GIFt us your lifts! (or other achievements!)

One of my students, who is like 1.40 meter and weighs probably around 35kg, did this elbow lever last saturday, showing off his calisthenics skills.

We were goofing around, and i said, no way i can do that, so i tried and was right.
But then i was like… Let's make it a challenge, so now i have said that i am gonna practice and practice to be able to do this by the end of the bowling season, last weekend of May 2026…

For next 1 week i will be doing planks every day for 30 seconds at least. 3 or 4 times a day
Next week, for 60 seconds each time for 3 times a day
And week after that 90 seconds 4 times a day

I definatly need to build up that core strenght first.
Will see how this goes for first 3 weeks, and re-plan after that

I’m tracking your thought process here. The only thing I’ll suggest just in case you’re not doing is when you add 300 calories back in to your intake, monitor your morning body weight for ~3-5 days before adding more in. Give your body time to adjust to the new calories. See if you go up, down or remain the same. If the 300 calories come from carbs and if you consume those later in the day you may see some water gain carry over to your morning weigh in. Just food for thought. Proud of ya brother. Those strict lean outs are no joke.

sounds like a smart man! I hear ya brother.

What is name of said thread?

EDIT! Nvm i found it
and DAMN!

somebody literally just finished class when this pic was taken. You look great T. 🤗

During my squat session today, it hit me: my working weight for sets of 10 never changed despite me losing 35 pounds, meaning my lifting weight : body weight ratio had changed. Did the math, I was only 25 pounds short of squatting 2x BW without even realizing it! My personal best was 2.5x BW set at BW 200 when I managed a 500lb squat (NEVER again, my spine felt compressed for days after). I figured why not try now? So after my last working set I upped the weight to 2x BW for 2 reps (easy), then loaded 2.5x BW. Been a while since I truly loaded the bar, so form was ugly as all get-out, but success!

Now I'm thinking about when I barely eeked out a 1.5x BW bench at that same 200 BW, and how much lower that mark is now. Maybe on Monday I'll have to see if I can get it. (I've been doing 1.1x BW for sets of five, so this one will be a tad harder.)

That's so great —and also, if I'm honest — makes me want to lose even more weight. Geez, I'm 161 lbs now (down from 217 lbs last Sept) and 5'7" and definitely not loaded with muscles.

Although . . . I am increasing on my free weights and consistently lift / condition 30 min. 2X / week, and have since Jan. So . . . progress! I hate still being in the "guy" weight range though.

These past few weeks of working the early shift and having to hit the gym after work instead of before, I've been forced to modify my extended lifting sessions into abbreviated versions of the same, in part because of how crowded the gym is that time of day, in part for lack of energy trying to lift that time of day, and in part from pressure by my wife to get out of the gym and spend time with her at home.

For example, my usual Monday push day includes:

Bench Press 5x5
Machine Fly 10x10 EMOM
Machine Decline Press 4x15
Smith Seated OHP 3x10, 12, 15 «superset» DB Lateral Raise 3x10 (2s up, 2s down)
Cable Pushdown 4x10, 15, 20, 25
Cable Woodchoppers 2x10 «superset» Pallof Press 2x10s

Which has become the last few weeks:

Bench Press 5x5
Wide-Grip Bench Press 3x10
Narrow-Grip Bench Press 3x15

My Tuesday pull-day has been similarly slashed. To date, my Friday upper-body and Saturday lower-body days have been unimpacted.

It's got me thinking about going forward how to possibly condense my current lifting routines (average duration: 75 minutes each) down to shorter (30-45 min) even after I return to my normal schedule, that way I can get more work hours Mon-Thu and possibly have Fridays off completely instead of working a half day.

First thought is limiting my main movements to a single exercise (one chest instead of three), or cutting out peripheral parts (keep chest but eliminate shoulders/triceps). Less volume is not ideal if my goal is to keep my muscles, let alone have any shot at growing.

Second thought is slashing rest time between sets, but that would require cutting weight used, which again strikes me as insufficient.

Third thought is rearrange completely, instead of doing my lifting days during the week as push-pull-upper-lower, instead do some version of full-body with heavy use of diametric-opposite supersets (chest-back-rest-repeat). Wouldn't be able to do this every day, need days between.

Fourth thought is to eliminate the pre-lift mile jog I've taken to doing lately, go back to lifting days and cardio days. But the selfish part of me wants to keep both, lol.

Maybe I'm overlooking an obvious solution, maybe I'll just have to decide which is more important to me, the lifting volume or the Friday free time. Any thoughts?

Ok, sanity check me here…

I'm thinking when I resume lifting in November (tweaked my lower back doing rack pulls today, taking next week off from lifting), my workout schedule will be something like this:

M-W-F
Cardio warmup 20 min
Lifting 30-35 min
Abs 5 min

T-Thu
Cardio Only

Sat
Cardio warmup 20 min
Lifting 60 min (Lower body)
Abs 5 min

For the three brief lifting sessions, they will all be upper body (my legs don't need more than one day per week to grow, plus they will get work with the cardio). To whit:

Mon
DB Bench Press «superset» DB Row 4x10
Cable Incline Fly «superset» Machine High Row 3x15
Cable Lateral Raise «superset» Cable Rear Lateral Raise 3x15

Wed
Decline Bench «superset» Cable Row 4x10
Pulldown 4x10 «superset» Decline Pushups 4x25
Face Pull «superset» Cable Upright Row 3x15

Fri
Bench Press «superset» BB Row 5x5
Incline Bench Press 3x15 «superset» Pullups 3xAMRAP
DB Lateral Raise «superset» DB Bent Over Lateral Raise 3x15

Fridays will be longer workouts where I can take my time after, hitting accessory work (shrugs, arms).

I'd like to think I am hitting all the right angles, and with 48 hrs between sessions I shouldn't have an issue with overtraining. But I wanna hear your thoughts as well.

Thanks. After my workout I spent a half hour in the hot tub, then used a microwave hot pack on my back while I reclined, off and on throughout the day, with some ibuprofen before bed. Woke up stiff as all get out, but a hot shower later I was moving again, and took it easy today as well (except when protocol demanded I celebrate a good play by my Broncos…lots of cheering today…).

I could probably hit the gym tomorrow, just go 50% intensity, but I like to take an entire week away from the iron every three months or so, and it's been going on four months since my last break, so a week off it will be. Won't even do any cardio either. Am going to have to adjust my meal plan for the week to lower daily calories since I won't be burning them off…

Exactly what i was thinking, so smooth and clean

I recommend against training the two arms differently (short of an injury recovery scenario). Aesthetically, it'll result in your arms appearing different; functionally, you'll only increase the strength difference over time. This then will cause issues when you are doing BB movements to support chest and back.

Going forward, your left arm will have much better progress catching up to your right if you continue to use DBs as much as possible, and start every set with your left arm, then when you use your right stop when it matches whatever your left accomplished. Don't worry about your right losing strength, since your bowling will continue to provide it impetus.

How often are you doing arm work? If once per week, strongly consider doing twice per week, even three times per week if it doesn't interfere with your other goals. Doesn't have to be to exhaustion each time; just throw on 3-4 sets at the end of every workout to encourage your left arm to make progress. Not to failure and absolute exhaustion, just working through the motions.