I'll start with my question, and then I'll go into all the copious detail explaining my personal interest in it. But this whole long thing is just one question.

I read through all your Reddit links about RSI in your tendonitis article, ( although don't quiz me on them) and my question is simply, how are you so sure that non-loaded repetitive motion activities in the hands wrists do not cause micro tears to the tendons? I assume there is empirical and theoretical reasoning behind this belief.

I can imagine, if you think about what repetitive motion is, how it works the tendons really hard - contract, relax, contract, relax, contract, relax, really fast over and over and over a bunch of times - that working the tendons so heavily, in susceptible individuals, could cause micro tears. And given how slow tendons are to remodel themselves, these micro tears could take months to heal. (admittedly, I have a pretty pessimistic view of tendons. you might remember me talking about tendons in prior posts. I'll probably stop bothering you after this one)

This reasoning is based on my humble attempts to explain my own experiences with repetitive motion pain in my wrists hands fingers. Twice I've had it pretty bad, and now I have it pretty bad again, worse than previously.

The first time it happened, it was after an ecstatic dance. There was a prolonged period during the dance, maybe 30 minutes, where I got really really involved in moving my hands in intricate ways, sustained super fast movement of my fingers hands and wrists, basically conjuring whatever energy or magic my imagination was making up in the moment. Then, after about a week, all the tendons running through my wrists hands and fingers began to hurt pretty bad; and I mean literally every single tendon, every last one hurt with a burning stinging pain. I didn't do anything special. I just avoided repetitive motion activities, didn't do any typing, but used my hands for basic day to day activities and, after about 3 months or so, the pain went away. There wasn't any magic moment; I just realized at some point that the pain wasn't there anymore.

The second time was similar. I helped out with a 9-hour superclean - roommates and myself were moving out of a place, and we all spent 9 hours cleaning cleaning cleaning on the last day. So that's 9 hours, each hand about equally, of scrubbing scrubbing scrubbing scraping rubbing scrubbing. About a week later, I developed pain in my wrists hands fingers, all my tendons, once again. This time might not have been quite as bad I'm not sure, because I remember writing a creative short story by hand, over the course of the summer, and that never made the pain worse. But as before, it took about 3-4 months. My memory is that the pain cleared up pretty quickly, about 2 weeks after going off the paleo diet I was experimenting with. (curiously, after I resumed eating whatever I wanted and drinking alcohol) Again though, I didn't do anything special; I just avoided repetitive motion activities, and that proved to be enough.

The reason I suspect microtears is that after these two experiences, the tendons in my wrists never quite felt exactly the same. The pain went away 96%, but there always seems to be some little bit of irritation that did not used to be there. The tendons were fully functional; eventually, after a prolonged period of caution, I learned that I could do upper body work, car maintenance, lift heavy objects, or hang from a pull-up bar for my scoliosis, without any lasting increase in the small level of residual pain. Maybe a day or two of minor irritation.

But I never used to experience minor irritation like that. Also, the tolerance of my wrist tendons for repetitive motion tanked permanently since the ecstatic dance. About 30 minutes of typing has been my limit for many years; otherwise I might have a minor flare up for up to a week. Once I even had a week-long flare up after picking blueberries. Repetitive motions, my wrist tendons do not like.

Further, in my wrist tendons, ever since the ecstatic dance but not before, there has been a sensation of fatigue or tiredness that is distinct and quick in onset. Simply the feeling of tired tendons. The best example in my memory is squeezing a spray bottle full of soapy water ( locating a leak in a tire) - spritz spritz spritz spritz goes the spray bottle - and after at most 10 squeezes of the spray bottle with my hand, my wrist tendons are preposterously tired. A little sore, but really tired, and after 15 or 20 squeezes I had to stop completely and rest.

So I've outlined where I'm coming from. My wrist tendons seemed to experience permanent changes after the first episode of bad RSI pain: a little bit of constant irritation, high intolerance of repetitive motion activities, and a chronic quick onset of fatigue.

So if it's not microtears, something happened. . . I guess the image I've been having in mind is that once tendons heal from an injury, they are never as good as they were before the injury.

( the current episode began by my repeatedly hand-massaging my feet, my poor sore feet with fhl tendinopathy, over the course of many months this summer. Once I started noticing tendon soreness in my hands/ wrists / fingers, I of course didn't heed it at all, because I had a "been there, done that" attitude and therefore, emotionally, just didn't feel threatened by it. The last bad flare had been in 2019, so I think on some unconscious level, I felt that it was behind me, that my tendons were resilient. Then in August I was chopping a lot of vegetables, because I do vegetable preservation in August, and Bam: horrible pain. I had to curtail all the vegetable chopping this year. Still in pain. That it seems worse this time perhaps is affected by my being older. Another significant factor is that I simply haven't been as cautious this time. Like, once when things were feeling better to some extent, I tried hanging from a pull-up bar again. . . Bad, bad idea; so much pain, too much pain. And multiply that moment by three or four comparable occasions and that might explain why things still hurt so much three and a half months later. And I've seen you repeat your chronic pain advice over and over again to myself and others, so I'm not looking for advice here, if I share information I just feel it's part of the context of whatever question I'm asking. Short of finding a psychiatrist or physical therapist with specialized chronic pain education I can only a little imagine applying your chronic pain ideas more than I already am, and I'm always attempting to reevaluate what I'm doing/ think of ways I can do things better or more creatively)

