For some, this method will put less strain on the shoulders while isolating more of the chest than the standard barbell bench. And like the traditional barbell version, you can switch up to incline and decline variations to hit different parts of the muscle.

For a bigger shock to the system, switch to a neutral grip , where your palms are facing inward at each other, rather than pointed toward your feet. This hits the pecs even more and allows for more weight to be used. You can also switch things up with TRX suspension pushups that work on balance and stability.

This is a killer way to hit your upper chest. Just set the bench at an incline of no more than 45 degrees, grab some moderately heavy dumbbells, and get lifting click here for a full tutorial.

The squat is one of the most basic, fundamental compound moves to have in your arsenal. The barbell back squat is the classic go-to, but there are plenty of variations to suit your preferences or limitations. When it comes to isolating your hamstrings, leg curls are one of the best moves for total development.

They tax your quads and slight variations can help you hit every angle. Bulgarian split squats are tough. You may not be able to pile weight on for them, but once you nail the balancing involved in this exercise, it can be your key to huge legs.

Planks are a core strengthening move that never gets old and there are seemingly endless variations like side planks, pictured above to hit every angle of your core.

Barbell ab rollouts hit your entire core without straining your back when done correctly. Make sure your hips stay in line with your knees and shoulders, and use a comfortable range of motion. Cable woodchops pinpoint your obliques while strengthening your entire core.

Weighted decline situps put a few challenging twists on your typical situps. Use a manageable weight and contract your abs to bring your torso up without using much momentum.

Jackknife situps are a challenging twist on the classic move. There are options for getting in a fast and effective workout when you're pressed for time. This member of the Elevator Boys phenomenon uses reps and rest to rule social media.

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Back: Deadlift The bread and butter of countless gym routines, this move , if done properly, will predominantly engage your back and legs, while building overall strength for you entire body. Back: Degree Lat Pulldown This variation on the traditional pulldown not only strengthens your middle and upper back, it also works your shoulders, biceps, and forearms.

Back: Pullups The pullup is a classic strength-building move that everyone needs to do in the gym. Arms: Standing Barbell Curl This traditional bodybuilding move is a staple for building bigger biceps. Arms: Diamond Pushups Shift your focus to your triceps with this variation on a pushup.

Shoulders: Shrugs There is no shortage of ways to do shrugs. Shoulders: Dumbbell Lateral Raises This classic exercise strengthens the entire shoulder with an emphasis on the sides of the deltoid muscles. Shoulders: Presses The overhead press is the best way to move large amounts of weight and build some serious shoulder strength.

Shoulders: Rear Delt Raises This move is similar to regular lateral raises, except here you raise the weights while slightly bent over, leading to more rear deltoid and trap development. Shoulders: Half-Kneeling Landmine Press In a previous article, we referred to the half-kneeling landmine press as one of the 10 best shoulder exercises for beginners.

Chest: Barbell Bench Press Whether you want to go flat, incline, or decline, the bench is the king of chest workouts. Chest: Dumbbell Bench Press When building that perfect chest, be sure to always incorporate dumbbells into your bench routine.

Chest: Incline Flye This is a killer way to hit your upper chest. Legs: Squat The squat is one of the most basic, fundamental compound moves to have in your arsenal. Legs: Leg Curl When it comes to isolating your hamstrings, leg curls are one of the best moves for total development.

Legs: Bulgarian Split Squat Bulgarian split squats are tough. Remember that on the other side of the coin exists. The positive effects of bone loading when adequately dosed gymnastics progressions, strength training, and overload occur.

This approach can be a beneficial way to help bridge the gap between excessive loading from high force gymnastics skills and lacking loading capacity within bones. Performance Point: Why This Matters for Gymnastics. The reason all the information covered matters for gymnastics is that progressive overload with the right exercises and program design can elicit these well-known adaptations of strength or power training.

Theoretically, strength training with resistance or other forms of overload can tap into the larger, less recruited motor units. We can also increase cross-sectional area of lean muscle tissue, and when combined with concepts above, increase strength output. These muscle and neurological adaptations then can be used down the road in rate of force exercises jumping, sprints, explosive drills to help see increases in power during gymnastics skills.

By slowly loading and progressing these Turkish Get ups and other movements over a few months, while continuing to optimize skill technique, we may be able to increase the wrist and elbow joints capacity to handle weight bearing forces.

This could increase bone and muscle strength, as well as improve the ability to produce force through the arms and core. This may help reduce the risk of injury resulting from numerous vaults or handstand impact skills, as well as build up a gymnast ability to transfer force and increase power during their skills.

Increasing foundational strength serves as the first step to developing many other aspects of physical preparation like power or explosive speed. Increases in the baseline levels of strength serve as the base for other important athletic qualities.

