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Hi, I have been doing gymnastics training for 2 years. I am currently searching for adult gymnastics book containing scientific topics like gymnastics training concepts, Body joints, mobility, biomechanics and kenesiology. Please advise

Hi guys, should lifting exercises be integrated in the strength for rings? What is a good balance between lifting exercises and specific strength moves training? I was training with Gregor in Slovenia when I was living there and he really put a lot of emphasis in developing strength for maltese and planche through lifting exercises. He told me that a person is able to hold a maltese if he can lift a 60% of his bodyweight in a maltese simulating exercises with both weights. But what is actually the real ratio for bodyweight and lifting training for the best progress? US gymnasts, for instance, look really jacked and pumped, but then you see them perform and... Meh. I would say that they dont really achieve high levels of relative strength. Instead, you see many quite "skinny" gymnasts performing much more difficult skills. Are weights even necessary? I see bigger progresses by doing for example maltese leans on rings than maltese simulations with weights... What do you think?? Thanks in advance

Hey guys! I just wanted to show an update on my progress with the front split series. Picture on the left was a year ago before I found gymnastics bodies, attempting a switch leap (I was a gymnast when I was a kid and used to have a solid leap series). At that time, I used to stretch a ton on my own but never made any progress with my flexibility. Picture on the right was last night at a gymnastics class, mid switch-Leap, after doing GB for 3-4 months (I think). I have some work to do still, but The difference is nuts! And this is only after a few months. Wahoo! So happy with this program!

Hello guys, I'm new to this forum as well as to gymnastics. I'm 19 years old and have done strength training for the last couple years. I want to learn some basic skills in gymnastics like Handstand(-Pushups), L-Sits, Muscle-Ups, Splits..., but I simultaneously want to work on my strength with barbell exercises, maybe some olympic lifts. Are there any programs you can recommend? I don't want to buy a program I didn't hear any opinoins in the first place. Thank you, Samuel

Hi! So I don't have an option to train with a spotter, this is why I got myself a new toy - Dream Machine (50/50) Can anyone tell me how you should use it to get the best out of your training, how do the gymnasts use it? How often do gymnasts use it? For what skill works the best? What is the best way to increase intensity on skills like planche, lever, etc (maybe vest, or ankle weigths?) Any information is welcome! Thanks!

I realised that many people think that they're too tall for gymnastics and that they can't achieve anything great once they're past 5'7" or something. I find that to be something that can be very discouraging and I know that we all need some motivation at times (as a taller guy myself). Having said that, it's still more important to focus on the journey and doing your best. I want to make this post so that taller people can have a reference to what's achievable even when you're tall (for gymnastics) and gain some motivation. Will you end up in the Olympic team? No. Can you achieve really high levels of strength? Absolutely, especially when following the type of quality resources that GymnasticBodies offers. Alexander Shatilov - 183cm (6') - Olympic Gymnast - Inverted Cross Kristian Thomas - 180cm (5'11") - Olympic Gymnast - Maltese Lachlan Walker - 185cm (6'1") - Level 7 Gymnast - Iron Cross Roye Goldschmidt - 190cm (6'3") Ivan Kajtaz - 180cm (5'11") - Calisthenics and Street Workout Athlete - Floor Maltese and Japanese Handstand Chris Heria - 183cm (6') - Calisthenics and Street Workout Athlete - Full Planche

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDM1FPFxbVk PS: How do I embed with smaller size video?

Hi guys, I just joined this forum. I have been doing calisthenics for nearly a year and around a month ago I had a sharp pain in my right forearm (with the palm facing upwards, the pain is at the top left side.) It hurts when I release the pressure from it. For example I will do a tucked planche and when my arms are off the ground a shooting pain goes up my right forearm. The inpatient person I am I trained on it and as much as I love calisthenics and gymnastics I don't want to stop but I need a good old break, even with a break i did little bits here anf there. I personally think it was due to handstand walking and shock to my muscles etc. I have gone to the docs and they just said rest. I tried self massaging it and that just hurt

My son is 6 years old and is on a Gymnastics competitive team at level 4. He started gymnastics 8 or 9 months ago. What do you think of his 1st meet?

