Minh's log -- A complete beginner's journey

Hey guys. I have been a member for a few weeks or so, and have been lurking around. I have very little to no strength training experience, and hope that by being consistent in working out (and logging my work in at GB), I can change that!

Stats and Background:

22yo

5'9"

145lbs

Before GB, I did 6 weeks of Stronglifts. Here are my stats from the last week of SL:

Back Squat: 190 lbs

Bench: 105

Rows: 100

OHP: 75

DL: 225

After 6wks of SL, I found GB and got XR + BtGB. I have been practicing FSPs since then approx 4x a week, sometimes less. I've noted Killroy's template and will be using it as a starter for ring training. As I become more familiar with the rings, I intend to switch over to either the WODs or a GVT template.

Salient goals:

To gain mass using primarily body-weight training. To appreciate strength gains and a healthy lifestyle.

Short-term goals (2mo):

Post in this log at least 5x a week

Eat well (~135 g protein a day + fruits and veggies--paleoish)

Hold adv. tuck FL/BL and adv. frogstand for 2x30 s

Free-standing handstand for 15 s

Do 1 kipping MU

Long-term goals (6mo):

Continue posting in log 5x a week

Eat better (still need to research this)

Hold straddle FL/BL and tuck planche for 10 s

Walking handstand

Begin Ring Strength Series 1

Start WOD or GVT

Any comments or criticism on goals and workout routine are welcome and appreciated!

Edit: Wrist warmup link for easy reference!

Day 1: Killroy70

PL: Adv. Frogstand: 9s, 11s... (forget times of later sets, but did 6x approx 10s)

FL: Adv. tuck FL: 4x 15s

BL: Adv. tuck BL: 4x 15s

HS: 3x 20s+ wall handstand

PU: 5,5,5,5,4 XR PU

Row: 5,4, Elevated XR; 5,5,5 floor XR

Morning!

adv. frog: 8, 10, 10, 9, 9, 9

Flat tuck FL: 4x 15s

Flat tuck BL: 4x15s

Wall HS: 3x20s

Inverted curl (Tuck): 5,5,5,5,4

Negative dips XR (5s count): 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 (went from support to dip, last set's last 2 reps skipped support; went straight to dip)

To much rest in between sets for the dips

Evening!

Adv. frogstand: 9, 6, 9, 5, 5,

- I found a way to keep my arm straighter without bruising my tricep; pretty much bring the knee to just above the elbow makes everything easier to balance, but harder to hold

flat tuck FL: 5x15s

Flat tuck BL: 5x15s

adv. frogstand: 10, 5, 10, 10, 10; problems with balancing and my knees have diminished greatly! I was overbalancing and properly fixed it with pressing on my fingertips =). Wrists are now starting to act up, though. I should be on wrist warmups.

flat tuck FL: 4x 15s

flat tuck BL: 4x15s

PullU: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5 w/3-5min rest

Box HePSU: 3, 4,

- having a really hard time finding something that can get me in box hepsu position and be stable as well.

adv. frogstand: 10,10,10,10,9.5 (got lazy and somehow didn't want to finish the last second...)

- I'm very confident in balancing the frogstand now! Arms totally straight, knees on elbows but not putting too much pressure (before I had bruises everywhere on my triceps), wrist pain bearable. I'll try and move up to 15s tomorrow.

flat tuck FL: 15, 15, 15, 15

- Had someone spot check my flat tuck, apparently it wasn't totally flat. Will work on fixing that tomorrow

Flat tuck BL: 15, 15, 15, 15

Handstand wall:18s, 5s FREESTAND!!!, 20s, 20s

Chest roll to HeS: haven't learned how to head stand, so am working on that tonight and from now on with handstand work

-attempts to chest roll to HeS:

-successful HeS from knees on bent elbow

-successful HeS from pushup position/kick to HeS

-attempt: HeS chest roll negative...keep falling on knees

-HeS chest roll negative accomplished 1x

-next step, HeS chest roll

TOPS pulls: 5,5,3,5,5

-initially started with straight leg, eventually went to flat tuck.

adv. frogstand: 15, 15, 15, 5, 8

flat tuck FL: 4x15s

flat tuck BL: 4x15s

-going to move up to 20s

Handstand work: 60, 60, 42 s wallstand; headstand + rollout of headstand

Edit: Gonna go to a tumbling class on Monday!

adv. frogstand: 15, 7, 9, 15, 15

tuck FL: 15, 20, 20

-so I was never able to do flat tuck, instead I was doing a 'less tucked' tuck FL. I'll call it tuck FL from now on.

flat tuck BL: 4x 15s

Handstand work: free = 3, 2s; wall = 15s

-takin it easy for tumbling tonight

XR PsU: 5, 5, 5, 10, 5

XR floor rows: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Will post on how tumbling goes!

Tumbling was... totally awesome! I think this is probably the most fun I've had at something I am so unskilled at ever. It's very funny because you never ever get to do these things in real life at all, but in a gymnasium you can. I somehow could not get the fact that you were supposed to go vertical at the end of the track with the springboard, so I would careen myself over the crash pad. We worked on some handstand stuff, and then went to the tumble track. Let me tell you, the tumble track was the most fun I've had running/jumping/falling 50 feet in one direction ever. At the end we did some apparatus work, and I requested we do rings! The instructor didn't know too much about rings, so she just made us do 5 sets of 15 s L-sits, then made us do a few german hangs. It was fun being able to actually see someone do a Maltese and Iron cross on the rings behind us, though.