The ability to sprint faster for vault or floor, the ability to tap harder on bars, and the ability to sustain longer endurance-based holds for handstand shaping, all have a commonality increasing the foundational strength level of a gymnast. Many people in gymnastics want to see more power in their gymnasts during skills and routine performance.

Regarding classic physics, power is a product of work done over time. It can also be viewed in the context of power is equal to force x displacement over time.

I by no means claim to be an expert in physics, but the basic concepts can still be considered. Therefore, to increase power output, we must either manipulate increasing the force expressed by a muscle, see increased distance traveled, or reduce the amount of time over which this work is performed The most scientifically supported method for increasing the force a muscle can produce is through strength training This is performed with a goal of achieving the adaptations mentioned previously.

The other way that we can increase power is through the manipulation of time. This is often done with specific gymnastics technique drills, plyometric training, and exercises that emphasize rapid movements to increase a muscles rate of force development.

For this reason, power, the rate of force development, speed, agility, and metabolic capacity all have some dependence on fundamental strength. I feel due to the importance of foundational strength following short periods of complete rest; gymnasts should focus on increasing maximal strength during noncompetitive times of the year.

Placing more emphasis on foundational strength programs in the first few months of summer, as compared to only doing new drills and skills, may be one of the most important parts of the entire training year.

Following this gain in strength over months, gymnasts can then be put through more specific power, the rate of force development, ballistic, and plyometric type training blocks.

This helps translate the strength gains made to more gymnastics particular goals, like explosive bodyweight power. I feel this will help many athletes more optimally develop power for skills and routines, along with not overloading them excessively in the offseason with high force skills.

The most outstanding example is training proper squatting and hinging patterns through goblet squats or deadlifts in summer training. These exercises are well known to build up the strength of the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and core The strength gains can be used on top of teaching gymnasts how to land correctly.

This will be covered in depth in the medical chapter but see the Science of Gymnastics: Advanced Concepts for the research on this.

The strength gains seen from training these movements can also be applied in the preseason for squat jumps, jumping lunges, kettlebell swings, or speed deadlifts, to increase power output in the legs.

This can be transferred very quickly to gymnastics specific technique during tumbling and vaulting. By moving from a systematic strength cycle with squatting and deadlifting, to more power and rate of force development cycle, all while still working skill technique, may create incredible progress in skill power as well as performance.

For more information specific to strength and conditioning in pediatric youth athletes, please see chapter 13 of Strength and Conditioning For Sports Performance by Jeffreys and Moody.

Plyometric training incorporates more rapid, fast twitch type exercises. The primary goal of this type of training is to increase a muscles ability to accept, absorb, and return force efficiently. Typically, plyometric exercises are grouped into low, medium, and high impact.

This categorization all has to do with the speed of repetition, and the force produced or absorbed by the body. They are also largely dosed based on their number of ground contacts, amount of loading per repetition, and many other factors that are specific to the athletes training or developmental age.

In gymnastics, plyometric training is regularly seen with panel mat lines, bounding jumps, and squat jump variations. However, there are many other very important applications of plyometrics beyond just these in the lower body, as well as in the upper body push up shaping hops, handstand blocking and the core medball reactive throws and rebounds.

These are less commonly used in gymnastics, but I think we will see change more in the future. Just as with the strength and power section, the central adaptations from plyometric training can be split into muscle architectural effects, and neural effects.

Both of these effects tend to come under the umbrella of something known as the Stretch Shortening Cycle. There have been some recent reviews that outline changes in whole muscle and individual fiber hypertrophy through plyometrics training.

Due to the limited amount of research in this category and my need to more fully understand this concept, I will not outline it more than stating its existence in the research.

One of the most frequently discussed mechanisms for increasing the stretch-shortening cycles ability to produce power is through changes in elastic stiffness. It has been outlined that with adequately dosed training, elastic tissues can be adapted to tolerate more force, as well as increase their efficiency in storing and releasing energy Optimal tendon stiffness, combined with the ability to have very fast coupling times limited time between eccentric and concentric contractions know as an amortization phase may be the main mechanism in increasing the energy storage of tendons working with muscles.

Some degree of tendon stiffness is important for energy transfer and skill power. On the other side of the fence, is the argument that too much tendon stiffness may predispose overload and injury.

This is a tricky line to walk with relation to long-term athletic development in athletes, which is why more information needs to be studied about plyometric training dosage in gymnasts. To this day, I am still gathering my thoughts on the best approach to seeking out strength and conditioning experts to learn more.

However, in my gut, I feel that we should lean on the side of slightly less structural tendon stiffness, and more on training the neuromuscular system to produce rigidity during skills.