Is F1 even suitable for me? Hey there, I have a few concerns and questions regarding the GB online courses ( Foundation 1, first and foremost, as this is the starters-course). 1. Structural Integrity - Is variablility possible? Ive been having several issues or injuries with my body, that has to be continously be treated via exercises(Strengthening of stabilizing muscles, as well as the weakened musclew and specific stretching) that improve my structural integrity. Namely, the ones that i think would be affected most by exercises that arent tailored to my conditions would be shoulder issues( that are only coming when my push-pull ratio is out of order: i generally have to pull more than i push to remain healthy. ( and of course i have to do mobility as well as strengthening the shoulder-stabilzing muscles, like e rotator cuff e.g.). That appears to me is coming from my predisposition that my pec muscles are ( mostly determined by looks ) /appear larger than my back muscles, hence i have slightly winged scapula as well as slighty forward pushed shoulders. Quote of coach sommer: "Posted 13 February 2014 - 11:45 PM While some do indeed insist on such a ratio, GB does not. Yours in Fitness, Coach Sommer " Since this ratio ( of more pulling)! isnt used here, im worried that ill develop shoulder issues on the way. So: is it possible to adjust the program to the point that im more pulling? Im also wondering on the WAY: The program is tailored to the common guy that has the common postural prepositions: slouched shoulders/ kyphosis and anterior pelvic tilt/ weak glutes/ weak hamstrings, tight quads. How then is this program then fixing those imbalances. Heavy pike-stretching seems to be involved, more pushing than pulling etc.Im not trying to "hate" here, im just trying to understand how this program works. There might be some clues i dont get yet.... Maybe this program fixes those problems just in a different way i dont understand? If you do, please help me out! Returning to my personal issue: After all: To me, this program looks very fixed...or are there was given to address personal imbalances? The second problem im facing is the one with my patella tendinosis. Treatment that im following involves strengthening of the glutes, stretching of the anterior hip, quads etc. - basically fixing muscular imbalances that are caused by the sedentary lives nowadays. So basically: stretching the muscles that overtighten in modern sedentary lifestyle, and strengthening the "posterior muscular chain". And I dont see that f1 would do that for me: pike stretch for the manna: stretching the already weak hamstrings, Single Leg squat progressions without being coupled by posterior chain work ( for the lower body). This gives me the question: while this program may be great for people without any injuries or imbalances, im asking myself: is it even suitable for me? And if not: is it allowed/ does it make sense to chance it to my needs? Or would it then rather make much more sense to do a whole another program, suited towards my issues? As said:. I am worried that this program will help me with those progressions, but will worsen my knee condition by imterfering in the structural integrity of my lower limbs here. Also, another question: How would that extreme hamstring flexibility (build up in manna progr.) be influencing overall sportivity and danger of injury in track and field sports? I am, in school, in an intensive sport course, where we are doing some of the popular sports, also im a tennis player. I heard that extreme hamstring flexibility increases injury risk in such sports because of increased instability in those sports.. Also, several PTs tolr me that i am hypermobile and should stop stretching so much.i should focus more on stability work to stabilize respective joints. I hope youre seeing my dilemma... Looking forward to your input! Yours, Jonas

Incase you are bored, here is a little compilation made by me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d9K_3Y7LKM Enjoy! =D

Hi guys ! What happen if an Olympic gymnast do their ring routine without the gymnastic grip ? and in what point is necessary to use the gymnastic grip on rings, how much it can improve or decrease your performance ? . Thanks

Hi everyone! I've been eying the starter pack (with Foundation one and Handstand One) as I'm really interested in gaining functional strength. I'm a 26 year old woman, currently working and stuck at a desk job. I'm relatively slim (height: 5'10", weight: 135lbs) but I'm really out of shape. I tried fitness memberships, but the weight training and the machine training led to muscle imbalances and knee injuries. The downtime made me lose any gains I did have. It was disheartening to say the least. I have enough free time to get into shape, but the overload of methods out there confused me. Then I heard about this site and I always admired what gymnasts can do and how balanced their bodies are. The only thing is: I'm a fully grown adult without any gymnastic background and like I said, I'm really out of shape. To give you an idea: - I can't do a proper push-up fully. I can only get down halfway before my arm muscles give up - I don't have a lot of leg strength. Weighted squats are hard for me. (I can do the regular ones fine though) - I can do a handstand against the wall, but my back is still arched a little bit and after holding it for 10 seconds my wrists start to hurt. - I can't do a pull-up. Like, at all. I'm the typical stereotype of that weak person who just hangs uselessly. - I can't do a lot of sit-ups. I'm embarrassed to say I'm having a hard time after 10. - I have EDS type 3 (Ehlers Danlos Syndrom, type hyperflexible, which means my joints are looser than most people's. I have very mobile shoulders for an instance. But my wrists are weak, as are my knees and ankles. The only thing I can do properly is a bridge, probably because of my back flexibility. I can't do a backbend or a front walkover or any of that, but my bridge is solid. So is this programm out of my league? I'd really love to get strong, in a functional way. I know a lot of people are of the aim-for-the-sky mentality, but I tried that with the fitness membership and that didn't work out so well. I'm very disciplined so I can definitely stick to a program if believe it's going to get the results I want. I just don't have enough knowledge in this case to make the call. What do you think? Thanks in advance for your time!

