Summertime / programming ideas

[Luke Douglas]

Hey everyone, long time lurker / first time poster. I want to start off saying thank you all so much for the constant intelligent conversation that this forum promotes. I’ve learned more here about exercise and the human body than anywhere else, ever.

I am in search of a coherent training plan for the upcoming couple months. As I graduate from college, I am going from having access to a full gym with rings/platforms/etc to no access to equipment of any kind, as I'll be living on an island with no real gyms. (I’ll probably buy rings because they are fun and useful and cheap. I’ll probably make paralletes too. I’m not opposed to shelling out for kettlebells or a weight vest or other smaller trinkets, but barbells may be outside my price range at this point. I also don’t mind running and have access to a pool . . .). I have been playing around with both Gant’s hybrid and the CAWOD for the two months or so, but can’t really follow those in the future due to no barbell or platform.

Current stats (all in lbs)
M/5’11’/180lbs/22yrs
Back Squat (high bar): 235
Shoulder Press: 125
Deadlift: 314
C+J: 155
Snatch: 95 (technique limited! The snatch is hard . . .)
Can touch the net of a basketball hoop
Tuck planche hold, 5 sec or so
No FL prowess at all, back lever tuck hold 5 sec (maybe)

Relevant History:
CF for about a year, on and off as various sports seasons (soccer/rugby/diving/sailing) started and stopped, too weak to really perform as rx’d
Starting Strength + GOMAD this past fall/winter/early spring, managed to put on 20 lbs, added about 30 lbs to each of my lifts too. I was planning to go back to CF once I fixed my strength deficit, but I realized I liked lifting heavy things and thus began to play around with the GG Hybrid and the CAWOD.

Goals (important! Thanks Steven Low: http://eshlow.blogspot.com/):

Longer term:
Planche
Front lever
Iron cross (I can dream, right?)
Bodyweight-plus C&J/Snatch
Dunk
Stronger slow lifts too (for some reason I think 400lb deadlift/300lb BS/200lb shoulder press for numbers is really pretty)
Sub 5:00 Fran as rx’d, GPP/metcon competency

Shorter term/on island:
Muscle up
Back lever (I understand that the normal progression of static holds is something like BL->FL->Cross, right? So this should get me moving towards the front lever)
Handstand pushups (again thinking that this is a good intermediary goal for the planche)
Touch the rim (working towards a dunk)
Some competency at GPP/metcon

Any ideas for a program that utilizes a low amount of equipment but will help move me forward towards getting stronger? I like the M, Tu, W, F, Sat schedule, and I figure that gymnastics work will help the upper body push/pull side of things. What about lower body though? Sprinting? Pistols? How can I get stronger without squatting?

Would something like the Gymnastic bodies WOD (Or Coach Sommer’s FL/Planche progressions?) (for strength) + two CFE running + one CFE swimming WOD (for metcon) each week push me in the right direction? I fear that it would not be focused enough. Plus, CFE won’t make my legs stronger or make me jump higher.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

[Allen Yeh]

Equipment wise:
Rings will probably be a good idea, parallettes are a good investment, cheap and easy to make. If you'll be on an island can I assume that sand would be pretty availible? What I'm getting at here is getting a sandbag kit our doing it yourself. I think that would at this point be a better investment than a KB or 2. With that sandbag you can kick your ass with some strength work by loading it up or you can use it for conditioning by lightening the load. You can do cleans, DL's, squats, zerchers, walks....etc
homemade link:
http://www.rosstraining.com/articles.html

As for gymnastic programming Steven will be along shortly for that as I can't help you other than recommending getting the article by Greg E. in regards to getting a "big boy muscle up".

[Frank Needham]

An Island?

Sprints in the sand come to mind, as do sand bag carries. Dragging anything in the sand sound sort of ugly also. If the water is nice and clear but the surf is rough you can get one hell of a workout swimming that.

You could build an entire summer's workout program around just being on the beach.

Other distractions, should they be around, might be a plus;)

[Chris H Laing]

Get coach Sommers book or head over to his website, (http://gymnasticbodies.com/forum/) and check out the information there. Theres a lot of good program designs and such, and Sommer even has a wod that he posts every m,t,th,f.

[Dave Van Skike]

don't know anyhting about gymnastics but bare minimum would be a loadable sandbag..twenty min of density training three times a week. soemthing like sandbag clean and press would be great if you really went after it....

but if you just had a barbell

[Philip Stablein]

I spent most of the summer 07 at the beach. I bought a 315# crapo weight set for $110 and used it on/near the sand. It was awesome. So...if you can get the weight set there, it wont be prohibitive. But sandbags might fit the environs better, as others have mentioned!