Hey Steven, first I would just like to say thank you for the help and knowledge you've provided online. I definitely don't think I'd be as far into recovery today if it wasn't for you. I've read your Overcoming Tendonitis article several times to help serve as a guide on this journey; however, I have a few questions for you, which I hope will help me complete my journey.

Situation:
I've been working around/struggling with golfer's elbow for around 3–4 months now. I've tried various exercises, including reverse Tyler twists, finger curls into forearm curls, and hanging from a barbell as shown in this AthleanX video below. I've noticed that the only exercise that feels like it's hitting my trouble point is hanging from a barbell. When I do reverse Tyler twists, finger curls, or forearm curls, they just feel like what a normal gym exercise would be. As a result, I decided to drop the reverse Tyler twists and finger/forearm curls as they didn't feel like they were doing much. Looking back, I feel like this could have been a mistake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kTNk3qEuLM

I initially took two weeks off from the gym because it got to the point of feeling 5/10 pain during pulling exercises in the gym, but the pain/discomfort persisted, so I decided to start back in the gym at 50% capacity and work my way up weekly by 10% or so. What I've noticed is I'm now able to have 100% workout sessions on most exercises without my golfer's elbow getting worse. However, there are still some exercises that absolutely aggravate it and force me to work around them. Most of these exercises and activities that aggravate it are pull-related, such as single-arm lat pulldowns, dumbbell rows, picking up heavy plates with my afflicted hand, etc.

I'm able to have a very heavy bicep/tricep day, which does not aggravate my golfer's elbow at all. I would actually say that my injury always feels the best during and the day after my dedicated arm day.

Background:
I have a strong feeling that what caused my golfer's elbow was related to incorrect bar placement with pulling exercises. I believe it is finger/hand-related golfer's elbow due to the fact that, looking back, I was barbell curling and pulling with the bar not in the palm and lower proximal phalanx but rather the proximal phalanx and middle phalanx. (AthleanX mentions this being a common gym injury in the video above.) I've made it a point to use thinner bars when applicable and to grab deeper into my palm/proximal phalanx.

I initially had this pain in both elbows, but the left side was more severe than the right. The right side cleared up in around a month and hasn't given me much issue in the past 2–3 months.

As for my gym program, I've been using the John Meadows Gamma Bomb program with ramping high volume/intensity over an 8-week period followed by a deload for around 4–5 months now. So I think there could also have been some slight general overuse injury mixed in there as well from my failure to deload appropriately during my first time running it.

Assessment:
I have all the classic signs of finger/hand-related golfer's elbow, including 2/10 pain when pressing into a table with my fingers, 2/10 pain when reaching up with my hand and pressing into the side of my head with my fingers, and 1–2/10 pain when fully extending my wrist and then fully extending my arm with my palm facing the floor. There's a trigger point on my medial epicondyle, more so on the very distal portion, with 1/10 pain.

Once I'm warmed up in the gym, the pain subsides or will be a 1/10 at the absolute most unless I find an exercise that aggravates it, and once I drop that exercise, the pain goes back to subsiding for that gym session.

After a gym session, the golfer's elbow flares up, and pain increases to around 3-4/10 on the table press, head press, and 3/10 for the trigger point. I also notice that after working out that day, I get 3/10 pain from pressing down/using door handles if I use my fingers (think long lever type).

However, the pain the next day reduces back to a baseline of 1-2/10.

A few questions:

• Does this sound like a stage 1 or stage 2 injury? I'm curious to know so I have an idea of how long therapy will potentially last.
• Would you recommend I lower my pull day intensity back down to 50% for a month or two and instead focus on reincorporating: finger/forearm curls, reverse Tyler twists, alongside the barbell hanging, and make the focus of that pull day a rehab day?
• Do you have any other rehab exercise recommendations that may target my tendinopathy better? Given that I "feel" the most benefit from bar hanging?
• Does the pain when fully extending my wrist and then fully extending my arm with my palm facing the floor also indicate finger/hand-related golfer's elbow? Or could this potentially be a sign of an additional type I'm dealing with?

I have a question about the impact adding cardio has on strength training. Personally, my priority is getting strong and achieving high level calisthenics moves, but if I can add cardio without compromising those goals, I'd like to do that.

I've seen a lot of people talk about zone 2 type training lately, and usually I've read that if you train at that level of intensity, you should be able to do upwards of 3h a week without seeing negative impacts in strength training.

