Power, conditioning and gymnastics

Hi there, it has been a long time since I last posted. I am ashamed to say that since then I went down the conventional weights-based route for my strength training. I am now without a gym membership though, as I have dedicated myself to developing as a grappler and a martial artist, so I can't afford gym fees on top of my BJJ, MMA, judo and Muay Thai training.

So I am looking at kitting out a small home gym, and it got me thinking about gymnastic training. My first question would be which of my targets can I hit with gymnastic training, bearing in mind I am only training to improve my grappling performance. I want to develop my max strength, my strength endurance and my anaerobic capacity, and most importantly my power. Is this latter attribute something I can develop with gymnastic training?

Secondly, the consensus seems to be four sessions of week of gymnastic training- how well would this combine with my five MA sessions a week? And with my conditioning work, which tends to involve dumbbell complexes, jumping rope and medicine ball work.

FInally, if I do go for the gymnastic route, what do I need? I have a chin/dip station at one home (I split my time between my divorced parents houses) but nothing at the other- how easy are rings to transport and put up? What do they need to hang them up? Apart from that, will Coach Sommer's book plus the WODs be sufficient for programming? There seems to be a lot of people very unsure how to plan their workouts, and I don't want to have that problem too!

for your anaerobic capacity, you might also want to look into crossfit and ross enamait, especially the bodyweight workouts. this will depend on how much equipment you have with you. I'd reccomend getting a few dumbbells if you could afford it or plastic milk jug filled with sand ( no idea how heavy those could be ).

rings are very easy to transport and setup, a matter of minutes. you can pretty much hang them on anything or you install eyelets on support beams for them or something like that.

look at braindx's guide for programming as well besides sommer's book. it might give you more ideas. or just follow the wod's. drillsandskills.com also has wods that are a little more general than sommer's so far. they would probably provide more of workout concerning metabolic conditioning of aerobic and anaerobic pathways ( though they are mostly anaerobic exercises ).

depending on what your current conditioning work is you might want to integrate the gymnastics training or take some days off, mixing things up so you don't overtrain.

with gymnastics, you can become very powerful once you have a base level of strength and technique. you can't really be powerful if you're uncoordinated as all get out.

Thanks for that Blairbob. My conditioning work is all from Enemait! Lot of minute drills on the rope, with the medicine ball, sprints and calisthenics. I also use dumbbell complexes from WorkingClassFitness. I'll do a search for braindx's routine, cheers.

It's a sticky in Getting Started. I posted it, at first the old version at it's old address and Braindx updated it recently.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1047

Just to add a more specific equipment query- what is a better pack for a beginner- the book and the rings, or the book and the DVDs, bearing in mind I have access to a chin/dip station?

rings trumph dvd's.

But if you caa save up and the get the DVD's along with the book AND rings you wont regret it. The DVD's have helped me a lot! If you exercise alone (like me) its great to have a video of proper technique for each of the exercises, I also sometimes watch some of the more advanced movements for motivation .

But if you have to choose I would get the rings and the book, because no matter how hard you try you cant do ring dips without the rings! 8)

The DVDs are excellent, but if I had to choose ...I would also go with the Rings.

George.

Coach Scott Sonnon, MMA specicalist, has developed some exercises on the rings specifically for grapplers. Here's an example, (I think he calls it the lawnmower):