I feel that gymnasts that do not have optimal strength or technique rely on their passive tissues to produce and store the massive amounts of energy seen in gymnastics skills. Over time this may create tough spots related to chronic injury.

I have seen this anecdotally when lots of plyometric exercises or impact skills are trained, and gymnasts cannot get past chronic rotator cuff tendon, patellar tendon, and Achilles tendon issues.

Given the intimidating rate of tendon ruptures in gymnastics for both the shoulder and lower body such as the Achilles, it is essential we work together for the best answer. Again, I am still investigating this topic and hope to keep growing my thoughts on the matter.

Just as strength and power training offers an opportunity to enhance the motor unit efficiency, so does plyometric training. As we coach and educate gymnasts on the proper technique, and increase the challenge of plyometrics, the nervous system may help adapt to more power output.

Motor units for contraction can increase their ability to fire, and more coordination between motor units may occur just like with strength training This is the most widely known thought behind why plyometric training helps increase reactive power. The stretch reflex is triggered by rapid elongation of muscles and tendons, which sparks a reflex for shortening of the muscle to prevent injury.

Despite conflicting thoughts, it has been proposed that through progressive training, plyometric drills can enhance the stretch-shortening cycle by tuning reflexes This may be very beneficial for gymnastics, as skills seen on floor, vault, and bars happen at tremendous speeds.

Just as noted in the strength and power section, with more repetitive training and movement practice, different joint segments may be more optimally synchronized to produce, transfer, and release energy.

This is often seen in gymnastics as plyometric exercises are coached to increase body tension or stiffness, which helps to enhance force output This concept parallels what was mentioned in the strength training section, but with some different applications.

There has been some research that suggests over time with more plyometric training; the brain may become more anticipatory in its preparation for bounding.

This is thought to be because pre- activation of muscle firing may enhance with training. Primarily, the brain and nervous system learn to anticipate contractions rather than simply react to them.

More information related to the dosage of plyometric training frequency, intensity, and volume for youth athletes can be found in Chapter 7 in Strength and Conditioning for Young Athletes: Science and Application by Lloyd and Oliver.

When used in the proper dosage with an understanding of the training effects, plyometric training can be of enormous benefit to gymnasts. This is even truer when it is built into the proper periodization and formal strength program structure. Plyometrics have been widely used in gymnastics, but I often fear due to our lack of physiological understanding of what it does to the body, we easily get carried away regarding suddenly spiking the amount of plyometric work done by increasing the intensity of exercises rapidly and not considering total volume.

We must remember we are working with children and adolescents who have not fully developed. We certainly want to prepare gymnasts for the massive forces and impacts that come with competing high- level skills.

However, we need to keep in mind proper progression, a gradual increase in intensity, and dosage. Just as with gymnastics skills, we would never do a full skill without the proper technique training, drills, progressions, and physical preparation.

It may undermine the performance and safety of the athlete. The same remains true for plyometric exercises, strength training, and power training with young gymnasts. There are proper techniques, drills, progressions, and baseline physical preparations before we go crazy with very challenging exercises or high volumes.

If we do not respect the forces and demands of these exercises, we may be causing more harm than good. I know many people want to learn more about specific exercises or drills for strength, power, and plyometric training to use with their gymnasts.

Many also want to know how to formally create strength programs they can use with large groups, constrained time, limited space and limited equipment. To help bring these nerdy concepts back down to earth about what we do in daily gymnastics training, here are some thoughts on designing strength programs and exercise ideas.

I feel the first place to start is with planning and organization rather than talking about specific exercises I promise I will offer all this information at the end of this blog. Ambitions fade, and people get frustrated with this opposite approach.

To avoid this mistake, I will begin with program design and then break into specific exercises for people to consider. The formal word for this concept is periodization. It highlights the systematic modulation of training intensity to promote progressive adaptation 16, 22, 72, When periodization models are properly implemented, we see a slow downward trend of energy and performance levels with strenuous training, followed by a slow return to full recovery.

When optimally designed, the body does not return to the same baseline. It adapts to be more prepared for when a similar level of challenge occurs. This concept is known as supercompensation.

In the picture above, red represents a training load with reduced capacity, green represents recovery with increased capacity, and the left upward arrow represents increasing levels of capacity. This is a visual of super-compensation. This model is extremely basic, but in the most simple form this is what we are aiming for in gymnastics.

In contrast, when we either overdose stressors or underdose recovery, we do not see the same curve. Instead of seeing a full recovery, and supercompensation, we may see a slow downward trend. This usually can manifest as overuse injuries, excessive fatigue, underperformance, and in the most severe casese complete burnout.

