Starting Line-Up?

Hello everyone!

I just recently managed to get a hold of BtGB, and so far this book is amazing! Now, I started weight-lifting 2 years ago and slowly moved to pure calisthenics exercises somewhat recently. My goal has always been to find coordination, balance, strength, speed, and spirtual balance within my body/mind. Gymnastics seems to bring that all together and I am eager to get started. However, my question is this is... Where do I start?

L-sits, Straddle L, MSH, Manna, etc.. or is it really just personal choice? There is a ladder right?

Thanks for all who reply!

1. Read the "Building the Gymnastic Body" tome

2. Read every single sticky in these forums, especially the one titled "Prerequisites" in this very section.

3. Repeat 1 and 2.

4. Start training

5. Come back and ask a bunch of questions!!!

Those 4 are just part of the basics. You need to develop other basic hangs and supports.

Prerequisite thread. http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=4313

Something similar I cooked up before that. It's not really a program, more of a checklist of things to be working on. Were you in a gymnastics training program, you would do most of these if not all of them.

http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1794&p=11194&hilit=basics#p11194

[urlhttp] sample

To learn basic coordination and balance I would recommend working basic rolls, forward and backward, handstands and cartwheels besides basic walks and balances on a balance beam or line and maybe some of that agility ladder work. There are some good articles for them on http://www.drillsandskills.com

O ok I see thanks for the advice!

Another question would it make more sense to just start off with the WOD or work on my own routine?

I checked out a couple WOD and they seem kinda advance... you can alter the exercises to your level right?

Tao said:

O ok I see thanks for the advice!

Another question would it make more sense to just start off with the WOD or work on my own routine?

I checked out a couple WOD and they seem kinda advance... you can alter the exercises to your level right?

Absolutely, i heartily recommend just starting with the WODs right away as your basic strength training. You can scale everything up or down as much as needed sometimes very dramatically.

Follow the WOD sub-forum postings and you will see how various people scale, or adapt the WODs to there situation.

Regarding your original post, yes Gymnastics is a wonderful, very balanced endeavor which does bring all of the qualities you are seeking together.

I'm not sure whether there's some sort of minimum base that a person needs to be at before even considering doing the WODs, but I do agree with giving them a shot!

For myself, I think I spent perhaps a year trying to figure out my own routine, thinking that the WODs would be far out of my reach for a long time. Eventually I decided I'd just try them, and with appropriate scaling, I've been doing them for the past three months. It feels great. I think spending a whole year trying to get to some not very well-defined level that would 'allow me to do the WODs' was far too long. I really could've started them earlier than I did.

As Mr Brady said, the individual threads for each WOD will usually give an indication of how people are scaling the movements for themselves.

Just remember to scale down as much you need.

Cool thanks you guys for the info and advice! I'll most likely start the WODs after this state cycle is over. So I can begin nice and fresh!