Training Program for breakdancers?

Hi guys.

I read Coach Sommer's book and it is really interesting how he incorporates all the different kinds of bodyweight exercises.

I am a breakdancer, and we usually use the same type of motion such as flares, basic tumbling, handstand variations..

here is an example :

I am a very competitive breakdancer, I practice Monday to Saturday 3-4 hours a day. I am asking you guys if you guys have any suggestions for a strength/endurance workout after practice. I have access to 24hour fitness which has all the machines, dumbells, etc. I think incorporating heavy weights and bodyweights will help me alot. Are there any suggestions you guys have for the training program?

Thank you.

What's going on bro!?! Nice video, not sure if any of that was you but if you are at that level that is awesome! Coach Sommers stuff will definitely help you out dude. As far as the weights go, that is up to you. If you are going to weight train I would reccomend alot of full body movements and shoulder work, such as cleans, deadlifts, shoulder presses, and dumbbell flys for your shoulders. For the bodyweight work and the gymnastics, you should look at doing the WODs that coach posts. They are 4 days a week. The leg WODs would be ideal for your lower body, no weight training for your lower body since you probably want light but strong legs.

-After 3-4 hours of breakdancing do you think you will have the energy to go straight into strength training??

-Maybe you could try doing Coach's WODs in the morning??

-Do you have rings? If not, you want be able to do some of the WODs.

-You could also work just the FSPs to improve your planche and balance all the pressing with the front and back lever.

I can get more specific if you narrow some of this down.

I'm not at that level yet, but I'm getting there..

Thank you so much. So what would do the rep scheme be for the weight training? and for the leg pylometrics.

I am getting used to working out after practicing, i have a little snack before weight training or during practice.

Whats a FSP?

I do not have access to rings, i dont have space.

I don't know how the whole front lever thing works or how long i should do it for.

If you have the book there is multiple sections on the FSPs, the fundamental static positions. These are to be tested for max time and worked in sets of 50% max time to a total volume of 60s. I.E. You hold a tuck front lever (FL) for 30s max, your working sets will be 4x15s. You come up with this for all your FSPs and any other static positions you want to increase your time on and do these before the WOD as a "warmup". This should not drain you, it will be somewhat difficult at first but your body will get used to it. Do not change body position or times at all for 8-12 weeks. Then retest and your numbers will shoot up. After achieving 60s in one variation, move to the next progression. The WODs are under the Workout of the Day forum. They are 4 days per week. Do the FSPs on these 4 days per week before the WODs. You will need to do a lot of searching on the forums to learn how to do certain exercises if you don't have the book. Everything can be scaled to your level. This would be the best type of training for you. But if you want to lift weights, you could try GVT (German Volume Training) http://www.strengthcats.com/CP-GVT.html . That is just a quick source to get a good program. By no means is that the only option. When I lifted weights I did a body builder split, M-chest, T-Back, W-legs, Th-Shoulders, F-arms..... Now my wieght lifting is only in whatever Crossfit workouts I can squeeze in throughout the week. You can also always work in any kind of weighted pull up, weighted dip, bench press, dead lift or what ever into your warmup or after the WOD. In my opinion a breakdancer would benefit the most from doing the FSP + WODs. If this is too much for you you could just work FSP or just the WOD by itself.

Thank you so much for the information and help.

What WOD's and FSP positions do you recommend?

I have the book, but there are so many positions I am confused which one to start from. Haha.

Hey sorry for double posting, but is it possible just to do many repetitions of bodyweight exercises?

Such as 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 50 dips, 200 crunches, 100 v-ups, 50 leg lifts, etc.?

When I first started out with this bodyweight training, I used a template like killroy70's. Here is a link to his post that was stickied in the ring training section:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=1957

This will be a lot trickier if you don't have access to rings at your gym, but if you're flexible enough, you can do a back lever on a bar. Be careful not to let go though!

Also, be careful using olympic lifting and powerlifting exercises such as cleans or deadlifts. First of all, there is a lot of technique to them, so unless you have someone who knows what they're doing available to teach you, or you're willing to do a lot of diligent research, you probably wont get it right and will end up hurting yourself. Secondly, if you get too carried away with them and move into squats or other leg training, you may end up over developing your legs for the functions you're trying to perform. I know that doing a lot of the FSPs are more difficult for me due to the mass of my legs and relative lack of strength of my upper body.

