When I (Helena) started practicing the skin the cat (STC) years ago, at the beginning of my journey building bodyweight strength, I didn't know what I was going to get out of it.

All I knew was that it looked quite cool and was deceivingly simple to obtain.

It was one of the very first movements I learnt on the rings but that doesn’t mean it was easy.

At the time I didn't have a coach nor a training programme, which meant it took me way longer to learn the skill than it would have with guidance.

Luckily I found a lot of Gymnastic Skill Seekers online who seemed to be going through the same struggles I was.

I started chatting and asking questions, to my surprise many of them took the time to share their experience and advice.

I remember feeling quite stuck and not knowing what method to use to overcome a particular aspect of the Skin The Cat.

I didn't seem to be able to progress the pike pull-out from the German hang.

It felt somewhat comforting to know I wasn't the only one but the advice I found on the forum wasn't very useful.

Until one day someone suggested using a target to gradually progress the range of motion.

WARNING: We don;t suggest jumping straight into this movement as it can lead to elbow/shoulder pain or injury when the connective tissue has not been correctly prepared.

It turned out to be the missing piece in the puzzle for me.

The STC soon turned from unobtainable goal to warm-up and revealed its benefits when training towards a number of much harder gymnastic skills on rings.

Now I want to help more Gymnastic Skill Seekers master the STC on the Gymnastics Rings.

The most obvious benefits of the STC are that it will:

Improve the strength and range of movement in your shoulders in all directions: flexion, extension and rotation.
Decrease your risk of shoulder and elbow injury.
Strengthens the connective tissues in shoulders and elbows.
Improve grip and core strength.
Offer a safe and effective path towards learning both the back and the front lever.

Shoulder Health

Your shoulders are the most mobile joint in your body; hence, they're also the most common injuries. No other exercise trains the shoulders through full flexion and extension the way the STC does.

The benefits don’t stop there as learning to pull with straight arms will increase your bent arm strength. If you’ve been trying to get better at pull-ups, muscle-ups and even deadlifts, you’ll be amazed by the results you’ll get (for free, without actually practicing those movements) from learning the STC.

When practicing the STC you will learn to stabilize yourself on rings and you'll become more a lot more coordinated.

The STC requires you to be flexible in the shoulders, chest, biceps and posterior chain, meaning you'll get a full body flexibility training while getting stronger and more skilled.

If you've never trained on the gymnastic rings, this will open a world of possibilities for you. It's fun and challenging in equal amounts.

TSTMethod are about to release the best Skin The Cat programme ever. It’s been designed to teach Gymnastics Skill Seekers how to build strength, increase flexibility and master the STC on gymnastics rings.

Every phase of the programme is meant to be followed until all goals have been achieved: we’ve set measurable objectives concerning the skill overall:

Scapular strength
Compression strength
Pike mobility
Shoulder flexion and extension mobility.
Shoulder strength.
Elbow flexion and extension.

Midlife Mavericks Newsletter

For men in their midlife who want to improve their physique and have more energy (and libido) so they can thrive beyond 40. Join Now.

No charge. No Span. Unsubscribe anytime.

Our STC programme contains two weekly sessions.

Each session has a dedicated focus on mastering either the front half (moving from the dead hang to inverted and back) or the back half (moving from inverted to the German hang and back).

In the process you’ll be practicing many of the gymnastics fundamentals that are going to prepare you for the STC:

Straight Arm Scapular Strength (SASS) - think scapular pull-ups

Core Compression Strength - L-sits and strict toes to bar
Pike Mobility - pike in a gravity neutral and gravity resisted plane
Shoulder Flexion Mobility - think of handstands
Shoulder Flexion Strength - front half of the STC
Shoulder Extension Mobility - German hang.
Shoulder Extension Strength - the back half of the STC

The programme comes with detailed videos for all the exercises and an e-book that takes you through every aspect.

We have been coaching students on their gymnastic strength journey for years and this programme is a compendium of our joint experiences.

We're confident it will produce the desired results and get you started safely on rings training.

Don't forget to register your interest, early birds will get access to a discount as soon as the programme is officially released.

Thank you!