Excited Beginner!

Hey Everyone,

So I finally joined up after a couple of months reading a lot of the posts. I picked up a set of rings just yesterday and made some DIY Parallettes too. So I am ready to get right into the BtGB exercises.

I have been working out at a gym for the last 16 or so months with my goals revolving around gaining mass. I got to the point where the gym was boring me, lifting weights and putting them down. It wasn't stimulating or fulfilling enough anymore. So I recalled my childhood love of gymnastics and decided it was time to fulfill that! 

My goals are now more around strength/skill and still mass, but obviously in reason to time. 

Referring to Killroy 70s workout program, I tried to decipher it to myself, it is still very similiar, just with some added leg work on the 4th day. I hope you guys can give me your opinion on how it looks, whether it will be a good program. 

FSP's (every workout day): 7-10 sets of each movement 

- Planche Variations

- Back Lever Variations

- Front Lever Variations

- Handstand work

Day 1: 5-6 sets x 3-5 reps (Horizontal plane pushing and pulling)

Pushups XR Bulgarian

Rows XR 

Day 2: 5-6 sets x 3-5 reps (Curling and dipping variations) 

Inverted Pullups

RTO Dips *rings turned out

Bicep Curls (dumbells)

Day 3: 5-6 sets x 3-5 reps (Pullup and HeSPU variation)

Floor HeSPU - Negatives (slowly lowering, then restart) 

Pullups - XR Bulgarian

Day 4: 5-6 sets x 3-5 reps (Multiplane pulling variations + varied pressing work )

- Inverted hang with slow negative     OR     muscle up variations

- one leg squats 

I am not quite sure how much time I am supposed to be holding the FSPs for? 

Or how long a workout is ideally supposed to go for? 

Thanks in advance for any replies, I am looking forward to getting into it! 

FSPs are typically each worked for a total time of 60 seconds with handstands being an exception.

IE: max hold time for BL Tuck is 24 seconds, 24/2=12, so hold will be 12 seconds, and 60s/12s=5, so 5x12s

max hold time FL Tuck, 20s.

You would end up with:

BL Tuck 5x12s

FL Tuck 6x10s

HS work is advised to be done for approx 10 minutes (including rest time), and it can be worked daily.

I wouldn't worry too much about the workout time frame as long as you have the time for everything, and aren't feeling rushed. Sometimes I'm on a time crunch and with shorter rest times I end up finishing after 90min--other times it takes 2 hours.

You should also consider working the L-Sit progressions before the planche progressions.

stefanhinote said:

FSPs are typically each worked for a total time of 60 seconds with handstands being an exception.

 

IE: max hold time for BL Tuck is 24 seconds, 24/2=12, so hold will be 12 seconds, and 60s/12s=5, so 5x12s

max hold time FL Tuck, 20s.

 

You would end up with:

BL Tuck 5x12s

FL Tuck 6x10s

 

HS work is advised to be done for approx 10 minutes (including rest time), and it can be worked daily.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the workout time frame as long as you have the time for everything, and aren't feeling rushed. Sometimes I'm on a time crunch and with shorter rest times I end up finishing after 90min--other times it takes 2 hours.

 

You should also consider working the L-Sit progressions before the planche progressions.

Thank you! That helps a lot. I will take your advice on the L-sit before planche. 

So if I were to keep the handstand hold in with my current cycle of FSPs, the total hold time would be 10minutes as opposed to 1minute on the other FSPs? 

Maybe I will change my Handstand hold to Planche progressions. And work my handstand in the FBEs?

ThomB said:

Thank you! That helps a lot. I will take your advice on the L-sit before planche.

So if I were to keep the handstand hold in with my current cycle of FSPs, the total hold time would be 10minutes as opposed to 1minute on the other FSPs?

Maybe I will change my Handstand hold to Planche progressions. And work my handstand in the FBEs?

Allocate ten minutes for handstand work. This time includes rest time. You can do it at the end of your fsps, and then go on to fbes.

stefanhinote said:

Allocate ten minutes for handstand work. This time includes rest time. You can do it at the end of your fsps, and then go on to fbes.

Okay great! Thanks for clearing that up

Before you begin working the FSPs,  be sure that you meet the 3x60" minimum criteria for the Pre-FSP. You can read more about the prerequisites in this thread:

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/3750-prerequisites/

Also be aware that after you have mastered the Pre-FSPs, you need to develop a solid L-Sit before you begin Planche work, an L-Hang before you begin Front Lever work, and a German Hang before you begin Back Lever work. 

Daniel Shields said:

Before you begin working the FSPs,  be sure that you meet the 3x60" minimum criteria for the Pre-FSP. You can read more about the prerequisites in this thread:

 

https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/3750-prerequisites/

 

Also be aware that after you have mastered the Pre-FSPs, you need to develop a solid L-Sit before you begin Planche work, an L-Hang before you begin Front Lever work, and a German Hang before you begin Back Lever work. 

