How has gym strength training helped you in other sports?

The part of Coaches pitch that really grabbed me was how well his fitness transfered over to other sports. As a kid (i guess thanks to gymnastics) I was in better shape than anyone I knew. I could run fast and forever, had hundreds of hefty motocross crashes without getting injured, and so on.

My wife had a baby five months ago derailing my plans to get started BtGB, but I have a better handle on my schedule now and am about to get going.

But through a lot of reading here, I do not remember anyone mentioning their performance increasing in cross training events, other than Coaches mentioning it in the book.

Have any of you tested or noticed increased performance in skills other than gymnastics and strength?

Thanks.

My wife had a baby five months ago derailing my plans to get started GBT, but I have a better handle on my schedule now and am about to get going.

lol true commitment to training

It has helped accelerate the learning curve in pretty much everything I've tried:

Did springboard diving in HS and dominated competitions because of my airsense.

Also played around with greco-roman wrestling/boxing with friends in HS and again dominated without having experience, just a massive strength advantage.

"Ball" sports never really was in to but as far as sprinting, leaping, rebounding, and agility aspects I had a good foundation for.

I roll jiu jitsu every now and then. Without learning any technique, just having basic knowledge that bending an elbow against it's proper angles hurts and that people can't breathe well when being choked....and applying that knowledge with a huge strength advantage helped me tap out a collegiate level competitive athlete. (although I'm sure he took it easy on me, he's an absolute beast)

Weight lifting is an obvious carry over so I won't mention achievements there.

Rock climbing, having the flexibility and dexterity in the leg to reach a hold that someone can't offers a huge advantage, as well as being able to pull yourself up with one arm.

Parkour is also another obvious carry over, but with the caveat that most gymnasts are not accustomed to creative expression through their movement.

Floreio (taken from capoeira), scapular control, joint mobility, body tension from gymnastics all help here...but creative expression is a new one for most of us.

He who has scapular control always has the upper body advantage....and gymnasts are the kings of scapular control.

I could go on and on and on, pretty much everything physical I've tried (barring pure artistic expressions) I feel I have a significant advantage over a non-gymnast purely because of my training.

@Tsunami - True commitment to family maybe?

I feel that GB training, or at least the application of GB principles to my personal training, has been hugely beneficial to my martial arts abilities and translates to other sports perfectly. My own progress and personal experience with GB exercises and WOD training are quite insignificant compared to most others here, though, because I only did the WODs for a short time before mixing in other things and working on pre-Reqs. I am now working my way back into them.

I wasn't a gymnast before other sports so I don't see as much of the carryover.

...but with the caveat that most gymnasts are not accustomed to creative expression through their movement.

Well, MAG gymnasts I'd probably agree, not for WAG gymnasts though.

Being able to do a flag on a climbing wall has impressed chics, though. Standing backs, too. That's a sport, right? One of the oldest ones?

Basic gymnastics can impress MOST CrossFitters. Actually more than a handful of the top female crossfitters were former collegiate gymnasts.

It is a known fact that many gymnasts go on to excel in other sports after they retire from gymnastics, whether they were advanced or collegiate or elite level gymnasts.

I have found from doing gymnastics since I was about 6 years old (recreationally) and playing Australian Rules Football also as I was growing up you could see how the gymnastics influenced my football. The obvious stuff like been able to jump well and it giving me more strength since I was a skinny kid and still managing to hold my own in quite a physical sport, but also thing like knowing how to fall and having the spacial awareness so I could roll out of tackles or after being pushed over.

Also in primary school just showing off on the playground equipment by doing things like back hip circles and flips off things

...but with the caveat that most gymnasts are not accustomed to creative expression through their movement.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of people in parkour/freerunning comunity (and not just here in CR), who are losing that sense of creativity, sacrifising it for longer and bigger jumps/harder flips

Gymnastic training boosted my parkour really a lot. But not just physicaly, psychological improvement is also significant. I've always been very timid and slow learning (in fact, i wasn't quite able to do a backward roll till i was around 15 :roll: ). Strenght training is giving me "base" from wich i can build my confidence to learn more advanced tricks. It also taught me, that i can achieve what i want, if i work hard enough for long enough.