They have a reduced ability to accept load, and are at elevated risk of injury, illness, and mental health issues. This happens in gymnastics when we have multiple training days that cumulatively tax athletes, when recovery methods are not utilized, or when athletes have high cumulative stress load in their lives.

Sometimes super compensation can be missed from an under dosage of stressors in gymnastics, but that tends to be the minority of cases. I feel to achieve the more optimal result in the first picture with supercompensation, the best option for readers is first to take a gigantic step back and look at yearly training programs as well as overall goals.

From there, programs can be broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily workouts based on what fits for the gymnasts, coaching staff, and facility. If this is not done first, trying to implement the overwhelming amount of information in the strength and conditioning research can feel both chaotic and frustrating.

I will outline this in bullet point and template form, and then for visual learners include a summarizing picture below.

The process starts with the big picture of a multiyear goal and then moves to yearly goals. From here the year is broken up into multi-month blocks. From this, it proceeds to individual month blocks and into weekly chunks.

Lastly, individual practices are outlined, followed by the specific work load prescription for individual events, days of strength, or energy systems training. This last step is done with the specific drill, skill, or routine assignments, or specific sets and repetitions for physical preparation.

Keep in mind; there is large variability in this based on the goals of the gym, the staff or resources available, the gymnasts within the gym, other programs within the gym, space available, and time of training. I suggest that people focus on the principles, and then mold it to what fits in their gym based on all these factors.

Here are some questions to work through for strength and conditioning planning. Based on the outlined multiyear goals, what should the individual training year look like?

What are the individual yearly goals? By working backward from the season peak, how many months are designated for each training block of the season? In the initial planning stage of the training year, I recommend people go backward from the peak competition. This approach is to help look at yearly, monthly, and weekly goals.

Once this yearly plan is outlined, I find it more helpful to work forwards from the rest period following a competition season, moving into the next training year. I think following chronological order allows everyone involved to see the logical progression of training and helps to build specific programs more effectively.

For this reason, for the remainder of this explanation, I will be moving forward in the year starting from the rest period Deload and ending with the peak competition Competitive Season B. Keep this in mind, or it may feel a little confusing.

Please also keep in mind, this is just an example of my experiences. Given the training blocks month or multi-month , what is the main goal of training during this time?

For all gymnastics programs, I follow four main subcomponents to training as you will see in the chart. Remember now starting from the end of the competitive year and moving forward to build training year plan, and it will be based on the U.

Competitive calendars. Starting with this information above, we begin to see how the entire year can be broken up into smaller multi-month components based on the training goals, and adaptations intended.

From here, we move on to individual months of training. Keep in mind; you do not always need to plan in 1-month increments. I often plan for 6-week blocks to better fit the meet season schedule. It all depends on the goal of training, and how long it may take to see adaptations or progress with skills, strength, flexibility, or energy systems training.

Start to consider: Given the broader goals of each month, the athlete level, the age of the athlete, and how many hours of training per week, what will a monthly program design and work to rest ratio look like? What will an individual weekly program design look like?

Take into consideration, the more significant goals of the week meet week vs. building week vs. What will the work to rest ratios and intensity modulation look like?

Remember that I am working off of 5 day program model above, but you can adjust or any number of working days. Here is a graph for this. Keeping with the trend, we then move from the training week to plan for the individual practice or training unit. Next, what will the individual training days look like?

Consider, the broader goals of the week, how many hours of training will occur, the scheduled events, the athlete level, and time in the season,. Now from the individual training day, we can then plan out specific event assignments, training loads, strength programs, flexibility assignments, energy systems workouts, or instructional time blocks.

What will the actual assignment or workout look like? Take into consideration, the larger goals of the event, strength session, energy systems training session, or flexibility training session. I will include a picture of an individual workout taken from our strength program, but will go into this much more in depth in the last piece of the chapter above.

We will continue this last step in a more detailed approach, as this relates to writing daily strength programs. So far, I have covered a much larger overview into how I approach gymnastics program design. It also builds in a lot of the current science on periodization, work to rest ratios, and overall holistic long-term athletic development.

When we zoom in all the way down to the individual training level, there is a massive amount of variability that comes into play with regards to gymnastics specific training load.

The warm-ups, skills, drills, progressions, and routine assignments have infinite possibilities due to the nature of gymnastics. One important caveat to this question; just as there is a need to individualize skill training to a gymnast, there is a need to individualize strength, flexibility, and energy systems training to a gymnast.

Every athlete is different. Despite there being solid foundational principles of both skill training and strength training, not every gymnast will take the same path to reach their end goal. When a gymnast tries to learn a giant, there are foundational principles they need to master body tension, proper cast handstand, tap swing mechanics, timing, etc.

