Team U.S.A. Gymnastics member, Brandon Wynn, will be joining us for an AMA on Sunday, April 5th! Click here for the sweet, sweet details

groo101

New member
It's me again folks, with another proud announcement on behalf of the /r/bodyweightfitness moderation team.

Kindly mark your calendars for Sunday, April 5th. Artistic gymnast, Brandon Wynn from Team U.S.A., will be joining us for an AMA, providing all of us with a great opportunity to inquire about Olympic level training, diet, and lifestyle. We currently do not have a tentative start time, so please check back with this announcement during the week for possible updates.

UPDATE: It will most likely be posted around 10:00 AM Mountain Time Zone (UTC-07:00).
If you are interested in participating, please note that this will be on Easter Sunday, so plan accordingly! Incase you missed the note, we have decided to lock AMAs once they've wrapped up.

Should this AMA schedule conflict with yours, you are more than welcome to post your questions here and I will submit as your proxy on the day of the AMA for Brandon to view.

Thanks!
 
@groo101 Bradon the mothefucker Wynn. He's been fairly outspoken about the importance of good nutrition in training. I can't wait to get some of his insights. My questions in advance so I don't forget:

How many inches are your biceps/shoulders/chest/thighs?

Can you share some of your high level thoughts on nutrition, given that you've been pretty outspoken on it?

Given that Michael Phelps is somewhat known for his love of what most would characterize as unhealthy food, do you think that he could be an even better athlete if he was to follow your advice regarding nutrition?

There is an obstacle course themed game show named American ninja warrior. Many national and international level gymnasts and other athletes compete on it. Would you ever consider participating?

What's something that is common knowledge or a widely held belief within gymnastics that would seem surprising or out of the ordinary for someone who is not involved in the sport?

What goals are you currently working towards?

How much can you deadlift and squat (or any other weighted exercises that you feel are particularly relevant), if you have any idea?

What supplements do you use, and what would you suggest for a novice, intermediate level and advanced level athlete?

How do you deal with the desire to eat unhealthy food, if you have that desire?

To the best of your knowledge, and in the context of what you've observed or are aware of, how common is the use of performance enhancing drugs amongst elite gymnasts, and those aspiring to become elite gymnasts?

What weight training do you do in addition to your normal unweighted conditioning/training? Do you think that gymnastics, or a purely bodyweight oriented strength/conditioning program would be be best for an adult (18+) beginner who was looking primarily to develop strength and the strength elements of gymnastics? Or do you feel that using weighted exercises in conjunction would be beneficial for the beginner?

What weight training do you think would be a good addition to the regiment of a novice, intermediate and advanced gymnast? More specifically, at what point do you feel that different weighted exercises become more relevant and beneficial for gymnasts?

What's Kohei Uchimura like?

What is Mckayla Maroney like? She's obviously a tremendous athlete and competitor, and this may be totally baseless, and if so you're free to say it is, but some have said that she's got a bit of what they would characterize as a "mean girl" persona. Is there any grounds to that, or is it completely baseless?

Given that there are athletes like Donnell Whittenburg competing elements like his triple front vault, and given that I've heard some former olympians saying that it was considered nearly impossible when they were competing, what elements do you think are on the verge of being "impossible" that someone could have as a goal and possibly achieve in the coming years?

Have you ever witnessed a "strength giant" (iron cross connecting to victorian, inverted cross, maltese, starting from any of those)?

I'm well aware that this isn't a move that you would train for normally, but can you hold a close to impossible?

You're obviously an athlete first, and not a bodybuilder, but in the strength training world, there are a lot of people who think that maximal strength is preferential, where as others think that having the greatest pound for pound strength is the desirable goal, where as others still think that the ultimate goal is getting to a certain level of strength and then being able to apply it explosively. Do you find one of these particular goals to be inherently superior? If not, where do you think the panacea of strength training lies? In a more general sense, is there an upper limit to the "power" you think it's desirable for a gymnast to strive to attain?

In light of the recent closure of the Temple U.'s gymnastics program, do you feel that there are likely to be more closures of other universities programs in the future? What, if anything, do you feel can be done to stall or possibly reverse any decline in American gymnastics?

What other significant issues do you see facing gymnastics at the moment, and what do you foresee as being the significant issues in the coming years for it?

What do you intend to do when you retire from gymnastics?

Why did you do your degree in finance?

Do you have any thoughts on contemporary athletic trends such as the "street workout" genre, breakdancing, or crossfit?

What particular conditioning do you feel to be most beneficial for you (one example being that Chris Sommers, a former jr. national team coach, said that he felt that possibly the most important thing, conditioning wise, that he did during college was 30 minutes of ring handstands daily)?

This may sound a bit stupid or ignorant, but when I look at the stats and bodytypes of gymnasts, I tend to see guys who are either waif like, like Kohei, and guys like Donnell and yourself who look probably a bit more like football players. I'm well aware that rings are something of a specialty for you, and that the extra muscle is probably overall beneficial for strength elements, but is there a reason for this gap in what I'm perceiving as proportionality, given that everyone still has to compete on all 6 events?

Why are the olympics so utterly "amorous," amongst the athletes, for lack of a more subtle word?

And lastly, just something kind of specific to myself, I'm 5'10 and 190 lbs. Do you have any recommendations on what I should cut my weight to, if I intend to take gymnastics seriously?
 
@groo101 Haha this is crazy. I know Brandon as he used to date my roommate and I work on the complex he trains at. This should be a good ama, he's a super cool dude!
 
@groo101 I trained with him a couple times. The guy is insane. I thought I was cool with my 8 part strength sequence on rings. Then he comes along and does a 15 part sequence.
 
@groo101 I hope I do not forget but if I do please ask him the following:

In Antwerp you filed an inquiry into you Rings EF routine. What was the reason?
 
@lady_t I can actually answer that right now! His difficulty in the qualifiers was a 6.8, but upon competing the same routine in finals, he was given a 6.7. He filed an inquiry because he believed it should've been a 6.8. Unfortunately, he competed an iron cross press to inverted cross in the straight body position (E) in qualifiers, but piked it in finals (D), causing him to lose a tenth in difficulty.
 
@groo101 Man that 2014 routine is ridiculous. Crazy that a guy his size (170lbs) can not only do shit like Balandins, but actually incorporate them into a full competition routine.
 
@dawn16 Wait, he's 5'7" (1" shorter than me), 'only' 170lbs, but he looks freaking HUGE. I'd guessed at 170lbs, with his build, he'd be around 5'4"-5'5".
 
@pete1507 He seems to have a good 20-30lbs on gymnasts of the same height (like Germany's Philipp Boy), but he's so lean it seems to be mostly a difference of muscle mass (obviously).

The crazy thing is that he weighs the same as Oly lifters of a similar height. For example, Lu Xiaojun is 5'8" and 170lbs which is crazy because what mass Lu's got in his legs is probably packed in Wynn's upper body seeing as how leg mass is undesirable for gymnasts and Wynn's jacked as fuck.
 
Back
Top