u/Malk25

Hey all. After 9 years living in Taiwan teaching English I’m moving back to the city close to my hometown. Main reason is my Taiwanese American partner will be doing an internship.

Certainly a lot to be anxious about, namely much higher cost of living, particular in the city we’re moving to. I don’t have a ton of savings but also don’t have much debt either. My partner is in a bit better financial situation and has somewhat of a financial safety net from parents. My parents are also in the area as well as my sibling and lots of friends, so decent support structure in place.

My degree is in business administration, but no real work experience related to that. I have cultivated fairly decent Mandarin Chinese abilities, though not native level.

Anyways, just looking for any general advice on career changes, or things to be prepared for when making a transition.

Thanks

While a major draw of calisthenics is that no specific equipment is required for movements like push ups and body squats, certain movements can be enhanced by using the right equipment. The right implements can make certain bodyweight movements as stimulative as a free weight or machine movement, allowing us to target different angles and strength curves. They can also enhance enjoyment and movement selection and amplify adherence!

The following are some of my favorite examples sorted by equipment

Rings:

Ring dips-the added intensity the rings due to instability, constant tension on chest, and joint friendly nature make these really solid. Not to mention you don’t need a dedicated dip station nor the need to add weight thanks to their inherent challenge.

Ring flys- ring flys are so great for your chest. The strength curve is ideal for hypertrophy being hardest at the bottom stretch, but the nature of the rings allows for tension to be maintained at the peak contraction. For added intensity, spreading the rings further apart on their anchor point to enhance this sensation. Easy to adjust intensity with body angle as well.

Wide ring pull ups- compared to a wide grip bar pull up, even if it has angled handles at the sides, it still doesn’t compare to the comfort of a similar movement performed on rings. The bottom stretch and diagonal direction of force make it feel like your body is being split in two, in a good way.

Medium height parallettes:

Parallette decline push ups-Medium height parallettes are one of the best accessories to add to your arsenal. Friendly on wrist, stable, while offering range of motion similar to dumbbells or a machine. With decline push ups, they solve the problem of having to arch your back or cut off range of motion on standard decline push up on floor.

Parallette pike push up- Once you’ve tried pike push ups on parallettes, regular floor variations won’t hit the same. Better wrist angle, deeper ROM, higher intensity. Easy to progress by degree of feet elevation.

Suspension Trainer:

Suspension trainer curls- I love ring curls too, but having to maintain a semi false grip can be distracting and make it harder to grind out those last few reps. The rotating handles of a TRX or similar device eliminates that, leaving you with a really smooth movement that gives you a great pump and lots of tension at the peak contraction.

Suspension trainer face pull- again, rings work great for these two, but the added element of handle rotation allows for more external rotation in the shoulder, and an overall more fluid movement.

Misc:

Monkey bar rows- this is an interesting way to do feet elevated rows. If you’re lucky you can find ones with wide bars and ladder rungs on each side allowing you to modify grip width and degree of feet elevation.

GHD: this one is kind of cheating since it can really only be found in a gym, but this is such a great tool for making the Nordic curl accessible. Similar resistance profile that maximizes tension in stretched position, while modifying intensity to allow higher rep ranges to be performed.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and I would love for everyone to share some of their favorites.

Also just to nip this in the bud, no, I did not use AI for a single word outside spell check and auto correct if that counts I guess. I dislike AI just as much as the next person, so I hate accusations of being such. Some folks just like to type up long winded write ups about stuff they nerd out to!

For several reasons, the average person tends to believe that core exercises are the foundation of a strong and fit body. Obviously there is the visual appeal of chiseled abs. There’s also the implementations of sit ups and crunches in fitness tests used in schools. There’s also no shortage of YouTube and short form social media content displaying complex ab circuits marketing them as a quick route to getting in shape. This leads some to place a premium on these movements at to expense of others which can provide much more benefit. Not to mention that a calisthenics routine based on foundational compound movements will provide a decent amount of core stimulus due to their stabilization requirements.

This is not to say core movements should be neglected or ignored. There’s a reason they are included in the recommended routine, though sequenced later and not prioritized in the same way as the main compound movements. There’s also confusion of where to place core movements, as they do not fall distinctly into upper or lower body movement patterns. Certain athletic endeavors do require a high degree of rotational strength, a movement pattern not trained in stand ab flexion or anti extension movements.

How do you like to incorporate core movements into your routine? What functions do you feel are beneficial to train? Which movements do you find overrated or unnecessary?

Tons of folks come here posting a workout prompted by ChatGPT or similar AI service asking for feedback. Almost every single one of these suffers from a lack of understanding regarding exercise sequence and relative intensity.

My guess is that AI takes a standard gym workout, say:
bench press
incline bench
overhead press
triceps isolation
Re
Then it swaps them for bodyweight exercises. You end up with something that looks like

push ups
decline push ups
pike push ups
dips

The fatal flaw with this bodyweight routine is poor movement sequencing. A good routine prioritizes higher intensity movements early in the sequence when you’re freshest, then gradually descends to lower intensity movements. This happens because the AI fails to account for the fixed load of bodyweight movements. With weights you can train movement patterns with scaled intensity by adjusting load. With calisthenics, certain movement patterns are going to be inherently more intense than others without the assistance of bands or switching to unilateral variations.

As of right now, AI is not advanced enough to give advice on something that requires human experience to understand. If you are just starting out, watch a YouTube video made by a human, ask a friend, or better yet check out the Recommended routine in the sidebar.

I’m a big fan of Japanese Style Gender Segregated Onsens, and fortunately there are some solid ones in Taiwan! My favorites are open air, have a variety of tubs, a cold tub, and either a sauna or steam room.

The best one I’ve been to is the Forest Baths in Jiaoxi, super cool atmosphere and an amazing selection of temperatures to rotate between.

There are a few cool ones in Beitou up in the hills like Emperor and Kawayu, but my only knock on those are they are older and not quite as clean as I would prefer, but still worth a visit.

Let me know if there are any others like this worth visiting!