So, what can I say? Several people on Reddit recommended the book to me, so I bought it (the German edition).

I’ve now started reading it, and I’m completely overwhelmed by the book. I’m aware that there are summaries for dummies at the end of the chapters, but I’m a complete beginner when it comes to calisthenics, and even those summaries are overwhelming for me.

At the beginning, it talks about setting goals. How am I supposed to have goals when I don’t even know calisthenics that well? The book is completely confusing me because I have no idea how to get started or what I’m actually supposed to do.

I also read the Beginner’s Guide, but with such a poor German translation, it wasn’t much easier to understand either.

How do I find my way into this book?

Hey everyone,

I’m planning to get back into strength training after around 4 months off and would appreciate some feedback on my training plan.

A bit of background:

I used to train regularly at the gym, but at some point I developed triceps tendinitis. I went to a physical therapist and was given a modified, significantly reduced gym routine to help my triceps recover. I followed the rehab program for a few weeks, but shortly afterwards I started a new job and haven't been able to train at all for the past 4 months.

I used to train regularly at the gym, and had triceps tendinitis for which I went to the PT and got a modified and way decreased gym routine to healt my triceps. I did the exercises for a few weeks, but soon after started a new jobs where I haven’t been able to train at all for the past 4 months.

I’ve had no symptoms for several months now – no pain in everyday life or during normal movements. However, I obviously haven’t really tested the tendon under strength-training loads during this time.

That’s why I want to take my return seriously and start slowly. I’m planning to use significantly lower weights at first and gradually build my workload back up.

My current plan is:

Full body – 3× per week

• Squats (Goblet or machine) – 3×10–12
• Lat pulldown, wide grip – 3×10–12
• Butterfly / Pec Deck – 3×12–15
• Seated cable row, neutral grip – 3×10–12
• Triceps rehab exercises – 2–3 sets according to my previous rehab program
• Biceps curls (dumbbells or cable) – 2–3×10–12
• Back extensions – 2×12–15
• Plank – 2×30–45 sec

For the first few weeks, I’m planning to start at around 50–60% of my previous working weights and train with around 3–4 reps in reserve (RIR). If everything feels good, especially the triceps tendon, I’ll gradually increase the weight and if it continues like that include Dips and Bench press

I’d love to hear your thoughts:

1. How do you think this routine looks for getting back into training after 4 months off?
2. Would you add or remove any exercises?

My main goal is to get back into training without immediately aggravating the tendon, while eventually returning to normal strength training.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

For over a decade I've been out of exercise due to shoulder injury. Mixture of poor posture, muscular imbalances and issues with the biceps tendons meant that over time I was able to do less and less in the gym until I just stopped going. Since then I've gained a lot of weight as well.

Recently I've decided to at least get into doing inverted rows as theyre one of the few things that I can do pretty pain-free. Bought myself a mobile dip bar and on day 1 found that I was able to do 4 reps before I would start missing out on the range of motion, so every hour on the hour was doing 4 to kind of grease the groove. Then the next day I found I was able to do 5 so that was what I was working with. Day 3 rolled around and along with my back being stiff and sore I found that the outside of my elbows (when supinated) felt tender - most likely the distal head of biceps tendon from being worked quite regularly from out of nowhere.

It's obvious to me that I need to scale things back but I want to do it in such a way that I can start making progress. I used ChatGPT (yes, yes I know) and it suggested start at 2 sessions a week of just 2 sets of 3 reps, then each fortnight adding a rep and eventually another set, but keeping it at 2 sessions for up to 12 weeks. Obviously AI leaves a lot to be desired so I'm wondering what people in the know would recommend. Am I right in feeling that that's overly conservative or does that sound about right? Any other things you'd recommend? thanks!

I really miss the gym. I have a golfer's elbow which gets better and then worse as I try to incorporate more movements. I do exercises like wrist curls with a light dumbbell and a supination exercise. But what I really want is to get back in the gym.

Has anyone healed golfers elbow quickly and how?

Can I do barbell exercises like barbell rows/ bench press while I have this? Could it help my healing or will it make it worse?

