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Dear Coach Sommer,Thank you for your quality work. Due to very limited consistent access to time/space/equipment;Is it possible to develop adequate strength/flexibility using fundamental static positions(chapter 4 Building the Gymnastic Body book),stiff legged windmills and jefferson curls,rope skip and running?Lifestyle is not allowing consistency with fundamentals stretch,movement,handstand courses..Or do I just get with the programme!!Much appreciated,Kyphotic dentist.

I was reading BtGB and, being the foreigner I am, found it difficult to understand the entire section regarding program design. Would anyone be able to explain how they include isometric training (for the fundamental static positions) in their training (assuming they include a lot of dynamic movement)? Also, unrelated, but is this a move on the rings: start in back lever position, and perform bodyweight curl while keeping the body horizontal, and then push into planche position? Another unrelated question, but why is it that many of the street workout athletes look a lot musclier than gymnasts? Not necessarily that they look stronger but certainly they seem like bodybuilders. I'm talkin' bout HannibalForKing vs Ivan Ivankov here. H4K The Ivankov machine EDIT: Not really the best example for what I meant, looks like Ivan could rip H4K in 2 here. But, in general, a lot of the street workout dudes have different body proportions to gymnasts even though both do calisthenics.

I can hold bridge approx. for 1 min. 2 options: support this 1 min personal record in static strengthkeep increasing time holding the bridge What should I do?

hi! the last two years i have been working alot on both my side lever, and my body lever. I normally do side levers for static and body lever for dynamic training. i can hold a side lever with good form for about 10s with straight body paralell to the ground and about 8 reps of body levers. and lately i have been doing body levers downhill witch make them substantially harder(i cannot do 8 of these:P). i can also do about 3 side lever pulls, but i need som work on the form since i havent been doing these alot. i was thinking of changing thing up a bit and do body lever as a static exercise to make better progress in FL and to start training side lever pulls with full ROM. do anyone have any experience with these two? how well they transfer to other exercises, how the static version is compared to the dynamic version when it comes to effectiveness, etc.

im currently changing my routine to spice things up a bit and i have a lot of ideas. for that reason, i also have some questions and it would be really nice if some of you experienced guys could help me out. i have noticed that in various dynamic exercises, there are positions in the exercise that i am weaker in. would it be smart to focus on these positions in a static manner? my current idea is to end a set with ha static hold in my weakest position in that specific exercise. for example: weighted pullups 3x5, ending each set by holdong 3-5 sec in the upper position tucked FL rows 3x5, ending each set by holding 3-5 sec in the upper position. and so on.. would this be clasified as overkill, or would it be profitable? i allready do 10 sets of FL, BL and planche at the start of every routine. so i doallready have alot of static traning in my routines. i also have a question about handpositioning in planche. i usually train the planche with hands facing backword due to bad mobility in wrist(wich i am currently working on). i tried with my hands facing forward on my fingers(my palms were not toutching the ground). although this position stretched my forearm to mutch, i felt it was much easier to hold the actual planche position, and i could hold a stradle planche for a couple og secs. with hands facing bacwards i can barely hold the advanced flat tucked for 8 sec. if i stretch my forearms alot and get comfertable with this position, is this considered "cheating"?

Hello everyone! I have some questions regarding integrated training. Basically I'm wondering the best and most effective way of adding in basic strength, or FBAs, to the embedded static program in Building The Gymnastic Body. My basic strength is a simple template of 3x3, but when working with static strength I'm usually performing sets of 10... You may see my dilemma. Really, my concern is the number or sets and reps of the basic strength work when adding it to the embedded static work. OPTION 1: Should I be doing 3 reps of FBAs before every set of static strength? For example: 3 chip-ups + 6 sec back lever x 10 sets? OPTION 2: Of should I do my 3x3 of chins in the first 3 sets, like so: 3 chins + 6 sec BL 3 chins + 6 sec BL 3 chins + 6 sec BL 6 sec BL x 7 (this is my current program, and the first GST program I followed last summer where I saw massive strength gains - could have been the gains of a newbie though) OPTION 3: Or maybe throwing my chins in random place during the 10 sets of BL? My workouts are M,W,F which are: Pull + Back Lever, Press + Planche, Legs + Front Lever, Core + Manna/L-sit/Straddle L, during every wrokout. Rest is 45-90 seconds between the static strength and basic strength, and a few minutes after the sets are finished. Or course, there are other options that what I'm providing, like throwing in ladder sets, but for the sake of simplicity these are the ones I've provided. I'm interested to see what you guys are doing or what you think of the style of training. Hopefully, some of you will have some suggestions for me or even some different setups that you are using that are producing good results. Thanks!

Hi GB forum members! I have a few questions which I would really appreciate some answers to as they have been on my mind for quite a while. I have been training gymnastics for almost 1 year now and when I started out I was only into tumbling but have now shifted my focus more onto the Still Rings and Strength Training. I can hold both half front levers and back levers and a handstand on the wall for close to a minute. My muscle up is a work in progress and my ring l-sit is around 20seconds. I wanted to know if trying to put on muscle mass while trying to progress in static holds such as the Front Lever/Back Lever, Planche, Side Lever, Manna and Handstands will slow my progress down as gaining weight means that my body has to work harder to hold a position whereas if I was maintaining my weight would it be easier? I am 6 feet tall and weigh 81kg (178lbs). So my question again is, is gaining mass and trying to progress in static holds doable or would it be better for me cut my weight down and just maintain whilst trying to gain more strength? Thanks!