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Tim FerrissTim Ferriss

The Secrets of Gymnastic Strength Training, Part Two — Home Equipment, Weighted Stretches, and More

This is another jam-packed episode with Coach Chris Sommer (GymnasticBodies on Instagram/Facebook), the former US national team gymnastics coach and founder of GymnasticBodies.

Tim FerrisshostChris Sommerguest
Sep 21, 20161h 32mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

  1. 0:00 – 4:04

    Intro

    1. TF

      Optimal minimal. At this altitude, I can run flat-out for a half-mile before my hands start shaking. Can I ask you a personal question? Now would seem an appropriate time. What if I did the opposite? I'm a cybernetic organism, living tissue over metal endoskeleton. The Tim Ferriss Show. This episode is brought to you by 99designs. 99designs is a great partner for creating and growing your business. It's a one-stop shop for all of your graphic design needs, whether that's a logo, website, business card, or anything else. I used 99designs to get book cover prototypes for The 4-Hour Body, which went on to become a number one New York Times bestseller. And I also use them for banner ads, illustrations, and other things. With 99designs, designers around the world compete to create the best design for you. You give feedback and then pick your favorite. You end up happy, or you get your money back. It's very simple. You can check out a few of my own designs and those of yours, meaning Tim Ferriss Show listeners, at 99designs.com/tim. And right now, my listeners, you guys, will get a free $99 upgrade on your first design. That's 99designs.com/tim. Check it out. This episode is brought to you by Wealthfront, and this is a very unique sponsor. Wealthfront is a massively disruptive, in a good way, set it and forget it investing service led by technologists from places like Apple and world-famous investors. It has exploded in popularity in the last two years, and they now have more than $2.5 billion under management. In fact, some of my very good friends, investors in Silicon Valley, have millions of their own money in Wealthfront. So the question is, why? Why is it so popular? Why is it unique? Because you can get services previously reserved for the ultra wealthy, but only pay pennies on the dollar for them. And this is because they use smarter software instead of retail locations, bloated sales teams, et cetera. And I'll come back to that in a second. I suggest you check out wealthfront.com/tim. Take the risk assessment quiz, which only takes two to five minutes, and they'll show you for free exactly the portfolio they'd put you in. And if you just wanna take their advice, run with it, do it yourself, you can do that. Or, as I would, you can set it and forget it, and here's why. The value of Wealthfront is in the automation of habits and strategies that investors should be using on a regular basis, but normally aren't. Great investing is a marathon, not a sprint, and little things that you may or may not be familiar with, like automatic tax loss harvesting, rebalancing your portfolio across more than 10 asset classes, and dividend reinvestment add up to very large amounts of money over longer periods of time. Wealthfront, as I mentioned, since it's using software instead of retail locations, et cetera, can offer all of this at low costs that were previously completely impossible. Right off the bat, you never pay commissions or account fees. For everything they charge, .25% per year on assets above the first 15,000, which is managed for free if you use my link, wealthfront.com/tim. That is less than $5 a month to invest a $30,000 account, for instance. Now, normally, when I have a sponsor on this show, it's because I use them and recommend them. In this case, it's a little different. I don't use Wealthfront yet because I'm not allowed to. Here's the deal. They wanted to sponsor this podcast, but because of SEC regulations, companies that invest your money are not allowed to use client testimonials, so I couldn't be a user and have them on the podcast. But I've been so impressed by Wealthfront that I've invested a significant amount of my own money, at least for me, uh, in the team and the company itself. So I am an investor and hope to soon use it as a client. Now back to the recommendation. As a Tim Ferriss Show listener, you'll get $15,000 managed for free if you decide to open an account, but just start with seeing the portfolio that they would suggest for you. Take two minutes, fill out their questionnaire at wealthfront.com/tim. It's fast. It's free. There's no downside that I can think of. Hello, my savvy, sexy friends. This is Tim Ferriss, and welcome to another episode of The Tim Ferriss Show,

  2. 4:04 – 6:43

    Episode setup: Christopher Sommer returns to answer listener questions on GST

    1. TF

      where it is my job to deconstruct world-class performers from all different walks of life, industries, areas of speciality to tease out the routines, habits, tools that you can use. This episode, we have Christopher Sommer, and this is his second appearance, but this is a standalone episode. He is the former US national team gymnastics coach. His last episode was one of the most popular that has ever been on the podcast. He's also the founder of Gymnastic Bodies, which is a training system I'm currently testing. Been using it for a few months now. I have no affiliation with it. I don't get any kickbacks. As a world-renowned Olympic coach, Coach Sommer is known for building his students into some of the strongest, most powerful athletes in the world. We covered a lot the last time around, and this episode has many, many answers to a lot of your most common questions. For instance, what home equipment should someone invest in first for $100 or less? What are his thoughts on weighted stretches? If there's a place for them in gymnastic strength training, GST, what are the best examples of how to use them, sample exercises? What does lower body GST look like for a 40-year-old former athlete, for instance? Uh, we talk about, or he brings up, the best distinction between mobility and flexibility that I've ever heard. Exercise progressions for bar muscle-ups, what might those look like? Or at the very least, tests that you can use to determine if it's even safe for you to attempt training for such a thing. Foam rolling or mobility tools, what does he think? And do you change gymnastic strength training, or how do you change it for tall people, say over six feet tall, or for women? So there you have it, and if you would like to test out Gymnastic Bodies, I again have no type of affiliation whatsoever, uh, but Coach will be putting up some sample videos, uh, that feature exercises mentioned in this episode and others on Gymnasticbodies.com/tim. It's also a sales page. There are a couple of different discounts and whatnot for you guys if you wanna try it out, but they should be adding, and probably have already added, videos at the very bottom or somewhere on that page for you to check out. And if for whatever reason they are not there, you can go to YouTube and look for Gymnastic Bodies and find all sorts of good stuff. So without further ado, please enjoy my second public conversation, we have had dozens, second public conversation with Coach Sommer. [static crackles] Coach, welcome back to the show.

    2. CS

      Thank you, Tim.

  3. 6:43 – 10:34

    Tim’s wrist injury on rings: what happened and why it lingered

    1. TF

      It is very nice to be on the phone yet again, and I thought we would start [chuckles] with what we were talking about very briefly before we hit record, and I said, "You know what? People might find this of interest." So as context for folks, I've been doing some rings work, gymnastic rings work, and, uh, with some assistance of equipment that you helped to put together and set up, which includes the 50/50, some people call a variation of the Dream Machine, which basically is a harness that allows you to decrease the weight you're supporting on your hands, and then power levers, which look like RoboCop gauntlets, [laughs]

    2. CS

      [laughs]

    3. TF

      And you can attach the rings on top of your forearm in, uh, different places with many different holes running from the wrist to closer to the elbow so that you can shorten the, uh, fulcrum, I guess-

    4. CS

      Right

    5. TF

      ... uh, to improve your physics. So th- in this way, you have progressive resistance with the rings, which is otherwise very difficult to achieve, so it's very, very cool. And I did something stupid while playing around... Or not playing around, actually, I was taking it very seriously, iron cross work, and hurt my right wrist, and it's, uh, it... I thought it was broken. I had MRIs. It's appears to be a ligament strain. But here we are three weeks later, and I can't hold a pushup without decent pain on the back of the right wrist. So I was asking you what I might do at this point to speed recovery, and I would love for to restart your answer and go from there.

    6. CS

      Okay. All right. Good deal. Now be- before we go into the healing part, let's, let's review how the a- the accident happened so that all the listeners don't think I'm an asshole who destroyed you.

    7. TF

      Oh, right. Yeah.

