Hi, I've read the most important chapter of the book regarding periodization and I am planning my first mesocycle(s). I am a [24M] beginner with a background in powerlifting but zero BW experience.

My current maxes are

• 5 bar pullups
• 3 ring dips (i have access to rings only, no dip bar)
• 30-40s ring support hold (not RTO)
• 10 ring rows (feet elevated at knee level, just like in the book)
• 9 ring push ups (elbows at 30 degrees)
• 8s ring tuck L-sit

My objectives for the next 2-3 mesocycles are (exercises in each category are ordered by priority)

Skill

• 5s Handstand
• 10s Frog stand

Strength

• 15 bar pullups
• 10 ring dips
• 1 pistol squat
• 60s support hold
• 15-25s RTO support hold
• 15 rows/ 15 pushups
• 5s ring L-sit

Mobility

I am generally very stiff: I can barely touch my toes for a split second and I can do a german hang while touching the floor. Cossack squats are also pretty challenging for me

• Full german hang
• Full pike stretch

General plan for a single mesocycle (5 weeks + 1 deload):

• Full body 3x week
• 180s rest between sets for concentric/eccentric exercises, 90-120 for isometrics.
• Progressing through linear repetition and repetition addition if I plateau

Warm up (blood flow, mobility and positional drills)

• 60s rope jumping
• Shoulder elastic band drill
• Finger/Palm pulses, wrist circles
• Ring support hold 20-30s
• Plank 40s
• Hollow 20s
• Side plank 20s each side
• Jefferson curls
• Asian squats

Skill Work

• Handstand progression over the mesocycle (wall plank → wall walk → wall handstand → freestanding handstand)
• Frog stand balancing

Strength work

• Pullups 4x4 during the first week, 3x5→15 using repetition addition for the following weeks
• Jumping ring dips 3x5→15 with 50X0 tempo
• Pistol squat progression over the mesocycle (GMB's bottom-up progression, 4x5)
• Ring rows 3x8→20
• Ring Pushups 3x5→15
• Chair step-ups 3x5→15
• Pike HSPu 3x5→10
• Ring Tuck L-sit 10x6s sets, implementing single leg and full L-sit once I have enough mobility/compression strength
• RTO support hold 15x3s sets
• Compression work: hanging knee raises (maybe using straps since my forearms will be tired) 3x5→10; leg raises while sit on the floor with knees locked out, like in the "core work" chapter of the book, 3x3→10s holds.

Isolation/prehab

• Light weight high reps (~15-20) bicep curls, face pulls, hyperextension

Flexibility

• Full pike progression
• Full german hang progression

I was wondering my goals are a bit too much or if I should set goals for the single mesocycle (I don't think I'll be able to go from 5 to 15 pull ups using repetition addition if I plateau with linear progression). Also, I workout at home and time isn't a problem, but maybe there are too many exercises in every workout from a joint overuse prospective?

Thanks for reading

Hey guys, happy to have found this sub.. I've come a long way in the last year in terms of overcoming some pretty gnarly tennis elbow and rotator cuff issues. Here now because I'm finding that a couple of injuries are very difficult to address in full.

1. Bicep Problem (right side only) - this first manifested as what seemed to be an obvious case of distal biceps tendinitis as a result of my serve playing tennis. After working with a PT, this problem evolved. Instead of being limited to the distal biceps area, it's now something that affects mostly the long head of the bicep up into the capsule where it attaches to the shoulder. It is a pretty intense pain when it gets flared up.. usually if I play two sessions of tennis in a week instead of one.. it's totally debilitating. May be helpful to know that I do not feel this pain at ALL when doing direct bicep work in the gym. It is almost exclusively something that happens when throwing the arm. I also noticed that when picking up a big box (palms flat on either side and biceps flexed) it really activated the issue / made it flare up. So that extended position is an obvious problem for me. Even doing something like throwing a ball underhand can cause me to feel its presence.
2. Front of shoulder (both sides) - this could possibly be directly related to the above. I used to have this issue when benching and largely addressed it after learning that the bicep is often the culprit when it comes to that front of shoulder pain. I would describe the pain as nothing sharp - just very.. tendinitis-y .. both sides are tender... reaching across my body can feel pinch-y. Both are probably particularly flared up right now as I did some PT yesterday.
   1. This issue is also obvious when doing things like, I don't know, wiping a window or having to open up a duvet cover. I also noticed this when carrying a basket of tennis balls .. elbow slightly bent to keep the basket from dragging on the floor putting strain on that front area. Even having to put away a bunch of glasses or dishes into cabinets above chest level can flare these things up.

Its been a few weeks of PT at this point. Definitely an up and down journey which is to be expected. I think there's been more upside overall but some stuff I feel like is just not being addressed effectively, namely the the top of bicep / front of shoulder tendinitis (especially on the left arm which has actually somewhat suddenly become its own larger issue despite no obvious changes in my routine).

One issue could be the amount of time I'm spending at my desk since starting a new job.. I realized my sitting position is not ideal (shoulders can't fully relax due to the height of my desk + chair). My shoulders are also tilted inwards. Easy to understate the impact of this.. I had a fucked up pain on my right lat from a bad sitting position (which I fixed).. so I'm going to be way more conscious of that.

My PT also did some manual work where my infraspinatus and that other shit is and jesus christ.. I was almost in tears that area is so tender.. so obviously something is still up there despite the targeted RC work I've been doing.