However, there may be different coaching cues, drills, shaping corrections, and troubleshooting thoughts for each athlete. The same goes for strength program design.

When a gymnast tries to get a stronger lower body, there are certain foundational principles they need to master core control, body weight squat and hinge patterns, holding load correctly, breathing, body tension, etc. But just like with skills, there may be different coaching cues, regressions or progressions, and modifications they may need to master the exercise.

Some common changes include different exercise selections based on anatomy, sets, reps, and total volume for specific exercises. Just as athletes have individual strengths or areas for improvement on specific skills or events, they also have individual strengths or areas for improvement in their physical preparation programs.

We must apply the principles of scientific strength and conditioning, but also use the art of coaching to make sure we are molding to the needs of our gymnasts.

Keep this in mind as you read. I am happy to offer my thoughts and suggestions. But in reality, when working with gymnasts both coaching or in the rehab setting, I am always tweaking things on the fly as needed to fit their personal needs best.

For strength programming, below are the movement categories I have been taught to use with regards to the upper body, lower body, and core. Here is a sumary graph of this I made.

Each category is followed by gymnastics bodyweight exercise examples SPP and non-gymnastics exercise examples GPP examples. I am going to limit the number of videos included for the ease of following along, but keep in mind almost every exercise here can be found either through the text books offered or on my Youtube Page click here for full library.

General Strength — Core Anti Extension Front Plank, Dead Bug, Sled Push. Despite gymnasts getting massive benefits from general athletic strength, it is absolutely crucial that gymnasts are doing sport-specific strength every day.

Gymnastics is an extremely unique sport, and because of that we can not forget how important things like handstand training, presses, rope climbs, core development, shaping, and specific bounding or stiffness drills are.

In my experience personally and having consulted with s of gymnastics programs, the combination of these two things can create incredibly results for strength, power, technical development, and performance. I have taken these categories from my observations and coaching experiences, but also from learning from amazing coaches.

I highly suggest people check out Nick Ruddock for more on this topic. Also remember, some of these start to blur the lines between strength and power training coming in next section. This is okay, we just always have to remember the bigger picture about the number of impacts we are subjecting young athletes too.

More on programming below, but keep this in mind as you start to brainstorm implementation. There are hundreds of exercises that can be programmed into a training routine. There are also multiple combinations and variable categories available in the literature.

This is only the tip of the iceberg. To get started, consider the categories themselves and try to organize exercises based on the movement or muscles involved. In general, approaching the body based on movements is more practical for planning, but there are certainly many times where individual isolated muscle strengthening is essential.

Also, I understand the lower body can be confusing. The most important aspect to the lower body is that we are programming equally if not more posterior chain work glutes in all planes, hamstrings, deep hip rotators to the commonly overdeveloped anterior chain quads, inner thigh or adductors, hip flexors.

Gymnastics places a huge demand on the lower body, and it must be trained appropriately with equal balance in all motions. If you want a complete overview of off season training program design, you can check out this video tutorial I did with my buddy Kiefer Lammi.

These same concepts apply when moving into the season. We talk about global programming concepts, how we approach programming for a week, and how we divide up what exercises to do each day. Once you understand global categories of exercises, you have the building blocks to start creating a strength program.

To help create a well-balanced offseason where general strength is the emphasis, I try to have each category of the upper body, the lower body, and the core represented. Combining my personal experience with what I have learned from others, I like to bias upper body gymnastics shaping basics, upper body horizontal pulling for scap strength , local hip work that targets the glutes as well as deep hip rotators, and extra core work.

I find they are typically overlooked and the lowest hanging fruit for improvement as well as injury prevention. There are many different schools of thought on how to plan sets, reps, and overall volume of strength exercises. You can follow guidelines, but when it comes down to it you have to think critically about the context.

The number of exercises to use, the sets, repetitions, amount of rest in between sets, and the times per week for individual exercises is highly variable.

I hope the sections above have highlighted the need for gymnastics to embrace working with well-qualified strength and conditioning coaches. Given this, I personally use a variety of approaches, but mainly design couplets or triples for exercises. I also may use circuits during certain parts of the season.

A straight set is when all the sets and repetitions of one exercise are done consecutively. Say a 5×5 squat or deadlift. A triplet is when three exercises are programmed together, working from one to the next to the next.

Circuit training is when a group fo exercises are done in a cycle, either by repetitions or by time domains. I find that in a group setting with a lot of athletes and limited time, working in this fashion of couplets and triples is the best way to dose our athletes optimally. The main exercise can be followed by a secondary exercise or accessory exercise in most cases.

