Godeskian goes to war

[Godeskian]

Hey all,

So back in November of last year I was in good shape. I was getting fitter and stronger with every session. My clothes fit better, my confidence was high.

Then I picked someone up to do a sidewalk slam during wrestling practice. A move so uncomplicated that it basically involves picking someone up and falling sideways. A move I'd been doing for over two years.

Then my right knee went pop and I couldn't stand without being in pain for almost three months. I saw a doctor, I saw a physio, I was eating painkillers like tic tacs just to move around.

And I stopped eating right, stopped going to the gym, Ifell back into bad habits and regained every pound I'd lost, every inch of waistline that had been burned.

But I got better, slowly the dependence on painkillers went from prescription to over the counter to , as of last week, none at all. I got the okay from the doc, and I looked at myself in the mirror, at how far I'd fallen off the mountain and said fuck that.

I've lost a lot of steps. I can only do a fraction of what I could do in November. I was doing sets of ten diamond pushups, now I can barely do ten regular ones. And the same is true across the board.

But man was made to climb mountains, and I have been here before, weak, overweight, slowly, and I know how to get back up there. So I can only do 10/5/2 pushups today? Fine, next time I'll do 10/6/3, the time after that 10/7/4 and so on.

Because i am healed, and I will rebuild this body step by damned step until I'm back on that mountain.

And that's where I've been. My story of how I fell, broke and rise again.

And this is where I'll write the next chapter of that story, where with your support I will reforge myself.

Time to get to work

[Godeskian]

Hi all,

 

I meant to post this yesterday, but here is what I’m doing.

 

Monday – Gym

Tuesday – Off

Wednesday – Gym

Thursday – DDPYoga

Friday – Rock Climbing (at an indoor climbing wall)

Saturday – Gym

Sunday – Off

 

My six gym exercises (please note, everything I do is bodyweight. No weights, and that is quite intentional)

 

Squats

Handstands

Leg raises

Pushups

Pull-ups and Tricep dips

Bridges

 

Each of them also has a long term goal

Close squats – Single leg pistol squat

Handstands – Free standing handstand pushups

Legraises – Hanging full body leg raises

Pushups – One armed pushups

Pullups and tricep dips – Doing it with my full bodyweight (at the moment I’m still offsetting 54kg)

Bridges – Stand to stand bridges.

 

Here are my day 1 stats and exercise variants

 

Close squats (heels together) 20/20/20. I need to find out what the next step in terms of difficulty is in order to head towards pistol squats.

Handstands 41/19/12 (in seconds)

Lying down leg raises, 10/10/10

Narrow Pushups 10/5/4

Pullups and tricep dips (54kg offset) 6/1/1

Lying down to bridge 1/1/0

 

It doesn’t look like much, but it’s where I’m at and I’m inclined to be philosophical about it.

 

And my day 3 data

Close squats (heels together) 20/20/20.

Handstands 52/30/25 (in seconds)

Lying down leg raises, 10/10/10

Narrow Pushups 10/6/5

Pullups and tricep dips (54kg offset) 10/3/2

Lying down to bridge 3/3/1

 

As you can see, improvements across the board. I’m especially surprised at the jump in pullups. A little disappointed in only adding one pushup per set on the second and third sets of pushups, but like with the other exercises I can be patient. As long as there is some improvement every session I’m fine with it.

 

Now, questions in case anyone is actually reading this thread.

The close squats are tough, but I am getting to the end of them. I’d like to find an exercise that is harder, and will lead me towards doing single leg squats. I’ve considered single leg box squats (and then simply lowering the box until I can do them free-form) thoughts? Is there a better progression that doesn’t require me to instantly be able to just use a single leg?

 

Second, the lying leg raises. Eventually I want to be able to do the kind of hanging leg raises where you lift your feet above your head, but at the moment I don’t have the strength and I’m too heavy to hang for the time I need to be able to do it. Untill I develop the upper body strength for that, is there a way to make this exercise harder? Maybe instead of bringing my legs up at a 90 degree angle, bring them further over towards my head creating a larger range of motion?

 

Anyway, that’s my update. Onwards!

[Godeskian]

Well.... That didn't go well...

 

So Day 4 was Yoga day, and by Yoga I mean DDP yoga since A: It was the original catalyst of my weightloss (bringing me down from 260+ pounds to about 210) a few years ago and B: I'd reached a point where I could do the hardest of the workouts not on the 'extreme' DVD set.

 

That of course was last November. Five months of no exercise later and I'm struggling with the beginner workouts. Guess I'm rebuilding my yoga self too. Fortunately the flexibility is recovering easier than the strength. I can still do a stand-to bridge motion without dropping myself on my head.