Since this is a subreddit dedicated to advanced strength, I figured I'd ask for your input on this. Is that statement true, or will too much zone 2 still affect my strength training? Thanks!

Hi all,

Any success story on a tendinopathy recovery ?

My story and what I have done:

• left arm: full rupture of the distal tendon in August after a fall with direct contact on the arm. Went through surgery and now have been doing fisio for 2 months
• right arm used to compensate which translated into overload with likely incorrect movements. Pain/symptoms around beginning of September

Diagnosis Surgeon/PT mentionned it is likely tendinopathy and recommend to reduce aggravating movements and PT. The PT believes a biceps contracture is constantly pulling on the tendon

What I have done

• read the article/book overcoming gravity
• reduce the aggravating movements on the right arm
• for work I am using dictation instead of typing
• weekly PT which focuses on both arms with mainly isometrics and eccentric movements. I am doing some of the exercises here https://upswinghealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Distal-biceps-tendonitis.pdf
• PT sessions: I had 2 sessions only with massage of the right biceps which have helped tremendously
• At home exercises: isometric and eccentric
• Very limited consumption of alcohol
• I have cut caffeine since a week now
• supplements of collagen
• hot showers/bath
• sometimes heat pads

What flares up

• Tight grasps of objects
• Sudden movements
• Lean against the wall iso exercices when they are too ambitious. The last mistake I did was to lean a little bit more into the wall when doing the iso and it translated into a 24h flare up.

Overall I am seeing an improvement as I believe I have less flare ups and discomfort, and flare ups last less.

I will now literally start an excel to track daily my exact load when doing eccentric and iso and work only with tiny increments

I am doing anything wrong ? Or any other advice in terms of iso stretch vs eccentric ?

Cheers !

If not managed well can it progress into the disrepair/degenerative phase quickly?

Hello! I’ve been doing high-volume bodyweight exercises for about two years now, and I’ve seen some great results. I’ve managed to cut enough body fat to clearly see my abs, thanks in part to intermittent fasting (IF), and I’ve also put on a decent amount of lean muscle. Recently, however, I have been inconsistent with both my training and diet. I’m wondering if the issue might be that I’m doing too much volume, which could lead to burnout, or if two meals a day with IF is no longer sufficient to support my routine. I’ve been following a program from Superhero Jacked, consistently applying progressive overload by switching to harder variations of exercises and increasing repetitions. Should I lower my volume to 10-20 sets per week per muscle group?

Current routine template:

(MONDAY)

Warm Up: Walk 10-15 Minutes or Jog 800-1600M

Initial Work: Regular Push Ups (Can Scale on Knees) 4×25 Skull Crushers (Calisthenics) 4×20 Wide to Close Push Ups (Can Scale on Knees) 4×20 Dips (Can Scale using Chair) 4×20 Pull Ups (Can Scale to Pikes) 4×10

Fatigue Blowout: Complete 3 Rounds Super-Set Style

• Push Ups to Failure
• Dips to Failure
• Pike Push Ups to Failure

Core Work: Forearm Plank 3×60 Seconds V-Ups 3×30 Leg Raises (Lying or Hanging) 3×25 L-Sit Hold 3×15 Seconds

(TUESDAY and FRIDAY)

Warm Up: Walk 10-15 Minutes or Jog 800-1600M

Initial Work: Explosive Push Ups 5×30 Jump Squats 5×20 Dips 5×15 Chin Ups 5×10

HIIT Endurance Work: Instead of a finisher and core on your full body focused days you’re going to work on shredding some extra fat to show off the abs you’re building on other days.  For this you’re more then welcome to switch it up and do 20, 30 or even 60 minutes of HIIT.

(WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY)

Purely cardio like running, swimming, etc.

(THURSDAY)

Warm Up: Walk 10-15 Minutes or Jog 800-1600M

Initial Work: Air Squats (Can Scale Using Chair) 4×25 Glute Bridges 4×20 Bulgarian Split Squats 4×20 each leg Alternating Pistol Squats (Scale Using Chair) 4×20 total Box Jumps 4×10

Fatigue Blowout: Complete 3 Rounds Super-Set Style

• Pause Squats to Failure
• Wall Sit to Failure
• Lying Leg Raises to Failure

Core Work: Forearm Plank 3×60 Seconds Sit Ups 3×30 Russian Twists 3×25 Hollow Hold 3×15 Seconds

(SUNDAY)

Rest

Hi all,

Looking for feedback on my Push/ Pull split plan, diverting more energy into my upper body than I did with my previous Upper/ Lower split.

Gonna dive straight into this today.

Key:

• Exercise slot, current progression.
  • Sets X Reps.
  • Progression.