    8. CS

      [laughs]

    9. TF

      Exactly. And, and, and also one thing that Coach asked me before we got started-

    10. CS

      [laughs]

    11. TF

      ... is he goes, "I thought you were smart" [laughs] and I s- m- to, to which I answered, "The older I get, the less sure of that I become." The... I was subconsciously compensating, I think, to cheat a little bit, uh, in this movement. So, so with the power levers, you don't need to use a false grip and, and you have metal very close to the top of your wrist, and as I was doing these, uh, eccentrics, well, I was doing positive, but also lowering into an iron cross and then doing statics, I started rolling my hand into a false grip unnecessarily, where you're basically supporting the rings across your palm and wrist as opposed to solely in your palm, and that drove the top of my wrist into the metal to such an extent [chuckles] that I sprained, uh, or, uh-

    12. CS

      And, and kept-

    13. TF

      In, in other words-

    14. CS

      ... kept driving it in.

    15. TF

      Yeah. Well, this is, this is where I remember I was in a [laughs] ...

    16. CS

      Exercise after exercise.

    17. TF

      Yeah. So then I continued with Maltese and Vicks work because I was in Paris and it took me, like, three weeks to find a place where I could set up all this equipment [laughs] so I was like, "Goddammit-

    18. CS

      [laughs] You're so excited

    19. TF

      ... I'm gonna get this workout done." [laughs]

    20. CS

      [laughs]

    21. TF

      I literally... Coach, you'd be proud of this part.

    22. CS

      Mm.

    23. TF

      You'd be ashamed of, of how stupid I behaved otherwise, but I took a separate suitcase with me overseas just full of equipment for training. And so-

    24. CS

      That's how we do it

    25. TF

      ... so I finally, I f- get an Uber and manage to get to the one gym in Paris that might let me set this stuff up, and then [laughs] literally in the first two sets act like an idiot-

    26. CS

      You break your wrist

    27. TF

      ... and hurt my wrist.

    28. CS

      [laughs]

    29. TF

      And I was just like, "Absolutely no fucking way I am finishing this workout."

    30. CS

      [laughs]

  4. 10:34 – 13:30

    Connective-tissue recovery: when to ice vs when to use heat (and why)

    1. CS

      All right. So Tim and I were talking just before we started record, and that this is a connective tissue injury where the ligaments and that on the top of the wrist got mashed, got compressed up into the metal, you know, over and over and over. So they're basically, they're, they're really, really bruised. Uh, and because the connective tissue heals so slowly, remember from first podcast that connective tissue's metabolic rate is one-tenth that of muscle tissue, so basically, o- once it's hurt, you know, there's, there's no way to get off the train. You have to ride this to the end, and it's gonna be a while. Now, what we can do to kind of finesse this, though, is understanding that metabolic rate. Ice, then, for connective tissue work, you know, we use ice initially to help reduce inflammation, but then after that, it will actually slow the metabolic rate because it doesn't have its own capillary system and it gets its blood through diffusion. So what we'll do instead is, um, use heat. I, um, first came across this, wow, early 2000s. Uh, we had an athlete who had Sever's. Uh, usually happens when athletes, when they're growing, they're very... the strong athletes especially, when they hit a growth spurt. Sever's is, um, irritation of the Achilles where it goes down into the heel, so when they're tumbling, they're running, they're sprinting, you know, that heel gets painful. And he'd been growing for a while, so on and off for the better part of a year we had tried ice with no results. No results at all. In desperation, if you will, trying to find other answers, which is usually how good answers are found when the everyday stuff isn't working, came across an ultra-marathoning site, and against all convention, they said, "Use heat." They had had wonderful re- uh, responses with it. So ours was super simple. Went and got a hot/cold pack. Uh, throw it in some boiling water. Takes a little practice figuring out, you know, how long to leave it in. Think we were two minutes perhaps. You want it just warm enough that it's right on the edge of being too hot for comfort, and, uh, then just leave it on and let it cool naturally. Uh, in a week we had better results from that heat a couple of times a day than we did from a year of ice.

    2. TF

      And w- at what point would you make the switch? So if someone, let's just say an anonymous idiot who goes to Paris and mashes their wrist into metal repeatedly, um, is it, is it two weeks later, three weeks later, or how do you m- how do you course map the symptoms?

    3. CS

      24 hours. 24 hours to control inflammation for as far as ice is concerned, and then I jump into heat.

  5. 13:30 – 16:14

    Contrast baths: how they work and the practical limitation for wrists

    1. TF

      Got it. Okay, so it's a, it's a, it's a quick, it's a quick jump then. And did you, with this particular athlete, did you use any type of contrast therapy going from that hot to cold, hot to cold, or did you keep it to the hot?

    2. CS

      At that time we, we'd never used any hot water. We used the hot packs.

    3. TF

      Right.

    4. CS

      And so we would just lay them on top. Now, I think it was, at that time we weren't combining, but it could be very interesting. The, the issue that you run into if you do contrast baths with a wrist is that you have to soak the whole hand.

    5. TF

      Right.

    6. CS

      And then it's not like an ankle. The, the hands, of course, you're pulling out the oil. Your hand's ... You know, it's tough to get any work done, where with an ankle, going back and forth, no big deal. For, for those listening, a contrast bath f- is, uh, simply alternating between room temperature water and then ice water. Two separate buckets. Uh, set a timer. Go for a, a minute in the ice and then, uh, just set your phone to beep in a minute. And what we'll have athletes do is just, you know, throw a movie in. Um, the protocol is keep alternating buckets back and forth as long as you can stand it without losing your mind.

    7. TF

      And why use room temperature water as opposed to hot water? Or-

    8. CS

      Ah, excellent. Well, what, what, what happens is it's, um ... I first stumbled across this, I don't remember the name of the trainer, but it was the guy who was working with Michael Jordan back in his heyday. And, uh, Michael had had a, uh, a game one evening, rolled his ankle, and they had a game the next night, so it was an oh, shit moment. So, you know, Michael, like anybody who's a high-level performer, is dedicated. He, he's obsessed with doing his best. So that evening he did the contrast bath protocol for two hours.

    9. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    10. CS

      You know, beep, switch, switch, switch. Next night, on a injured ankle, scored 40 points.

    11. TF

      Wow.

    12. CS

      Yeah. The nice, the nice thing with the contrast bath is the cold is there long enough to reduce inflammation, but then it goes back into the room temperature, and it's not been cold long enough to reduce circulation by an extreme extent.

    13. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    14. CS

      So you kind of get the best of both worlds.

    15. TF

      Now, is there, uh, is there any reason to keep the warmer water at room temperature versus hot water?

    16. CS

      The difference going back and forth between, we've never used more than, uh, room temperature. It, it could be significantly uncomfortable, 'cause the ice water is ice water.

    17. TF

      Right.

    18. CS

      You know, we make that. So we, we just want to bring it up enough. We don't want to make it hot. You know, we're not trying to make soup. But, uh, just, just enough to get a little blood flow back into the cold again.

  6. 16:14 – 17:38

    Minimal home equipment to start GST (and why it’s intentionally simple)

    1. TF

      Got it. All right. I will go get some reusable heat packs or ice/cold packs. Looking at home equipment, this is something that came up quite a bit-

    2. CS

      Mm

    3. TF

      ... after our first chat. What home equipment should someone invest in first? And you can kind of look at it in-

    4. CS

      To get, get started?

    5. TF

      Yeah, to get started, uh, if anything. Like, let's look at the, on the inexpensive side, like $100 or less, and then if you have unlimited budget.

    6. CS

      Okay. Actually, you know, super simple, and I designed it this way on purpose, because y- you've got to test the water. You've got to find out is, is it my thing? You know, do, do I enjoy it? Not, it's not, it's not always just a matter of is it effective, does it work? Obviously it's effective. Obviously it works. But then it, it becomes a matter of, you know, is this my flavor of ice cream that I like?

