WAG what does your/your child's conditioning look like? worried about too much!

[Ex member]

After watching my dd session in full for the first time I got to see the warm up and conditioning, they did the following (don't know the correct names for some of the stuff she did)

Warm up run
Arm circles
Stradle stretches - each side and pancake
Various forms of sit ups
V ups (I think - rasie arms and legs up together from laying down)
Various splits stretches against edge of raised floor
Box Split stretch against edge of raised floor, they take turns of pushing each other down as far as they can go
Bridge holds - 1 with hands on higher surface and 1 with feet on higher surface
Press ups
Handstand dips against the wall
Rope climb (as high as they can)
Straddle scissor kicks hanging from bar (what you call windsheild wipers?)
Leg lifts? ( Laying on belly on edge of pommel horse holding on the the handles and lifting their up legs as high as they can in a controlled way)
Squat Jumps
Ankle raisers
Dish rocks
Arch rocks
Chin ups in both grips

Probably more, I think they mix it up every so often.

Dd's group was also given some conditioning to do at home that has to be ticked off in a book as she does them.

She has been asked to do:

Splits - Right 90 secs
Splits - Left 90 secs
Splits - Box 90 secs
Bridge - 10 secs x3
Sit ups x 35
Squat Jumps x 35
Ankle Raisers x 35
Press ups 15 x 2
Plank hold 60 secs x 2
Dish hold 60 secs x 2
Arch hold 60 secs x2

 

[Short Balding Guy]

I am reading that the question of when to condition has been posed.

It is my experience that when appropriate is the answer. The obvious caveats apply: don't over fatigue so the practice does not meet goals or conditioning increases the risk of athlete injury.

Often I have conditioning as the first event of my coaching day. I try hard not to have the plio workout the first as the gymnasts legs are whooped and it limits what tasks I can advance as goals for the day. I try hard to give a small bit of time between the resistance or strength time and the next event. This is the time when the girls complete a specific drill station featured that day (other examples are thera band work on Tumble Trak, or flip/twisting shaping drills on tramps). The 5-10 minutes works to lower the intensity that was present in the conditioning rotation and provides some breathing space in the gym. I plan ahead with the rotation schedule in mind, so that I space out the hard load conditioning that might affect the workout (ex: UB conditioning after UB workout, plio after tumbling or vault). Conditioning is then throughout the workout even though I have a "Conditioning Rotation." The gymnasts muscles need adaption and recovery time.

I have watched workouts of clubs who have elite programs start their day with full-out conditioning rotations and their athletes rock. This was during strength build and upgrade skill times of the year - but nonetheless, the athletes really put out some effort at the start of their 1 st workout of the day. Their skills rocked all practice.

Our meet warm-up contains light conditioning. Core tummy, shoulder, back, and leg work is performed before every competition. We are "warming-up" all muscles in prep for the meets demand. Doing conditioning" first has not negatively affected our meet performances.

The 5th event, Conditioning, is about the art of delivery. All the clever stations, assignments and reps are not effective without the artful delivery. A long term strength/fitness plan that takes in account the 365 day multi-year nature of a given gymnastic athlete is a work of art. I have admired the skilled coaches who coach in the moment using the guidance of the long term plan.

My post is longer than I had in mind. I hope I contributed to the conversation, SBG -

 

[htimcj]

Wow, that's a lot!!!

She is a L7? Do you know her max pull-ups, leg lifts and so on? Are the girls required to meet a certain amount of reps for each exercise?

She is a l7. It is done as a circuit and I think they go through it twice. So probably 20 or so of each? Except ropes once each time. I should clarify that not all of it is done in the beginning. But it is a good 45-60 at the start.

 

[sce]

OP that doesn't sound like too much. Good conditioning builds a foundation for the skills.

Actually targeting specific muscle groups before you use them for skills sounds productive to me. Make yourself strong enough to do the move before it or after it? Any strength you build up at the end will be reduced by the time you come to train again 2 or 3 days later.

I think the key really is quality and specific and not too heavy as to render your gymnast useless for the rest of the session. General heavy conditioning can happily go at the end.

