Weightlifting will help with gymnastics?

I came across Mark Rippetoe's book "Starting Strength" and after reading lots of threads here, I'm wondering if doing the squat/deadlift exercises with weights will be beneficial to me in gymnastics training.

Like strength acquired from deadlifts will help me with ring elements? Or pike presses etc?

A basic base of strength will always be helpful, but don't start doing it becase you think deadlifting is gonna help your press handstands, because that is not going to happen.

Short answer: no.

If you are at very low strength level (not being able to squat your bodyweight) it can be a faster way to gain a certain degree of hypertrophy and conditioning.

If you are at good strength levels (being able to do pullups, tons of abs crunch..) and your goal is gymnastics, then it will not help. See weightlifters on rings to understand this.

If you have mixed goals like having big legs, developing maximal strength at maximum, then you would be better mixing training. But it doesnt work well.

This already came up a couple of times before.

Check this post by Coach from this thread : Olifting for gymnasts

Coach Sommer said:

This is something that I have considered and discussed with many people (Coach Burgener, Greg Everett, Robb Wolf as well as our very own Ido Portal) for a number of years. Despite all of this, I still have reservations. The key element that needs to always be remembered is that OL is hip dominant and that gymnastics is shoulder girdle dominant. In fact the modern OL physique is actually EXACTLY the opposite of the modern gymnastics physique; very heavy glutes and hamstrings with comparatively light shoulder/arm development compared to a gymnast's very light glute/hamstring development and very heavy shoulder girdle and arm development.

Are there benefits to be gained from OL? Undoubtedly and without question. However is it possible to become technically proficient in the OLs while training in a highly restricted volume fashion (2-3 sets of 2-3 reps once or twice a week) that would minimize unwanted hip/glute hypertrophy and still allow the development of the very strength that is being sought? The responses I have received over the years vary from a hesitant maybe to absolutely not.

Is it even necessary to incorporate the OLs into such a program as gymnastics training itself already includes a great deal of speed strength and plyometric work? Would our needs be better served simply focusing on a greatly restricted volume program of a heavy squat or deadlift variation? Once again, the answers vary widely. One Russian Olympic Champion was not even allowed to ride a bicycle by his coach for fear of excessive hip/leg hypertrophy let alone even glance at a squat rack. On the other hand, a good friend of mine is a former Chinese Olympic Champion who was required to perform full ROM squats (ATG) twice per week with double bodyweight. Still another Russian Olympic Champion was required to perform extremely heavy 1/4 squats with a bottom static hold of several seconds prior to exploding upward. All are some of the very finest Olympic gymnasts of all time and yet trained in completely different manners.

Also worth checking out: Olympic Lifting for the Growing Gymnast, Part 1 By Erika Pfennigwerth

Interesting. I created another topic on the PerformanceMenu about this.

One of the coaches I work with found that working push press helped his teenage elite training gymnast get her press. She was no pixie sized gymnast but it helped to just get stronger in the upper body and core. He also implements the back squat and weighted heel raise to get them strong as bull for tumbling (which 3 of the women's events are all about).

A problem with men's gymnastics is only 2 of the events have much to do with tumbling. Lower body hypertrophy would not be appropriate for any apparatus specialist such as SR, PB, HB, or PH.

Barbell strength could help your rings (slightly). However, again lower body hypertrophy wouldn't but a stronger torso would help. If you were to keep it to low a rep phase, it could be doable. However, I would probably start off with lighter doses and higher reps at first for connective tissue reason.

SS is not something you would want to do if you wanted to get to doing anything remotely interesting on rings or BW strength. Especially with GOMAD.

I would prefer DL than BS because it does teach you how to squeeze off tension. More back strength, less posterior chain hypertrophy.

I do know of a higher level gymnastic programs that use the olympic lifts. I don't know if they have any training elites.

Preferably I like the press, push-press and deadlift (&straight/stiff leg DL) besides possibly a jump shrug from above the knee for the 2nd pull. I still think I would rather stick to SingleLegSquat versions and then plyometric SLS.

Experience.

Don't think squatting or deadlifting is going to transfer over to ring strength too much. However, there are plenty of people that do both (weights and ring work) and it hasn't stopped them from acquiring moves like the planche or iron cross while deadlifting over 2.5 times their bodyweight.