 

Still, it's a little disheartening to realise that I can't even do my Yoga right anymore. So I've added the daily wakeup routine into my exercise plan.

 

Now, for some rock climbing. This is going to go well

[proVoke]

heya. Well done on getting back into things!

 

Love that you are just taking it slow and getting back to the old you one step at a time... just keep with it

 

Looking forward to following your progress

[Godeskian]

heya. Well done on getting back into things!

 

Love that you are just taking it slow and getting back to the old you one step at a time... just keep with it

 

Looking forward to following your progress

 

Thank you for the support, and as a Nerd Fitness owner named Steve may have said in a blog one fine day, it's not a sprint, it's a marathon. As long as I'm progressing, there is no rush.

 

Rock climbing is awesome. This is my new reality, and while I really suck at it, since I'm starting at rock bottom, the only place to go is up

 

I've decided to add two things to my routine. Point the 1st, A friend who is currently training to join the army suggested I do something that his recruiter suggested to him, a 12x12 challenge. Basically it involves running for 12 minutes at 12k an hour (which is enough to get one to comfortably pass the entry physical cardio segment in the UK). I tried this for funsies last week and managed a stunning 1 minute and 27 seconds at that speed.

 

So the goal is to add this to my workout routine three times a week and just add more time, even if it's just adding a couple of seconds. It certainly gets the heart racing.

 

Point the 2nd, Upon rereading many of the blogs and comments here, I'm going to add a deadlift into my daily life. Since I want my main exercises to be bodyweight what I'll be doing is one set of ten deadlifts every evening before bed. Starting with 2.5kg (about 5 pounds) on a bar, and adding another 2.5 kg every week. Slow? yes. Steady? yes. Will it teach me both patience and discipline? Yes.

 

Lastly, I'm doing a wakeup yoga routine every morning, and even after only a week I can begin to notice a change in my flexibility. Last monday I couldn't put my heels on the ground for downward dog, this morning I could. My legs didn't like it, but they obeyed. I love little wins.

 

As well as posting my exercise routines and results, once a week I'll be posting my overall stats (weight, waistline, that sort of stuff) so that I have a track of that too.

TRACK ALL THE THINGS!

 

And with that having been said, let's be about it.

[proVoke]

Yay to adding deadlifts to you routine. The world is a better place with deadlifts in it [emoji12]

That running challenge sounds really awesome and a nice way to slowly reach your goal with slow conditioning

[Godeskian]

Yay to adding deadlifts to you routine. The world is a better place with deadlifts in it [emoji12]

That running challenge sounds really awesome and a nice way to slowly reach your goal with slow conditioning

 

Hah, so people keep telling me about deadlifts.

 

I've never much liked running (or cardio in general) but 12 minutes I think I'll be able to live with.

 

Okay, here's my day 6 stats

 

Close squats (heels together) 20/20/20.

Handstands 56/34/24 (in seconds)

Lying down leg raises, 10/10/10

Pushups 10/9/6

Pullups and tricep dips (54kg offset) 10/5/4

Lying down to bridge 4/3/2

12x12 = 1:38

 

So I'll be swapping out close squats for boxed squats to begin working my way towards pistols on Monday, similarly i'll be replacing the lying down leg raises with Dragon Fly's (see here

for an example)

 

Gotta make things harder after all. I figure that any time i can do a full three sets of an exercise, three times in a row without fail, I need to make it harder.

 

Also of interest to me is what while I gained time on the first to sets of handstands, I actually lost a second on the third one. I don't really understand why, but there it is. Everything else is getting better as is.

 

Today is a day off (I still did my wake-up yoga, if for no other reason than to stretch out everything) and tomorrow is my first official weigh in. I know weight isn't everything, but given how much ground I lost it is an important thing. First week of a new diet and fairly hard work in the gym, and rockclimbing and yoga, I imagine I'll have lost a fair bit of weight, but very little actual fat. My first weeks tend to be like that, and how sad is it that I've done this often enough that I know that.

 

Anyway, time to relax.

[Godeskian]

Okay, week one is officially complete, it is the morning of day 8, and my weight is 104.5 kg or 230.38 pounds. While I don't mean to harp on regarding the situation before my injury and my five month lapse in sanity, I was down around 95kg last november, so I'm a good 20 pounds worse off than I was.

 

c'est la vie. Can't change the past, only the present and future.

 

The goal (more or less) is to get fit. I define 'fit' at the moment as two things. 1. Being able to pull my entire bodyweight. I've never been able to do a single unassisted pullup. That's goal 1. The second is to be able to fit into my current set of clothes without bulging over waistlines.

 

Future goals will be determined as and when I hit either of those goals (about 4 inches off the waist is my guess for goal nr 2)

 

Time to go to work

[Godeskian]

Okay, here's my day 8 figures ( I know it's day 10, I'm running late

 

4 box, squats - 5/3/1 (left leg) 3/1/2 (right leg)

Handstand (in sec) 60/40/32

Extreme leg raises 6/6/5

Pressups 10/10/9

Pullups (54kg) 10/7/5

Full Bridge 5/3/2

12x12 = 1:53

 

So by en large improvements across the board. I'll cheerfully admit the Dragon fly's were a step too far from leg raises, so instead I used a bench and the dragon fly grip to do extreme leg raises, from below my body's horizontal axis to well over my head and back. It's something to tide me over as a core exercise at least until I can either do the Dragon Fly or hang long enough to do hanging leg raises (which is where I'm going ultimately)

 

Box squats are hard, very hard. Not just in physical terms, although they are that, but in balance terms.Still, onward. When I can do sets of ten on each leg, i go from 4 to 3 boxes, then 2 and so on until I'll be pistoling like I was born to it.

 

I'm almost at 3 sets of 10 for basic pushups, then it's back to narrow pushups and eventually to one handed pushups. I'm going to have to work out a good progression for that because the one in convict condition is not for me.

 

Anyway, that's my day 8 update. Day 9 was a rest day, and today, we're back at the gym.

 

Let's be about it.

[Godeskian]

Welcome to day 12 on Godeskian's battle log, and to be honest, I'm a little annoyed. My own stupid fault for checking the scale more frequently than once a week, but I'm a little gutted that my weight is up a little from monday. Even though I know scales aren't the be all and end all, and I know that the fact that my belt is looser, my pants are looser, and my shirts fit better and I actually have a small bit of muscle definition are all better indicators of the fact that things are going in the right direction, I can't help the emotional reaction of being miffed.

 

Ah well, no point in wasting time worrying about it. Eat healthy, train hard.

 

Day 10 results.

 

4 box, squats - 10/3/2 (left leg) 7/3/2 (right leg)

Handstand (in sec) 60/44/32

Extreme leg raises 9/6/5

Pressups 10/10/10

Pullups (54kg) 10/8/6

Full Bridge 6/4/3

12x12 = 2:03

 

As you can see, continued small improvements across the board. For some reason the handstands actually felt harder on Wednesday than they did on Monday and I don't know why. The initial sixty seconds was close to torture, and the rest was just pure unpleasantness and I can't for the life of me come up with a good reason, especially compared to the set two days earlier.

 

The other pleasant news is that I've now hit a benchmark for the pushups. Two more sets of 10/10/10 and I make the exercise harder, probably by moving into triangle pressups. Don't know where I'll go from there, but I imagine it'll keep me busy for a week or two.

 

With regards to the extreme leg raises, I'm at a loss as to where I'm going to go after this. The goal eventually is to go for hanging leg raises, but I'm still not there with enough upper body strength or stamina (just look at the offset on the pullups) to be able to hang for long enough to do any kind of raises while hanging. I'm not sure where the next step for that is either.

 

Day 11.

 

Yoga went well, DDP Yoga has always been good for the body and soul (and frankly, DDP's gravelly voice telling me to do things works well for me.) and I made it to the end of the fatburner routine. Next week I add a core routine to it and once I can do that I go for bigger and more complicated routines until I'm back doing the Diamond Cutter routine (which is tough, decently long and works out pretty much every part of your body). At some point I may start doing the yoga routines on other days, but that remains to be seen.

 

 

Day 12. Today!

 

More rock climbing for this afternoon. Last week I couldn't even make it to the top of one of the beginner runs, and today we're going to see if we can change that. Watch this space.

[PaulG]

Saw your log from your question in the bodyweight training forums. Looks like you're doing well.

Generally if you can do 3x8-10 of any exercise, you may be ready to move on to the next progression. If you can do at least 3x3 of that next progression, you should definitely move to working at that level.

I'd be very surprised if you couldn't hit 3x3 pull-ups at a lower assistance weight. Try knocking 5-10kg off that assistance and see what you can do.

[Godeskian]

Saw your log from your question in the bodyweight training forums. Looks like you're doing well.

Generally if you can do 3x8-10 of any exercise, you may be ready to move on to the next progression. If you can do at least 3x3 of that next progression, you should definitely move to working at that level.

