Calisthenics Unity

First and foremost, welcome to the movement. I'm glad you've started working out. Keep posting your progress and any questions/doubts that you may have. I hope you reach the gains that you want to help inspire many brothers and sisters around the world. Do your best and remember.................BE THE BEST YOU CAN BE!!! Calisthenics Unity ALL DAY EVERYDAY!!! Salute!!!

Keep it up ! Glad to have you here!

Welcome bro. Calisthenics is a great way to get in shape. Good job on getting the pull ups. From 1 pull up it will go to 10, 15 and so on, same with every exercise. Give it all you got, and as a beginner make sure you warm up really good and do stretches, you really don't wanna get injured in the beginning. Like Daniel said, any questions you have, we're a good movement and we try to help you. Go get it man!

Thank you for the advice bro! Definitely going to make sure I warm up good!

sounds great !

Hey man! Welcome. I hope you will reach your results with hard work. I was overweight as well. I was 95KG at one point if not even more, now I'm sitting at 80KG, looking to go down to 76KG (last few kilos), so around 19kg (95 - 75). A bit of things that happened in my journey that might happen to overweight people:
-You will do less reps than if you were at your ideal weight, but you will use more muscle mass hence more gains.
-Progressing to harder exercises will take you much more effort than a person that is 10% body fat or so. If it takes the person with 10% body fat 4-5 months to do a muscle up, and he can only do like 10 pull ups and maybe 15 dips lets say, it might take you more time as well as being able to do more pull ups. I couldn't do the muscle up even though I had trained the basics for quite a long time.
-Explosiveness is harder for more overweight people. I was actually surprised, I still had a lot of fat (I am around 16% now, I had a lot more) on my body, but I could do stuff like superman push up, so my goal was to lose fat in order to make exercises even easier.
-You'll notice as you go down in weight, even a 2kg difference makes you bust out more reps - obviously.

What I wanted to point out from this, is you shouldn't care how long it takes you. And just know if you can do for example one leg out front lever with 10kg over your ideal bodyweight, or some other hard exercises, when you lose the fat you'll probably be able to do straddle front lever or even a harder variation, let along the same variation for much longer. Like you can get a resistance band of 16-18 kg (idk if there's one with that much) and see the difference...
Also take it slow, like I said progressing in calisthenics for overweight people is a lot harder, so you should really fix your nutrition, get in a calorie deficit, eat protein, and eventually do some cardio (could be just walking, my favorite is jump rope though). Being overweight is actually kind of beneficial because you will gain strength easier, so when you lose those KG's, you'll be a beast

Oh also, make sure you warm up EXTREMELY GOOD before training, and DON'T TRY HARD EXERCISES THAT YOU'RE AWARE YOU CAN'T DO. You'll get injured, and trust me you do not want to get injured as a beginner, like I did and then I couldn't start training seriously - I would train 2 weeks and rest 1 week. So make sure you warm up before it's too late.

Why not just make your own thread though? haha

Hey Fed. You are welcome to follow along and post as much as you want in this thread! We can rename it "Our Journey" if you want to, cause I actually think it could be a very very good way to motivate each other. So feel free to join in with your progress too! Nice to hear that you have decided to make a change exactly like me, and I am 100% sure about that you soon will smash lvl 3,4 and so on too! Keep up the hard work mate, I will be by your side too!!

Hahaha, go get em Tiger, looking forward to your posts. Yeah! I know right! Gligor is crazy! From 95 to 80! That's some HARDCORE Sh!t! Alright then, good luck!

Thank you man I appreciate it haha. And no problem, I was just stating some mistakes I did at the start that really slowed me, and what you (and everyone that's doing a fat to muscular transformation) should be expecting from a journey like that. Yeah once you start seeing results it is difficult to look back at your old self & lifestyle indeed. Now I'm at the part where it's hardest to lose fat, like I said I have like 5-7 kg (my weight actually varies, sometimes it's 80, sometimes 82-83) to lose, and I've had a little plateau (at least plateau on weight going down, but I am getting leaner so I probably gained some muscle). But yeah, good luck, can't wait to hear from you! How old are you btw?