SOOOO... if you're still here.. thank you.. what I'd basically love to know is for anyone here who has dealt with similar issues if there was anything you wish you knew prior? Any fun tips or tricks? I feel like I'm doing the right things at this point but there's a lot of frustration in not feeling like I'm getting a better grip on it esp considering how quickly I feel like I've been able to deal with other tendinopathy in the past.

Ty all.

I created this routine so I could obtain planche and front lever at the same time:

D1: Push Exercises Sets Reps Rest RPE Tuck planche hold 6 4 seconds 2-3 mins 9 Pseudo Push Up (Below Waistline) 4 7 2-3 mins 8 Overhead Press (Or Pyke Push Ups) 4 8 (35 kg) Or 8 1-2 mins 7 Dips (Full ROM) 3 5 1-2 mins 7

D2: Pull Exercises Sets Reps Rest RPE Weighted Pull ups 4 3 (10 kg) 3-4 mins 9 Tuck front lever hold 6 4 seconds 2-3 mins 8 Tuck front lever raises 4 3 1-2 mins 8 Rows 3 12 1-2 mins 8

D3: Legs Exercises Sets Reps Rest RPE Pistol squats 4 8 2-3 mins 9 Sissy squats 4 8 2-3 mins 8 Nordic squats 4 8 negative 2-3 mins 8 One leg heel raises 4 12 2-3 mins 8

D4: Push Exercises Sets Reps Rest RPE Tuck planche hold 6 4 seconds 2-3 mins 9 Pseudo Push Up (Below Waistline) 4 7 2-3 mins 8 Overhead Press (Or Pyke Push Ups) 4 8 (35 kg) Or 8 1-2 mins 7 Dips (Full ROM) 3 5 1-2 mins 7

D5: Pull Exercises Sets Reps Rest RPE Weighted Pull ups 4 3 (20 kg) 3-4 mins 9 Tuck front lever hold 6 4 seconds 2-3 mins 8 Tuck front lever raises 4 3 1-2 mins 8 Rows 3 12 1-2 mins 8

Its been 5 days and my arms (biceps) are not sore, but i cant make my arms staright still. The soreness is almost gone probably like 90 % are my arms destroyed. Its my first time doing dumbells workout ever in my life

I have elbow pain when I bend/use my elbow so from googling I think I have elbow tendonitis

According to this YouTube shorts https://youtube.com/shorts/gLyQXgEsf1s?si=SeYqku5tc3eCeCwG

I need to be stretching each fingers and wrists

When I do this - I do this on my fingers I do feel tension coming from my hands but I doesn’t get better overtime

Does anyone knows why? Or if I’m not stretching enough or correctly ?

I was in physical therapy for my low back, which is doing much better but the first physical therapist had me lift too much weight and it caused shoulder tendinitis.

I then had to start physical therapy for the shoulder with a new physical therapist. The one thing I'm still a little nervous about is the fact that since lifting caused my injury, I'm nervous about doing too many weights or too much exercise that will cause my injury to come back. I understand I have to do the exercises and lift to prevent the tendinitis from getting worse, but I'm still nervous and quite frankly a little embarrassed.

My physical therapist was great and I'm released to a home program, but I'm worried about making a mistake and re-injuring myself.

I also question if I have to do all of these exercises For the rest of my life now.

One of the things that's hard as I know what a sore muscle like, but trying to figure out if a tendon is sore from exercise or if it's leading to an issue is still harder for me to figure out.

Does anyone have any advice?

what is density training, like i'm not joking from what i have learned it is some thing to do with EMOM or something like that i dont even know what a EMOM is . Im trying to increase pushups from 20 to 100 reps and some one told me that density training would help . what i currently been doing is 3 sets all shy to failure and increase a set every 2 weeks

I recently completed a 16 week skill block (with 2 deloads) focused on the front lever and planche.

I have now begun a new Hypertrophy program due to overuse injuries. My bicep tendons are inflamed from all the static holds. I dropped all skill work to maintenance volume (4 sets per week).

Even with the maintenance volume when I do my planche progression I can feel my inflamed bicep tendon. My questions are:

• 1.) should I take a break from static holds until the inflammation subsides? (I can still do dynamic movements with no pain).

• 2.) Do I continue the static holds at low volume and hope the tendon heals?

• 3.) How do I go about programming static holds in the future and avoid overuse injuries?

Thank you so much!

Question in a Nutshell: Why would external rotation exercises cause pain in the bicipital groove in the front of the shoulder and how would you rehab that if you cannot feel your infraspinatus working?

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Hey Team! Mr. Low, I appreciate all the information you have put out on the internet. I have successfully utilized all the information in your extremely thorough overcoming tendinopathy webpage and got rid of patellofemoral pain (had for 1.5 years) to where it is a thing of the past and even squatted 275 on it again after not even being able to go upstairs pain free at one point. I am reaching out because I have been trying to use your principles for my left shoulder. I have been mostly successful as for 2 years I could only do chin ups and not pronated pull ups as the latter would bring out pain in my rotator cuff tendons area in the back of the shoulder right under the acromion (I am at 12 pullups now). However, for the same 2 years I have had this front shoulder pain (in the general proximal bicep tendon area) that hurts 4-7/10 during pushups (impossible to do dips) and even rows (but not really overhead pressing). It does not seem to want to go away, and I'm worried it'll be here forever.