I'd be very surprised if you couldn't hit 3x3 pull-ups at a lower assistance weight. Try knocking 5-10kg off that assistance and see what you can do.

 

Thanks for the advice, so you'd recommend going for lower numbers, but harder exercises? I mean the goal is to become stronger, first and last, but I'm basically cribbing off the beginner bodyweight workout routine. What I know about advanced workouts is pretty darn minimal.

 

Still, my next session is tomorrow, I'll give it a show for the pullups, see how many I can do on the next offset down (50Kg I think, I'd have to double check)

[Godeskian]

Okay, Rock Climbing. Made it to the top of the first run, honestly with something approaching ease. Last time I think I was still getting to grips with the new skillset, it was much easier today. I also tried bouldering, which I find much harder than just climbing.

 

1 Rock Climbing run at my indoor wall done, 9 to go, and then challenges

 

I've decided to try your advice (both here and in the core work thread so my new routine looks something like this.

 

Handstand (in sec) (no changes)

4 box, squats - (no changes until I can do more of them)

Pullups (reducing the offset weight from 54Kg to 50Kg. Maybe 46 depending on how well the first set goes.

Hanging Knee raises (replacing leg raises and attempts at Dragon Flags

Diamond Pressups (replacing regular ones)

Full Bridges

12x12 run

 

Any other suggestions or modifications you could recommend? The idea is to cover all major groups (legs, core, chest, arms) three times a week, with the Pullup work being the one I'm most interested in improving.

[Godeskian]

Also, as a nutritional aside,

 

While it varies slightly from day to day, my average feed comes in at around 2000 calories (I do NOT have a very physically demanding day job) containing approximately 90g of fat, 200 of carbs and 100 of protein. The big carb hits are the daily banana and the porridge oats I have for breakfast. The protein a combination of meat, almonds and a protein shake

 

Are those ratios okay for losing weight (which is a prime issue for me) and building strength (another prime issue). I recall reading that it was one gram of protein for every KG in bodyweight, which should put me right about on track.

 

Thoughts? Comments? I'm cross posting this in the nutrition forum for more opinions.

[Godeskian]

So here's the results of day 13

Handstand 60/47/37

Box squats 10/10 + 4/3 3/3

Pull ups (50kg) 6/5/4

Hanging knee raises 3/3/3

Diamond push ups 4/3/1

Full bridge 7/5/3

12x12 = 2:16

The big changes obviously are in the pull up offset and replacing the leg raises with hanging knee raises. Thanks to PaulG for both those suggestions.

I think that when it comes to the pullups I'll keep dropping the weight until I can't do 3x3 anymore, then work my way back up to 8-10 reps per set,then drop the weight again. That will hopefully give me a good balance of working on strength and endurance.

The hanging knee raises are at the moment limited by the fact that I can't hang for toffee. That isn't the limit of y raises, that's the limit of my hanging strength. Still, fastest way to improve is to force my body to do it anyway. so I'll stick with that.

I also replaced push u ps with diamond push ups. Dang they are hard. Oh well, New goals yay!

Everything else is continuing to improve slowly if steadily.

Onwards

[PaulG]

Hey man, just checked back in. Nice job leveling up your workout! You have the right idea with pull-ups -- get yourself to a weight at which you can do close to 3x3 and then work yourself up to 8-10ish, then keep dropping.

Knee raises look good too, my guess is your grip will catch up fast.

Nutrition-wise:

The best advice out there is usually 2g of protein per kg of lean body mass. For the very lean, it's usually simplified to 2g/kg BW. But from where it sounds like you are right now, your protein goal is probably about right.

If you want to get a really hard-and-fast number, find your bodyfat %. Whatever kgs of you that are not fat are your lean body mass. My shot in the dark is you'd probably find yourself at around 140g of protein per day.

Beyond that, your ratios look fine. There's nothing magical about fat vs carbs, they both provide energy. Carbs are an more accessible energy source for high-intensity workouts like your bodyweight program. Since I do a similar bodyweight routine to you, I personally view carbs as superior for me. But I've also lost weight eating very few carbs, what really matters is the caloric deficit.

These are the pillars of a sustainable diet for weight loss, in order of importance:

1) Total calories are in a deficit (calories control weight loss or gain)

2) Adequate protein (2g/kg of lean body mass, to retain muscle mass while you're losing fat)

3) Adequate fat (very little is needed, about 0.8g/kg of bodyweight per day, only because your body uses dietary fat for your hormonal system)

After those pillars are taken care of, you can allocate the rest of your food to whatever you want.

Edit: those pillars work a little differently for bulking by the way, carbs become more important when you are consciously trying to gain weight. But that doesn't apply to you right now.

