Galimores

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One need only observe the physiques of the Olympic Gymnasts to see how uniquely effective strength training on the rings can be, and indeed the use of rings has become increasingly popular in conditioning circles. However many people unnecessarily restrict their training on the rings to simple elements such as pushups, pull-ups and rows with only the occasional venture into something a little more advanced like muscle-ups. While these are certainly valuable exercises, the rings are capable of so much more. Due to the unique nature of the rings themselves, it is possible to perform movements that simply cannot be duplicated on any other piece of equipment. And it is not only the movements themselves which are unique, so are the potential strength gains. Galimores are an example of just one of the many demandingly productive movements possible on this piece of equipment.

Galimores fall into a category of gymnastics conditioning elements that I call Combined Pull/Press or CPPs. Essentially a CPP is an exercise which combines both a pulling and pressing element within the same movement. In the case of Galimores, it will be a combination of front lever pull and planche pushup.

These are called Galimores as many years ago, back when I was just beginning gymnastics, I observed then US National Team member Ron Galimore performing these in his conditioning. As no doubt you are at this very moment, I was stunned to say the least. Surely what I was seeing was not possible, at least not by a normal human being. However as the years went by, I discovered that it is more the diligent application of sweat and hard work, coupled with intelligent progressions and not some inherent super human qualities, that made the attainment of such strength possible. With some effort and focus, you too may be able to attain the strength and physique benefits of Galimores for yourself.

I recommend the following minimum pre-requisites prior to training this element:

1) You should already be capable of performing at least several ring dips.

2) You should have at least a passing familiarity with performing a tuck front lever and front lever pulls.

PROGRESSIONS

1) Beginning from a straight arm support on top of the rings, lower down to a bent arm support and then continue lowering on into a tuck front lever. Upon reaching the tuck front lever, lower your feet to the ground and jump back to support. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

2) Beginning from a bent arm support (bottom portion of the dip) press up to a straight arm support, lower back to the bent arm support and continue descending down into the tuck front lever. Jump back to the bent arm support and repeat for the desired number of repetitions.

3) Perform several dips on top of the rings prior to lowering to the tuck front lever where you will then perform several tucked

4) From a straight arm support lower to the tuck front lever as described above and then perform a muscle-up back up to a straight arm support. As you lower to the tuck front lever allow your grip to slip into a false grip; this will make the muscle-up much easier.

5) Begin now to experiment with beginning from a partial tuck planche. In all likelihood, you will initially find that your tuck planche has bent arms and that the hips are well below horizontal. That is fine, the tuck planche will continue to improve with consistent effort.

From the partial tuck planche, lower through to tuck front lever and then using a muscle-up to attempt to return back to the partial tuck planche. It is important to note that now you will be adjusting your muscle-up technique and focusing on ATTEMPTING to perform a planche pushup rather than a dip. This means that you should remain as close to a tuck planche pushup position as your current strength levels allow. Do not allow yourself to simply perform a dip and then at the top of the dip lift the hips up to the tuck planche.

6) Finally, we arrive at a full Galimore. Begin from the planche position of your choice, lower to the front lever position of your choice and then transition from a front lever pull to a planche pushup back up to your static planche position.

I recommend staying with a given variation until you can perform 3-5 reps for 3 sets. When you can perform this consistently, it is time to move onward to the next variation.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

The Xtreme Rings which have been responsible for building a great deal of this athlete's strength are available here.

Brilliant! I'll definitely be having my upper level boys work on these.

Coach Sommer said:

Galimores

However as the years went by, I discovered that it is more the diligent application of sweat and hard work, coupled with intelligent progressions and not some inherent super human qualities, that made the attainment of such strength possible. With some effort and focus, you too may be able to attain the strength and physique benefits of Galimores for yourself.

This is so important I had to quote it. Awesome exercise I love the idea of CPP's. Headed outside to try out the progressions. We'll see how far I get--these look tough!

thanks coach!

just a reminder, you said that you gonna post a new essay on wrist conditioning + a demo video

Pretty neat, I was amazed ( somewhat ) of course, when I saw a guy at the gym do front lever, rock back to muscle-up but without any sort of planche.

This gives me a bit more of progression.

HI

WOOOOO!!!!!!! i love it, coolest exercise i have seen in a while.

