The Training Program Template In Detail I Made For Myselft

[TheLagbringer]

Ladies and gentlemen of GB,

 

greetings to all of you. I've been lurking this place for some time now and finally came up with a program of my own that would suit me. Hopefully someone would find this helpful, or at least inspirational. Let me start with a slight introcution of who I am and what my background is.

 

I am 23 years old, I started as a slim guy trying to gain weight by eating more and working out a lot (in my room mostly). After 2 months I remembered my child acrobatic dreams&attemtps so I decided to start doing that. That also brought me to some basic gymnastic training (various FSE positions, whole body and core workout and so on). It helped me a lot and I started to love it, but I felt my progress could be better, or at least close to optimal since I never read anything about proper workout and made it all by myself.

So I found out about GB, read through the forum and decided to completely throw away my previous workout program (which was - as I learned here and wasn't aware of it - focused mostly on endurance).

I read a lot - the book, this forum, talked with friends and finally came up with this template (I will try to write it in generic meaning, but also with many details).

 

The last thing to say before the training description: It is focused on the template (cycles, timings, etc). Concrete excercises are in short, you can find them in the book as I did and you can adjust them to fit your current strength level. Also the 2-3 month cycle is not mentioned as well. It's mostly information I had to gather here on forum because it was missing from the first BtGB book. So, shall we..

 

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Relevant tools: door pull up bar, xr rings

 

Training days: 7 day cycle, w w r w w r r (w stands for focused workout day, r is rest day). Rest day does not mean not moving at all and focused workout day does not mean nothing else that day. I might do some cardio, I am learning acrobatic movements (tricking mostly) and maybe some minor workouts like wrists, handstands and so.

 

Single day training template:

Warmup (stretching + some movement to make blood flowing) - this should take 10 mins max

FSE - I do whole FSE separately and it's the same each workout day. I have 4 different positions and each ranges from 3 to 8 seconds. 3x( P1, 50, P2, 50, P3, 50, P4, 50 ). This routine takes cca 15 minutes.

FBE - Right after FSE goes strength part of the training. Each excercise takes cca 50 seconds (ranges 4-6 repetitions). 3x( PUSH, 120, PULL, 120 ) followed by 3x( LEGS, 120, CORE, 120 ). This two routines take cca 30 minutes.

Outro stretching - also 10 minutes max

 

Template description:

blue/cyan numbers inside brackets are cca rest times, green are shortcuts for excercises. P1-P4 are four different FSE positions. My current are (in order): L sit, tuck PL, tuck FL, advanced tuck BL. Pink 3x ( .... ) means you do that routine inside brackets three times in a row. Actually you do all three pink cycles in a row. My current push excercises are: classic dips (slowly with proper body), xr push ups, HeSPU negatives. Pull excercises: classic pull ups, inverted pull ups, xr rows. Legs are pistol squats and hamstring thingies. Core is windshield wipers, HLL, RLL and those classic lower back torso lifts (done very slowly, with weight maybe...). I try to use different excercises on each day of the week. Plus in the last day I am in the gym so I take advantage of the luxury rings and do 6x negatives on them (from support to hanging, as slow as possible) instead of the middle pink 3cycle.

 

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I am still not sure how I am going to progress since I can't get rid of the feeling that 45 minutes is just too short (not counting stretching and warmup). I would love to hear some feedback from much more experienced people here. Currently the training feels great, I am looking forward to and being motivated by plentiful achievements in the distance (various planches, levers, etc...). Not just "more iron" or "more pushups" that I had before.

 

As last few words, I would like to thank you all for this community. I am glad I found you !

Cheers :-)

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

Very nice, welcome to gymnasticbodies LeLabringer

 

If you have not yet, I invite you to take a look at Foundation One, it may be precisely what you have been looking for to fulfill your goals

[Joshua Slocum]

It looks good to me. If you have the time, I would add 10 minutes of handstand work just after your warmup. It's a fantastic skill to work both for strength and control. 

 

Make sure you're constantly pushing yourself to increase the time on your FSE's. Don't overdo it, but if you've been at the same time for a week or two, think about adding some time. Make sure that you decide on how long you're going to hold before you start exercising, too. I.e. you should say "I'm going to hold 3 L-sits for 6 seconds", rather than "I'm going to hold 3 L-sits for 3 to 8 seconds". This lets you more carefully monitor your progress.

 

If you're looking to add volume, you could afford to include another push and another pull exercise.

 

Finally, you should practice mobility exercises during your rest periods. This will help keep you limber and ward off injuries. 

 

 

If you have the cash, I would recommend purchasing Foundation 1. It has lots of excellent strength and mobility exercises with clearly laid out progressions. It also tells you explicitly how to plan your workout, how to schedule exercises from day to day, and how to progress from week to week. 

[TheLagbringer]

Thanks for the replies !

I will surely buy the book so I can see more into it. Plus I love the idea of handstands as a warmup - it makes perfect sense and I love them, thanks Hari !

My only question is - is it truly legit to increase FSE hold times so fast ? The steady state program (as stated in the book and in this forum as well) says I should start the cycle with excercises that are hard enough for me (i.e. static positions I can hold for 5 secs) and stick with them (and with the exact times) through the whole cycle (this applies for both FSE and FBE). Even if it feels it's very easy. If I understood correctly, this helps my body to regenerate and prepare it for the new cycle and it prevents injuries.

When I was working out on my own (before GB) I was exactly doing that - trying to increase reps or weight every 1 or 2 weeks.

Could you please enlighten me with some more details ? Maybe I missed some points in the program preparation.

[Cole Dano]

Coach Sommer has subsequently stated that the SSC is a training protocol for more advanced GST trainees. 

[Joshua Slocum]

Thanks for the replies !

I will surely buy the book so I can see more into it. Plus I love the idea of handstands as a warmup - it makes perfect sense and I love them, thanks Hari !

My only question is - is it truly legit to increase FSE hold times so fast ? The steady state program (as stated in the book and in this forum as well) says I should start the cycle with excercises that are hard enough for me (i.e. static positions I can hold for 5 secs) and stick with them (and with the exact times) through the whole cycle (this applies for both FSE and FBE). Even if it feels it's very easy. If I understood correctly, this helps my body to regenerate and prepare it for the new cycle and it prevents injuries.

When I was working out on my own (before GB) I was exactly doing that - trying to increase reps or weight every 1 or 2 weeks.

Could you please enlighten me with some more details ? Maybe I missed some points in the program preparation.

 

 

 

As Cole said above, the steady state cycle is better suited to more advanced movements. With the basic static positions, you can and should aim to advance pretty much constantly. But be sure to take a deload week every 4-8 weeks to give your body some recuperation time. 

[TheLagbringer]

Very well then - I'm in ! Thanks for advice