In need of some advice

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum and new to gymnastics training. I read BtGB and read a bit the stickies on the forum.

Let me first introduce myself, I'm a 30 year old male from Belgium and I used to do weight training. However I found that weight training didn't give me the desired gains I wanted, these being strength - flexibility - dynamics. I even tried strongman training and crossfit. One time on the net, I came across a vid of Dominic Lacasse performing the human flag. So I began to research how to perform in this way. I stumbled on some sites using bodyweight workouts and eventually got to this site which was a real eyeopener.

Of all the information I obtained of BtGB and this forum I designed this workout. Can anyone give some comments, tips, advice, etc. on this? (also I read something on a stickie about a warm-up best being like this: 60s plank, 60s reverse plank, 60s perfect hollow hold with hands over your head, 60s arch hold in the superman flying position, 60s Parallel Bar support., 60s chin up grip dead hang - any thoughts?)

Full body training - 3 x per week, Warm-up: static stretching (full body routine), dynamic stretching (full body routine), +/- 5 min. of cardiovascular warm-up (e.g. rope skipping). After training cool down - same as warm-up but in reverse order.

Warm-up and cool-down are consistent with the guidelines of ACSM (or an similar organisation).

Monday

Static holds

L-sit – PB low (legs almost parallel to the floor) (9 sets of 7 sec)

Back lever – Feet on floor (7 sets of 9 sec)

Front lever – feet on floor (7 sets of 9 sec)

Planche – frog stand (12 sets of 5 secs - problem of balancing not strength)

Basic strength Training - 3 sets of 5 reps

Push-up

Vertical row

V-up – tuck

Deck squats

Wednesday

Static holds

Straddle L – PB tuck (9 sets of 7 sec)

Back lever – tuck (7 sets of 9 sec)

Front lever – tuck (7 sets of 9 sec)

Planche – frog stand (12 sets of 5 secs)

Basic strength Training - 3 sets of 5 reps

Bodyweight Dips

Jumping Pull-up + very slow in negative movement

Supermans or arch ups

Leg curls (feet on a stability ball)

Friday

Static Holds

L-sit - PB low (legs almost parallel to the floor) (9 sets of 7 sec)

Back lever – tuck (7 sets of 9 sec)

Front lever – tuck (7 sets of 9 sec)

Planche – frog stand (12 sets of 5 secs)

Basic strength Training - 3 sets of 5 reps

HeSPU – box

Vertical row – elevated feet (Bulgarian)

Windshield wipers – supine

Deck Squats

Sorry for the length of the post. It grew larger and larger as I was typing it :oops:

Has anyone any thoughts, comments or advice regarding this routine?

are you sure you can perform all of those correctly?

I mean you have to do jumping pullups but you can do tuck FL and BL? those are much harder imo.

as for static I'll focus on l-sit german hang, wall handstand and support. BL FL and PL are more advanced than they look.

actually if you dig on stickies you'll find that 3*30sec german hang are a prerequisite for BL and 60sec floor l-sit are for PL.

same for box hspu, those are very hard, replace it with dips.

Hey Swarovski,

First of all thanks for the reply

swarovski said:

are you sure you can perform all of those correctly?

I mean you have to do jumping pullups but you can do tuck FL and BL? those are much harder imo.

as for static I'll focus on l-sit german hang, wall handstand and support. BL FL and PL are more advanced than they look.

actually if you dig on stickies you'll find that 3*30sec german hang are a prerequisite for BL and 60sec floor l-sit are for PL.

same for box hspu, those are very hard, replace it with dips.

The FL and BL tuck is a typo. I copied and pasted it from a word document in which I created my program. I found the BL and FL tuck to be too hard and now I do them as a horizontal hold with my feet on the floor (but fully stretched).

The german hang is not something I'm familiar with. I know what it is but I'm hesitant to perform it as I am not yet confident enough. It looks really stressful on the shoulder girdle.

I value your opinion and will try to scale down my workout. I only wanted to start FL and BL because in BtGB it is mentioned that these are part of the fundamental static holds.

So I will take your advice into account and will focus on L-sit, Wall handstand, planche frog stand and will try the german hang or at least a scaled down version. I don't know what you mean with support, so this you'll have to elaborate a bit.

