2.5 year calisthenics transformation from nothing
- Thread starter lamnhi
- Start date
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- bodyweight fitness
@lamnhi Hey man I like to read that you like to do slow tempo exercises. I have been working out since 2 years ago and I haven't gained much mass, the mass I have gained is more thanks to eating more, but I don't have like solid muscle mass you know, my arms don't have that round muscles look and big veins, I would love to have a physique similar to yours.
And I think that could be because I have always do fast reps. Tomorrow I will start a routine 3 per week with slow tempo, like 3 seconds up, hold 1 sec, 3 seconds down, to failure or near failure of:
3 sets of pull-ups/chin-ups/pull-ups
3 sets of dips
3 sets ring rows
3 sets diamond push-ups
3 sets leg raises
3 sets dumbells hammer curls
3 sets dumbells tricep extension
Do you think it is a good routine? Maybe it is too much with the hammer curls and tricep extensions, because as my arms are still skinny, they could benefit only with pull-ups,chinups,dips, rows.. at a slow tempo focusing on the arms? Or you think it is a handleable volume 3x per week including the hammer curls and tricep extensions?
And I think that could be because I have always do fast reps. Tomorrow I will start a routine 3 per week with slow tempo, like 3 seconds up, hold 1 sec, 3 seconds down, to failure or near failure of:
3 sets of pull-ups/chin-ups/pull-ups
3 sets of dips
3 sets ring rows
3 sets diamond push-ups
3 sets leg raises
3 sets dumbells hammer curls
3 sets dumbells tricep extension
Do you think it is a good routine? Maybe it is too much with the hammer curls and tricep extensions, because as my arms are still skinny, they could benefit only with pull-ups,chinups,dips, rows.. at a slow tempo focusing on the arms? Or you think it is a handleable volume 3x per week including the hammer curls and tricep extensions?
@web209 Fast concentric slow eccentric, no reason at all to go slow on the concentric of any exercise. Control the movement, no swinging, no momentum, pause at the top of chinups, palms facing you hands closer to each other is more bicep activation than shoulder width. You can handle lots of bodyweight volume, you will figure oit how much with time. 3x per week is fine.
@lamnhi Congrats on your hard work and results.
That's a lot of protein on a vegetarian diet. I read that you don't measure closely, but can you share a bit more on your protein sources? I'd like to be informed to give ideas to vegetarian friends. Are you eating a metric ton of eggs every day? Protein shakes?
That's a lot of protein on a vegetarian diet. I read that you don't measure closely, but can you share a bit more on your protein sources? I'd like to be informed to give ideas to vegetarian friends. Are you eating a metric ton of eggs every day? Protein shakes?
thedudeman1990
New member
@thedudeman1990 Hmmm, id venture to say its half eggs and milk derived like cottage cheese, greek yogurt, and whey protein, and half beans plants and grains. Maybe 40-60.
calebminson
New member
@themrbt I went through a vegan phase; there's a surprisingly huge amount of (delicious) protein sources available. In powders alone:
Plus there are so many off-the-shelf solutions now, like Impossible & Beyond meats. Faux chicken, sausages, ground beef, etc. are all available now. Or you can go totally natural & use lentils, tofu, chickpeas, quinoa, steel-cut oats, etc. to get your protein in. Method doesn't matter for results; macros do - what you eat & how tasty your food is & when and how often you eat throughout the day is totally up to you!
- Brown rice protein powder
- Hemp protein (non-THC)
- Peanut butter powder
- Pumpkin seed protein powder
- Soy protein powder
- Spirulina powder
- Sunflower seed protein powder
- Yellow pea protein powder
- Watermelon seed protein powder
- Whole oat powder
- Beef protein isolate powder
- Bone broth powder
- Casein protein powder
- Collagen protein powder (fish)
- Egg white protein powder
- Whey protein powder
Plus there are so many off-the-shelf solutions now, like Impossible & Beyond meats. Faux chicken, sausages, ground beef, etc. are all available now. Or you can go totally natural & use lentils, tofu, chickpeas, quinoa, steel-cut oats, etc. to get your protein in. Method doesn't matter for results; macros do - what you eat & how tasty your food is & when and how often you eat throughout the day is totally up to you!
