Training Time

[StevenL]

Coach, I know your athletes train 4 days a week, but how long do they train per day? And how much of this is spent on strength development, flexibility development, and skill development, and prehab? It just seems that this gymnastics thing can take up a huge chunk of time, even just learning the strength moves and trying to get flexible(which is what I am doing)

[John Sapinoso]

I personally can't say for his particular athletes but when I was still competing, I trained strength and pre/rehab anywhere from 1 - 2.5 hours a day and total work outs ranged from 3 - 8 hours a day. (8 hour days were double days)

[Coach Sommer]

Percentage Breakdown of Weekly Workouts

My upper level athletes train six days per week, they do however spend four days a week on conditioning. On the average about 25% of their time is spent on pre-hab and flexibility, about 25% is spent on strength training and conditioning and the rest is spent on gymnastics specific work (i.e. events, trampoline etc.).

It should be pointed out however that these are higher level competitive athletes with very specific training requirements. These percentages of work allocation and time spent in physical preparation are not analogous to that which is most beneficial for the fitness enthusiast. This is not something that I would be overly concerned about at the moment, the forthcoming GB WOD take all of this into consideration for you.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Blairbob]

Steven, I'll chime in on this. Most beginning competitive athletes ( lil guys/late starters ) do about 3 days a week for 2-3 hours.

Recreational boys/pre-team boys will do 2-3 days a week for 4-6 hours.

My friend's son who was training L10 as a frosh in HS was doing 6 days a week for 25-30 hours? That sounds about right. This is pretty typical for junior elites. I think collegiate athletes are limited to this amount of hours as well but it can depend on schoolwork/job. Most elite gymnasts are over 30 hours a week to 40 hours a week, often doing 2 workouts per day ( morning and afternoon/evening ) sometimes. Homeschooling and tutor programs allow this.

[StevenL]

Thanks for the reassurance, Coach. And I would also like to take some time to thank you for the ridiculous amount of work that you do for this website and in writing books and giving advice that you do on top of all of your other daily committments and I'd like to say that as a person, I am proud of your work ethic.