Review of "Building the Gymnastic Body"

Today might as well have been my birthday- I finally got a hold of Coach Sommer's highly anticipated book AND my Xtreme rings. After admiring Yang Wei's body for a few minutes, I found that the content lived up to the hype. An aside: on the new Xtreme Rings, you put the strap in through the back of the buckle, not the front.

This book is written in the same easy-to-read manner of Coach's forum posts that we came to love, while having the clarity expected from a well-written book. There is little to no gymnastics jargon, and minimal bull overall. Also, great pictures aid in learning exercises that are hard to visualize. (i.e how I never understood what a Young looked like)

In terms of material, yes we have seen a lot of this before. But at the same time, Coach Sommer introduces several new steps in the progression of planches, back levers, front levers, L-Sits, mannas, and other exercises. You remember the trouble of going from frog stand to tuck planche? Right here. What about the 'easy' back levers that are rarely discussed? Those too.

Along with new stages, Coach introduces MANY new exercises, some variations-on-a-theme, and others never seen before.

Additionally, Coach includes descriptions for exercises on all apparatuses (apparatii?), meaning floor, pbars and rings. The same exercise is performed a lot diferently on different equipment.

Also, Coach does a great job emphasizing a very important concept: all these exercises all have carry-over. This really strikes a chord with me, because I am neither a gymnast nor a fitness enthusiast. I am a swimmer and bboy, who found this site on my quest for flares. Needless to say I'm better at both activities due to the strength I acquired from the static progressions and bodyweight exercises I learned here(even before getting this book).

Criticism:

-The rating system is skewed and unrealistic. No way is a straddle planche easier than an L-sit, or an L-sit equal to a manna.

- His athletes are too strong compared to me. WHY DIDN'T MY PARENTS SIGN ME UP FOR GYMNASTICS?!?!!

-There are also some sporadic typos(page 91).

It's really a great book, and is truly revolutionary in introducing the advantages of the seemingly estoeric sport of gymnastics into the public eye.

Thank you for the overwhelmingly positive review. I am pleased to hear that you are finding the first book worthwhile.

I would like to comment directly on one of your criticisms:

-The rating system is skewed and unrealistic. No way is a straddle planche easier than an L-sit, or an L-sit equal to a manna.

As I mentioned in the book (page 16, second paragraph), one small thing that I would like to point out is that the rating system of comparative element difficulty only applies to movements within that specific family of movements. For example planche variations are only rated in comparison with OTHER planche variations. L-sit variations are only rated in comparison with OTHER L-sit variations etc etc.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

Great review mate! Makes me more and more excited about getting my stuff!!! Enjoy yours, and have fun!

Peace and Love,

Mike!

I got my book today and I can only agree with Barry.

The work you have done is great coach. There really is no book like it that I know of (but then, that doesn´t mean much :wink: )

I´ve timed myself on the planche, front lever and L-sit tonight and will start my training from there. Qite humbling to say the least. My respect for the strength that your athletes have has only increased coach, they are immensly strong.

I´m really looking forward to your other books.

Good luck with your training everyone! With a book like this you can´t go wrong.

Thanks Coach

That was a work of art! When you combine the book with the DVD's it's amazing!:-)

Looking forward to the upcoming volumes.

Thanks,

Craig

The only movement that I thought had an inflated difficulty rating within its family of movements is the wide grip pullup. However, it's been a while since I've performed them, and I don't have immediate access to a bar wide enough to try them again. Regular grip L pullups seem more difficult than I recall widegrip pullups being.

Everything I hear about this book makes me want to buy it more and more, but I have to ask. Is it available in book stores? Particularily Candian bookstores? If not, I would not hesitate to do the transaction online, I just have a bit of a problem with buying things on the internet.

Erik

Erik,

At this time Building the Gymnastic Body is only available through GymnasticBodies.com.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer