge walks attainability, those still seems too far in the future.

I felt better yesterday afternoon and discovering that I forgot about half day off from work because of carnival holiday, was the perfect chance for a never gymless' workout with my colleague... hahaha... I'm so unfit!!

The wod we planned was:

15min AMRAP:

10 burpees

50m sprint

10 clap pushups

50m backward run

I was dead after the first round!! no way I could keep going with that. I went for a maximal effort right from the start, I mean sprints are supposed to be like that, right?

we run 1000 in 4:20 as a warmup anyway.

We then decided to go for a pyramidal run instead: 100-200-300-400-300-200-100

haha... I couldn't complete that one as well, not able to pace myself for the whole thing, we gave up after the first 300 which was below 55s.

Probably the fact that I wasn't training alone put me in a competitive modality...

We finally switched for some circuit training on the fitness course, much better...

End of the story? I'm really lacking anaerobic and strength endurance. Complex training must definitely be the way to go, just postponing it until I'll have in me the flexibility I'm striving to.

So all of that was mardi-gras, as for today, wednesday 2011-03-09 I had performed morning routine and I'm looking forward for gym class.

wed gym class went well, first time I was able to kick to HS and hold a freeHS for a bunch of sec before rolling out. Swinging dips are still uncoordinated but seems to improve as my swinging on PB is becoming almost acceptable. Swinging on rings are much more complex though. GH are still very hard on arms after a 15-20sec relaxed and fully extended hold.

Yesterday I opted for a sprinting session instead, 12 reps 40m on grass. Plus some warm up and cool down obviously.

Skipped today's morning mobility training as well, gotta manage to do it tonight.

Planning to start motocross season tomorrow if licence has arrived.

felt a wreck since thursday night, very poor sleeping and averall conditions, I didn't have willingness or energy to perform the morning routine, it makes me feel very guilty.

I squeezed all I had in me to start motocrossing season on sat as I've been looking forward to it, that's also why I haven't been able to keep up with mobility workout. Track was muddy and tricky, I didn't want to start with a crash obviously so I rode VERY slow, I wasn't unable to clear most jumps which means that I took alot of impact on my body.

to worse things tonight I can't join gym class, just like last week, cause of family constraints.

well, let's at least hope to get on par with sleeping in order to start working out from tomorrow.

luckily things improved, I got back to my usual 4-5 hrs sleep, which enabled me to start morning mobility and evening training.

wednesday

morning routine and evening gym practice

thursday

mornng routine, planning a running session for tonight, hopefully.

after a month without substantial strength training, resting elbows, I wanted to test MU, I failed on first attemp, but succeed on second. Pretty happy with that and forced myself to stop there.

Swinging dips and swinging in general are much better now, I can also transition from L-sit to pike press shoulderstand on PB.

woohoo to the MU!!

your sleep cycles sound eerily similar to mine. ebbs and flows, but on average well below optimum. with occasional periods of feeling like a train wreck. :roll:

yea pogo, everyday it's a different day, I never know how I'm gonna feel the following day...

anyway I'm satisfied with last week in general.

I went playing rugby with kids on thursday night mostly 1v1 for fun and added some short sprinting afterwards.

morning mobility on friday

4hrs mountain biking on saturday (spring is coming after all)

sunday

5' rope jumping

3*50m 70% 1'rest

3*50m 90% 2'rest

3*100m 90% 2'rest

circuit trainig on hilly fitness trail, 2 laps of swinging dips, L wide pullups, rings curl-360 pike pulls and some jumping.

monday

morning mobility

on morning mobility on tuesday I realized that I haven't been able to complete it most times, just too long for my drowsy body.

I just want to focus on joint mobility and leave the rest as optional.

wrists

ankles

back

hips

shoulders

gym class tonight, must focus on strength as I skipped monday training

haha... 2 more accomplishments at gym class!

after solid muscleup at will, I now have nailed another good skill: SWINGING DIPS.

performed 10 in a row last night with pretty decent form.

last night I felt pretty well and I've learnt another skill as well, PIKED PULLOVERS.

I'm improving much faster lately. Ok enough boasting...

no morning mobility yesterday but I didn't skipped today.

so, the past few days went like this

thursday 24th

morning routine

friday 25th

circuit training at the hilly parcourse

saturday 26th

busy with gardening

sunday 27th

wasted day trying to go motocrossing, it was too muddy

monday 28th

morning routine

afternoon circuit training at the hilly parcourse

tuesday 29th

planning for an evening workout at homegym, hopefully. just basics FSP, FBE and mobility.

I wasn't able to workout on tuesday evening, very tired, just played half deck of cards (enamait's wod) with my kid, haha... he kicked my ass on burpees!!

morning routine on wednesday

fitness trail on thursday, kinda circuit training. Strength focused.

today, friday:

mobility morning routine

lunch break speed endurance at the track (pretty satisfied with it)

10' rope jumping

2*4*150m (2' rest between reps, 5' rest between sets) all between 22-24 seconds.

3*20 walking lunges

3*15 supported full sumo squats

saturday: rest

sunday: motocross

monday: evening gym class

another little step forward.

last night I felt well at the gym, learnt the support to backward roll and the support to forward roll.

I now have to improve execution of the ring strength series 1, but the 3 I performed were pretty decent.

swinging dips on PB are getting easier just like pullovers on HB and muscleups on rings.

I will work my way to 3 consecutive ring strength series 1 performed with good form. I can't do 3 consecutive MU yet.

Though I'm not working on HS enough...

last night gym class didn't go well at all.

I hurt my back somehow, probably during a ring forward roll badly executed. Right elbow gave me discomfort as well, MU transitions are still very hard on elbows.

Hope that I don't have to take time off again from training, let's see how back and elbows will start feeling in a couple of days.

I rested on tuesdays, I'm gonna do the same today and tomorrow.