Calisthenics Unity

Hey,
i really enjoy being part of this forum and step by step i get to know more people. However i have no clue why you decided to train with your own bodyweight instead of training weights. I am looking forward to hear your storys and now i present you mine :-D

I thinki looked like mostly all of the teenagers very skinny at the age of 15. i bought a book called "You are your own gym" and trained with it. Damn, my friends made a big shitstorm about my training progress. "Oh why do you start with this? you only do it for the girls!" and they were somehow right. I started bodyweight training at the age of 15 because i wanted to look good and to impress girls. yeah that is right. Training with the book was very good, i started with 0 pull ups and 0 negative dips and developed a lot, i made my noob gains. Sadly i did not making the workouts to my habit, as a result i worked out for example 3 weeks but also had two weeks off. Today i do not miss this lost working out time because i enjoyed growing up with my friends, hanging out on the streets and so one.

At the age of 16 i found out about bar brothers. i watched their transformation videos and i was kind of shocked that perfomance like this is achievable. in the end i watched y bar brothers videos everyday but did not acutally work out. Maybe this sounds familiar to some of you :-D I read alot about fitness, watched a lot of videos and decided to start with freeletics. Freeletics kind of got famous around this time and you could watch tons of transformation videos on youtube and i decided to buy the program aswell. However i did not enjoy freeletics because you do not train after sets and reps, it is more like: 50 burpees, 50 pull ups, 100 push ups, 30 burpees, 30 pull ups, 50 push ups as fast as possible. I am pretty sure that it works out for tons of people, especialy if you want to tone your body or burn fat, but it was not a good choice for me. Maybe i also struggled doing freeletics because i played for 3 years volleyball in a team and i struggled doing both at the same time because i did not have enough time for both.

At the time my friends, who hated me in the beginning for working out, decided to go to the gym. I had one training at the gym and did not enjoy it at all. First argument: I do not know why but i think it is more impressive holding a lever than pushing a lot of weight. (i do not hate against weight lifting, friends of me look like hulks and they do weight lifting and are very cool guys). Second argument is that i have the opinion that the people at my age who actually went to the gym were very egoistic and i did not like their mindset, flexing the whole time in front of the mirror and yah i can not really describe it but i just did not feel comfortable next to these guys. Third argument: I love the idea of body weight exercises, you can progress in so many different ways instead of just changing the amount of weight and last but not least, you can somehow do it everywhere. you even do not need access to a bar ( s/o to elias :-P).

My heroes were the bar brothers, than they released the system and i was catched by the emotional trailer and directly bought the programm. Training with the programm was ok in the beginning but after a while it was completely bad for me because i did not progress fast enough as the bb expected in their programm. I could discuss about this topic endless because i also do not like circuit training and i think it is definitely limited and using the reps and sets system is 10000x better if you want to gain muscle mass and achieve skills. I finished the system after 5 weeks because i got injured and started it 2 weeks later again. like the first time i finished the system after week nr 5 because it was to much for me. i trained kickboxing 3 times the week aswell and i really got trouble with this high amount of working out.

Yeah, in march i am going to celebrate my 19 birthday :-D 2016 was a year with ups and downs (strengt training) because i focused on doing athletics and we had to swim at our school. In germany at the high school (gymnasium in german) we have to choose 3 higher level courses and i chose biology, englisch (hopeless case, i am one of the worst at my course :-D) and sports. In sport we have to atheltics, gymastics, athletics and swimming. I had to train for the tests and working out additionally was not possible for me. But since fall i am back at strength training (coupled it with swimming since 1 month for my last swimm test) and i feel very good about it. I gained also a lot of knowledge over the last year about training because we also discussed topics like this in school ( "training science").

