Pointers and Critique About my Routine

Hello All, I'm fairly new to gymnastics work and wanted to post about what I am doing right now in order to make sure I am not doing something wrong or harmful.

I've read Coach Sommers Building the Gymnastics Body, and have been reading the sticky posts and various guides. I'm having a tough time getting my head around everything explained but I've put together a routine, have a few problems and wanted to make sure I did not misunderstand a few basic principles.

I'll try to be specific about myself, my routine and past so that the post might be helpful to someone else in the future who finds himself in similar shoes.

First some background, I'm 34, not that young, I've been doing functional workouts for the last four years since my 30s. I had done sports when I was younger, but in my 20s let physical aspects go. By my 30s It was clear this was not good for my body so I started working out with functional exercises and got stronger and healthier.

I'm 90% sure I'm an ectomorph, I have thin arms and thin legs, and have a lot of trouble putting on muscle weight (gut weight, as anyone pas 30 notices is never hard).

In the last four years, I've been focusing on squats, dead-lifts, snatches, lunges, pull-ups, push-ups. Mostly did super-sets or circuits. Since I get bored easily, I did HIIT instead of long cardio (jumping rope, sprints, row machine, etc). Before moving onto rings and gymnastics exercises, I had built up core strength quite a bit (nothing spectacular but good for me) thanks to the training routine. What I always lagged in, was pull-up strength. I was never much of a curl/skull-crusher or other glory muscle worker and was pretty weak in curls themselves.

I had purchased some rings a few years back and was using them mainly for push-ups/dips/pull-ups in my regular routine. My training schedule was three days of the week (M/W/F or Su/W/F). I would alternate A type routine with B type every time I went to the gym and would change both the A type and B type routines every 6 weeks.

Last November, I wanted to move on to gymnastics based exercises as it felt like a much more beneficial training for my body. So out went snatches and weights and in came more time on rings. I've kept dead-lifts and squats in my routine, as those two exercises themselves seems pretty beneficial overall in themselves and I found them hard to replace with body-weight exercises (i'm probably wrong on this but hey that's the reason for the post).

While building my new routine, I tried to incorporate the information in Coach Sommers book and the information I came across, but since the routines seemed so different that what I was used to I've been getting confused and have difficulty in creating evolving routines. I try to keep my workout at about an hour. Sometimes 1:15, more than that I feel I am doing more harm than good to my body (maybe this can be a major mistake on my part?)

My main lacks in strength are probably in pull-ups and push-ups to some extent. I can do four sets of five reps in pull-ups, and three sets of ten reps in ring push-ups with legs slightly above shoulders. In dips I am also at the same stage where I can do three sets of five dips on rings (starting from a maximum low position, where one would be after a muscle up transition, hands next to pecs). I'm having a pretty tough time increasing my strength in these exercises, while my core strength has increased considerably since starting the rings.

I've tried doing weighted pull-ups, in order to break through the plateau but it seems that with 10kg attached to me I can do 1 set of 5 reps, then 4 and then 3 reps in my third set, after which subsequent sets I would barely be able to get 2 out. I've started hanging in static holds in the top position with weights on the dipping belt to try to get more strength.

My weekly routine nowadays looks like this:

GymDay 1 (M or W): Workout A

- Pull-up Sets: 4 sets of 5 reps on rings (1 minute rest)

- Semi headstand Push-ups, 3 sets of 8 reps with feet hooked to rings at roughly 60% angle (1 minute rest)

- Lever circuit work: Inverted hang to german hang (5 sec hold), up to half tuck back lever (10 sec hold), back to inverted hang, down to half tuck front lever hang (10 sec hold). (90 second rest) I do this circuit 3 times, but currently my last set suffers in hold times.

- Squats three sets of 8 squats with barbell (1 minute rest)

- Core and ab circuit: 4 sets of 8 hanging leg raises (hanging from rings by my elbows since my grip is dead tired by this time), 1 set of 10 hanging knee raises, 1 set of 8 Leg thrusts on rings (elbows in rings, leg thrusts vertical), Decline board leg thrusts 15 reps, 2 sets of 6 reps standing ab wheel (from standing to almost horizontal and back up), 1 set of 6 lying flat push-up, 1 set of 12 ab wheel on the knees. (these have 30 second rest between them they basically feel like a non stop high intensity routine)

GymDay 2 (W or F): Workout B

- Dip Sets: 4 sets of 5 reps on rings (all the way down, to hands next to pecs) (1 minute rest)

- Hanging Rows: 3 sets of 5 reps in tuck, 3 sets of 6 reps with feet on support (above shoulders) (1 minute rest)

- 3 sets of 20 sec static hold 20lbs dumbbells with arms stretched out into a T while standing

- 3 sets of 15-10 sec L sit low on rings (15 sec on first set, 12 on second and 10 sec on third)

- 5 sets of 6 sec planche tuck

- 3 sets of 12 barbell lunges

- 12 minutes jumping rope

GymDay 3 (F or Su): Repeat Workout A

So far I've been doing slight variations of the above workout, since November. Every six weeks or so I change the pull-up a little, the dips a little, maybe do HLL circular instead of HLL, Do a butterfly hold with dumbbells or inverted hang T hold. instead of the hanging T hold. Dead-lift instead of squats, ring push-ups instead of HSPU with feet on rings, etc. etc.

