Progress After Only Two Months

So I train primarily out of a body-building style gym and everybody has been watching me do these "simple" looking exercises for the last couple of months and no other training. I get interesting looks and the big question I keep getting is "won't you lose muscle mass if you don't lift weights?"

Admittedly I was a little worried at the outset but decided to trust in the process and just stick my head down and work (mostly after listening to Coach on the Paleo Solution Podcast) and man am i glad i did!

The other night i finished a few mastery sets on the basics and felt good so decided to have a little play. My right wrist has been broken multiple times in the past and has very limited range and has always been more painful than my left doing handstands and my shoulders are both also very limited and painful when trying anything even remotely planch-like (the results of a decade-long obsession with bull riding).

I know its not pretty but two months ago i couldn't even do an ugly bent arm planch let alone do it with zero shoulder or wrist pain! I also weigh exactly the same as when i started but have leaned down a lot so assuming i may have actually gained mass since starting the program.

Thank you Coach Sommer and your amazing team, this is the future of training nothing else even comes close!

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I feel the same way, GB is amazing. Congrats on your progress!

I hear you.  In the two months since I've started, I have:

• increased my Front Lever by 20 degrees.  For the last eight months, I've been trying to learn it because it looks cool.  I hang upside down and lower myself straight as far as possible.  Needless to say, I got nowhere.  I tried again the other day, just for fun, and was amazed at how lower I had gotten (especially as the FL series didn't seem that challenging)
• went from unable to do a deck squat to doing sets of 4-6 with good form.  In addition, I've always walked with a knee valgus (caving in) in my right knee, and that has gotten less pronounced.
• increased my ROM in arch body hold by about 200%.  When I did yoga last, we held a similar position, and I had the greatest arch in the entire room.  This has given me hope and motivation to master it this month, gods' willing.
• my shoulder mobility, which I never knew was tight, is far less tight.
• I've gotten taller.  Well, sorta: my posture has improved from good to excellent, and now, when I walk down into the basement, the low section of ceiling I used to just be able to walk under I now crack the top of my head against.  So I stand straighter, which lets me whack my head on things.  Good, I guess?

I'm sure there is more, but these are what stand out.  I've been athletic most of my life, so I'm surprised, like you, how such simple movements are producing such results.  Here's hoping the next two months continue the trend.

So I had my body fat measured a couple of days ago (Bio-Signature by Poliquin)

Results since starting with GB:

Body fat - Down 3% (Was 13% now 10%)

Lean mass - Up 3kg

This is officially the leanest and most muscular I've ever been, no aches, no pains, stronger than ever and I haven't touched a BB in months! 

Sam Deamer said:

So I had my body fat measured a couple of days ago (Bio-Signature by Poliquin)

 

Results since starting with GB:

 

Body fat - Down 3% (Was 13% now 10%)

 

Lean mass - Up 3kg

 

This is officially the leanest and most muscular I've ever been, no aches, no pains, stronger than ever and I haven't touched a BB in months! 

 

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hyge brå

 Get interesting looks and the big question I keep getting is "won't you lose muscle mass if you don't lift weights?"

There's ignorance on both sides of the fence. Let me share this with you; " can't afford to get big lifting weights" by some fellow climbers.

Modality just does not matter, Programming is everything!  I completed an abbreviated powerlifting program earlier this year and lost weight. I don't have much weight to loose (5'10" @ 163lb to 157lb), my bench form improved and pulled a new PR. My peers say I should have ballooned. Obscenely poor leverage or shifted weight distribution is the same as lifting huge weight, you still have to push or pull hard. Its physics.

Increase calories, decrease intensity, induce fatigue: outcome is different, just review a typical bodybuilding program.

I am not on this site just because it is bodyweight training, I would like to learn from Coach and others who followed him. "Programming & Technique"

David Rioux said:

 Get interesting looks and the big question I keep getting is "won't you lose muscle mass if you don't lift weights?"

 

There's ignorance on both sides of the fence. Let me share this with you; " can't afford to get big lifting weights" by some fellow climbers.

 

Modality just does not matter, Programming is everything!  I completed an abbreviated powerlifting program earlier this year and lost weight. I don't have much weight to loose (5'10" @ 163lb to 157lb), my bench form improved and pulled a new PR. My peers say I should have ballooned. Obscenely poor leverage or shifted weight distribution is the same as lifting huge weight, you still have to push or pull hard. Its physics.

Increase calories, decrease intensity, induce fatigue: outcome is different, just review a typical bodybuilding program.

 

I am not on this site just because it is bodyweight training, I would like to learn from Coach and others who followed him. "Programming & Technique"

Yes I agree in that it's not an issue of "bodyweight OR weights" but my interest is in more "general OR specialised" prep. I will take up BB training again but not until my joints are ready.

I now view powerlifting, body building etc. as no more generalised than say arm wrestling or cycling - yes you can get 'A' hypertrophy response from either BUT is it the best way to prepare the body in a general sense?

If, as an arm wrestler (or body builder) you decide later that you want to take on some other physically demanding activity, does your physical prep transfer outside of that arena very well?

GB isn't the only thing needed to prepare the whole body (in my opinion) but i believe it covers far more than any other single modality currently on offer and my main point in this post is to point out that you can get a hypertrophy response AND prepare your body in a non-specialised manner that transfers well to other arenas. Or at least not lose anything hypertrophy-wise by pulling back and fixing disfunction.

Cheers