The Gymnastic Secret for Major Upper Body Strength

I love gymnastics. I always have, always will.

Maybe that’s because I was put in gymnastics classes as a little kid by my mom (herself a former gymnast) who was insistent on me getting that kind of movement education from an early age. Those weren’t her words exactly, but that was her intention.

She saw the benefits of gymnastics for her own strength and athleticism as a little girl and she wanted the same for me (except for the whole being a little girl part lol).

In fact, if I were king of the world for real (and not just in Leo DiCaprio fashion by shouting it over a ship’s bough to no one in particular), I would make it a mandatory part of every kid’s physical education. But then again, no one’s asking me, so I guess it’s not happening any time soon.

However, I do now have YOUR attention, so I’m going to do something with that.

Regardless of your age, there’s a near infinite number of general and nuanced benefits that you get from spending some serious attention on gymnastics, some of the more obvious among them being:

1. Intramuscular coordination
2. Flexibility
3. Mobility
4. Body awareness
5. Suppleness in all the joints and soft tissues
6. Mastery of high tension — the building blocks of strength.

But there’s one benefit that is often overlooked or downplayed as either impractical or too far beyond most people’s abilities to accomplish: straight-arm scapular strength.

Yours Jewly demonstrating the back lever

Typically, when we think of upper body strength, we think of bent-arm strength: pushups, pullups, military presses, rows, etc. In other words, movements that require you to bend at the elbows to perform them.

This — while by far the most popular and widely known — is only one category of upper body strength. There is a whole ‘nother plethora of movements and strength benefits to be found in movements where the elbows stay locked and you hold a position motionless.

You can find some of these movements in weight lifting, but by far the majority of this work is done by gymnasts — and this more than anything is their secret of unmatchable strength.

Movement maestro Ido Portal has quipped “straight-arm scapular strength IS upper body strength”. Consider some of the following cases:

• Charles Poliquin — famous coach to numerous Olympians — has told of teaching two gymnasts who had never touched iron in their lives. Within 3 weeks of being taught the bench press, they could each bench 350 lbs (160 kg) — more than double their bodyweight. To put that into perspective, most powerlifters train for years and years to attain such numbers in the bench press.
• Fred “Dr. Squat” Hatfield — the first man to squat over 1,014 lbs in a powerlifting competition (at the tender age of 45, mind you) — was a successful gymnast long before picking up the iron, and could even do the coveted Iron Cross, whereby you support the entire weight of your body with your arms outstretched on rings by your sides. While the squat is not exactly a feat of upper body strength, it’s what he’s best known for, which is why I mentioned it. He could also bench press 523 lbs and clean and jerk 369 lbs, all at a weight of 220 lbs. So pretty good.

There are tons more examples, but for the sake of brevity I’ll spare you.

What I WILL do, however, is tell you how you can (semi) painlessly start integrating straight-arm scapular strength benefits into your own training and reap the rewards of greater active flexibility, a much stronger core, and of course greatly improved upper body strength.

As with anything, you’ll wanna start with the basics. My vote goes to the L-sit and the handstand — two movements which — when done properly — will set the base for the rest of your straight-arm scapular work and along the way can help sky rocket your upper body strength without requiring brutal workouts or an excessive amount of time.

In fact, here are two 10-minute workouts you can do throughout the week that will get you started on the right track and will get you feeling stronger than when you started.

The variations you’ll do will be as follows:

Pike Handstand

Bent Leg L-sit

If you’re strong/coordinated enough to do more challenging variations, by all means, do those instead. And if you’re NOT accustomed to being upside down as is required for the pike handstand, PLEASE PROCEED WITH EXTREME CAUTION. The last thing you want to have happen is that your ego guides you rather than your gut, and you get dizzy, disoriented, or light-headed when you are upside down. It is a disaster waiting to happen, so use your head so that you don’t fall on it. You’ve been warned.

Perform the exercise listed, then rest for the remainder of the minute. When performing each exercise, focus on creating as much muscular tension as possible while pushing your hands down as hard as you can.

‘A’ Day

Minute 1: Bent-leg L-sit — 5 seconds
Minute 2: Pike handstand — 5 seconds
Repeat x 10

‘B’ Day

Minute 1: Bent-leg L-sit — 10 seconds
Minute 2: Pike handstand — 10 seconds
Repeat x 5

Simple enough to get the job done without interrupting your current training, but tough enough to start exposing some of your weak points and filling them with pure, unadulterated straight-arm strength. As time goes on, you’ll want to try your hand at tougher, more wicked stuff like front and back levers, planches, and so forth.

If you’re enjoying the sensation of bulletproofing your weak links, you might also like the addition of some simple, no BS, full-body gait pattern movements that can radically increase your strength, stamina, resilience, and all-around badazzery.

Enter the 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge.

It consists of some simple, easy-to-learn movements that I can almost guarantee you’ve NEVER done (including crawling, loaded carries, etc) and as the name implies, it only takes 9 minutes to do.

Not only does it fit neatly at the end of whatever other routine you’re currently doing anyway (so no need to put your regular training on hold), but many people have found that it actually enhances their workouts.

Have a look-see at what a gent named Deo had to say when he added my 9-Minute Kettlebell & Bodyweight Challenge into his current kettlebell program:

==

“Simple on paper but surprisingly challenging in an unusually pleasant way. With a focus on the gait pattern, I can tell I’m working things in my body that aren’t being directly challenged otherwise, strengthening foundational elements. I finish feeling refreshed and not beat down, but still knowing I did quality work for my body.”

==

Check it out for yourself at www.9MinuteChallenge.com

Have fun and happy training!

Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin