Gymnastic training – Overcoming hurdles

I mentioned in my review of Gymnastic bodies that there are some mobility hurdles which can be really difficult to pass; in this post I’ll expand a bit more about what those hurdles are and how to work on them.

I found that in training gymnastics there were some very big hurdles which stopped me in my tracks and forced me to address them; sometimes this can take more than a year. I met these hurdles while using the Gymnastic Bodies courses, but I suspect in any system you use you will hit a hurdle of some kind. The three hurdles I encountered (in order of decreasing difficult) were a lack of mobility, a lack of strength and a lack of movement control.

I think a big part of this is that when doing standard weight training one can just put a little more weight on the bar each week. When you hit a plateau, de-load and work your way up again, or move to a different alternative movement for a while. You can get really strong just chipping away like this with fairly simple methods before you need to get a bit fancier than 3x10 and 5x5.

Gymnastics is quite different, a more difficult movement may require vastly more mobility, a new motor pattern, or you may uncover a weakness you never thought of. I suspect if you have your own coach you could overcome these hurdles a lot faster with individualised training and someone cracking the whip, but when you are on your own if can present quite a challenge.

The fact that these hurdles exist and can hold you up for up to a year or more can seem like a reason to steer clear of gymnastics style training but it should be the opposite. You should search out these hurdles; they expose you at your weakest and if treaded correctly will make you a great deal stronger.

Lack of mobility

Got to get the work in

In both Foundations and Handstand there are sections that I just cannot continue until I gain the required mobility. The strength components are easy, the mobility not so much. As I said in my first post I didn’t utilise the forum and the coaches there, but really these mobility sections just require some really solid work. You have to be consistent and push hard on your mobility but it’s still going to take a long time before you can get moving again.

I have also found there are some stretches I just couldn’t do to begin with. Some had regressions I could use and some didn’t. This left me floundering a little bit until I gained mobility though other stretches, until I was able to get into position to use the stretches I was having trouble with. This can be really frustrating but you have to stay the course, keep working hard and consistently to make progress. I also find that when you can finally do the stretch you previously couldn’t it opens up a huge area for rapid progression which is exciting and vindicates all your effort.

Lack of strength

This one is mostly a lack of strength endurance, which with simple exercises can be really frustrating. I talked about getting past this hurdle in my last post. This can take anywhere from a few weeks to over a year. It’s boring and frustrating but worth doing.

Lack of movement control

Not perfect but not bad

This rears its head when you encounter a movement you have never done before which may require a movement pattern you’re not familiar with. In strength training I have found the movement pattern may not even be complex, just totally novel and it’s enough to stop me in my tracks. For example when I was training Convict Conditioning 2 reached the first levels of the human flag, but I just couldn’t get it. I was strong enough, but I had never held that position isometricly and just couldn’t fire the muscles right. To finally ‘get’ the movement I did negatives. I would jump up above the position, and do my best to control the lowering. This took a month or more, but I was finally able to hold the position. In these circumstances I have found negatives and/or isometrics work well for building some familiarity with the movement pattern in questions, and for me it takes just over a month to finally get the movement before I can start to groove the pattern in.

So those are the areas which I have found to be difficult to overcome in my gymnastics training. They are frustration at the time, but hard work pays off and it makes improving all the sweeter. I’d be interested to know when hurdles you have encountered in your training and what you did or are currently doing to get past them.