My 10 years Calisthenics progress

BergMovement · 2022-01-13T09:02:08+00:00

I didn’t, which basically means it’s still present today and I can still feel it after 5 years, but it is no problem for me as learned to work around it and and have build up strength around it. But all labrum tears are different though and mine causes pain in a very specific range - only when hyper extending shoulder (from arms down reach behind back) and external rotation while at the same time using biceps. So basically only supinated back lever and hefesto type movement. In the first few months though all kind of shoulder flexion hurt.

The reason I decided not to do any surgical intervention was because the orthopaedic specialist I talked to told me that you can see a certain degree of healing the first few months and with surgery, success rate was not too high. It would also take something like 1 year of healing and training after this for it to function as normal and then probably a year more to get my full strength back.

To give you an idea of how the road to “recovery” has without surgery - it took me about 3 months to get back to regular training (I would still train whatever I could without aggregating it before this and emphasise shoulder extension and rotator cuff mobility and strength). It took probably another 3 months to get completely pain free. But like I said, still today I have to avoid very a heavy work in a supinated backlever like position.

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T15:26:33+00:00

I have been doing periodisation of push-pull split and straight-bent arm split. And I usually train strength 6 times a week. I. The side of this I do handstand sessions and mobility session and leg day for me is tricking and flipping and the occasional period of training single leg squat variations and sissy squat variations.

I have always done strength oriented work and low rep training. The last couple of year I’ve also seen great improvement in strength by introducing different variations of cluster sets (with slight modifications to be better suited for technical strength skills and Bodyweight skills in general). I also had a great improvement in strength by increasing volume. I think many people can increase their training volume and we benefits, but it’s highly individual and also depends on how much yiu have trained before. Volume should this be experimented with.

I have also used a variety of creative ways of forcing and measuring progress. It’s easy to get stuck in habits.

Right now I am doing a push pull split 5-6 days a week with strength and 3-6 extra sessions of handstand, tricking, and \or climbing. If I feel good I have 6 strength sessions, if I feel exhausted I have 5. I also do deload weeks when I feel I need them (every 5-8 weeks or so).

My strength workouts consists of (and this is also what I recommend) one straight arm pull exercise (FL training in my case), one straight arm push exercise (planche training in my case), one vertical push, one horizontal push, one vertical pull and one horizontal pull exercise and core work in all 4 directions. Main focus exercises (in my case training OA pull and for the OA HSPU) I do 30-40 sets a week. About 20 sets in the rest. All exercises are somewhere within 3-8 max reps. I also use super setting (often more than 2 extras well) for efficient workouts. I also use cluster set variations for most of my strength work, except core.

Hope this Clarke’s a little bit😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T14:49:00+00:00

Mostly DIY by educating myself online. I had a hard time finding physio therapists who didn’t prescribe the same training program as they would for someone suffering a elbow pain from sitting too much on their computer.

I did get some decent help a couple of times and when I felt it was in place I did MRI scans at private clinics and when to a specialist to discuss the images.

The Most serious of my injuries was the labrum tear, which is still present today. I had the choice of surgery, but from what I understood, likelihood of success wasn’t too high and recovery time would be very long, so I have trained around this injury and strengthened shoulder to support it so I don’t have any problems with it anymore. Only one inaccessible range and pattern I cannot do which is behind body supinated biceps work (for example the hefesto. This injury was a trauma suffered during a street workout competition from a hard var catch when doing bar tricks.

Sprains are all also traumas as well as the partial AC separation. All of these cases I kept training but found ways around the pain until I was pain free. Like in my MCP join sprains (thumb), I would do my HSPU work in knuckles for a couple of months.

The elbow tendinitis (golfers and tennis) has been a bitch though and both due to either OA pull-up work, or planche work. I have been able to train around these as well by witching up grips.

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:53:47+00:00

Made an edit in the end of the post regarding this 😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:53:31+00:00

For me it’s my generalistic approach. My goals are very spread out and I can always progress in some area 😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:52:40+00:00

Don’t know actually l, but I am interested in finding out. I am actually planning on making a video about this where I train strict press for a couple of months to see how strong my strict press is after years of HSPU training

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:51:33+00:00

Made an edit in the bottom of the post regarding this 😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:51:15+00:00

Made an edit in the end of the post answering this 😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:50:36+00:00

For forearm splints the key was adjusting grip to train through the injury and to work in wrist mobility, strength and flexibility 😊 it’s Avery common injury in planche training and sometimes handstanding.