The history with this shoulder is that 2 years ago I had an infraspinatus sprain from a scapular pull up (so bad I couldn't lift my arm). The MRI back then and the MRI I had 3 months ago shows ZERO shoulder pathology with not even any rotator cuff tendinopathy. The physical therapist I had at the time (early 2023) diagnosed me with an infraspinatus sprain and anterior humeral head glide syndrome. We were able to successfully rehab in the overhead positions (Posterior banded joint mobilization, L-Shaped Arm 90-degree Band resisted isometric hold, kettlebell Arm L-Shaped Walks), but never finished my rehab due to moving and my shoulder still didn't feel right in the horizontal plan upon leaving. For the most part only the back of the shoulder hurt at the time. All the PTs I saw after him just said "it'll fix itself just keep trying" and I did what a lot of fitness gurus on YouTube say to do, 100s of external rotation (ER) exercises like the elbow at side infraspinatus movement. After doing a lot of these ER movements I ended up getting front shoulder pain in that proximal bicipital groove, especially in the ER end range with the shoulder at 90 degrees abduction.

Fast forward to early 2024 I met another PT who suggested an internal rotation cross body serratus hugs, subscapularis cable work with elbow at the side and also with the shoulder 90 degree abducted, followed by kettlebell push plank pull throughs (he gave this because he noticed I was only doing external rotation exercises at the time). I saw a lot of improvements and have been able to somewhat press again but during pushups (the main movement I want to be able to do) the front of that shoulder just will sometimes flare up extremely badly. I am somewhat at a loss now at what I am dealing with and how to fix it and was wondering if there are any other cases like me or if y'all can share similar experiences in how to rehab this. My PT said I have zero strength deficits in any of my rotator cuff muscle tests. I have been unable to train external rotation/infraspinatus exercises, even the simple side lying dumbbell ER exercise (with a pad at elbow for stability) going up and down with a 1 Lb dumbbell causes pain in the front of my shoulder. (but I can overhead press and do pullups albeit the shoulder always feels like it wants to go back) I look forward to hearing y'all's thoughts and how to tackle this.

I haven't hurt of external rotation exercises hurting anyone before and this is a first for me. I saw in these videos below by Corexcell that some of his clients have front shoulder pain and uncontrollable upper trap activation with these general PT movements (prone Y, T, A shoulder movements) and he makes them do this version of the single arm row to hit the teres major where he doesn't let them progress the row if their humeral head goes up even just a little bit while rowing and to also focus on rear delt development. Would this be beneficial or is this over meticulous and there are better methods to achieve the same result? Thank you all in advance.

2 Most Important Exercises to Fix Shoulder Pain & Tears - Improve Posture (RELIEF IS HERE!)

Fixing Severe Shoulder Pain - Powerlifter

Complete Guide to Shoulder Rehab (NO SURGERY NEEDED!) - Fix Impingement & Injury Prevention

Question in a nutshell: How much difference does it make between 2 Upper Body Workout and 3 Upper Body Workout?

My routine is

15min handstand workout 15min L-sit workout 3 sets 5 reps: Weighted Pull Up 3 sets 6 reps: RTO Dips 3 sets 5 reps: Weighted Dips 3 sets 5 reps: Ring Pull Up 15 min Back Lever workout 15 min Planche Workout

It takes 2 hour. I am trying to do 3 times a week but my lifestyle is changing, so I am thinking to reduce it to 2 times. How much difference would it make in long run?

I also do 2 lower body workout which is 1 hour Dragon Squat workout which I don’t want to cut off from my workout.

1. from where can i learn more about periodization ?

2. can i ignore skill work ? is it safe if i do just basics ?

Hi, So i suffered a gradual injury to my infraspinatus 6 weeks ago im guessing from overtraining in the gym & not warming up rotator cuff ( Had 2 different physiotherapist opinions & a musculoskeletal specialist) All saying its infraspinatus tendinpathy, They all gave me lists of isometrics to do daily , which i have been doing for weeks now, the pain has budged ever so slightly but ive literally not been in the gym for 1 month and im losing muscle slowly , really stuck on what to do & this tendon is taking ages to heal, Im doing everything right, on a high protein diet, daily stretches, taking all vitamins , taking 5g of collagen daily but its taking forever to heal , doesnt feel like its healed much at all

Hi, I have had supraspinatus tendinosis for several years (8years). Even after all this time, When I do some weight lifting, the pain comes back strong but otherwise I don't feel anything. Any advice?

I was diagnosed with "tennis elbow" although that is the furthest from how it happened. I was lifting overhead when I heard the pop.

MRI and MSK ultrasound show a partially torn RCL and a sprained LCL in my dominant arm elbow. I've been in increasing chronic pain for over 2 years. Unlike some, I have the benefit of having a primary care physician who is in my corner, and a willing- though hesitant- surgeon.

However from day one, I've wanted and still want to avoid surgery. I did months of PT until my benefits ran out. Didn't help. My doctor agreed that the pain wasn't responding to PT and we got it imaged, finding the cause. I was then referred to my surgeon, who wanted me to try a different type of PT, and gave me pain meds to push through. Meds didn't help and was unable to do the different PT. Surgeon said surgery was still on the table if down the line, all other avenues have been exhausted. Now, I've had a cortisone shot. Its helped me get to some of the new PT, but again, it doesn't help my pain.