Great experience overall!

adv. frogstand: 4x15s

tuck FL: 3x 20s

flat tuck BL: 3x20s

handstand: 3 sec free; 20 sec wall, several attempts at freestands

adv frogstand: 13, 15, 15, 15

tuck FL, flat tuck BL: 4x 15s

Handstands: 60s, 55s, 23s

Tuck reverse yewkis: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

jumping XR dips: 5, 5, ping pong break!, 5, 5, 5

I totally missed yesterday, and I feel really bad about it. Gonna make up this weekend! Gotta keep on track!

adv frogstand: 4x15s. Finding it much harder to get into the hold today. Slight twinge around right scaphoid bone. Warming up wrists now.

Tuck FL and flat tuck BL: 3x 20s

Negative HePSU: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

XR pullups: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5!

Pumped!

tuck planche!!!!: 6s, 4s, 4s, 7s, 7s, 4s, 2s,

- Hips not at parallel, but feet are off the floor.

- leaning forward with arms as much as possible helps a lot with maintaining higher hips

- Just glad I don't have to do knee-elbow frogstands anymore, that stuff was awkward!

TOPS pulls (tuck for 3 sets, pike for 2): 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Flat tuck FL: 2x 30s

Flat tuck BL: 15s; 45s of tuck BL (should not have done TOPS before statics...)

tuck pl: 3s, 6s, 7s, 6s, 5s, 2, 3, 3, 2,

flat tuck FL/BL: 2x 30s

handstand work: 60s, 30s, 5s

-adding 10s to the levers makes everything a whole lot harder!

XR bulgarian: 5, 5, 5, 5, 3

-popping sound in right shoulder after 3rd set when I tried to get deeper and wider

-popping didn't go away after lessening depth and width

elevated XR row: using ability to touch hand to chest as 1 rep, I was unable to properly score 5 reps. I adjusted height frequently until sets 4 and 5 where I gained an appropriate height. Set 4 = 5 reps, set 5 = 4 reps.

Wrist pains have become very noticeable. I'm taking this day off and hoping with extensive warmups, I'll be able to clean up the wrists.

tuck planche: 5, 10, 11, 10, 10, 10 = 56s

flat tuck Fl: 2x30s

Pullup bar broke... Left rings somewhere else... I'm kinda screwed for tonight...

Wish me luck tomorrow!

Got another pullup bar! Don't have enough time to do an entire workout as I'm pressed for time...

tuck planche: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 8

-last set was very wobbly and bent arm was prevalent

-consciously working on getting hips to shoulder level; tends to waver a bit

- I'm noticing I'm able to elevate my legs and lower body much better than before

flat tuck FL/BL: 2x30s

-after not doing these for a few days, my elbows are definitely feeling it

Handstands: 8, 30, 15s wall

-new limit is do at least 2 minutes of handstand work a day

L-sit PU: 3, 5, 5 (last 2 were 'chair' l-sit pullups)

going to work on getting rings installed permantantly in my room; I intend to put some I-hooks into the ceiling. Called up the super on friday, but I just missed him. I've been scouring the internet looking for some advice on this, and I found some good stuff on crossfit. I'll find it again and post it later.

tuck planche: 10, 10 7, 10 10 10

Ok, so the doorway to my wall is messed up. THis pullup bar is starting to malfunction as well. I'm going to have to find a place to put up the rings for now.

What's up guys! After a 2 week long dead spell, I finally got my hands on a stand-alone pullup bar!! It's a 1690 Stamina Power tower. A bit of an eye sore in my room, but its knowing presence will push me to work even harder!

Will begin posting again TOMORROW!

if you still want to hang rings from the ceiling have a look at this my old post

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4873

those eyelets won't ever come off if holes are drilled on concrete slabs.

tuck planche: 10, 7, 10, 10, 10, 13 all on parallettes.

-went this way to reduce wrist pain.

flat tuck FL: 30, 30 but lost form on 2nd set

flat tuck BL: 10, 15,

-not working out for weeks has its tolls...

handstands: wall: 35s, 30s,

XR bulgarian PsU: 5, 5, 5, 5, 3

elevated XR rows: 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

-form breaking at 4th set

The tower itself is pretty stable. Swinging on the rings proves rather stable, though pulling back on the rings about 60 degrees made the tower tip slightly. Overall, I'm glad to have a solution to where I should put my rings.

swarovski said:

if you still want to hang rings from the ceiling have a look at this my old post

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4873

those eyelets won't ever come off if holes are drilled on concrete slabs.

Hey! So I actually checked out your post a while ago trying to find a solution to my problem. I had my super come up to check on my ceilings to see if there was any concrete or stubs on the ceiling. Turns out the ceiling to my apartment was completely hollow and unable to support my weight. So, I had to turn to other solutions. Thanks for the recommendation, though!

any ceiling/roof has to have a bearing structure, may it be wood or steel beams, concrete slab/beams, brick dome/barrel, etc.

anyway if that tower is working well for you that's just fine.

tuck planche: 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10

Flat tuck FL: 20, 20, 20

Flat tuck BL: 20, 20, 20

not enough time to do much else... class in 10 minutes!

tuck planche: 15s, 8, 10, 15, 11

flat tuck FL: 20, 20, 20

flat tuck BL: 20, 20, 20

wall handstand: 30, 19

L-sit pullups: 5, 5,