anthonyosa
New member
Hi everyone! I posted a year and a bit ago on r/Fitness detailing the first year of my transformation.
A few days after posting that I discovered calisthenics and body-weight exercises and it completely changed my life. I used to lift weights 5-6 days a week and also did Judo/Muay Thai at the same time, but since moving home for the summer I switched into gymnastics in order to help me progress in my calisthenics and general flexibility, and man is it tough! I obviously still have a very long way to go before I can even say that I'm mediocre at many of the skills, but I am very happy with the progress I have made so far, and it's been inspiring seeing so many posts here and on r/Fitness showing people's progress. I work out a lot because it's sort of become my passion and my main hobby, and it honestly changed my whole life so I'm just hoping to help someone else out who's just starting or inspire someone like others did for me at the beginning.
I'm happy to answer any questions or take any criticisms you might have about how bad my squat and deadlift are (I didn't start training back/legs until late in the game...)!
Progress pics from March 2017 to August 2019:
2017 BEGINNING - March 2017 – https://imgur.com/a/8V6dFWd
2019 CURRENT - August 2019 - https://imgur.com/a/hISLuVG
(bonus) Before Calisthenics: April 2018 –
One of the main things I noticed after over a year of body-weight training is that my body-weight dropped significantly. If you’ll notice from the April 2018 picture, before starting calisthenics, my body fat % was still way over 10%. I’m not sure how low it is now, but if I had to guess I would say it’s around 8% (feel free to correct me if you think otherwise!).
Here is a list of some of the skills I have progressed in over the past year and 4 months (anything listed as weighted is a one-rep max):
Push-Ups 30 > 70 - Weighted Push-Ups 20lbs > 90lbs
Pull-Ups 5 > 20 - Weighted Pull-Ups 15lbs > 95lbs
Dips 10 > 35 - Weighted Dips 45lbs > 135lbs
Pistol Squats 0 > 15/side
Muscle-Ups 0 > 8 - Weighted Muscle-Up 0lbs > 25lbs
Ring Muscle-Ups 0 > 3
Back Lever 0sec > 32sec
Front Lever 0sec > 5sec
Some other skills I learned:
· Dragon Flag
· One-Arm Push-Up
· Handstand Push-Up (most I have done is 3 in a row)
· V-Sit (still needs a lot of work)
· Jump on the Bar
Weight-Lifting Stats:
Bench Press 125 > 240
Overhead Press 65 (est.) > 145
Squat 115 > 285
Deadlift 135 > 295
My workouts:
Monday – Chest/Triceps/Shoulders
· I do about 30 minutes of core and/or yoga on these days just to help stretch and keep my core strong. In the evening I have a few hours of gymnastics so I don’t want to be worn out beforehand.
Friday – Day off
Saturday – Back/Biceps
· Same as Tuesday/Thursday.
Right now I have gymnastics on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays for about 3.5 hours a night, meaning I can only train weights three days a week. Until September I've changed my shoulder day to be a part of my chest/triceps day.
My workouts changed significantly, as I shifted from just doing weights every day to doing mostly weighted calisthenics. I saw a lot of videos online of people doing these crazy moves on the bar with their body and decided I wanted to try it out.
My diet also changed significantly as I started to cut out all of the fast food, junk food, sugar, and unnecessary carbohydrates. I stopped drinking for the most part, which has also helped a lot, because not only am I never "too hungover to workout", I don't have those empty calories holding me back. Since giving up alcohol and fast food/junk food, I’ve noticed dramatic increases in my workout progress and my wallet hates me less.
Here is what my diet mainly consists of:
Protein - Chicken, eggs, fish, steak, duck, Greek yogurt
Carbs - Quinoa, fruit (berries, avocado, dates, figs mostly), vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, green beans, SPINACH)
I cut out most dairy products and white foods like pasta/bread/potato stuff because I found it just made me bloated and sluggish. I don’t drink coffee or tea, only water because I prefer it. I get a lot of questions to why I don’t have any peanut butter or nuts in my diet – I’m allergic.
Thanks for reading and if anyone has any questions/comments for me I'll try to respond to every comment!
A few days after posting that I discovered calisthenics and body-weight exercises and it completely changed my life. I used to lift weights 5-6 days a week and also did Judo/Muay Thai at the same time, but since moving home for the summer I switched into gymnastics in order to help me progress in my calisthenics and general flexibility, and man is it tough! I obviously still have a very long way to go before I can even say that I'm mediocre at many of the skills, but I am very happy with the progress I have made so far, and it's been inspiring seeing so many posts here and on r/Fitness showing people's progress. I work out a lot because it's sort of become my passion and my main hobby, and it honestly changed my whole life so I'm just hoping to help someone else out who's just starting or inspire someone like others did for me at the beginning.
