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Bodyweight Bodyweight Fitness Program 2

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IcyROM

Level 2 Valued Member
Hello I am interested in building strength and muscular mass with calisthenics. I have tried various programs but not very good results so I can use help from experienced members. I would like to develop a strong fit and capable body like this video:



I was recommended by other experienced members from the forum to attempt Overcoming Gravity and I am very excited to follow this advice to progress. Here is a routine that I designed from the book:

Monday/Thursday
1) Warm up
2) Handstands (10 min)
3A) Pseudo Planche Pushups 3 x 8-12 reps
3B) Front Lever Rows 3 x 8-12 reps
4A) Pike Push up 3 x 8-12 reps
4B) L sit Pullup 3 x 8-12 reps
5A) Weighted Pistol Squat 3 x 8-12 reps
5B) Ring L sit 60 s total
6) Prehab and stretch

Tuesday/Saturday
1) Warm up
2) Handstands (10 min)
3A) Pseudo Planche Pushups 5 x 3-5 reps
3B) Front Lever Rows 5 x 3-5 reps
4A) Wall HSPU 5 x 3-5 reps
4B) Assisted OACU 5 x 3-5 reps
5A) Weighted Pistol Squat 5 x 3-5 reps
5B) Ring L sit 60 s total
6) Prehab and stretch

Any advice is appreciated and thank you. Bye.
 
Q1: Can you execute each of those exercises today, or is this something to aspire to?
Q2: do you have progressions planned?
 
Q1: Can you execute each of those exercises today, or is this something to aspire to?
Q2: do you have progressions planned?
Q1: Yes I can do all the exercises I wrote. I would be tucked for front lever rows.
Q2: The plan is to make the exercises harder if I can get the maximum repetitions in the ranges I wrote. I think this is what the book would want people to do.

Thanks and good bye
 
You are surely more progressed along than I,

but I think that you might have too much volume going on in your weekly schedule. I think you could progress on much less work if you picked a #1 goal that was specific and then stuck to it until you reached it.

What are you specifically trying to achieve?

I see a lot of people that read overcoming gravity, come up with a rather complex routine, and then never end up sticking to it because Lowe's system is ultimately too complicated. Or worse, get injured, because they tried to teach themselves complicated gymnastics moves through a book.

I might catch flack for this, but I don't think that you can learn, program, and succeed at gymnastics just by reading and applying overcoming gravity.. Overcoming gravity is frequently read / cited, and then touted as "everything you need to make your own gymnastics program". But I'm not buying it. I think overcoming gravity simply sets up the average individual for burnout and injury. I've just never once seen it work.


I'd be all ears if anyone could show me ONE honest "Overcoming Gravity" success story that didn't end in "then I got injured and had to stop training for a while ..and ultimately switch to another system"
...

I'm sorry if this sounds negative. I'm just tired of these "learn gymnastics from the internet!" routines that are promoted as safe and effective training.. you know the ones... 30 minutes of pre-hab, 60 minute workout with 8+ different exercises, and then more prehab.. oh and get this... most of them prescribe traditional weight training for the legs as well!

Just like Pavel says in Naked Warrior (to paraphrase), it is a professional's job to decide which exercises are appropriate (and that means safe, too!) for their students..

off in a fluff
 
Al Kavadlo has a programming book called "Get Strong" which has to be good, because he walks the talk. Also, his "Raise the Bar" - which is something that struck a chord with me.

Chinups, pullups, leg raises, dips, running, one arm pushups, see if you can do some pistols.
 
You are surely more progressed along than I,

but I think that you might have too much volume going on in your weekly schedule. I think you could progress on much less work if you picked a #1 goal that was specific and then stuck to it until you reached it.

What are you specifically trying to achieve?

I see a lot of people that read overcoming gravity, come up with a rather complex routine, and then never end up sticking to it because Lowe's system is ultimately too complicated. Or worse, get injured, because they tried to teach themselves complicated gymnastics moves through a book.

