Totally lost

Hello everyone,

So i'am Sébastien : 24 years old, 173 cm, 77 kg. Always attract by sports activities like football (since i was 4), calisthenics (1.5 years), (bodybuilding 3.5 years). So i am not new to training, but i consider myself beginner in the "world" of gymnastic. The first thing ie handstand course, and i find it incredible well built so i decided to pursue foundation 1. Honestly i was a bit disappointed. I love to train and i used to train about 1 h/1h30, 4-5 days a week at the gym but looking at the foundation 1 some exercises seems "easy" and short (but i dont pretend, i can do all the exercise). My stats are for example : 35 dips one shot, 60+ push ups, 10+ pull ups strict form without balancing. So my question is there, what do you recommend for me ? should i stick to my bodybuilding routine and add foundation 1 ? Which Schedule can i do ?

If some people with good experience can help me, because i was thinking to use the money back guarantee

Seb

ps : aesthetic is not my first goal but i have achieved a decent look and dont want to "ruined it"

HI Sebastien,

My personal opinion it is to click the very easy smiley on the foundations program so that you can progress faster, for example if for you the RC progression it is too easy then you can shoot a video with the mastery of the elements. I do not consider for your weight 10+ pullups a good standard since I weight 84 and I can do about 24 pullups in a row.

You can also shoot your 60+ pushup in a row and I'll tell you if they are good or not.

My suggestion it is to complete the assigned PE and relative IM. After the training session if you have some energy you can train something more.

thanks allesandro for your reply.

do you think a Schedule like will be good ?

Monday/Wedn/Friday upper body/core/ handstand

tues/thursd lower body

Regarding the pull ups that was not a single shot of 10+ but usually i do 4-5 set of 10+ but never test my max . Another question, i dont have the stretching courses but they seem relatively important if you want to progress trough the various foundation course, what do you think about it ?

F1 looks easy just in the paper. When you work the "reps" they want you to work coupled with the "mobility" with "no rest" between, mastering both of them with "strict form" then becomes amazingly and surprisingly hard. Your background is very good but it can be a support or all the opossite, just depends on you. You might get stucked on some PEs due to lack of mobility or due to its high rep scheme. Or maybe you are not working some exercise with the right form. GB courses are going to solve all that. So I recommed you and everybody (even people been training strenght for many years) to start as if you are a begginner and submit form videos and always that the workout really feel easy or very easy then click the button. If not then don t do it. And give 100% importance to mobility, I d say give 200 % importance.

In my personal experience I didn t have so many years of training like you, but I could do it 10 stric pull ups before starting GST and I couldn t master straight away Rope Climbing PE1. When for example you master 5x15 Ring Rows, this doesn t mean you are capable of doing 15 rows, you are capable of doing 30 rows or nearly in just one set! It works the same with the rest of the progression.

Follow Alessandro suggestion, work first F1, after that include 1 or 2 sets of dips and pulls. You wan t loose any muscle!

Welcome and good luck wih your training!

Hey Sebastian,

It is unlikely you will lose ANY strength or muscle if you are sticking to the programming. I also really like Antonio's suggestion to give 200% focus on your mobility exercises. Be sure before moving past a progression that your mobility is adequate. It is always best to submit a form check video before advancing. Your workouts are going to get harder very quickly using Alex's advice of selecting Too Easy, so you may want to reduce your weekly volume. Just carefully monitor your recovery and see how it goes for now.

Hi Sebastien, 

Welcome to the GymnasticBodies community! 

In your post you mentioned that aesthetics is not your first goal. My question to you is what is your goal? If you are looking to build a strong, mobile and structurally sound body that is capable of performing impressive feats of bodyweight strength, then you have most definitely arrived at the right place. One of the side benefits of this will be a well balanced aesthetic physique.  

There are however no shortcuts to this and sometimes people may have to take a step backwards to enable them to move forward in the future. As Coach likes to say "we go slow at the beginning, so we can go fast later".

If however your goals are simply to maintain your aesthetics and you don't have the patience or inclination to work on your deficits there are certainly far easier ways to do this. Pure bodybuilding has built millions of impressive physiques throughout the world. In my experience though the lack of focus on mobility work and the fact that generally the only way to progress movements is by adding weight, leads to a far greater stagnation than checking your ego at the door and taking a few steps backwards. 

The ability to constantly strive for more challenging movements while unlocking a freedom of movement that is not found in most other training modalities, will keep you motivated and focussed on your training for many years to come. And it's this consistency that will see most people achieve their training goals.

I look forward to seeing your progress.

21 hours ago, Darin Phoenix said:

Hi Sebastien, 

Welcome to the GymnasticBodies community! 

In your post you mentioned that aesthetics is not your first goal. My question to you is what is your goal? If you are looking to build a strong, mobile and structurally sound body that is capable of performing impressive feats of bodyweight strength, then you have most definitely arrived at the right place. One of the side benefits of this will be a well balanced aesthetic physique.  

There are however no shortcuts to this and sometimes people may have to take a step backwards to enable them to move forward in the future. As Coach likes to say "we go slow at the beginning, so we can go fast later".

If however your goals are simply to maintain your aesthetics and you don't have the patience or inclination to work on your deficits there are certainly far easier ways to do this. Pure bodybuilding has built millions of impressive physiques throughout the world. In my experience though the lack of focus on mobility work and the fact that generally the only way to progress movements is by adding weight, leads to a far greater stagnation than checking your ego at the door and taking a few steps backwards. 

The ability to constantly strive for more challenging movements while unlocking a freedom of movement that is not found in most other training modalities, will keep you motivated and focussed on your training for many years to come. And it's this consistency that will see most people achieve their training goals.

I look forward to seeing your progress.

Most things written by the wise on these forums are brilliantly well said and often resonate strongly with me having left my calisthenics training, that I built up to a decent standard , behind . And This is one of my favourite statements . 

awesome post  Darin . 

Leigh 

When I started this program I thought it was easy too. I thought I could do F7 three days a week. But now I am only slowly progressing and this stuff is not easy. What is great is about this is how well it is prorgrammed and the amazing support provided by forum coaches. Before starting this I tried couple other calisthenics programs and there were huge gaps in them.

Hello,

Thank you all for your relevant answers. I think i will stick to foundation 1, but i need help for my Schedule. what do you think about something like that :

Monday/Wedn/Friday => upper body/core/ handstand 1

tues/thursd  => lower body (maybe add some squat/deadlifts)

Moreover, do you think it will be a good idea at least at the beginning to add  :

- for pull workout => weighted pull up for 5 sets of 5-6 (20-25% bodyweight) with 1 min 30 rest and the same thing for close grip pull ups and after that go with foundation 1

-for push workout => weighted dips same principles 5-6 sets, and same thing with handstand pushups against the wall or weighted push ups

What are your tough about this Schedule?

For now begin with 2 times a week for all the workout. for your specific request I would move core and handstand with the lower body day.

it is fine to add something more at the END of your workout if you are sustantially fresh.

handstand push up are welcome only if you have good and enough shoulders mobility.

Thanks a lot allessandro !