Hi all,
For 3+ weeks I decided to do an experiment. I stopped all weight training and strictly did gymnastics movements. For those familiar with that Somner article on DragonDoor, I did the planche and lever progressions as well as handstands, gymnast bridges, plyometric jumps, l-sits (on the floor), kung fu stance work, and some kettlebbell work because I didn't want to completely ignore my posterior chain. This week I've gone back to weights to note the results. One thing to say before I go onto that is that my biceps got bigger and the rest my body stayed relatively unchanged.
While I certainly made some very large leaps in my ability to perform those gymnastics exercises, my strength that can be measured by weights went down. All with the exception of weighted pull-ups. My old 3RM (at that time) is now my 8RM. I was certainly impressed that. However my bench went down, shoulder press/jerk went down, squats went down, weighted ab exercises went down, snatch went down, clean went down as did my coordination to complete the oly lifts.
Conclusion: strength is very activity specific and it is hard to find an exercises that carry over to each other. A well-rounded approach should be taken when selecting strength-training exercises rather than focussing on a few core movements for a long period of time. Yes, a rather no duh conclusion.
Some interesting things to note:
-My lats played a huge role in stabilizing me for prolonged l-sits. If my lats were friend from front levers, the my l-sits were dramatically effected.
-Long advanced tuck planche and straddle planche holds, put large amounts of stress in my shoulder my girdle. More so than nearly anything else I've ever done. It made me realize why so many gymnasts get shoulder surgery.
-You absolutely need weights for legs. I was able to jump right back into weights for my upperbody. I've done 2 heavy workouts already for upperbody and am not sore at all. I'm still sore from my first leg work though... and sore bad.
-Straddle planches impress drunken friends but are a lot more difficult after drinking.
That's about it.