I'm really at a loss as to what to do next. Do I try the methods from the go-to-book in this subreddit; though I'm still in pain? Or do I try PRP or hyaluronic acid (SportVis)? My benefits won't cover either, but I'm willing to pay out of pocket if its the next logical, non-surgical step.

https://youtu.be/AjhjgNWiTPQ?si=xFe5eZ1s-QOOZM_A

This seems like worth trying, I personally enjoy lower volume and higher intensity type workouts and I feel like this would be very easy to stick to.

Not sure exactly how you program this long term though? Or where skills would fit in.

In 2018, after a reckless bender of drawing and PC gaming, I developed tightness and soreness in my right forearm near the medial epicondyle. The symptoms were extremely specific to this spot and to these two activities. No drawing or gaming? No problem. More than 90 minutes of either one? They came right back, even after weeks of rest. Doctor Google told me it sounded like golfer's elbow. I assumed that was correct and switched all non-art computer activities to my left hand. That worked okay. For a while. Until, several years later, I started experiencing the exact same symptoms in my left forearm, too.

To make a long story short, it took me until fall 2023 to get a referral to a hand/occupational therapy clinic. I felt my therapist was knowledgeable and sympathetic to my case. Here's what we talked about:

• I didn't receive a formal diagnosis of golfer's elbow, but they were confident I had some kind of overuse injury.
• They did moist heat treatment and tool massage, which felt super good. My forearm muscles felt dramatically softer and squishier after a session. They remarked that these muscles were very tight and I had a lot of "crunchies" to break up.
• We talked ergonomics. I invested in a better desk chair and made sure my arms were hangin' out at the correct angle. I also got a trackball, though I'm going to try a vertical mouse next - more later.
• Their theory was that, because my upper arms were so weak, my lower arms were bearing an unhealthy brunt of the drawing/gaming stress. After years of this, the forearms had become weakened from overuse, so the fix was to strengthen everything through stretching and resistance.
• To that end, they gave me a program of stretches, back/shoulder/upper arm resistance band exercises, and wrist dumbbell flexion/extension reps. They also told me to watch how I draw. We thought part of it could stem from holding my forearm in a rigid position for hours to make tiny, detailed pen strokes. Draw from the shoulder, etc.

And it worked... okay! I thought! I gained fifteen pounds of grip strength! I went from 60 minutes of drawing every other day to 90 minutes every day! Around six months ago, I graduated to a home program... and things stalled out. The highest resistance band was too hard, so I went back down. No more progress.

These days, I'd say I "manage" whatever is wrong with me. I do my exercises, but apart from that, I pretty much live the same way I did before PT. I've drastically cut back on these hobbies and tried to accept the possibility that I'll never be my old self again. As long as I stay within my safe zone, I feel all right - I joke that if I gave up drawing and gaming entirely, I'd be fine. The thing is, though, that's not an option. I'm a professional video game designer, and at times, I need to play for long periods as part of my job responsibilities. These periods lead to really frustrating, achy flareups, and while I know I can rest them off - gotta stay positive - the cycle just never ends.

I've read the Overcoming Tendonitis article, as well as the one on the difference between tendinopathy and chronic pain. This is interesting and new to me. I almost dare to hope that I haven't done irreversible damage to myself. However, if you feel that this has gone on long enough to classify as chronic pain instead, what are the next steps? Is there some secret stretch I'm not doing? Should I approach my hand therapist with this theory? If I need a different specialist who's not in my area, are video calls and home programs enough? You've expressed optimism with other chronic cases that they can still recover and return to high performance. Does that optimism extend to my case, too?

Some other notes that may be useful:

• I'm hesitant to describe the symptoms I experience as "pain." I wish I could give you a convenient number on the scale, but I can't. When I palpate the muscle during a flareup, it feels sore, overworked, and really tense and hard. It's so tight. But "hurt" in the traditional sense? I'm not sure.
• None of the "Does it hurt when I push/pull this? Do you have numbness or tingling when I do this?" tests the therapist ran on me produced any discomfort. They've never found any inflammation or other signs of tissue damage.
• None of the exercises or stretches they assigned me have ever hurt, either. They just feel like a satisfying workout.
• I've never had an MRI, no matter how many times I ask for one. Maybe they're right that I don't need one.
• Again, I stress that the symptoms are highly specific to drawing and gaming activities. I can do regular computer stuff all day and be fine. Playing the piano is fine. Daily chores are fine.

If you've made it through all this, thank you!

I've been struggling with golfer's elbow for some time now, I've been attempting to rehab it but I either failed to see progress early cause everytime I rehab it too much I tend to aggrevate the symptom that makes me wonder if is helping.

How I got injured:

I believe it is from increase volume on basics and changed split to full body where my intensity only slightly dropped that force my body to be under recovered.

I was training a 3 days full body with high volume pull up, dips, hspu, push up, row, and some accessories.

Handstand has been altered to an parallattes to help my wrist, but I believe this is the exercise that cause my injury since I feel a quite painful doing parallattes handstand now.

False grip row is also one I suspected. I've gotten injured previously to my wrist from false grip.

Symptoms of Pain:

I have been educating myself a lot on the injury lately despite my busy final year in university.

Pain often associated with elbow extended all the way, pain is present when neutral and pronated. Muscle must be tensed doing this.

Pain when doing finger resisted on table, pronated.

After performing finger pulses or wrist pulses from floor, tensing my forearm to do hammer curl full rom also cause pain (as long as my muscle is tensed up) even unweighted can cause pain. However I notice the pain often subsided when I extend my finger rather than flex.

I read the book on tendonitis from Steven. Still reading through it now but I've gotten the idea that the common elbow pain derived from fds and pronator teres commonly.

