What’s the shortest time span you’ve made a progression from a beginner move an to intermediate or advanced move?

[shelbycmr]

I realise this is a very open question because some exercises are harder than eachother and people are coming from different experience levels. But if enough people comment it should give enough variety in the answers.

For example, there are like 7 progressions to a planche I think. Were you ever surprised at how fast you could advance from step 2 to step 5 for example? How long did it take?

I’m asking because I’m a beginner in body weight training and I want to make a video doing some moves in my basement for my current module at art school. I can’t do many exercises that visually look that cool yet apart from L-sit chin ups and L-Sit to dip on parallel bars.

I have about 3 or 4 weeks before I need to shoot this video. In the run up to that I don’t really have any other commitments so I can just train really hard in my basement.

If other people tell me their experience levels and progressions they’ve made, then maybe I can use that to plan what to focus on, what is achievable for me.

 

[raleigh]

@shelbycmr Not sure if this quite fits, but I went from not being able to pull up on one arm at all to one arm pull up in a a month and a half.

I just worked negatives and assisted one arms where I grabbed my pulling arm with my other hand a few times a week during quarantine.

My max pullups when I started trying this was probably in the 20s.

 

[salviaj]

@raleigh I have the exact same experience. Took me a month and a half-two months, I could do a third of my BW for 5 reps of weighted pull ups prior but barely any flexion with one arm, and around 27 regular pull-ups. Did negatives and used a resistance band for assisted one arm strength work. I only worked out 2-3 times a week and lost 4-5 lbs to get it.

 

[morsepam619]

@raleigh I had almost the same exact experience, except I also got pretty bad elbow tendinitis (was also climbing a lot at the time)

 

[raleigh]

@morsepam619 I started to get elbow tendonitis from climbing before quarantine, but I haven't climbed much since then and it's gone away. Some advice I got was to make sure you do some pushing exercises and also add in wrist curls with a light weight to your routine to keep the different muscles in balance.

 

[emokhimy123]

@raleigh When you say max pullups do you mean going all the way for 1 single set with as many reps as you can or do you mean 3 sets of 20 reps each? Dumb question srry

 

[raleigh]

@emokhimy123 No worries, I meant one set max. I haven't actually tried a max set in a while but I'd guess my max was in the high 20s

 

[dawn16]

@shelbycmr Pike push ups then to a wall handstand push up negatives then to a to a chest-to-wall handstand push up at the current moment

It took me 29 days

I think it's important to mention before I focused on achieving the handstand pushups, I could already do 12 archer push ups and I did dumbbell military presses to supplement so there might have been quite the carry over since the balance aspect of the HSPU isn't there yet (it took me however 3 months to get from a regular push up to an archer push up)

It also took me around a month and a half to achieve a 5 second free standing handstand

As for Pulling movements I have no final skills yet
It took me about 2 months and a half to go from normal pull ups to archer pull ups,

The bottom line is, skills or progressions that start from scratch would take you around a month and/or more unless you have had other moves in the past that has great carry over, atleast in my experience. I'm sure there are other factors too

Regardless, enjoy the process. The results (skill and body) plus the satisfaction more than makes up for the time and effort you place into it

 

[bfastpool]

@dawn16 Handstand push-ups are nice

i progressed fairly fast into them to, a few months maybe, now they are a solid part of my training session.

Unfortunately i cant do a handstand even though i practiced the handstand too during this time :-/

Another cool movement is the headstand-handstand transition btw.

 

[dawn16]

I had a similarly fast transition through the pike push-up, however I never deliberately targeted the front delts before then. I could do 7 archer pushups each side however, and PP Pushups were included. Maybe 3 to 4 weeks before I transitioned this week. Balance is going to take some more time, as is not being totally terrified.

The gains in shoulder size this last month from the Pike push-up are insane, and the post workout pump... one of the most intense exercises I’ve encountered.

Despite somewhat recent history of endurance running and being skinny, but then mildly overweight, 25+ years ago i did work in a physically demanding job (drilling) and people commented on my shoulders so it could be either muscle memory or shoulders are my thing genetically.

 

[shelbycmr]

@dawn16 Thanks for this, very detailed and helpful

 

[nature74]

@dawn16 How did you tackle the balance aspect? And how intensely did you progress ur pike before the wall handstand?

I’ve been at it for 6/7 months now, and I’m only JUST doing 2-4 wall HSPU and holding for 4 sec

 

[dawn16]

@nature74 I trained the HSPU and the handstand on separate sessions

I trained HSPU first, trained 3-4 times a week, Elevated Pike Push ups (3 sets of 8-15) and a set of pike push ups going to failure

To get to the wall HSPU, I started doing back to wall negatives + elevated Pike push ups,
then back to wall HSPU + Pike PU

then Chest to wall HSPU with a book on the floor to make the Range of Motion easier + Pike Pu

I think the bottomline is have a main exercise that teaches you both the movement and builds strength, while having another that totally burns you out(going to failure) I've found that in my experience to be the most effective

For Handstands, started with 10 minutes everyday, skipping it when I'm too fatigued

I did the Butcher's block (TheBodyweightWarrior has a good video on it)
And then followed Gabo Saturno's Routine

I slowly added more time, now I train 30 minutes everyday
First is flexibility, then I ease into it slowly getting closerninto the wall, then Toe Pulls and Heel pulls, and then I kick up with a wall, until I finish off with Freestanding attempts

 

[leaderoftruth]

@shelbycmr I was able to do the human flag by watching a tutorial on YouTube. Indeed it takes focused strength, but technique is super important. There are variations you can do to prepare you for the full pose.

Edit: Here is a link to the tutorial!

You can do it!!!

 

[shelbycmr]

@leaderoftruth Very impressive how long did it take you? From total beginner to final thing?

 

[leaderoftruth]

@shelbycmr Probably about a month and a half. I did the workouts in typical sets and reps. 3 sets of 5 or so holds on each side.

This is the exact video I used. It's no nonsense and straight forward.

 

[shelbycmr]

@leaderoftruth Thanks will be using this!

 

[bibbigo]

@shelbycmr I bought rings when I turned 47 y/o with the goal of learning the front lever, back lever, etc. I did a wonky front lever in the first week for 1-2 seconds and then progressed fast. it took 4 months to get up to a 10 sec front lever.

My first front lever - after a few training sessions

I documented my FL training journey in this chart.

This is my clean front lever messing around at the beach for fun.

 

[shelbycmr]

@bibbigo Oh cool, that chart is a superb visualisation tool. And congrats on your progress

 

[orthodoxcrusaderuk]

@bibbigo oh shit it's BosBatMan you're a legend in this community