I might catch flack for this, but I don't think that you can learn, program, and succeed at gymnastics just by reading and applying overcoming gravity.. Overcoming gravity is frequently read / cited, and then touted as "everything you need to make your own gymnastics program". But I'm not buying it. I think overcoming gravity simply sets up the average individual for burnout and injury. I've just never once seen it work.


I'd be all ears if anyone could show me ONE honest "Overcoming Gravity" success story that didn't end in "then I got injured and had to stop training for a while ..and ultimately switch to another system"
...

I'm sorry if this sounds negative. I'm just tired of these "learn gymnastics from the internet!" routines that are promoted as safe and effective training.. you know the ones... 30 minutes of pre-hab, 60 minute workout with 8+ different exercises, and then more prehab.. oh and get this... most of them prescribe traditional weight training for the legs as well!

Just like Pavel says in Naked Warrior (to paraphrase), it is a professional's job to decide which exercises are appropriate (and that means safe, too!) for their students..

off in a fluff

Thank you for your response.

What I am specifically trying to achieve is still the same goals I wrote in my post. I want to develop strength in calisthenics and develop muscular mass and fitness.

I bought and read Overcoming Gravity because it was recommended to me from other poster in this forum. And it has very high and good reviews on Amazon so I figured it was a good choice. That is all

If you have a better recommended program I can take a look but i feel bad since I already buy this one only to hear it doesn't work for people.
 
Al Kavadlo has a programming book called "Get Strong" which has to be good, because he walks the talk. Also, his "Raise the Bar" - which is something that struck a chord with me.

Chinups, pullups, leg raises, dips, running, one arm pushups, see if you can do some pistols.
I have used Raised the Bar and did not find much hypertrophy from the training. Al is very strong but seems very lean so maybe his training is not meant to build muscular physique.

I have not read Get Strong but I am willing to try. What were your results using this program?

Thank you very much for the help
 
I have used Raised the Bar and did not find much hypertrophy from the training. Al is very strong but seems very lean so maybe his training is not meant to build muscular physique.

I have not read Get Strong but I am willing to try. What were your results using this program?

Thank you very much for the help
I was only able to play with the program for a month alongside S&S (reduced S&S for that month) and I got into level 3 of 4 of it. If you're talking getting "big" well then, no, I didn't notice that. As for getting better at the moves, yes of course.

I do not dispute the excellence of the program for what it's goals are (strength with minimal equipment), but if you're already doing S&S, and have access to other equipment (like parallell bars, for instance, which interestingly are NOT featured in the program, since he figures people will tend not to have access to them - I asked him about this and he said I could substitute the handstands, which I hate, for dips on my parallel bars) it's hard to see the need for most of it, since there are quite a lot of reps of a lot of moves. Still, if I was not inclined to amass so much equipment as I have, and/or had to travel a lot, I could see his program doing the trick brilliantly and paving the way towards remarkable physical skills.

But I see things like you - I am heavy, at 100kg, so callisthenics for me is a much heavier affair - lower reps, more use for isometric holds, etc, and more rapid strength gains in absolute terms.
 
I have used Raised the Bar and did not find much hypertrophy from the training. Al is very strong but seems very lean so maybe his training is not meant to build muscular physique.

I have not read Get Strong but I am willing to try. What were your results using this program?

Thank you very much for the help

I do own "Get Strong" its okay but in-general im not really that impressed. I relies heavily on pull-ups and pushups for your upper body and bridges and pistols for lower body. for hypertrophy pull ups are great but bridge/pistols are not optamal by a long shot. as far a strength is concerned I haven't done GS but I've done simular things and found that your upper body is fine and lower body kinda lags behind a smidge.
 
@IcyROM

didn't mean to discourage you mate..

I'd be interested in hearing about what you have been doing to reach the level you are currently at, which is quite impressive...

I think no matter which program you choose you will succeed, as you have in the past
 
I think no matter which program you choose you will succeed, as you have in the past
I don't think I have succeeded in a long time. For about 8 months I have been trying a few recommended programs but poor results. That's why I ask for help with my program.

