Strange Gains?

[Wolfwood]

Hello! I've been doing the Angry Bird workout since the 20th of April, and I've been having some alarming gains over the past few days.

My very first "Workout", which was more of a benchmark, showed I was very badly out of shape, unable to fully complete any of the workouts in less than 5 sets, rather embarrassing, so, I figured I would try to push myself to do just one more set then I did last time.

But on my first "Real" workout, I showed huge gains.

From not being able to complete any of the sets, I did:

3 Sets of 12 Bodyweight Squats

3 Sets of 30 Knee Push Ups, supposed to be 40, but I'm just not there yet, going to try to complete the 40 in 5 sets, then bump it up to 4 soon enough, need to go slow, my upper body is my weakest link at this point.

1 Set of 40 One Arm Rows, these were almost too easy, I want to go up to level two, inverted rows, but I don't have any way of doing them, so I'm just bumping up the reps and until I can find a way to do them safely, any ideas anyone?

And a 6 Second Plank before I was completely done, I tried to do a second set, but it wasn't happening, but this was coming from a one second plank.

And this morning, I did nearly 5 more reps on each workout, except the Knee Push Ups, still need to work on my upper body.

My biggest gain, though, was a 16 second plank, then, after rest, a 6 second plank.

I'm just rather worried I'm going to fast, I don't want to injure myself or burn out, I really want to be excited about this, I haven't been tracking my weight, more or less doing a "Picture Tracking" and a "Do I still feel like shit?" Test.

So, is this sort of thing normal and healthy, and if not, should I go visit my doctor again for his advice? I want to be happy, but I also want to be injury free!

[Eurydice]

Beginners usually do make large gains, both because it's easy to improve from a starting position of zero and because people usually don't have a good idea of what they're capable of doing before they get started. If nothing hurts, don't worry about it. You're doing great.

[Bean]

I would not worry about burning out on a plank. Although pretty hard, you are not stressing any muscles through flexion or extension and so it is highly unlikely you will ever do yourself an injury.

For the inverted rows - do you have a table/desk or fairly solid chair that you can suspend yourself from to do the inverted rows? If not, maybe try find something heavy to hold for the normal rows - a bag full of books perhaps?

You might also want to try running through the routine in a circuit - do each set once and then start from the beginning.

Most important thing - listen to your body. It will tell you when it wants a break.

[aj_rock]

Yeah, you'll see massive gains because your muscle-mind link is getting the hang of performing these movements. Prioprioception, stabilization, and force production all increase drastically and should level out after 3-4 workouts.

[unicornassassin]

Beginners usually do make large gains, both because it's easy to improve from a starting position of zero and because people usually don't have a good idea of what they're capable of doing before they get started. If nothing hurts, don't worry about it. You're doing great.

Agreed.

[Gainsdalf the Whey]

Yep, initially the gains you'll see are your brain and msucles learning to work together and communicate properly, so you'll see big gains. It's also hard to burn out on bodyweight stuff, so keep at it as long as your body isn't telling you that you can't do it.

As for inverted rows, the place I have found to do them is hanging off a swing in the park, but that's hard on my hands.

[Wolfwood]

Awesome, I'm hoping to ride this wave of improvement until I can do real push-ups, I don't have any sort of sturdy table or chairs, and I don't have enough things to stack high enough, if only I had a dozen or so milk crates...

[Maj. Bloodnok]

You can take two flimsy chairs and put a broomstick or other long piece of round wood across the seats. Lie down between the chairs and do the inverted rows; your weight will be distributed into the chair seats. Just make sure the bar can handle your weight; don't use one of those flimsy little brooms from the Dollar Store. It's worked for me a time or two.

[Ryan Sannar]

Your body is just realizing its awesome. Kinda like how when you get inspiration, it just happens so fast. Same dif.

[Wolfwood]

I tried the chair thing, but my arms are too long (About 30 inches from shoulder to wrist) So I can't find enough things to stack high enough.

Although, Is it okay if my arms aren't fully extended when I'm laying on the floor?