Training with the Belarussian team

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A couple of weeks ago I recieved an email from a good friend who is nowdays a performer in the 'Le Reve' show in Las Vegas and an ex gymnast. (16th place in the 1996 european championship)

He sent me an email he recieved from his friend, Noam Shaham, that nowdays competes in gymnastics for Pen State, and last year took with the Pen State gymnastics male team the championship. (Here is a small documentry in Hebrew about Noam:

and here is the element he invented and is named after him, 'the Shaham':

)

Anyways, Noam described in his email his experiences from training with the Belarussian gymnastics team. (He went there during his military service and spent quite some time in Belarus)

I'll try to translate it for you guys, it was inspiring to me, maybe it will do the same trick for you:

(Kids and other easly offended persons, be adviced, there is some details down below that you may find 'too much' for your taste)

'Every day (Besides Sunday) starts around 0645 AM. At 0700 AM you go to a morning jog of around 10 min or a leg conditioning circuit and some kind of another conditioning circuit added afterwards, all in all about 1 hour of exercise.

Directly from the gym you go to a traditional Russian breakfast: bread, butter and fish eggs or some sausage, with tea and a main course of an omlette or sometimes hotdogs... It depends on the 'shef'... The leftovers you take in a nepkin for the starving dogs waiting anxiously outside...

After breakfast you return to your room to rest a bit till training time. There is about an hour and a half between breakfast and the second training session. Most guys go to nap a bit, but I usualy used this time to listen to some music or read. I would make myself a Turkish black coffee and go out for a cigarette. (during the times I would smoke, of course)

At 1030 practice time... Till around 1300. It is a 3 apparatus training, usualy floor would be first with some conditioning before and some conditioning at the end, and to eat again...

Lunch is usualy a main course: chicken or something, soup or Borscht (No! Borscht is not a soup, and they will kill you if you say it is) and some extra and then back to nap (this one I dont miss) untill around 1600. If I remember correctly the third training session is around 1630... another tough workout... aparatus and of course some conditioning at the start and a good Podkatchka at the end. (Podkatchka is a russian strength circuit training... IP)

Dinner is around 1930... a good meal, of course, so that the muscles would have some building blocks to grow from... Every dinner we would get some treat like a choclate bar, a carton of juice or a pack of cookies.. Always something.. Usualy I would have stocked it in my room and it usualy end up in my commanders or my girlfriend's parents hands.

After dinner you shower and go out to the local bar (Which suck, by the way) for a couple of beers and some peanuts or some choclate with tea or an icecream in 2 Rubals. At summertime there are places outside to eat and they sell some grilled meat.. Guess how its called? 'Shashlik'... (It is also called this way in Israel... IP)

That is about it, every day... a few exceptions, though: Wendsday, if I'm not mistaken, is an 'easy day', so you only have 2 workouts, morning and noon. The afternoon is usualy devoted to go to the city, (Minsk) that between us, after a couple of times is not that interesting.... You have to keep an eye on your wallet, not laugh too much because you'l get arrested (happend) and try to be on time for the bus back, cause' if you miss it, too bad... (The bus, by the way is an experience of itself...)

But, well, Minsk, like every ex-soviet city nowdays is developing nicely.. there are coffee shops and women dress up... All in all, not bad.

Some other things to take into consideration: Wendsday noon and Saturday night there is a strength circuit that is designed to kill you. Twice.

Mmmm...Yes, sauna... 4 times a week. Monday, Wendsday (After comming back from the city), Saturday and Sunday. (At Sundays we would also go to the city)

If it was snowing outside, then there is a door opened for you and you go out of the sauna to splash in it like a dog... If not, there is a 'shock pool', and if you refuse, they will splash you with a hose... Russians....

If the coach is not tired he will wip you with those Ecaliptus branches, (I dont realy know what kind of wood that is..) but its great!

Saturday night is dedicated to drinking execive amounts of alchohol with the local village women... And it is usualy accompenied by interesting side effects before going to bed and during the morning after...

To sum it up... A lot of health... and you know what they say... 'What doesnt kill you, makes you stronger, what will kill you, will make your mother stronger....' (a famous israely military saying....IP)'