Distinct’s Ultimate Health & Conditioning

I found a really cool article/interview with gymnastics Coach Christopher Sommer a while ago on T-Nation and figured I’d post it here for you all to read. The author, by the way, is Chris Shugart. Enjoy!

It happens every four years. Bodybuilders and fitness buffs around the world marvel at the physiques of the male gymnasts competing in the Olympics. Those huge, muscular arms! Those broad shoulders! Those tiny waists! Those sexy, tight buns, like two bowling balls in a satin pillowcase… uh, um, let’s move on, shall we?

And then we all think the same thing: “Hmm, wonder how those guys train? What kind of weight training do they perform?”

Well, the answers may shock you. T-Nation recently sat down with Christopher Sommer, a gymnastic coach who’s responsible for building many of those amazing physiques you see on TV.

T-Nation: Coach, let’s get started by talking a little about who you are and what you do. So, who the heck are you and what the heck do you do?

Coach Sommer: I’m a former competitive gymnast and for many years now my primary focus has been on preparing athletes for the USA Junior National Gymnastics Team. Currently I run the men’s competitive program at the Desert Devil Gymnastics National Team Training Center.

T-Nation: Okay, every time the Olympics roll around, bodybuilders and fitness buffs go monkeynuts over the physiques of the male gymnasts. What’s the biggest thing about their training that would surprise most gymrats?

Sommer: That their training is comprised almost entirely out of bodyweight exercises.

T-Nation: Wait a sec, these guys with the killer biceps don’t do barbell and dumbbell curls?

Sommer: No, not a single one! In fact, their amazing biceps development isn’t the result of any kind of curling movement at all, but primarily due to the straight arm leverage work which they do on the still rings.

The straight-arm work is enormously difficult and puts tremendous strain on the biceps resulting in incredible growth. The key to success is being able to approach these exercises in a safe progressive manner.

T-Nation: What do you mean exactly by straight-arm work?

Sommer: By straight-arm work I’m primarily referring to the classic strength positions on the still rings (iron cross, planche, maltese, etc.) and the connecting movements between them.

Raj Bhavsar performing an iron cross in the 2004 USA Championships

Straight arm work basically means moving the body without the advantage of bending the joints. Essentially then, by increasing the length of the lever, we greatly magnify the intensity of the exercise.

A case in point would be a cross pull (basically a straight arm pull-up where the arms pull out to the sides) compared to a regular pull-up. The bodyweight is the same in both cases; however, the cross pull is several orders of magnitude harder than the pull-up, resulting in significantly higher strength and muscle gains.

Now consider that I had one teammate in college who could hold an iron cross with 60 pounds hanging on his feet and you begin to get an idea of the incredible strength of some of the high level gymnasts. By the way, this same gymnast had an upper body that was incredibly large and ripped!

T-Nation: That’s impressive. I’ve heard stories that these athletes can lift a surprising amount of weight in the deadlift and other lifts, even though they never train these lifts. Is that true? And if it is, how’s that possible?

Sommer: Gymnastics training does indeed build incredible strength. For example, I was not a particularly strong gymnast, yet I was able to do a double bodyweight deadlift and weighted chins with almost 50% extra bodyweight on my very first weight training attempts.

One of my student’s, JJ Gregory, far exceeded my own modest accomplishments. On his first day of high school weight lifting, JJ pulled a nearly triple bodyweight deadlift with 400 pounds at a bodyweight of 135 and about 5’3″ in height. On another day, he also did an easy weighted chin with 75 pounds, and certainly looked as though he could’ve done quite a bit more. We’ll never know for sure because the cheap belt I was using at the time snapped.

Why gymnastics training results in such high levels of strength is still unclear. My personal opinion is that the secret lies in the plyometric nature of the movements. In a way this reminds me of the results experienced by Adam Archuleta, with the exception that we’re using bodyweight variations combined with straight arm work to obtain our results.

T-Nation: Most of the top male gymnasts are fairly light aren’t they? With all that muscle you’d think they’d weigh more. Can a hopeful gymnast get “too big” for the sport?

Sommer: Absolutely. World class performance is always easier to achieve with the correct phenotype. For example, most jumpers in track and field tend to be taller, while the marathon runners, for the most part, are smaller and lighter.

There are exceptions to be found in almost all sports. France’s Dmitry Karbanenko is a “giant” in gymnastics (5’8″, 170 pounds and unbelievably thick and muscular), yet he’s one of the finest gymnasts in the world. Mugsy Bogues was only 5’2″ and played in the NBA, but we all know that those exceptions are few and far between.

This isn’t a cause for despair though. Remember that the importance of having a particular body type applies to world class athletes and world class performance levels. For the fitness enthusiast and the recreational athlete, gymnastics conditioning can be of huge benefit to everyone, regardless of their size or shape.

T-Nation: I’ve added a little gymnastics training into my personal program, but honestly, is there really any hope for an adult who wants to have a build similar to these guys? I mean, is it possible with normal genetics? And is it possible for someone who didn’t start doing this stuff at age four?

Sommer: Many weightlifters of the 1940’s and 50’s (the old Muscle Beach days) believed that a combination of weight lifting and gymnastics training was required to build the ultimate physique. One of the most famous of those trainees is Jack LaLanne, a name that all of your readers should be familiar with.

Jack LaLanne in the 1940s

Many know of his reputation for incredible strength endurance records; for example, he performed 1000 pull-ups and 1000 push-ups in one hour and twenty three minutes! What they may not know is that Mr. LaLanne was also an accomplished gymnast and didn’t begin setting his amazing records until he was 43 years old and continued until well into his 70’s. In fact, not too long ago, at the age of 80+, I saw a picture of him performing one of the gymnastics specialty exercises that I use with my competitive athletes!

Also, the legendary rock climber John Gill credits his strength training on the rings for his boundary-breaking strength in the world of rock climbing. Interestingly, Mr. Gill didn’t begin training on the still rings until his freshman year in college; yet in only two years he was doing crosses, levers and butterflies (a straight arm pull-up).

In fact, Gill became so strong that he could perform seven consecutive pull-ups with his right arm and five with his left. Yet remember, he didn’t begin any organized athletic training until a young man in college.

John Gill performing a one arm front lever in the 1960s

T-Nation: Let’s say a person reading this wants to begin to do just a little of what these guys do. You say to start out with the “frog” exercise. What is that and why should we ironheads be doing it?

Read the rest of this article—>

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