Oh okay. Thanks! I did wonder about the hollow and arch holds, I worked a bit on them when I did some adult gymnastic classes last year. 

I can hold the PB support for 3x30-60sec. 

Should I add the hollow/arch to the start of my FSP's or do they take place of the others?

ThomB said:

Oh okay. Thanks! I did wonder about the hollow and arch holds, I worked a bit on them when I did some adult gymnastic classes last year. 

I can hold the PB support for 3x30-60sec. 

 

Should I add the hollow/arch to the start of my FSP's or do they take place of the others?

I do them first as part of my warmup, but I've also met the required time for each.

You should master the pre-FSP's before moving on to the FSP's. So if you do not yet have the hollow and arch holds, you should master those first before beginning front lever/back lever work. 

Also, I would recommend that once you have mastered the L-sit, you add on manna work in addition to planche work. The planche and manna complement each other nicely. Planche is a protracted shoulder flexion movement, and manna is a retracted shoulder extension movement. Working both progressions at the same time may help you avoid any muscular imbalances in the shoulder girdle. 

For reference, this is Coach Sommer's guide to developing a manna: https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/281-manna-an-advanced-static-strength-element/

Oh right. Well I can put the hollow and arch in place of the FL and BL holds. But I might still keep the Handstand and L sit holds in the FSPs. Otherwise my workout is going to be very short...?

I will get the manna incorporated once I get past the pre-reqs. I am already looking forward to getting past the pre-reqs ha ha. A lot of work ahead of me it seems. 

I plan to get F1 as soon as I can, but in the meantime I am working on my workout I put together with help of this thread. 

Just looking for a bit more guidance on if I am going in the right direction or not.

This is it, I aim for 30minutes warmup (skipping for 1-2minutes) and stretching, then the rest of the workout usually take 45 minutes give or take. I feel like I could easily add on one more FBE to each. Would this be a good idea or is the workout good for timing/energy output as is?

----------------

Warmup/Stretching - 30minutes

Pre-Req:

Hollow Hold - 3x 20sec

Arch Hold - 2x 30sec

Plank - 2x30sec

Reverse Plank - 3x20sec

Wrist Pushup - 3x3

FSP's:

L-Sit, PB Tuck - 6x 10sec

Handstand - 7x 20sec

Support Hold XR - 3x20sec

Day 1:        (Horizontal plane push/pulling)

Pushups XR Bulgarian - 5x5

Rows XR - 5x5

Day 2:        (Curling & dipping variations)

Inverted Pullups - 5x5

Dips XR - 5x5

Day 3:        (Pullup and HeSPU variations)

Floor HeSPU w/ Slow Negatives - 5x4

Pullups XR Bulgarian - 5x5

Day 4:        (Multiplane pulling variations and varied pressing work)

Slow Negative Muscle Ups XR - 5x4

Skin the Cat Pullouts - 

Deck Squats - 5x4

no love?

I think everyone that counts is rather busy with F1 at the moment........

As you do intend to acquire F1, which I applaud, do it sooner rather than later, it has everything you need to get started properly.

FredInChina said:

I think everyone that counts is rather busy with F1 at the moment........

As you do intend to acquire F1, which I applaud, do it sooner rather than later, it has everything you need to get started properly.

I figured this was the case. Its top of the priority to purchase! 

ewethestuff said:

Pretty much.

 

 

The schedule you've set up looks pretty good. Use your rest times during warmup and strength sets to do prehab. You can find tons on that in the Mobility section of the forum, especially in the stickies.

 

Make sure you can do everything you listed with no less than excellent form for every rep at a slow and deliberate tempo. Keep rest times minimal. Do not be discouraged if this means you need to drop down progressions from say XR dips even all the way to foot-supported dips.

Thanks! 

I will work some pre-hab stuff into the rests then, most of the levels of FBEs are about right for me, I had a lot of strength with dips prior from other gym work. 

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that your wrist pushups should be scaled down in intensity and done at higher reps.

Daniel Shields said:

I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that your wrist pushups should be scaled down in intensity and done at higher reps.

they are well and truly scaled down, its currently on my knees and only one wrist is doing the pushup while the other hand is doing a regular pushup. My wrist strength is severely lacking at the moment

My wrist extension strength is also very poor. My approach has been doing sets of 10 with my knees almost right up to my hands, so I have very precise control over how much load they are bearing by controlling how hard I lean into it. While I haven't seen it mentioned on the forums, I have also been experimenting with doing static holds with a light dumbbell with my wrist in neutral position and my palm facing down. As I'm a novice as well, I'm not sure that my approach is more appropriate than yours. I'm just going off the fact that I recall seeing sets of 10 recommended in the forum.