@calebminson These are probably considered basic questions but it appears you're not averse to writing so I'll ask.
1) What are macros?
2) How do go about eating all that powder?
1) What are macros?
2) How do go about eating all that powder?
calebminson
New member
@rob_aston No problem! So your body is a machine that requires fuel; that fuel is called calories. Think of calories sort of like gasoline for a car: you need to fill up the tank for the vehicle to move. Your body burns a certain amount of calories just by existing: you have to breath, your heart pumps blood, your brain uses energy by thinking, etc. Plus, you burn calories whenever you move, like walking around or going for a jog or whatever.
When you combine those two numbers together - how many calories your body needs to exist, plus whatever your regular routine is for moving around in a day, whether it's walking around your job or school or home plus going to the gym or whatever - that determines the total number of calories you need. Thanks to science, we've figured out how to determine the number of calories you need in a day!
Calories controls your bodyfat, which is kind of like a visible balloon that goes over your skeleton, muscles, and organs. If you eat more calories than your body needs, you will grow (with exercise, into muscle, and without exercise, into fat). If you eat less, you will lose weight. That's why eating less helps you lose weight: there's less fuel to grow your body with!
Now, if your body needs 2,200 calories a day to function as-is, and you eat a little less at 2,000 calories a day, but it's all ice cream & soda pop, obviously that isn't going to be very good for you. But why is that? Is it because junk food is inherently "bad"? Nope! It's because of something called macro-nutrients. Calories are actually the end product of a simple math formula:
The beauty of the concept is multi-faceted:
Lots of protein-enhanced stuff is available these days...protein drinks, protein bars, even protein cookies are available! Of course, that's IF you PERSONALLY want to include that in your macros-based diet, i.e. IIFYM! Some people like whole, natural foods. Some people don't like to cook & buy pre-made or pre-packaged foods. And you can use a mix of things...get a Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwich, then drink a protein shake at brunch, then have a homemade burrito for dinner, then have a Snickers bar as a snack, etc.
The concept basically boils down to you (1) getting your macro numbers (free, only takes a minute or two on iifym.com), and (2) setting up a meal plan to ensure that you are accurately hitting your numbers each day. If you stick with that over time, you'll get great results!
The health & fitness industry tries really hard to keep us under a fog. Buy these supplements! Buy these powders! Buy these pills! All it takes is setting a goal (lose/maintain/gain) & then meeting that goal. Nothing to buy other than food, unless you want the convenience of a protein drink or the laziness of a meal-replacement drink like Soylent or Sated. None of those are required, however!
So to TL;DR as best as I can:
Fast food places all have their macros listed on their website, as do candy bars, and protein drinks, etc. Anything you make from scratch at home uses a simple $13 food scale, so like 4 ounces of chicken is about 35 grams of protein & so on. Takes a little getting used to, but it's a really easy approach to adopt! The math is simple & the numbers are clear (just 3 - protein, carbs, fat), so you can pretty much tweak how & when you eat to fit your numbers & your food preferences, and then get amazing results while eating the foods you love!
When you combine those two numbers together - how many calories your body needs to exist, plus whatever your regular routine is for moving around in a day, whether it's walking around your job or school or home plus going to the gym or whatever - that determines the total number of calories you need. Thanks to science, we've figured out how to determine the number of calories you need in a day!
Calories controls your bodyfat, which is kind of like a visible balloon that goes over your skeleton, muscles, and organs. If you eat more calories than your body needs, you will grow (with exercise, into muscle, and without exercise, into fat). If you eat less, you will lose weight. That's why eating less helps you lose weight: there's less fuel to grow your body with!
Now, if your body needs 2,200 calories a day to function as-is, and you eat a little less at 2,000 calories a day, but it's all ice cream & soda pop, obviously that isn't going to be very good for you. But why is that? Is it because junk food is inherently "bad"? Nope! It's because of something called macro-nutrients. Calories are actually the end product of a simple math formula:
- Protein plus Carbs plus Fats equals Calories
The beauty of the concept is multi-faceted:
- No one is trying to sell you anything. You pick your goal (lose weight, maintain weight, gain weight), generate your macros...and that's it! Most people haven't heard of macros or the IIFYM or "flexible dieting" movement because it's not like there's a huge corporate budget behind it.
