Building the Gymnastic Body: The Science of Gymnastics Strength Training by Christopher Sommer Kindle Edition

by Christopher Sommer

The world has always marveled at their amazing physiques whenever the gymnasts take center stage at the world’s premier athletic competitions. Awe-inspiring feats of strength, skill and agility are performed with what appears to be effortless ease. The gymnasts seem a breed apart and their physical accomplishments appear to be beyond the reach of the average man; that is until now. For the first time, Building the Gymnastic Body allows you to go deep within the world of gymnastics strength training. Extremely comprehensive and detailed, with nearly 200 exercises (many of which have never been seen before by the general public) and well over 500 photographs, it is a complete developmental template for building the essential foundation of strength required for all gymnastics success. Whether you are a competitive athlete looking for an edge, a fitness enthusiast or just beginning a healthier lifestyle, Building the Gymnastic Body is the answer you have been searching for

Genres: Fitness, Health, Nonfiction, Reference, Self Help

346 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Joel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gymnasts are just about the perfect athletes. They have amazing self-dominance, control, power, poise, balance, coordination, flexibility, strength and general athleticism. For this reason if you go to the 'gym' and are thinking of adding this to your routine- don't. Throw the gym out and do something worthwhile. If you have never done body weight training get Mark Lauren's Bible of Bodyweight training and start there...

Excellent exercise progressions, good evidence based advice, the book gives multiple progressive strength and conditioning tasks to practice and perform but falls short in terms of programming. If it had more explicit information on this then I would rate it more highly. Will investigate the effectiveness of approaches at some point in time*.

*If serious about creating your own gymnastics or strength based routine with body weight movements see Overcoming Gravity.

[Mark Melendez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book, teaches the gymnastic strength exercises. Not any advanced moves except the static holds. It's a good book but it just covers the basics, which is why I think it's crazy how it's priced so high at $70+ right now. Not about being cheap but for the price and info provided, I really believe it's a rip-off.

The main thing I liked about this book is that it had photos of each exercise being performed in different ranges of the service's full range of motion.

There's no secret in this book, routine, or plans that justify the price. The author repeatedly tells us stories of how strong and how much his athletes can do. Justifying to us that his method works, which came across as gimmicky.

[Salvador · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best body weight training book I've read so far. I've heard good things about 'Overcoming Gravity', but haven't had the pleasure of reading it. My other bodyweight program experience was Convict Conditioning, which was a joke. This boom is written by a real live gymnastics/calisthenics coach, the techniques work.

[Demeter77 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome book, one of the premier bodyweight-style training programs around in my opinion. This book was far more effective for me than the heavily marketed Convict Conditioning.
The author is the real deal, has succesfully trained high level gymnasts, and his protocols work.

[Tom Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb bodyweight training as used by gymnasts. The author is a pro who's also successfully coached ranked gymnasts. If you want real life bodyweight training that'll get you results, read this book. For effective strength training in general check out Starting Strength and Tactical Barbell.

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, this book is the real deal for body weight strength enthusiasts. Skip the 'Convict' fables and get this. This book is for adults.

[Daniel Carr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A messy read

I do love gymnastics and the associated god-like level of strength to do with it. However, even though this book had a number of very useful ideas and things I will definitely be incorporating into my own strength work as well as my teaching… The book was ruined by its formatting, and I can read most things… I read Acid House by Irvine Welsh, which was both distasteful and strangely organised, but I guess that was the point…

Essentially a lot of great ideas, ruined by its formatting.

[Harpreet]

Marked as, to-read

[Christoph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some nice gymnastic progressions, but the programming section was very disappointing and id not explain why some training methods should be used.

[Tanvir Muntasim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of uncommon insights into how one can train in a very particular way to cultivate strength and flexibility, the gymnastic way.

[Lana]

just heard about this book and very amazed

[Bojan Avramovic · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sve sto napise jedan od najboljih gimnastickih trenera na svetu je u kategoriji OBAVEZNO PROCITATI

[Chris Marks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This makes me hurt. I have many lofty goals now, good thing I have a lot of time to work on it.