Geoffrey Taucer

I should know what regulation ring width is, but I don't. They may come with instructions. If not, I'd aim to have them about shoulder width.

I think they'd beat a lot of people in strength work, too. At least two of them can do muscle-ups. (one of them did a muscle-up on a bar at a meet a couple years ago; she was trying to do a kip, didn't quite make it, then just did a muscle-up and continued her routine from there. The look on the judge's face was priceless.

Had a bit more of a workout in the afternoon/evening. Did a bit more cross work. Also joined my girls for their strength and flexibility work.

http://www.gymnasticbodies.com/catalog/ I accomplished one of my goals this morning: to be able to press from a cross to a maltese. I'm starting to put together a rings routine, and here's what I have so far: -Pull to inverted hang -Swing down, back uprise to L-cross -Press to maltese -Pullout to support -Press to inverted cross -Swing down, back uprise to straddle planche The inverted cross is still not what it could be, but my malteses are feeling great. I'll be heading back in this afternoon to work on it more. EDIT: My goal on rings (not for the end of the summer, but for the national qualifier next April): -Backward roll to cross -Press to maltese -Press to inverted cross -Swing down, back uprise planche -Press to inverted cross -Piked Yamawaki (it's basically a double front flip while holding onto the rings) -Tucked Yamawaki -Back uprise to handstand -Back giant -Full twisting double layout The two presses to inverted cross (one from maltese, one from planche) are the things I expect to give me the most trouble. And I'm not sure about the Yamawakis -- I've never really trained that skill before, so I'm still not sure how hard it will be for me to get it

I love the performances for the most part, but the percussion really brings the piece down imo. The snare is especially grating. Otherwise excellent performance.

I usually use ankle weights. The heaviest ones I have are 2.5 pounds each; sometimes I'll use two of those on each side. Ankle weights don't make much of a difference for stuff like dips and pull-ups, but if you ever try planches or levers with wieghts, it makes a HUGE difference. When I'm fresh, I can typically do a planche and a front lever for 25-30 seconds each (both straddled). Last time I tried with 5 pound ankle weights, I couldn't make it past 8 seconds on either one (I might be able to make it to 10 or so now -- been awhile since I tried these with weights -- but I doubt I'd make it much further than that). Today I did all my conditioning in alternating sets. First off 15 bulgarian dips, immediately followed by 25 modified pull-ups (I often do pull ups with my feet on a mat out in front of me and a bit lower than the bar, so my body is straight and approximately horizontal while I do the pull-up; it means less resistance, but it's also much easier on your hands when you're trying to avoid rips). Then another 10 bulgarian dips, and another 25 modified pull-ups (wide arms on the second set). After this I did something similar with toe touches on a stall bar and reverse leg raises on pommel horse (lie on your belly on the horse, grabbing the pommels to keep you steady, then kick your legs up behind you in an arch as high as you can go without bending or separating the knees). With both of these exercises, I like to do sets of 5 reps, then a 5 second hold at the top, then another 5 reps, then another 5 second hold, etc. I believe I did 6 sets total of each. Then I did 20 lunge jumps on each leg, 25 calf raises with my feet turned out, 15 more lunge jumps, and 25 calf raises with my feet turned in. I did 3 sets of 10 seconds in a strech band assisted cross (finishing each set with a pullout to support), and did a bit of work on malteses and inverted crosses (didn't keep track of time or numbers for those -- I usually just do them until my shoulders get too tired to do them.) And I finished off with some rotator cuff pulls. Didn't do much in the way of cardio aside from running alongside my girls to keep up with them while spotting backhandsprings. (With how much I was sweating by the end of the floor rotation, I'd like to think I at least got something of a cardio workout from it)

