Gymnast Physique

Yeah I definitely know that it takes time no matter what to be able to do some of the endurance intensive stuff these guys can do. My main focus is to look good as I've always been on the smaller side and I've already wasted enough time in my life. Once I get close to the weight/look I want I definitely plan on possessing some of these bodyweight skills.

thinking in terms of plates is stupid because of height and weight difference. squatting 3pl8 as a 60 kg man is not the same as someone who is 80 kg or more. same goes for other lifts. you'll only end up disappointed when you stall at some arbitrary number despite it being decent for your height/weight.

>I feel like there's a lot less info out there on bodyweight training
luckily for you the bible for bodyweight training has recently been updated to second edition and is now the best bodyweight book out there. it's light years ahead of any other book you can find on the subject.

if you are serious about it you should definitely get it and read through it. i've learned a lot from it and the progression system for exercises and how to do them is well documented and explained.

amazon.com/Overcoming-Gravity-Systematic-Gymnastics-Bodyweight/dp/0990873854/

The reason I'm focusing on just getting my lifts up right now is because everyone says that's the most efficient way if reaching any goal you want. Then once I reach acceptable numbers I planned on switching to like a PPL or other split just to put on size. I may be ignorant in thinking this, but I assume I can use mostly body weight exercises (I can supplement the weight with free weights and s belt if need be) to maintain size, and health and develop skills like hand stands etc. Does this sound like I'm on the right track to you? For me the dieting is probably the most difficult part.

weighted dips - bench - overhead press
weightup pullup - deadlift - barbell row
pistol squat - back squat - front squat

focus on these 9

Oh and I'm definitely checking that book out, thanks a lot user.

The program I'm running focuses mostly on what you've advised. I need to start getting more serious on the squats and deads though. My calfs are basically non-existent. I feel like my upper back has been coming along the best. Triceps at a close second.

I meant to say my calfs are non existent on top of being weak at deads and squats but from what I hear I may be SOL when it comes to calfs. Not that deads and squats will make them bigger

>tfw this guy is your new goal body and you find out he's 3 years younger than you

should i just give up at this point? is it even worth it. i realize he's an olympic athlete but damn

Bro I'm 28 in June and I'm basically just starting after fucking around with weights on and off for a while. I made the thread to gather information and just bought that book the one guy recommended. I know I've wasted so much time at this point in my life but fuck it I'm ready to take charge

Be a manlet and do gymnastics you big dummy

Good for you man, I was just being dramatic.
I started lifting at 22 which I realize is pretty young but there are still much younger people in way better shape. It's always frustrating but also inspiring to see younger guys that are way stronger and in way better shape than me.

I really need to get over the whole age thing desu, i know it's stupid.

Fuck I just Googled his height and weight. He's allegedly 5'5" 132 lbs. I'm already heavier than him by 6 lbs but probably twice the body fat. It's kind of encouraging to know that he isn't 150 at 10% bf to look that good.

Nevermind a better source but him closer to 145lbs. Seems more reasonable than 132.

i'm maintaining it by not doing benching/heavy lifting. for chest i'll do dips, cable crossovers, dumbbell exercises, and throwing in push up bars in the mix for example.

I do intense workouts as well with no long rests or breaks to get the GH going and into fat burning mode.

Can you give me a quick rundown? I also do calisthenics but I do the Foundation shit from /bwg/. I know Overcoming Gravity is put in /bwg/ as a resource but it doesn't get discussed a lot.

That sounds better, I'm 5'5, 120 lbs with a fairly low bodyfat but nowhere near his size, I was around 130 before I started a cut

...

do some power cleans and push presses

Why would you cut at 130 lbs if you don't kind me asking? I'm assuming the reason is because you were afraid of the little bit of belly fat you developed.

Gets MaJeStiC digits.
Is 5' 5".
Barely 60 kgs.

>Sounds about right for this board.

if you decide to buy it make sure you also buy rings since they are pretty much needed

here are progression charts from the book docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19l4tVfdTJLheLMwZBYqcw1oeEBPRh8mxngqrCz2YnVg/edit

If you need rings that would mean you need plenty of space to run any program the book gives you correct? I see parallel bars and things like that in the key. I'd probably have to join some sort of gym huh? Right now I have a power rack 300lbs worth of plates, a bench and cable tower along with dumbells in my basement but the ceiling is low. I wouldn't be able to do a muscle up down there. As it is I already have to be in the right spot if I want to do dips

Also in your opinion, do you think I should keep hitting the free weights to develop my strength and to gain more size prior to starting any bodyweight program? With my limited knowledge 9f bodybuilding and working out that would seem to make the most sense to me. im going to read the book front to back before I make any changes to what I'm doing regardless

i've read a dozen books about BW and the OG second edition is far the best one i have ever read. it literally explains everything to great detail. you could take a look at first edition which you can find on torrent sites, just note that the first edition cannot compare to the second one.