Coach i know that you will probably be covering this in your books, but how do you implement all these exercises in a gymnastics program. All the progressions you list seem very reasonable, and really good, but i struggle (i personally from working on elements myself) to get anywhere just working the one exercises progressions. By that i mean, with this exercises it would clearly help to be working front levers on the rings, straddle planches, drip variations. However that is 3 exercises more to a conditioning program these can be time consuming especially if we are aiming to get the 3-5min rest between sets.

I am just really interested to know how you structure your conditioning programs.

Thanks again for another great essay.

Coach great stuff as always, your students are extremely strong, very impressive, can't wait till they grow up and qualify for the Olympics!

When i saw the video before the progression explanation, i thought i could do that (well not with the end straddle planche hold), as i can do front lever pulls to muscle up. So i tried the last progression and i failed :oops:.

Now i'll try the progressions as i think this is a really cool and complete exercise.

As always we're surprised with those incredible exercises. Thanks!!!!

clearly i need lots of work on holding my false grip while lowering below the rings.

Its funny how exercises like the front lever pull and others attempt to get replicated by traditional gyms with expensive and akward machines, and all you need is a bar or some rings... awesome stuff.

this athlete is unbelievably strong coach! is he your most advanced athlete at the moment?

Coach or anyone,

I am currently on progression 3 of the Galimore progression...(still trying to figure out the tucked front lever into muscle up for progression #4).

I was wondering what kind of rep scheme you guys would recommend.

I've been doing 3 "reps" of the following:

Muscle --> 3 dips --> 3 tuck front lever pulls.

So that full complex constitutes one rep and then I drop off the rings and rest and then repeat twice. I kind of feel like this isn't helping me get to the heart of my problem with progressing to step #4 which is the aforementioned front lever into muscle up transition...would I be better off just working SUPER strict muscle ups at this point? Or should I continue the #3 progression?

Tips for Improving the Muscle-up from Front Lever Pull

If initially you need to utilize a little bit of momentum to make the muscle up from front lever pull in Step 4, that is fine; as long as you realize that this is simply a temporary concession to short term necessity and is a habit that needs to be discontinued as soon as physically possible.

I would also recommend emphasizing moving as slowly as possible during the negative muscle-up in Step 3. Check out the following essay for additional tips on developing the muscle up transition.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

cathal said:

this athlete is unbelievably strong coach! is he your most advanced athlete at the moment?

Random question. Does any of Coaches athletes post on here?

Great exercise!

I think we could go as far as to call the Gallimore a MPCPP. Fantastic stuff.

Has anyone from the forum achieved one yet?

Animalonfire said:

I think we could go as far as to call the Gallimore a MPCPP. Fantastic stuff.

Has anyone from the forum achieved one yet?

Many of the people here can do them. they are not hard if you can do a front lever, and straddle planche on rings.

braindx said:

Animalonfire said:

I think we could go as far as to call the Gallimore a MPCPP. Fantastic stuff.

Has anyone from the forum achieved one yet?

Many of the people here can do them. they are not hard if you can do a front lever, and straddle planche on rings.

So they're not hard if you can do the hard parts?

That's exactly what he just said

They're not that bad

the hardest part I think is doing the front lever while false gripped. It is awkward

I did this as part of the WOD today and started on step one but I found it very hard to lower slowly from the support down to front lever. The only way I could get to the front lever was to throw my self back and catch myself in the tuck front lever. Is this acceptable? How can I build up the strength to do this? Do I need to maintain a false grip? I can do som ring dips and tuck FL pulls but I haven't gotten a MU yet. Do I work on the MU transition that coach suggests for step 3? Any help would be appreciated thanks.

Phil

PhilipP said:

I can do som ring dips and tuck FL pulls but I haven't gotten a MU yet.

Galimores are an advanced CPP exercise. If you have not yet mastered a basic CPP such as the MU, you are not yet ready to work Galimores.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

yuri said:

They're not that bad

the hardest part I think is doing the front lever while false gripped. It is awkward

haha after yesterday's WOD I take back that comment. turns out when I was doing them in the past, I was doing a dip then pressing to planche

it is much more brutal with the planche pushup involvement

Ive had done this exercise, but i started it with muscle up. I dont know what should i call it?

Having just read about these yesterday I decided to give them a try today:

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This was the fourth set of the day. They're pretty messy, but it feels like a really good drill. Definitely something I'll be adding to my collection.

Is it from a front lever pull to a planche push up, not a dip planche?

Jesse Kim said:

Is it from a front lever pull to a planche push up, not a dip planche?

That's a bit of a dig .