I read in OG that level 5-6 (Intermediate) trainers are usually stuck there for many years because they don't follow suitable programs or keep doing beginner programs or lack of consistency. That is definitely me and it is scary how he knows haha.

So that's why when I as about programs I don't want just suggestions but people with experience who did the training and saw results because many times I follow programs people did not even try themselves and then poor results.

But any ways I will try this one for the next 3 months and then maybe come back to this thread and update
 
@IcyROM
Your plan looks good to me for strength and mass. If you find that it is too much work per week (my only concern is doing the Tuesday without a rest day after the Monday) you could always switch to 3 days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday), and switch between the two workouts above:
Monday - workout A
Wednesday - workout B
Friday - workout A
And then the week after you could flip it:
Monday - B
Wednesday - A
Friday - B

Just a thought, and you may find that your proposed plan leaves plenty of recovery for you with 3 days off per week.
 
I do own "Get Strong" its okay but in-general im not really that impressed. I relies heavily on pull-ups and pushups for your upper body and bridges and pistols for lower body. for hypertrophy pull ups are great but bridge/pistols are not optamal by a long shot. as far a strength is concerned I haven't done GS but I've done simular things and found that your upper body is fine and lower body kinda lags behind a smidge.
Two other things to say is that the author did not get to where he is following a set program (which is why it was a long time before he designed one like this for those who need one to follow), and it attempts to do everything with minimal equipment. Also, don't forget the conditioning aspects of it, which explain the high reps and the variety of movements. It seemed pretty good to me for what it is meant for, but since I have equipment, I will make use of it.

I like being heavy, since in absolute terms bodyweight training makes me much stronger than lighter guys doing the same moves. I also don't think I need to aim for quite as many reps as they do, meaning bodyweight training is easier for me to do than for them.

I'm no callisthenics or anything expert, but my body tells me that running is as real as you can get for "lower body" training (it's really full body).

But heck, bodyweight training and a few kettlebells (24, 32kg), or even just one kettlebell (a 24kg most likely) and you're all set!
 
I have been training now for with this routine now trhee weeks and it feels fine. I did three times a week and it feels like good exercise and doesn't feel too much fatigue. Soreness first week but now less of it. But I do not improve very fast on the FL rows and on the PPPUs but seem to improve on the L-sit and Pistol weighted squats ok.

What exactly am I doing wrong? A person with experience with this routine or that knows of it well could be helpful. I am very open to any help.

Thank you very much.
 
You can learn two languages at the same time with some effort but once you have aquired a certain amount of words you have to decide...otherwise you end up with speaking none of the two fluently.
 
You can learn two languages at the same time with some effort but once you have aquired a certain amount of words you have to decide...otherwise you end up with speaking none of the two fluently.

“Never half-a#@ two things, whole-a#@ one thing” - Ron Swanson
 
I have been training now for with this routine now trhee weeks and it feels fine. I did three times a week and it feels like good exercise and doesn't feel too much fatigue. Soreness first week but now less of it. But I do not improve very fast on the FL rows and on the PPPUs but seem to improve on the L-sit and Pistol weighted squats ok.

What exactly am I doing wrong? A person with experience with this routine or that knows of it well could be helpful. I am very open to any help.

Thank you very much.

For the PPPUs are you measuring where your hands and feet are? If not, you may have made progress without realising.
 
For the PPPUs are you measuring where your hands and feet are? If not, you may have made progress without realising.
I do yes I am continuing to stuck at 120 cm for 2 weeks now. It's a very hard exercise haha.

You can learn two languages at the same time with some effort but once you have aquired a certain amount of words you have to decide...otherwise you end up with speaking none of the two fluently.
I am not sure what this means. I studied english but very long years ago. I try to use Google translate for writing also.

I think in the future if I have time I can enroll in an English conversational course and become more fluent but job is busy currently so I cannot yet.

Thank you for the help and I apologize for the bad English.
 
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