Gold Medal Bodies ‘Floor One’ Program

After completing MovNat Level 2 in February 2019 I was looking for a new agility challenge and over the last few months I have enjoyed working through GMB Fitness ‘Floor One’ program, along with supplementary elements from their ‘Focused Flexibility’ program.

GMB fitness provides online training to help you become more agile and strong, and build total confidence in your body. The ‘GMB’ stands for ‘Gold Medal Bodies’. Their strapline is:

“don’t die without exploring what your body is truly capable of’’

This really resonates with me and I couldn’t agree more. I love the feeling of moving with grace and agility, working on movements until they feel easy and effortless and you can do them for fun.

I would have loved to have danced and done gymnastics as a child but never had the opportunity outside of school PE until I was a teenager, when I lapped up every form of dance I could for several years! I particularly enjoyed contemporary dance involving acrobatic-like movements and auditioned successfully for a youth dance company which performed in my local area of Suffolk in the UK. I had to give it up in my late teens to focus on schoolwork and exams, university and getting a ‘proper’ job etc, but the yearning to move acrobatically has never left me and I’ve always sought opportunities to explore what my body is capable of.

During my 30s I dabbled in various adult gymnastics classes in Wellington and built a bit more capability, but always felt I lacked some of the fundamentals to be able to progress beyond movements I could more or less already do, and it was hard to find an environment that offered really good coaching for adults.

I came across the GMB programming during 2018 when a personal trainer I worked with before I left Wellington had me working on some gymnastic-based movements, and talked about how this had influenced his training. I was immediately intrigued, did some research and found GMB. I put it on the back burner until I had finished MovNat but I felt instinctively it was what I’d been looking for to fill a gap and enable me to have a self-paced based practice.

The founders of GMB are a group of talented trainers and athletes, with backgrounds in elite gymnastics and martial arts. They believe in making movement fun, training for the things that matter in your life and are dedicated to teaching people how to develop a mindful practice with an emphasis on quality. They have a great podcast which embodies this philosophy and their sense of playfulness.

GMB offer several training programs on a range of gymnastics practices. I initially bought the Floor One, Floor Two and, to help me work on my deep squat and shoulder flexibility, the Focused Flexibility program.

Floor One and Two each take three months to work through and help you build up a base of floor-based gymnastic movements from forward and backward rolls, to hand balancing movements, and more acrobatic forms such as cartwheel variations, butterfly kicks, round offs, floor kips etc. The programs have you working on skills and movements progressively, building up to being able to perform a complete routine with movements flowing together by the end of the course.

Floor One and Two have two levels, A and B, so in total this gives me a year of programming!. I’ve just completed Floor One Level A and am cycling back through Level B to deepen my practice before I move onto Floor Two.

The programming takes around 45 minutes or so and includes a 10 minute mobility warm up, a block of movements to practice, either sequentially or as a circuit, and flexibility work to finish. It’s four-to six days of practice a week, depending on what phase of the programming you are in, but in a six-day week a couple of the days are more about doing the warm up and flexibility work, with the option of choosing something to work on in the middle, like more handstand work.

I generally practice as my office lunch break and go to the nearby gym to do it, you just need a bit of floor space and some kind of a mat you’d find in any gym. I find it mentally relaxing from work and physically refreshing, without leaving you exhausted. It’s pretty easy to fit in one more session at a weekend at home or at the gym. For me it’s become a more exciting alternative to doing something like yoga. In addition, around once or twice a week I try to run through a bit of extra flexibility work at home, just following one of the focused flexibility videos, it’s quite a relaxing thing to do before going to bed.

GMB also offer a range of foundational programs in bodyweight-based strength, mobility and flexibility which they bundle together as a ‘physical autonomy’ program. These were a bit basic for me to start with but would be great for someone starting out who wanted something to do at home at their own pace. I have also bought the Rings One and Two programs recently to put on the back burner for the future as GMB were retiring the Floor, Rings and Parallettes offerings to bring out something new later in the year to replace them. So altogether I have about two years-worth of interesting and challenging programming I can work through at my own pace, fantastic!

GMB’s materials are designed for home use and are easy to follow on a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. There are daily video tutorials with written instructions on the day’s programming, and they all come with downloadable and PDF options so you don’t need an internet connection to use them. There’s also progress charts you can use for self-reflection. They also have an online community you can join to engage with other people and get access to some additional materiel I haven’t done this yet but I might consider it at some point in the future.

The teaching methods make complex moves become accessible and the daily repetition of movements helps you improve gradually over time. In three months I’ve already noticed I feel much more comfortable and confident upside down, even though I was relatively comfortable and confident in an inverted position already. In addition, my hip and ankle flexibility has improved and I can roll up to standing from a supine position into a deep squat without using my hands much more easily than before. I’ve also noticed my progressions towards a floor kip (leaping onto your feet from lying on your back) has improved perceptibly. I’m still a way off getting the complete movement, but I feel I am getting closer towards being able to do it, which feels good.

Looking forward to building on what I’ve achieved so far as I work through level B, and excited about the possibilities of what I can learn in Floor Two. Lots to look forward to :)

Below is the Floor 1 level A routine:

GMB Fitness ‘Floor One’ Program

Gold Medal Bodies ‘Floor One’ Program