I'm happy to answer any questions or take any criticisms you might have about how bad my squat and deadlift are (I didn't start training back/legs until late in the game...)!
Progress pics from March 2017 to August 2019:
2017 BEGINNING - March 2017 – https://imgur.com/a/8V6dFWd
2019 CURRENT - August 2019 - https://imgur.com/a/hISLuVG
(bonus) Before Calisthenics: April 2018 –
One of the main things I noticed after over a year of body-weight training is that my body-weight dropped significantly. If you’ll notice from the April 2018 picture, before starting calisthenics, my body fat % was still way over 10%. I’m not sure how low it is now, but if I had to guess I would say it’s around 8% (feel free to correct me if you think otherwise!).
Here is a list of some of the skills I have progressed in over the past year and 4 months (anything listed as weighted is a one-rep max):
Push-Ups 30 > 70 - Weighted Push-Ups 20lbs > 90lbs
Pull-Ups 5 > 20 - Weighted Pull-Ups 15lbs > 95lbs
Dips 10 > 35 - Weighted Dips 45lbs > 135lbs
Pistol Squats 0 > 15/side
Muscle-Ups 0 > 8 - Weighted Muscle-Up 0lbs > 25lbs
Ring Muscle-Ups 0 > 3
Back Lever 0sec > 32sec
Front Lever 0sec > 5sec
Some other skills I learned:
· Dragon Flag
· One-Arm Push-Up
· Handstand Push-Up (most I have done is 3 in a row)
· V-Sit (still needs a lot of work)
· Jump on the Bar
Weight-Lifting Stats:
Bench Press 125 > 240
Overhead Press 65 (est.) > 145
Squat 115 > 285
Deadlift 135 > 295
My workouts:
Monday – Chest/Triceps/Shoulders
- Bench Press
- Overhead Press
- Dumbbell Incline Press
- Dumbbell Bench Press
- Straight-Arm Pulldown
- Weighted Dips
- Weighted Pull-Ups
- Weighted Push-Ups
- Overhead Press
- Barbell Rows
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises
- Dumbbell Front Raises
- Face Pulls
- Handstand Walks
- Wall-Assisted Handstand Push-Ups
- Handstand work
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Quad Extensions
- Hamstring Curls
- Leg Press
- Calf Extensions
- Kettlebell Pistol Squats 3x8/side
· I do about 30 minutes of core and/or yoga on these days just to help stretch and keep my core strong. In the evening I have a few hours of gymnastics so I don’t want to be worn out beforehand.
Friday – Day off
Saturday – Back/Biceps
- Deadlifts
- Barbell Rows
- One-Arm Dumbbell Rows
- Cable Rows
- Weighted Pull-Ups, L-Sit Pull-Ups, and Explosive Pull-Ups
- Weighted Push-Ups
- Back Lever work
· Same as Tuesday/Thursday.
Right now I have gymnastics on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays for about 3.5 hours a night, meaning I can only train weights three days a week. Until September I've changed my shoulder day to be a part of my chest/triceps day.
My workouts changed significantly, as I shifted from just doing weights every day to doing mostly weighted calisthenics. I saw a lot of videos online of people doing these crazy moves on the bar with their body and decided I wanted to try it out.
My diet also changed significantly as I started to cut out all of the fast food, junk food, sugar, and unnecessary carbohydrates. I stopped drinking for the most part, which has also helped a lot, because not only am I never "too hungover to workout", I don't have those empty calories holding me back. Since giving up alcohol and fast food/junk food, I’ve noticed dramatic increases in my workout progress and my wallet hates me less.
Here is what my diet mainly consists of:
Protein - Chicken, eggs, fish, steak, duck, Greek yogurt
Carbs - Quinoa, fruit (berries, avocado, dates, figs mostly), vegetables (broccoli, asparagus, sweet potato, green beans, SPINACH)
I cut out most dairy products and white foods like pasta/bread/potato stuff because I found it just made me bloated and sluggish. I don’t drink coffee or tea, only water because I prefer it. I get a lot of questions to why I don’t have any peanut butter or nuts in my diet – I’m allergic.
Thanks for reading and if anyone has any questions/comments for me I'll try to respond to every comment!