I'm hoping to build the necessary strength to move into some of the more complex and rewarding exercises in Coach Sommers book, hoping that my age will not be a hindrance by the time I get there.

So far the biggest hurdles have been the lack of increase in reps, in pull-ups, the inability to do a muscle-up (stuck in transition) and the very slow progress on levers.

Since November, one remarkable thing has been my core strength increase, which was noticeable in ab wheel rollouts and lying flat push-ups. Exercises I could barely do a few have become part of my circuit in just three months, which was surprising for me.

Last but definitely not least, my diet. I do not eat every three hours like a bodybuilder nor do I use supplements. I try to eat as natural as I can, lots of meat/chicken/veggies/fish/eggs but only three times a day. Try to eat pasta and other white flour carbs only once a week. Have milk every other day, etc. I never got around to being able to take dietary supplements on a regular basis or eat often enough to keep steady insulin levels. So I try to eat naturally and healthily, three times a day.

Sorry for the long post, I wanted to make it detailed. I'm undoubtedly doing many/some things wrong, so here's hoping some more experienced members will come and help me. The sports club I go to is fairly inadequate for gymnastics work, no parallel bars, no gymnastic equipment whatsoever, but I make do with the rings I can hand from the ceiling, and some machines I can use as leverage.

Play with rep schemes with the pullups or methods such as ladders or pyramids (yuck). Since you're not doing a lot of volume, that may be why.

How long have the pullups plateau'd?

For MU, more MU negatives, maybe some Row MU (horizontal pullup into assisted Mu with feet on floor-this is more of a drill than anything else for proper transition mechanics).

I try to keep my workout at about an hour. Sometimes 1:15, more than that I feel I am doing more harm than good to my body (maybe this can be a major mistake on my part?)

Umm, while I'm aware of the research and data on this; go look at anyone training for a sport, especially at the higher levels of competition. They don't worry that they go over the 60 minute windows, especially when practice is 2-5 hours.

Leaving out snatching leaves out explosive work. And it goes away without maintenance. That's your decision though.

Hey Blairbob,

Thank you for your reply.

Pull-ups: I plateau'd about 9 months - 1 year ago.

I'm taking you would suggest higher volume work (more reps, without any weights) over more sets of lower reps with weights attached to a dipping belt. I think I went the wrong way and started to do weighed pull-ups to break a plateau where the total volume of reps is still low. I do hate pyramids, so I will try the ladder sets. Just to avoid any confusion we are talking about 1 rep, wait four seconds, 2 reps, wait four seconds, up to exhaustion then wait 90 seconds and rinse/repeat right?

In order to help with the muscle up I'm doing the pull-ups in a way that the rings come down to my pecs, making the pull-up much harder than just bringing your chin to the imaginary bar between the rings. I'm guessing sticking with this form of bringing the rings as close to a transition position as possible is the way to go in these ladders right?

Muscle up: The negatives and just doing the transition with cable pulls with the rings attached is what I try to do on some off days. I love the idea of doing the transition from horizontal row, definitely going to try that.

Do you think that there is enough work for the levers front/back? Would you suggest the more traditional 4x6 sec rep sets over this type of circuit? I'm going to take your advice and ignore the 1 hour time of workouts, this will allow for more sets spread out.

Thanks again for the reply and you input, I really appreciate it.

The lever series is a sort of mini ring series. By the time, you're getting to the end you've been about 45s. As a series it's alright.

Pyramids seem to great for a lot of volume and DOMS, which ended up taking too long for me to train again compared to when I used ladders. I think for ladders I used 5s as in a count to 5 so it roughly was the same thing. It is just something I use when I am out of being used to doing basic gymnastics stuff like pullups and dips. I might have waited longer than 90s, maybe 3m. Generally 2-3x and I liked to pair pullups and dips just to make it time efficient.

Treat the ChestToBar pullup as strength work. Don't allow for shoddy reps. I'm not sure I would use it for ladders. False grip pullups are another thing to use.

The horizontal row MU is a neat drill but I don't think it really works on push strength at all which is sort of the opposite of a MU negative (unless you add a false grip pullup at the bottom). If MU negatives are too difficult, then I would do horizontal rows or MU negatives assisted somehow.

Some of the bigger factors with duration of workouts is how much time you have to train and running out of fuel or simply pooping out mentally.

I totally get what you are saying about training duration. I tried to go for 1:30 by adding more work into my routine and I was absolutely wiped out by 1:15. Both mentally and physically I was ready climb into bed and hide under the sheets. I need to adjust intensity or build more endurance.

