Beginners Program

Hi all

I was wondering if anyone could suggest a program for a complete beginner. I've done no real previous strength training after looking through the forum an some of the articles I have tried a few things though. I can hold a frog stand for about 20 seconds and a wall handstand for about 40 seconds before it feels like my head will explode. My ultimate aim is to improve my general all round strength and tone without paying a fortune in gym membership, but it would be great if I could eventually achieve exercises like the planche.

Oh at the minute I have nowhere to hang from so I can't really do any pulling exercises and I am 5ft 4 weighing 55kilos

Thanks in advance

Claire

Hi Claire,

Not having somewhere to hang could pose some problems - do you really have nowhere (inside or out) that you can hang?

Cheers,

George.

If you don't have anywhere to hang I'd recommend going to your local sports shop (or the internet) and get a pull-up bar you can hang from a doorway, unfortunately it doesn't really allow for muscle ups, but you can do a whole lot of other stuff with them. Plus it only costs about 15$. (On a side note, try to not get one that is supported only by its extension out so that it puts pressure on the door frame to keep it up, usually it will really mess up the door frame over time, and I've also seen them give out on numerous occasions. The one I have has little things you screw into the door frame and then extend the bar inside of them.)

Thanks for the responses, I'll get a bar for between the doors as soon as possible, so if we could come up with a program that would use that it would be great.

I think Claire, we would need to know a few more variables before creating a workout program for you. Personally, I don't like doing it much just cause.

If you supplied data such as how many days available you could workout and for how long it would make designing a program easier. From there you can figure out how much of each exercise/skill to do per week or workout.

If you only had 30 minutes a day it would be very different than if you had 75 minutes a day and more so if you could/would only work out 4-5 days a week instead of 2-3 days a week. Subtract how much time it would take to get through certain progressions and how much time a warmup and stretching session at the end would take.

For my team training, I made charts of how much time I had in total hours, break time, warmup time, stretching time, event time and conditioning time.

I've got a rough idea of how much strength you have.

You can also do pulling exercises by getting two chairs and a dowel or broomstick and do horizontal pulling exercises. Or just get a door pullup bar which will work much better.

Figure out which skills you want to work on. At your level I would suggest:

Wall HS

L sit

planche progression

add in front lever progression

body levers

pistols

floor glute ham

Divide this up per workouts during the week and then do some work like pushups, pullups, leg lifts, leg movements to assist the static strength.

Voila.

What are floor glute hams?

http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=783

oh ok, I didn't recognize that name.

Thanks Blairbob I was planning on doing Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri time wise probably about 45 minutes give or take. The stuff you have given me there is a good start and will help towards the static positions I'd like to achieve. I do now have a door frame bar. I think if we went for a basic idea of my strength the simple answer would be none lol. Thanks again for your lengthy response very much appreciated

How to create your own workout routine by S. Low

http://www.powerathletesmag.com/wforum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1037

Cool, you can also lower the door frame bar to do some dips or support stuff as well. Just like a single rail horizontal bar.

You can either test for your max duration rep per the exercise or stop when you start feeling some definite strain. Practice your reps in the sets for doing 50% of your max duration hold.

You can try starting off with only doing the exercises for 30 seconds total the first few weeks or you could try 60s and if you are too sore the next day, back off to 30. You'll figure it out.

Do whatever you're gonna do for a warmup. Jumping jacks, a short jog. Personally I like to start off with 10 candlestick rolls. Stand, squat as low as possibly to your butt, roll back with arms by your ears and extend your body as vertical. Try to keep as straight as possible, tucking at the bottom and standing up. Good to warm up the legs and back as you can also do a yoga plow stretch after hitting the top.

I'd throw in some stick shoulder stick dislocates in and bridges in your warmup. 2 or 3 is all you need to do. Some lunges to knee work well for loosening up the legs or you can do assisted pistols instead of squats. Pushups or the wrist preparation drills.

If you only have 45 minutes to workout from beginning to end that will be partitoned to about this:

3-5 minutes to warmup

5 minutes to do physical preparation ( bridges, bottom of a pistol, shoulder stick dislocates, wrist drills )

5 minutes to stretch which leaves you about 30 minutes to workout including rest which is probably plenty. You'll probably want to use shorter rest periods because of how much time you have besides the fact that you're not working very advanced or intense drills. Higher intensity=more rest necessary for optimal.

Wall HS. Should take you about 2.5 minutes

Frog stand 6x10s with 30s of rest in between each attempt. 4 minutes

Tuck front lever hold. Let's say 10x6s. Another 4 total minutes

Pistols and glute ham. That's another 8 minutes. Or you could alternate them throughout the week. Each exercise 2 days a week.

Body lever. At this point I would just work holding the candle position. Total time of 30s. 10x3. 15 seconds of rest in between. 3 total minutes.

Alternate body lever and L sit work during the week.

That should leave with 15 more minutes, maybe a bit less if you want to partition some more time in the warmup and stretching at the end. My warmup is about 20 minutes and my cooldown is about 10 but I tend to workout around 90 minutes total time +/- 10-15 minutes.

With that 15 minutes, you could practice some kicking to HS. Actually I would do this and presses to HS before doing the conditioning. You can also work 3 sets of pullups and dips or pushups ( perhaps decline pushups if you're strong enough or ). You can also practice sets of pistols now with an assist by doing a candlestick roll. Some hollow holds or hollow rocks/V-ups and superman rocks/holds.

This is just a sample since I don't know what drills you want to work on at first. You could also bump up the rest times to double or triple what they are but you might not have that much time after the static strength holds to do those other dynamic/isokinetic movements.

Thanks for all your help, sorry I'm slow to thank you I don't have constant internet access. Much appreciated