my goals for the year 2017 are definitely the muscle up and one of the levers :-) at the moment i focus on doing the tucked holds and deep dips and the pull overs (great exercise :-D). I cannot focus so much on strength training like i want because i have my last tests in gymnastic and swimming at februrary :-D And after that is time for the beastmode haha:-D But i think it is going to be hard because we finsih our school at march and then it is time to celebrate with my friends :-D we want to go travelling aswell:-D and in august i am going to move to ghana for one volunteer year :-D We will see, maybe me and my school children in ghana are going to pass the CU requirements :-D

mhm, i ended up writing a whole play :-D but i needed it :-) looking forward to hear your story.
PS.: any usefull words for looking forward? :-D my english is so limited i always use the same vocab haha

I totally ignored christian and the calisthenic unity. I remember watching christians transformation video in january 2015. I did some home workouts at my room and the transformation video was playing at the same time, great motivation.I did not watched all his(your videos regulary but i am a very active follower since the "why i left BB video" . I defintely had the same opinion about bb like him/you and i was very disapointed from the programm aswell. i decided creating a account at this forum but i was not very active in the beginning, but now i really enjoy this forum :-) Chris, really keep up the good work :-) You really inspired me a lot and i am very happy that you seem very friendly and cool at your vlogs and stuff like that. your videos are not to exaggerated, very simple but with good humor and you appear like a boy who still kepts his feets on the ground although you gained so much fame over the last years :-D Also i do not know why, maybe because he/you is/are just a little bit older than me and soooo sympathic:-D but you are definitely my role model :-D

Hey Joker, awesome story man. I will tell my story in a nutshell. In 2011 I started playing basketball, I was fat so I lost the fat by playing basketball, that was till 2014, something (life) hit me, I became depressed and I isolated myself in my room and didn't do anything, just ate anything there was and I played video games, stopped going out, stopped playing basketball, only going out was going to school, that was it.. I had one attempt in October 2014 (Yes, I remember the date) to lose fat, I went running ONCE, not twice, once lol, and I started walking like 20 minutes with my mom and discussed about my depression & anxiety & stuff, well the reason I was walking out wasn't for fat loss, it was because my mom & dad yelled at me a lot to go out. Anyway, in such a short time (January 2014-June 2014) I had gained my fat back + more, like more than 25kg weight gain, when I had lost the fat I weighed 63, after I weighed 95kg+ (also got taller but still). In 2015 I had another attempt at basketball but I didn't have the motivation, but that was when I started searching for something.. It took me a long time, but I finally found it in 2016 - Bar Brothers, I found them by Chris when he was still in Bar Brothers, but I was just watching videos and still wasn't prepared to change my diet & workout lifestyle. I never thought I would go to the gym in my life, and I never have gone to the gym, I thought calisthenics would be the perfect thing for me. I would do some push ups here and then, but usually just watch the videos, so it wasn't my start, I also didn't have a pull up bar till March of 2016, but even when I had it, I was making excuses - "It's too cold" etc. So summer was my initial start of my journey (I started eating healthier a few months before though), however, I got injured so I had to rest almost the whole summer - till end of August. Of course I had some attempts to workout, I would workout once and rest 2 weeks or something (I know... Bad), I did running and legs & core occasionally but still not consistent. September I found a stretch that helped me cure my injury (some kind of forearm tendinitis), so that's when I really started training hard, I wasn't getting kicked-back by the injury, well at least rarely, on some occasions I still had to rest, I pushed hard whole September, I slacked off a bit October-November, but I got angry on myself and I started being extremely consistent at December, and have been very consistent ever since, even today it was like -13*C and there was 40cm snow, I did my Push & Pull. So yeah, that's pretty much it till now. I have achieved some hard exercises that I thought I'd never achieve - Straddle back lever (well 0.5s hold lol), one leg out front lever raises (fall down slowly, still can't hold it a lot, maybe a second), pistol squats, typerwiter pull ups, and I'm very close to the Regular muscle up, I'm waiting for a resistance band so I can practice it. I have lost over 15kg and have a little bit more to lose but I'm not rushing myself, I will recalculate my calories because I hit a little plateau once again haha. That's pretty much my story. Thanks to Chris I changed my life. Salute!

