A convert from the masses

[1druid1]

Hi All

My first post here, so I hope its appropriate. I have two questions, one is about strength and the other is flexibilty.

1) I dislocated my shoulder and tore up my rotator cuff about 7 months ago, after physio and healing my shoulder is now back to health, but because of this I havent trained in 7 months either. The result is I am just weak, doing 20 pushups in a row is a hardship for me. I have never really done much bodyweight exercises as like the masses i was at one with steel.

I was just about to jump straight back into weights, when I bumped into a lad that was only around 15 - 16 at my boxing club, he was more defined and functional than well anybody at the gym i used to go to, so I asked him what kind of weight routine he did, and to my surprise he said none, he was a gymnast!! 80% of his workouts consisted of bodyweight only exercises and the other 20% were weighted, ankle weights, weighted training vest, ect.

So after a search on the net I found this website and decided to post here.

My question is what sort of Bodyweight exercises, will give me more functional strength than what I got out of pumping iron. Also to generally increase my strength and functionality all over..

As my strength is non exsistant at the moment I will be starting from scratch.

2) I have major problems with flexibility, my shoulders / back and my Glutes / hips and Hamstrings are so tight, I cant even touch my toes, and cant straighten my arms completely above my head in line with my ears without forcing. Any suggestions on exercises, stretches to increase my ROM in these areas?

Cheers

Dougie

[kbryk]

Oh man bodyweight can turn you into a beast literally, for stretches read around theres a few threads about stretching and there's a few links to articles with pictures about stretching. Now as for exercises, the list is growing and will continue to grow, you mind is the limit on what you can do for bodyweight, I'll post some of the basic everyday ones. And since this is a gymnastics/bodyweight forum I'll post of gymnast exercises aswell.

Core: V-sits, N-ups, Jack knives, leg raises/knee raises, hyper extensions, of course your basic crunches, candle stick, hollow position hold, side/normal planks.

Upper Body: Pushups diamond, wide, shoulder, normal, Dips on either dip bar or chair, handstand pushups, tuck planches, pullups include, basball bat grip pullups, wide, shoulder, chinups, muscle ups on either bar or rings.

Lower-Pistols, get ups (start from nearly sitting position on floor and stand up with one leg), weighted pistols, body squats(tough if you do 4 sets of 50 reps), calve raises, burpees(works upper and lower body).

Theres a nice little list to start with.

[1druid1]

Hey kbryk

Thanks for the reply, I will scout around for stretching exercises, see what I can find.

Because of the lack of flexibilty in my Hamstrings, core exercises such as V-ups are not as effective as others, so any exercise that usually requires a great deal of ROM in my hamstrings are usually left out, the others you mentioned are exercises that I usually do in both Karate and boxing so I know them, I also like the dragon flag, although I havent done any since I bust my shoulder so I will prolly need a few weeks to get into them..

All the exercises bar the tuck planche and Muscle Ups should be ok, we do a variation of the tuck planche in Karate, the frog planche, where your knees are supported by your elbows, but I will try the tuck planche. As for muscle ups, something I have never been able to do, just dont either have the strength or technique for the transition between pullup and dip. Pullups will be hell on earth until my shoulder starts to get strong.. (I do have a set of rings in my garage)

Lower body is summit I have always lacked in strength, because I never devoted any time to the legs, as long as I could wlak I was happy. Tried a pistol last night, several issues were raised, it requires flexibilty in the hamstrings and glutes, it requires a great deal of balance, guess pistols are gonna take a long time to do

Anyway thanks for the reply and I will start to make up some sort of plan.

Cheers

Dougie

[Raizen]

These sorts of post make me a little sad. Bodyweight exercises, weight lifting, either way the key word was weight. As in the thing that your muscles need to fight against in order to improve. Functional strength by definition is strength that is perfect for a given task. Bruce Lee lifted weights, and its fairly difficult to argue that his strength was anything other than functional. While I do endorse the application of many Gymnastic Strength Training™ drills, I also endorse certain weight lifting techniques. Weight lifting can yield strength benefits equal to those of gymnastics if you use them correctly, and under strength training parameters (3x5, 4x2, ect) I have yet to find a gymnastics exercise that can match the deadlift for posterior chain strength. Even Coach Sommer himself has commented on the effectiveness of some lifts, such as Power Cleans. I like a lot of what kbryk says, but 4 sets of 50 bodyweight squats is a terrible way to develop strength. Those are endurance parameters. Do some ungodly heavy barbell full squats for 3 sets of 5. Then once you develop the strength (as you seem to possess virtually none), if you really must convert to bodyweight exercises do those pistols, under similar parameters. Add weight once they get easy. Of course that means that its no longer a BODYWEIGHT exercise at all, but rather a WEIGHTED exercise. Yet this progression will yield greater benefits in strength than simply uping the reps. Weight training only yields big, bulky, useless hyperthropy if you train idiotically and/or like a bodybuilder. As for flexability, I highly suggest reading Tom Kurz' book Stretching Scientifically, it is INSANELY useful. Procure a copy by any means necessary =]. In an unrelated personal note, please tell me you can touch your toes...

[Coach Sommer]

Respect is Required

I am a bit of an old fashioned gentleman. As such, I have old fashioned ideas about civility and proper conduct. Just a reminder, there will be no squabbling or disrespect to other forum members on this board. We are all here to learn, share and inspire - please behave accordingly.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Raizen]

Appearently I've been disrespectful. I just thought I was being humorous. At any rate, as a form of atonement, I come bearing gifts. =]

In the form of free online flexability resources!

http://trickstutorials.com/index.php?page=content/flexibility