Has anyone got any quantifiable results of before and after gymnastics training?

For example is there anyone who cut a minute off their one mile run time, or added a few miles to their running? Or gained reps or weight doing some common lift?

Not that I doubt BtGB at all, I'm just curious how coach's examples like being able to run long distance and out lift weight lifters, compare to peoples results that have not been life long gymnast.

151 said:

Has anyone got any quantifiable results of before and after gymnastics training?

For example is there anyone who cut a minute off their one mile run time, or added a few miles to their running? Or gained reps or weight doing some common lift?

Not that I doubt GBT at all, I'm just curious how coach's examples like being able to run long distance and out lift weight lifters, compare to peoples results that have not been life long gymnast.

I've experienced something very similar with the running. It's a lot faster and easier. Like punching off each step.

Before I started doing wods in like 10 or 11th grade of high school my mile was around 8:30. I haven't done any cardio training/running besides whatever is in wods and jump rope and I just timed it a few weeks ago and my mile is now around 6:30. I was also able to flat out run close to 10 miles one time barefoot on the beach spur of the moment without any build up to it and keep pace with a friend who had been doing it for awhile.

It's probably because of actually learning to use glutes properly while sprinting, but I managed to cut well over a second from my 100 m time without ever running and win my school competition, because of floor slide leg curls and half GHR's I've been doing with GB WODs

that's damn good, Uzeeh. What was your before and after times?

PHILIP said:

151 said:

Has anyone got any quantifiable results of before and after gymnastics training?

For example is there anyone who cut a minute off their one mile run time, or added a few miles to their running? Or gained reps or weight doing some common lift?

Not that I doubt GBT at all, I'm just curious how coach's examples like being able to run long distance and out lift weight lifters, compare to peoples results that have not been life long gymnast.

I've experienced something very similar with the running. It's a lot faster and easier. Like punching off each step.

I agree. I never run more than 0.6-0.7 miles at a time and the vast majority of my lower body impact work comes from jumping rope in my vibrams. I have no trouble keeping pace with most people and can outrun quite a few of my friends who train regularly for recreational runs, and I am not even doing all of the BtGB leg work like most of those who have responded are. Adding that in would dramatically improve my performance. I know that for sure, I've done it in the past.

Blairbob: in the past, I could run 100m in 13,9 seconds, and now my record is 12.7s. Not that great, I know, but I've never been that explosive, and to me even that was very, very good

My first time running I ran a 11 min 1.5 miles, not all that great but being 24 at the time, having lifelong asthma and never running more than required in baseball when I was little I think its a great start! I shoot competitive handgun and am starting to get into shotgun and 3 gun. Having strong forearms and a great sense of how to move my body in space gives me a huge advantage when moving through a stage. If I can save 1-2 seconds just bec I can explode between shooting points and not be out of breath when I get there has moved me up in the rankings more than once. Strong forearms ultimately lead to great recoil control and faster follow up shots. I have beat guys who are better shooters than me just because I can move faster and my fitness level lets me go all out through every stage for the entire match, no matter the temperature outside.

Plus I love standing on my hands and am kind of obsessed with it, I could get stronger faster but I like to practice my handstands everyday so I have to cut back the strength work due to time and recovery constraints.

helped me with martial arts

Has anyone got any quantifiable results of before and after gymnastics training?

For example is there anyone who cut a minute off their one mile run time, or added a few miles to their running? Or gained reps or weight doing some common lift?

I took my bench press from 71.5kg 1RM (after weight training for 18 months) to 74kg 1RM (after training GB WODs ONLY for 5 months). I was quite shocked but very pleased.

As Warik also said, training the GB way is effective, so I feel confident about progressively mastering strength or skill elements in parkour.

As for rugby, which is my main sport, here are the key improvements I've noticed:

- my ball running is far more powerful and my fend is very effective now.

- my tackle rate, completion rate and rate of dominant tackles has improved.

- pilfering is a lot easier due to a stronger core and improved flexibility. This relies on strength to wrest the ball from an opponent on the ground in a pretty odd position, ie really wide squat, leaning forward with chest over the player and the ball, while opponents are attempting to knock you over.