I agree with part of what you say, but the part about making yourself strong enough to do the move and the strength reducing within 2 or 3 days makes no sense. Strength exercises don't have immediate results. They trigger the body to build the muscle, which takes time. Doing the exercise does initially fatigues the muscle, so you won't be stronger right after doing the exercise.

 

[BlairBob]

Looks fine for a compulsory level gymnast. Heck, I've seen a lot of optionals 7-10 who couldn't hit those numbers!

I do like to add in lower body strength work. Vaulting and tumbling cover this to some regard. We commonly had our L6 hotshot group work in squats, push-presses, and either lunges or lightly loaded jump squats besides plyometric series in there somewhere.

We also did more rope climb than pullups but pullups were often supposed to L or V-pul

 

[sportymom]

Looks fine for a compulsory level gymnast. Heck, I've seen a lot of optionals 7-10 who couldn't hit those numbers!

I do like to add in lower body strength work. Vaulting and tumbling cover this to some regard. We commonly had our L6 hotshot group work in squats, push-presses, and either lunges or lightly loaded jump squats besides plyometric series in there somewhere.

We also did more rope climb than pullups but pullups were often supposed to L or V-pul

thanks for your reply!!!

Yesterday we had a birthday party of one of the girls in team so I got to talk with all of the moms! They are all a little confused because the strength part doesn't change up, and their friends children or the others teams at meet usually have a very different conditioning programs. We are all a little afraid that the same exercises 3 times a week won't target every muscle group or will leave them too weak in other exercises!

There was a mom, her daughter is also in our gym but already Level8 and will compete L9 next season. This girl is definitely one of the best in our gym (we are very small), although she is still very young! This mom told us that she had the same concerns like we had when her girl was L5 and she talked to the coaches. They said they are having this conditioning schedule (the one I listed) for the Level4-Level 6 girls. The exercises cover every muscle group. By L7, they should have the amount of reps and sets.
The Level 7-Level9 do 2 rope climbs, 5 pike presses, 10 chin-up pullovers, 10 chin-levers and 10 chin-lever shrugs additionally to the conditioning, which all together takes about 90 minutes 3 times a week! The reason why they don't start with rope climbing earlier is that the coached think it is too tough on the elbows if they have not the right amount of basic strength.

What do you think about it?
Is this amount of conditioning adequate?
Is it necessary to have a lot of different exercises or is it enough to work on the ones I listed?

DD likes the conditioning and she says she loves it when she can do 1 more leg lift or pull-up. She is also not concerned about following the elite path, maybe L8 or so!

I just would love to have some more opinions from experts because I want the best for my child....I guess that's a "mommy thing"

 

[BlairBob]

Rope climbing builds elbow and grip strength, the latter being critical for bars before grips.

Sounds decent.

Once again, I prefer specific strength before event work rather than a conditioning fest. This isn't CrossFit. Events are 90s, if that. You either have the strength or you don't versus being able to do simpler tasks longer.

With a conditioning fest, you'll probably exhaust a lot of glycogen and don't expect to get much out of your events.

If I want to limit intensity, programming strength volume before is a good way to limit intensity of say tumbling or vaulting. Not so much with beam work and dance but there will be some fatigue set in even with the lower levels to like L6 . It will effect Bars, Floor and Vault though.

Hitting strength intensity before events will diminish your event work a bit but not as much. You can then tack in the strength volume after events or during ( bar strength after bars or before or as side stations ).

I always preferred to do more of the straight arm strength before events like presses and static holds and then their bent arm/full ROM versions after events or during events.

Then again, with some programs we pretty much had to hit events right after WU rather than doing specific strength due to rotation schedule demands. Small gyms, limited space.

 

[my4buffaloes]

Ideally the conditioning exercises would change frequently so they aren't doing the exact same thing every day. Even changing when they do it would be good too. Sometimes at the beginning, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the end. Keep the body guessing and it will get stronger.

 

[BlairBob]

You don't need to change them that frequently. You would only need to do so when they have hit a roadblock that cannot be worked through different programming intensities or volumes.

You don't need to change them because they need to change it up. If you have Fitness ADD, you should go do CF especially if you want to get anywhere in this sport.