Total beginner's log!

Hey everyone, after seeing that a lot of people were keeping logs, I thought it might help me keep track of my progress. I'd normally keep track on a sheet of paper that I then proceed to lose within 2 weeks, so it seems like a more reliable way to keep track of things.

I'm actually experienced in fitness as I've done weight training for 3 years total, for 2 years seriously. Unfortunately, I got kind of a rude awakening when I tried some of the moves from BtGB. I've been working out for years, got what I considered reasonably fit, and I could only do the very basic variation on all the static moves, even then with some questionable form. Anyway, after reading the book and seeing some of the results people got, I decided to jump in with both feet and go all bodyweight. I think being able to do a planche pushup is just so much cooler than benching 300 pounds!

Vitals: 175 pounds, 6'0, 24yo, ~13% BF

The workout schedule I've decided on is based on Killroy70's as many people directed newbies to use his as a guide. I think I'm going to update this log only around testing time after each SSC, since I shouldn't (technically :twisted: ) be doing anything new during the 2 month cycle.

All days = FSP; Stretching/prehabilitation

-Front Tuck Lever~straight(ish) back 9 sets of 7 secs (initial test max ~14 seconds)

-Back Tuck Lever~curved back 9x7sec (initial test max ~13 seconds)

-Frog stand~6x10secs (initial max ~25 seconds)

-Handstand~wall assisted, 5x20secs (no max tested)

FBE

-Day 1 = L-chinups 3sets x4 reps; HeSPU box 3x5rep

-Day 2 = Pushups XR Bulgarian 3x4reps; FL row 1x4rep, 2x2rep

-Day 3 = Inverted chins 3x4reps; Russian dips 3x3rep

-Day 4 = SLS negatives 3x3, GHR hand assist 3x3rep

I have only done days 1 and 2 so far, will update with 3 and 4 after I do them.

So a few things I was surprised by coming from weightlifting, for anyone who sees this that wants to start. I quickly realized that my wrist strength was utterly worthless. After my first set of frog stands, I managed to hold it for over 25 seconds so I figured I would try the adv. frog stand. However, my wrists were already in pain and I couldn't hold the adv. frog for even a second because of wrist weakness. I read about Coach Sommer's wrist pushups and I could only accomplish these in a crawl position with my hips fully piked. You would think lifting weights for two years would give me some degree of wrist strength, but not so at all. Another thing is just how strangely difficult handstands are. I've almost never done anything like handstands, except maybe messing around as a kid, so getting myself propped up on a wall like that felt strange and uncomfortable. However, I really want to be able to do freestanding handstands, so I'm hoping I'll get used to it soon.

Anyway, I'll update again for my next two workouts, then I'll update for my next tests after the cycle is over. Maybe this will help someone who is in my position too!

Update, just started week two after some rest and I feel a lot more stable doing everything, even managed to unstick from the wall on my handstands for a few seconds, felt awesome. Still trying to get a feel for the three balance points of the hand. Started doing some embedding in my static work to keep things a bit more interesting. My wrists no longer hurt doing frog stands/handstands so thats good (credit those hellish wrist pushups!). Hopefully the progress will keep up next week. One thing I'm really hoping to improve is my SLS which felt really weak. I was hardly able to do half the negative motion before feeling like I started to collapse. Strange since I squatted bodyweight barbell before starting this stuff, but I guess the stress is just that much greater doing it on one leg.

One question I did have is I couldn't find any exercises for calves in BtGB so I just did my usual weighted calf raises. Anyone suggest anything more functional? I guess they're worked when you do jumping work.

Finishing up week 3. I've noticed that my workouts are actually just as hard this week as I felt they were second week, and I feel like my shoulders are struggling in terms of flexibility on the FL/BL work, especially with the embedding I've been doing. I think I may have solved that mystery though, as I've unconsciously been straightening my back slowly each week with the FL/BL in an attempt to perfect my form. I think I made the exercises harder because of this. I guess I should be fine from here on out since you can't unconsciously straddle your legs :roll: . I'll just add 2 weeks to the end of my cycle to compensate for my increased back straightness, hopefully that should be enough to stabilize my shoulder girdle which seems to be my new weakest link.

I think for the rest of this cycle as it gets easier I'm going to focus more on increasing flexibility, especially of my shoulders and legs. I've not been doing wall extensions enough, mostly because they're so frustrating to do, but I can tell they help some.

Another thing I've noticed is how much stronger my abs got. The embedding I've mentioned I was doing in my static work is going into front lever by 3/4 leg raise then tucking my knees in to get into position, and for BL I spin into a German hang from chinup position, then pull up into BL. I think these are responsible for my increased ab strength, including of course the FL/BL themselves.

My frog stands feel invulnerable at this point, so I've been experimenting with going into adv. frog. However, I find the position very awkward and painful to my elbows, so I decided I'd try a regular tuck planch. I managed to hold it for almost 2 seconds, and I was unable to even approach the position when I first started, so it's good progress. I think I may skip to tuck planch after this cycle because of how awkward I find adv. frog and since I think I'll be able to do 3-5 seconds by then.