Rehab:

3x15 wrist curl + finger curl 3x15 pronation supination 3x15 reverse wrist curl 3x30s fingers resisted on table 1x10 nerve flossing with ok sign

These r what I've been doing. Pls note that I perform the exercise with elbow bend for most of them. Whenever I try to do pronation and supination with elbow extended I can slightly feel mild pain in my elbow.

I have a few questions, I'm a bit paranoid and obsessed over my injury, so I regularly attempt to extended my elbow to check for pain, is that going to slow recovery is always check it by reproducing the pain? Should I avoid it?

If an exercise is painful when performing and after performing symptoms increased for a few hours before it dialed down, is that an bad exercise to do?

Any exercise I could do more tailor to my situation cause it seems like the rehab exercises isn't progressing my symptoms fast or even doing much.

I attempted to rest it up before only to work for a bit in the early month, nowadays it feels like it stalled. Thank you for reading.

Update: Based on this cluster test this did turn out to be mild golfer's elbow with the FDS tendon. Thanks u/eshlow for the input!

I've been experiencing pain at the medial epicondyle during movements that involve elbow flexion with a supinated wrist, the main culprits being chin-ups and bicep curls.

I first started noticing this with my one arm chin/pull up work and it doesn't affect anything else. I've dealt with minor golfer's elbow before and although the pain is in a similar spot, the movements that cause pain don't match with that.

Any ideas what this could be or ways forward? Thinking slow, light eccentric bicep curls to target the area.

Hello, for the past week or so I have been reading Overcoming Gravity 2nd Edition and, although I haven't finished the book, I'm trying to put together a routine now as I can feel the analysis paralysis starting to set in. I am aiming to increase strength, hypertrophy and flexibility/mobility and to begin working towards beginner calisthenics skills. As of right now, I have a minor knee and ankle injury on my right led which have been there for a while, as well as an old injury in my left rotator cuff. Any suggestions for rehab/prehab would be greatly appreciated. It might be a bit unorthodox but I have decided to do an Upper/Lower split interspersed with skill training/core/flexibility days.

For example:

Monday (Upper), Tuesday (Lower), Wednesday (Skill, Core, Flexibility), Thursday (Upper), Friday (Lower), Saturday (Skill, Core, Flexibility), Sunday (Rest)

Goals: Handstand for 10 seconds, 3x15 ring pull ups, Full side splits

I know it is advised for beginners to utilize full-body routines, however I wanted to train nearly everyday and I haven't done well with full-body barbell-based programs in the past. I did my best to incorporate the information I have learned from the book so far into my routine, however I'm still a noob haha. I appreciate anyone who takes the time to critique it. Thanks!

Upper Day A/B:

(Warm up)

Band dislocates 3x10

Internal/External shoulder rotation with band 2x10

(Strength/Hypertrophy)

Decline Pushups 3x15

Ring Pull ups 3x10

Ring Dips 3x8

Ring Rows 3x12

Lower Day A/B:

(Warm up)

5 mins static stretching

Ankle circles

(Strength/Hypertrophy)

3x8 Band-assisted Reverse Nordic curls

3x8 Split Squats

3x8 Deep Step-ups

3x10 Calf raises

(Skill, Core, Flexibility) Day A/B:

(Warm up)

Band dislocates

Leaning over wrists

20 seconds back to wall handstand

Strength/Hypertrophy

Frogstand 3x10 seconds

Handstand Back to wall 3x20 seconds

L-sit 5x10 seconds

15 Minutes of splits training using various lower-body stretches

Whenever I get up on my feet after a long time sitting ( particularly sleeping ) I feel a knifing sensation in the upper heel area that makes it hard to walk for a few seconds before wearing off.

What would be the best exercises to help this? Standing and/or seated calf raises?

Hello, guys, I'm with some problems in the tricep/elbow, I don't know if it's tendonitis or other thing. I already read the article "overcoming tendonitis" but I couldn't follow any protocol, because I don't know certainly what I have

About 2/3 months ago I joined the gym (I already used to do some push ups like 20/30 reps, but not very constantly) and I wanted to do a high intensity/low volume program and I think that was my mistake, because my tendons were not prepared. So I even managed to do a maximum set of bench presses with 12 kg for 8 reps, like, in the first 3 weeks of gym (too much for me)

I think I also exaggerated with the pull exercises too. I feel some pain like medial epicondylitis too, but not too much compared to the triceps and the pronation/supination exercise seems to be good to it. And I also think I need to strengthen my wrists.

So in the next session, I forgot that program and went back to the traditionally program, 3x12/15, low intensity/high volume, etc... but I started to feel an elbow pain when I was benching.

for other reasons, I left the gym and starting doing calisthenics and ignored the pain for some time. But the pain didn't go away and it hurts when I do push ups. I started to do the overcoming tendonitis program and did 2 sessions, but I already did some push ups again, because I'm worried and sometimes I think 1 month it's to late to fix this, if it's really tendonitis. Today I did some IASTM massage today with a remote control and discovered it helps a lot with the pain. Some weeks ago I also did some "squat university" exercises of rotator cuff stability and lats stretch in a video about a strongman with golfers elbow and it helped too. When I did it, I could do some reps of push ups without pain.

And I'm worried because I have a navy trainment in January, that's because I'm worried if I can fix it or it's better to back with the push ups and increase my reps again.

