Returning to gymnastics / weights after break with stretching

[MeeMee]

I've tried searching the forums for this but couldn't find anything (maybe I missed it, if so apologies)

 

I've been performing the stretching routines usually every other day depending on how I feel and so far don't have much soreness.

 

I've been off of weights and gymnastics for a couple of months outside of some simple bodyweight exercises.

 

What I'm trying to understand is how to approach going back to more intense gymnastics / weight training after a couple of months off and stretching.

 

My assumptions are :

- Take it easy as I'll have access to new ROMs and sensations

- Do this to ensure the body has time to recognise these new ROMs and don't put too much force too soon otherwise the muscles / joints may strain

- 'Condition' i.e. slowly ramp the reps / volume in gymnastics to give the body time to acclimatise to the new ROMs

 

I'd love for some advice on how to go about this as I'd like to return to gymnastics but don't want to come back inappropriately

[Kit_L]

17 hours ago, MeeMee said:

- Take it easy as I'll have access to new ROMs and sensations

- Do this to ensure the body has time to recognise these new ROMs and don't put too much force too soon otherwise the muscles / joints may strain

- 'Condition' i.e. slowly ramp the reps / volume in gymnastics to give the body time to acclimatise to the new ROMs

Yes: that is the recommended approach. The underlying rationale here is that tendons and ligaments have only about 1/10 of the blood/nutrient supply of muscles – so we have to proceed at a rate which accommodate these tissues rather than get as strong as we can as quickly as we can.

Getting stronger is as much a neural phenomenon as a physical one. It is definitely possible that the muscles get stronger to a point where the tendons and ligaments that are involved in the chain of force production are not strong enough to support that new strength – and this is the reason why the recommendations of how to proceed look so conservative from the outside.

This is also why developing the capacity to feel what's actually happening in your body rather than following a rigid sets-and-reps approach is so important.

[Matt Chung]

> point where the tendons and ligaments that are involved in the chain of force production are not strong enough to support that new strength

Thanks for sharing @Kit_L. This makes total sense and do wish I was aware — that tendons and ligaments have only about 1/10th of the blood/nutrient supply of muscles — of this concept half a year ago and suspect my ignorance on this topic was what lead me to tear my hamstring (bicep femoris) tendon. Around that time, I had re-introduced strength training and while there was a significant uptick in my ability to sustain lifting heavier loads, it's very likely that my tendons and ligaments were simply ... not yet ready.

[Kit_L]

Very likely, @Matt Chung. This is the deep reason why all gymnasts and dancers spend so much time conditioning.

[MeeMee]

Makes sense, and that sheer volume of work + building awareness (hopefully in biomechanically 'correct' positions) = body awareness + strength + flexbility

I'm not surprised when I've seen former gymnasts (despite comp experience) who come back to training still have the awareness and skill BUT sometimes suffer from injuries  e.g. elbows, as the additional body weight / lack of conditioning usually isn't continued

[MeeMee]

@Kit_L how have you recommended in-season (argueably always in-season) dancers / gymnasts train given you can't necessarily put a number to the force applied to joints. Ok you could argue sets and reps but I guess it comes back to the age old 'listen to your body' 

[Kit_L]

 

Someone who uses her body professionally (dancer, for example) knows, at a deep level, how hard to push anything, and the good ones are constantly listening to what their body is telling them. I will never argue for sets and reps!

Male and female gymnasts have been doing a huge amount of low intensity conditioning work for many many years before they start to do the extremely difficult stuff. For example, while I was watching a young gymnast in coach Sommer's facility in Arizona, he revealed he had been working with that boy for 12,000 hours or so by the time I met him – from the age of about four. They do an endless amount of repetitive, relatively low stress work, and this plays into the remark that I made to Matt the other day – tendons and ligaments need a large amount of that really low level work because they have poor nutrient supply and, also if the coaches any good, absolutely critical movement patterns and body positions are being grooved into the young gymnasts during that work.

And now returning to dancers: many of them start very young as well and they attend limbering classes and gentle dance classes for years and years and years before they are encouraged to do the more difficult and demanding movements – exactly the same conditioning in other words. The reason I started out with my dance for example in the first paragraph above is that I work with many elite dancers and their understanding of their own bodies and what their bodies need and what the limitations to what they can do are are very well and consciously known by this is why in all the advice that I give people here it is to listen to what Body is saying and at some point you'll be able to hear it.

This is also the reason why so many adults who try to pick up gymnastics or calisthenics skills as adults so often hurt themselves – they simply do not have the line in the body that this kind of repetitive training gives, and they do not have the tendon and ligament strength. When we are getting stronger, we must be very mindful, and we must not proceed as fast as the body says that we can.