    7. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    8. CS

      You know, so, uh, basically they need some floor space. They need a bar. You know, they need an overhead bar. Um, maybe some light dumbbells. Uh, a dowel. A dowel would be a, a long, straight stick. And other than that, they're kind of pretty much good to go. I mean, we really went out of our way to make it as, as simple to get started as possible.

    9. TF

      What would someone use a dowel for? And, I mean, I have a few in mind, but for people who aren't familiar.

    10. CS

      Yeah.

    11. TF

      So this is effectively a broomstick or even perhaps a PVC pipe.

  7. 17:38 – 29:31

    Shoulder mobility basics: extension deficits, dislocates, and using a dowel for feedback

    1. CS

      Mm-hmm. Yep. Broom handle, uh, long wooden dowel. We u- we use that for different, um, shoulder mobility. So when, when we, when we train adults, so, and this kind of goes back to the, the general structure of development, is before we can get into the really cool stuff, light hair on fire, get all strong, yada, yada, yada, we first have to undo years of damage from desk patrol.

    2. TF

      Yeah.

    3. CS

      And that means mobility is jacked up. So we're gonna use, um, the broomsticks, the dowels with a little bit of weight on them to start rebuilding that shoulder girdle mobility.

    4. TF

      Got it. And so the, for those people interested, I mean, this is in, in that category we would have various types of dislocates, right?

    5. CS

      Dislocates, uh, some flexion work where they're working on lifting their arms overhead. Probably for adults, their greatest deficit, especially those who've been having any type of a professional career, you know, that involves paperwork, is they're gonna have extremely poor shoulder extension.

    6. TF

      Mm.

    7. CS

      Um, to describe shoulder extension, standing upright, hands at my side, lifting my arms back behind me.

    8. TF

      Yeah. I would put myself in that-

    9. CS

      [laughs]

    10. TF

      ... category for sure. And the, the shoulder extension, uh, I mean, I've seen some improvements. Now, granted, I've gone from absolutely disgusting to watch to just moderately offensive to watch.

    11. CS

      Hmm.

    12. TF

      But, but still a large improvement. You would actually be very impressed with my progress that I've made prior to the wrist injury, that is, on one thing, which is if, if people look up dislocates and they use a normal grip, so let's just say people are starting with a dowel in front of them, they're holding it like a barbell in a deadlift with their arms-

    13. CS

      Mm-hmm

    14. TF

      ... slightly wider, so it's overhand grip. The, uh, the opposite of that in some ways would be the dorsal grip, right?

    15. CS

      Sure.

    16. TF

      Where you start with the bar behind you and you're holding it as if you're going to try to do a bicep curl through your legs, right?

    17. CS

      Mm-hmm.

    18. TF

      So your palms are facing-

    19. CS

      Yep

    20. TF

      ... forward. So y- you might recall when I tried to get my arms, I couldn't get up at all. But then when we-

    21. CS

      Mm

    22. TF

      ... started at the top, my wrists were so inflexible that I couldn't bring the bar down at all. So I've made a lot of progress on dorsal. So it's, it's really, uh-

    23. CS

      Very good

    24. TF

      ... just illuminating to me to look at not only the shoulder restriction that I have, but how it is affected by shifts in the grip, right? Because-

    25. CS

      Yes

    26. TF

      ... this is, this, this might be one reason why people are like, "Oh, I've got great shoulder extension," and they're using regular dislocates, let's just say, to assess that, and then they go on the rings and they're not prepared for it, and they're going through-

    27. CS

      Mm-hmm

    28. TF

      ... all these different types of hand positions and arm positions, and boom, they tear something and they're out of commission. Uh, the, um, dowel, you could also use dowels, I remember if, if you could, uh, for hollow body rocks or arched body rocks, correct?

    29. CS

      Sure. Sure.

    30. TF

      And that's something... Why, why is that helpful? And, uh, so for, for people listening, the hollow body position would be... Ah, well, one way to think of it would be almost like a, a diver in the Olympics when they're jumping on the diving board before taking off. So they're not arched. They have sort of a slightly concave, if you were to lay on your stomach, put your hands out in front of you, put your toes on the ground and then lift your body off of the ground a few inches. Is that a fair assessment? Sort of a-

  8. 29:31 – 35:38

    Scaling flexibility work: stretch straps and yoga blocks for very tight beginners

    1. TF

      Uh, so, so let's talk about just, uh, something we'll see a lot in that Instagram account, which is stretching, and specifically, I'm, I'm not gonna belabor this point, but on the gear-

    2. CS

      Okay

    3. TF

      ... side of things, one question I often ask people is what h- what have you changed your mind on in the last few years? And I don't know if this is in the last few years, but could you talk about stretch straps for a second? Because-

    4. CS

      Stretch straps

    5. TF

      ... the straps that appear in the ... You have Orange demonstrate using the straps-

    6. CS

      Ah, yes, yes, yes

    7. TF

      ... for very stiff people-

    8. CS

      Yes

    9. TF

      ... in the hamstring series.

    10. CS

      Yeah, for, for years, and this was just me being national team, 'cause as a national team coach, your, your reality, my reality, I'm sure all other national team coach, our reality of what His average of what is normal becomes skewed over the years simply because of the quality of the athletes and how exceptional they are that we surround ourselves with, and we quit looking at them as exceptional, and it just becomes our normal day-to-day experience. And so we look at other people then not as regular. We start looking at them as, "My God, they're seriously fucked up. How, how do they get out of bed in the morning? I, I don't understand." Well, we kind of at first brought that same one to their stretching. And so there's a piece of equipment called a stretch strap, which is... Basically, it's a long circle of nylon strapping that is then sewn into, uh, kind of mini loops. They just make a daisy chain of it. Um, then we also like to use, uh, yoga blocks. Uh, we use those to accommodate reduced range of motion. Now, for years, I thought those were just silly crap. I th- I thought, you know, "Take the training wheels off the bike and go out and ride the damn bike," and, uh, I was completely wrong, completely wrong. What, what it does is you can use this combination of the blocks 'cause, and the stretch straps to actually, someone who's crazy, crazy tight, it gives them an opportunity to actually get some work in so they can, uh-

    11. TF

      Start progressing

    12. CS

      ... sit down. Yeah, start progress. I mean, that, and that's the name of the game. But what we try, where, where I've come to now is they don't need to start exceptional. We don't know how far they're going to go. We just had, um, someone share, he's been doing the stretch courses for a year, a really good student, Ryan Bailey. He just sent a testimonial in. It's ridiculous, it's ridiculous how much progress he made in a year of just consistent stretching. He's got full chest to, uh, legs on his pike now. He's got, uh, he can sit down. He can pull his, uh, touch his head to his toes. His, uh, splits are almost all the way down. And, and just he, he's astounded. He can't believe it. He's ecstatic. Um, and part of that was we just start it and let them scale the movement according to where they are right now 'cause in order to make progress, you first got to accept where you are.

    13. TF

      Right. And if your starting position, because of inflexibility, is posturally unsound, right?

    14. CS

      Mm-hmm.

    15. TF

      Because you don't have the blocks, you don't have, then you're just developing compensations and problems that will-

    16. CS

      Let's even be more specific. We, we've got people who can't sit on the floor. They cannot, and by that, I mean they can't sit on the floor with their legs in a straddle and sit up straight.

    17. TF

      Legs straight-

    18. CS

      They can't do it

    19. TF

      ... in front of them and together. Yep.

    20. CS

      Yep, either legs, legs straight together in front of them or legs apart, right on the floor and straight. They can't do it. Their back, their glutes, their hamstrings are so tight that in order for them to sit on the floor, they have to slouch. They have to slouch. Rather than opposite, right? Being able to sit up tall with a flat back, and instead of sitting on their sacrum or their tailbone, sit on their glutes and their hamstring.