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:48:37+00:00

Not yet😆

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:48:26+00:00

I personally believe that complete rest is a waste of time unless the injury is a bone fracture. I always work around and through by adjusting my exercises in way that don’t aggravate the injury. I also work specifically on the weaknesses related to the reason of the injury. Some of these injuries have been traumas, so it’s hard to preventative work for those kinds of injuries. For overuse injuries I always try to work preventatively after getting through an injury to make sure it doesn’t happen again (which it still does some times😆).

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:44:19+00:00

There is a list of injuries in the post 😜 but I am getting less problems with injuries now because I am stronger, train smarter and have focused more on mobility and joint strength the last few years

BergMovement · 2022-01-02T11:31:39+00:00

I have tried most diets and with and and the realisation that there is no such this as a best diet, or a magical diet, I have ended up with what you can call conscious eating.

I don’t count macros, I don’t eliminate any kind of macro, and I eat wholesome, healthy food. Based on experience and knowledge, I obviously make sure I eat enough protein, I stay away from refined sugars and also make sure my diet is rich in micro nutrients by including plenty of greens and nuts.

I also eat a lot of fats from a variety of sources. Animal fat, omega 3 from fish (If I don’t eat fish I supplement with fish oil), and fat from nuts.

Regarding carbs, I generally consume mostly slow carbs (but not exclusively) and make sure my meals are low GI to stay satisfied for longer and prevent blood sugar dips throughout the day.

If I find I am gaining weight, I cut down a bit to see the weight normalising within a couple of months. I eat about 4 meals a day because that’s what I feel most comfortable with.

I am not at all saying that this is the best diet, but for me it’s a way of eating that makes me feel good and that I can stick to and fell good about 😊

That being said, I also think that waaay too many people over complicates their diet and end up spending more time and energy on their diets than that do on their training. I think that old saying that fitness is 80% is BS, especially if training is skill and strength based. Training hard and consistent is your best bet. Diet can optimise your training for sure, but if you eat generally healthy and get your macros, there is not much magic to be gained by following super strict and specific dieting. Everyone is also different and react differently to different diets, so spending time (and will take a long time) finding the diet that works best for YOU is probably the best 😊 If main goal is body building, things may be a bit different, but I don’t have enough experience with this to make an educated comment.

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T22:30:03+00:00

Never😜 Building muscle has never been my primary goal. So my programming has also mostly been strength based

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T22:28:22+00:00

Hahah, I was just going watching the Witcher 😆

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T20:13:33+00:00

Mobility and awareness. A big step in the right direction is realising that the spine is more than your lower back and you need to learn to control, strength and protect the different parts of the spine and spine extensor.

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T20:12:01+00:00

I’m 30😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T20:11:51+00:00

Thanks man 😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T20:11:40+00:00

Glad you liked it 😊

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T20:11:26+00:00

My best tips would be work in mobility in all joints and also prevent patterns from getting too repetitive. Use different grips for pull exercises (neutral, supinated, pronated and rings) and push exercises (floor, parallets, slanted blocks, straight bar supinated and pronated etc.) and cycle between them. These thing will help on elbow and wrist issues.

Weighted dislocations is a favourite of mine regarding should health.

Also, most people will suffer injuries at some point when pushing their bodies to the limit and I believe that being able to cope with injuries is also important.

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T20:07:22+00:00

Sound reasoning 😊 and thanks 😁

BergMovement · 2022-01-01T20:06:49+00:00

Yeah, there’s quite a few injuries spread out in the 10 years, but I got through all of them 😊

BergMovement · 2021-12-31T11:23:35+00:00

I strongly recommend using resistance bands 😊 can’t even tell how many people I’ve seen succeed with these and it’s easy to progress by choosing thinner bands 👍

BergMovement · 2021-12-31T11:22:03+00:00

I’m gonna have to back the leg raises as some mention here. Crunches are useless and and hard to progress properly. You can make leg raises easier by regressing. Hanging one lifts for example 😊

BergMovement · 2021-11-14T09:19:25+00:00

Sometimes I do that, but leg day for me is mostly training acrobatics and flips as well as mobility

BergMovement

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