2.5 year calisthenics transformation from nothing

[lamnhi]

@dawn16 I have a couple of walking routes and lots of hiking trails where i live. There is a 10 mile hiking trail i really like that takes 4ish hours. The 5.5mile walk is 11000-12000 steps according to my phone and takes around 100minutes.

 

[dawn16]

@lamnhi You are one disciplined man

 

[lamnhi]

@dawn16 You have to be if you want above average results.

 

[dhawk]

@lamnhi Whats your stats on weighted pull-ups and dips

 

[lamnhi]

@dhawk Uhh working weight this week for weighted chins was a 5x5 with 75lbs (i literally just got plates from craigslist last week after i bought a trapbar), i havent done weighted dips since my gym closed in march but i got up to 100lbs for 5 reps back then. Im building a dipstand with my dad so I can get back to doing them again. Currently only able to do just bodyweight dips but to maximize hypertrophy i do them with 2 second eccentric 1 sec pause at the bottom and explode up and do something like 10-12 sets going to total failure for the last 6 or so sets when i train them.

 

[dhawk]

@lamnhi Ah nice, how did you program weighted dips and pulls? Ive been using a program called bw plus to progress them

 

[lamnhi]

@dhawk When i did them i did weighted once a week and unweighted once or twice a week depending on soreness. 5x5 weighted adding more weight to the next workout when i completed the 5x5 going consistently heavier, unweighted was just a lot reps, messing with variables like reps per minute, total reps as fast as possible, grips, rest time, sets to failure, as many sets as i could do of x# of reps, etc. I just put the work in every time and never got injured.

 

[wiccanguy]

@lamnhi What’s your rest times when going to failure

 

[lamnhi]

@wiccanguy Depends, chinups and pullups 2 mins max weighted and unweighted, ring rows 60 seconds, pushups and dips 60-90 seconds depending on what my reps are like for that day. Only time ive done 3 mins is when i did deadlifts for 5x5 in the mid 300lbs, but now im starting to do them with sets of 10 reps and 2 mins rest, getting the movement pattern down again starting off light with 250lbs and working back up to where i was.

 

[wiccanguy]

@lamnhi Nice thank you

 

[jobsta360]

@lamnhi Holy sh*t man, congrats, it's really inspiring

 

[mrsndem]

@lamnhi Props bro.

Really good progress

 

[abbigaelclark]

@lamnhi Did you train throughout the day, or all at once?

 

[lamnhi]

@abbigaelclark I come home from work and i train as hard as i can for 60-90 mins 4 days a week.

 

[dawn16]

@lamnhi Holy shit, only 4 days a week. Im training 6 days a week and feel like my progress is slow as fuck.

 

[lamnhi]

@dawn16 Maybe you arent allowing yourself to recover enough based on how hard you are training each body part per week. Its highly individual. I destroy my muscles when i know ive got 2-3 days to recover

Edit: i want to expand on this a small bit. Science has shown the best growth happens when body parts are trained twice per week with between 10-20 HARD sets total. So warmup sets do not count. Last night I trained 5 sets of weighted chins, 5 sets of unweighted chins, 5 sets of ring rows, 5 sets of 8s eccentric pelican curls, and 5 sets of band face pulls. I am sore today, will be less sore tomorrow, feeling ok on sunday, and fresh as a daisy on monday for when i do farmers, deadlifts, rows, and more band facepulls. This ensures im getting the volume i need as well as enough recovery to grow and get stronger continuously. It has worked for me so far, no reason to fix something thats not broken.

 

[penn111]

@lamnhi Gj man, what was your diet like (calorie countwise) when you started as skinny fat? Recomp, bulk, cut? How long did you need to see any progress?

 

[lamnhi]

@penn111 I never counted calories, i just eat clean because spinach and gains are more important than cookies. I never really cared too too much about constantly looking in the mirror for progress, i just trusted the process and it took care of itself. Its a long road and you wont see changes if you are always looking for them. I cared way more and was able to see changes when i was going from 200 down to 158 because fat loss happens much faster than muscle gain.

 

[dudeman112]

@lamnhi Hey man. Not ever going to be in your level, just wanna say thanks for sharing all your progress and tips with the commenters on this post, keep up the good work OP

 

[lamnhi]

@dudeman112 I thought I did pretty good for an older guy starting a lot later in life than I should have. A lot of people dont know what it means to train hard, really damn hard. Im just trying to show whats possible if you put diet/training/sleep at the top of your priority list. Your results will equal the effort you put in. Hopefully ill continue getting bigger and stronger and update again in a year at 36.