Level 8 Conditioning

[ToeTheLine]

Hi there. I'm not 100% sure that this is the right forum for this question (this is my first post), so please tell me if there's a better place for this. I moved up to Level 8 in September. Unfortunately, I had a bad case of shin splints and some back pain, and had to take a few weeks off to get it all to heal. I came back for a few weeks, but I was really burnt out and decided to take a break. I've only been to a handful of practices since Christmas, but I miss being in the gym so I talked to my coach and I'm going to start practicing again soon. My goal is to compete in the upcoming season, since this season is pretty much over. I feel fairly out of shape now, so I'm looking for conditioning exercises to build my muscles back up (plus, I was never the strongest one in the gym to begin with). What kinds of conditioning do Level 8's typically do? Please include about how many of each exercise you recommend...

Thanks!

[Katrinagymcoach]

one of the best exer. you can do as they work your whole body is press handstands, both from a stand a like a push up position and pull your feet to HandStand. Also HS push ups and hods and lots of chin ups and pull ups..

[Valentin]

Hi

This is such a hard question to answer really effectively. So much depends on where you are now, how many hours of training you are going to do, where, what is available to you, where you were when you left, what skills you are going to be doing/learning etc.. There is no magic answer like 20chin ups x 2 sets a week. This is rubbish. Not to mention that chin-ups i think are wayyyy overdone in gymnastics.

What i would do if i were you is ask your coach to write you a basic off-season conditioning program. It should consist of about 70% general conditioning exercise and 30% specific (such as cast to HS).
Exercise that should be included are:
Upper Body
Chin-ups, Handstand push ups or variations (if you can't be spotted), Shoulder shrugs, Press to HS, Rope climbs etc... Dips or Push-ups

Mid section
The list here can be HUGE, but the least, leg-raises, planche rocks, and planche lever ups, hollow holds and variations, arch holds and variations, side holds, wall bar levers etc..

Lower body
Drop squats, Drop jumps, sprints with reisistance, Heel drives, calf raises

Specific conditioning
cast to HS, layouts (front), standing back tucks or pike, snap downs, etc..

I mean this list on lists some of the basics general and specific exercise. There is no point in giving you numbers because i dont know what you can do, and how you do it. For example with the layouts (front) saying 10 layouts might be rediculous if you can only do about 2 good ones. Or saying 10 cast to HS might be to easy. You see what i mean, i just don't know where you are at to be able to adjust the intensity and volume of your workouts so that you are working efficiently and effectively.

You coach should be the one to prescribe you the conditioning. One thing that is universal is. If you are doing powerfull explosive work you need to rest between 3-5min per set, and no more then 30sec per rep. Endurance work (such as abdominals) long holds is good, lots of reps little rest. Hypertrophy is reps of about 10-15 (reaching failure on last rep) rests about 2min. When you can do something for more then 10 reps and explosively, increase the resistance, slowly so that you can continue working fast, but against resistance.

As you approach the compeititon season and you start working on fixing up skills and what not your coditioning should shift from general to more and more specific.

I know that this is probably not the answer you were hopping for, but anything else will be just generalized answers. Its like saying just by following this recipe you will be able make the dish in the picture 9/10 times it doesn't look anything like it, or taste like it.

Good luck and work with your coach. If he knows what he is doing he will be your best help. Once you have a program post it if you wish for analysis and comments.

[BlairBob]

If you were to simply due Drillsandskills WOD that would be a good start to get you back into shape if you aren't in the gym much. However, if you are, your coach should be able to come up with something if they don't mandate it out.

They'll probably make ya run a round a bit or do some sort of circuits for cardio, gym runs or laps on the floor, up and overs across the beams. Simply put if you are out of what you think is cardio shape you can solve this by simply doing 8 rounds of 20 second efforts with 10 second breaks. For this " cardio " simply doing squats will suffice. Go hard and rest in that 10 seconds and go hard again.

Once you get back into gym, especially off-season, your coach and the team program will go into the off season strength mode and you'll eventually catch up in
your strength and VO2 ( cardio ) capacity.

[Valentin]

Regarding cardio personally i dont think there is any room for it in gymnastics. The only kind of endurance needed is sport specific, and event specific. This only really comes into play when you are in season, you have your routines. Running them back to back etc develops the endurance needed. Until them just work on your strength, which will develop your endurance as well simply thought strength gains.

[BlairBob]

Most " cardio " is pretty worthless in gymnastics. Running around the floor for 10 minutes, etc.

However having strength endurance is critical to workouts. This, and of course, rest, a snack prior and during the workout, and general nutrition when not in practice.

It sounds that for the last six months, she has barely been in the gym maybe an equivalent of 2 months at max.

[flpflp7]

I would definately talk to your coach & see what they recommend. However, I just saw this the other day & thought it was great so I'm sharing it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWDFhfvWn2o . Best of luck getting back into the swing of things!

[BlairBob]

One of the biggest reasons I do like metcon has to do with the effect of it physiologically. Besides, I find it is just good for mental toughness.

flpflp7, I haven't done those in awhile. We used to do sets of 10 if I remember correct. 3 rocks in each position, feet and hands never touch the floor so there is no rest. However, we did these without the side rocks.

Hollow rock or V-up, roll back to hollow over one side, more hollow rock/v-ups, roll back through other side. Rinse, repeat. Sometimes, just a half turn to super rocks.

Fun stuff, I'll add them on to our workout on Friday since that is day 2 of the girls with me. Actually it's day 3, but the first day I decided to not have them do my program so they could get to know me better and introduce some of the concepts. Today, was tough with basics and isometrics ( but it is off-season with the compulsories ). Even at that, I skipped over some stuff and this exercise has got me remembering other stuff to implement.