It also helps with organization and the ability to adjust programs as needed. Personally, I find it less stressful to program in this way to make sure all the exercises that need to be done are in place. There are times when focusing on the strength we may start a program with a single exercise, such as 5×5 of goblet squats, to focus on the effort in a single exercise with appropriate rest.

However, this is quite rare. It is beyond the scope of this book to really outline every concept of set, repetition, rest, or intensity for each exercise.

The chapters on strength program design, periodization, and exercise prescription found in the resources sections have entire chapters dedicated to this concept for readers to investigate. To practically apply this information, each athlete in our gym has their own binder with printed out sheets for each week, month, and block for strength assignments.

I create the programs in advanced based on level, and then each athlete has their copy. This approach allows them to check off sets and reps, write down weights or level of resistance bands used, record changes in exercises for individuality, or to jot down general notes.

We chose to use binders because as a gym, we firmly believe in athletes taking autonomy in their own training. Strength programs are a valuable time to foster this discovery.

This also provides a source of objective tracking for each athlete, to reflect upon when positive or negative bumps in the road occur. We keep a global spreadsheet of all the months of training on our wall, so coaches and athletes are in the loop.

Just as the season progresses from general strength to more power-based exercises, now I will cover some exercise examples for this category. Power training is intended to use the baseline levels of strength present and teach the neuromuscular system to produce force rapidly. This adaptation is accomplished through adaptations in the mechanical, neurological, and energy systems within the muscular tissue.

Building off the strength section, I wanted to include some examples for power or rate of force development exercises. Many of these are commonly used in gymnastics, while some are more nontraditional exercises not widely used.

Following a strength cycle, I typically like to start gymnasts with more challenging versions of power exercises where they are only able to use specific body segments arms or legs vs. their entire body. As an example, if the lower body is the focus, I may have athletes place their arms across their chest during squat jumps from a box, so they cannot use their arms to swing and assist.

If the upper body is the focus, I may have athletes sit down when doing overhead medball throws so they cannot use their legs to assist.

Although this typically does not look nearly as impressive in relation to power output, it helps significantly narrow in training to the specific body parts intended.

Then, as a progression or within another training cycle, exercises can be progressed to involve the whole body or be more dynamic. From a physiological point of view, we are theoretically aiming to activate the local motor units within a muscle group, enhance their rate coding or discharge frequency, and encourage disinhibition to create more force output.

We are also looking to encourage local muscle architecture changes and improve metabolic pathways to support the work output. As each piece is optimized, it then can be added to more whole-body progressions that encourage energy storage and transfer throughout the entire body. I will outline the power exercise examples in this fashion.

You will also see the categories for the lower body broken down into vertical force jumping for height and horizontal force sprinting speed. Just as with the section above, I know there are hundreds of other creative power, rate of force development, or explosive exercises that could go into these categories.

These are just a few examples of what I have found beneficial. I again suggest readers take the principles and mold them into what they see helpful or best fitting to the athletes they train. I mentioned in the section above that for the reasons related to the muscle and neural adaptation to strength training; I usually like to do plyometric and power exercises following strength block cycles.

With that said, there will always be some degree of plyometric training occurring in gymnastics due to the nature of the sport and skill training. There is a surplus of quality low, medium, and high-intensity plyometric exercises that can benefit a gymnast during strength programs.

I will also include links to articles on these ideas below. Upper Body Examples Push up hops on tramopline or springboard Handstand bounces on trampoline Overhead shaping arch — hollow snaps Core Examples Tigth arch hollow snaps, many vaulting and sprinting drills Chest and Overhead Medball bounces.

Dosage and volume of plyometrics training are commonly decided based on the intensity low, medium, high , the number of ground contacts made, and if bodyweight or external loading is used. For those interested, page of the Jeffreys and Moody Strength text offers an excellent outline of periodization of plyometrics throughout the competitive season.

Although it is not specific to gymnastics, the principles can be beneficial for organizing the framework of training.

Despite the variability, plyometrics can be roughly calculated and tracked to reduce the risk of sudden spikes in training volume. This can be helpful to reduce the risk of growth plate and tendon irritation that is common in many young gymnasts.

It may not show problems in the short term, but I commonly see a week or two into the addition of high volume plyometrics numbers or intensity many athletes start to complain of pain in their feet, shins, knees, hips or lower back. Monitoring the number, and slowly ramping up from low ground contacts or intensity to moderate, to high, can be very helpful to prevent this from occurring in young athletes.

We also must make sure athletes are closely monitored for fatigue, as not to let their quality of movement dissipate. I have seen many different programs and approaches to periodization be successful over the last ten years of working in gymnastics.

Where people fall apart is the background education, studying the science, planning, consistency, and exercise technique. The key factor to all of this is people planning the global training program, understanding basic concepts of exercise categories and including some form of periodization or overload followed by rest.