It's a lot more fun to me and it's what keeps me being active. :) Also It's given me great results and pushed me to keep moving forward :)

Great stories by Joker and Gligor. And great comment from Chris as well! Well, my story starts around 2010. I started playing basketball in 2010-2015. Getting big and ripped had never really been a priority, I kind of accepted the fact that, "This is who I am". But in November 2015 I found BarBrothers............BarBrothers changed my life. But more specifically, Chris H. Nielsen changed my life. I would watch his transformation video several times a day............every day. I bought the BarBrothers program and started in December 2015. I was skinny, I could barely do 3 chin-ups and 30 push-ups(a bit of experience because of P.E. in basketball). Don't ask me how because I don't know, but I finished the twelve weeks doing max reps and sets without missing a single workout. I took around 3 hours on every workout(a lot of rest time, but I did it!!!). The only thing I didn't do was muscle ups. I could do handstand push-ups though. Right after finishing it(I say a lot of impressive results) I bought Chris's program and started doing it from level 4 and up(you can check my thread and read all about my progress)! I immediately loved this program better than the last one. I got my first sloppy muscle up after 4 months of training calisthenics(and my regular one after 8-9 months). I loved the Forums right away from the start and tried to help when I could as well. Like last program, I've also been doing max sets and reps with this program(only exercise I don't do max sets and reps is muscle ups), I'm currently on levels 25-27. I really would have never imagined been a part of CU as I am now. I really try to stay humble because I know where I come from. My goal is simple and honest, Be the best you can be and help others to do so as well. I'm extremely grateful for everything that BarBrothers, and more specifically, Chris has done for me(he might not even imagine the change he did on my life). I'm honored to be a part of this community and I hope to be of service in many more years to come(if The Lord permits me to). All of my success I owe to the One who gives me the strength(both mentally and physically) to archive what I have. Thank you Gligor for being such a good friend to me. I know this year will be of great blessing to all of us and, of course, to the CU community. Salute!!!

The greatness from this forum is the constanst exchange with other people. i really enjoy it because at the moment i do my workouts alone in my room:-D so it is great still having friends around.

its because doing body weights is boring and calisthenics is fun !

excuse me? I think you just mean "weights" not "body weights" :-D

What a great thread! Personally, I was looking for something that would involve progression in terms of skill, in addition to other more traditional variables (endurance, strength, flexibility, agility, speed, etc). For example a seasoned runner compared to a beginner runner is just faster or can run longer. A seasoned bodybuilder compared to a beginner just does heavier weights. The difference is just in terms of performance on the SAME movements. In calisthenics, if you put me next to any one of you, the difference would be night and day, in terms not only of performance but also in terms of the movements that are available to you. Those who have been doing this for a while have a level of mastery over their bodies and lot more freedom in their movement and in how they can utilize their bodies than those who are starting. I enjoyed learning kettlebells for this reason, because it is so technical and can be adapted no matter the goal (strength, cardio, joint stability and flexibility) and I still try to incorporate a KB workout into my week if I find the time. On the other hand, the possible strength gains are limited, and in terms of progression, after a while (4-6 months), it's not so interesting as it is just about doing more reps, more rounds, or going heavier or shortening rest. Callisthenics on the other hand offer greater and greater options as one moves forward. It's that learning process that really attracted me to calisthenics, and it's the way that Christian organized the program into Levels that really attracted me to CU specifically. There are very concrete goals to work towards in the short and long run, guidance on how to get there, and the promise of something much greater every few levels or so! I again compare this to other sports activities. For example, a beginner rower and an advanced rower are both still rowing...
In terms of the core reason for working out, being older than many here, I have a family, including a young child, and owe it to them to be in good health. But at the moment i am weak and fat, and the doctor also recently reprimanded me after my medical check up!

