Olympic Lifting and Gymnastics programing

[Kevin Perry]

Ok, I know this one has been discussed before and the belief is that a combination of the two would make a powerfull athlete. Here is a question for the experts and i've been looking up and trying to gather as much information as possible.

How do you properly program the two together if Olympic Lifting is the main sport? And which gymnastics/ring exercises would provide the most benefit for the athlete? I know it's been mentioned in other threads that the two compliment eachother very well or at least elements of the two combined.

[Derek Simonds]

Look at both Gant and Dr G's training log I think that they both have it dialed in pretty well.

[Steven Low]

Depends on what you're trying to do with your gymnastics.

Oly is just you're regular old oly; PMenu's WODs can work for that. Gymnastics you could conceivably make the short(er) metcons that Greg programs in as gymnastics work... or you could do other stuff. Goals are the key.

[Garrett Smith]

I am working in the basic Starting Strength program 3 days a week with some additional weighted chins, ring dips, and core work. I do jump rope as a warm-up and weighted carries (wheelbarrow or heavy punching bag on the shoulder) after.

The other 3 days a week I do one day of parallette work, one day of adult gymnastics class doing fun stuff (and some tumbling), and one day of a <20 minute metcon-ish workout (typically including rowing).

I have decided to hold off on a lot of the OL-specific work until I get my base strength up and I can make it to the PM OL seminar to get more commentary on my form. I do not want to ingrain bad habits. I am doing technique work with a 15kg bar before every SS workout, one day each focused on snatch/clean/jerk.

I'm very patient, I have no particular time crunch, and I am still seeing consistent progress towards my goals (which I recently listed in my PM workout journal).

Oh yeah, I'm revamping my workout program with the SS stuff this week, so if you look to the older workouts they won't reflect where I'm currently going, but you can definitely see where I've been!

[Kevin Perry]

I actually subscribed to your log to get an idea of some gymnastics stuff to work on. I have a coach for Oly so I do plenty of form work throughout the week and I just came off SS and went into a conditioning program for Oly lifting that my coach prescribed but I've been trying to figure out what areas to start at for gymnastics and the biggest problem I find is that there is no set guideline for begginers at gmnastics for ring training and basic body weght stuff.

[Gant Grimes]

Derek is very kind, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

My focus is on the slow lifts and OLY lifts with short, intense metcons (yet my metcon is improving). I work 3 specific gymnastics skill elements every week, planche, front lever, and handstand progressions (I'm still on square 1) based on this article by Coach Sommer. I also spend plenty of time on the rings with pullups, dips, MUs, inverted pullups, skin-the-cat, etc. I also have some paralettes at home that get some attention. Also, my Judo class meets on a gymnastics floor, so you can always work in a few cartwheels.

You'd have to ask the experts for programming. Steven is a good resource. Coach Sommer is also supposed to start putting a gymnastics WOD on his site. He also posts a lot of stuff here. I can do maybe 0.004% of the stuff he suggests.

If you're anything like me, looking for the benefits of static strength moves, you'd benefit greatly from the BASIC progressions listed above (by basic, I mean a muscle-up is the equivalent of a layup in basketball). I look forward to other responses.

[Kevin Perry]

Originally Posted by Gant Grimes

Derek is very kind, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing.

My focus is on the slow lifts and OLY lifts with short, intense metcons (yet my metcon is improving). I work 3 specific gymnastics skill elements every week, planche, front lever, and handstand progressions (I'm still on square 1) based on this article by Coach Sommer. I also spend plenty of time on the rings with pullups, dips, MUs, inverted pullups, skin-the-cat, etc. I also have some paralettes at home that get some attention. Also, my Judo class meets on a gymnastics floor, so you can always work in a few cartwheels.

You'd have to ask the experts for programming. Steven is a good resource. Coach Sommer is also supposed to start putting a gymnastics WOD on his site. He also posts a lot of stuff here. I can do maybe 0.004% of the stuff he suggests.

If you're anything like me, looking for the benefits of static strength moves, you'd benefit greatly from the BASIC progressions listed above (by basic, I mean a muscle-up is the equivalent of a layup in basketball). I look forward to other responses.

Thats exactly it. I can see a huge benefit in the static moves of gymnastics contributing to gains in Oly lifting. Whle I havn't completely eliminated crossfit (maybe throw in a wod once or twice ever couple of weeks) my main focus has turnd to the Olympic lifts and competing. I actually just went over that article by Coach Sommer several times. We probably do about the same stuff it seems, handstand progressions, planche progressions, and front lever progressions.

on a side note I can also see the hypertrophic benefit of gymnastics on the body as well as compared to free weight training.

[Garrett Smith]

I concur with Gant, right now it is a fun experiment. Also, I should say I'm using SS as a rep/set template, I'm not doing SS exactly.

I can't remember which CFJ it was that discussed "arboreal" and "terrestrial" phases of human development, however, it would seem to me that the "slow" lifts and OL cover the "terrestrial", while gymnastics addresses the "arboreal". I simply desire to get stronger in the slow lifts to transfer better to increased power in the OL. I also feel better at relatively low volume and higher intensity workouts.

I am currently working on a project to make "adult" (ie. latecomers) gymnastics accessible to everyone. I'm pretty excited about it.

[Steven Low]

Key with gymnastics workout work - I've found - is to use TONS of rings work and some parallette & pullup bar work. Keep the strength progressions, and you can do some sick stuff.

Skill stuff is all well and good but that's a given.

Kevin: yeah, the hypertrophy from gymnastics is nice, heh.