first edition was decent for beginners/intermediates but the second edition is miles ahead, especially for those two groups. if you have any other specific questions the author is pretty active in reddit.com/r/overcominggravity/ sub. reddit.com/user/eshlow

maybe he can give you some insight about the difference between the two. personally i never bothered with Foundations since i was making great progress with the first OG book and back then Foundation was really expensive and i just couldn't justify the cost.

one important thing about overcoming gravity is that it doesn't teach you flips, tumbling or other shit like that. for that you'll have to look elsewhere. take a look at spreadsheet to see what you can expect to learn from it.

the only requirement for OG progression is a pair of rings.

you can hang ring from pullup bar or outside on the tree branch or at any child playground. all you need is something to attach the rope to. you can even weld and cement some shit yourself in your back yard if you have one.

parallettes/dip bars are a nice addition but you can do all of that shit on rings so they are basically the only real requirement. everything else is not needed. weighted vest might be good for some progressions later on though but again, not really needed.

it will be hard to do both bodyweight and weight training at the same time. squats and deadlifts to some degree and exception to this though, especially squats.

what i'd recommend is that you simply start with BW only at first and see how you progress. maybe you could get away with doing BW for strength and lifting weights for hypertrophy but doing both for strength probably won't work and will make you burn out pretty fast.

get the rings and find a place to hang them outside e.g. a sturdy branch or pole.

or get one of those door pullup bars for ~25 and hang them from there. fair warning though you'll really be strapped for breathing room if you go that route. i've been using that setup for about a year now and i haven't been able to work on back lever in any capacity since even at the highest i can hang the rings, i'm too tall to actually hang from them. the low height means muscle-ups are also out of the question, especially if your bar has those handle things sticking out the front of it.

bright side is once you're strong enough to support yourself on the rings, you can stop using parallel bars entirely. i haven't done a parallel bar dip in ages.

the spreadsheet looks solid, I see some similarities to Foundation. So how is your training going? What have you reached on the different progressions? You probably have trained for far longer than I have - 3 months on Foundation and that's it. I don't have much to boast.

I meant to keep doing the free weights in place of BW until I hit an acceptable level of strength. I do realize that free weight strength won't necessarily translate to BW strength. But I just have a feeling building a size and strength base is faster if you use free weights. Am I right about that?

building size and strength is much easier using weights, you are right about that. some exercises translate pretty nicely to weightlifting and some don't. you have to know that strength is also technical and that you get stronger as you get better at the movement.

the point is you get stronger and better at the things you do more. depending on your strength level, you could probably progress doing both at first since you won't be limited by your strength but by your balance and other weak balancing muscles but once strength becomes a limiting factor then you'll have to chose your path.

handstands and other fun stuff doesn't really require much strength. it's mostly just technique/balance and knowing/feeling your body in space.

all over the place desu, mostly intermediate on most things and advanced one some. i don't really do much ring work as i'm pretty old (turning 30 soon) and i have to take things slow because of it. i've achieved most of the BW things i've wanted to, mainly 1+ min handstand, 10 free handstand pushups, press handstand, straddle planche and now i'm progressing towards 2x BW chinups (already did 1.85x) and 5pl8 deadlift. focusing more or less on lifting weights these days.

i still do most of the fun BW stuff when i'm warming up for lifting or when i'm bored on rest days like handstands, handstand pushups, straddles, etc. people at the gym are easily amused by those it seems and always love to watch.

I find that buff white boi look somehow not very aesthetically pleasing even though it clearly is.

i am 5ft 8in and have a similar physique. i originally started doing body weight exercises only but found that i wasn't getting as defined as i would've liked, so i added free weights and cleaned up my diet (more meat after lifts) which got me the desired definition i wanted

in my experience, i think you will need some amount of training with weights to get your arms/shoulders to be defined. i use 35 lb weights 2-3 days per week, and i run consistently on the treadmill and bike. most important thing is CONSISTENCY in workouts

Yeah I'd be amused as well, how long did it take you to get there? You are scaring me with this
>I'm turning old at 30.
I hope I can keep doing bw stuff into my 50's. 22 currently.

how often should I workout? All 9 exercises each session?

fucked around with bw for quite some time and never really had any real progression routine. it wasn't until i read a few books that i started to take it more seriously. so probably around 3-4 years in total, with 2.5-3 of being serious with it. lifting for 3 now.

what i meant with age part is that injuries are the biggest fear for me now. they happen very fast and heal very slow so i have to be very careful. already had some shoulder issues because the weight came loose between my legs and started to swing when i did dips. i couldn't do any shoulder work for almost 2 months because of it.

just take it slow and listen to your body. if something hurts stop and do the thing you did before where it didn't hurt to strengthen up that area even more. the older you get the more injury prone you become.

i'm still making great strength gains so don't worry about that part. i don't think i'll notice shit until i'm in my 40s

No, try to get one pull excersie, one squat, one push excercise in a training. The days with deadlifts and squats are heavy days

This article should help clear things up:
jtsstrength.com/articles/2016/03/07/considerations-for-beginners/