    21. TF

      And so one potential way that you could use the block in that case would be sitting on one or two yoga blocks.

    22. CS

      Exactly.

    23. TF

      Right.

    24. CS

      Exactly.

    25. TF

      And, uh, which I had to do. If people really want to feel ridiculous, uh-

    26. CS

      [laughs]

    27. TF

      ... you can try to do something called, um... I guess, what was I doing? It was, uh, straddle, uh, pike pulses. [laughs]

    28. CS

      Huh, I did enjoy those videos.

    29. TF

      Oh, yeah, I sent Coach videos-

    30. CS

      [laughs]

  9. 35:38 – 41:34

    Weighted stretches are “essential”: why they work and key examples

    1. TF

      And if we're expanding to weighted stretches, this is a question that a number of folks have had-

    2. CS

      Okay

    3. TF

      ... um, what are your thoughts on weighted stretches, if there's a place for it in-

    4. CS

      Oh, it's essential

    5. TF

      ... GST? Okay.

    6. CS

      It's, it's essential.

    7. TF

      What are some of the best examples of how to use them for n- novices or, novices or intermediate? Yeah.

    8. CS

      Maybe before, um, before an example, you know, is why.

    9. TF

      Sure.

    10. CS

      Why? Why do a weighted stretch? And the reason is an adult is so tight. He's so tight, and he's strong at the same time that it, the weight of his torso, for example, or her torso isn't enough to help them bend forward.

    11. TF

      Mm-hmm

    12. CS

      So he can't make any progress. He can't make any progress. But if we take them and we stand them up, for example, and we ha- let them hold a weight in their hand, and it's not a giant ... You know, we're not ... It's important to separate mobility work from maximal strength work. What w- well, we're not, we're not Conan, we're not Tarzan, which I saw that movie yesterday, it was kickass, Legend of Tarzan.

    13. TF

      Mm. [laughs]

    14. CS

      Okay? Um, we're not, we're not going out there and trying to be He-Men and super macho. What we're trying to do is remodel connective tissue, and it has its own schedule, 200, 210 days for a first cycle of adaptation. Well, right away, that means I gotta calm my ass down and I need to be patient here. That's, that's six to seven months. There is no rush. You can't rush, right? 'Cause this, this is hardwired into us. You can't force it. So what the weighted mobility allows is to gradually take that strength and that tightness that we have, and instead of it being a negative, use it as a positive. So now they have that little bit of weight, even if it's, let's say it's a Jefferson curl, which is kind of a curling deadlift movement, and they start with a kilo or two. Just that little bit of extra weight for the muscles to have to work against, now the muscles start, think of it as flossing, start loosening up. They start fatiguing a little bit, which leads to them relaxing, which leads to that increased range of motion, which would never happen without using the weight.

    15. TF

      And s- there are a couple of ... Well, the, the exercise that comes to mind immediately is the one you mentioned, Jefferson curl.

    16. CS

      Mm-hmm.

    17. TF

      And for people who aren't familiar, just because I don't want to assume everyone's heard the first episode, Jefferson curl, and feel free to jump in and, and correct me here-

    18. CS

      Sure

    19. TF

      ... but, uh, imagine you are standing, and, uh, you could certainly start not elevated, but let's just assume you're, you're standing on a, a step or a block, and you have a barbell in front of you, empty barbell. A- and you would then tuck your chin and curl down kind of one vertebra at a time. It's basically a-

    20. CS

      Mm-hmm

    21. TF

      ... a slowly curled back stiff-legged deadlift, um-

    22. CS

      Yep, yep

    23. TF

      ... where you might target to have your wrists get past your toes. Is that a fair description?

    24. CS

      That would. And, uh, probably the primary difference between it would be a stiff-leg dead is gonna have slightly bent knees, whereas the Jefferson curl is gonna be completely straight knees.

    25. TF

      Right, right. So no soft knees.

    26. CS

      Mm-mm.

    27. TF

      Uh, what are some other examples of very effective weighted stretches? Because I, I, I saw tremendous returns and progress with the Jefferson curl in pretty-

    28. CS

      Mm

    29. TF

      ... in pretty short order. Uh, and-

    30. CS

      Sure, sure

  10. 41:34 – 44:35

    Weighted pike under a bench: the purpose and how Sommer programmed it

    1. TF

      I saw a video on your Instagram account of a very peculiar exercise that I'd love to get your two cents on. And, and-

    2. CS

      Okay

    3. TF

      ... sometimes I wonder when I see some of these exercises, I'm like, "Did Coach Sommer just come up with something-

    4. CS

      [laughs]

    5. TF

      ... for his own entertainment value to see how many thousands of people he can get to do this?" But, uh, this one was, was interesting. It was someone standing on a bench, like a bench press bench.

    6. CS

      Okay.

    7. TF

      They're w- they were holding onto a, what looked like a 45-pound plate, could've just been a bumper plate of some type, underneath the bench.

    8. CS

      Sure.

    9. TF

      So imagine if you, if you put the 45-pound plate on, uh, let's just call it a plate, uh, underneath, directly underneath the middle of the bench. Then they reach their arms down on either side of the bench, grab this plate, stepped up onto the bench- And then went from bent knees to-

    10. CS

      Mm-hmm

    11. TF

      ... straight knees, trying to bring their head to their toes, effectively, or shins, with the plate, uh, beneath... Like, they can't lift the plate up-

    12. CS

      Under the bench

    13. TF

      ... of course, because it's under the bench. What is this-

    14. CS

      Sure

    15. TF

      ... what is this movement, and what is the, what are the applications or values of it?

    16. CS

      Um, that's, that's a weighted pike, and that was part of my elite athletes' daily warmup.

    17. TF

      Hmm.

    18. CS

      And then because it's me, of course, so some of them, the 45-pound plate wasn't enough, so I was kind and generous enough to go over and help press down on the plate for them-

    19. TF

      [laughs]

    20. CS

      ... to, uh, give them some extra range of motion.

    21. TF

      [laughs] Got it. And, uh, what would they, would they j- h- would they do a, a short number of repetitions?

    22. CS

      Um, for that particular one, yeah. They, they could go, there's a couple of ways we could program that. We could just go a straight 30-second hold. So straighten the legs, hold for 30. That was very common for us. We would also do, uh, what we call a 10 by 10. So that would be, um, starting from a squat, straighten up, little pause, back down to a squat would be one. Do that 10 times, and then the 10-by-10 part comes from on the 10th one, hold that weighted pike for 10 seconds.

    23. TF

      Got it. Yes, no, I've, I've done shorter versions of this for you [laughs] before.

    24. CS

      Just one more quick one. I'd, I'd kind of like people to stop... The reason we call it mobility instead of flexibility is because in their heads, they, they think flexibility as being rather passive, that there's, there's no strength involved. And I'd, I'd like them to start considering that usable flexibility or mobility has a strength component to it.

    25. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    26. CS

      That if we have extreme flexibility that's not supported by strength, that's actually dangerous.

    27. TF

      It's a liability.

    28. CS

      That's actually dangerous.

    29. TF

      Yeah.

    30. CS

      Yeah, it's a liability. I can get my joint way out here, and it can be under load suddenly on the field of play, and I get hurt. But if-

  11. 44:35 – 50:25

    Lower-body GST: joint conditioning, knee resilience, and the ‘twisting squat’ example

    1. TF

      This is a question that came up quite a lot from listeners. What does lower body gymnastic strength training look like? And le- let's just-

    2. CS

      Ah, that's a great question

    3. TF

      ... let's just say for a 40-year-old former athlete, right? So it's-

    4. CS

      Okay

    5. TF

      ... somebody who's not hobbled, right? But maybe th-they're just a recreational athlete.

