Stay Still

For time:

75 Squats

50 Pull-ups

20 Ring dips

50 Squats

35 Pull-ups

15 Ring dips

25 Squats

20 Pull-ups

10 Ring dips

Russell Berger 5:50, Kim Malz 12:31

Post time to comments.

The two week intensives began with the notion of working on complex movements that required more time to develop, but over the past three months, we continually find ourselves moving back towards the fundamental movements in these intensives.  Training the basics can be tedious, and not much change will incur over the course of just two weeks, but our intention is to expose you to these movements and inspire you to attack your weaknesses.  The curse of the novice is to want to skip to the advanced skills from the very beginning, but without the proper foundation progress will be minimal.

Our next intensive is Static Gymnastic Holds.  The following excerpt is from the book, Building the Gymnastic Body:  The Science of Gymnastic Strength Training, by Coach Christopher Sommers.

Gymnastically speaking, static strength is the ability to hold or maintain the body motionless in an often mechanically disadvantaged position.  L-sits, front levers and planches are all examples of static strength elements.  I have found static strength training to be invaluable in building the ligament and tendon strength of the joints, as well as having a profound effect on core strength development.

  The static exercises help to build amazing strength which quite frankly cannot be developed any other way.

The L-sit, or half lever as it is sometimes called, is one of the most basic gymnastics elements and, seemingly, the simplest of all abdominal exercises.  How hard can it be to simply stay in one position? It must be the easiest thing in the world, right?

  Wrong.  Correctly done, the L-sit will make most other conventional abdominal exercise seem like child’s play.