While your breakdancing will undoubtedly benefit from SOME weightlifting/bodybuilding, make sure that you're focusing on the exercises that are most applicable to the muscles you use for breakdancing, and then round off your training with exercises for the other muscles. With breakdancing, I would suspect that you should probably use your bodyweight for your first few exercises, and then use weights to supplement that training when you get tired. To apply that to your case, that would mean that instead of doing shoulder press with dumbbells, you do headstand pushups against a wall. At some later point in your workout, you could then use dumbbell presses or lateral raises to really fry your shoulders. I hope I'm clear... I want to elaborate, but I feel like I'd end up repeating myself :shock:

i'm a breaker as you, the program of GB is very useful to achieve your skill!

as everyskills of gymnast apparatus, the best thing you can do is write a progression for your moves!

for flair, airflare, halo ecc.

the biggest part of bodyweigth exercise help you a lot!

i'm training with the rings since one year ago and i experiment a great increase of strength! and every skill is more simple!

in this forum and in skill developements and dynamic strentgh you can find a great number of post wich can help you!!

i found that (under slizz tip) training everydays and focuse myself only on perfect repetitions of a skill decrease the time to achieve it, this is a key point that you have to follow!

for the breaking skill is more important the push/press movements as the lower back/abs strength, you can do pull movements for balance the muscles but for you is not so important! listen to me, get a pair of rings, a table, a couple o chairs and experiments how this training method improves your skill!!!

Ahh i see.

Thank you guys. So basically do some bodyweight exercises before weight lifting...

Do you guys recommend the paleo diet? My diet consists of oatmeal, sandwich etc.... just normal student diet.

before entry in a training cycle from zero to 10 is better go from zero to 1 ecc...the bboys training is very very difficult and very expencise in terms of endurance and energy!! try not to overtraining yourself, find the way is best for you gradually!

me, for example, i'm training 6 days a week, 3 GB methods, 3 breaking skill, but one day of GB and one day of breaking is ligth then the other, in this day i train the same skill reducing the volume!

for the diet i suppose that you have to integrate you with oil fish caps, protein, carbo and BCAA. the breaking activity is very expensive, especially if you are a mover and you want to learn different moves!

i usually eat 6-8 times a day, after a training i eat 30g of protein and a sandwich with 15 gr of peanut butter, in this way the realase of the protein is slow and you can take the max benefit from them, the bet butter must be without hydrogenated fats!

for the rest with GB program if you eat more than your daily basal metabolism you can gain muscles, if you don't know how much is it you can try for a couple of weeks and after adjust it!

is possible that expencive activities cause the loss of the weigth...and the biggest mistake is lose muscles

fro your training...i think 3-4 in a row is toooooooooooo much, expecially if you are training different skills.

is impossible that at the 3rd hour you have the same energy, endurance, mental clarity, concentration ecc.

the CNS feels the tiredness!! there is a moment in the training when your reps of a skill aren't perfect, this is the time to stop the skill's training!! and usually is after 15 minutes! for my experience, train a moves for 15 minutes is the best way, or better train until you can do perfect repetition, i increase my performance and i can train everymoves with the same concentration and intensity without doing wrong repetition! is stupid train if you are tired!!

warm up,training, stretch for me equals a 2 hours of work...and remember thst this work is not dividev from legs, pecs, back, arms...you are always on your arms!!! think that your muscles have energy after 2 hours is difficult, i see the last week the team national of italian gymnast, at the most the training 2 hours and half per session, 2 session a day, but they have more apparatus...

so do your choice...and see the result

So basically

This is my plan.

I get back from school around 1:45pm.

Drink an energy/Nitric oxide drink before practice.

Arrive 2pm Gym. Stretch 5-10 min.

Some days practice till 5:30 or 6:30.

Then after Workout. Either Weightlifting or Cardio or Tumbling.

I do this Monday-friday.

I have to drink the energy/nitric oxide drink to practice because its so intense.... i know its cheating but i really need to keep moving on....

I don't really know too much about breakdancing, but 5 days in a row for 3-4 hours and then a workout on top of that doesn't seem to be very smart unless there's going to be a LOT of rest between sets during your practice. Remember that the amount of time you spend working out doesn't directly translate to amount of strength gained.

I guess professional athletes train for 4-6 hours a day, but they've been doing it for a long time, they split it up over the entire day, and have coaches with a lot of experience. I hope that someone with much more experience and weight behind their advice can come in here and talk some sense into you. I really feel that you need to take a hard look at your workout plan and focus it down to two hours at most - that includes warmup (which really should be more than 5-10 min), skill practice, workout and cooldown.

Yea by Thursday, I am not in good condition but I still practice because thats when you improve your skill...

I think its similar to Floor gymnastics.

Flares, handstand work etc...

is it okay to do the bodybuilding split traijning?

like chest/triceps/abs then cardio etc...