    6. CS

      They, they think they're not hobbled.

    7. TF

      They, they, they think they're not hobbled, right?

    8. CS

      Think they're not hobbled.

    9. TF

      Rec-

    10. CS

      'Cause I, I'll, I'll share a story to, to show-

    11. TF

      Okay

    12. CS

      ... that they're more fucked up than they think they are. [laughs]

    13. TF

      Okay. Sure. Go for it.

    14. CS

      Our, our, our very first seminar that I did working with adults way back 2007, 2008, had some really athletic people show up, uh, really strong, you know, by, by regular everyday standards. They squatted. They deadlift. You know, they, they were strong. And, uh, when I tried to do our entry level plyometric work with them, so a kind of a straight leg bouncing that I would do with my introductory athletes, you know, my five-year-olds.

    15. TF

      [laughs]

    16. CS

      You know, they just, it destroyed them. It destroyed them. In fact, the stronger they were, the faster they went down.

    17. TF

      Now, just to dig into that for one second, I apologize, but just for the image in my head, we're not talking about, like, broad jumps. We're talking about sort of a jump roping movement where they're hopping d- like for 50 feet down the, down a mat?

    18. CS

      Jump rope with, with straight legs.

    19. TF

      Yeah. Got it.

    20. CS

      So rather than, so we, and when we train, we, we s- separate jumping movements where the joint is bending and then jumping from rebounding movements where the joints are tight and extended. So they're, the Olympics getting ready to start, gonna see some crazy stuff. When they're tumbling on the floor, there's no time to jump 'cause it happens so fast. We're using the... So the body has to be strongly extended so that the connective tissue is what provides the power. There'll be a li- if we look at it under, we'll get some people who'll fuss. "Oh, yeah, if I look at it under the thousands of frames a second, I can see a knee flick." I'm like, "You know what? Bite my ass."

    21. TF

      [laughs]

    22. CS

      No one, no one, no, no one can see that as we're coaching. What the athlete is trying, I'll tell you both as a coach and as a former gymnast, what we're trying to do is be as extended as possible. So what happens then is you take an adult, and what have they been doing for conditioning? Well, they, they've been doing what they know how to do. They're going in, and they're doing leg press, and they're doing leg extension, and they're doing leg curls, and they're doing squats, and they're doing deadlifts, which are all primary muscle mass exercises. There's no joint conditioning as far as a plyometric factor is concerned.

    23. TF

      Hmm.

    24. CS

      And this, this is kind of what also leads to, and they're always notice- they're always, uh, exactly on track, which everything is in alignment. Well, that's a separate discussion. But there's no impact, so they get really, really strong, and this is what leads to that kind of weekend warrior syndrome, where they go out now on the weekend. They've, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, they conditioned in the gym. They've been working hard. Their diet's good. They're doing their cardio, and they go out to play softball. And they go to run around the base, and they have these strong primary movers, but they haven't done anything for ACL, MCL, meniscus. Their knee goes a little bit out of alignment, they pop their knee playing softball.

    25. TF

      So what would you prescribe to prevent that? And whatever we can give people, obviously, if they want to dig into the deep training, they need to, uh, look at the more in-depth and comprehensive courses, but what are some movements that might help?

    26. CS

      Yeah, they actually, uh, some people were really good on the last podcast we did, and through the comments, they put up... It's also on our courses. You know, there are specific knee exercises, 'cause the trainers will tell you you should always, always, always make sure your knees track over your toes. But it's literally impossible to do anything that includes change of movement, change of direction, without planting the foot and pushing sideways or at an angle that your knee doesn't come off track.

    27. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    28. CS

      So if all I do is these primary squats and deads, I build this huge, strong muscle mass, and I haven't done anything to prepare meniscus, you know, where it takes the knees off to the side, and there's, you know, either direction, and then twisting movements. They... And they don't have to be huge loads. And, you know, we, we cover all that. What we'll... We should put up some samples for them. Remind me, Tim. We'll put that up for them. But, um-

    29. TF

      Could you describe one of the movements just for, just for people who want to get an image in their head? What would one of these exercises look like?

    30. CS

      Probably the simplest one would be a twisting squat. So think of sitting on the ground cross-legged, or we used to call it sit like an Indian when I was young.

  12. 50:25 – 1:00:20

    Runners and injury resistance: calf/ankle work, tissue ‘feeding,’ and progressive plyometrics

    1. TF

      Uh, are there any other recommendations that you would have, uh, this is from a [laughs] this is from a number of runners in the comments, for, um, preventing running injuries besides not running?

    2. CS

      Well, well, did, did they... Were they specific on the running injuries?

    3. TF

      They were not. So th- th-

    4. CS

      Okay

    5. TF

      ... say, you could, you could pick common issues and how you would-

    6. CS

      Okay

    7. TF

      ... address them.

    8. CS

      I'll, I'll give, I'll give, I'll give an extreme example. So we, we have a student, uh, Douglas, who every year he, he is a maniac for running. He loves to do, uh, ultramarathons, uh, and he lives up in Montana, and he loves to run through the mountains, and he's insane. He's insane. [laughs] He does... It's his thing. This is... Now, he's been doing the GB Stretch courses, which aren't running specific, but they're human body specific, if you will, right? He's been doing those for a year now, and he said this is the first year that he's going out and doing his 20-mile runs and more where he has... He's not getting tight. He's not getting the injuries that he would've gotten before. He says, "Wow, I- my body feels good." And I was a little surprised. I was like, "Wow, you're, you're, you're feeling good with that mileage?" He might... I forget how much he's doing per week. It's something ridiculous. And then he says, "No, no, I, I feel really good." Now, that being said, right, he lives up in Montana, so obviously there's not a lot of running going on in the winter because the snow is hip deep on a giraffe. You know, no one's, no one's going out to run in that. So there was enough time for him to address deficits prior to getting back on the trail and running again.

    9. TF

      Mm.

    10. CS

      So I'm not sure how effective it could be with someone who already has a high-mileage program, and then we add this in. It will be effective, but it's gonna be much slower than someone who has off-season.

    11. TF

      Yeah, let's say they're off-season. What would be, what would be some exercises or recommendations for getting to that point?

    12. CS

      Let's see. Well, something, something that they find out is when we do our, uh, front split course, a lot of people get really... Well, we get, we... Not as many as before, but we'll get comments of, you know, "Coach..." W- we start them with calf work, ankle mobility. Uh, we work on tibialis, which is on the front of the shin. We're working on soleus, which is the lower calf muscle. We're working on the gastroc, which is the higher calf. We're working on extension and flexion in the ankle. And we'll get people who are like, "Goddammit, Coach, I can't fucking walk today because of these stupid exercises. [laughs] Why, why did you put this in?"

    13. TF

      So let me hit, let me, let me hit pause. So j- I remember the first time I did this particular sequence, and I'll just give people some details b- so they can get the idea. And it [laughs] starts off with, uh, feet parallel, 60 calf raises, and then stretching. And then very quickly, like 60 seconds later, all right, uh, f- duck, duck stance, feet pointed out, 60 calf raises [laughs] .

    14. CS

      [laughs]

    15. TF

      And then more [laughs] stretches, and then, uh, feet pointed in, 60 calf raises. And I just remember this is the first time I did any stretch workout from you, and I was like-

    16. CS

      Mm

    17. TF

      ... "Holy fuck."

    18. CS

      [laughs]

    19. TF

      "I am, like... I'm gonna get buried by this stretch workout. I thought this was gonna be a day off, and I'm only five minutes into it." It doesn't... It, it isn't actually that punishing the entire time, but please, please continue. And p-

    20. CS

      [laughs]

    21. TF

      Yeah, just wanna add some-

    22. CS

      Well-

    23. TF

      ... add some color.