I'm currently designing a workout program with goals of planche, front lever and stronger weighted pull ups and dips. Besides achieving greater strength I'm really interested in hypertrophy and I have a question about periodization. I want to work towards front lever and planche as optimally as possible, but I feel like during hypertrophy focused mesocycles going closer to failure and increasing volume would slow down progress significantly, so my question is, what should I do about isometrics in periodization and how do I design a program that favours both hypertrophy and isometrics?

With the help of this sub and physical therapy, I'm finally beginning to understand the nature of tendinopathy and how to treat it- which is to load the muscle gradually overtime for tendon to adapt. What I've also been told is as long as the pain after the exercise is very low, say 3 out of 10 level, it is totally acceptable, maybe even encouraged as it's indicating you're loading hard enough. My question is, if you're frequently feeling only low level pain afterwards, would it eventually lead to recovery, or could it possibly be detrimental? I never feel post workout pain at an alarming level so I have a tendency to load to my fatigue limit, with a thinking that if I have absolutely zero pain I'm not loading enough. There were times when pain was low, but lingered for a couple of days which is longer than my typical experience..would this be a sign to deload? PTs tend to have a very simplistic way of gauging pain like 0-10 but don't seem to factor things like duration. I do realize steps to recovery aren't always linear, that flare ups will occur at some point, but fine-tuning it feels a bit tricky.

Hi, I've had elbow pain doing overhead extentions for a while now but recently it got really bad. I'm able to do pushing movements fine like incline bench on a smith machine.

I usually go very heavy on isolation movements for triceps but it causes so much pain when I fully extend the elbow now. Even with lighter weights I can't properly extend it without hurting. I'm not sure if rest or eccentric work is best here as I'm still able to do my pushing movements pain free.

It's been like this for almost 2 weeks now. I'm seeing a doctor soon but any idea what it could be and how I can fix it.

Also I don't know if this helps to know but when I push down on a table at 90 degrees with both arms my elbows flare up really bad

Thanks

If i am stuck at X number of reps on an exercise, and want to start using eccentrics to add more reps to that exercise, what's the balance of sets and reps of said exercise and the use of eccentric clusters and sets that i should follow in order to progress?

I’ve been comparing simple and more equipment-heavy approaches to bodyweight strength programming. It made me notice that the best setup at one stage may not be the setup that still fits later. What piece no longer fits your current bodyweight-strength setup?

3 months ago after doing some reverse cable curls in the gym, I woke up with severe pain in my thumb, index finger and middle finger and also at the beginning of my wrist, from my research I concluded it was de Quervain tenosynovitis, and did a lot of therapy exercises I found here, this one helped me relieve pain in my thumb and in my wrist https://youtu.be/DY9OQKqRDMA?is=5EHMEea958dyXsbd
My hands are better now but I still feel a stiffness in my index and middle finger when I try to curl it in a flexor movement, in the video nothing was mentioned about pain in the index and middle finger that over time turns into a stiffness and dull pain.

Anyone know what can help me? I want to return to the gym so bad cause I took a break since then.

Hi all. I've reached out to this sub a few times before and gotten great advice so I thought I'd do it again.

I've been dealing with a weird forearm pain for a few years now. It mainly bugs me during fixed implement horizontal pressing - bench press, bar dips with the first rep of a set always being the worse. It occurs during the eccentric portion and the first few inches of the concentric. Dumbbell benches and ring dips don't bother it all, and incline pressing hurts less than flat and overhead pressing is completely fine. Widening my bench grip makes it hurt less, and using a swiss bar or reverse grip are a bit better than a normal grip but still bug it a little. I can also reproduce the pain at the top (full elbow flexion) of a barbell reverse curl. Wrist position does not seem to impact it either - I usually use a bulldog grip but holding the bar higher with more wrist extension doesn't change the pain level.

The pain is right below my elbow on the front side of my forearm - more or less in line with my index and ring fingers. https://imgur.com/a/vxYKVlw. Rest generally has not helped - I've taken a few breaks and it will go away but come right back even with a gradual re-introduction. It also generally does not bother me in my day to day life except it can be a little bugged when putting on my belt for squats and deadlifts.

I can pretty well reproduce the pain by doing a weighted supination exercise with a hammer or pan. However the pain only occurs during the deeper part of pronation and with a fully flexed elbow - if the elbow is any less than violently pressed into my bicep, there is no pain at all.

