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February 28th, 2010 | Gymnastics, parallel bars
I always think of 2004 Olympian Jason Gatson as an often injured Ring Man.
But his PBars were incredible. And unique. I’d long forgotten this routine until reminded by Body Rhythm.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
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8 comments ↓
Rick: Do you think male gymnast physiques have gotten more muscular with time? I do remember stunning natural physiques in the 80s in NCAAs. But I don’t remember most Olympians being so obviously buff. I could be confused. What do you think?
Also on rings, the prevalence of malteses is much larger. I remember only mutant type ring gods doing them back in the day. Now it seems like an elite norm. You could argue that the malteses these days are more iffy and certainly there are a lot that are high….however, still the prescense of more straight planches would be the case!
I don’t think gymnast these days are that much buffer, simply because this sport is also a weight to strength game. The heavier you are the harder things can be, so it don’t make much sense. However on rings certainly specialization has produced some beasts haha.
Malteses aren’t actually that much harder then a cross in honesty having worked on both i made faster progress on a Maltese then on a cross. Before i could hold a level cross for a count or two i was able to hold the Maltese for a count. I have had gymnasts also tell me the same thing.
That is a sweet, original PB routine.. whatever happen to Gatson?
Good question, Poly. But I don’t think so. Gymnasts max out the male physique and have always done so. When I think of gymnasts past: Chechi, Li Ning, Curtis Hibbert … they were no less defined than gymnasts today.
Perhaps the skinny gymnasts are better able to compete with the mesomorphs today.
Male gymnasts as a whole have probably not gotten “buffer”. Jason Gatson is more muscle bound than the average NCAA gymnast competing today, even most of those who would be considered ring specialists.
And Yan Ming Yong and Chen Yi Bing together probably couldn’t beat Gatson in a fist fight, but I’m sure they could have whipped him on rings.
I’ve been studying this topic in great detail for many years.
Physiques depend mostly on body types. In every generation, you can find gymnasts who are lean, and those who are mesomorphic monsters.
I think it’s a trend thing. Back during and before the 60′s, it seems like strength poses on rings were the emphasis; then there was a generational phase where we saw more swing-work and less maltese/planches. Now it’s both.
Maybe it’s just my perception and not factually based; but trends do occur.
And that was a great routine by Gatson!
“Malteses aren’t actually that much harder then a cross in honesty having worked on both i made faster progress on a Maltese then on a cross. Before i could hold a level cross for a count or two i was able to hold the Maltese for a count. I have had gymnasts also tell me the same thing.”
Wow, I don’t agree with that at all having trained for both.
What’s your arm span vs. height? I have “long” arms at 5’8″ height with a 6’0″ wingspan. Having held crosses for 5-7s and not being anywhere near maltese having trained it for a while is a huge deal.
Everybody is so different Steven. I myself could do an invert cross but could not hold a regular cross to save my life no matter how hard I trained it. My teammate could hold a cross for close to a minute but could not hold a front lever, ever, while I could and still can hold one despite being out of the sport for 25 years. I think it’s all about physiology, tendon attachments and who knows how many other factors.
i feel like gymnasts of the past on the whole in general were not as big or muscly as gymnasts today. i think this is because the sport has gotten harder, requiring more strength. just looking at the 1984 u.s. olympic team and 2004 olympic team, the 2004 olympic team just seems bigger, to have more muscle, to have stonger arms in particular. there are of course exceptions on an individual bases, but just in general, that is what it looks like to me.
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