A little bit about my self.   I'm 53 year old male from Sweden. I have 3 kids, a wife and a dog. I´m part owner of a small business.   In 2009, after almost working my self to death starting up a new company, my doctor told me to start prioritize my own health before I could help others. I decided to start training. As i had very limited time, I started doing body weight training at home. That saved alot of time since I did not have to go (travel) to a traditional gym. I was also inspired by my son who trains gymnastics and took the easier exercises from their strength workout. My background in sports were more of the action sports type like skateboarding, snow skiing and waterskiing.

I became more and more interested in body weight training and searched for more information and came across Gymnasticbodies.com. The forum, videos and the Wods was a gold mine! I was hooked. I got the rings and the book Building the Gymnastic Body. In 2010 I went to the first European seminar in Mallorca and met Coach Sommer for the first time. He had also brought 2 demo gymnasts Allan and Dillon. The guys that were in most of the youtube videos. I was very impressed by Coach Sommer's accuracy in his coaching and the fact that he had 2 guys with him that he had trained himself that showed us all the progressions. This was very inspiring.

GymnasticBodies Seminars are open to students without any GST experience

I have now been doing this continuously for about 6 years. I have attended a couple of seminars both in Europe and in the USA and follow the GB forum daily. This community has definitely been a life changer both physically and mentally. I would now like to share my experiences through the years and help you get inspired, share tips on how to progress faster, how to avoid injuries etc.

Creating a Habit

As I hadn't trained for many years I decided to start slow. I thought, if I can take care of my hygiene (brushing teeth having a shower etc) I should be able use the same amount of time to take care of my physique. So in the beginning I only trained simple bodyweight exercises for about 10-15 minutes a day BUT I trained 6 days a week. Everyone has 15 minutes per day! You don´t need an expensive gym membership, you don´t need fancy training clothes or equipment. In the beginning you can come a long way with just the floor and a wall. There are no excuses for 15 minutes day. I think these shorter workouts were key to creating a habit for me. So if you haven't trained for a longer period of time, start slow and make it a habit.

A lot people come and ask me (especially in the summer) how I got that Handstand, six-pack, mobility etc. They say things like, ahh you were a gymnast when you were younger? I always answer no, and tell the what I have written above and to get Gymnasticbodies Foundations program. This program is so excellent because anyone can get it and start right away no matter how old you are with very little equipment.

One of the people that has come to me was Diedrik. He was 46 y/o and really begged me to help him. I showed him The beginning of the Foundations program on my laptop. I agreed to help him if he first got the program and then tried it for for 3 weeks. He called me a couple of times and I answered his questions and also told him to look at the Forum for alot of answers. After 3 weeks we met up. Diedrick showed me the first exercises from Foundations and I helped him out. One thing that struck me and that I had almost forgotten about was how bad adults mobility is. The one exercise that he had most problems with was the Deck Squat, which is the first exercise in the legs section of the Foundations program. Basically you have to roll backwards on your back and then with momentum roll forward and stand up. He just couldn´t do it. So I asked him to get in a Squat and Pancake. This was his best result (after a long warm up):

Deck Squats are found in the Foundation One Course

Pancake flexibility is built with the Middle Split Series

This is what 25 years of desk work does! We agreed that mobility had to be prioritized. If you don't have the mobility or skip it because you think it´s boring you will hit roadblocks down the road when you want to get into the "cool stuff" believe me I´ve done this mistake. We picked out Diedricks weakest mobility links. His  homework has become to gradually increase his mobility work to 5 days a week BUT only 5-10 minutes a day (outside of the normal program). If you go too hard too soon you will most likely give up or get hurt. You dont want to break the habit that you have built up! Its like Coach Sommer once said: A river cuts through rock. Not because of it´s power but because of it´s persistence! See Mat's training on the GB Results page.

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