I think it's in the tendon because the pain isn't too far from the elbow. But I think I did these high intensity sessions just 2 or 3 times. I don't know if tendonitis appears in such a short time. But I feel some pain/strain I think in the medial head of the triceps too.

I don't know if this is also the tendon, but I feel more pain when I palpate and drag and it is more sensitive in a part that is above the medial epicondyle. But the pain when I do push ups is more in the middle, above the olecranon.

If someone can help me, I thank you very much. I'm from Brazil

Hello! I went too low on the leg press and hurt my low back. I didn’t feel a pop or snap or sharp pain, rather a more gradual onset of pain during each rep. After the set I had a hard time bending down to get my water bottle. My lower back has been stiff and aching for 4 days now. It’s fine and barely notice when standing or sitting. But when bending it hurts.

Are there any stretches I can do to relieve this? Would it be bad to go to the gym and keep training or should I keep resting until I’m pain free?

Hi,

I've recently suffered injuries to several tendons and am increasingly at my wit's end.

I'm 6'1. In 2018, I was 230 pounds. Through years of clean eating and exercise, I got myself down to 168 pounds I've weighed between 166-173 pounds for roughly a calendar year. I've eaten a very restrictive high protein, low fat diet. I can't defend the low-fat thing on the merits; I've always associated higher fat foods with being more calorie dense and thus, until very recently, avoided them, which, of course, is a stupid decision.

Starting last November, I increased my exercise significantly. I used to exercise about 30 minutes five times a week, but upped it to about an hour in gym five times a week plus two sessions of intense cardio. I'd lift in the morning five days a week, and do cardio (~5k runs with interval sprints) twice a week.

I injured my left knee in November 2023, coming up out of an ass-to-grass squat; it was diagnosed as a quad injury. I had previously injured the meniscus on that leg twice, and had an MCL injury on my right knee once. I stopped running for a while (which I wrongly considered sufficient rest), way increased my walking to compensate (mistake), and continued to lift, though I changed my routine slightly (e.g., backwards rather than forward dumbbell lunges). Because I was obsessed with getting my heart rate to similar zones that it would reach in interval sprints, I did very high repetition lunges, to the point where my HR would eclipse 160. My leg improved but never fully healed, since I never fully rested it.

I sporadically picked up injuries on my right knee (MCL sprain, abduction injury) from playing flag football. Those injuries healed relatively well.

Then, the downfall began. In July, I went to the doctor's office after I noticed a pain under my rib. They said it was just indigestion, which it was, but they ran my blood, and found very, very low white blood cell counts, very, very low red blood cell counts, and testosterone levels so low that they couldn't believe it was real, given that I'm a musclebound man capable of growing facial hair.

They hypothesized that it was exercise-induced, and after seeing a specialist, they suggested that I reduce my exercise to no more than 30 minutes per day. Trying to maximize those 30 minutes, I returned to running three times a week for those 30 minute intervals, and lifted either three or four times a week for the other 30 minutes. Here were my monthly running totals, on the year:

January: 1.86 miles (recovering from left-knee injury)

February: 26.8 miles

March: 39.3 miles

April: 14.74 miles

May: 7.16 miles (had knee flare-ups)

June: 11.98 miles

July: 15.6 miles

August: 38.7 miles

September: 19.5 miles.

I shut down my running and most of my lower-body lifting in September when my left knee was in intense pain, popping a lot, and generally unstable-feeling. I had done 100 "flossing" body squats (50 on each leg, with bands above and below kneecap) before my runs to "loosen" up my knees.

I got an MRI on my left knee. Grade 2 signal change posterior horn medial meniscus; ACL sprain/mucoid degeneration; distal quad tendinopathy with partial thickness tear; patellar tendinopathy. Doctor told me to stop running for four weeks or so, but that the exercise bike was fine.

I picked up the exercise bike, and tried to work my heart rate up. I probably went too fast, too quick. One night at home, out of the blue, bending over to pick something up and favoring my right leg, my right kneecap popped (without pain) and now a tendon slides over the bone on the outside of my right knee. I was diagnosed with patellar tracking disorder.

I turned to swimming, and incorporated a lot of higher intensity upper body workout circuits to keep my heart rate up---going from pull-ups to planks, that kind of thing. I ended up getting a neck/shoulder impingement. All this time, both knee injuries improved only marginally.

Bereft of options, I dutifully did my rehab for my upper and lower body, which included backwards walking. I tried morning walks, and tried to do the bike with intense hamstring before each session to at least give myself a couple of cardio sessions a week. I've since picked up Achilles tendonitis on both legs, and peroneal tendonitis on my left. I haven't been able to easily get into a squat since I stopped the daily "flossing" in September.

Now, I really can do nothing. And I understand that this is partially or entirely my fault, which is a very bitter pill to swallow. However, I am wondering if the anemia, very restrictive dieting, and incredibly low testosterone are contributing to my predicament.

Thank you for reading, and if any of you are prayerful people, I would appreciate your prayers, even if I've done this to myself.

Have posted again the same routine just now made some changes like I had 4 set dl 4 set pull up 4 set dumbbell row wrote it as barbell in start switch it to dummbell cause I had worries about my lower back, it worked well in the first 2.5 week now on 3rd week I feel overworked and my body getting injured, well i m not having the diet(especially protein there its needed) and my sleep is ok but not the best, so I made some changes.

Goals Handstand but currently dont work it before my trainning trying to do some workouts Squat max Deadlift max Pull up max Dip max Sprint 1-2 per week or 1 on 2 weeks.

