Am I doing this right?

Hey gymnasticsbodies community!

I am starting out with this stuff just now and wanted to get some pointers from you. First something about myself:

I am 25 years old, 1.75m high and weigh ~64 Kilos. Until the beginning of the year I was regularly going to the gym for two years and built up to a weight of 70 Kilos. I lost it all again in just 3 months because I had a rough time during which I stopped training and ate very very little. I have no prior experience in gymnastics.

I recently moved and was looking into ways to improve my upper body strength and especially my core strength without going to the gym and stumbled across an interview with Coach Summer on a bodybuilding website. I spent two days reading a lot on this website and some others as well. So Monday I started my first gymnastic workout. I just want to know if I am doing it right..

My workout is as follows:

Static (I do as many sets of half of my max until I reach a total of 60 secs):

- Front Lever (tuck, 20 sec max)

- Back Lever (tuck, 20 sec max)

- Planche (tuck, 12 sec max)

- Handstand (at wall, 20 sec max)

- L-Sit (14 sec max)

after that 3 sets of Pull Ups (about 3 * 5, when I did the static workout before) and 3 sets of Push Ups (about 3 * 12, either flat or inclined)

Apart from Handstand I do everything on my fists since I have a strong pain in my right wrist (I am a computer scientist and did bench press with a very bad technique for the first months, should see a doctor..). In the Back Lever I am sometimes not completely locked into place and I think in my tuck Planche my lower body is not high enough and far enough back, but I guess this will change with practice since I am just lacking the strength necessary?

Also I am surfing everyday for 1-3 hours, so I have a lot of additional load on my shoulders and upper back.. I plan to do this workout 3-4 times a week. I get a lot more enjoyment from this than I got from going to the gym so I want to do it right. Please tell me what I am doing wrong or misunderstanding.. Also, should I add planks to the workout or am I doing enough for my core?

Thanks for reading

Hello and Welcome!

I would recommend you at first to start with Pre-requisites - here is a link on Getting Started Correctly thread. It might be useful for you viewtopic.php?f=18&t=5265

There is also a good thread called "Looking for propper start and guidance" , alot of very useful info too!

This should answer your questions.

Don't underestimate your wrist (shoulder, etc..) pain please. I did it and it was terrible, terrible mistake.

I started similar to you. Doing all the more advanced FSP and stuff... and ended up with tendonitis, Impingement Shoulder and with really messed up Wrists.

Remember: Make haste, slowly! (Coach Sommer)

Ask questions, or make a video of yourself if you are not right about any FSP or FBE and post it into Digital Coaching section

Thanks, the thread was a good read. Earlier I just skimmed it but it seems like I missed a lot of the information when doing that.

Yesterday I tried all the pre-requirements and I can do them all for at least 60 seconds. Should I stick to just doing these for a couple of weeks or can I just jump right in?

I also have a question regarding handstands.. do I extend the shoulders as far as I can or do I keep them in a 'normal' position and just make sure my arms are next to my head?