Skeering

WTF is wrong with this stupid site??? Why wont that link show up as a thumbnail > Anyway there's my latest update!

God sorry everyone I'm terrible at updating this diary. Right now I am doing a full body workout every 48 hours. I was inspired by Overcoming Gravity (Steven Low). Negative Handstand Push Ups: 4x7 sec Chin ups/Pull up variations Assisted One arm push ups Rows Leg raises Squats Bridges/L-sits/twists Then I do a lot of static stretch work for my front and side splits especially. I wish to eventually work toward a press handstand but first I want to obtain handstand push ups, one arm push ups, one leg pistol squats, Full leg raises. Steven Low recommends 3x8-10 reps for each exercise and 2 push/pull/leg movements. I am mostly going for 2x10 before progressing the exercises, but for some uneven work I half that in order to compensate for the additional work needed. It's going really well! Getting stronger like clockwork. I still use the CC progressions but I am using a different approach with WAY more volume. Two guys suggested that to me here a while ago am I am finally listening I'll come back to updating this diary again, truth be told I had given up on it, but I will start again. Sorry @Riky did I answer your question? I don't do explosives anymore, my body wont be able for them until I am stronger I think, maybe in 6 months. I am going for 2x10 in each progression before advancing it.

Thanks, I'm doing the 50-500 reps range on them to finish up healing my left wrist. I'm quite excited about the squats though, I think I'll finally get my pistol pretty soon.

Resistance Day Counterweight 6KG Pistol Squats (positive only): 3x5 both sides Straddle split practice for 10 mins Hundreds of low intensity pull ups and push ups Next time I'll add in the negatives for the pistols. Here's my latest vlog

They are hard aren't they? My biggest hurdle is getting enough air time to really squeeze in my legs to my chest. GOOD DAY OF TRAINING TODAY Resistance Day Tuck Jumps: 8 Straight Bridges: 40, 40, 40 (up from 40, 26, 22 last week) Pop Ups: 2×5 Crowstands: 40sec, 45sec, 60sec Headstand: 90sec Elevated Dips: 15, 15 Had a great day training. I improved vastly in straight bridges this week. The three sets of 40 I got today means it’s time to leave the exercise and start working with something harder, angled bridges will be my next tormentor! I was only supposed to go for 30 sec on crow stands today, but I’ve been practicing it all week since I know it’s more skill based for me at this time since I have the strength necessary. On my third set I just got 60 sec which is ALSO progression standard I might advance to handstands next week or stay with crows a bit longer, I haven’t decided yet. I always add in dips on Fridays since my upperbody work is isometric right now. I was surprised to find that I could do 15,15 today first time. I guess that means I’ll advance that to “Feet up Parallel Bar Dips” next week. Really trilled with how today went! And last night I went out to a pub, stayed up till past midnight and (had a glass of wine ) So many smile faces in this post, that’s a good sign! NEW VIDEO THIS WEEKEND

Resistance Day Explosive Push Ups Uneven Chin Ups: 7/7, 7/7 Tuck Jumps: 2, 2, 2 Assisted Pistol Squats: 10/10, 10/10 One Arm Hangs: 45sec each side Clutch Hangs: 1 second each side Calf Raises (straight legs, half ROM); 75, 75, 75, 75 I’m amazed how fast my chin ups have improved in one week. After taking 2 weeks off them I regained my strength today, next week I’m hoping to make a new PR Tuck Jumps were good, I’ll stick them out for another few weeks as the next step is quite hard. Squats were really good, aligning your legs in pistols is a bit*h though

Resistance Day Uneven Push Ups on Basketball: 13, 13 (both sides) Hanging Frog Raises: 11, 9 Fingertip push ups One arm hangs: 35sec both sides Man it feels good to do my first proper chest workout in 2 weeks. What feels the most affected is actually my rear delts, the demands for stabilization from the rotator cuff in this exercise is huge. I think it’s really going to prepare me very well for one arm push ups in a few months. My technique is slowly improving in frog raises, I am going to work this exercise 2 times a week for the next while, Mon and Fri, just to see what happens, it feels like I will be fine with the workload. As expected my grip strength dropped a lot, but it will come back very quickly I’m sure, like before I plan on working it 3 times a week. I don’t expect pull up day to be great this Wednesday due to my reduced grip strength, but it’ll come back in a week I’m sure. All in all, it’s great to be working out upper body again. I’m going to go slow with push ups this step (step 7 from Convict Conditioning) and try just adding a rep each week.

