Specific strength qualities for unlocking gymnastics skills. Part 1 : Relative Strength.
To unlock gymnastics skills you need to be strong.
That's the main reason why a lot of adults struggle with gymnastic skills is a lack of strength.
They need to build strength?
But what strength quality do you need to train? And how do you build specific strength for gymnastics?
In the Calisthenics/Bodyweight/Gymnastics training world, athletes often perform high-volume training sessions or mix high-volume and high-intensity in the same session, which can lead to training plateaus, overuse injuries, and burnout.
There is a time and place for intensity and volume; it depends on your strength goals.
Before we delve into these specific strength qualities, let's ensure we're all on the same page about intensity and volume.
Intensity refers to the amount of weight lifted compared to your one-rep maximum (1RM). For instance, if your 1RM back squat is 100kg and you're currently performing back squats for 3 sets of 12 reps at 75kg, your training intensity is at 75%.
There's some debate about what percentage constitutes high intensity. Some argue 70%, and others suggest 85%. Both are valid as intensity varies based on an individual's training age and goals, which we'll discuss more below.
Volume, on the other hand, refers to the total number of reps performed. For example, if you complete 4 sets of 10 reps, the total volume for that exercise is 40 reps. If your training session includes 6 exercises, each performed for 40 reps, the total volume for that session is 240 reps (40 reps x 6 exercises). If you’re doing four sessions per week with the same number of exercises, sets, and reps, your weekly training volume will be 960 reps (240 reps per session x 4 sessions).
When designing a program, it's crucial to consider the strength qualities we want to train.
There are four strength qualities that we can choose to train.
1. Relative Strength
2. Functional Hypertrophy
3. Hypertrophy
4. Strength Endurance.
The question becomes, how do we train these specific strength qualities.
As gymnastic skill seekers, what specific strength qualities are we aiming for?
First, we need to know that the number of repetitions influences all the other training parameters: sets, speed, rest intervals, and even exercise selection.
Let's begin with relative strength.
The definition of relative strength is the maximum force an athlete can generate per unit of body weight, irrespective of the time of force development.
In simple terms, relative strength is the amount of strength to body size or how strong someone is compared to their size.
This reflects a person’s ability to control or move their body through space, a vital trait for all athletes but especially for gymnastics skill seekers.
If our relative strength is low, we will struggle to master our body weight and unlock gymnastic skills.
It helps to be as strong as possible with the optimal body weight. Excessive body fat or muscle mass will only make bodyweight training harder.
Bigger is not always better. That's why I said optimal weight.
There's always an optimal weight and size for particular sports and positions on the field. A lot of gymnasts are short and staked. They have a lot of lean muscle, carry very little body fat, and have superhuman levels of strength.
How do they get to be so strong without looking like a bodybuilder?
Relative strength training helps us produce maximal strength gains with minimal increase in size.
During a relative strength training phase, the overall volume is lower, and the intensity must be high, emphasising more on neurological adaptations.
Here are some guidelines for increasing relative strength.
The prescriptions for relative strength are:
If you want to improve your relative strength, you need to focus on the neuromuscular aspect of your training.
Relative strength training involves short but intense voluntary contractions to enhance the neural drive of your muscles. These high-intensity efforts help recruit motor units with the highest thresholds, increasing the force development and output rate.
I like to think of neural drive as the strength of the signal our bodies send to the muscles telling them to produce force.
When performing simple movements like scrolling your mouse, the neural drive is low. You don't need to activate a lot of muscle fibres to scroll your mouse.
When lifting heavy loads, the neural drive is high. You want to activate as many muscle fibres as you can to help you lift the weight.
When we train relative strength, we increase the number of motor units, and therefore the total number of muscle fibres, that we can activate.
A lot of people who've never lifted weights don't have access to high levels of strength because they've not lifted heavy weights. Beginners often build strength faster than intermediate or advanced lifters because the scope for neurological adaptations is greater.
Beginners often get stronger by just looking at weight. They seem to be able to lift more weight in every workout.
But, as strength levels increase (with training age), the scope for neurological adaptations is less, and it becomes harder to make progress.
That's why intermediate and advanced athletes must lift near-maximal or maximal weight to continue achieving strength gains.
But how do we do this with bodyweight movements?
When lifting weights, this is easier to control. After completing some warm-up sets and building to 85% intensity, the working sets can start. Weight training allows us to increase the loads gradually and work close to maximal loads.
It's not so easy with bodyweight training. Yes, there are ways to scale bodyweight movements, but can you find a near-maximal efforts progression that stays within the relative strength parameters?
If you're working towards strict handstand push-ups, maybe eccentric handstand push-up are a good choice for those who have the strength and skill to perform them.
But maybe you don't have the balance to do eccentric handstand push-ups yet. So, you're thinking about wall-facing handstand push-ups. But if you can perform more than 5 reps, it’s not a relative strength movement for you.
If the goal is to increase relative strength, a strict barbell overhead press is always a good option no matter what level of handstand push-up you have.
I'm not saying we should drop bodyweight movements and replace them with weightlifting. What I'm suggesting is we can pick and choose our battles.
There are times when weight training can be a more efficient and effective way to build relative strength.
But remember, the reason we're trying to build relative strength is to master our body weight.
At some point, you will need to apply that strength to your gymnastics strength training goals. A lot of adults struggle with gymnastics because they lack strength, but just because you’re strong doesn't mean you can perform a skill.
Strength, flexibility and skill development are all key components of GST. That's why working on strength, flexibility and skill is important.
High relative strength levels will give you the best chance to develop gymnastic skills.
My advice is to focus on getting strong.
Relative strength building needs to be a priority in all bodyweight training programs.
Relative strength training methods include eccentric training, cluster method, 5/4/3/2/1 method, and isometrics, to name a few.
It’s important to note that high-intensity, low-volume training can put a lot of strain on the central nervous system (CNS), and it also fails to condition the muscles, joints, and connective tissue for maximum strength training.
We are increasing the neural drive, but we're not increasing the strength of the muscles, joints and connective tissues.
This can lead to injuries if not approached with caution.
Therefore, it’s crucial to strike a balance between increasing neural drive and conditioning the body to handle it.
To achieve this, we suggest undulating periodisation to allow for necessary deloads for the CNS and proper conditioning of the muscles, joints, and connective tissues.
I’ll talk more about this in a future post.
