Jonas' training log

Hey there!

First of all, glad to be a member of this forum. I discovered the site via Christopher Sommer's article about planche progressions (beginning with the frog).

My name is Jonas, I'm currently 32 years and I'm very much a beginner to gymnastics. I few years ago I practiced a bit of Capoeira, also I've been doing a bit of climbing and mostly lifting weights and looking funny in the gym while doing some basic HS training on my own. My current stats are 90 kg and 183 cm. By the way, I live in Sweden.

I've spent the last month reading up on some of the basics, and I've starting doing the "prerequisite static positions" (plank, rev plank, hollow body, arch hold, dip support, dead hang) somewhat regularly. I'm doing single sets of 60 seconds for all of them. The one that is most difficult for me is the hollow body, but only after a month of doing this I notice that I've gotten a bit stronger.

I've also started playing around with the rings a bit (some german hangs and some skin-the-cats). Also, I've practiced a lot of HS (currently free HS max is ~30 s). My tuck FL max is ~30 s. My PB L-sit max is ~15 s.

Since about a week my elbows and shoulders are feeling a bit exhausted, so I'm currently trying to avoid doing too vigorous exercise (hard to keep away, since it's so fun). Currently I'm jumping rope and playing around with HS. Also doing climbing once a week.

Today, I did my first couple of pull-overs. It's basic stuff, but I'm happy !

My goals for this next month (February) are:

* 1 Muscle-up on rings

* PB L-sit for 30 s

* Tuck FL for 60 s

* Eat a lot less gluten, since I've noticed that it's not very compatible with my body

* Get my weight down to 85 kg (by losing fat, not muscle)

My workouts are a bit unstructured, sometimes I try to follow the WODs with scaled down versions of the exercises, sometimes I just improvise and practice what I feel like. But currently I want to give my shoulders and elbows a bit rest, so I try to avoid doing any real strength work.

Anyway, yesterday I went to the gym in the morning to primarily jump rope. I got a tip from someone on this forum about the following article: http://www.rossboxing.com/thegym/thegym26.htm. In that article, I read about doing 6 sets of 3 minute skipping, with 1 minute breaks in between. So that's what I've been doing when skipping rope lately. I still have a lot of room for improving -- I keep getting tangled in the rope after a few sets when I'm tired.

Before doing that, I did the 6 prerequisite static positions, 60 s each. Hollow body, dip support and chinup hold hang were pretty taxing yesterday. I've mostly been doing pullup hold before, but I'll try and think about doing chinup holds as well.

I finished the session by doing some HS practice and about 5 pullovers.

Food wise, it's going good. Mostly keeping away from the pasta, bread and sweets, and it feels great.

A friend told me about these circus workshops (juggling, acrobatics etc) that they're having every Tuesday not far from where I live! I'm curious about what they're up to, and perhaps if they can teach some tumbling techniques...

I've also contacted a gymnastics gang.

[Right now It's pretty cold outside. It seems the cold water has frozen in the pipes. I only get hot water...]

OK, another day of skipping rope. 6x3 min. My calves were pretty tired after today. I guess I'll rest from jumping a few days. Other than that I did 5 of the 6 prereqs. I didn't do dip support, since I was too tired.

Also did some pullovers, and tried a negative muscleup once. It was not easy! My montly goal of achieving a ring muscleup is probably not realistic. I'll keep working to get there anyway.

Practiced some kicking up to tuck HS with feet together (arms already on the floor) (inspired by niftyvt in this thread: http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=3298). It's a different feeling jumping up with both legs at the same time, as opposed to using the momentum from one fully extended swinging leg.

My GF told me she saw a difference in my body composition from this one month that I've doing gb inspired training (more or less an obsession at this point!) -- fun to hear that it's affecting the form as well .

I've been looking at some back handspring tutorials on Youtube. Hopefully, I'll soon find someone who can help me doing the spotting and I'll get started on doing these. From there, I want to learn back summersaults. But since I've made a couple of spectacular fails trying to do these without proper training, I'll take it slow this time, and continue to build up my strength and work up to things in a steady way.

Yesterday, I didn't have much energy while training but I finished the 6 prereq positions (held for 60 s each). Then I skipped rope for a few minutes and practiced some HS. Also made one (1) pullover. Meh... I tried a press to HS against the wall, but it was ridiculously hard.

Tonight it's off to the circus workshop thing. I really don't know what to expect.

No training for me today.

Yesterday I went to the circus thing. There were about 12-15 people there, most of whom were doing pair acrobatics (acro-yoga style). Also some people were practicing juggling (people juggling 6 pins and 7 balls -- very impressive!)

One of the guys was a pretty good hand balancer and he showed some wheelcart type exercises that I didn't manage to do very well. I got some engouraging compliments for my handstand though, something I attribute mostly to this last month's hollow body holds. Before, I used to arch my body way too much.

Tomorrow, I'm going to the climbing gym.

No climbing today, went out yesterday and had a couple of beers. This messed up my sleep (seems to happen often for me) and I settled for a quick visit to the ordinary gym. Skipped some rope (ankles still sore!) and practiced PB L-sits (6 sets of 8-10 seconds). LS is hard!! Also made deep pushups with PB and elevated feet (~10 x 3), 5 slow pullups (w/good form) and ~15 chinups. Finished by doing some HS and only managed 1 pullover (pulling muscles were tired it seemed).

I don't know if this unstructured approach is the best way to train, but I figure that I can do my practice this way for a few more weeks (4-8 more perhaps) and build some basic strength in the process. Then I can hopefully try and follow the WODs a bit more strictly. Not too strict though. I like how my training feels like play. The WODs will sure give me new ideas for movements that I haven't thought of, though.

Today I visited the open gymnastics group. They had a lot of soft surfaces and the people there were very helpful with spotting. This is one of my first attempts at doing the BHS (on a very forgiving surface). Poor technique, but good fun. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIqIHx03 ... e=youtu.be