Let me Quote Al Kavadlo here... One of my favorite Buddhist quotes says, “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who has said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own experience.” I believe this to be some of the best advice ever given. There is nothing that I trust more than my own reason and firsthand experience... Don’t assume that just because the experts agree on a given concept or practice that it must be right for you. Following dogmatic principles can often mean the opposite of trusting your own experience and that can get you into trouble. Anyone who disregards their real life experience because it conflicts with “the way things are supposed to be” is making a huge mistake... When faced with information that doesn’t mesh with your own experience, logic or intuition, proceed with caution. I train to be strong, robust and healthy. I train to make day-to-day physical tasks easier. I train for enjoyment. Gymnasts train to win—oftentimes at the expense of their health and fitness. Competitive athletics are funny like that. Professional athletes are the fittest people in the world, but they are frequently forced to train through injuries. Many wind up pushing their bodies beyond what they can safely handle. The irony is that these people may get to be the best in the world for a brief, shining moment, but will often suffer for it later. The higher the high, the lower the low. I don't see CC as the only approach to fitness, I just do it because I think it's fun and I couldn't care less what I look like as long as I progress, which I am. Thanks for the critique though! Resistance Day My wrist feel kind of achy, but it goes away whenever I get blood into it, for this reason I think it’s best for me to start exercising properly again, here we go! (I will leave out fingertip push ups, clapping push ups and flags for now though). Skipping warmup Slap Tuck Jumps: 2, 2, 2 (getting used to the technique) Headstand: 2mins (progression reached, will start crow stand now) Straight Bridges: 20, 20 (intermediate standard reached) Trifecta: I got half twist today easily. It was REALLY easy, all that work the last 2 weeks has really payed off. The only thing I’ll say is that straight bridges was really hard mentally. I have to try do 40, 40, 40 next week, so that’ll be torture, my calf muscles are still sore from Wednesday…

Why so hostile? I've never insulted you or tried to convince you that you need to change. If we all have something which works for us then what's the problem exactly?

Good luck in your Academy course! Will you still be posting after you've started?

Hey man! I am 28 and a dude lol... we have a lot in common. I turned plant based a few months ago and vegan around a month ago. My cholesterol went from 11.3 to 4 in a couple of weeks. (or 440-150 in American terms). My knee pain in my left leg also went away, which I believe was because of my uric acid going down. Good luck!

Resistance Day Slap Tuck Jumps: 2, 2, 2 Assisted Pistol Squats: 4 on Right, 5 on left Straight half Calf Raises: 65, 65, 65, 65 Horizontal Rows: 10, 6 Trifecta: 20 second hold on half twists (both sides) Really made great progress on squats. My squats look like this now… BTW I now know my left leg is stronger (vastly so) which is weird since I’m right footed. I actually got stronger in horizontal rows despite taking 1-2 weeks off from upper body training. It makes me think you’re 500% more likely to overtrain than undertrain. I finally got really good at half twists, my spine/shoulders are really thanking me

Resistance Day Butt Kick Jumps: 2, 2, 2, 2 Assisted Pistol Squats (2 Chairs): 20, 20 (both sides) Trifecta and wrist conditioning exercises. I'll make squats harder next week and get rid of one chair. If my wrist feels good by Monday I'll resume normal training, otherwise I'll work around it with mostly lower body.

