Recommendation summarization:
- Start tricking first, start Acrobolix tricking later.
- You have to trick small before you can trick big.
- It's easier to learn tricks when you are small than when you are already muscular.
- It's easier to get good at tricks when you are younger than it is to get muscular when you are younger.
- You're already small when you are young.
- So when you are young, just trick.
- Bodybuilding is for adults, and tricking is for kids.
- When you become an adult as a trickster, bodybuild and scale back your tricking.
- You'll balance out in the long run, and Acrobolix tricking is all about the long run.
- So...
- Start tricking first, start Acrobolix tricking later.
- You have to trick small before you can trick big.
Recommendation by age:
- Ages below 16: Focus all of your efforts on tricking.
- Ages 16-18: Start learning the compound lifts while you continue tricking. Get good at them. Attain these benchmarks. Get good both at tricking and lifting at the same time.
- Ages 19-22: Continue tricking, continue lifting, start using bodybuilder methodologies while training (IE, isolation work, body part splits, higher rep ranges, angle changes, etc).
- Ages 22+ : Start cycling your training methodologies more heavily instead of trying to do everything all the time.
Why these recommendations? Because strength peaks around the age of 30-35. Tricks are best learned before the age of 20, for the same reason musicians reach their full potential if they start in their teens. Being buff and strong while tricking well is best done by relying on the experience you gained tricking as a youth: your tricks are more permanent if done this way. Then you can just cruise your tricking as you get strong and buff, which gets easier automatically through your twenties up to your early 30s.
Recommendation for beginners of all ages:
If you are in your twenties or thirties, then focus on tricking for 2-3 years first. Make some of your tricks permanent, then focus on getting strong and buff. It's the same recommendation if you were to start as a teenager, only since you have less time you can only expect less results and should go ahead and get strong and buff after just a few years of tricking.
Recommendation for lifters and bodybuilding gym rats:
If you're already lifting, body building, gym rat, whatever, then I would recommend putting all of that on the back burner for your next year if you want to get into Acrobolic tricking. Getting into tricking and learning your first tricks is a lot harder than learning new tricks as an already experienced trickster, or getting back into tricking when you had done it for years in the past. You're gonna need a block of uninterrupted time devoted to tricking, or just whatever tricks you want, if you want to get anywhere with it. So one year is my recommendation.
Read this page about Acrobolix periodization, and read this page about how tricking is actually good for your strength for a little consolation that you'll live and be happier in the long run if you do take a step into tricking. You can be buff and trick too, but you'll have to be less buff for some time while you get your tricking started if you really want to get your tricking to a worthy level.
It's definitely worth it. Being both buff and skilled with tricking is truly a wonderful position to be in.
Jon, I am 26z I have a few years of strength training under my belt but I stopped training for almost a year due to my mobility deficit. Now I sort of look skinny fat. lol
Anyway, I recently discovered my passion for movement, especially in yoga and tricking. Do you think it’s a good idea to exclusively train flexibility and tricking and put strength training on hold for 1-2 years, or put 80% of my time on gaining splits, practicing tricking and marginally lift for strength?