Best thing to do to work the muscle-up is add a little of the transition to the top of each pull-up and the bottom of each dip. 120 of each? Over how long a period? That sounds like an awful lot if you're doing them all correctly. Keep in mind, you will probably get more out of a low number done correctly than out of a high number achieved with a bit of cheating. This is especially true for something like a pull-up. With a slight swing, I can knock out 40 or so in a row without much difficulty. With correct form and no swing, I don't think I can make it past 15 without stopping. If you're getting these numbers while keeping good form, then I must say I'm impressed. That's more than I usually do in a single workout. What I generally try to do is increase the difficulty of the exercise rather than increasing the number of reps. For example, you might try adding ankle weigths, or doing instead of regular dips. As you go down, widen your arms and turn the rings in, and as you go back up, pull the rings back into your sides and turn your palms forward.Usually, when I can do more than 20 or so reps of a particular exercise in a set (less for some exercises), I look for ways to increase the difficulty of each rep, rather than the number of reps. Right now, there are very few exercises for which I will do more than 50 reps total in a single workout.

I have not been as organized about my strength work as I'd like to be, and haven't done enough of it this week, though I have a (sort of) good reason: I've been spending more time tumbling and vaulting and less on flex/conditioning. However, I have at the very least done a few straddle planches, a few front levers, and a bit of iron cross work every day (except today: did planches and levers, but my shoulders were too sore for cross work). I just got an e-mail that my new ring grips have (finally) shipped, so I should be able to spend a lot more time on rings in the comming months (and I'll be able to start putting together a routine).

To Reuben Kee *raises glass*

Not watching it. I make a point of never watching gymnastics blooper reels.

I only caught that one tune from Final Fantasy and of course the SMW part. EDIT: And Geno's woods.

I've been doing gymnastics for about sixteen years now. However, I've only recently started doing high-level strength work (aside from planches -- I've been able to do those since I was about 10). Starting when I was at the upper-mid levels, I only competed floor and vault, which don't have the strength requirements of the other events. About a year and a half ago, after being retired from competition for two years, I decided to start training again and putting a bit more emphasis on strength, because I was considering returning to competition on all six events (I've since decided just to compete floor, vault, and rings) I never even started working on iron crosses until a little less than a year ago.

Here's a vid of some of my favorite exercises:

Yes, if I understand you correctly. They probably won't turn all the way out, but you want them angled outward, because that forces you to lock your arms straight. Nah, the bruising happens. Just gotta get used to it. As you get stronger, you'll probably find yourself holding the rings slightly wider on your supports, which takes some of the pressure off that spot, though. EDIT: here's a video of a few of my favorite exercises:

A good way to work a tucked front lever is to start from an inverted tuck and work your way down. In an inverted tuck, your hips are almost right above your shoulders; when you find the balance point, it takes very little strength at all to hold it there. You can then start lowering your hips towards a tucked front lever. As you get stronger, you can hold the position with your hips lower and lower until they reach the same height as your shoulders -- a true tucked front lever.

Holy fuck. THAT'S AWESOME!

If you're finding them to be this easy, then you already have fairly strong stabilizer muscles To get the most possible out of a ring workout, make sure that whenever you hit a support (ie at the top of every dip), you have your arms locked straight and the rings turned out. I start off all my workouts with 10 muscle ups. I tend to start piking them a bit around number 5, and kipping them a bit around number seven or eight. The idea of a false grip is to have your wrists on top of the rings rather than under them. The best way I can describe it is that it's the grip you have if you put your hands through the rings so your wrists are wresting on them, then pull just your thumb back through to grip the ring. I'll see if I can post a video explanation sometime next week. Just do the planche progressions. I usually do planche push-ups tucked; I can do maybe two or three in a straddle planche, perhaps five on a good day. One thing to keep in mind when looking at the GymnasticBodies website; while he is indeed a genius when it comes to strength and conditioning, he really downplays just how much strength work his kids do. His kids spend SEVERAL HOURS EACH DAY just on conditioning, according to a friend of mine who used to be coached by Sommers. So yes, he gives some great exercises, but don't feel bad if you can't do them as well as the kids in his videos; even most high-level gymnasts aren't as strong as some of those kids.

