1 Year Progress Post! (Lots of Info)

@button Hi, may I ask how you got your abs to show in such a defined manner? Is it core strengthening or diet mainly? And if it's diet, did you bulk then cut or is it possible to lean bulk?
 
@believer777 I work out my abbs pretty often. I really like dragon flags as well so progressing in that definitely gave me some abb gains.

Diet is a huge part, but I also don't carry much fat at all on my stomach (mostly sits on my back). So genetics plays some roll for sure with your abbs.

If your abb strength is weak (no where near high level dragon flag progressions or ring roll outs) then work on gaining strength there. If you have strong abbs but can't see anything, diet might give you much more perceivable gains than pushing yourself hard at the gym.
 
@button Alright thanks so much for the help, I've been doing abs daily, doing leg raises on bar and ab wheels but my abs aren't showing. I'm also not that heavy for my height, 65kg at 1.7m so I'm not really sure where I'm going wrong. I will work on my diet and try to cut to about 62kg I guess
 
@believer777 Hmmm, abs also requires resting just like any other muscle so I don't recommend (imo) doing it daily depending on intensity. If you're doing high volume of leg raises with ease then it might best to move up in difficulty such as controlled toes to bar or dragon flag. If you feel like your abs are strong then you might be holding body fat which I doubt cause you're 65kg but the body is complicated haha. Anyways I recommend doing HIIT exercises if you want to lose some fat, fasted if you can handle it.
 
@button Damn that's impressive. How many hours did you workout a day and how many days in a week? I kinda wanna get on the grind again but don't really know where to start. Is there significant calorie burn during workouts and did you do a progression based workout like the RR?
 
@startingover18 4-6 times a week for 50 min to 1 hour and a half.

The biggest difference maker between me training all the time and not wanting to go to the gym was finding a goal/motivator that made me want to workout as much as I could to get there. (pro tip: don't set a schedule/date for when you want to achieve said goal, only makes it super demotivating when you don't hit it)

TL:DR find something you care about working on and just try to stay deticated even when progress isn't linear. Good luck!
 
@button Holy shit! Your basically me with more mass and dedication. Congrats dude, took me years (fairly consistent but really chill) to work up to around the same level 👉👉

I've gone back to doing full body routine cause of time constraints if your curious but working on same goals as you 😁
 
@twins4heaven Thank you! Glad we are both here! Congrats!

I've never liked the idea of full body, but have you had any success with an upper lower split? I've been hearing a lot about that as of late and like the idea of 3 times a week frequency for everything if my body allows it.
 
@button Yeah, it was the most successful and fun split for me. I only did four days a week though. I based my workout on the one on bodyweight-warrior but I can't seem to find the pdf for it anymore. Basically my version was:

Upper

Warmup of some kind

Horizontal pull + Horizontal push

Vertical pull + Vertical push

Back lever practice

Lower

Warmup of some kind

Jumping Squats + lunge jumps

Squats + Hinge

Dragon flag and l-sit

When I say + I mean paired with, and I did four sets for the first two pairs and three for the last exercises.

The proper workout had accessory stuff instead of back levers and a proper set of core exercises instead of dragon flag and l-sit (I think). You probably get the idea. Given what workouts you do now I'd guess you'll do more stuff then me :D

I like your handstand form bro. I made a video of me doing one and it looks a bit banana shaped to me but I'm not sure if that's just cause I'm shirtless. I'd love your opinion since your form looks like where I want to be. https://streamable.com/sts60
 
@twins4heaven I know that PDF you're taking about! Haha

Glad to hear you liked it and that sounds like a solid plan. I think I'll end up switching to upper lower in the next week or two.

Also your handstand I think looks pretty good! It's all totally subjective though. I spent a lot of time working on opening my shoulders and working on my handstand line because I got forearm splints often during handstand training. The only thing I could do to work on handstands was improving shoulder mobility and rehabbing my forearms.

Filming yourself at a perfect side view and kicking up against a wall is the easiest way to see if you're straight. I still often do this and try to correct myself and ingrain the feeling of a good line.

Good luck with your training!
 
@button Ok... this is going to be an unpopular question...

What's causing him to look more hunched in the photos where he's in better shape? Did he manage to overtrain his chest that much or is it a trick of the lighting somehow?
 
@nemoore Would be interesting to see if this is a forced/posed or natural posture - possibly something for OP to look into fixing if the latter. Definitely more hunched over in the second pic.
 
@arent Ding ding! It was forced, I was just trying to stand up straight, tuck my tailbone, and tense up a little. Funny thing is I think my posture looks better after than before 🤔 something I'll have to look into!
 
@button Aha, cheeky bit of aesthetic posing ;) Nah mate like you already know the hard work's clearly paid off - only thing is I've had some issues personally with tight chest/ hunching and it's a bugger to fix, probs one of them things that gets worse the longer you leave it. Visit to an osteopath and lots of tips/ reminders from some knowledgeable gym-goers sorted it for me, some ideas where you could start.
 
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