    24. CS

      Yeah, 'cause what, what happens is people... It's important to understand that the, our bodies are capable of generating enormous amounts of power, but it was supposed to be on an as-needed basis, not all day long every day. What we are by nature, just due to how our physique is designed, is we're endurance animals. So your, your calves are designed for endurance work. You're designed, they're designed for you to go out and kill something, put it on your shoulders, and then carry it through the mountain six miles back home. And people don't train their calves like that anymore. So the calf is an endurance muscle. Uh, your core is an endurance muscle. Your arms are an endurance muscle. Uh, just, and just why do it? For example, we used to take my... And we'll come back to calves. We used to have my athletes do very heavy weighted legless rope climbs, and when I stopped doing that a couple times a week, when I stopped doing that and had them go on a seven-meter rope, a triple climb, so up, down, up, down, up, down, jump in the back of the line. Their turn comes back up on a seven meter, up, down, up, down, get in the back of the line, come back up again, up, down, up, down. So what is that?

    25. TF

      I think that's-

    26. CS

      Seven?

    27. TF

      Seven.

    28. CS

      Seven ascents in five minutes, right? 'Cause they're just, they're just booking and, you know, I'm not warm and fuzzy when we're working with athletes, 'cause this wasn't conditioning. This was warmup. This was what we'd consider pre-strength, right? At, at an elite level, if you can't do that as part of warmup, you're not elite level, and you're not strong enough to do advanced strength and advanced work on rings. But what we noticed, just as a consequence of putting that in their daily warmup, is their arms exploded.

    29. TF

      Hmm.

    30. CS

      Which is kind of contrary for how I was taught coming up. You know, if you want to get stronger, we need more load. Well, yes, in certain circumstances, but because the bicep and the arms are endurance muscles, because think about it. If I go out and I kill something, does it do me any good if I can only carry something for 30 seconds?

  13. 1:00:20 – 1:05:10

    Safety line: why Sommer won’t teach backyard back tucks, then muscle-up prerequisites

    1. TF

      What, what are the... To shift gears to a, a different, um, common question, what are the prerequisites for a safe back tuck? So back, back, back flip. Now, now let me, I can re- I can-

    2. CS

      Go, go to, go to a coach

    3. TF

      ... I can, l- let me rephrase this. Like, what pre, what, what should the checklist be even before considering it? Because this is what a lot of people want to do.

    4. CS

      Yeah. I, I, I won't even touch them with it, 'cause the- they'll be all out there trying to do it and they're all gonna die-

    5. TF

      [laughs]

    6. CS

      ... and they're all gonna get mangled, and they're gonna land on their head, and they're gonna be mad at me. [laughs]

    7. TF

      [laughs]

    8. CS

      "Coach, you told me wrong." So yeah, for, for the technical stuff, any time that there's inversion, then there's also risk of injury, especially for they're running outside and they're doing it on their own in their backyard. So I, I really don't recommend it. If, um, if they want to do it, and it's awesome, I mean, obviously I spent my life doing this stuff, uh, I recommend they, they go to a, a good professional instructor. Don't, don't go to your neighbor and don't pull out YouTube and say, "Hey, cool, look at this. I think we can spot each other," because you'll probably spot him well, and when it's his turn to spot you, he's gonna fuck it up and he's gonna drop you. [laughs]

    9. TF

      [laughs] So, so let's choose something a little, a little safer, not as much m- uh, fatality risk or paralysis risk.

    10. CS

      Mm.

    11. TF

      Uh, prerequisites for a bar muscle-up.

    12. CS

      Okay.

    13. TF

      Or w- uh, and/or the most common mistakes in training for muscle-ups.

    14. CS

      Okay. Mus- muscle-up, you know, people will look at it and they'll go, "All right, uh, it's g- it's got a pull-up component and it has a dip component, and I'm just going to string them together." And what they're missing is that there's a transition. There's a transition where they're going from a pull-up where their elbows are pointing basically down at the floor on their pull-up to a dip where their elbows are pointing straight up. In between there, that elbow needs to transition through, and in order to make that transition, you have to have shoulder extension.

    15. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    16. CS

      That means I need to be able to let my elbow go back behind my torso.

    17. TF

      I feel-

    18. CS

      If I don't have shoulder extension-

    19. TF

      I feel like shoulder extension, just to totally interrupt and be an asshole-

    20. CS

      Mm-hmm

    21. TF

      ... is like, if you remember Seinfeld. Do you ever see Seinfeld?

    22. CS

      Mm-hmm.

    23. TF

      And something bad would happen, and Jerry would go, "Newman." And [laughs]

    24. CS

      [laughs]

    25. TF

      ... I feel like for me that's shoulder extension. Anyway, please, please.

    26. CS

      I, I think it, I actually think it's for, uh, and it was something that I didn't realize, because this isn't an issue with gymnasts, but it, it took a long time. Like, obliques also for adults are huge. If we wanted to go down the issues of adults who are, they're not gonna have any thoracic extension, they don't have shoulder extension, their, their obliques are unbelievably tight and weak simultaneously, which is, kind of sucks, 'cause at least hopefully if you're tight you're strong, but they're not. They're just tight and weak.

    27. TF

      [laughs]

    28. CS

      [laughs] Their, their piriformis is jacked up, and their calves from s- all the desk work and sitting on the chairs are like piano wire.

    29. TF

      Yeah. I'm rolling out my foot on a golf ball [laughs] as we s-

    30. CS

      Mm-hmm

  14. 1:05:10 – 1:07:31

    Russian dips: the primary test/progression for muscle-up transition strength

    1. CS

      Uh, Russian, Russian dips. Russian dips.

    2. TF

      Ah, yes. Okay. Could you describe Russian dips, please?

    3. CS

      Sure. Uh, Russian dip, you're gonna need a little bit of a longer dip handle. So get up in a straight arm support, bend down like a regular dip, and then lower back, not... We s- we see some people who will lower under their elbows. I don't know who came up with that stupid variation. Don't do it. It's worthless. It's a waste of your time. Lower down and then go onto the upper arm so that you're basically laying on the inside of your bicep. And then from there, pull back up again to the bottom of the dip position and press back up to straight arm.

    4. TF

      Got it. So this would be easiest to do on the equivalent of parallel bars.

    5. CS

      Parallel bars would be good. I've seen it on elevated weight benches. I've seen it done on stacked plyo boxes. Uh, I've seen-

    6. TF

      Now, how would you do it on a bench? 'Cause I would, I have seen the variation, and I'm sure some people out there if they search Russian dips will see this on, say, elevated boxes, right? Where someone's lowering down basically onto the forearms.

    7. CS

      Right.

    8. TF

      But, but what you're saying is you want to lower in such a way that you end up kind of on the inside of your bicep. Is that correct?

    9. CS

      Mm-hmm. Well, think of it this way. If they're lowered, and this, this is actually a really good illustration of what we're talking about. The reason they want to stop on their forearms is because their elbow's tucked right in at their side. There is no shoulder extension So ba- basically, they've, they've skipped the money maker. They've skipped the part of the exercise that gives them the benefit in the first place. Rather than going all the way down, getting shoulders back behind them, shoulders back behind their hand, and then as that shoulder starts coming forward, that elbow goes strongly forward behind the tors- or backward behind the torso.

    10. TF

      Mm-hmm. Got it.

    11. CS

      And if they think they're a real stud, they think they're a real stud, instead of lowering to the bar, right? Do it on the end of the bar. So we, our athletes would go some all by themselves, some with a light spot, do it so that the hands are on the rail, but they're lowering and doing the Russian dip, lowering to the regular position of it, but there's no bar under them to catch it. They're just doing it in the air.