[Godeskian]

Hey man, just checked back in. Nice job leveling up your workout! You have the right idea with pull-ups -- get yourself to a weight at which you can do close to 3x3 and then work yourself up to 8-10ish, then keep dropping.

Knee raises look good too, my guess is your grip will catch up fast.

 

Hi Paul,

 

Upping the weight was definitely a good decision. As of yesterday (day 15) I'm doing my reps on a 45kg offset, and I think I'll make it down to 41 kg on the pullup before I'm no longer able to do at least 3x3. My grip strength needs work, but it is improving.

 

Nutrition-wise:

The best advice out there is usually 2g of protein per kg of lean body mass. For the very lean, it's usually simplified to 2g/kg BW. But from where it sounds like you are right now, your protein goal is probably about right.

 

That distinction between 2g of protein per kg and 2g of protein ber kg of lean body mass is no minor distinction given how much fat I'm still carrying around. I'm going to see about home methods of checking body fat. I'm sure there's math out there somewhere for that. Thanks for the advice.

 

So here's the day 15 results

 

Handstand (in sec) 60/52/41 (I'm finding it really hard to get the second and third sets up to 60 seconds, but as long as it's improving I'm not going to complain too loudly)

Box Squats (4 boxes) 10/5/3 and 10/4/3 left and right legs respectively. I'm still finding these amazingly challenging, but I'm thinking that I'm going to have to remove one of a the boxes soon to keep building strength.

Pullups (45kg offset), 6/4/3 dropped a few reps from the 50kg offset, but not as much as I was expecting, and I'm still doing at least three reps in each set. I'm going to continue dropping the weight until I can't do three reps in a set then i'll build back up to 8-10 reps and drop the weight again.

Hanging Knee raises: 4/4/4 again, it's not the actual knee raises that are doing it, but my ability to hold my grip while hanging. I'm wondering if I shouldn't just incorporate a few minutes of plain hanging into my routine somewhere.

Diamond Pushups: 5/3/3. So tough, so worthwhile. Onwards to 10 reps For moving into single arm pushups I'm thinking that Diamond Pushups, decline diamond pushups, incline single arm pushups (similar to my 4 box, box squats) and then working my way towards one armed pushups might be a good progressions

 

12x12 : 2:24. Increases coming slowly. My cardio is shit, but it is improving.

 

Onward!

[Godeskian]

DDP, the wrestler whose yoga routine I use has affectionately referred to his wake up routine as ' oil for the tin man'. I don't think I've ever appreciated how much that's true the way I do today, when I had to skip it due to time constraints.

I feel creaky, especially in the knees and I even feel vaguely unsettled, like I can't quite wake up properly having skipped part of my daily routine for the first time in months

[Godeskian]

I think the creakyness in my knees is more than I bargained for and that I'm coming down with something. I've felt unsettled all day, and when I did get to the gym the results were.... suboptimal.

 

Handstand 60/28/12
Box squats 7/3 + 4/3 1/1
Pull ups (41kg) 5/4/3
Hanging knee raises 5/5/4
Diamond push ups 2/1/1
 

With the exception of the pullups, oddly enough, and a fraction on the hanging knee raises, I've lost a huge amount in all other categories. I barely started my run before I felt like I was going to throw up, and even the bare minute I was on the treadmill left me needing to sit down for five minutes before I could do anything else.

 

I'm still glad I went. Any advice for exercising while sick?

[Godeskian]

Okay, well welcome to week 3, day 22, and here are my numbers.

 

I don't know why my handstand is not recovering the way everything else did following my bout of whatever the hell it was last week, and at least part of the problem for me is wristache. I wonder if this is becoming a weight rather than a strength thing. Oh well.

 

Handstand (in secs) 58/35/29
Box squats (3 boxes) 4/3/2, 3/2/2 Dropping a box was hard, I know it's only about six inches, but damn. Oh well, time to build massive legs

Pull ups (36kg) 4/3/3, I'm still not at less than 3 reps per set, but I think i'm about one dropped offset away from it. still, next time we try 31kg and see how far we get. Even if I can't do at least 3 in each set, I will still be pulling 23kg more than I was two weeks ago, and I thank PaulG for giving me the suggestion on how to do it.

Hanging Knee Raises: 6/6/4, my grip and hanging strength is improving, slowly, but it's improving.

Diamond Pushups: 5/2/2, yeah, still hate these. But I'm getting slowly better at them too.

12x12 run: 2:35. Not much to say, still adding between 5 and 10 seconds per run. My cardio is still terrible.