From here, it just requires consistently doing physical preparation with the quality of movement as the priority, with a sprinkle of patience from both coaches and gymnasts.

It is tempting to keep changing the exercises or adding new ideas. While this is good to maintain variety and prevent the monotony of training, I urge readers to balance this with sufficient time and consistency in physical preparation to see positive progress.

I personally aim to change conditioning every 4 — 6 weeks based on the progressions and time of the season. If this is done well with a supportive approach, a growth mind set, and a positive culture, there are no doubt gymnasts will positively respond.

As a concluding thought, remember that actual program design implementation and execution depends upon:. As a general rule of thumb, I write programs to plan for future more complex exercises speed rope climbs, plyometric push-ups, handstand push-ups, kettlebell swings, med ball throws.

As for younger athletes, I feel they need to focus on doing the basics really well, consistently, and with good quality. It is the basics that prepare them for more complex exercises in the future. This refers to both essential gymnastics strength shaping, core, handstands, presses, etc. as well as essential non-gymnastics strength squatting pattern, hinging pattern, dumbbell pressing mechanics, etc.

From this foundation of basic movement, core strength and control, and gymnastics technique, they are prepared to make significant progress down the road. This is a valuable time to create a durable well- rounded athlete through the incorporation of weights, general movements, and more nontraditional exercises.

As the season progresses training transitions from general preparation too much more gymnastics specific preparation.

Usually, once the season begins, we are doing all body weight and gymnastics specific exercises. Then finally, as the competitive season comes into full force, the ratio shifts to almost all gymnastics specific conditioning with a few foundational exercises squat, deadlift, horizontal rowing in the upper body.

I feel this is the best way to help mold the athlete into higher performance and longevity. The cycle continues with postseason moving back to almost all general base work again.

Again, keep in mind this is just my approach to designing strength and power programs for gymnasts. I have already outlined my approach to flexibility and will cover my thoughts on energy systems in the next chapter.

Several other versions or approaches work effectively. I am continually learning more from literature, other coaches, and strength and conditioning friends.

Even in the last five years, I have completely changed how I approach specific areas. Please just think about the principles I have outlined, and how it best fits your athletes.

Once you have covered this, sit with all the staff and brainstorm collaboratively on the best approach. Due to how crucial physical preparation is for gymnastics performance and overall health, we must be highly focused on improving this area of training.

The first few chapters covering fundamental values, forging a positive culture, flexibility methods, and this section on strength and conditioning evolution are areas that I feel can have the most substantial impact in gymnastics.

We cannot be afraid to break from the mold of doing what we have always done in fear of the unknown or seeing something fail to work immediately.

We do not have to abandon the traditional models of gymnastics physical preparation. The unbelievable amount of possible benefits to gymnasts is compelling.

I hope that this blog has helped summarize the very overwhelming, but crucial concepts related to strength, power, plyometrics, and periodization in gymnastics. DiFiori JP. Overuse Injuries and Burnout in Youth Sports: A Position Statement from the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine.

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Stress Fractures of the Pelvis and Legs in Athletes: A Review. Astur DC, et al. Stress fractures: definition, diagnosis, and treatment. Revista Brasileira de Ortopedia. Robertson GA, Wood AM. Lower limb stress fractures in sport: Optimising their management and outcome.

World J Orthop. March 18 3 : Bompa, T. Periodization for Sports Performance: 3rd Edition. Human Kinetics. Lorenz D. Current Concepts in Periodization of Strength and Conditioning for the Sports Physical Therapist.

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In Cardinale, M. Strength and Conditioning Biological Principles and Practical Applications. Wiley- Blackwell. Gabbet TJ. In Turner A, Comfort P; Advanced Strength and Conditioning: An Evidenced-Based Approach.

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Br J Sports Med. March, 50 5 : — Gabbet TJ, Jenkins DG. Relationship between training load and injury in professional rugby league players. J Sci Med Sport. May; 14 3 : Hulin BT, Gabbet TJ, Lawson DW, et al. The acute: chronic workload ratio predicts injury: high chronic workload may decrease injury risk in elite rugby league players.

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Follow these fit women we're crushing on for inspiration, workout ideas, and motivation. The beauty of fitness programs is that very few are identical. Some will even have completely different gym methodologies—there are those that swear by tried-and-true weight routines , while others go for more flexibility and bodyweight work.

We decided to cobble together 30 of these for our list of some essential exercises that could boost your gym routine. The bread and butter of countless gym routines, this move , if done properly, will predominantly engage your back and legs, while building overall strength for you entire body.

