5.5 Years To Master The Basics?

If there are 6 exercises for each foundation movement/hold in each foundation ebook each with a cycle of 12 weeks before progressing to the next exercise/hold then that would be 72 weeks per ebook.  Multiplied by 4 gives 288 weeks or around 5 and a half years to master a FL, sPL etc.

This seems like a long time.  

(I have no problem taking things slow and being patient nor am I shy of hard work by the way).

if you finish a 12 week cycle and find that you can now master the next exercise in the progression as well, can you skip a 12 week cycle for that mastered exercise -probably unlikely to happen I guess?

Or is 5.5 years about right for the all movements?  Some of them should take longer than others too no?

PS.  Fantastic resource totally worth the money.  I really like the fact that I can start this stuff thoroughly now and I don't have to worry about programming anymore!.

Yeah, even if you have to start from the beginning it shouldn't take that long. 

There's got to be a faster way to progress. 

Has anyone understood the section on fast tracking?

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I have been regularly starting at either week 5 or week 9 on my new cycles depending on how easy I'm finding the next progression.

dbirchall said:

If there are 6 exercises for each foundation movement/hold in each foundation ebook each with a cycle of 12 weeks before progressing to the next exercise/hold then that would be 72 weeks per ebook.  Multiplied by 4 gives 288 weeks or around 5 and a half years to master a FL, sPL etc.

 

This seems like a long time.  

 

(I have no problem taking things slow and being patient nor am I shy of hard work by the way).

 

if you finish a 12 week cycle and find that you can now master the next exercise in the progression as well, can you skip a 12 week cycle for that mastered exercise -probably unlikely to happen I guess?

You can skip any exercise for which you meet the mastery requirements. Though it is not explicitly allowed in the book, if you come close to meeting the requirements, it may be reasonable to begin the training cycle on a more advanced week, such as the 5th or 9th. 

Also, the exercises and progressions in the later three books are not yet released. How far exactly they go is not yet known. It might peak at holding a straddled floor planche, or it might peak at straddled erbs on rings. We also don't know what training schedule later volumes will use. I.e. rather than 12 weeks, they might be on an 8 or 10 week cycle for each exercise instead of 12. (Though 14 or 16 is also possible).  

Coach Sommer said:

Has anyone understood the section on fast tracking?

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

If you're talking about the first page of the "getting started" part, then yeah. Pretty simple, on day 1, test the mastery requirements, if you can do them. great, move on to next progression and test that one out. If you can't complete it, then that's the cycle you need to do next. Hope I got that right.

I thought the exercises looked quite easy to be honest but I was surprised earlier when I tried the mastery requirement and found out that I couldn't do them! Don't be fooled people, these are harder than they look!

Yes, be honest with yourself about where you REALLY are at. It will save you many headaches and potentially injuries later.

KingJR said:

I thought the exercises looked quite easy to be honest but I was surprised earlier when I tried the mastery requirement and found out that I couldn't do them! Don't be fooled people, these are harder than they look!

Yes, the important thing to note is that even though the beginning exercises may be quite easy to perform, they are also present in high volume. Five minutes is a lot of time to spend holding a position!

jfslocum said:

You can skip any exercise for which you meet the mastery requirements. Though it is not explicitly allowed in the book, if you come close to meeting the requirements, it may be reasonable to begin the training cycle on a more advanced week, such as the 5th or 9th. 

 

Also, the exercises and progressions in the later three books are not yet released. How far exactly they go is not yet known. It might peak at holding a straddled floor planche, or it might peak at straddled erbs on rings. We also don't know what training schedule later volumes will use. I.e. rather than 12 weeks, they might be on an 8 or 10 week cycle for each exercise instead of 12. (Though 14 or 16 is also possible).  

It seems more likely that a straddle planche would be the end goal of a "Foundation" series, rather than an erb on rings, I think...

red1392 said:

It seems more likely that a straddle planche would be the end goal of a "Foundation" series, rather than an erb on rings, I think...

I agree.

I think the foundation series is going to be exactly how it sounds. 

Erbs on the rings is not a "foundation." That would be very advanced. 

The foundation is what supports advanced skills like erbs on rings, erbs on rings are not the foundation. 

Yes.

Srly.

Everyone, be honest to yourselfs or you WILL regret it! If you are not sure which one to start on pick one of lower difficulty.

After the seminar in Finland I started a 12 week cycle with the foundation elements. SL, HBP, RC, SLS have been working great BUT

For the PL and Manna I went to hard. For the Manna I dicovered it quit early and could change but for PL it took untill week 10 when I hit a wall and had to rethink.

Remember that you are building a base with the easier stuff that you later will be very greatful for when you are hitting the harder stuff.

As Coach stated read the section titled Getting Started.

One of the biggest issues in the average fitness 'program' is they only are good for a few months at best. Then it's on to something entirely different. This approach just doesn't work in gymnastics training which is based on progression. Coach Sommer has taken this concept to it's pinnacle in his application of the progression principle to GST and not just skills. That's why his athletes are the strongest. 

This material is unique, even for the gymnastics world, due to it's highly organised, progressive nature and the through inclusion of mobility/prehab to keep trainees safe along the way.

Think about it, unless you are already a high level gymnast, you have at least the next few years of your fitness life essentially figured out for you in advance. 

