How hard should conditioning be in order to be effective?

[fishchimes]

Just curious as to your thoughts... I have measured "hardness" as the amount of time the gymnast "feels the burn" during the exercise. I know 8 is a lot of poll options, but this is a wide spectrum

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

Obviously it depends on what exercise you're doing, what level, what the goals are...there's a lot of stuff to consider here besides "the burn". I know from your other posts that you're having trouble with difficult strength that other girls don't complete, so you're worried you're doing too much strength. My coaches always say things like "no such thing!" to a statement like that. I think strength should be hard enough that you're getting strong enough to do the skills that are required of you (think bars, especially). I don't have to do toe on-hecht-kip handstand-giant-double back, so I don't have to be as strong as the girls who do that. I'll probably never be able to do that, but I do have to be strong enough to do a kip handstand-giant-regular flyaway. If I'm getting stronger and I"m getting my skills, yippee! If not, there's either a problem with the skill progression, the coaching, fear, or conditioning.

I think my strength this year is a little bit easier than last year - new coach. Our old coach was Russian...very Russian...we did strength just about constantly: we had strength at the beginning of practice, strength in-between turns on bars (lots), some strength before beam, strength between turns on floor, and handstands at the end of practice. Level 5s and 6s. Now we have strength at the beginning of practice and some on beam and bars, but it's a lot more drills-focused. Harder exercises, fewer reps, and more about body shape and stuff than straight strength - also I'm stronger, so it's easier! Takes less time, too, and I used to stress out more about strength.

I guess in terms of strength the questions you have to ask are: 1. Am I getting stronger? 2. Am I strong enough for my short-term goals? 3. Does the strength we do leave enough time to work on skills as required? (You need more time during competing season to work routines than condition, obviously).

 

[fishchimes]

I wasn't worried that I was doing too much strength, I was irritated because the type of strength I was doing was causing me to dread practice

I wish my coach would assign fewer reps and work more on body shape; everyone has terrible form at the moment. But she always assigns a lot of reps and then just gets mad when people can't/won't do it right.

1. Not by much; I'm still trying to figure out why my progress is so slow
2. Probably not
3. I think yes

 

[Mack_the_Ripper]

I guess at this point all you can do is trust that your coach knows what s/he is doing - if you're working hard on your strength that is assigned, you should be getting stronger. Don't expect to be Superwoman all of a sudden...but you should be able to progress at a reasonable rate. If that's not happening...I don't know. You could talk to your coach about your worries about cheating, tell him/her you dread practice, feel you're not getting stronger. Just make sure not to sound like you know better than the coach! They hate that.

Good luck, though! Sometimes we have rough patches we just have to slog through.

 

[Deleted member D3987]

actually it is all of them at different times of the year. micro and macro cycles. and it all should be rotated and changed approx every 3-5 weeks.

 

[GymCoachSara]

actually it is all of them at different times of the year. micro and macro cycles. and it all should be rotated and changed approx every 3-5 weeks.

I like that you mentioned this. Conditioning should vary throughout the entire year. Lower conditioning durring the comp. season, more on the off season. One of the biggest things that does bother me personally, is the coach who needs to see tears in order to know a child has sone conditioned enough. Just because a coach makes a gymnast do 100 squat doesn't mean they are getting stronger, or that it is even good for them.
I agree with multiple stations, working each muscle group, and spreading it out through the practice. Thats just my opinion.

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

It depends on the exercise and it depends on the time of year.

In some cases, the gymnast won't "feel the burn" at all -- they just won't be able to correctly execute the exercise. This tends to be the case with more advanced strength skills, such as muscle-ups or planches. Often, a gymnast will reach the point where he can no longer do a planche before ever actually feeling the burn. And a gymnast should ALWAYS stop when they reach the point where they can no longer correctly execute the exercise, whether or not they can still feel the burn. Never ever ever let a gymnast cheat for higher numbers.

 

[BlairBob]

your coach is either an idiot or does not know jack 101 about strength programming. strength is different than conditioning programming though it's often called S&C.

however, many gymnastics coaches don't. many of the other countries are leap years beyond us on this because their programs are all influenced state-wide so it's a trickle-down method.