- You get full control over the shape of your body. It's no longer hard or impossible to achieve...you're literally just eating your way to success! Wanna lose weight? Easy. Wanna build up to be a big muscly monster? Easy. Think of it like blowing up a balloon...you can let air out or fill it up, and that's how your muscles & fat work inside your body. Everyone has a six-pack of abs, but most people don't have a low enough bodyfat percentage to see them - macros gives you the clear path forward for shrinking your body down to see them, and doing workouts is what makes your muscles grow & inflate & pop out!
- The food itself technically doesn't matter for results. Eat meat, eat veggies, eat protein powder, eat meal-replacement shakes like Soylent, eat whatever you want. As long as you're hitting your macros for the day, you will get results (barring any kind of outlier medical condition like Cushing's or something). The stricter & more consistently you do this, the better & faster your results will be. That's why you can eat anything you want "if it fits your macros". Eat take-out, cook at home, buy packaged foods, whatever you like! You don't need any magic supplements or anything either. Protein powders are fine if you want to include them, but they're just a convenience meal to help you hit your macros in a hurry with low effort.
- No guilt is required. Every meal is a cheat meal. Every day is a cheat day.
- Meal timing isn't relevant. Eat one giant meal a day. Eat within a time period. Eat 3 meals a day. Graze on mini-meals all day. Eat 3 meals and 3 snacks. Whatever you want!
- You can adjust it to take into account your body body. Maybe there are foods that you hate - don't eat them! Maybe you have a low appetite & are only hungry in the afternoon & evening - then eat then! Maybe you have food allergies or diabetes or hypoglycemia or Celiac's or whatever. Totally tweakable!
- The greatest success factor in controlling your physical body's appearance & your energy levels every day is meal-prepping. I have some tools for that if you are interested, it's pretty easy stuff if you have the right perspective! For example, if you're interested in cooking at home, you can save money, eat like a king, and have really great physical results thanks to following your macros strictly by weighing & counting your food's macros each day or ahead of time.
Lots of protein-enhanced stuff is available these days...protein drinks, protein bars, even protein cookies are available! Of course, that's IF you PERSONALLY want to include that in your macros-based diet, i.e. IIFYM! Some people like whole, natural foods. Some people don't like to cook & buy pre-made or pre-packaged foods. And you can use a mix of things...get a Dunkin Donuts breakfast sandwich, then drink a protein shake at brunch, then have a homemade burrito for dinner, then have a Snickers bar as a snack, etc.
The concept basically boils down to you (1) getting your macro numbers (free, only takes a minute or two on iifym.com), and (2) setting up a meal plan to ensure that you are accurately hitting your numbers each day. If you stick with that over time, you'll get great results!
The health & fitness industry tries really hard to keep us under a fog. Buy these supplements! Buy these powders! Buy these pills! All it takes is setting a goal (lose/maintain/gain) & then meeting that goal. Nothing to buy other than food, unless you want the convenience of a protein drink or the laziness of a meal-replacement drink like Soylent or Sated. None of those are required, however!
So to TL;DR as best as I can:
- Your body's physical appearance & energy levels run off macros
- Eat what you want when you want, if it fits your macros
- Adjust your macros after you meet your goal. Maybe you want to lose 30 pounds first, then bulk up. So you'd go on a 15-week macro diet for weight loss, then readjust for bulking up. Once you understand your only available options are to lose, maintain, or gain weight, and that macros runs the show, period, then things become really clear & you obtain full power over your body's results because you clearly understand how things work & how to implement achieving remarkable results in your own life!
Fast food places all have their macros listed on their website, as do candy bars, and protein drinks, etc. Anything you make from scratch at home uses a simple $13 food scale, so like 4 ounces of chicken is about 35 grams of protein & so on. Takes a little getting used to, but it's a really easy approach to adopt! The math is simple & the numbers are clear (just 3 - protein, carbs, fat), so you can pretty much tweak how & when you eat to fit your numbers & your food preferences, and then get amazing results while eating the foods you love!
@calebminson From one verbose person to another truly I thank you.
Edit 1: The irony of saying I am verbose while responding with a one sentence answer isn't lost on me.
