Gymnastics – February

Hi everyone,

Many of you know gymnastics is getting a revamp, we are taking out the CrossFit and making it pure gymnastics yet keeping a small aspect of conditioning for those that still want to see some of that. There are a few main intentions going forward with the structure and programming for the next few months to ensure everyone of all levels from advanced wishing to up their upper body strength & skills to beginners that are still aiming to get their first pull up/ dip can benefit from without feeling out of place. Some of the focus points in the next few months are…

• Train movements that are less trained in other classes. This will involve single arm pulling work, dip variations and addressing smaller muscles such as the internal external rotators of the shoulder. The reintroduction of gymnastic ring exercises will help achieve this as they are more forgiving than working with the straight bar. This is because most mobility limitations can more easily be worked around reducing injuries and niggles while also bullet proofing those delicate joints (shoulders & elbows) for all other movements in and out of gymnastic classes such as CrossFit & Olympic Weightlifting.

• Address the scapular (shoulder blades). From assessments and observations I noticed most of us struggle to move the scapular efficiently. This is a BIG one as these are key players when it comes to pulling & pressing movements, having better scapular control and strength can mean adding extra weight to your pull up, cleaning up your muscle ups and getting more reps or simply getting your first proper pull up. This will indirectly carry over nicely to a lot of straight arm work such as overhead positions (handstands/ overhead squat) and also front/ back levers for those wishing to work on them.

• Use exercises that have the best carry over benefits for other movements. It is hard work writing a program that fits in what everyone wants to work on such as muscle ups, handstand, back lever, toes to bar, kipping and backflips. So I have taken what exercises I have found to work that I believe can greatly help achieve all of those movements (maybe not the backflips) without having to spend much time directly training for them. Once the foundation work is done those movements will come into action and those that have been consistent should see some good progress.

• There will be 15 mins of gymnastic rings skills at the beginning of class, this is to tick all the focus points above, but many have been asking me about building towards ring routines so i aim that in the 3rd month i will provide some routines that put together all the little skills learnt over the first 2 months for those wishing to play with that.

Lastly my mobility classes for the next 1-2 months will be structured so that the first 20-30 mins will work on aspects that will help towards the above shoulder blades, this will kind of serve as a cool down for the 6am’ers and warm up for the 8am’ers. so pop on down, even if you can’t stay for the full class.

See below for the strength component of the programming to this month.

Advanced

Intermediate / Beginner