Realistic objectives for an older guy?

Hi,

I'm 33 years old man and I have just started doing the body weight exercises and other gymnastics stuff. Can you give me a realistic opinion about what kind of objectives should I have? What kinds of skills are still reachable for me? I'm asking this because it would be motivating to have some goals and it would also be nice to sometimes achieve these goals. I know this is a difficult question, since it depends on the person, commitment, current level, background... but please, give me some opinions. I know I won't become world class gymnast anymore.

Here are some examples of my current level:

- 1 minute wall hand stand

- 30 second free handstand on parallettes, but only few seconds hands on the floor

- 20 second straight arm frog stand

- 60 second tuck front lever

- 20 second L-sit

- Press to handstand on the rings, but not a change on the ground.

- Splits are rather near

Dude, you're starting off very strong!

You aren't even that old, I'm only a few years behind you. I think it's totally realistic to expect a straddle planche and full front lever for sure. Your floor handstand will develop with practice, you just aren't used to using your fingers for balance I think, that's the main difference between floor and paralletes. Look at what Frits has accomplished at 70! You have a lot of physical potential that is still waiting to be fulfilled. Whatever your limits are, you've got a long way to go before you reach them.

I'm 37 and started gym after 30. Being serious only just about 3 years ago, with good progress.

You'll surely achieve stradlle planche, and FL will be no pb I guess (this year maybe ? I have it...).

Even IC, before 40, could be a reasonable goal here if you train smart and consistently enough...

What they said. As Slizz mentioned, you're starting out very strong.

I'm 41 and while I've played with bodyweight strength skills on/off for years, I've only dedicated myself to the GB principles in the last 6 months or so.

Personally, I choose not to impose limitations on myself - I have a long term goal of holding an iron cross by my 45th birthday, but I'm happy just to keep getting stronger every day.

As Slizzardman said, just check out FritzMB posts. No need to question further about age.

Thanks for the opinions guy. The skills you mentioned sound like a good goals for me. So, I will first set my goals to free handstand (during this year), front lever and press to handstand (2012), straddle planche (2013) and IF I achieve these, then we will think of the next goals. And yes, I know the timescale is rather optimistic, but I really need goals

Hi there, “old man†Jacare. My humble advice. Don’t get hung up on goals, or on being older (at 33 ??????); you can set goals, but be smart and flexible while pursuing them. Make sure that you enjoy your workouts so much that you can hardly wait to do the next one. You can do that by picking a progression towards a skill that you can master in a matter of weeks rather than in a matter of years. If you do it right, then soon you will reach a point where you want to practice a particular skill (say, holding a 10 sec. free HS) a couple of times a day. The rest will follow and in a couple of years you will laugh about some of these “goals†that you set yourself, while others are still out of reach. It will keep your life interesting. Don’t forget to read up here on this forum on joint (including wrists) preparation, progressions and warming up. And, buy the GB book and a pair of rings so you can start doing the WOD.

Excellent advice Frits! As another 'older' member that is my attitude, and it is one that works for everyone regardless of age.

I like to say, just do something, time and nature take care of the rest.

Thanks Frits for the input. You have some inspiring thoughts and I will do the progressions towards the skills using these as a short term goals. However, it is still nice to here the opinions about what kind of stuff you can accomplish eventhough, you have not started doing these exercises as a child. My approach might be too systematic but it is probably due to my background from other sports, in which I'm used to plan my training carefully.

About the equipments, I actually have an access to a real gymnastic place and thus I'm interested in learning skills in other apparatus as well. For example, giants in high bar and circles in pommel horse are also in my program.

Jacare, my friend, in the end only you can “tell†what you can achieve in gymnastics. The telling of that tale will take time and it will be a fascinating story. Get started, enjoy it, and share it with us as it evolves. The responses you will get here will always be positive and encouraging. It sounds like you have access to a very nice facility. This forum can give you first-class advise as to how, why and when. That will help you enormously with your systematic approach.

Jacare, my friend, in the end only you can “tell†what you can achieve in gymnastics. The telling of that tale will take time and it will be a fascinating story. Get started, enjoy it, and share it with us as it evolves.

One thing I can say in my short experience is that you won't achieve much if you're injured. If I could do it all over again, I would have spent one month doing nothing but building tendon strength with pre-hab. I would have started with 2 WODs a week instead of 4. I would have made sure that I was scaling workouts to "leave a little gas in the tank", as Slizzardman puts it.

Find a pace where you can work every week with little soreness -- especially in the joints. Working a WOD 3 days a week for 12 months will get you much further than working it 4 days a week for a month, taking 2 months off to re-hab your tendonitis, trying to start back slow, etc.

When I'm feeling impatient, I look at Fritz's muscle-up progress despite the fact that he's twice my age (sorry, Fritz). Hell, even if it takes me 18 months to get my elbows strong enough to do a muscle-up, I (and you) are still really, really young in the big picture of it all.

I make JmanDetroit 's words mine as well.

I'm 32, if I weren't so stupid, I think I could be near a straddle planche right now. Now I'm in the injuried club, rehabing.

Except by your press to handstand on rings, I'm at a very similar level of strenght. I've seen videos on you tube of 50+ people holding iron cross. Hell, Jordan Jovchev is almost 40 and is a complete beast. Of course you won't get near his level, but at least having crosses and maybe variaions (inverted, maltese) is a realistic objective, IMO. Just train smart and consistently, making slow progress to not get injuried.

Beside proper training, important thing especially for `older` (I am in the same category /39) is your strentgh vs bodyweight. For all of us, low body fat (at least 10% or lower) is a must if we want more and faster progression. This also apply to everyone.