I just know almost nothing about health and fitness and so do not have so much to say.
Edit 1: The irony of saying I am verbose while responding with a one sentence answer isn't lost on me.
I just know almost nothing about health and fitness and so do not have so much to say.calebminson
New member
@rob_aston Haha cheers!
I type fast & I write pretty often, so for me, truly explaining something means having a conversation about it...so typing stuff out in a lengthy way is just sort of second-nature for me now lol.
Lengthy responses are not everyone's preference, but I love it when people post clear, detailed guides about how to do something, because it removes all of the fog associated with trying to figure out how to put it to work for you.
And I recommend IIFYM to everyone on the planet because it amps up your energy to the max, gives you controllable physical results, which helps you feel good about yourself, and helps you get healthy, which is always a plus!
Every single day, I know I'm going to have food available at each meal & snack time, and that food is going to taste awesome, AND fit my macros, AND save me money by not eating out (still do sometimes, but as I've gotten better at cooking, that's not such a big deal for me these days), and that's a repeatable process for me day after day after day, which is just amazing, because it lets you magically have high energy all the time & look great all the time!
Couple that with a really easy meal-prep system that makes dealing with food really easy and you've got yourself a fairly low-stress way of managing your food & your health, both of which people tend to be fairly disconnected from because it's so easy to turn our brain off & go do something else, because there's often no clear path forward for solving these types of problems...which is why I like to post about it, because it was such a major life change for me!
I type fast & I write pretty often, so for me, truly explaining something means having a conversation about it...so typing stuff out in a lengthy way is just sort of second-nature for me now lol.
Lengthy responses are not everyone's preference, but I love it when people post clear, detailed guides about how to do something, because it removes all of the fog associated with trying to figure out how to put it to work for you.
And I recommend IIFYM to everyone on the planet because it amps up your energy to the max, gives you controllable physical results, which helps you feel good about yourself, and helps you get healthy, which is always a plus!
Every single day, I know I'm going to have food available at each meal & snack time, and that food is going to taste awesome, AND fit my macros, AND save me money by not eating out (still do sometimes, but as I've gotten better at cooking, that's not such a big deal for me these days), and that's a repeatable process for me day after day after day, which is just amazing, because it lets you magically have high energy all the time & look great all the time!
Couple that with a really easy meal-prep system that makes dealing with food really easy and you've got yourself a fairly low-stress way of managing your food & your health, both of which people tend to be fairly disconnected from because it's so easy to turn our brain off & go do something else, because there's often no clear path forward for solving these types of problems...which is why I like to post about it, because it was such a major life change for me!
@calebminson I appreciate it big time. Mind if I DM you in a few days to talk further?
calebminson
New member
@rob_aston Yup, anytime!
southernrunner
New member
@calebminson Nice writeup!
calebminson
New member
@southernrunner Thank you! In case it got buried in the wall of text, here's the main guide:
Discovering this concept was a pretty big shift in my approach because it meant I could make a lot of my meal-prepping easier, because I discovered that I mostly care about my afternoon snack (need something sugary & ridiculously delicious at that point, haha!), dinner (because that's my chill time when I get home from work & flop on the couch & watch TV & want to "treat myself"), and dessert (because I am a self-admitted sugarholic, lol).
It's also been really interesting to see how different people approach food. One of my friends doesn't care about food, like at all. She eats solely for results. And she has no problem eating the exact same thing every day. That would drive me BANANAS!
On the other hand, I have a friend who is extremely nuanced when it comes to food, and spends a tremendous amount of time making really great meals, and literally never cooks the same recipe twice, which I also think is insane because I love my "regular rotation" favorites & the idea doing new stuff every single day is also tremendously mentally draining for me lol (soooo much Pinterest window-shopping required!).
My buddy who got me into homemade Soylent (full liquid meal replacement) before they went commercial is in the same boat as me - at the time, he was doing Soylent for lunch & dinner, and would then go home to enjoy dinner with his family. He sold me on the idea of it because I was so busy during the day that sometimes (pre-IIFYM & adopting a good meal-prep system) I would run out of the door without breakfast & skip lunch because I was so busy.