My story was when i was in health class we started doing some workout activities and i really liked it so i started searching up stuff on youtube until i found this beautiful place

i always loved doing sports in a game (football, tennis, badminton, ...), but i hated doing it without a game. at the age of about 16 the doctors told me, that i am not allowed doing these sports anymore, because of my bad knee (since birth). i should do swimming instead, but i hate swimming. so i stopped all sporting activities, started smoking, drank a lot of alcohol and and ate fast food most of the time. in the following years my weight went up to 95kg. i didn't realise it, until some girl told me that i am fat :D

so, at the age of about 22 i did a very low carb diet (atkins) with a little HIT cardio and lost 20kg in 3 or 4 month. i was down to 75kg and held that weight for a few years. i tried going to the gym but it was just too hard to keep me motivated over time. so, about 8 years later, i was back on 90kg, not doing any sports at all.

but this time, i felt like changing my whole lifestyle and i had a lot of willpower. i stopped smoking, stopped drinking alcohol and i challenged myself with 15 weeks of freeletics (h.i.t. bodyweight excercises). i trained 4-5 times a week, no matter if it was raining or snowing and i got as fit as never before in my life. after the 15 weeks i had another try at the gym and it went ok this time. i trained 3 times a week, but after big improvements at the starts, they just stopped, which made my motivation decrease after time.

so i looked for a new challenge and did 6 month of crossfit. it was fun doing so many different excercises and i was able to improve myself a lot more, than i could do in the gym. i liked learning new moves and started doing some of them, that seemed impossible at the start. but there was also something i didn't like: a lot of momentum moves with weight. i started to have pain in my wrist and elbows, so i quit after 6 month. i felt ready to do my own thing. i was ready for real calisthenics!

i found bar brothers and tried their system. i failed badly in the first week and didn't feel ready for it. i found the free bar brothers groningen beginners plan. its based on levels like this one and takes 3-6 month and has the muscle up as a target at the end. after 3 months i could do muscle ups! i now felt ready for the system. i was fighting my way week for week, to get all reps done, no matter how long it would take. it was a big fight and i wouldn't say, that i lost it, but after 10 of 12 weeks i found chris' program and it just made so much more sense.

i quit the system and started at level 4. after 4 weeks i got up to level 14, where i failed doing one armed pushups. but it didn't feel like a fail, it felt more like a challenge and i was ready to take it! learning new moves and seeing my improvements over time is like a game to me. so, i am back at the point (sports = game = fun) where i stopped 20 years ago and this really helps me beeing motivated in the long term!

i want to thank this fun and helpful community and chris for sharing his awesome training plan!

Really great thread the thing is I still watch everything till nowadays which is a problem because you look into the other people's life thinking that's what they do, until you don't achieve anything because there's a lot behind the scenes. Can really relate to this post same as being near the same goals which are the muscle-up and the lever. Keep focusing on yourself and spread the positive vibes.

Yeah :-) I live in Landau i.d. Pfalz :-)
Where do you come from? :-D

Ja, da hast du recht, ist immer ein bisschen anstrengend Englisch zu denken :-D

I spent some time reading all these stories but it was worth it. I love knowing somebody's stories and how did they start doing calisthenics, because calisthenics is live man. I think we all know, we all love calisthenics and it's so much fun. I love working out and i'm always waiting for the workout time. I don't have anything against the weight's guys, but i think they all miss the fun within bodywheight training. I loved reading all of these comments and stories and i'm looking foward to know more about you guys. Well i'm a begginer and i don't have that much of a story. Some friends told me that i was too skinny and little for my age because i ate like the least i could eat for a day, like 1000 calories a day. They said "why don't you go to a GYM and get massive?", but i don't wanted to get big, just shredded so i started looking for alternatives, and find some videos on youtube of calisthenics transformations, one of them was Chris's, so i started working out, and i had a lot of fun with the bars, it's been like 1 year now. I figured that out very late... I was 18 years old, i'm 19 now... i don't know any calisthenics only person in my country, i told some of my friends that it's really fun, but they decided to weight training. Well, that's life. Sorry about the long post. Hope we can get along. I will buy the workout program as soon as i have a credit card, so wait for me :P. Salute!