Why Gymnasts are stronger than you

Have you ever tried to wrestle a farmer?

Have you wondered why gymnasts look so strong?

Do you want to know the secret as to why you are weak and have the metabolism that weight watchers franchise owners thrives on?

You lack raw functional strength!

Gyms now look more like a sales showroom than a productive strength building laboratory. 

I know the treadmills have lots of shiny buttons and all the machines look like they are worth their weight in gold, but they are overbuilt and over-priced to sucker you into a non teaching workout plan that will buy more BMW's for franchise owners.

I've even seen leg press machines that have automatic counters on them!

I think gym machine engineers are getting paid way too much as well!

I remember an experiment that was done on a professional gymnast. He was sent into the gym for the first time and was recorded for his maximum lifts on a select range of exercises.

The one that stood out was a standard bench press. He was able to complete a 1 rep max with more than twice his bodyweight!. This makes you a little curious as to how he was so strong in movements that he had never completed?

Now you try and take a bodybuilder or powerlifter into the gymnasts arena and ask them to have a few goes at the rings, or the mats, or the parallel bars.

The difference is obvious in terms of coordination requirements, but the power to weight ratio is interesting when you look at the ability to move your body dynamically in what we call a closed chain environment (the object you are pushing against moves less and the body cannot overcome the object, therefore the body moves).

The gym strongmen have no chance of matching a gymnasts level of skill.

This leads me to asking you what type of strength would you like to have?

Don't get me wrong, I love machines, isolation pump exercises, and the whole safe assault bike hit out.

But nothing has got me stronger or given me what I call bullet proof joint health more than throwing my bodyweight around on the gymnastics rings.

Maintaining strength and muscle mass well into my 40's is still surprisingly easy.

So why are these calisthenics movements so powerful?

It's all about the nervous system and the neural drive required to protect you and keep up with the immediate demands of balance, coordination, strength, variability and complexities.

The more complex or difficult the movement becomes, the more motor units are recruited. This involves nerves that fire up all kinds of muscle fibers. Think about doing a handstand. Your brain now has to work out what it requires to stabilise, neutralise, hold, adjust, transfer, sustain and protect.

There are low threshold fibers and higher threshold muscle fibers. 

Continual work playing on callisthenic or real life resistance training creates an amazing array of complex internal mechanisms that produce fantastic hormonal responses, positive neurotransmitter activation linked to motivation and reward. These all increase the production of muscles mass and strength that all humans benefit from.

Muscle strength is one of the major bio-markers for longevity. 

In contrast, non stabiliser machine training or cardio exercise does not have the extreme relative risk to the body, so they lack what we call the big bang for your buck benefits.

Use them as complementary movements.

So I can make a list of types of resistance training that have a massive benefit to life and becoming a real life warrior:

• Olympic rings
• Rock lifting
• Bar hang variations 
• Kettle bells
• Club bells
• Rock climbing
• Rope climbing
• Wrestling

The list could go on.....

All of these types of movement can be moderated, and learnt safely for constructive progressive overload.

Can you have functional muscle and pretty muscle at the same time?

Sure you can!

We have a gym that has the programs combining every kind of movement:

Isolations, compound, machines, cables, free weights, balance devices/ balls and then the real hard stuff:

• Hanging frames
• Ropes
• Handstand wall
• Kettle bell / Club bells
• Gym rings
• Heavy medicine balls
• And now the famous arm wrestling table

The key is to do something every day!

The human body needs to know you are serious about getting strong.

If you ever get to lift weights in the gym with someone that has had a long life of repetitive lifting like farming, building, or even gymnastics, let me know how hard it is to keep up with them.

If you want to test someone's potential, start with a handshake.

Ninja warrior gets a fire started in you for a reason. It is calling you to start playing more.

Find safe ways to enter functional strength, then fall in love with it!!