How do gymnasts train

[SanHeChuan]

It seems to me that gymnasts would train for the same qualities of strength, flexibility and explosiveness that martial artist are looking for, so what are their methods?

[ged]

i have a friend who's a gymnast. he hardly ever lifts weights, does a lot of pullups/pushups and ab exercises, and advocates doing them really slowly. i think he gets most of his size/strength from doing his routines, ie by holding his body in positions for long amounts of time.

i think they aim for a balance of explosiveness and the ability to hold still in those weird positions.

[joedoe]

Yes, and stance training is useless :D

[Kempo Guy]

I believe 'ged' is onto something there. Gymnasts train a lot of static strength exercises (iron cross, L-cross etc.) along with ballistic movements, i.e. using explosive movements to get into these positions. Being able to move in and out of these postitions is where much of the strength is built (and it's quite admirable if you ask me...).

KG

[wall]

Lots of chinups, handstand pushups and leg lifts. Other than that they just do the routines (which develop amazing strenght) and stretch.

Wall

[IronFist]

Like this? (http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/publications/technique/1996/8/strength-training.html) I dunno.

IronFist

[Kempo Guy]

Try this link (http://www.american-gymnast.com/technically_correct/paralletteguide/index.html) as well.

It gives you a few programs.

[IronFist]

Kempo Guy, cool link. Those little tool things they have are pretty cool, too. I saw you could order them there for either $39 or $60 or something depending on which ones you wanted. I wonder if you could make them for cheaper? They actually look useful, eh?

There's some cool exercises there, but it looks kind of like the biceps are neglected (but that's kind of to be expected as the biceps aren't usually used to hold you up against gravity).

That's what pullups are for.

IronFist

[Kempo Guy]

Iron Fist,

I'm pretty sure those handles are pretty easy to make... They look like large push up bars... I've tried some of the exercises with my push up bars and it works pretty well. The exercises I tried were the "L-sit", "Tuck sit" and "Tuck Planche". They are harder than they seem. I wouldn't try to handstands or handstand push ups with my push up bars though...

As for the bi's, I reckon you're referring to chin-ups, right? Yeah, I know, it's semantics :) but chin-ups work better for your bi's than regular pull-ups.

KG

[IronFist]

Dude, you're right. Oops. Wait, chin ups are hands close together palms facing you, right? And pullups are hands far apart palms away from you.

I used to always make sure I said the right one. Oops, I guess I slipped up. Haha.

IronFist

[inic]

heh, hell i call them all pullups.... and i do 6 different types, which probably all have different names for em, but i just call em all pullups =)

[Ka]

I can really recommend any routines for the pomel horse and excerises on the mushroom.
Better yet just take up rockclimbing!:D

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Ka
Better yet just take up rockclimbing!:D

Touché. :D

Hey, did you mean you "can't" recommend any routines on the pommel horse? You said "can."

IronFist

[IronFist]

Heh, well I just made a pair of paralettes.

Here's (http://www.dragondoor.com/cgi-bin/tpost.pl?smessage=127224&tpstate=training) how I did it.

IronFist

[Kempo Guy]

Iron Fist,

How did they work out?

KG

[Ka]

Iron
I said can,I started a few minor gym routines in the hope of one day doing a backflip(just for fun) but then got introduced to the pommel and associated excerises,great for shoulders, abs,lat ,trap teres major minor.back in general.
But if I had the money I would just go to Yosemite and aid up the Nose a couple of times,your back would be a turtle shell.

:D just start Rock Climbing!!!

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Kempo Guy
Iron Fist,

How did they work out?

KG

Very well. I'll try to post pics if I get access to a camera.

Handstand pushups are much harder with the added ROM the paralettes give!

IronFist

[Ka]

Wall I agree body weight is a big thing and the power to body weight is also the most important deal,but I can tell you some of the gym excercises given to me has only benefited my climbing.
I should point out there are quite a bit of variation amongst climbers now,for instance bloudering is now very popular which requires short burst of power over 4 -8 moves,Some sport climbs can be as short as 8m high,while some aid and natural routes (like what you have at Yosemite)can take serval days.Generally over here most sport climbers are on pitches that are shorter then 30 ms.

But I got to tell you if you and your friends are actually cranking on rock for 2 hrs straight that is hard core,I have spent days at crags but I don't think I have ever actually climbed for 2 hrs straight,sure sat in hanging belays but not climb straight.

Just more reason to get off my butt and get over there for a climbing tour.

[abobo]

I'm curious as to what you've been up to with your homemade bars.

I watched gymnastics on the tv last week and now I'm itching to do those workouts.

[Ford Prefect]

Just learning gymnastics itself will give you a high degree of strength, coordination, and agility, but after you build that base, weight lifting is common amung more elite competitors. Gymnastics alone wasn't sufficient enough to maintain high levels of strength needed to perform technical skills.

http://www.usa-gymnastics.org/publications/technique/1996/8/strength-training.html

[IronFist]

Haha, dude I totally posted that same article on the first page of this thread, ALMOST A YEAR AGO!!!

When you made that new thread linking to that article, I read it like it was the first time I read it. Haha, I didn't remember reading it before, much less POSTING it before.

Haha, I'm dumb :p

Oh, abobo, I haven't really used them in a few months. They're at home.

IronFist

[Ford Prefect]

****. obviously didn't read the replies. ;)

[IronFist]

Haha, it's cool.

IronFist

[abobo]

I finished making my bars.

7.5 " tall, 24" long, base 11" wide, diameter 1.5" of 330 psi PVC

I did some tuck sits, L sits, and pushups. Harder than I expected.

I want to work up to the advanced exercises, though I'm not sure how long that will take.

Anyway, I think I'm going to use these as extra workouts kind of like the GPP the Westside guys do.

[Ka]

Check out Front Lever,top value.
Learn about Pommel training.
www.powerathletesmag.com/pages/frontlever.htm
www.powerring.com

[bodhitree]

I'm going to look to start training gymnastics to, might as well.

[Ford Prefect]

Good luck, man. Every place around here is $$$$.

[bodhitree]

there is a whole bunch of gymnastics equipment in my college. I'm gonna have to start working out in between classes.