Resistance Day Block Jumps: 1x6 Butt Kick Tuck Jumps: 2, 2, 2 Assisted Pistol Squats (with two chairs): 2 sets of 10 either side – Intermediate Standard Reached Calf Raises (straight with half ROM): 60x4 sets Flexibility Training Twists – Today I warmed up for ages and progressed further than ever before. I actually held a full twist on both sides! However, I wasn't happy with the form, so I'm going to go back a bit and regroup with better form. The reason I skipped pull ups today is because I'm not happy with my wrists. They need a few days to heal and uneven pull ups would be asking for trouble. I'm not even going to do push ups, headstands, straight bridges, hanging leg raises, or horizontal rows, they ALL use the wrists. So I'm going to focus on only lower body for the next week. Loads of squats, calf raises and jumps. I'm also going to use the time to work on my flexibility, hence why I spent so long on twists today. I'm seeing it as a blessing in disguise. When I'm better next week, I am going to skip all extra forearm work such as my fingertip push ups, hangs and flags. When I'm 100% I'll build up slowly again. For now, it's SQUATTIN' TIME

Resistance Day Clapping Push Ups: 3, 3 Uneven Push Ups: 10, 10 (intermediate standard Reached) Butt Jumps: 3, 3 Hanging Frog Raises: 11, 7 (I need to rest more between sets and add in drop knee sets) One Arm Hangs: 30sec (worse than last week, I think my wrists need some rest, and my bar a new grip)

Rest Day Walking: 40mins Half Twists: 3 sets 20 seconds So my twists are nearly perfect now, I have a flexible left side, but my right needs work. If anyone's interested I summarised my training the last month here. I even tried to put in some explanation for anyone who doesn't understand Convict Conditioning. WHY DOESN'T THAT LINK SHOW UP AS A VIDEO????

Resistance/Cardio Day Skipping rope: 15mins Horizontal Rows: 10, 7 Man I need to work on skipping backwards, it's so much harder than skipping forward for me. I'm getting my crossovers pretty good now though I got 8, 4 in rows last week. So this is a huge strength increase in just one week. However its been many months since I've done them (concentrated on pull ups) so I'm sure this is neurological strength kicking in mostly. I'll try aim for 2 sets of 12-15 reps before I make the exercise harder by using a close grip to toughen up my arms more.

The idea with Convict Conditioning is that you condition your tendons, joints and ligaments alongside your muscles. In other words, just because you CAN do more reps, doesn't mean you should. It's explained at such depth in the book that I can't summerise it here. But basically they adapt slower than your muscles, and need time to catch up in order to avoid pain, the training style supposedly allows that. I know it sounds crazy, and it could be Bul**hit, but hey, it does encourage patience at least, which is something I think most fitness enthusiasts lack. If it ever stops working I'll change the routine though, but so far it's worked really well.

Resistance Day Pop Ups, Clapping Push Ups: 3, 3 Headstand: 60 seconds Block Jumps: 1×6 Straight Bridges: 20, 10 Straight Dips: 15, 15 Diagonal Spilt Clutch Flag: 10 second static hold either side I met intermediate standard in headstands today. I also met progression standard in clutch flag step 2. That means I’ll try step 3 next week (the diagonal tuck clutch). I used more depth in my power push ups in order to build more strength in the long term (in the bottom position especially). I think this will ultimately help my ability in this area, rather than using 1/3 depth like I have been doing. Straight dips went well, so I’ll elevate my feet next week and then keep on keeping on until I master straight bar dips (a prerequisite for muscle ups). Hopefully my chest will blow up in the path to getting there I’m going to progress the block jumps, I can’t see myself getting much more from working on them. From here on out I’ll be working on tucking for my jumps. I forgot the feeling of blood rushing to your head in inverted work, phew, it feels fantastic!