My intention is to run the whole thing from day 1, and then use it as a complimentary schedule to regular strength training, of course taking care not to overdo everything.

While I did like the WODs, I had a really hard time scaling correctly and even more so, being honest about my abilities and form, and staying true to the progressions I'd decided upon. Needless to say, I did not progress as much as I should.

This is a great chance to make up for that, by simply sticking to what has been laid out in this book.

KingJR said:

... I thought the exercises looked quite easy to be honest but I was surprised earlier when I tried the mastery requirement and found out that I couldn't do them! Don't be fooled people, these are harder than they look! ...

  Very true.  

Don't assume that either the assigned elements or the integrated mobility are easy for you.  Prove it.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

COACH, your material is awesome. I am very grateful for the information you have put out. Regardless of my current capability of muscleups, levers, hspu etc, i will be starting from day 1 week 1 on all exercises. 

see you in may

THANKS A BUNCH

Joey Frad said:

COACH, your material is awesome. I am very grateful for the information you have put out. Regardless of my current capability of muscleups, levers, hspu etc, i will be starting from day 1 week 1 on all exercises. 

 

see you in may

 

THANKS A BUNCH

Don't do that. Your willingness to go back and master the basics is admirable, but there's little use in 'mastering' exercises that you can already perform. What you should be doing is testing yourself on each PE/IM pair, and working those ones which you are unable to demonstrate mastery of. If this is the entire foundation, then there's nothing wrong with that. But you should at least attempt mastery on each exercise so that you are using your time most effectively. 

jfslocum said:

Don't do that. Your willingness to go back and master the basics is admirable, but there's little use in 'mastering' exercises that you can already perform. What you should be doing is testing yourself on each PE/IM pair, and working those ones which you are unable to demonstrate mastery of. If this is the entire foundation, then there's nothing wrong with that. But you should at least attempt mastery on each exercise so that you using your time most effectively. 

Exactly. Mastery is the key to everything here. What the Foundation series is about is simply excellence in athletics. It doesn't matter if you have trained properly and can legitimately skip some progressions; or if you have to do every 12-week cycle in the series. You'll go at the pace your body needs and be much stronger for it.

Remember, this is the type of training we expect you to still do in your 80s+. Scaled, maybe, but there's no reason for GST to not yield life-long benefit. If you rush it because of ego, you'll be dealing with injuries instead.

Those who're truly advanced will have new material soon enough as well.

RatioFitness said:

Erbs on the rings is not a "foundation." That would be very advanced. 

 

The foundation is what supports advanced skills like erbs on rings, erbs on rings are not the foundation. 

It depends what you're building a foundation for. Yes, erbs on rings might be too advanced for a 'foundation'. Personally I think erbs on floor would be a reasonable "end point" for the straddle planche series. At that level of strength you'd be very ready to begin working a straddle planche on rings or full planche on floor. 

Coach Sommer said:

  Very true.  

 

Don't assume that either the assigned elements or the integrated mobility are easy for you.  Prove it.

 

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

this is perfect because I like challenges. looking forward to becoming an Everyday Hero.

Cory Fair said:

Exactly. Mastery is the key to everything here. What the Foundation series is about is simply excellence in athletics. It doesn't matter if you have trained properly and can legitimately skip some progressions; or if you have to do every 12-week cycle in the series. You'll go at the pace your body needs and be much stronger for it.

 

Remember, this is the type of training we expect you to still do in your 80s+. Scaled, maybe, but there's no reason for GST to not yield life-long benefit. If you rush it because of ego, you'll be dealing with injuries instead.

 

Those who're truly advanced will have new material soon enough as well.

Well dang... so much for this newbie wondering if being 37 might start limiting my potential for full mastery of each of the courses!

Seriously though, I know I'm not "old" yet compared to many others, but I'm sure not as young as I used to be either.  Just curious if there comes a point at which expectations for GST training should be tempered, and what kind of GST moves might start to decline with age (and if so what age ranges are we talking about?).  Just wondered if any of you grizzled veterans had any good or bad experiences to share.  I'm not new to fitness and working out by any means, but will be brand new to GST if I start this program (I have the BtGB book but didn't get far due to confusion).

mm356

I'm 33. Started GST like training couple of years ago - sort of personal approach based on info from the book and forum, I still see improvement and strength gains. Could gains come faster 10years ago - most likely, could I train more/more intensity 10 years back - yes, can I get i.e. iron cross? (I'm not training for it yet, it is future "maybe" plan, first things first) - maybe yes, maybe not.

I accept the fact that cross may not happen, but this is not preventing me from trying to get there, it is only couple of things that will make it impossible for me, my body not able physically to do it - and as I'm quite heavy it may be true (and/or injury), myself loosing interest in training, myself failing to train properly, so still a lot in my own hands.

I was thinking bit the same as you in last days, should I buy it, or should I continue my training as I do now, should I try F1 only and see if I'll do next one in the future, or buy all package now. Today I've made decision .

Coach Sommer said:

Has anyone understood the section on fast tracking?

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I understood it, it was very clear.  But rather than demonstrating Week 12 programming, which shows a deload week, we test out of Week 11, which corresponds to the Mastery requirements as outlined on the description/example page for each element, correct?