Paypal $20 to NOSPAMmidgetboysk8@hotmail.com everytime you submit a mix, and it will get posted faster.* *not actually true, but feel free to send me money anyway

Holy shit. Sounds like you're not exactly in the best shape right now, but it also sounds like it could have been a hell of a lot worse. Here's wishing you a speedy recovery.

So far today: I did a brief (half an hour or so) upper-body workout. Did muscle-ups, pull-ups, bulgarian dips, planches (straddled), front levers (straddled), planche push-ups (tucked), front lever pull-ups (tucked), hanging toe-touches, and arch-ups. Sprinted back and forth for 60 seconds. Took a break, got lunch (footlong meatball sub from subway w/lettuce and onions), then came back to the gym and spent 45 minutes working flexibility. I'm getting closer on that left leg split. I may spend some more time working splits later tonight. Haven't done any ring work yet today; I'll most likely save that for tomorrow.

Oh man, I really want to, but I just can't risk getting injured right now. I gotta go real conservative on stuff like that. Maybe once I've retired (again) from gymnastics competition, I'll take up free running.

Went into the gym today, did a bit of tumbling and some cross work on rings. My cross is getting pretty solid, but I still need to work on the maltese and the inverted cross. Did a bunch of ab work as well (which I really haven't been doing enough lately).

In my opinion, 60 seconds is a bit excessive for planches. I'd start working the next difficulty level once you can hold a given position for 45 seconds, if that. Another great exercise for planches (and one not mentioned on Sommers' website) is pressing down from a handstand. Do a handstand, straddle, and try to press down towards a planche. See how close you can get without falling. Of course, this requires that you be able to hold a static handstand -- and I HIGHLY RECCOMEND that anybody wishing to incorporate gymnastics into their training work on handstands, since that is really the one skill that the entire sport is based on.

I know I sound like a conceited asshole saying this, but the main reason I'm hesitant to post a before picture is because I'm afraid it might scare off other potential participants. I'm a gymnast; modesty aside, my before pictures will probably look better than most people's after pictures. That's why I'm asking you whether I should post them. On a different subject, if we have anybody with expertise in building up anaerobic endurance, I'd love to hear from them.

GOAL I want to be able to consistently hit and hold an iron cross, a maltese, and an inverted cross by the end of the summer. Furthermore I'd like to be able to press from either front or back lever to a cross, and from cross to a maltese. I want to bring up my endurance enough to make it through a complete floor routine without watering down any of my passes. (That's about 70 seconds, so it's all anaerobic endurance.) I want to have my left-leg split all the way down. (All 3 would be great, but I think that's unlikely to happen, and the left leg is the one I'm closest on) In short, I want to be able to come out of retirement as a gymnast and compete on floor, vault, and rings again next year. THE PLAN Diet: I'm not going for a specific number of calories, but I really could afford to cut back on the junk food and eat more fruits and vegetables. For the last few months, I've been going through oreos at a rate of about a package every two days. There is no way in hell I'm going to completely give up oreos, but I'll at least try to cut that back to a package a month. I'll also cut down on the gingerbeer and 7-up, and try to stick with milk, orange juice, and good ol' water. I'll try to have fruit or vegetables with every meal. This is definitely something I need to work on. Exercise: For the rings strength: daily work on crosses and malteses, in addition to my normal strength workouts. For endurance, I will try to do windsprints for 70 seconds at least twice each workout. For flexibility, I'll be doing at least 2 minutes total in each split at the end of every workout. (I've been meaning to do this for awhile, and I've kept not doing it.) BTW, should we post pics? So we can have "before" and "after" pics to compare at the end of the summer? EDIT: also, how specific should I be with descriptions of my exercise plan? Should I post my entire strength list? EDIT 2: Same question for my rings goals. Should I post the routine I hope to compete?