Push

• Planche Isometric: Adv. Tuck Planche + Medium Band.
  • 5x10-15s.
  • Progression: 10-15s hold, decrease band assistance, increase progression.
• Wall HSPU: CTW HSPU + Negatives (Hybrid sets with eccentrics).
  • 3x6r
  • Progression: 1 concentric + 5 negatives, 2 concentrics + 4 negatives and so on.
• Planche Push Ups: Pseudo Planche Push Ups.
  • 3x6-10r.
  • Progression: 6-10r, increase lean.
• Squat: Back Squat.
  • 3x6-10r.
  • Progression: 6-10r, add 2.5kg.
• Calf Isolation: Standing Calf Raise.
  • 3x8-12r
  • Progression: 8-12r, add 2.5kg.

Pull

• Front Lever Isometric: Full Front Lever + Light Band.
  • 5x10-15s
  • Progression: 10-15s hold, decrease band assistance.
• Front Lever Row: Adv. Tuck FL Row + Very Light Band.
  • 3x6-10r.
  • Progression: 6-10r, decrease band assistance, increase progression.
• Pull Up: Weighted Pull Up.
  • 3x6-10r.
  • Progression: 6-10r, add 2.5kg.
• Deadlift: Zecher Deadlift.
  • 3x6-10r.
  • Progression: 6-10r, add 2.5kg.
• Core: Hanging Knee Raise.
  • 3x10-15r
  • Progression: 10-15r, increase progression.

Notes:

• Training days: Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri.
• Upper body reps per workout: (5x10-15s)/2+(3x6-10r)+(3x6-10r)=61-98r
• Lower body reps per workout: 3x6-10r=18-30r
  • This feels quite unproportionate to upper body, however, I will aim to progressively overload possibly at a higher intensity than upper body movements. Thoughts on the lower leg volume?
• Rest: 3 minutes on slots A-D, 2 minutes on slot E.
• Handstands, L-Sit + Flexibility will be worked on as well, I just wanted a review of my strength training plan.

Thank you.

Hello this is my first time posting here I’m new to posting too on Reddit so bear with me. Currently I’m an untrained beginner but I was a trained beginner. Anyway here are my questions

I couldn’t find in your book where it states for example splitting an hour long workout during the day to two 30 minute workouts during the day. I think there might have been something along the lines that you shouldn’t do it because of it affecting the intensity of the workout but I’m totally unsure. How would this frequency modification be different from the normal workout listed above?

Is pair sets of exercises for full body more efficient or is push/pull split?

I’m having trouble with adding mobility and flexibility to my workouts. Here are my questions. Could you give another explanation of what active mobility is I’m havin trouble understanding what it means Do we do mobility and flexibility exercises for all of the different body parts like if we were doing a full body workout for the mobility we would do hips, shoulders, wrists, elbows,etc.

From my understanding I think your only supposed to do 1 set when you do maximally strength testing correct me if I’m wrong (I know I’m not at the level to need it yet but I was just wondering since I’m an untrained beginner)

How long is my rest time for mobility and flexibility? Can you split up flexibility and mobility and skill work into different parts of the day like having flexibility workout1 and flexibility workout2 during the same day?

Can’t do deeper straddle stretch and can’t do Cossack squat whenever I try attempting the Cossack squat for my left leg it gets irritated not sure exactly what is messed up with left inner. I popped my left inner thigh it definitely wasn’t the bone but the muscle. I haven’t performed either since. I performed the straddle stretch and got the pop on 11_24_2024 but my left inner thigh always felt tense when trying to do the straddle stretch before it got popped. Is there anyway to stop my leg from feeling this way? Here’s a picture of where my leg gets irritated https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CCSv2cWdxU71sMftcybKXVNuqfwrdUNk/view?usp=drivesdk

Can’t do tuck l-sit but can do tuck elevated l-sit and one leg elevated l-sit. I’m already doing compression following this video twice while in my workouts https://youtu.be/yQXnOuQqKYc?si=XSFYT2y8K-09G7u5

What is mobility I’m kinda confused on what it does like what is the purpose of it since we can move it to our off days so to me it seems like it isn’t necessary to the warm up.

One more thing I’m struggling to keep up with my daily life and do my workouts which include the flexibility, mobility, skill work, warm up, and strength training. I’m currently split into 3 days of strength and warm up and 3 days of flexibility, mobility, and skill work. I’m spending roughly 2 hours on each area. Right now I’m the middle of taking final exams and final projects for my classes so if the solution is temporary that would be better

Here is my workout log and goals if they help solving any of the issues that I might be having

here is my current goals

Skill:  

hold a wall handstand for 30 seconds

 hold lsit for 30 seconds 

Pushing: do 3 sets of 10 diamond push ups - horizontal pushing 

Do 3 sets of 10 dips 

Pulling: Do rings Lsit pull-up 3 sets of 5 reps

 Do 3 sets of 10 wide rows 

 Legs:  do 5 rep of a pistol squat 

Do shrimp squat for 5 reps (hinge)