Warm up: 5' running Planks *Main: Push Heavy Squat 6x3 Dips 6x3 Isolate: Press 3x3 Tricep extension 3x6 rest 2' on every exercise *Core: Reverse hypers 3x Ab wheel scaling to level 83x 1-3 Wind mill 3x 4 each *Cooldown Bridges Some stretches

*Warm up: 5' running Plank *Main: Pull Heavy Dl 6x3 Pull up 3x3 *Isolate: Ham curls 3x6 Bicep curl 3χ6 Core the same *Cooldown Pancake 3x30 Some stretches

The heavy is about to 80% and on light days on 65% and the reps are 5-6 on light days, the iso on heavy and on light 10 thinking about 8-12. My push is 18 set and pull 15 do you think its a problem. Hope my concerns help all of you!!

Cant wait to hear you, thanks in advanced.

Hello OG family. I have been doing a full-body routine for about 5 months now, with progress kicking in 3 months ago after improving my nutrition. Prior to this, I did bodyweight exercises for about 6 months using a different routine. Based on the other posts I have read here, I am pretty sure I have been doing too much volume. I am thinking of lowering my total volume per week to help with the fatigue wall that I keep running into every couple of weeks.

Here are some stats about me:

·         27 years old

·         5’6

·         168.7 lbs (76.5 kgs)

·         Sedentary, working on a PC all day, light 20-35 minute walks

I have also been tracking my nutrition with the help of a calorie-tracking app. Sleep fluctuates, I often get 7-8 hours, but once or twice every other week I will get 6 hours in. Sometimes I am not recovering fast enough and I notice that my strength levels are not completely rejuvenated. Stress levels are most often really low.

My current goal is Ab to Bar Explosive Pull Ups (getting to chest and .5 – 1 inch above nipple) and the Handstand. I can do muscle-ups with little to no kip, but I can’t do it consistently, I am not sure if it’s the lack of explosiveness or if I just can’t get the technique down.

Here’s my current MWF routine:

Full Body Warm-up

Hamstring stretches for PPU

Dynamic Leg Stretches (BW Squats, BW Lunges, etc.)

Dynamic Neck movements

Arm Circles

Forearm Warmup

Random Movements to get body even warmer

Vertical Pull

3 sets x 5-6 reps (Explosive Chest to Bar Pull Ups )

2 sets x 8-10 reps (Regular Pull Ups)

Each set with a superset of goblet squats (8-10 reps)

Vertical Push

3 sets x 5-6 reps (Pike Push Ups @ slightly below 90 degrees)

2 sets x 8 reps (easier PPU progression, feet further from hands)

Each set with a superset of Single Leg Romanian Deadlifts (8-10 reps)

Horizontal Push

3 sets x 5-6 reps (Weighted Dips)

2 sets x 8-10 reps (BW Dips)

Each set with superset of calf raises

Horizontal Pull

3 sets x 5-6 reps (Bodyweight Rows or Machine Row)

2 sets x 8-10 reps (easier BW Row or Machine Row)

30 seconds of rest between an exercise and a superset.

4-5 minutes of rest per pair

Other

Once or twice a week, during a rest day, I work on my handstand for about 10 minutes. I don’t do anything else beyond that because I am pretty tired.

Questions

·         Am I doing too much volume?

·         Should I drop one of the easier sets? Drop the easier sets completely?

·         Any advice for advancing explosive pull-ups? I have been pretty stagnant at 5-6 reps per set in the past 2 weeks. I am thinking about doing weight pull-ups once a week, maybe on Wednesday, to build some more strength.

Looking forward to and thank you for your input!

Hi everyone,

I would like to ask for some advice regarding my current workout routine and some specific exercise and programming related questions.

Background: I was doing bodyweight training quite rigorously until the end of 2022 (3-4 times a week, reaching L4-5 on OG charts) but after that I took a break because life got in the way. I resumed regular training one year ago by enrolling into an adult gymnastics class which was really amazing. I started gaining back my strength etc. but I made the typical mistake of previously trained semi-sedentary people and got an overuse injury after 2 months of training (forearm splints and tennis elbow on my left arm, it occurred while I was doing dips). This forced me to quit the gymnastics class and go to PT (shock therapy + reverse wrist curls etc.) and ease back into working out really slowly. It took me a few months and quite some patience to take it slow, but during the summer I managed to start doing most of the exercises I was doing back then without any symptoms.

My current routine and "specs":

26M, 183 cm, 78 kg

Full body split (M-W-F):

Immediate goals:

• 40 push-ups
• 20 pull-ups
• 20 dips

(Really) long term goals:

• Full planche
• Full front lever
• 10s free standing handstand
• Ring muscle-up
• SA press to handstand

I try to apply the different methods of progression outlined in the book and try to work towards at least 15 reps/sets before moving on to the next progression (mainly because of my previous injuries).