    12. TF

      [laughs]

    13. CS

      End point, 'cause isn't that what a muscle-up is?

    14. TF

      Yeah, I've seen video of this. [laughs]

    15. CS

      [laughs]

  15. 1:07:31 – 1:11:22

    Foam rolling: when it helps, how to do it ‘well,’ and the long-term cost of neglect

    1. TF

      Uh, what's your take on foam rolling or other mobility tools or so-called mobility tools?

    2. CS

      I, I like it, especially for someone who is, uh, just getting started.

    3. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    4. CS

      Because what'll ha- what has happened over the years of them being inactive, uh, and I vaguely remember this back when I used to have hair, but, uh, like getting tangles in your hair.

    5. TF

      Hmm.

    6. CS

      Right? So the, if the muscles aren't stretched out on a regular basis, you know, stuff just starts getting knots in it. You know? And just think of it as a tangle, and the foam rolling, you know, done well, can be a really nice way to get in there and just break those lumps out, break those knots out.

    7. TF

      What separates doing it well from doing it poorly? What are the characteristics?

    8. CS

      Well, um, pain, actually. [laughs]

    9. TF

      [laughs]

    10. CS

      So, so ... 'Cause these, these knots, you know, they're, it's, it's unpleasant to loosen them up, and so there's, there's gotta be some pressure on there in order to break that stuff out. And, you know, actually, some, some, some people will present it that there's a difference between pursuing health and pursuing performance, that somehow they're diametrically opposed. And in my approach with all my athletes over the years, I, I, I disagreed with that vehemently because a healthy athlete is one that can perform better. If he's got athletes or injuries that are niggling in the back of his mind, he can't pay attention at business. So the, the healthier we can keep them, the more pain-free we can keep them, the better results we're gonna get. So, you know, especially, you know, Olympics right now. Are, are there gonna be some little here and little there? Yeah, but overall, you know, we want, we want healthy, healthy athletes. With the foam rolling, right? If these lo- knots and lumps aren't addressed, they're gonna get pulled tighter, and if they stay too long, they're gonna become adhesions. All right? And now that's, think of that as, uh, we're starting now to replace muscle tissue with collagen, and obviously that's, that's a horrible, bad thing. I was, um, just recently in England, uh, doing some, uh, workshops over there and I saw a gentleman with probably the most severe kyphotic hunch forward, you know, like we, we, we saw, uh-

    11. TF

      The hunchback of Notre Dame

    12. CS

      ... hunchback of Notre Dame.

    13. TF

      Yeah.

    14. CS

      Yeah. This, this guy was nine- bent 90 degrees forward.

    15. TF

      Wow.

    16. CS

      And I, he was walking down the street, and I looked at this gentleman, I was just like... And then I was like, "Oh my God, that poor bastard." And then, uh, I saw several other people like that. And I think what's important for people to realize, you know, is 'cause everyone's getting older, we're not, we're not getting out of this alive, right? It's gonna happen to everybody, and they need to start looking around and they need to see these people who are dealing with these issues and understanding that the vast majority of them were not born with that issue. This happened from a lifetime of neglect, and by neglect, I mean not necessarily, you know, they were trying to do it, but they just didn't exercise, they didn't stretch, and before you know it, boom, now I'm screwed. And if, when it gets to that point where that gentleman is, right? There's no coming back. I mean, we can go over crush fractures and how vertebrae change shape and distension in the neck and all this stuff, but the bottom line is, is if we went way back and started with just the foam rolling, even something as simple as the foam rolling, and just broke lumps out, start getting some blood flow, start loosening things up, quality of life's gonna be so much better later.

  16. 1:11:22 – 1:14:55

    Tall trainees and women in GST: what changes (and what doesn’t)

    1. TF

      Is there any difference, this is a, this is a common comment that I saw. Uh, tall people, let's just say over six feet tall, any changes-

    2. CS

      Hmm

    3. TF

      ... or to training in GST for those folks?

    4. CS

      No. No.

    5. TF

      Yeah. Mm-hmm.

    6. CS

      No. I, I know they would like there to be.

    7. TF

      [laughs]

    8. CS

      No, but, uh, you know, we, we have guys who are six and a half feet tall, six foot six, and they've got front levers and press handstands and rope climbs, uh, 'cause what goes with being taller is also, uh, increased diameter of the muscle belly.

    9. TF

      Hmm.

    10. CS

      So yeah, it's a bigger frame, but it's, it's also a bigger engine. Now, in terms of acrobatics, because those levers are much longer, right? If we're actually doing tum- hard tumbling and that, yeah, it'll, it's easier the smaller you are. But in terms of basics and stretching, you know, and just being a live human being, no, not so much.

    11. TF

      Hmm. And, uh, on a related note, uh, men or women, different training approaches, same approach?

    12. CS

      Once, once they get up to an upper level, you know, we're not going to take the, um, the girls into the more advanced ring strength.

    13. TF

      Mm-hmm.

    14. CS

      I personally have it. I don't know if there's some who can. I haven't done it. I will say that in our gym, when Alan was 10 He and-

    15. TF

      This is-

    16. CS

      Jeffrey, my, my gym-

    17. TF

      Who is Alan for people who don't know?

    18. CS

      Oh, Alan, Alan, uh, Alan was my last, uh, senior elite athlete for the, uh, US national team. So yeah, I had him for, from six to 18, so 12 years of training, 16,000 hours plus that I spent with his preparation. When he was 10 years old, uh, he was capable of doing 15 muscle-ups, you know, slow, no kipping, no bouncing, and, uh, it was a young lady who, who beat him. Uh, and there were reps in there I didn't count. Chelsea, one of our, uh, young ladies I was training at the time doing the physical prep for our elite girls, she did 17.

    19. TF

      [laughs]

    20. CS

      And they, they were beautiful. Yeah, she, she was pretty awesome.

    21. TF

      Uh, so, so for people who are coming in off the street, let's just for the sake of argument say there are 35 former athletes, men and women, are the training approaches the same?

    22. CS

      Yes.

    23. TF

      Got it. Okay.

    24. CS

      Yeah.

    25. TF

      So no modifications needed one way or the other?

    26. CS

      Yeah.

    27. TF

      I've been very impressed with, uh, some of the female trainees I've seen on your Facebook and Instagram who-

    28. CS

      Thank you

    29. TF

      ... and seen in person, quite frankly, at O- uh-

    30. CS

      Mm-hmm

  17. 1:14:55 – 1:22:25

    Motivation and patience: ‘entertainment’ vs results, and why progress often comes in jumps

    1. TF

      Oh, man. Uh, [laughs] so here's, here's a question, and this is a, this is a common question. Uh, and there, there's, there's part of me that gets it and, um, you know, part of me has seen the benefits long enough that I, that don't succumb to this as quickly. However, um, th- this is, um, a question from Mark, uh, and he's talking about some of the gymnastics training that he's doing. "The problem I tend to have is that a lot of the focus, the, the drills focus on static holds, at least in the earlier stages. Uh, is there a good way to get into gymnastics that is dynamic and fun, more like a CrossFit variation that is geared toward entertaining workouts?" And he says, "I don't like CrossFit, but I can't deny their programs have a lot of variety and stay fresh. Doing planches for three minutes a day every day is really boring, gets demoralizing when progress is slow or even steady." Now, I just wanted to... Then somebody gets into a, a-

    2. CS

      I was gonna say, he's, he's, he's not doing my program.

    3. TF

      Uh, well, so, so the, um... No, no, no. So even if, uh, even if he's not, yeah, this, this is... It's, I want you to talk about what people can do to keep morale high. Um-

    4. CS

      Okay

    5. TF

      ... and so he's just talking about s- maintaining not just from, uh, sort of an optimal training standpoint, but in, from an emotional perspective.

