Strict Calisthenics bulk. 166-185lbs

[saminni]

Police officer here. (Important to story) Lifted weights for years. Got tired of it after a possible nerve injury. My buddy got me on calisthenics. I’ve been STRICT calisthenics for almost three months since graduating from the police academy. Academy started in March, I stopped lifting weights one month ahead of time and focused strictly on pull-ups,....EVERYDAY! Went to the academy for 6 months and left all working out alone. Graduated police academy in August and started calisthenics in September. I have touched no weight and have since achieved 1) 17 muscle ups. 2) 37 max pull ups 3) 5 handstand push-ups 6) 30 second handstand 7) straddle front lever 8) L sit to press, working on press to handstand

https://imgur.com/Fu0xrM8

166 pre academy

https://imgur.com/gJI7xlJ

185 this week.

Routine

I work out seven days a week unless I am too exhausted from work. Usually I separate them by pull, push, skill, and cardio day.

Pull day is ONLY pull-ups. As many reps and variations as I can get in an hour.
Push Day is solely dips and handstand push-ups.
Skill days are lever practice and handstand practice.
Cardio is usually 3-4 times a week.

Videos

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[soft_angel]

@saminni Got damn I lift regular weights and my chest is nowhere compared to yours! Is dips your main chest workout?

 

[dawn16]

@soft_angel Can't speak for OP, but I personally noticed a radical increase in chest gains when I started doing dips and push ups vs bench press and standard weight training. I think it's cause my pectoral fibres run diagonally/slightly downward rather than straight across (when I tense my chest it's more of a low fly than a fly at shoulder height), so the decline-esque movement of dips is perfect. Plus, push ups have got my serratus absolutely shredded, even at a non-shredded bf%.

 

[saminni]

@dawn16 I agree I this as well. Just look at folks in prison that get huge from exactly what we are doing

 

[dawn16]

@saminni KaliMuscle, for example. Holy fuck that guy is next-level shredded, it’s scary

 

[soft_angel]

@dawn16 Push ups!? Do you add weight on your back or anything? Im new to this sub, but I could never imagine getting a chest that big from pushups (used to do karate, so I did a lot of pushups, but just the regular kind, and not too many, but I do feel the chest pump more when I do them, which I thought was unrelated though). Decline bench and dips always seem to help me a lot though, but I've been kinda stalling on my flat bench as of late. Thanks for the info! What kind of pushups/chest workouts do you do?

 

[saminni]

@soft_angel Some of the workouts I do total upward of 300+ push-ups and dips at times. It’s possible. Plus genetics, plus diet

 

[coolbreeze22]

@saminni GENETICS, you got 'em! Plus diet and perseverance = beast.

 

[eucatastrophe]

@saminni If you get bored, there are some fantastic push up variations that increase difficulty and add different muscles. I like you actually gained size in my chest working off strictly push ups/dips and to be honest the cardio effect helps out a lot as well.

 

[dawn16]

@soft_angel You don't have to do large numbers, you can always progress to harder variations. For example-

Standard up to 8x8

Diamond up to 8x8

Archer up to 8x8

One arm pushup up to 8x8 and so on so forth. You can also do pseudo planche push ups with the hands backwards which is an absolute chest killer and pretty much never gets too easy cause you can simply move your hands further back and lean forward more.

 

[sadreamer71]

@soft_angel Try some mind/muscle connection

 

[saminni]

@soft_angel I do 10x10 45 lb weighted dips a few times a week. Most my chest pump comes from the handstand pushups

 

[lurya]

@saminni Isnt 10x10 a bit much?

 

[louisaegg79]

@lurya Look at him.its perfect.

 

[jr47]

@louisaegg79 Dunno, for me he looked better at 166. But each to their own, kudos for perseverance and creating a routine which fits him.

 

[saminni]

@lurya That’s a light day for me. I frequent exercises that require 200 plus pull-ups and 300 plus dips. Check out then-x app. Their workouts frequent very high rep routines

 

[improvguild]

@soft_angel

Lifted weights for years. Got tired of it after a possible nerve injury. My buddy got me on calisthenics. I’ve been STRICT calisthenics for almost three months since graduating from the police academy.

Most of his chest gains are from lifting weights. His chest doesn't look like it got much bigger since he started doing calisthenics... The size he DID put on looks a bit like fat to me (his love-handles definitely came up, abs are less prominent, chest looks slightly fluffier). And that's not saying he didn't gain muscle. With a time-frame like Feb-Nov, some of it HAS to be muscle. But these pictures just don't show enough in my opinion.

Not trying to hamper on his gains, congrats to him, but he already had quite a bit of size before he started doing calisthenics. Also, genetics play a huge role in the shape of your muscles. He's got dem genes.

 

[dawn16]

@saminni This is impressive. I'm intrigued by your stripped down program. I'd like more details on everything.

 

[saminni]

@dawn16 To be honest I don’t plan. If I know it’s pull day I’m just gone do whatever pull comes in my mind and knock as many reps out till I can’t feel my arms lol. I call that a successful workout

 

[zacharyb]

@saminni Wow
Old fashioned train-to-failure method of training never fails those who want to gain muscles