This didn't lead to good physique (or energy) results (or wallet results, because then I'd hit up fast-food & vending machines lol), so Soylent was a huge convenience tool for me at the time, because as I got more into macros, I was able to tweak the formula to fit my needs, and then have real food at the end of the day.
Over time, as I learned how to cook better & prep ahead of time more often, I realized that I preferred real food, and relegated Soylent to mostly a convenience snack to fill in the blanks. I occasionally use it for emergency food when I'm mentally maxed out & don't want to deal with food or cooking, or when I'm really super busy, but that's a nice ace to have up your sleeve as needed!
- Set your goal (lose/maintain/gain)
- Generator your macros
- Adopt a meal-prep system to help you hit your numbers every day in a way that suits you (when to eat, what to eat, how often to cook or shop or get takeout or dine-in, etc.)
Discovering this concept was a pretty big shift in my approach because it meant I could make a lot of my meal-prepping easier, because I discovered that I mostly care about my afternoon snack (need something sugary & ridiculously delicious at that point, haha!), dinner (because that's my chill time when I get home from work & flop on the couch & watch TV & want to "treat myself"), and dessert (because I am a self-admitted sugarholic, lol).
It's also been really interesting to see how different people approach food. One of my friends doesn't care about food, like at all. She eats solely for results. And she has no problem eating the exact same thing every day. That would drive me BANANAS!
On the other hand, I have a friend who is extremely nuanced when it comes to food, and spends a tremendous amount of time making really great meals, and literally never cooks the same recipe twice, which I also think is insane because I love my "regular rotation" favorites & the idea doing new stuff every single day is also tremendously mentally draining for me lol (soooo much Pinterest window-shopping required!).
My buddy who got me into homemade Soylent (full liquid meal replacement) before they went commercial is in the same boat as me - at the time, he was doing Soylent for lunch & dinner, and would then go home to enjoy dinner with his family. He sold me on the idea of it because I was so busy during the day that sometimes (pre-IIFYM & adopting a good meal-prep system) I would run out of the door without breakfast & skip lunch because I was so busy.
This didn't lead to good physique (or energy) results (or wallet results, because then I'd hit up fast-food & vending machines lol), so Soylent was a huge convenience tool for me at the time, because as I got more into macros, I was able to tweak the formula to fit my needs, and then have real food at the end of the day.
Over time, as I learned how to cook better & prep ahead of time more often, I realized that I preferred real food, and relegated Soylent to mostly a convenience snack to fill in the blanks. I occasionally use it for emergency food when I'm mentally maxed out & don't want to deal with food or cooking, or when I'm really super busy, but that's a nice ace to have up your sleeve as needed!
foralltruth
New member
@calebminson Thank you for the write up friend, as someone whose happy w/ his current weight (180 for a 6'2 23 yr old) and about 24% body fat, would the strategy for the macros be cutting down the body fat and then readjusting to gain muscle in your opinion. Thanks again.
@calebminson I'd maybe add in your awesome writeup that when using a scale, it's easier to just do everything in grams, rather than record your food in ounces and convert to grams later.
calebminson
New member
@sega That's a good trick! I have a cheap scale off Amazon & fortunately it has a button to swap between both imperial & metric, so even if something comes in ounces, you can just tap the button to swap.
Although I wish we'd swap to metric, it'd be so much easier lol. Or at least do the Canadian thing where they write everything in both English & French, except list everything in both ounces & grams on labeling, that way you don't have to convert!
Personally I don't visualize numbers very well, even simple math, so IIFYM was a big hassle for me initially, but once I got the workflow going for weighing & counting, it became second-nature. I vac-seal & freeze a lot of my food & just write the macros on it with a Sharpie marker, that way I can just play Food Tetris to fit meals vs. my eating time slots when picking out food for the day haha.
Although I wish we'd swap to metric, it'd be so much easier lol. Or at least do the Canadian thing where they write everything in both English & French, except list everything in both ounces & grams on labeling, that way you don't have to convert!
Personally I don't visualize numbers very well, even simple math, so IIFYM was a big hassle for me initially, but once I got the workflow going for weighing & counting, it became second-nature. I vac-seal & freeze a lot of my food & just write the macros on it with a Sharpie marker, that way I can just play Food Tetris to fit meals vs. my eating time slots when picking out food for the day haha.