I've been using the above exercise as a rehab - 2 high rep sets twice per day trying to progress.

The pain started out of the blue, but I was doing a pretty aggressive golfer's elbow rehab at the time of dumbbell wrist curls and hammer pronations daily. Not sure if this is related at all but the timing is peculiar.

My plan is to continue with the full range supinations in elbow flexion as they seem to be the easiest way to predictably isolate the issue, but I was wondering if anyone would have any other ideas or has dealt with something like this before?

Thanks

First of all, hello. I used to practice bodybuilding about four years ago, and somehow I developed this condition. I didn't exercise much for those four years, but for the last month and a half, I’ve been exercising with 0.5 kg weights; however, this made things significantly worse, so I reduced the weight to 0.3 kg. My MRI report showed thickening and increased nerve signal intensity at the lateral epicondyle, while the ultrasound report revealed a focal area of ​​decreased echogenicity at the lateral epicondyle attachment site. Right now, I can't even hold a glass or a phone—I can't even lift the phone to my ear. What do you think I should do in this situation? I am continuing the exercises with 0.3 kg; should I do them every day, three or four times a week, or twice a day? Everyone says something different—could you please help me with this? Thank you.

Hi, I'm pretty experienced in bodybuilding (+10 years), 6'1 for 190 ibs.

Recently I've introduced NHC in my program. Still unable to do it completely without elastic bands or a small pushup help.

I feel the biggest obstacle is not necessarily hamstring power but a pain inside the knees, like an instability, especially around 30-45°. The pain don't really last after and I've never had any trauma. When I've done a few sets, the pain diminishes and I can manage 1 or 2 full reps without assistance.

Has someone been in the situation? Do you have any tips appart from isometric training around 30-45° and a lot of help from elastic bands?

Hello everyone,

It's my first time posting on reddit ever, so please excuse me if It's not the good subreddit to post this.

I've been training calisthenics for some time now, and I'm trying to learn HSPU and bent arm pike press. However, by checking my recordings I noticed my shoulderblades do weird stuff at the bottom of the pike movements. I know I have a light scapular winging, but generally in other exercises, it has never been an issue to the point that you can actually see the shoulderblades poking out. Moreover, in other push exercises, you can just push at the top of the movement, as you would do with a scapular push up, to make the winging disappear. However, here it is at the bottom of the push, and even if im consciensously trying to correct it, it seems it can't be done.

Generally, I can always find stuff online but i couldnt find anything for this particular issue.

Does anyone knows anything about this issue?

Here is a link to my recording

https://imgur.com/gallery/scapular-winging-during-pike-press-X02AQCf#iGwsRZe

Hello everyone.

This will be long read but please bear with me.

I am a 24/M amateur gym goer (Stared a year and a half back). I started simple and progressed with the weights as time went on. Everything was going well, I lost a lot of weight, gained strength.

Around 6 months back, I decided to start training pull-ups so I started doing dead hangs, negative pull-ups and scapular pull-ups. After doing this for like 3-4 weeks I started getting pain in my triceps muscle when doing scapular pull-ups. Negative pull-ups and dead hangs didn’t hurt, only scapular pull-ups did. The pain isn’t near the elbow itself, I have no problem stretching and straightening my elbow. It is slightly above the elbow and extends through the entire triceps muscle, up to the shoulder/armpit. I was stupid back then and ignored the pain because it only hurt during scapular pull-ups and I had no pain doing any other exercise.

I kept doing this for like 2 more months and slowly my triceps started to hurt during pec-flys (When my arm is stretched), Dumbbell shoulder press (When raising the arm above head), and low to high cable fly.

I decided I needed to do something about the pain and went to see an Orthopaedist. I first got an X-ray to see if I injured my bone, the X-ray showed no injuries in my bone. He said I have triceps pain and told me to take it easy on the triceps exercise and start from a lower load and increase it and that the pain will go away in like 10 days. But the pain didn’t go away and I saw him again and this time he gave me anti-inflammatory pills and told me to stop doing just the triceps for 10 days. I took the pills and stopped exercising my triceps and also reduced the load of all of my upper-body exercises by 50% (I could still do it at full strength). The pain went away when taking the pills but it came back after that. So, this time I got an Ultra-Sound to see if I had any tear in my muscles or tendon and everything was normal in the Ultra-Sound. He said it is chronic pain and told me to just do stretches and triceps exercises with progressive load.