• Warm up:
  • Light stretching/mobilization with specific focus on the wrists
  • Jumping jacks/light jogging
• Strength stuff:
  • 3x7 Band assisted pull-ups (currently using a 15 kg band) 3 min rest between sets
  • 3x11 Ring push ups (RTO at the top of the movement, currently rings positioned at my knee) - 3 min rest between sets
  • 3x10 Bodyweight rows (body horizontal) - 3 min rest between sets
  • 3x6 Pike push ups - 3 min rest between sets
  • 3x10 jumping squats - 3 min rest between sets
• Supplementary work:
  • Ring support hold (currently around 55 s)
  • RTO support hold (max)
  • Max dead hang
  • Max german hang
  • 3x12 Reverse wrist curls with 2kg
  • 3x10 Wrist rotations with 2 kg
• Stretching:
  • Working on my hamstring, shoulder and back flexibility (sometimes also on splits)

Questions:

• Leg training: I'm kinda guilty of not training enough legs (sometimes when I'm short on time even skipping my only leg exercise) and one of the main reasons behind this is that I live in Denmark and therefore I bike everywhere nearly every single day. Do you think is that enough for legs or I should include some more exercises for them?
• Tennis elbow: 95% of the time I have no symptoms whatsoever in my daily life but randomly there are some aching sensations in my arm which I would consider as a flare ups. Is it normal after such a long time after the actual injury (January 2024) and a lengthy rehab process? I only get it really rarely and last time it happened it was at the end of the cycle (week 5-6, maybe because I changed up things and did chin-ups instead of pull-ups) where joint and muscle fatigue builds up anyway...
• Rehab: I studied the mega article on overcoming tendonitis but I couldn't figure out what is the optimal progression regarding weights (what should be my "max" 2 kg is enough, or should I try to go up to 3 kg for reverse wrist curls) and what is the optimal rest time between sets?
• Sets and reps: Should one always aim for straight sets (as it is kinda outlined in the book) or is it also acceptable to work with "exertion factor" e.g. go to roughly 80% of failure in every set? Is it recommended to add more sets to an exercise when I achieved for instance 3x15 or just simply move to the next progression?
• Ring push-ups: I'm very much in love with this exercise because I can really feel my chest compared to regular push-ups not to mention that it just looks cool and feel "gymnasty". Is it okay to not go back to the floor for e.g. archer push-ups and try to progress just on rings based push-up variants or should I develop the necessary strength with ring push-ups (progressing to the horizontal body variant) and then start doing pseudo planche push-ups on the ground?
• Pike push-ups: I don't know if it's just me but I can't stand this exercise, the movement pattern is weird and never felt weaker doing an exercise to be honest. I also feel that I can't progress with it since forever, stuck in the 6-8 rep range. Could you please provide me any tips regarding progressing with this exercise?
• Dips: Since dips was the exercise I got injured doing I tried to avoid getting back to it so far (that's why I included pike push-ups in my routine for vertical push instead of dips). What do you think when should I start doing dips again and is the regular ring support hold and push-up training enough for preparation?

EDIT: Bonus question: Why does it feel that I'm still not at the level that I was the last time I trained regularly? Of course, this time I'm taking it much slower because of my injury but I thought that it would be much easier to gain back than to build up strength from the ground up because of muscle memory and whatnot. Or being previously trained doesn't have that significant effect on building back strength and muscle mass? (I mean something like it takes X% less time to gain it back compared to the time spent acquiring it)

Keep It Simple (dummy)! Former bodybuilder (5yr) who really fell out of love with the public gym and built my own calisthenics home gym. I have a ton of experience building workouts and splits for hypertrophy.

Been doing bodyweight training for 6mo, trying new things, figuring out a split that works for me and absorbing any information regarding bodyweight training. I achieved a muscle up in about 4 months into training specifically for it (kipping of course - working on improving that)

Ive landed on one push + pull exercise per workout 5x / week. One leg day at a public gym training the compounds (and one day I go skiing). I also do moderate intensity cardio 5x / week.

An example bodyweight workout looks like:

15 min warmup

10 min wall handstand (2-3 min total tut)

20 min 5x10-12 decline pushup (3 min rest)

20 min 5x5-8 chest to bar pullup

10 min cooldown

Exercises vary. Dips, pike pushups, aus pullups, decline rows, scap pullups, ect

Interested in your thoughts on this. My main focus is to keep it simple and within 1-1.25 hours so I stay engaged with training. With this objective would you change one or two things to maximize progress - understanding progress may be slow

During the elevated straddle press, when transitioning from closed legs to straddle, is it fine if my transition isn't really controlled and it's quite fast or am I losing out on strength gains?

Hi. As you can guess I’m working on my back lever. When I was able to do German Hang for 30 sec hold for 6 sets, I moved to Skin the Cat. And I performed the movement very good for one rep for 6 sets in my first try. However, I didn’t push myself to do further. My question is how should add this movement to my routine. Sets, reps, resting time… I’m blind here. And when should I move to next progression? i.e when I am able to do 10 reps consequtively…

Bonus question: I do these movements in tuck position. How should I work to do with straight leg?

Hi everyone, I just started practicing sprinting/football for 4 days straight (1-3 hours per each day) after I haven’t played it for a really long period of time. 

However, on the fifth day when I woke up in the morning, I felt stiff and sore in the side area of the achilles tendon but not on the back. It's not completely sure whether it's on the achilles tendon or near the achilles tendon. But I feel like it's near and not exactly on the achilles tendon.

My question here is: Is this a symptom for achilles tendinitis? I’m unsure whether it’s supposed to hurt on the back of the tendon or on the side of the tendon. 

For more information: 

• I also feel muscle DOMS in the area near the calf muscles. Not sure which muscle it is, probably the Soleus muscle which travels in straight line.
• When I flex my toe upwards, the area that I mentioned being stiff and sore is swollen.
• My inner foot is also really sore from football.
• Touching or rubbing the back of the achilles tendon does not hurt.

Thank you in advance.