Introducing My Self, And A Couple Of Questions :)

Hello,

I dropped using weights as a way to build muscle + strength around 1-2 years ago due to a abducted shoulder dislocation. I am now focusing on bodyweight exercices alone for upper body conditioning, as i progess i  may add a weight vest as i progress.

My general goals are to have a well balanced structure, an injury free/flexible and mobile body, a well rounded physic and just to be generally healthy!

I purchased a book called, "overcoming gravity", which has personally helped me understand alot! My current routine is a 3 Day a week full body workout consiting off:

Warm up:

some dynamic stretches if i feel my body is tight + some pre hab if needed

Skill work:

handstands

lsit progressions

Coreof the workout:

Push up progessions 3x5

Dips 3x5

pull ups 3x5

Inverted rows 3x5

Prehab, mobility and flexibility:

Pike and straddle stretch

foam rolling

bridge

and rotator/scapula exercises

As each sessions passes i aim to increase the number of reps by 1 and stop once i reach a total of 10 per set. Once that has been done i will try the next progressions and as long as i can complete 3 good form reps i will work on them, if not i will eiter at and extra set or increase weight. Let me know what you think !!!

Oh one last thing, Im training to help me with general things i do e.g. biking, work and general everday activities. I therefor dont endeavour to gain skills which show your gymnastic abilities so to speak... By this i mean things that will not relate to my activies, such as the iron cross, i will never go near that exercise (or its certain progressions) as it will not benifit me or my goals PERSONALLY. Another way to put it is i dont want to put myself (or genrally my shoulder aha) at harm for an exerice which i will never use, if that makes sence! Dont think im saying its a bad exercise, as i know it takes ALOT of strength to preform!!

I honestly believe after you reach a certain level of basic strength that there is not much application to 99.9% of everyday life to having more. Certainly an improved physique matters to many people though does it really matter in real life if I can perform front lever or not? Or a handstand? I've never run into a useful application of those skills. They are there to impress mainly. 

But in terms of keeping your body active and using new neural pathways, staying fresh, I feel that they do have merit.

Sports performance (other than pure endurance sports) can benefit most from explosive strength - usually sport specific. Even general explosiveness won't be explicitly developed by ring training, except perhaps at the higher levels. Explosive push-ups and various jumps are part of the Gymnastic Bodies program, but do not require rings - though mats help.  It's probably the same with OG, though you should check with their support for specific questions about that book. It uses a different developmental system that isn't recommended here.

As you say about the front lever/ handstand- yes they do impress- however they work to building a 'balanced' body, e.g. one pulls staticly and  one pushes. Using both in unsion balances out your muscles so your posture etc.. does not diminish, keeping your body healthy and (technically speaking) injury free. your right they do keep you active! Which is what im aiming for, as i said in the previous post, im using a bodyweight/gymnastic style rouitne to benifit my body health etc... Obviosly this means i am going to preform gymnastic styled moves and intend to do so However, i do not wish to become a gymnast, therefor the very high leveled progression skills do not technically apply to me e.g. iron cross, ring swings, whereas the lower level ones e.g. ring dips, ring hspu, weighted pull ups, front and back lever, presses, lsit progressions etc.. will help me to achive overall good health and keep me active. Do you see what i mean? is a bit confusing aha!

crossfic said:

As you say about the front lever/ handstand- yes they do impress- however they work to building a 'balanced' body, e.g. one pulls staticly and  one pushes. Using both in unsion balances out your muscles so your posture etc.. does not diminish, keeping your body healthy and (technically speaking) injury free. your right they do keep you active! Which is what im aiming for, as i said in the previous post, im using a bodyweight/gymnastic style rouitne to benifit my body health etc... Obviosly this means i am going to preform gymnastic styled moves and intend to do so However, i do not wish to become a gymnast, therefor the very high leveled progression skills do not technically apply to me e.g. iron cross, ring swings, whereas the lower level ones e.g. ring dips, ring hspu, weighted pull ups, front and back lever, presses, lsit progressions etc.. will help me to achive overall good health and keep me active. Do you see what i mean? is a bit confusing aha!