Core:do l-sit for 30 seconds 

Flexibility:  do 2 sets of 10 wall bridges 

And here is what I’m doing in my workout log

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fPWSCoZG5BUMJmu6UVxOFzAU0tsnlNRED7Er1X5NMkE/edit

And here is my mobility since it isn’t included in the log

MOBILITY

Shoulder mobility 

  https://youtu.be/oo6QkhjY4qU?si=lKSl3pb_Tv-vSA15

Wrist exercises

Do some of the wrist exercises video for 10 reps

Finger Pulses Palm Pulses Side-to-Side Palm Rotations Front Facing Elbow Rotations Side-to-Side Wrist Stretch Rear Facing Wrist Stretch Palms Down Rear Facing Wrist Stretch - Palms Up Rear Facing Elbow Rotations Forward Facing Wrist Stretch

https://youtu.be/mSZWSQSSEjE

elbow exercises

Do some of the elbow stretches from this link Doing first two exercises

https://gmb.io/elbows/

leg mobility

Do ATG elevated split squat for mobility

Warm up

And here is warm up since it isn’t included in workout log

Jumping jacks 10 - 15

Burpees 5 - 10

Finger Pulses Palm Pulses Side-to-Side Palm Rotations Front Facing Elbow Rotations Side-to-Side Wrist Stretch Rear Facing Wrist Stretch Palms Down Rear Facing Wrist Stretch - Palms Up Rear Facing Elbow Rotations Forward Facing Wrist Stretch

Do some of the wrist exercises video for 10 reps https://youtu.be/mSZWSQSSEjE

I'm a detrained upper-beginner (Level 3-5) and getting back into consistent training. My primary goal is hypertrophy right now in order to rebuild lost muscle. Reviewing OG, the example beginner routine only includes two leg exercises, pistol squats and deep step-ups. Both of these exercises are quad-dominant and only work hamstrings secondarily, right?

Also, it is recommended to perform 10 sets per muscle group for hypertrophy, and it looks like the book only considers distinct muscle groups to be upper body push, upper body pull, or lower body generally. However, if we are trying to create a balanced program, shouldn't lower body also be subdivided into push and pull, i.e., anterior and posterior chains? Based on the rule of ten for hypertrophy, if we are aiming for ten sets of upper body push, shouldn't we also aim for ten sets of just lower body push, and correspondingly for upper body pull and lower body pull? Otherwise upper body would be getting twice the amount of sets as lower body.

In summary, it seems like legs are underemphasized in the book/example routines, so I have want to create a more comprehensive lower body regimen. The lower body exercises I want to do are pistol squats, single-leg Romanian deadlifts, sissy squats, and Nordic curl eccentrics. Because of the single-leg exercises, these four exercises are really the set-equivalent of six additional exercises. Six additional leg exercises after four upper body exercises seems like a lot to do in a single routine and prone to form and quality breakdown toward the end of the workout. In addition to fatigue, ten exercises would just be a super long workout. For me, that's easily 2.5+ hours including the warmup, isolation/ prehabilitation, and stretching/cooldown.

In order to have a shorter routine but still hit all the muscle chains, should I split lower body into push and pull days, and pair them with sets of core exercises (L-sit hang with false grip, ab-wheel rollouts)? If I always alternated lower body anterior chain and lower body posterior chain, then I would be doing push twice and pull once a week, then push once and pull twice the following week, and so forth. Maintaining the three upper body days per week, this would be 6x week workout schedule, which seems like a lot, but (1) 6x Upper/Lower is one of the example splits in the book, and (2) |like the way I feel when I workout everyday. What are your thoughts on this split? Should I ease into it and try 5 days per week, one lower body push, one lower body pull?

Hey r/overcominggravity

First of all thank you for your amazing work you’re doing here.

I’d like to ask you to critique my workout routine and exercise selection. I tired to create it in a way to hit every muscle group twice a week. I also try to include both horizontal and vertical movements. Could you please make sure that the routine doesn't have any major gaps and under-trained areas? I'm open to any improvement ideas you might have.

My goals:

• After coming back from a golfer’s elbow (under the supervision of a physio) I want to build back strength in basics
• After some time I want to work towards back and front levers as well as slow muscle up.
• I also train for a half marathon by running 3 times a week(2x shorter runs, 1 long run). I avoid going heavy on my legs as they are usually tired from running and I want to have exercises more focused on stability and injury prevention, I hope to achieve some hypertrophy and strength gains to a reasonable extent

Context:

• 2 years of experience in gym
• As core exercises I do either leg raises, hollow body holds or plank dumbbells drags
• I’m currently doing a 3 day split upper/lower/FBW
• Before every workout I warm up with something along the lines of :

Jumping Squats

Plank
Side plank
Reverse plank
Hollow body hold
Scapula pulls and raises
Skin the cat
Pushups
Banded Cuban Press

• Also before most of the exercises I do a warm up set
• For most of the exercises I do 3 working sets
• Depending on available time I also superset exercises (for example Rows and Pushups)