Oh. Well I believe you are one of the oldest, I'm not sure but there were others in their 30's, and I think one of them was like in 40's. It's a good decision although nothing comes easy.
Well about the plateaus on the last few kgs, it's because you can only substitute only so much foods, you know when starting out you usually start substituting carbs for protein or you just stop eating chocolate or something similar like junk food, and it's easy to make the calorie deficit, but when you hit those last 5 kgs, there's only so much you can substitute, you either have to eat less (which I have a hard time doing that lol) or you have to rely on cardio to burn the calories (which I'm doing). I'm 15 though, so it's a good thing I started early, because if I didn't find Bar Brothers (Calisthenics Unity), I'd probably be sitting at 100+ kgs.
Yeah, don't worry, when I started I couldn't do a pull up lol. It just takes patience, hard work and dedication. In the first months you might not find the dedication too much, at least I didn't, but I said what am I doing, like I wasn't training every day, so I said to myself The heck? I have a pull up bar, a workout program, I need to change this, and from then I just started training seriously even though I could only do like half a pull up. So take it easily, don't get frustrated, the results will come. Can't wait to hear your's and NewToTheGame's results. :)

Super Rookies, yes, but lets do this and become real champs!

You said it, brother!! How did the week go? How was level 4??

Week 2 for me: I failed Level 3 again as I'm still unable to get to 4 reps (the minimum) of the 7 second push ups. Still, it didn't feel impossible anymore, and i managed 3 times 3 reps. On the upside, I was able to do min sets and min reps of dips! (i could barely do 3 x 1 the week before.) Ultra slow, super shaky dips, but it was a total surprise. I'll start back at Level 1 again, hoping to attempt Lvl 4 the following week.
Weight wise: i lost 1 kg since starting to eat cleaner over the past 2 weeks. This probably includes some muscle gains so i feel good about it

Other impressions: Those "+max" sets leave me lying on the ground in agony for 20 seconds. I haven't felt this satisfaction in years. This is training, not working out. It's awesome.

Way to go on that attempt man. Lvl 4 appears quite the leap from Lvl 3. I'm sure that even the fact of attempting Level 4 will involve gains and will make the previous levels feel easier for you. Let's keep failing on these two levels until we don't. :D Nutrition can only help too. What specific aspects of it are you finding more difficult to manage? For me the logistics have been simple so far, but the discipline of regularly achieving a calorie deficit is harder. I have one major advantage over you here: I'm trying to eat less (while seeking quality foods), so the logistics of food prep for any given day are just much, much simpler than what you probably need to do. For pre workout, any chance you can have a fruit in hand? That alone is great energy and some hydration, not to mention the vitamins and fiber...

Hey Fed, thanks for the quick reply.
You are probably right about the fruit, I think it will do the trick. It is a bit hard for me to explain what specific aspects of the nutrition I find difficult though. I just got home from work now, and I will sit down trying put together my nutrition program. I will keep you updated. :-)

NewToTheGame - By all means, post! I'm no expert but if it's any indication, that looks a lot like what I'm putting together for myself and I feel good physically, including before workouts. Is that example very far from what you are currently eating? (For me, it was a big shift.)

Here's an additional idea that has helped me, at least on the mental level. One major change in mindset and habit I'm making (in addition to broadly aiming for macros) is putting emphasis on getting nutritious foods: I add on tons (like two handfuls) of greens to my plates (which i was surprised to learn actually contribute some amount of carbs) and will snack on 2-3 fruits per day. After years of eating out during lunch and grabbing anything and everything including fast foods, I'm really beginning to enjoy the "quality" and nutritiousness of the food, plus my plates look huge with all the vegetables. I also try to incorporate other carbs like turnips, things from the squash family, sweet potatos, etc. but need to find better recipes... Bland stuff, ugh... This doesn't shift the macros much (except for the oils in any dressings you use), it just feels nice (after a week), and i personally feel fueled with these foods.

As for whether you're an endo or mesomorph, maybe something in between? If you're feeling weak even with the fruit, maybe try the meso recommendations?

Back to Level 1 for me tonight.

And by the way nice job on putting together that example plan!!

