Mass Gain focusing on Gymnastics?

[Ben Kaminski]

Hi,

I recently learned of a gymnastics facility in my city that offers open gym access 1 hour per week. I am trying to re-work my training program to fit around this great opportunity. I don't know what would be the best way to implement a program that focuses on gymnastics skills. My main goals are strength skills like the lever, planche, and iron cross, as well as tumbling skills. Here is my best attempt, I would love to hear some comments or suggestions for improvement.

Monday: Open gym
I want to be fresh, rested, and ready to make the most of the hour in the gym. I want to spend this day working on stuff that I can't practice any other day. Areas of focus will be:
Floor/trampoline: backhandsprings, backflips, roundoffs
Pommel horse: practice swinging, reverse scissors
High Bar: practice swinging, kip to support, hip-over to support
P-Bars: practice swinging
1-2 30ft Rope climbs at the end, L position.

Tuesday-Thursday:
I want to work pretty hard in the 2-3 days after open gym, b/c if I want to be fresh each Monday, I can't kill myself late in the week. I have decided the workouts should have 3 components: Strength, Conditioning, and Flexibility, executed in that order.

Friday - Sunday:
I am not sure what to do here. I don't want to rest, but I don't want to do a workout that impairs my ability to practice in the gym on Mondays. I need at least one rest day, though.

I am open to any and all input; I'm having a tough time creating a plan on my own with confidence.

Thanks

[Mark Gebhard]

I've recently started taking a 1 hour gymnastics class once a week and have had to rearrange my training schedule around it.

My week is structured like this:
day 1 - 5x5 with squats, overhead press, power cleans
day 2 - gymnastics class
day 3 - metcon
day 4 - off
day 5 - 5x5 with squats, ohp, pc
day 6 - metcon incorporating gymnastics movements
day 7 - off

My goals are increased strength in the 5x5 lifts and basically any improvement in gymnastics skill as I'm a beginner. I'm a bit more focused on tumbling, though, than strength moves like planche and iron cross. I do include some strength work during the class but the 5x5 is more where I get it. The 5x5 is a bastardized form of Madcow/Starr/Pendlay 5x5 or whatever you want to call it. I like this weekly setup a lot and I seem to be doing well on it, just the right amount of volume for me. Also, I adjust the volume of the two metcon days up or down based on feel/recovery.

[edit:] BTW, I don't feel like the 5x5 interferes with gymnastics the next day. I mostly feel it in the lower body which doesn't seem to affect my gymnastics work.

[Ben Kaminski]

Thanks for sharing your program, it sounds like we have similar goals! I merged my basic outline with your template and the result looks pretty good - challenging and do-able. I'll try it for a while and see how things go.

[Robb Wolf]

Good stuff Guys. Ben-
Working basic tumbling is great for an active rest day. You can tinker some elements of the planch by forking HS-forward roll progressions. Should we move this to the Gymnastics section instead of the Mass gain section?

If mass gain is an objective/concern Coach Sommer has mentioned the standard gig of reps in the 6-12 range, short rest periods being the goods/problem depending upon ones perspective. Mountains of sets (20-30) in the 1-3 rep range can also produce some mass gain.

[Ben Kaminski]

Hi Robb,

Thanks for your ideas. My main goal is not really mass gain, but strength gain (with the necessary mass). I am somewhat deficient in the pressing movements like HSPU and press-handstand. I work on this by doing workouts like J.T. (21/15/9 HSPU, ring dip, pushup) weekly or so.

Tumbling for me is not active rest! Anything more than a slow cartwheel requires a lot of power in my opinion. I want to get proficient enough so that I can RO-BHS or RO-Btuck outside of the gym, but right now I am not to that point.