FBW Day:
Handstand 10mn
Dips
Pike pushup
Chin-ups
RDL
Lunges
Cable
Rows Core

Upper Day:
Handstand 10mn
Weighted Pull ups
Decline pushups
Weighted Dips
Cable Rows
Biceps curls
Sitting calf raises
Core

Lower Day:
Handstand 10mn
Bulgarian split squat
Single Leg RDL
Back extension
Weighted Cossack squats
Biceps Curls
Standing Calf raises
Core

This is my current periodization plan:

18-24.11 hypertrophy

25-31.11 hypertrophy

1-7.12 hypertrophy

8-15.12 strength

16-22.12 strength

23-29.12 deload

30-5.01 prep

6-12.1 hypertrophy

13-19 hypertrophy

20-26. ski week

27-2.2 strength

3-9.2 strength

10-16.2 deload

I want to keep the same exercises for hypertrophy and strength weeks while changing weights and reps.

Hi everyone, I've been having a pretty frustrating problem for a decently long time. I've been working out for more than 4 years and during the last year/year and a half I just haven't been able to progress much with pull ups, like I can do 4 chin ups with 25kg strapped but I still feel fatigued when doing more than 4 without weight. Does somebody have a clue in how to try and unplateu?

Hey, I overtrained and now my biceps tendon hurts at the area where the shoulder and biceps insert. Raising my arm as if I was doing a straight shoulder raise and very deep push ups/rows cause pain.
It's not crazy pain, but it just feels a bit weak and annoying.

Any advice is much appreciated, thanks!

I have a hip shift in during squat and I discovered that my my right leg doesn't externally rotate like the left one so this loads my right knee more resulting in knee pain that remains for 3 days after the squat session.

I wanna train leg press or bulgarian split squat instead as my main movement and 1 set of squats at the end as a maintenance set until I fix the problem.

For guys who had a similar issue, what did you comfortably load more? Leg press or bulgarian split squat?

TLDR: Way too tired to go to sleep during workout days. Mental tiredness and stress following through next day.

I've been working out for the past 2 years 2x a week and practicing a sport on the weekend.

On every workout or sports day its the same. i get very tired, a bit stressed, with difficulty in paying attention to things that require more of a mental effort. but its also hard to get the energy to do dishes or chores around the apartment. I have a very good diet and good amount of sleep. i tried incorporatng isotonics during practice. My thing is, on workout days its very very hard to get to sleep, and even on the following day im still tired and exhausted

I take vitamin supplements, take creatin, drink whey after workouts.

The two things I noticed helping in getting faster to sleep is drinking chamomile tea and doing a full body stretch, but the stress still goes on.

What can I try differently?

Hi Steven and everyone,

I started following the Reccomended Routine back in January and eventually settled on Stephen's recommendations for beginners. After a few hiccups where I pulled some muscles I got into a consistent routine through early October.

Then, I caught a cold and decided to deload for a week and did very little work. A week later, it was tonsillitis... then the stomach bug.. then strep throat.

I mixed in a couple of lighter workouts but have been seriously out of routine for about 6 weeks. I know I lost progress.

Any general advice for what to expect from myself or how to approach getting back to where I was? Should I move backwards a progression? Do low rep work for a week or two? Something else?

Thanks, and happy Thanksgiving!

For what it's worth, my routine looked like this:

3x a week 5-10x pull up progression (was working towards L-sit pull ups), 5-10x rows progression (working towards archer rows), 5-10x dips (ring dips, working towards L-sit), 5-10x push up progression (working towards RTO). Also I was working on the German Hang and handstand with the intent to eventually work towards the back lever and HSPU, but that was more recent and not much progress was made yet. I was also experimenting with light/high rep and heavy/low rep days.

2x a week 5-10x pistol squat progression, deep step ups. I had just started mixing in weights. I'm also working on a Nordic curl progression.

2x a week L sit progression, ab wheel, compression exercises as recommended in OG2.

Also a few hours of jogging per week.

Hey! I have been doing weighted calisthenics for some time now, and I am curious about your guys opinion on training blocks. For instance I am turning 17 soon, I have a +60kg pull up 1rep and +90kg dip 1rep in my pocket at 80kg bw and now I still wanna continue increasing my numbers while learning skills at the same time. Whats the split you guys would do in this situation? Are training blocks worth it, in terms of 2 months this, 2 months that. Or would you focus on one pull and push skill at the beginning of the PPL split day when ur fresh, and then do your strength work after you did the skill training part on the training days?

Thanks!

I would say that I am mostly over my tendonitis pain. It used to interfere with quality of life a lot but nowadays the pain is minimal and very infrequent.

These days I have been incorporating more weightlifting back into my regime.

Before doing any workouts, I do these for my posture + rotator cuff:

• Resisted scapular wall slides 3 x 10
• Band pull aparts 3 x 12
• Low row machine 4 × 20

I have had no issue with doing shoulder press, military press, arnold press. I have mostly been fine with doing bicep workouts too.