If you want to master the deadlift, check out this article. Sure, you may look a little funny doing it, but this variation on the plank challenges you to keep your back flat and stable. It goes to show that not all essential exercises are about clanging plates and bending bars. This variation on the traditional pulldown not only strengthens your middle and upper back, it also works your shoulders, biceps, and forearms.

The pullup is a classic strength-building move that everyone needs to do in the gym. Keep those legs straight for maximum payoff. All you need to do is stand up straight and start walking with some heavy dumbbells in each hand.

Besides the gear, the workouts are essentially the same: Load your trap bar with a heavy weight, stand inside, lift it up, and start walking. Sit on an adjustable bench between 45 and 60 degrees for the ideal effect. This traditional bodybuilding move is a staple for building bigger biceps.

In a controlled motion, bend your elbows and curl the barbell as close to your shoulders as you can. Pause at the top, then slowly return your arms to their original position.

The different variations available can also target your pecs. Shift your focus to your triceps with this variation on a pushup. By keeping your hands closer together, your triceps are under more tension, resulting in a greater workout.

There is no shortage of ways to do shrugs. You can utilize the trap bar, stick to dumbbells, hop on a calf machine, or use a designated shrug machine, depending on your gym setup.

But no matter which method you choose, the end result is always the same: Big. This classic exercise strengthens the entire shoulder with an emphasis on the sides of the deltoid muscles. The overhead press is the best way to move large amounts of weight and build some serious shoulder strength.

There are also multiple ways to do it, all with their own distinct advantages, including with barbells or dumbbells, standing or seated. To see how to do each, and what benefits they have, check out this article. This move is similar to regular lateral raises, except here you raise the weights while slightly bent over, leading to more rear deltoid and trap development.

Popular modifications to the bent-over rear delt raise include a seated version on a bench or replacing dumbbells with cables. In a previous article, we referred to the half-kneeling landmine press as one of the 10 best shoulder exercises for beginners.

But no matter your fitness level, this is a move you should always consider using, especially if mobility is an issue. See our instructions on how to perform the move.

Whether you want to go flat, incline, or decline, the bench is the king of chest workouts. In fact, you should be using all the different bench angles available at your gym—no perfect chest was built only using a flat barbell bench, after all.

But always remember to never sacrifice form for weight. How high you set the cables is all dependent on what part of the muscle you want to hit upper or lower. When building that perfect chest, be sure to always incorporate dumbbells into your bench routine.

For some, this method will put less strain on the shoulders while isolating more of the chest than the standard barbell bench. And like the traditional barbell version, you can switch up to incline and decline variations to hit different parts of the muscle.

For a bigger shock to the system, switch to a neutral grip , where your palms are facing inward at each other, rather than pointed toward your feet. This hits the pecs even more and allows for more weight to be used.

You can also switch things up with TRX suspension pushups that work on balance and stability. This is a killer way to hit your upper chest. Just set the bench at an incline of no more than 45 degrees, grab some moderately heavy dumbbells, and get lifting click here for a full tutorial.

The squat is one of the most basic, fundamental compound moves to have in your arsenal. The barbell back squat is the classic go-to, but there are plenty of variations to suit your preferences or limitations. When it comes to isolating your hamstrings, leg curls are one of the best moves for total development.

They tax your quads and slight variations can help you hit every angle. Bulgarian split squats are tough. Open search bar button.

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Ready to get fit? Start this plan. Goal Strength, Hypertrophy, Fat Loss Skill level Beginner Duration 4 weeks Days per week Type Muscle Endurance, Strength Training. Click to share on Facebook Opens in new window Click to share on Twitter Opens in new window Click to share on Pinterest Opens in new window.

Goal Strength, Hypertrophy, Fat Loss Skill level Beginner Duration 4 weeks Days per week Type Muscle Endurance, Strength Training Week 1 Full-Body Split Day 1 Full Body -- 9 Yes. Day 3 Full Body -- 9 Yes. Day 5 Full Body -- 9 Yes. Day 1 Upper Body -- 11 Yes.

Day 2 Lower Body -- 6 Yes. Day 4 Upper Body -- 11 Yes. Day 5 Lower Body -- 6 Yes. Day 1 Push -- 6 Yes. Day 2 Pull -- 6 Yes. Day 3 Legs -- 6 Yes. Day 4 Push -- 6 Yes.

Day 5 Pull -- 6 Yes. Day 6 Legs -- 6 Yes. Day 1 Chest, Triceps, Calves -- 8 Yes. Topics: Beginner Workouts Build Muscle Burn Fat Full Body Hypertrophy Strength Training.

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Newsletter Signup. Follow us Facebook Twitter Youtube Pinterest. More Fitness. Workout Routines The 5-Week Progressive Overload Workout Plan Gradually increase the stress on your body each week.