A quick question though. When I am doing dips my chest squeezed together and it hurts a bit in the middle of my chest. Is it because I am not strong enough yet, or is it because I am doing them wrong? I am really focusing on not sticking out my elbows but keeping them as close as possible to my body.

Wow, that's awesome Bro! Keep it going!💪

Well, you might want to have a little space between your arms and body. A few inches(3-4) I would say. And yes, the pain is actually something common for beginners, your body is still getting used to the movement and your chest needs to be stronger as well. But keep doing them though, the pain is just temporary. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice and the quick reply bro! I will keep pushing!

BAAAAM!!!!! WAY TO GO on Lvl 4!!!! And 4 pull-ups too!! Beast! The push burnout and lunges do look intimidating... Level 5 next then?! ;D I didn't look at it closely but remember thinking that Lvls 4 and 5 appeared close in terms of difficulty levels. I may be wrong but I hope a Level 6 attempt is on the horizon for you this coming week! I'm also glad the fruit helped. I also have an apple or banana. I figured that the citrus fruits don't quite do it for me.

On my side, good news too: Lvl 3 passed. Ehehe :) On the dips, i did 4 sets of 5, 4, 4 and 3 reps, respectively. Much less shaky, and an unimaginable feat only 3 weeks ago. I also got through max sets of minimum reps of the 7-second push ups. These were my two barriers previously. On levels 1 and 2, I am gradually getting closer to max sets and reps, but not quite there yet. My problem this week was miserable weather (rain and cold). Imagine a guy under heavy rain with an umbrella trying to operate electronics, cursing about wet socks and how cold the stupid bars are. So even though the walk to the park is something I'm proud of, I wussed out in the end and installed a pair of rings in my garage yesterday... haha. My other problem was Thanksgiving here in the US and overeating. (So good though, gotta love them apple pies). My weight didn't go back up thankfully. This coming week, back to disciplined eating. And (first) level 4 attempt tomorrow!! The pull ups will be a huge challenge, but I managed one pull up, not to below chin, but to nose level, this week, so who knows. I'll now cycle from Lvl 2 onwards until i can crack Lvl 4. (i can only do 3 workouts per week)

ONWARDS!!

A month is not that much for changes, you'll only get better if you workout continuously and be consistent with your nutrition! Keep it up!

Will do. It's not that much, plus it went by so fast. I'm looking forward to saying: "wow these last 18 months passed by fast".

Just try to keep your nutrition still in check, and don't rush to workout if you can't, and don't worry about strength, you'll gain it back fast. Hope it gets better fast!

Hey NewToTheGame - Sorry to hear about the pinched nerve. That sounds really painful. Not sure how to fix it, but in addition to the rapid strength recovery that Gligor mentioned once you start training again, I wouldn't worry so much about losses and hope you won't be too disheartened. I played a lot of sports when i was still in school (2 decades ago...) and trained a lot. I remember strength being one of the last things to go after stopping training. At least in my experience, I remember that I would first lose flexibility/range of motion (within a few days) and endurance at very high intensities of effort (e.g., sprints). Explosiveness/speed would suffer a lot after 10 days of rest or so. "Slow movement strength" and stamina at lower intensities of effort however would be the last to noticeably suffer after 10-14 days of rest or so. Many of my friends had similar observations. Especially since you've started building a good foundation over the last 2 months, I wouldn't be surprised if you started very close to where you left off, at least in the first couple of sets of each exercise. If you do medium to high intensity cardio on the side, you're likely to feel the losses there much more though. In any case i hope the condition goes away fast!

My progress this week - I did lvl 2-4. My dips are getting faster and no longer feel like a struggle for life, and the wide arm australian pull ups feel less weak. I'm up to 6-7 dips but back down to 8-9 reps on the normal australian pull-ups after using a much more horizontal starting position. I'll attempt level 5 again at the end of this week.

Also, I've given up on the notion of trying to achieve max sets and reps before moving on because I'm finding that attempting the higher level workout where i fail has really helped. I think there may also be an important mental aspect and benefit to attempting the higher level (This is probably by Chris' design!) Attempting level 5 for me for example means that i mentally strive for 8-10 dips, which is twice the requirement of previous levels. So when i bring that mindset back into level 2, the max of 4 dips suddenly appears much more manageable at least mentally!