You can also check out Alan thrall on youtube, and the reddit FAQ or the fit FAQ

that physique is achievable both through body weight or weight lifting exercises

if you want to be able to pull ups, muscle ups, dips, handstand pushup, etc all the cool things like that then you should focus on bodyweight

lifting might get you more mass but it won't make it easier to all the bodyweight tricks if you don't actually do them in your workout

Furthermore you can actually add additional resistance to your bodyweight routine to always push your muscles like with lifting

likewise you use resistance bands, the good thing is that they exert force in the direction you hang them so you can train all muscle groups with bands that can exert as little as 5 pounds or as much as 100+ pounds

you can do all your training in a park carrying just a small bag with resistance bands, some pushup grips and an ab wheel

afterwards you can even get a weighted vest and add from 5 pounds to 60+ and your exercises will feel natural but harder

the only area where i can tell you lifting is better than bodyweight would be for leg mass, legs are some of the strongest muscles and it's hard to do heavy workouts with resistance bands, so in this particular case squats and other lifts are better for mass

however that is if you're looking for mass, normal bodyweight exercises with resistance bands should give you pretty good looking toned legs, and bigger legs makes you look your upper body smaller by comparison so weightlifters don't usually train to get a lot of mass on their legs

But free weights would be more efficient in reaching this physique correct? Like it's easier to progressively overload and stress your body using weights as far as I've been told. If your primary goal is this physique as quickly as you can reach it wouldn't free weights be the better option, and then if you want to be able to do tricks, to then switch and train in bodyweight exercises?

An interesting thing about bodyweight guys is that they get caught up in the culture and fantasize about doing all the cool holds and tricks. They don't aim directly for sarcoplasmic hypertrophy like lifters with aesthetic goals do. Bodywieght guys try for the most strength and power per pound of weight, and they realize that eating more and doing sets and reps for hypertrophy might actually make some things harder to do in the long run. But staying lean and getting powerful and strong is the easiest way for them to do their tricks. Tricks and holds themselves are more endurance and maintaining strength and skill rather than sarcoplasmic for advanced people.
Not only that, but the ones that think they do, when are doing e.g. human flags for fun are interfing with their hypertrophy recovery because of the nature of the advanced holds. It's like doing chin ups when you are supposed to be on rest day after doing curls and rows.
I would like to see someone do a bodybuilding diet and exercise program with bodyweight. Strict progressions in the exercises to make sure you are always challenged, but staying in the 8-12 rep range and 3 sets for beginners. Never doing long holds, but just sets and reps like they were lifting weights.

Then as they reach intermediate they switch to a bro split and mess around with rep ranges to get more hypertrophy.

It would be interesting to see.

In some of his videos he showed he trains with a weighted vest. It's mostly bodyweight, but he uses free weight for an exercise here and there. He is indeed a manlet, but taller gymnasts he had in his videos looked great as well.

since we are talking about BW routines, what are your thoughts on the Start Bodyweight routine?
Just recently started doing it and I probably wanna go up to a rep range of 8-12 for more hypertrophy.
Got experiences with the routine? Or should I just go for another routine straight away?

>What's the most efficient way of achieving this look?

1. be 5'4
2. do a beginner lifting routine for 2 years

It's good, has a good progression. Just like weights you need to eat at a surplus and rest for muscle. You could do both dips and pushups on the same day though, unless you're triceps need some building up first (or your ability to recover)

it's a fine routine to build a base level of strength if you're just getting into bodyweight.

as you get higher up on the progression charts maybe start getting some ideas of what your specific bodyweight goals are (e.g. planche, front lever, flags) and start structuring routines around achieving those. that overcoming gravity book that's been shilled around here does a great job walking you through the process. alternatively visit /r/bodyweightfitness or /r/overcominggravity (the book author is really active and will answer any questions he gets, but you'd do well to actually read the book).

/r/bodyweightfitness also has their own recommended routine which is pretty similar, so look into that if you find the startbodyweight one isn't quite doing it for you.

keep in mind of course you still need to have a proper diet and sleep etc, no matter your routine.

Are pull ups a substitute for bent over rows? And what if I want to curl at the end of my session, is curling after pull ups retarded?

r/startbodyweight/ is the sub for specific for it

There are a lot of ways to do pull ups that stress the lats. Doing curls after is not retarded, some advanced people do pullups (or rows) as a main, and curls as an accessory at higher reps.

For absolute beginners there is no reason to do (isolation) as you get all you need plus extra strength and hormonal benefits from compounds (pullups/rows)

There aren't exact one for one substitutions but if you can't do one then doing the other is great. Both are strong PULLS and good lat builders with biceps too.

thanks guys! For now my goals are just hypertrophy and strength gains.
Been doing the routine for about 3 weeks with good progress, can't do dips though so I just do pushups.
Didn't really put on much muscle since I have been cutting but I feel like I can start to bulk so hopefully the gains will follow.

Has there ever been a really hairy gymnast? Like dirty, fat Greek hairy?

It somewhat carries over. Handstand pushups are easier if you have a strong overhead press, and muscle ups are easier if you do weighted pullups.