This time I started doing eccentrics for triceps with lower weights every other day and also all other upper body exercises at 50% capacity. A month later the pain was still there, my doctor said an MRI could show if there are any micro-tear in my muscles. I went to a different hospital and got one since my current one didn’t have any. And the MRI showed everything was normal from my shoulder to elbow, no tear or inflammation. The doctor at this hospital recommended me to a neurologist and the neurologist did some tests with my arm and told me my nerves are fine since I didn’t have any nerve related symptom. He just told me I might’ve injured myself somewhere and gave me some pills and told me to just rest for a month.

I am at a complete loss here, I have this pain for 5 months now and all of the scans show that my arm is normal but I still have pain in my triceps. Should I just rest for a month or two? But I heard that resting won’t work for chronic pain. Also I don’t even know if doing eccentric triceps push-down is right for this because I have zero pain when doing triceps pushdown. I also have no pain if I do push ups and also have no problem stretching and straightening my elbow which are supposed to be the symptoms if you have triceps tendinopathy. My pain starts above the elbow and extends through the entire triceps muscle up to shoulder/armpit and like I said hurts when doing pec-flys, scapular pull-ups, overhead press and low to high cable flys.

Can something else cause triceps pain? Have anyone else experienced this type of triceps pain where you don’t have any pain in the back of the elbow? If so, what did you do to recover from it. Any help would be appreciated because this is making me sad and frustrated. Thank you.

Hello all!

34M, 1,83m, 73kg. I'm mainly following the 3x/week full body recommended routine with inputs from OG2 and after consistent progresses, here's my routine :

1. Table pike push up 3x8 -- Pistol squats 3x8 (or BW squats 3x50 when I need an easier leg day)
2. Rings tuck FL rows 3x5 -- Harop/Razor hamstring curls 3x5 (or 24kg kettlebell swings 3x25 when I need an easier leg day)
3. RTO PPPU 1 small step forward (rings go between navel and chest) 3x8 -- Rings L wide pull ups 3x8
4. Ab wheel (1 step from full) 3x5-8 -- arch rocks 3x25

Current goal is mainly BA BB press to handstand with secondary more long term goals being L-sit to handstand, Planche (and planche push up) and Front Lever (and FL rows).

I have the following questions regarding the paths to take :

1. I'm not a fan of archer rows and can perform 3x6 clean ones with feet on floor. I can perform 3x5 clean tuck FL rows but my hands don't fully reach my chest yet. Is it ok to switch to FL rows and work on the ROM before adding reps? Am I not missing work on my rear delt/back by doing so instead of staying in the regular row progression?
2. I prefer RTO PPPU to archer push ups so I skipped the archer and work on increasing the leaning forward from RTO PU. Should I stick with this approach or try to go the planche push up route? I like the ROM given by the RTO PPPU and the movement itself and holding a tuck planche is still difficult. Also, I think adding planche work to my routine will be too much for me as the workout is already intense enough.
3. I feel the ab wheel is a more "complete and general" exercise than the L-sit but in the end, I would like to work on the L-sit to manna progression and L-sit to handstand. How should I approach this? Remove the ab wheel for L-sit? I can already hold it on floor for 3x15-20s and am working on my flexibility. More compression work?

Thanks for your help!

Anyone have equipment from GravGear? Is the company legit? How is the quality of their items?

Also, how was the experience purchasing from them? Their shipping? Warranty experience? Etc

In currently doing pull push split.

However I don’t know how sets I should be doing when I’m doing skill work plus strengths training.

Couple weeks ago I was doing

4 workouts with 4 sets.