I have noticed however on two occasions that dumbbell chest press leads to some pain in the shoulder in the following days.

This pain doesn't really bother me, however it concerns me that maybe I should not be doing chest press. Is this a sign that I am not ready for chest workouts yet, or is a little pain in the following days okay?

The first time this pain occurred I took a week off, however the pain came again after my chest workout on Monday. I keep the weight relatively light (hitting 12 reps).

I was wondering the correct arm position for the planche and it's variations. I tried training it 3 years ago and quickly got olecranon bursitis which took a really long time to recover. I trained by going into a plache position with my feet on the floor and placing my head slightly touching the wall. I would slowly move my feet away when I got stronger and do 3 sets of 20 - 30 second hold. This was probably too long and what I think caused the injury.

Although I've was looking through people learning the technique on youtube and found that they talked about how locked the arms should be. I always fully locked the arms into an almost hyperextended way. I was wondering how straight or locked should the arm be in these positions? Also should the "straightness" of the arm differ based on the progression?

Hi all,

I have been dealing with a bad case of golfers elbow for the past 5 months now, I feel like I have tried a lot to try and remedy the situation (bought and used a flexbar, tired several different routines and programs that I found online, rested, received a cortisone shot) but I do not feel like I can get rid of this and it is really starting to affect my mental health as I have pretty much stopped most upper body training to focus on rehab.

About 4 weeks ago now I started seeing a PT to help me get rid of it, and while I do certainly feel like my arm feels different now from 4 weeks ago I do not know if I can say its actually better. Now since last week, I noticed I have developed a bump right on top of my medial epicondyle on my elbow making the elbow bone much more sensitive and tender to the touch. I am assuming this is just inflammation, from rehab, but I want to make sure I am just moving in the right direction and I feel like I might not be...

For anyone that has dealt with this or knows about it, how did you get through it and fix yourself (protocols, stretches, advice, timeline, how normal are pain and flare-ups during rehab, anything)?

P.S. also keep in mind I am only 20, I understand this is something that should not keep my out forever, but I feel like I just cannot get rid of this no matter what I try.

I'm 1 month into my program and plan on sticking to it until February.

When is a good time to change your workout plan and exercises? Every few months? 6 months? A year? Or maybe 4 weeks?

(This isnt entirely calisthenics but before this school year calisthenics was my main, if someone could direct me to a better place to ask these questions it would be greatly appreciated)

Why am I not getting very sore, if I do at all, I am barely even feeling fatigued the next day. I workout three times a day: school, home, muay thai. I am unsure if this information is helpful or not but everything before "Home," is at school; I have weights fifth period and so about two to three hours between my weights and home workout. (I never am feeling tired physically but after some time the routine does take a hit on my mental which I adjust it for)

Before I get into the routine I think it may be important to mention that for my first set of bench press, I start with my max weight that I can only hit for about two reps, then I go down in weight and do about four reps (which is my failing point) and that marks the first set, the next two sets are done only with the same weight I went down to, getting 6-8 reps (which again is my failing point) on those sets. For pull ups and dips after I get to failure on my weighted portion I remove the weight and do body weight until failure which marks one set.

Monday & Thursday: Upperbody

Bench: 3x5-8

Weighted Pull Ups: 3x8-10 (with weight, and then no weight until failure)

Weighted Dips: 3x8-10 (with weight, and then no weight until failure)

Chin Ups 3xFailure

Home: Superset Handstand Pushup Horizontal Pull ups (front lever pull ups) 5xFailure

Hello,

Because of my biceps tendinopathy, I have been following this protocol from Enkiri Elite Fitness from some months. I'm in "Phase 2" and it worked mostly OK for decreasing symptoms, however I have some problem progressing because of flare ups.

After searching around over the internet, thats when I found Steven's helpful page about overcoming tendonitis (I did not yet read the book, however) and it made me wonder if my previous protocol is the most effective way of doing this. I also read multiple of his comments here in this subreddit.

So, based on Steven's methodology about tendonitis, which are some pro's and con's about the Enkiri protocol? Is there any other major disagreements besides every-other-day rehab (Steven's) VS everyday (Enkiri's) and eccentric + concentric (Steven's) vs eccentric only (Enkiri's)? Should I maybe scrap Enkiri's protocol entirely? Is there any info I'm missing by just reading the website?

Was stretching my legs and i guess inadvertently my achillies while laying down tensefully and then moved my foot down and felt a pain in my achilles. Is it that easy to strain your achilles?

I've been going to PT for a while, and they just now decided to do imaging on my arm that wasn't getting better with PT. Among other things, it revealed a posterolmedial pronator strain, and I'm just wondering what the best approach to a strain like this is?

I'm currently not super limited on most things, and training 6 days a week. I just have to stay away from things that really aggravate it, which I am. Is it best to continue this way hoping it heals over time? Or should I be backing off?