You are pretty much right on the money for what it can do for you.  Health is the main benefit of doing these exercises.  I came to GST in order to achieve better balance which has led to greater joint health and flexibility.  I can move and do more things than I used to be able to do when I was lifting.  The physique is just a natural side effect of good health, it is just a good marker of your health.  Combine good exercise and good diet and you will feel and look better.

If you follow coaches progressions you will find that multiplanar and combination push pull movements give the most benefit in this area.  

Moving in one plane is ok but being able to move your body through more than one dimension is very beneficial.  I find that a lot of people are tempted to just go into weighted versions of the simple movements like dips and pull-ups.  Avoid this temptation and move into more complex movements and you will find huge reward.  From what I have seen this is the thing that makes GB better than other programs.  This is not to say that they are bad.  

BTW on the way you are planning to improve your exercises by adding 1 until you get 10.  This is a classic linear workout.  It works great at first but will stop working for you once you get to harder movements.  For example a ring HSPU if you just try to add a rep each session you will find that it will take you a very long time to improve.  The key is to manipulate both sets and reps and also introduce rest.  Also the goal of 10 is great for simpler movements like dips, pull-ups, HSPU, but you will find that once you get to things like One arm chin or hollowback press 10 is a huge number that some people will have a hard time ever hitting.  For very advanced movements in think 5 reps will suffice.  This may not apply to your goals but I just want to let you know.

thanks for the reply! By, "multiplanar and combination push pull movements" do you mean (for example) vertical pulling (pull ups)  horisontal pulling (rows)etc..? And yes i know for the routine i posted i think its best for liner progression aswell! When i move onto harder progrssions i will probaly turn it into a split routine, aswell as manipultaing reps sets etc ... One thing i find different and slightly confusing about swithcing to bodyweight exercise is what happens when i progress to the next level of exercise? Do the prior exercise's never get used? Also am i right in saying that sticking in the 3x8 rep range will give me mass aswell as strength?

When I talk about multiplanar and combination push pull I am referring to exercises in coach's book.  An example of a combination push pull would be a muscle up, which is probably one of the easiest.  Multiplanar is moving from a horizontal to vertical position and vice versa.  A good example of this is the hollowback press which is a decent gymnastic skill.

When you move into the next progression you can use the previous progression as warmup,  sometimes the most previous is still to difficult for warmup.  In this case you can use an earlier progression.  This will warm you up and let you remember the movement.  Note that when progressions are done well the strength of the next progression will usually maintain the strength of all the previous.  This is to say that doing the next progression will actually give you more strength in the previous.  Coach's progressions are definitely laid out this way.  I think I remember OG being similar.

3x8 is typical of both strength and hypertrophy.  I am into some progressions where 8 is just too difficult to reach so I will do them for my 3x3 or 3x5 and then do another similar exercise for more volume in order to get more hypertrophy.

Coach's book, can this be purchased or are you refering to a book that a coach would have? Ahh i see, will be incorpirating them into my workout as i progress, cheers! Thats great! Yeah it is laid out the same way im guessing low intensity higher reps? around 2 sets of 20 for warm up exercise , if im worng correct me aha!  Also with the warm up, im confused as to which exercise's to add, obviously i see now they need to be a level or 2 below your progression level, but does what you have in your main workout, for example weighted dips, have to have a warm up associated with the dipping movment, or can it just be any exercise?

I like that way you have manipulated reps for harder exercises, will apply that to the way i work out aswell! So you would stick at 3x3 or 3x5 for harder progressions (lets say plance push ups) and then slowly add intensity? Whilst later in the workout add say push ups (as the simular exercise) at say 3x8-12 for more hypertropy?

Or would you not add intesity to the 3x3- 3x5 exercises add just use them for strength gains soley?

Crossfic: He is referring to Coach Sommers book. You are in the forum that dedicates to that book. Go up on your forum page and you will find the book section. Good luck on your training 

Thanks for pointing that out! so everyone on this forum goes by that books progession system? Table of contents looks great, will be saving up for this! There appears to be no section on stretching?