    6. CS

      Sure.

    7. TF

      Right? Uh, s-

    8. CS

      Well, they, they probably won't like my answer.

    9. TF

      [laughs]

    10. CS

      They prob- they probably won't like my answer. Uh, it, it depends on how committed they are to getting results. Um, I, I look at things that there are, there are two types of athletes, two types of people who do fitness. There, there are those with an immature attitude, and there are those with a mature attitude, and it's not necessarily a chronological division. So an immature attitude is someone who wants to be entertained. They, uh, they want that immediate gratification. "I, I want what I want, and I want it right now." Uh, uh, the mature attitude is, "I'm gonna do what I need to do now in order to get what I want later." And it doesn't seem like it's that big a difference, but it's, but it's actually rather profound. It's rather profound. You know, if, if you... And the higher the goal you're aspiring to, the longer the delay there's going to be in that gratification. Now, a beginner struggles with it because they've not yet had a taste of success. So someone who's been successful has told them, "If you keep nose to the grindstone, these great things will happen." You're like, "Ha ha ha. Yeah, sure. I know you're full of shit. I know you're full of shit. This sucks. This is so boring." Once someone gets that first taste of success, though, they, they got a little stronger, they lost some weight, they built endurance, they got more mobility, they get to move to a new exercise. "Oh, wow, this, this worked. Cool. Cool. Okay, awesome. Well, I'm, now I'm gonna do it again." And it just, it just keeps compiling, and you just learn over time. What I would like them to appreciate is that Olympics are getting ready to go on right now. Not one person is there at the Olympic Games because they spent all their training being entertained. Not one of them, not a single one. Not just at this Olympics, ever. So if you want moderate results or you just want to just kind of, you know, do a little bit and be here or there, then bounce programs all you want. Bounce programs all you want. But if you want to actually affect change on the body, you want to remodel tissue, you want to increase your range of motion, correct mobility deficits, you want to get stronger, you want to lose some fat, you want to get your core dialed in, right? So you don't have that big gut hanging over the belly- It took time to break it. It's gonna take time to fix it. And we're looking at a minimum of, uh, six, seven, eight months, you know, to make a nice solid start. Um-

    11. TF

      Well, one thing I would also point out to folks is that, uh, there seems to be, and, and I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on this, Coach, 'cause maybe it's just my experience and m- maybe it's, uh, some type of delusion that I'm having. But-

    12. CS

      [laughs]

    13. TF

      ... I made, uh, quite a bit of progress, like I mentioned, with the J curl and some-

    14. CS

      Mm-hmm

    15. TF

      ... of these other weighted movements and unweighted movements, but there were some that just would not... They wouldn't or didn't feel like they were progressing at all.

    16. CS

      Yeah.

    17. TF

      And then about a month ago when I was overseas, I did a stretching workout [laughs] and it seemed like almost overnight everything had-

    18. CS

      Mm-hmm

    19. TF

      ... leapt forward, like 30%.

    20. CS

      Yeah.

    21. TF

      And it was just nothing-

    22. CS

      Yeah

    23. TF

      ... nothing, nothing, nothing, and then all of a sudden it's-

    24. CS

      Yeah

    25. TF

      ... it was, it was enough. It was like I was stuck in between the gears and I suddenly got into the next gear, and-

    26. CS

      Mm-hmm

    27. TF

      ... uh, it was at about the six-month part, uh-

    28. CS

      Yeah

    29. TF

      ... point for some of these movements. Uh, is that common that people will just, like one week they'll be like, "Holy shit"? Uh-

    30. CS

      Yeah. It's completely, completely common. Completely common. And tough, tough for a beginner who feels like, "God, I'm not getting anywhere. I'm not getting anywhere. You're not getting anywhere." But it's just, it's just the body adjusting. It's just the body retooling. The bo- Things are progressing, but they're progressing at such a subliminal level that they're not even aware of it.

  18. 1:22:25 – 1:32:13

    Closing: a mindset note, where to find resources, and final outro

    1. TF

      ... do I have to tell you? And I, I wanted to, uh, wrap up, actually. I pulled this up. I saved this in Evernote because I wanted to have it at my fingertips. Uh-

    2. CS

      All of this?

    3. TF

      No. [laughs] No, not on my fingertips as, like, blackmail material.

    4. CS

      Ah.

    5. TF

      But rather for-

    6. CS

      That's not what you said earlier.

    7. TF

      [laughs] Don't you cross me, Coach Sommer.

    8. CS

      No, just kidding.

    9. TF

      Um, the e... I sent you an email, 'cause I don't want people to think that I'm just setting up the pins and, uh, knocking them all down every day and just hitting home runs every time I get up to plate. Uh, I sent an email to you a few months ago, uh, because I was very frustrated with something-

    10. CS

      Mm

    11. TF

      ... called, uh, particularly, uh, particularly frustrated, and I've had multiple points of frustration, but particularly frustrated with something called straddle L extensions, which I, in my workout journal, I nicknamed, I shortened to frog spaz because that's what videos of me looked like.

    12. CS

      [laughs]

    13. TF

      And I'm not gonna read the whole email because it's, uh, it's, it's a decent length, but I'll just read a portion of it, which is the following. "Dealing with the temporary frustration of not making progress is an integral part of the path towards excellence. In fact, it is essential and something that every single elite athlete has had to learn to deal with. If the pursuit of excellent was easy, everyone would do it. In fact, this impatience in dealing with frustration is the primary reason that most people fail to achieve their goals." And I'm not starting this email where it started, but-

    14. CS

      Right

    15. TF

      ... "Unreasonable expectations time-wise resulting in unnecessary frustration due to a perceived feeling of failure. Achieving the extraordinary is not a linear process. The secret is to show up, do the work, go home. A, a blue collar work ethic married to an indomitable will, it is literally that simple. Nothing interferes. Nothing can sway you from your purpose. Once the decision is made, simply refuse to budge, refuse to compromise." So-

    16. CS

      I'm a, I'm an eloquent bastard.

    17. TF

      Yeah, you are an eloquent, eloquent young man, sir.

    18. CS

      [laughs]

    19. TF

      Uh, [laughs] and so I think, I think that's a good place to wrap up this round two. Uh, Coach, is there any particular, uh, social profiles or sites that you would like people to check out?

    20. CS

      Okay. Let's see. Obviously, we have a, uh, Tim Ferriss landing page, gymnasticbodies.com/tim. Uh, Tim has asked that, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna update for you guys and, uh, put some more material on there. Uh, that will in turn take you to, uh, kind of a curriculum page letting you know, you know- What are the stages of preparation? What support are available to you, you know, as you work your way through a GB course? Uh, check out our Facebook page, gymnasticbodies.com. Lot of great stuff on there. Check out, uh, my personal page on Facebook, Christopher Sommer. Good gymnastic stuff. Occasional just kinda crazy stuff thrown in there as well, but you guys are used to that from Tim's page.

    21. TF

      [laughs]

    22. CS

      Uh. [laughs]

    23. TF

      And people-

    24. CS

      But-

    25. TF

      People can also check out your YouTube page, which is youtube.com/gymnasticbodies. For people who are curious about the Russian dips-

    26. CS

      Oh, yeah

    27. TF

      ... uh, there's a video of the Russian dips right there. Uh, Russian dips in L-sit. You can find it if you go to the videos page. It's maybe four rows down. How to use gymnastics rings, uh, standing straddle press. The weighted pike stretch that we talked about is also on that page. Uh, lots of good stuff and lots of exercises that I have also used already, uh, to this, uh, up to this point, like the lat flies, which are a really-

    28. CS

      Ah

    29. TF

      ... cool exercise.

    30. CS

      Excellent.

Episode duration: 1:32:13

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