New to the forum: Introducing myself

Hey there everyone! My name is James and I'm from South Carolina. I've been lurking and reading as much as possible for the past couple of weeks. I must say, I am extrmely confused on where to begin; however, I think I've found enough info to get me started.

I'm 28 years old, 6'3" and around 165lbs. I have spent a majority of my life not doing too much physical activity. I never played any sports or got into exercise, until recently. I've been doing p90x as a quick way to get some basic strength and it's going well so far.

I was led here by my quest to find the means to achieve a goal that I've set for myself. I saw a video of a guy doing a very impressive planche hold, and said to myself: I can learn to do that. I feel that having a measurable goal is the only way to keep on task, especially when the task is demanding.

After doing even more research I learned a few more exciting moves that I wouldn't mind learning along the way such as the muscle ups, human flag and handstand variations. The full planche is still my end goal for now, so that is where I want to spend most of my focus.

I will be ordering a set of rings and the BtGB book in the next few days. I spoke with a local gymnastics coach today, and he's agreed to help me out some from time to time when he can. I am sure that I will still have a ton of questions. I will do my best to search as well as I can for answers/tips before posting new threads.

I intend on keeping a progress journal here on the website as I go through this journey. I invite you all to follow along as I go from thin and weak to toned and in shape.

If your money is tight, you might want to wait on the book or buy the digital version as it's cheaper. BtGB v2 has been in the works but no release date has been set but it's supposed to be coming.

Human Flags are always good to entertain girls with and it's one of those portable cool skills like standing back flips that will impress many people. =-P

Just bare in mind, planche is difficult skill to master that will take time. At your height, if anything focus on building mass in the upper body but not in the posterior chain (hips and legs). It will also make balancing out the long levers in your body slightly easier.

Hello ihadmail, welcome.

Blair, I want to learn the human flag too for the cool factor. What are the progression exercises for it?

welkome to the forums!! Cool to hear your goals, i hope you'll be able to get them sometimes!

Thanks for the kind welcome guys. Thanks for the tips too Blairbob.

As far as the book, I don't do too well with digital copies of stuff like this as I like to be able to put tabs on pages to quickly thumb through. I'll have to just buy this book for now and upgrade to v2 when it comes out. I'm not "ballin out of control" but I can afford two books that I will actually read and put to use.

If you can afford both books, go for it.

Basic progression for Flags is holding yourself inverted using a flag grip and then doing negatives and holds in tuck and straddle and then closing the straddle. I've never tried it in a single leg shape or 1/2 lay. This is pretty much in the book.

I like the idea of being proficient in a body lever, wide arm HS, and good pulling strength (straddle FL) but I can't say whether any of those is really neccessary.

I went last night and met with a local gymnastics coach. One of the first things he did was show me the gyms copy of BtGB and offer to let me borrow it for a few days. I thumbed through it while I was at the gym, it appears very high quality.

We talked about my goals and him working with me periodically. I showed him a workout routine that I put together from my research here on the forum, and he agreed that it would be a good one for me to start with 2x a week in addition to my P90x workouts. We decided that starting off I am going to meet with him once ever 2 weeks and then at least once a month after a couple of months.

Would any of you like for me to post up my planned routine for comments/suggestions?