Has anyone seen the Male Gymnasts in the Olympics this year?
WoW - They are built!
What type of training programs/diet do they undergo to get in such great condition?
Check out this article by Coach Sommer. It’s called “Building an Olympic Body through bodyweight conditioning.”:
Training - in addition to their central gymnastics training, a lot of calisthenics, often with added weight. Plus a TON of muscular stimulation from the rings - Jordan Jovtchev, for instance, maintaints his strength by doing 3 ring routines a day.
Diet - I’ve rarely heard of an olympic gymnast going on a serious mapped-out diet. It happens more with the women than with the men. While most of them probably eat healthily, it’s still more of a “what I want” diet.
I will read that article about how they train Olympic athletes. But, consider this in the meantime - how built are the legs of people that run all the time? Unless they don’t eat anything, they are usually quite muscular and defined in the legs, but slight upper body.
If you walked on your hands all day your body would compensate and build your upper body to handle the stress - adaptation principle. Notice that the gymnasts have great bodies, but very little leg mass - they are top heavy for the most part. I didn’t say their legs weren’t powerful - they have to be to absorb a fall from 10+ feet.
Also, realize that most of these athletes are in the 145-165 range. They look gigantic up on stage, but they really aren’t that big… just very, very shredded. Not to mention, their small frames and tiny waistlines make them look huge. Take even the average 190-200 pound lifter and shred him and you will get a physque similar to a gymnasts.
Your body will simply adapt to whatever training stimulus you give it. Sure those guys do lots and lots of bodyweight training, but even without it, they would have a runner’s lower body, in their upper body. You can tell that some of the gym guys must lift outside of their training. The ones that do are just seem abnormally thick.