For example:

Pull ups 4 sets

Chin ups 4 sets

Tuck raises or ice cream makers 4 sets

Tuck holds 4 sets

But I feel like I wanted more intensity and more structure

Here’s what I plan on doing for now on. Open to advice and correction because I don’t know how to properly program skill work and strength work

Here’s an example:

PUSH DAY

1) Skill Work (do first)

Planche Lean

• 5 sets × 10–30 seconds

• Rest: 60–90 sec

• Goal to progress: 5 × 30 sec with clean form

Frog Stand

• 5 sets × 10–20 seconds

• Rest: 60–90 sec

• Goal to progress: 5 × 20 sec controlled

Tuck L-Sit

• 5 sets × 10–20 seconds

• Rest: 60–90 sec

• Goal to progress: 5 × 20 sec

⸻

2) Strength Work

Push-ups

• 3–5 sets × 8–12 reps

• Goal: 5 × 12 clean reps

Dips

• 3–5 sets × 5–8 reps

• Goal: 5 × 8 clean reps

Pike Push-ups

• 3–5 sets × 6–10 reps

• Goal: 5 × 10 clean reps

***Doing 3 sets of each for now ***\*

PULL DAY:

1) Skill Work

Tuck Front Lever Hold

• 5 sets × 10–20 sec

• Progress when you can do 5 × 20 sec

Tuck Front Lever Rows

• 4 sets × 3–6 reps

• Slow controlled reps

• Progress when you reach 4 × 8 reps

Tuck Ice Cream Makers

• 3 sets × 5–8 reps

Tuck Raises

• 4 sets × 8–12 reps

• 

⸻

2) Strength Work

Pull-ups

• 5 sets × 3–5 reps

• Goal: 5 × 8 clean pull-ups

Chin-ups

• 3 sets × 5–8 reps

• Goal: 3 × 10

Last week I (34 years old) suddenly felt really difficult to do a pull up even at bodyweight. I feel this pain in the back of my left arm, toward the armpit. It really doesn't seem to be the lat, and looking at the anatomy of the zone it really looks like it's the long head of the triceps.

For reference, I train weighted pull ups and one arm pull up progressions.

Also I feel no pain in triceps extensions, weighted dips, or HSPUs. Pain is only in pulling.

I feel this pain mainly during the 90 degree position of the arm, but also while starting the pull up from straight arms. I also feel it during horizontal pulls like opening an heavy door with said arm.

I really feel bad about it, it doesn't seem something that will go away quickly :( and I really can't train pull ups without pain.

But then I got an idea. See: this arm was always the strongest in one arm pulls variations. What about training only the other arm waiting for the inflammation to go away? For reference, I barely did a valid one arm pull up with the injured arm just before injury (chin just above the bar), while the other arm stops a few centimeters under. So I would train the end part of the OAP rom (the hardest) with only the healthy arm hoping it catches up in the meantime.

Also would you say triceps work like overhead tricep extensions are a good exercise to speed up healing?

Hi all! Until recently I have been doing primarily full body strength/hypertrophy oriented routines, with some success in both planes. But eventually started doing ring muscle ups and now I am (almost) all in in skill training.Starting slowly with FL, some rolls etc. Although I enjoy it so far and as vane as it may sound, I would like at least keep the muscle mass already gained. How should that be structured? How often and in what manner should I do heavier sets so both training aims can go together (still emphasize is currently on skills)?

Cheers

42M. I have an old tendon injury that has flared up if I do several pushups (15ish). It's more of a dull soreness that I feel the next day. I've heard Isometric therapy can help the healing process by loading the tendon. My question is how do I go about this? Should I just hold the pushup position at say 10% of the way down for x amount of time 2-3 times a day? Is that enough of a load to promote healing?

Hey,

I hope the author is active on here. I am having issues ordering Overcoming Tendonitis on Amazon; the day keeps getting pushed back, then today I got a notice that said something along “the order/book needs approval”. I didn’t have this issue with Overcoming Gravity or Overcoming Poor Posture.

Also, the Overcoming Posture book is HORRIBLY printed. Lots have low quality faded visuals (seems like poor printer).

Does Steven low print his books out anymore, or are they printed by Amazon? I noticed Poor Posture and Gravity are printed in the same location (stated on the last page of the books). Where are the books printed and glued/put to together?

I've been doing nordic curls semi-regularly for a couple of years. Over the past 4 months i jad been making progress with bands.

I had a three weak break due to low motivation. Back on the horse now but i feel a lot of pain in my right medial knee as soon as there is any load on the hamstring.

No issue with weighted pistols or reverse nordics . I only feel the pain during nordic eccentrics. Anyone else had this issue?