J2B

The Dragon Flag is my personal goal, lurching in the mist, always a little too far away

Another option is to start dividing your workouts into different parts. So one day is leg-day, one is upper body, etc. I started feeling like I didn't get enough out of my workouts after a few months, and divided it into three separate days. Leg day, ab and core day, and arms, chest and shoulder day. I do more or less the same exercises, but I feel I get to focus more on properly working the muscle groups when I'm not doing all of them at once. Also, if you start to feel you're strong enough, you could start doing push-ups on your toes, but with your arms elevated on stairs or similar. It helps getting your muscles used to the motions. - J2B

Thanks for replies and advice. I always work out fasted, but decided I would try to change things up a bit. I'll stick with force-feeding myself in the mornings for another week or two and see if it helps. - J2B

Hi, I've never been much of a breakfast-person, normally having my first meal of the day at dinner. It's never been an issue before, and pretty useful when I've been trying to work off some fat. Now I'm trying to eat my way up again to improve my training, but I'm having a hard time with it. Whenever I eat in the morning, and it can be as simple as a banana, I feel sick and nauseous for hours. Will I get used to it? I don't mind suffering through it for a week or two if I'll eventually stop getting sick. - J2B

Doing dips with your arms behind you and legs on the floor puts your shoulders in a really awkward position. As others have suggested, it is better if you focus on other exercises until you're comfortable doing the dips fully suspended on your arms, legs beneath you. It might sound like you would need a dips-station,but if you look around you can usually find something to do dips on pretty much anywhere. - J2B

Hi, I've been training calisthenics and bodyweight exercises for about three months now. In this time I've been running on a calorie deficit. Not dieting, I'm just not that good with eating. I work out because I enjoy it, not to lose fat or gain muscle, but I do want to get stronger, in order to do more exciting things. I've been reading up on bulking, cutting and everything else, but I'm not sure I fully understand the function. I've understood that I can't build any serious muscle volume without bulking, but is that to say that I can't get stronger without bulking? If I want to increase my strength in order to have more fun at the bars, do I need to bulk up? - J2B

I tracked my intake using MyFitnessPal for a week, and I ranged between those numbers. It's seems to be a hereditary thing, that I don't really get hungry. That, and a lot of coffee and cigarettes, I guess. I can easily be happy with a few cans of tuna and maybe a piece of bread with cheese for a day or two. Using a few different calculators it seems I have a BMR around 1800-1900 kcal/day. Looking at your advice, I think I'll let myself drop a few more percent (gotta admit visible abs for the first time isn't a bad feeling), and then figure out a way to bulk up.

Due to some housing and financial issues I spent a few years never really knowing where my next meal would come from,so I got pretty used to eating infrequently. For the past six months I've been eating a proper dinner pretty much every day, but I rarely eat anything before that. I don't get particularly hungry, and I usually feel a bit sluggish after eating ,so it's really not high on my list of priorities. I've been losing weight for about six months, and started working out three months ago. Since then I've started dropping a bit more aggressively. I'm not really too interested in bulking, I just want to make sure I have the right nutrition so my workouts aren't pointless. - J2B

Not really what I wanted to hear, but thank you for answers. I'm a guy, so I could still stand to loose a few percent, but underweight is an issue running in the family, so I would like to stay ahead of it. I'm 174cm and about 75kg,so I wouldn't mind gaining a little. I know there are good calories and bad calories, but is bad calories better than no calories? I'll try to get my calories from proper food, but if I see I'm way off some days, could I supplement with some kind of junkfood? Candy or similar? - J2B

Hello to all, I recently started exercising again after several years on the couch, but I am a bit of an idiot when it comes to nutrition. I'm struggling a bit to keep my calorie intake up, in addition to having a seemingly quite aggressive metabolism. On average I get between 500-1300 calories per day(sometimes less, occasionally more),and I'm a little worried about the effects on my muscle growth. I'm not quite there yet, but I should be able to get enough protein, aiming for a little more than 1g/lb. If I get enough protein, will my muscles stay happy (and hopefully growing), even though I'm not getting a lot of calories? - J2B