I'm focusing on muscle up negatives and the false grip horizontal row to muscle up transition. We'll see how that goes in the next few weeks.

Thanks for al the pointers it was immensely helpful. And by the way Tried to do some snatches the other day and yes, power has gone bye bye since november. We'll see how fast it will come back.

Until last november, my time spent olympic lifting with a barbell was nearly nil except for a few occasions for nearly a year.

I was able to work bar only and DB C&J but in November when I tested it was 105-115lbs, maybe done from a previous 175 when I had been snatching somewhat regularly. Clean was around 135 from 205 though my Jerk was still there.

I felt really slow with a bar (it's probably also gone down somewhat to trying to take my technique back to formula) and it still feels weak as I'm back up to 125/165. Been failing on 130 a lot and sometimes I'm too gassed to have enough power left for getting near to max with my clean.

Bare in mind, my technique wasn't that great before either.

We'll I've made some changes to my workouts, as I learn more about gymnastics training.

Thanks for all the help Blairbob, I've been working on it for the last 6 weeks and have seen some improvements and done some changes.

I've re-structured the workout more on FSP and FBE, and I've been using the suggested ladders and even (slizzardman I believe) the method of doing 10 sets of x reps for problematic FBE's such as pullups for me.

My pull-ups are improving, I'm currently able to do 10 sets of 4 reps and am trying to push that to 10 sets of 5 reps. I change between ladders and fixed sets evey other week for pullups and it is working out well in terms of gains.

I've re structured my routine to the following:

Everytime (FSP):

L-Sit

Back Lever

Front Lever

Handstand

Planche

A:

Pullups

HSPU

Dips

Curls

Core work such as HLL, Vups or ab wheel

B:

Pushups

Rows

Squats

Triceps work for muscle up

Asymmetric Pullup/Pushup (one ring lower than the other so one arm is doing a dip while the other is doing a pullup)

and/or negative muscle up work.

I think this routine is better suited to what I want to achieve but I have a few snags that I would love some input on how to work out.

1) Exhaustion

The above workouts take 1:30 to 1:50 to complete, my week workout looks like AxBxAxx and BxAxBxx the next week. I am getting exhausted after four weeks and need to either take a week off or go to AxxBxxAxxBxxAx twoo week schedule for one week in order to recuperate.

Can this be related to diet? I eat normally three meals a day, try to stay away from white flour based foods such as pasta, pizza bread, and eat meat or chicken every day with fish a few times a week (lots of eggs in there too). I take BCAA 10 grams before workout, 10 grams after and 10 grams the morning after.

2) Not doing everything I want to

I'm beat by the end of the routine above and sometimes I cheat and either go an extra day to do some other workouts I want to or replace one workout and push the schedule off for one day.

Things that I wish I could work out more:

Jumping rope

Static holds and basic strength training involving flys (either holding dumbbels static to the sides while standing or while hanging upside down or working flys with dumbbels/cables in both directions.

More dynamic work such as snatches

More lower back work

Is what I am doing enough and just doing the extra stuff on extra days or days I feel more energetic worth it? Or should I adapt a new routine that works these in somehow?

On last question on L-sit and planche I tried searching for this but the forum considers "l sit" floor common search terms and returns no results. I do my L sits and Planche work on the floor, pushing into my palms. They become easier if I use dumbbels. Should I continue to do these on the floor or use dumbbells anyway as a progression towards rings? Ring L-Sits are no problem but I cant keep my arms straight on ring planche work yet.... balance issues.

have you heard of "greasing the groove"? its a technique described in Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline, he talks about training one or two exercises, 1 set of each at 50% to 80% of your max reps(so if u can do 10 pull ups you'd do between 5 and 8 each set), 3 or 4 times a day. He says he set a guy in his 40's the routine of doing 5 chin ups every time he went down to his basement and a few months later, having only done sets of 5 reps, the guy could do 20 chins. I've been training this way but with 6 exercises for about a week but with a few more exercises, pulls, push-ups, headstand push-ups, the V-sit of a hanging leg lift, handstand leg-raises and single-leg squats. I train 3 or 4 times a day and each time I train I do one set of each with plenty of rest between exercises. My form with all the exercises is ALOT better, in particular I've noticed I'm getting higher above the bar with pull-ups and my feet are getting much closer to the ground with handstand leg raises. Btw, I'm someone who was having trouble making much progress training 3 or 4 times a week calisthenics and static strength positions. At the moment my plan is to train pulls to one armed chins and pushes to one armed push-ups before moving one to planches and front-levers. Hope this helps

Hey Greenloy,

GTG sounds interesting. Would I keep my regular sets in my workout while I would do random/frequent pullups the rest of the day?

I don't think I can apply GTG to my whole workout but maybe specifically to things I'm weak at?

It's been a while since I read Power to the People, but I think GTG requires you to drop all work sets in the workout, because the workout will induce stress your body needs to recover from and if you're performing constant work throughout the day, your body can't recover because those are stressors too.