I'm a beginner is a understatement

[Joshua Stanley]

Okay so on my journey to finally get my body and diet in shape I have began learning about body weight exercises and other fitness things to do instead of basic weight lifting and treadmill running. I am out of shape and weigh 240 at 6'1". I want to lose weight and be able to do certain exercises.

The exercises I want to do is a pull up, a planche and maybe, maybe one day a human flag,

I know I have a log way to go and losing weight could help with these. I was wondering if anyone has any tips on different things for me to work on.

At the moment I can not do a single pull up or chin up. Everything I read about working up to planche or beginning body weight exercises is to do doing exercises that I can not perform.

Do anyone have any advice or tips one what I can do to begin to work up to these exercises.

Thanks for any help I can get.

[DiTi]

planche is a really advanced exercise you should first master the basics like push ups,pull ups,dips,planks etc

to achive a chin up or a pull up work on chin up negatives but if you find them hard try doing australian pull ups those should help alot

and yes losing some weight will help you get better so try eating clean and drink alot of water also you can do cardio like sprinting

[Kelly Gage]

The most important thing you need to do is START. Start now. Start where you're at. Don't spend months looking for the perfect answer.

There are lots of resources on the web and at the bookstore to get you started. I've also heard a few good things about a program on some website called "gymnasticbodies".

Seriously, F1 will meet you where you're at (even unable to do one pull up) and progress you to your goals and beyond.

[Karl-Erik Karlsen]

Yeah, and make sure you clean up your diet if you want to lose weight. That will be paramount - but do it one step at a time so you don't overwhelm yourself.

Make one training commitment to your future self: buy F1.

Then make one new lifestyle commitment to yourself each month. Look here: http://www.scrawnytobrawny.com/
(Sign up to that 5 day intro course and they will send you one small piece to read each day for 5 days, it's a very basic and good intro to changing into an athletic lifestyle. Just forget the training stuff they say and rather do F1. Follow their diet advice, except for the supplements advice, which you won't be needing.)

Later, when you are enjoying doing F1 3-4 times per week, you can add in some cardio with that.

[Connor Davies]

Flag is hard.  If you can't do strict pullups and handstand pushups, I wouldn't even think about training for it.

 

Planche is much much harder than flag.

 

Pullups can be pretty difficult, and yeah, weight matters A LOT.  Speaking from experience, losing 5 kg will take someone from a single chinup to 5+.  I'm 190lb, and I definitely couldn't do a pullup with an extra 50 attached to me....

 

Doesn't mean these things can't be achieved at your weight.  We've got some big guys around here throwing up some impressive holds, but these guys are strong as all hell.

 

You don't have to buy F1, but it is the most complete form of Gymnastic Strength Training™ available, so....  It's the safest, most effective place to start is what I'm saying.  Obviously you can cobble together your own program, and we'll help you with that if you want, but consider F1 first.

[Karl Kallio]

 

The most important thing you need to do is START.

That is the best advice that anyone can give you.  Most people know what they need to do, or can find out by reading/asking/taking a course, but few actually do it.  Even doing a half-a**ed intent is better than doing nothing. 

 

I'd third the recommendation of purchasing of the F1 course, the first progression of exercise is totally doable and it clearly lays out how to advance along to higher progressions.  I work in sports and can trade favours for free coaching and I still think it's the best investment I've made.   But if you don't want to commit money yet, try and set up something like 3 sets of a push, a pull, an abdominal, a dorsal and a leg exercise.  Pick versions that you can do but feel a bit challenging and build up reps until you feel strong enough to pick a harder exercise.  So maybe right now you can't do a pull-up, but maybe you can hang from the bar, or do a buddy pullup, or a horizontal row.  And you could work on getting a quality push-up.  For most people push-ups are like onions, there are layers and they might make you cry: you think you are good at them then you find out your technique is lacking or you find a harder variation.

 

I'd also suggest looking around for stuff you like to do.  Lots of people here love to do handstands and Gymnastic Strength Training™ just for its own sake.  But a lot of people use it to round out their preferred activity.  I think there are runners, yogas, rock climbers, break dancers, martial artists etc around here.  If you find something that you enjoy and want to get better at you'll be more motivated to do your bodyweight strength exercises consistently.

[Connor Davies]

2 things here:  I look better now than I did a year ago at the same weight.  At some point during that year I lost 10kg and put it back on, and I don't look as good now as I did 10kg lighter.  I bring this up because someone I haven't seen for a while just told me I look like I lost weight, so....  You don't have to lose weight, but it's generally speaking the better option.  I just like to justify my lack of self control by saying "well I'm still gaining muscle and losing fat, just slower!"

 

Secondly, here ya go.  https://www.gymnasticbodies.com/forum/topic/15478-how-to-get-started/  I just wrote that up, it's probably full of errors, it won't do anything for your current problem of not knowing good progressions.....  Please read?

[Joshua Stanley]

Thanks everyone for the advice. It has been helpful. My goal is to get down to 165. I guess if I get to that weight I will have no problems doing these different exercises or at least have better chances of doing them than I do now. While working on reaching my goal weight I will start small doing exercises that will help me to reach the moves I said I want to do. Again thanks everyone for the help