For a year now I've had multiple issues pop up and I'm perplexed as to why it's happening in a relatively short amount of time. It started last November with right-sided frozen-shoulder like symptoms. Then April left-sided frozen shoulder like symptoms.

Then left wrist pain (I fell on it a few years ago but nothing recent). Then left ankle pain (repeat sprains but no recent ones).

Then in August I must have tore something in my left knee backpacking. I can't get up from the floor without using my hands. It seemed to be improving but I went too hard with the hack squat machine and regressed.

Then early November my right IT band started hurting. Which is odd because I've significantly reduced activity because of the left knee. Bilateral shoulder pain is also returning with training.

Then yesterday I was doing heel raises, and later in the day I had significant pain with ankle plantar flexion. It's still present today, so now I have yet another issue to add to the rehab list.

I have been working with PT since January. Everything seems to be healing and progressing, but I feel in general like I just can't win. Shoulders are feeling so much better but now my training is limited by lower body issues.

At what point would something medical be considered? Like an autoimmune disease?

All of the pain can be explained, mostly, but I just feel like my threshold has declined dramatically over the last year. The left ankle pain is the final straw. I need to know why this is all happening in such a short amount of time.

My PT keeps saying it's all normal for overuse, but it's not "my" normal.

My 2 questions

1. Any suggestion to my program?

2. Where do I put ring shoulder stand? skill or strength section?

Goal:

Keep backward/forward roll to support on ring

Learn handstand balancing (but I can do wall 10 HSPU)

Push A

Skill : Handstand Balance + Ring Shoulder Stand

• 4 x 3s - 10s Parallettes Planche Tuck Hold (Band Assisted)
• 3 x 5-10 Handstand Push Up Wall
• 3 x 8-12 Weighted Dip
  • Lateral Raise 3 x 10-15
  • Overhead triceps extension (pulley at mid back)

Pull A

Skill : Back Roll on Ring practice

• 5 sets x 1 Muscle Up > Front Roll > Front Lever > FL MU > Front Roll
• 3 x 2 up/down Rope Climb
• 3 sets x 12-20:  Ring Row + 10kg weight vest
  • Pull Apart
  • 3 x 8-12 : incline Curl/ lying curl
  • Forearm Roller

Push B

Skill:  Wall Handstand Balance + Ring Shoulder stand

• 3-4 x 8-10 : Pseudo Planche Pushup (feet on box)
• 3 x 5-10 Handstand Push Up Wall
• 3 x 15s-20s Pseudo Planche Lean
  • Band Triceps Extension
  • Side delt

Pull B

Skill : Back Roll on Ring practice

• 3 x 3-6: Hang Pull to Front Lever (Assisted with band/Pulley)
• 3 x 6-10 Contra Single Arm Ring Row ‘ feet on step’ (contralateral / Ipsilateral )
• 3 x 6-8 (1RIR) Weighted Pull Up (Neutral Grip) : 16kg KB
  • Pull apart
  • Single Bayesian Curl (Pulley at hip point) 3 x 8-12
  • Forearms Roller

Hi everyone

I have been dealing with achilles tendonitis for 5 months now and I have been religiously doing heel lifts in a HSR fashion (3x week, starting with eccentrics and adding concentrics when no pain)

I have been using morning stiffness and pain as an indicator of improvement and once I dont feel pain in the morning I tried to start running again by doing 1 min on - 1 min off during 20 min to assess how the tendon is

Everything goes ok for a week but then the pain starts again and I have to stop running and start the cycle again. This is my third flare up I really dont know what I am doing wrong as I am very conservative.

Any tips? Should I just wait even more before start running again?

Elbow pain in highlighted areas when pressing downwards thru my palm on a surface with bent arm. Also when I press downwards I feel a very sharp pain, and if I press repeatedly like 3 or 4 times my elbow makes a cracking sound and afterwards it stops the pain for a couple minutes in the sense that if i keep pressing the same way it stops hurting for 2 or 3 minutes then it comes back and I have to crack it again. Also when it cracks it feels like two bones are grinding against each other. Do you know any exercises for relieving this pain? I have been doing stretches and forearm strengthening exercises such as pronation, supination and wrist curls but no long term pain relief. My elbow stops hurting once the joint is warmed up but when 2 hours pass the pain comes right back when i pres downwards. Painful areas highlighted on imgur https://imgur.com/a/cGG9zlP

Hello, I have been doing handstand movements for a few months and I have mastered the handstand without shoulder pain. My shoulders are very flexible and relatively healthy, no past issues. However, when I do movements like the bent arm press to handstand and even just like like push-ups with most my weight on my shoulders, i get a sharp pain inside my shoulders for a few seconds or even a minute after. I’m not sure what to do because I have been really training for this skill and I’m getting close but I always get this pain. I don’t think it has to do with mobility or flexibility so I don’t know. Any suggestions is appreciated