My handstands are still iffy. I'm getting better at kicking into them, but I'm still getting quite sore from doing handstands, I guess they'll just take more work to perfect.

hey,

nice to see that I'm not the only beginner here, still as you're younger and fitter than myself, you started from where I'm going to be in few months... hope to keep up with you.

the journey has begun...

Hey Mentis,

Welcome to the forum! I just read through your log and it looks like you have a solid program so far. There is one thing I noticed though, you never mention the l- sit but you are already working on the planche progression. How are your floor and pb l-sits ? You may want to sub them in for the planche work especially if your wrists need better strength. Otherwise you may end up with a wrist or elbow injury ( it's happened to many of us here). A solid l-sit is a prerequisite for any planche training.

Hey schlaffmann, thanks for the welcome! I actually omitted l-sits due to what Killroy70 had on his workouts. He said he decided to remove l-sits since FL and BL were depleting his core anyway, and after his first cycle, his l-sit improved by a lot without him even working on it specifically. So, I decided having 3 static holds that work abs was probably overkill and I decided to take the L-sit out. That being said, my PB l-sit topped out around 15 seconds before I started my first cycle.

As for my wrist strength, I'm doing wrist pushups, which have actually greatly improved in the last 3-weeks. My elbows aren't terribly stressed at the moment, so I'll try to progress carefully through the planche. Thanks for the advice!

And swarovski, good luck to us!

I don't think you should skip the advanced frog stand. The reason is because 1) it works the elbow joint 2) it works the wrists flexibility. If you don't have those two, then it will make your planche progression stall and even become prone to injury. I think you should get 3x30 second advanced frog stand before moving on. Granted advanced frog stand doesn't give you much strength, but it does prepare you like the german hang for back lever. After that you can try slizzardman's twist which is advanced tuck frog stand (straight back). Make sure you do your advanced frog stands with your elbows not only locked but you are actually forcing the lock.

Hmm...Ok I won't skip the advanced frog stand then, since I'm concerned about my elbows. My wrist and shoulder strength seems to be developing nicely, but my elbows have given me issue in the past from tennis so I think I should ease in a bit more. Thanks for the help erichlin!

welcome one way to transition to the advanced frog would be to do advanced frog on parallettes. then move to doing it on floor. that is what i did

I was feeling particularly energetic during yesterday's workout and felt really strong doing my straight BL tuck so I decided to give the straddle BL a shot. I managed to hold it for about a second! Not sure how good the form was, but it felt pretty awesome. Didn't think I'd be improving so quick, maybe all that pumping iron before actually did end up helping with this. Still can't touch the FL straddle, but I'm sure I'll get there too. 3 more weeks until the end of the first cycle...Can't wait to start that!

Also, for my Russian dips, I think I will just do regular dips now. My gym doesn't have parallel bars, only slightly extended dip bars. Those were barely enough to do the Russian dip, but I think it's putting too much stress on my elbows. Still, regular dips are just too easy for me to gain any strength from them. I do them as slow and deep as I can, but I can still do 8-10 reps. Any suggestions as to what I can do at my strength level for dip variation? I have no paralletes or parallel bars, but I'm thinking about getting paralletes for my home gym.

Finally, end of cycle 1 testing is in! Two months sure is a long time.

-Front Lever Straight Tuck ~ 11 seconds (initial max 14 sec curve back tuck)

-Back Lever Straight Tuck ~ 16 seconds (initial max 13 sec curve back tuck)

-Advanced Frog stand ~ 16 seconds (initial max 25 sec regular frog)

-Handstand wall assisted ~ 1 minute 10 seconds (initial max untested, about 20 secs)

Very happy with the results, also surprised that my back lever skipped my front lever by a good margin considering I was stronger on front initially. Advanced Frog strength limiting factor is 100% wrist strength, wrists couldn't hold out more than 16 secs, but the rest of my arms felt like they could have gone on, so that's good (gotta keep up those insane wrist pushups!).

Handstand endurance improvement is good, but my balance hasn't improved at all (still can only hold 5 secs with no wall support). I'll have to work balance separately later on. Also, my head flushes with blood when I do handstand for that long, but that's just because I'm focusing on strength training at the expense of cardio. I'll work more cardio into my routine when I'm satisfied with my strength.

My bodyweight exercises have improved pretty significantly as well, but not as much. I suspect it's because I'm doing them after all of my statics so I'm not getting as much out of them as I could, but my priority is statics for now.

Starting cycle 2 tomorrow, hope I can move on to straddle versions of my levers in two months, and tuck planch! Can't wait.

Edit: I decided to give my L-sits a shot to see if they improved like I thought they would even though they weren't in my routine (since levers require abs). However, I only improved by 2 seconds (from 20 sec to 22 sec max) of l-sit with curved back.

Because of this, I want to work l-sits into my rotation for the next cycle. However, I don't think I will be able to work another static into my routine without further detrimental effect on my body weight exercises. So I was wondering what everyone thought of splitting my static and body weight exercises into separate days? Hopefully that won't reduce the synergism between the two. It would mean working out almost every day of the week, but each day would be shorter so I think it could work. Thanks!