I do add volume. Last week I did 10 assisted pistols, today it was 30, next week it'll be 40, then I'll go for 80 before trying a harder exercise, however many weeks that takes. Have you ever read convict conditioning? It's the approach I use. I have read Pavel's also, but I don't like it as much. Hannibal for King seems a little unfounded to me personally. I actually have my one year transformation pics here if you'd like to see? I think I gained at least 10lbs of muscle, but it's hard to say The biggest difference was my back, but that's not surprising for a calisthenics dude. http://s11.postimg.org/48eh2pqdv/1_year_transformation_take_1.png Resistance Day Clapping Push Ups: 3, 3 Uneven Pull ups: 8,8 7,6(+1) Block Jumps: 1x6 Assisted pistols (with two chairs): 10,10 5,5 Straight Half Calf Raises: 55, 55, 55, 55 Got one extra rep on pull ups this week! Although I'm a bit worried about becoming a "rep chaser" to be honest. Progression is two sets of 9, so I'm not too far off. I really need to make sure form is perfect, but it's so hard on these unilateral pull ups. I'll be working on these for many a month I think, especially considering the next step only uses one arm I can feel my legs responding to this exercise, and so far my knees and feet are healthy and strong. Since I've had issues with my legs this year I am going slow here. I'll go for 10, 10 next week and then 20, 20 before I try a harder exercise.

They really are awesome! This is what I did today. Rest Day Trifecta aka... Straight bridges (two 10 second holds) N-Holds (four 5 second holds) Half Twists (two 20 second holds)

because you've been losing muscle mass and just added calories... Hey thanks for the advice, what you've said makes sense in one way, but in another it doesn't in my brain. I'm just going to keep the exercise program the same and enjoy the extra food as it helps me recover and have more energy.

Why would I increase my volume when I'm making progress every week?

100% Agree, my goal now is to just eat at TDEE and stay lean whilst improving. Funny actually, I know you think this is a bad thing, but it's something I love about calisthenics, you improve constantly while you bulk and cut, as your strength/bodyweight ratio keeps improving. It makes cutting hard to gauge, but I hope to avoid the bulk/cut cycle now. I only gained that weight because of depression in my old job honestly. Resistance Day Clapping Push Ups: 3, 3 Uneven Push Ups: 10, 5 (both sides) Jumps: Skipped Hanging Frog Raises: 10, 10 (Intermediate Standard Reached yeah!!!) Close Grip Fingertip Push Ups: 5, 5 One Arm Hangs: 45 sec each side. The uneven push ups are surprisingly brilliant. They put huge work onto your wrist, rotator cuff and chest. My triceps are actually the strong link in the pushing chain for a change, probably because I just finished working on close grip push ups (which took 5 months!) I made progress in one arm hangs also, the goal here is three sets of one minute. The big news though… I’ve been eating vegan for over a week now and hanging frog raises have improved significantly! Since I started eating vegan this is the only exercise I’ve had a chance to push myself hard in and go for maximum reps, and I got WAY stronger! The next test will be pull ups on Wednesday. The increased calories (by 250) are also helping, but at least I know now that I can progress on the diet if I keep it up.

Yeah you're probably right about the body fat % being incorrect. Although I am very careful using my calipers. My carbs and salt intake are really high, so I reckon I could easily lose another 3-4 pounds of water if I cut them out, it might make the second photo appear closer to sub 10% fat. Initially I lost an extra pound of lean mass the first week which was water. So that counted towards the "muscle" loss. I'm not totally sure my measurements are accurate! The thing about bodyweight is you always improve whether you are loosing weight or gaining it (at TDEE or clean bulk). Since I'm not a bodybuilder, I don't care about loosing muscle as much as I care about improving my strength/weight ratio. I'm just enjoying the journey! Anyway, I'm going to eat at TDEE for a while and just concentrate on improving now Anyway, it's a big improvement over before. Thanks for the advice! I reckon I lost around 2 pounds of muscle honestly, the thing is, it all happened in the last few weeks, the body doesn't really like getting cut does it? Lol it sucks being natural...