I think the GB program has also helped me settle at my optimum weight for rugby performance. I'm around 5-10kg lighter than my competitors, but I know I'm stronger and my endurance is better (as evidenced by my superior workrate).

These days, I use Coach's WODs for all my strength work, although I add in two-three squat/DL sessions and some extra plyometrics as leg strength and power is critical for rugby.

Those are some awesome stories, thanks guys. You've all probably heard it before, but I wish I was a year in, instead of just now starting. Can't wait to see results like you all have.

I think I am going to do some benchmark testing, now before any gymnastics training. Then after doing some build up and eventually the WOD's I'll go back and re-test every three or four months.

Should be interesting.

These might be my test, what do you think?

One mile run

max distance run

max bench press

max squat

number of steady push ups

number of pull ups

500m rowing time

that should do it.

standing vertical jump

100 yard dash, perhaps even shorter such as 25-50 yards. In the gym, I use 25 since that's all we have.

Amanda said:

As for rugby, which is my main sport, here are the key improvements I've noticed:

- my ball running is far more powerful and my fend is very effective now.

- my tackle rate, completion rate and rate of dominant tackles has improved.

- pilfering is a lot easier due to a stronger core and improved flexibility. This relies on strength to wrest the ball from an opponent on the ground in a pretty odd position, ie really wide squat, leaning forward with chest over the player and the ball, while opponents are attempting to knock you over.

Amanda,

I experienced essentially the same things in my rugby performance following GB, to the point it allowed me to make an u16 state team.

Unfortunately it didn't seem to improve my passing game at inside centre, if anything the opposite :roll:

Also, in Karate classes I was able to keep up with the best of them despite usually having done a WOD in the morning and often having done some floreio or handbalancing before class.

Ed

igalk474 said:

helped me with martial arts

ed x said:

(...) in Karate classes I was able to keep up with the best of them despite usually having done a WOD in the morning and often having done some floreio or handbalancing before class.

How so?

Would you care to elaborate a little bit igalk474 & ed, please?

My main sport is volleyball. Handstand work and shoulder warm-ups is probably what has kept me from tearing anything compared to others my age and even younger. Lots of torn rotator cuffs.

Between the rope climbing and rope pullups giving me a pretty vice-like grip and the multiplanar nature of the more advanced basic strength work as well as the strength built in off angles have made me into a very hard person to grapple with because people just have a hard time controlling me. I'm too strong and too hard to submit. It happens eventually, because I am not a skilled jujitsu player, but it takes a lot of time and effort. If I actually trained at all I would be a serious problem for almost everyone.

That's all I can say, but it seems like there's nothing I try that I'm not good at. This was not really the case before I started GB work. I was always fairly physically talented, but not like this. It just seems like I can do anything I want and be good at it.

Hahahhah, Sliz. Thank goodness Sam Colt was born.

ed x said:

Unfortunately it didn't seem to improve my passing game at inside centre, if anything the opposite :roll:

Ed

what do you call an inside centre that can't pass?

outside centre.

I retired from football last year so gymnastics can be my main focus. I said the same thing in the 'introduce yourself' side of the forum. My gym plan was messy during my last football season. After quitting I overhauled my entire gym plan to favour gymnastics.

In my opinion gym (weight) training sucks a@#. Gymnastics conditioning helped me much more than lifting bloody weights in the gym. Recently I believed my maximum benching limit is 50 kgs. After I bought myself a pair of rings from ringstraining.com I started doing push ups on them for two months. During those two months I haven't touched the bench bar at all, I nearly forgot about it. After those two months I went back on the bench bar again and I was f@#$%^g astonished! I benched 60 kgs!!!!! How did I do that?!?!

Also what gymnastics did for me is toughens my abs. Gymnastics taught me stuff like hollows/dish rocks, L Sits, hanging leg lifts, etc to help me get a six pack. In my opinion these are much more helpful than doing crappy sit-ups.

Gymnastics conditioning > weight lifting

Weight lifting is for suckers imo.