What if I tried to workout 4 times a week. For instance, Monday static holds, Tuesday dynamic full body workout, Thursday static holds, Friday dynamic full body workout and at restdays a bit of cardio and stretching?

I'm going to somewhat disagree on the FL BL.

When i started i could barely do a pull up and found doing all the tuck FLs and BLs were very helpful in improving my pull ups. In fact for my birthday this year i was able to do 10 deadhang pull ups (with some explosion on the last couple reps)

For the German hang, first get used to it with the rings low enough that your feet hit the floor before your shoulders feel over stressed, or if that's even too much just reach back into it with your feet on the floor.

Rather than using a wall for the variations you do, try a chair, so you tuck and try to support yourself.

hey mr.brady, I found myself in the exact opposite situation when I started 7 months ago. tuck BL and FL where almost impossible to hold without overstressing my shoulders and I had to drop them in a matter of days. same for frog stand, it was far too hard on wrists. but I've been able to work on pull ups and dips since then with no problem, to the point that without even working the transition I can now perform muscleups as well. We all know, what works for an individual may not work for another one, but I think I've read somewhere in here that 10 strict pullups and dips are among the prerequisites either. I'm sure you'll agree with me that the l-sit PB tuck is much lower in difficult that a tuck BL even if they are presented in the book in a way that it's easy to misunderstand. You know better than me that the book is flawed on this part, exercises are much much different on starting point one another. You can't just say let's start working all 6 FSP ...

Properly Using the BtGB Rating System

by Coach Sommer on Tue Mar 01, 2011 5:48 pm

swarovski wrote:

... The biggest problem I've found with BtGB is the rating difficult, I mean, not all 1/2 or so stars are comparable, take the "Straddle L - PB bent" as an example, is rated half star but there's no way I can perform it even if I can now hold regular L-sit - PB (rated 2 stars, btw, no chance of performing it on the floor) and regular HLL (rated 2 and a half) ...

You are comparing apples to oranges.

The BtGB difficulty ratings only pertain to that particular movement; hence L-sit ratings only pertain to other L-sit ratings and Straddle L ratings only compare to other Straddle L ratings. The rating system is NOT designed to allow you to compare an L-sit rating to a Straddle L rating.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

david, in my case I worked german hang gradually, I only pulled down as much as I was then able to pull out of it. I never put my feet on the floor. It's always difficult to give advice without looking at the individual performing the exercise. I think flexibility and strength goes hand in hand in gymnastic. You may develop the flexibility to dislocate your shoulder with a dowel, but doing it hanging on rings it's a totally different thing. That's why I'd say just go as far as it's safe for you and with time, consistency and hard work things will take care of themselves.(just like coach said)

As for the support here's the progression.

plank on floor, pb support (holding yourself on your fully extended arm and locked elbows between 2 chairs), plank on rings, support on rings. Only advance to the next step when you can do a single solid continuos 60sec hold. work every step on 60sec aggregate time with every hold being half of your max hold. This is the general rule for FSP.

it may be worth for you to have a look at my first log page.

hope it helps

Mr Brady said:

I'm going to somewhat disagree on the FL BL.

When i started i could barely do a pull up and found doing all the tuck FLs and BLs were very helpful in improving my pull ups. In fact for my birthday this year i was able to do 10 deadhang pull ups (with some explosion on the last couple reps)

For the German hang, first feet used to it with the rings low enough that your feet hit the floor before your shoulders feel over stressed, or if that's even too much just go into it with your feet on the floor.

Rather than using a wall for the variations you do, try a chair, so you tuck and try to support yourself.

Hey Mr Brady,

So you would rather keep the FL and BL work in this workout? I included them in the first place to get stronger doing pull ups. I will include the german hang aswell. Quick question: how much time did it take you to progress from 1 pull up to 10 deadhang pull ups?

I know a lot of people speak highly of the WOD. However I find I have trouble scaling it down because I'm an absolute beginner at gymnastic training. So I designed this program to help me find the basic strength and skill to perform the WOD of the day.

I still need to include some handstand work though.

I think you have to find what works, my only point being, that for me the levers helped my pull ups, for swarovski it was the other way around.

I do like the lever work early, because i think its important to get the scapula and rotator cuff prepped for pulling and levers will do this. BUT you could also do hanging shrugs.

I also just think playing with the rings is very enjoyable, which is always a plus.