[Steven Low]

Looks ok to me. Just cobble something together and we'll critique. :)

[Rafe Kelley]

I would research methode naturelle MovNat why try to bring civilization with you when you can have so much fun and develop so much physical ability playing with what nature provides. Find heavy rocks and driftwood logs, lift, carry and throw them, sprint in the sand, jump from rock to rock, climb tree's and boulders. Its summer get out in the outdoors and play if you really love hard training you will find numerous way to challenge your body. After my first dance with crossfit I was overtrained stalled out and bored my pull ups were stuck at 15 and I hadn't improved over the three months of crossfitting. I spent 6 weeks training doing circuits of lifting and pressing logs, with sprints in a grassy feild, vaulting over fallen trees, and tree climbing repeats. When I went back to gym I could do 25 pull ups, I was leaner stronger and enjoying myself way more.

[Júlíus G. Magnússon]

Just want to add, you might want to get a kettlebell for some quick metcon workouts and definitely a weight belt and a set of those really cheap dumbbell plates to load it with for weighted pull-ups / ring dips.

[Jon Brody]

Solid ideas here. I can't wait to start doing a couple WOs a week on the beach, and finally get a sandbag and kettlebell. I've heard some mixed things about running on the beach, though, but def going to try it.

RossTraining I know has some good info on "beach workouts", actually; I bought Ross' book "Never Gymless", too, which has some cool ideas for super low-tech (no-tech?) WOs.

[Chris H Laing]

I second Rafes suggestion of MovNat. Looks like some really fun stuff. Definitely a good choice if you're gunna be gymless for a while on an island.

[Luke Douglas]

Wow awesome suggestions from everyone. Thank you all so much. I had a feeling that a puzzle such as mine would interest you guys. Sandbags and MovNat had not crossed my mind.

As Mr. Low suggested, I have thrown together a possible week’s worth of training and would love some criticism.

Monday
Back Lever progression, 60 sec total (same as front lever, per http://www.dragondoor.com/articler/mode3/229/ and )
Planche progression, 60 sec total
Density training w/Sandbag Clean and Press, 20 minutes total with a goal of 50 reps (as seen here: http://www.ironsports.tv/it_all.htm )

Tuesday
BL prog
Planche prog
MovNat session on the beach

Wednesday
BL prog
Planche prog
MoveNat session on the beach

Thursday
Off

Friday
BL prog
Planche prog
Density training w/Sandbag Clean and Press

Saturday
Optional MovNat session on the beach

Sunday
Off

Some questions:
Is it enough to simply work the progressions? Or should there be other exercises in there (i.e. pseudo planche pushups, pull-ups, dips and whatnot) to work towards the gymnastic goals?
Should I do the planche progressions on the rings? I remember reading a recommendation to do so somewhere else on this site.
Should I work on the back lever instead of the front lever, even if the front lever is my eventual goal? I guess this question is better phrased as ‘In what order is it best to learn these moves?’. And where should the muscle up or handstands/HSPU fit in there?

So yeah, lots of questions I guess. Thanks again for the help.

[Steven Low]

Depends what youre doing with MovNat if you can add more. If it's enough volume that it may be too much for the first part then keep it that way... once it gets easier add more. Shrug.

Also, you shouldn't do isometrics everyday. 2-3x a week max. Do some dynamic movements on rings like dips/pullups or maybe put together a mini routine or something along those lines.

Personally, I don't like BL all that much... FL + planche is fine if you want to do that but you can also do BL/planche. Doesn't really matter too much.

If you want you can try planche progression on rings... will take you a bit of time to get even tuck though...

[Dave Van Skike]

good call with the brycle lane. 100% legit. dont 'be shy about tweakign the timeframe if recovery is a problem, 30/10 has been giving good results for me.

[Chris H Laing]

If front lever is your eventual goal, I'd say start working front lever right now. I can only hold the adv tuck front lever for 5-8 seconds, but I can hold a full back lever for 2-3, and I'm pretty sure all the strength came from working the FL.

[Luke Douglas]

Hey all, thanks again for the suggestions. I've started a log ( http://performancemenu.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4307 ) and plan to implement what we've discussed above over the coming months. Feel free to comment as you see fit.