Calisthenics Unity

Hello CU and happy new year!!
I was previously following, and posting on, another member's thread, having just joined CU and starting at zero as a complete beginner. Seeing as it's the new year, and also because I fell off the wagon these last 3 weeks (due to a crazy work schedule... followed by consecutive bouts of colds/flu!), i thought i'd start my own thread this time to keep myself accountable. The three-week break made me lose almost all of my gains (levels 1-5, plus 3 kgs lost, in about 6-7 weeks) but the setback might be a blessing in disguise as I bought rings and discovered after attempting level 6 a couple of times that learning the false grip would be a huge asset going forward. So I'll be starting from scratch again, not moving forward until I learn that false grip, which i'm having a lot of trouble developing the necessary strength for.
I'll aim to post every other week. My current short-term goal: reach intermediate level, and lose 10kgs, within the next 6 months. Big thanks to NewToTheGame, Gligor, Daniel, Yehia and others here for the support so far!
Anyway, Level 1 here i come (again)!

Hey man! Yea I remember you.
I recently posted a video in a thread (Daniel's thread), about muscle memory and how if you workout for 2 months and make some gains, and then stop working out and lose the gains and start again you will get the gains back (make gains) much quicker than it took you the first time, that's why I tell people that they shouldn't worry if they took a break. I have a winter break from school and before the winter break I said "I'm gonna use all 3 weeks for working out (and other stuff of course), but I won't miss a day of working out: calisthenics & cardio, and I will have a good nutrition", and guess what. I got a cold, but I still workout haha. Anyway, that's because my mindset is stronger than it was, I'm coming off of a 2 year depression & anxiety (kinda like a teenager depression), so my mind wasn't strong at all, it was like 0 literally, so it took me a long time to just get a strong mindset, you know instead of working out I was just watching calisthenics videos and replying to threads here with the information I knew, I was also injured so that had another impact. Anyways, a false grip is a hard thing to get, especially if you're overweight - everything will be much harder in calisthenics, but you will make stronger gains in my opinion because you have this more weight pressuring the muscles when you do the exercises. About the false grip, I don't know if you will do the full false grip where you're standing on the wrist bone and make a fist or just dig your wrist & fingers as forward as you can in the rings and do it like that, I think that was a pseudo false grip but I'm not sure. One thing, I tried the full false grip on a pull up bar and I kinda got a little injury so whatever you do be careful, make sure you strengthen and stretch the wrists day by day. You will get it, just do some research on it.
You will reach intermediate level in 6 months, I am actually training for half a year and I have reached:
Push - Level 13 (Waiting on a resistance band for better muscle ups, I can almost do one without a resistance band though)
Pull - Level 18 (Failed at the L-Sit Pull ups)
Legs & Core - Level 19 (I will try level 20 on both in a few days, I've been going back levels to test my strength)

Second goal, lose 10 kg, that's very possible, like I said when I started I was at least 94kg if not even more, and now I'm 80kg, so I've lost 14kg in a bit over half a year (I started with better nutrition before actual calisthenics).
Easiest way to lose fat is to stop eating unhealthy foods that are full of empty calories that won't help you in the long term (refined sugar that makes you want to eat more, unhealthy fat that makes them delicious and want you to eat more and lowers testosterone levels). Small changes day by day make the big changes year by year. It takes time, even if you don't hit your goals in the next 6 months (but I'm sure you will!!!), don't get discouraged - if you are better than you were a day ago, a month ago, a year ago, there's no need to feel discouraged man! Go get it! SALUTE!

Hey Fed,
great to hear from you. Gligor already answered very detailed so i just want to add that buying rings was a very cool move from you. i bought last year rings and thought, damn, i am going to use them in every workout and make 2016 to my transformation year. Of course i did not use them in every workout because i was sooo frustrated, i could do 10 normal dips at this time and with the rings zero, really zero reps because you need this balance which is not really developed until this point. oh i hated the rings and did not use them for the whole year:-D But i found them this winter again and started to include them in my workouts. at the moment i use them for training the support holds and i use them for the australian pull ups :-) So do not get frustrated :-D you will realise that training with the rings is harder than excepted but it will bring you the well earned gains :-D! keep up the good work, salute!

good to hear ! And remember how important wrist flexibility is for the false grip if you don't already know! :)
You might have the strength, but not the flexibility, and then you're not gonna learn it if you just keep practising strength.

Guys, thanks so much for the incredible responses. Two workouts in, and miserable fail both times with this grip. Imagine failing on the australian pull ups with rings at mid-chest level, with a very, very humble incline! Pathetic... This will take a while!! And Joker, dips are still far away on the rings for me as well lol. My whole body shakes when in the top position, and i can barely only hold that for 2-3 seconds or so, let alone even attempting the dip. I'll experiment with different routines to get me back to more or less where i was before, while creating time (maybe on rest days?) to really focus on getting basic strength for my false grip and lengthening my holds in top position on the ring. It is definitely frustrating to start again, but I'll be happy the day i master them.

Gligor, i always appreciate the perspective and knowing that someone in a similar position has blown those two goals out of the water already is great motivation. Now i feel even more accountable for achieving at least that! I'm also glad that getting into this helped you overcome the funk you experienced before. That's what hard work and achievement tend to do. ;) In terms of muscle memory, i was surprised. My max reps before the interruption were 3 1/2 pull ups and 9 dips. I tried again today (on just one set) and am at 2 pull ups and 6 dips after a full 3 week pause. This is keeping in mind that 6 weeks prior to that, even a negative pull up was a struggle for life and i couldn't do a single dip. Gravity's not the greatest ally when you're overweight, i agree! In terms of the false grip, i think the rings are maybe less stressful on the joints than bars, because your shoulders can rotate to adapt, while the rings themselves are mobile (outwards/inwards, forwards/backwards). This might explain why you were suceptible to injury if you were attempting different types of movement using a false grip on bars? Finally, regarding diet, I think this is where I suspect I'll have the most questions, but i know what to do at least for the first 5-6kgs or so.

Joker - Thanks man. There's something about the rings - maybe the sense of freedom - that really appeals to me and I am definitely excited by the prospect of progressing on them. But i think at later levels, making more strength gains may require focusing more on bars. We'll see. The other advantage of rings is their portability. I travel a lot for work, and the rings will increase my chances of finding something to hang from in hotels, even there is no gym in the hotel.

Christian - I did NOT know that haha. Will incorporate flexibility into the warmups!

Hey mate. Looking forward to follow you here! My back is slowly getting better, and I've started to regain strength once again. Thank you for the great motivation when I got injured, really helped me out!
- NewToTheGame