6 months of calisthenics training, gotten stronger but body the exact same

@clemenslee It literally never gets old I had such a blast doing it today and some of the kids some dads brought to the basketball court even wanted to race me lol. It’s such a fun, dynamic, primal movement and it’s so good for your spine. I call it land swimming because thats exactly what it feels like; With the shock absorbing gloves I wear there’s virtually no impact on my wrists either
 
@iron2iron Keep progressing, eat well and its inevitable. Im very muscular for non social media standards but my strength is not as exceptional despite it being my focus. Individual response vary
 
@iron2iron
I haven't been eating quite optimally

Eating and sleeping are the two things people often neglect. I began a low-carb diet in Dec'22, lost ten pounds by Dec'23, and gained a hella-lotta strength and stamina from almost-daily exercise. At the same time, I increased my sleep from 7½ hours to 8½ hours, with positive result.
 
@iron2iron Two ways to go about this. First, hit the gym and train for actual hyper trophy. Second, lose bodyfat to see results. You can grow arms, just like all other muscles but genetics play a role. My arms were always big but I had to cut to single digit bodyfat before ever seeing anything ab related.
 
@iron2iron People are arguing about whether you should focus on gaining or losing weight. In my experience and personal opinion, it doesn't matter which you do as long as you stick to it for a while. For now, make sure you stay within the recommended weight range for your height. If you can scan body fat, you can also focus on remaining between 10 and 20 percent body fat.
I'd focus on gaining or losing depending on whether you are in the upper or lower range.

Go through longer cycles of slow weight gain or weight loss, even up to half a year in either direction. One proviso is that if you have body dismorphia, you might not be a good judge of what a healthy weight is so stick to the numbers rather than what your subjective self image is telling you.

It will take a few cycles of gaining and losing weight to get a great body. Maybe even just one or two years. All it takes is pairing that with consistent training. Get a good program like the recommended routine and you will be fine.
 
@iron2iron 4 reps pullups to 8 reps paused pullups seems like not great progress for 6 months. It took me like 2-3 months for 1 chinup then another 2-3 to get to sets of 8 L-sit chinups. Imo it's a consistency, effort, or routine problem.
 
@legatichristi In 6 months I have gone from 1 pullup to 7 pullups and I have been training very irregularly (because of work and kids).
First I used Kboges method of doing only 3 sets of some excercise, and do them only once until guaranteed failure and train every day if possible.
As I'm not that weak, I extended this and for pullup I started with 6-6-5 assisted pullups. Now I can do 12-11-10 assisted pullup (until failure, every time).
Every week I test how many unasissted pullups I can do and the latest one is 7. I'm 51, 180 cm and 80 kg.
I feel that I could achieve more if I trained really-really regularly and sometimes with extra weigth.
 
@legatichristi Thats interesting to read as I definitely don't think consistency or effort are the problem as I've stuck to the same program from 6 months and pushed myself every time I trained. I'm wondering if its because I changed my pull-up sets after I would plateau for a month (once I hit 9 pull-ups I was starting to get shoulder issues so I switched to sets of 3x6, and then I plateaued at sets of 7 so I switched to paused pull-ups) I'm assuming this could definitely be a reason
 
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