Hey, I've been keeping up with this forum for about 2 years, bought BtGB, and plan on purchasing more material when I'm not a broke collge student. I wasn't sure where to post this, so here we go. I am a member of the San Jose State Gymnastics Club. We are in our first semester of operation and so far we have been doing pretty good. Our gym is down, so we have had to rent out California Sports Center, Race st. location, for club practices. This is fairly expensive, about $500 a month, so I was wondering if anyone has some advice for sponsors or other financial aid to help keep the club afloat. We do not receive money from the school for at least a year, and even then it is a fairly small stipend. A little about who we are: We are a club devoted to gymnastics, plain and simple. Our members range from absolute beginners to NCAA gymnasts. Some of our members are gymnastics coaches (most work for California Sports Center, including myself). Despite being the "new kids on the block," we are a solid team. At our first meet at UC Davis, we placed second overall, and even took first place in Rings and Parallel Bars, a feat which I credit myself for partially, and Coach Sommer and Scott Burns for providing me with the tools to advance our men so quickly and effectively. We plan on continuing our winning streak, and we hope to eventually bring Men's Gymnastics back to SJSU. For such a talented and hard working group, I think it would be a terrible shame if we shut down due to lack of funds. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for everything you have done for us so far.

Well hey im new here my name is george. they call me Gosha if it matters. Im currently 17.5 years old i am 5,9-5,10 feet long(1.75-1.77) i weight 64kg/141.096 pounds. Last year i began taking my life seriously i began working out in street workout my first 4 months were intense i had good improvements but slowly i became lazy and started only coming to this workouts to joke around and do stupid stuff barly even trained at all. At some point i got sick but i knew if i go there id start laughing and i won't workout So i began training at home abit i got my reps back with push ups and pull ups i began working on L SIT and Planche at home got those "Stands" specially for that i then joined a gym near me and kinda became a gymrat if thats a term i originally joined cause of the winter so i can workout hard on this core exercises get stronger and perform lever aswell at first i was doing so good with planche i did tuck planche pushups easily really effortless i began doing stradle push ups could do like 5 and i also began working on handstand i can stand without a wall for like a min or so didn't really meassure the time but i can do handstand push ups like 5 good ones thu with the nose in the ground but just like streetworkout i slowly got far from my goal and really became a gym rat and eating junk food+only doing gym stuff and im getting annoyed already the only gains my body has is veins on my hands and my ripped back and shoulders my tricep and biceps completly stopped moving anywhere i wanna go back to Planche and handstand i wanna learn to do front and back lever i wanna get some base of gymnastics before the summer so i can train at streetwork out( at our local beach) and probably join a gymnastic group which is my goal. here is my reps and such i saw people post. Pull ups i do all sorts of pull ups back/tricep's pull ups i do 12 times 3 sets but my record of reps in 1 set was 39 if i don't stop to rest Dips i do deep dips till the feet touch the ground i do dips with 20kg weight strapped with a belt i do 12 reps for 3 sets(I don't know how much times i can do dips with no weight in 1 rep of max) Push ups i can do 70 with chest to the ground L sit i can hold for up to 15 seconds My current planche progress is im back to tuck planche i can go up to straddle but my hands won't stand still they keep bending cause i lost my strength and because they aren't straight i can't balance my legs and ass to be straight with the ground. so the stradle is horribly bad. My hand stand time is still the same but i can do like 3 times push up now. After all of this im curious if some 1 could advice me what to do now? i mean train at home ? or do a special program and the gym? we got rings there if it matters. how to progress my planche(Upload photos?) i would also like to have a healthy diet cause im latly back to bad food i have powerfull abs but they aren't shown because i need to lose body fat percentage im at 12% fat probably. maybe 11 or 13 i can't really check i wanna lose it down to 8% so my hard work is better seen.. i don't know what else to add thank you.

I would have liked to ask "What is the most complete strength test?" but obviously such a test would involve every movement known to man. But really, how can you determine who is the strongest? As for the definition of strength, I'm not really to certain so it can be quite lenient in regards to this question; but one requisite is that there should be a combination of brute strength and athleticism. Pure weightlifters can say "I can lift more than you in *particular lift* therefore I am stronger", but calisthenics experts may also say something like "yeah, well, can you do this *particular movement*?" Which one is more valid, if either? The strength should be applicable in real world scenarios, such as lifting a car out of a slippery ditch, or uprooting a man-sized tree, because what use is any other strength? In such a test, would you make it a circuit routine for who can do particular exercises? Would you include standard "exercises" or a new one for the sake of testing (such as, say, metal bending). All I can think to include really is a deadlift (genuine test of total body strength), and... weighted pullups. Any ideas? EDIT: What I had in mind was a method for discerning who out of two people is the stronger one. Arm wrestling should be in there somewhere.

