As a gymnast, here is my take on it:

Volume: Total volume is the most important factor for hypertrophy and
gymnastic coaches typically spread that out throughout the day with
conditioning and skill training. But it is high intensity strength work and lots
of low intensity skill work (handstands, tumbling, etc). Also those massive
Biceps: Tons of straight arm holds, high volume rope climbs, and advanced
pull up variations. Most also do extra bicep work to further condition their
biceps to handle advanced progressions.

Intensity: Gymnasts are not calisthenics guys. They dont do hundreds of

pushups and pullups to get jacked. They do progressively more difficult
progressions to develop advanced levels of strength. Even something as
simple as turning the rings out during dips makes a huge difference allowing
them to continue building strength. I watched a 120lb gymnast rep out 5 dips
with +90lbs having never done weighted dips before. He built that strength
doing RTO dips with about 80 degrees of forward lean (progressing towards
a maltese press).

Rep ranges: Gymnasts work both high and low rep ranges. Lots of high
rep/hold time skill work and plenty of low rep/low hold time strength work. 1
rep is equivalent to about a 1-3 second static hold.

Bodyfat: Any bodyfat is a disadvantage in gymnastics. They try to keep as

lean as humanly possible, and as a result they look fantastic.

The rings: Omar is off base when he says the rings are safer. The rings are
actually incredibly tough on your body. It takes years to prepare your joints
for the advanced statics they are doing. But working up to them will give you
bulletproof tendons. You also build a powerful shoulder girdle and forearms
as they need to stabilize the rings in every direction while supporting your
entire bodyweight.

Misc: The most amazing thing about gymnasts is that they are
simultaneously powerful and mobile. They can access ranges of motion that
most athletes can only dream of, and exert huge amounts of force. They have
incredibly body awareness from the focus on compound movements and
tumbling. And their tendons are absolutely bulletproof from all of the low
leverage joint conditioning.

Myth #1: BMI is bullshit and meaningless

By definition BMI is just someone’s weight in kilograms divided by their height. It is
a ratio. Last time I checked maths cannot be bullshit. That’s like saying “1+1=2 is
bullshit”. What is significant about BMI is that this ratio is used as a tool to evaluate
our large-scale population in a general but meaningful way. The most common way
BMI is used is to classify people into categories (underweight, normal, overweight,
obese, morbidly obese), and then use those categories to evaluate health risks
within a specific demographic. People who have issues with BMI and the way it is
used usually do not understand how BMI it works. People think that BMI is used to
estimate someone’s self-worth and that isn’t true. People also think that BMI is
used to determine if you’re healthy or not, and that isn’t true either. Scientists use
BMI to determine health risk factors, not on an individual level, but on a large-scale
population level. It is found that a population with a Normal BMI has a longer
lifespan, better quality of life, and less health problems than a population with an
Underweight BMI, Overweight BMI, or Obese BMI. Populations with Obese BMI
have a higher prevalence of certain diseases such as Type II Diabetes, Heart
Disease, and death than those with Normal BMI. So if you are Obese, it only makes
sense for your doctor to tell you to lose weight and obtain a Normal weight to height
ratio due to the patterns observed within the Obese vs Normal BMI populations by
scientists through thousands of studies.

Myth #2: Even ideal weights are arbitrary

Your ideal weight falls within the Normal BMI range. For me personally it’s between
98-132lbs at 5′1. As you can see, there’s a 30lb range for my ideal weight. Ideal
weight is not a single one-size-fits-all number on the scale.

Myth #3: BMI is bullshit because people have different amounts of muscle.
Look at body builders!

I’m just going to leave this right here. Unless you look like the 1% of the human
population on the left (lean and ripped af), you shouldn’t even be entertaining this
idea. This illustrates perfectly what I explained earlier: BMI is used as a tool to
evaluate a large population, not on an individual basis. 99% of the population that
has a BMI of 35 looks like the person on the right.
Myth #4: Thin people have small bones, obese people have big bones

This is probably the funniest myth tbh. There’s no such thing as big bones. Let me
show you why. A stage with an x-ray screen was set up somewhere to advertise
that Love has no Label. Here’s the youtube
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnDgZuGIhHs You can see individuals
of various sizes and their bones with the x-ray screen. It’s pretty cool. The man on
the left is clearly obese (if not morbidly obese), and the man on the right is
overweight. The obese man’s bones are no bigger than the other man’s bones.
Myth #5: Water weight accounts for significant weight gain

This is also false. Yes, weight fluctuates regularly on a daily basis and water weight
can account for 10lbs of it…. but not 50lbs. If you are 50lbs overweight it’s not
because of water weight.

Myth #6: Some bodies don’t want to let go of fat

This idea literally defies Physics. There is no such thing as a body that does not let
go of fat. If you create a negative energy balance (calorie deficit), you will lose body
fat. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, it can only be transferred. So if you’re
using more energy than you store in the body, it’s only scientifically sound that you
will lose body fat. There is no other outcome. Someone who is overweight or obese
does not break physical laws.

Myth #7: People have a weight set point

This is also untrue because of the explanation for Myth #5. The illusion of a weight
set point exists because people revert back to their unhealthy habits. But if you
create a negative energy balance the weight will come off because Physics.