excited to build muscle with F1

Looking through the progression schemes now. Everything I know about strength training and hypertrophy tells me it would be difficult to advance through the levels and NOT build muscle mass. 3x5 all the way to 5x15? That's a lot of hypertrophy work, again and again and again.

This seriously looks like the perfect bodyweight bodybuilding plan.

> This seriously looks like the perfect bodyweight bodybuilding plan.

You'll build muscle, but I don't think you should think of this as a bodybuilding plan. You'll build just enough muscle to be able to perform the progressions with good form at mastery level, but nowhere near bodybuilders. They use hypertrophy for aesthetics. We use it for function.

I completely agree with Nash. The fact that then - as opposed to the average routine of the average fitness enthusiast - the exercises are very effective is a different story

Nash said:

> This seriously looks like the perfect bodyweight bodybuilding plan.

 

You'll build muscle, but I don't think you should think of this as a bodybuilding plan. You'll build just enough muscle to be able to perform the progressions with good form at mastery level, but nowhere near bodybuilders. They use hypertrophy for aesthetics. We use it for function.

Bodybuilding doesn't necessarily mean chasing traditional bodybuilding aesthetics. If you're gunning to look like Lou Ferrigno then this isn't the right program for you, but if you want to look like a gymnast then this is exactly the right place to start. 

Joshua Slocum said:

Bodybuilding doesn't necessarily mean chasing traditional bodybuilding aesthetics. If you're gunning to look like Lou Ferrigno then this isn't the right program for you, but if you want to look like a gymnast then this is exactly the right place to start. 

What this guy said. Since I've been perusing these boards I've seen so many posts about hypertrophy through gymnastics, but everyone asking is probably a newb to athletic training because the way this program is laid out is about as perfect as it can get if you want to get as strong and as big as possible with bodyweight exercises. Hence, the perfect bodyweight bodybuilding routine.

Very excited. Week 1 is half over and some of these things are deceptively difficult.

I've only been doing this just shy of a year, and YES, these things are deceptively hard.  I'm still on PE1 for FL and SL after all this time.  I had been weight training for a year before starting GB, and despite stopping the weight training, I have not only maintained what I had gained from the year of weight training, but I have seen noticeable improvements in my physique in certain areas.  I have noticed the most gains in my abs, biceps, and the muscles next to my spinal cord.

I too have experienced remarkable gains most noticeably in the back, and I figure that when I start advancing in H1 (I'm still stuck on H1/PE2) things will get even better.

I got started here because I strained my rotator cuff doing handstand pushups.  I had no business doing them because my mobility and strength is nowhere even close to the appropriate level, which I found out very quickly after buying the Handstand One course after someone recommended it to me.

I was using a weighted vest to do pushups and chin ups, and would use the vest and some dumbbells for doing squats and calf raises.  I was getting decent gains in muscle doing that.

I still want to build muscle with weighted exercises like that, and I'm going to get back into them eventually, but I decided to take a break from all that and only add it back in once I'm farther along in the Foundation One course.  I don't want to admit it, but while building muscle might look good on the outside, if it's muscle packed onto an inflexible, immobile body, there's very little true functional strength there, the risk of injury is much higher, and the added muscle could probably make that lack of mobility even worse.

My triceps were getting big from the handstand pushups, but I was also wrecking my shoulders.  It's going to take a lot of patience and I'm going to have to hold way off on getting 'ripped' if I want to do it safely and building on a foundation of *actual* strength.