Leg Day! Gymnastics Body Style http://youtu.be/B5biWF5VIC4

Coach Sommer I thought you would like to see an update on how young Josh. He was 1 of the 25 young men selected to the National Future Stars Camp in a field of over 200 boys thanks to the mentorship and guidance your program and advice has given me. I can't explain how grateful I am to what your philosophy and book has done for my boys program and Josh in particular. He is 9 and was 8th in the 10 year old group and #1 Ranked 9 year old in the country! Thanks Again Coach http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s849fIXBAbc&feature=share

Hi guys! In your opinion, what would be the major differences between proposed "street workout" (calisthenics in public facilities) vs traditional gymnastics training? I myself considered gymnastics as an end goal in itself, whereas street workout really is just preparing the body for whatever it goes through in daily life (which gymnastics itself also does). I used to think that the quality of work in the street workout was far behind gymnastics, but in a short time frame they've quickly developed and maybe the average strength of street workout proponents exceeds even elite level gymnasts. I say this because I have seen some techniques recently that blew my mind, such as: Reverse Planche (skip to 0:37): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfug6Y7MKE0&feature=share One Armed Muscle-Up (first 10 seconds): http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vFASzKBoJ7I Close to Impossible (CTI) (second closest attempt after Jasper Benincasa's original): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir4WMCp1vuA These are all techniques which I've never seen even elite level gymnasts perform. I understand that the CTI probably doesn't have a place in any of the current men's events, maybe even the OAMU, but Reverse Planche should've been achieved by them!!!

Hey guys, so i recently just got into bodyweight workouts for gymnastics and bboy, and can you guys help me make a weekly workout plan. The only things i have access too are body weight workouts, pullups bars and dipping racks Thankyou My goal is to build strength and lose weight THANKYOU its my first time

I've made the decision to drop out of college and pursue a career as a hand balancing/pole/aerial artist. Do you think they would accept my application if I decided to send one? Do you think age is a factor? I'm 19, turning 20 this year. I would like to know if anyone has some experience about joining circus school in adulthood. I want to be as strong as Cai Yong: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly1SSSyns-s Here are some Cirque schools I'm looking into: -Shanghai Circus School -Ecole National De Cirque in Montreal -National Institute of Circus Arts Australia -School of Acrobatics and New Circus Arts -Circus Center San Francisco -San Diego Circus Center -Circus School in Moscow -Orlando Circus -Circomedia -Zippos Circus UK -Circus Space Any other suggestions would be welcome. If I can't become a performing artist, I would like to become a GB coach/personal trainer instead. Maybe even compete in some street work out competitions to demonstrate my new found skills EDIT: How much will the price for tuition be? I am by no means an experienced hand balancer. I haven't been motivated to train handstands because I always figured that I could have an instructor teach me (whether online coaching or at circus school). The handstand is probably the most basic skill to learn in gymnastics so I haven't put much effort into it as much as the planche, FL/SL/BL, other skills. I think if I joined the circus I could learn really quickly, which is the reason I've been putting it off all these years. I think the most challenging part would be my lack of active/passive flexibility. I can hold a HS (arched) on floor for a good 30 seconds and I can do pretty much every press (straddle/full lay planche) except for one arm skills/presses and stalder/v-sit press press on floor due to my lack of flexibility. I can't keep my head in between my shoulders with a hollow body - it's always sticking out. Am I someone that they could work with and transform me into an exceptional hand balancer within a year or so? I can post a show reel, but I do have a couple videos around the GB forums floating around.

Hey All, This is Aaron Fors. http://imdb.me/aaronfors I am full time actor who grew up in the business. I am also a gymnastics enthusiast. I started about 3 1/2 years ago and have been teaching myself, and learning from all of you and wonderful sites like this amazing home. I have SO much to learn, but I am obsessed and adore it. I really hope to incorporate a lot of gymnastics into film and really give our community some badass representation out there. I recently took my first leap into filmmaking with a short film entitles "Pathological" which will be hitting festivals like crazy! And because of that, we are now making a Feature! A real, smart, gritty supernatural, western. *We just raised another 50,000 for it and are still working away on the budget!* I would love if you guys would check out my stunt reel and if you like it, give it a like or a comment. It is about 2 years old, and I have grown so much, but I'll be making a new one soon! *with a budget hehe* and follow me on twitter @TheAaronFors and @deadmansdraw11 for updates on the upcoming feature. So yeah, that's me! I'm glad to be a closer part of the community, and I look forward to posting more videos, and asking a LOT of questions, hee.

The following is an excellent article by Timothy Dalrymple on gymnastics. http://shar.es/GYUFS This post has been promoted to an article