r/overcominggravity

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

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

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

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

How do I find my way into this book?

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

Has anyone healed golfers elbow quickly and how?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks

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

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

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

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

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

Hello everyone.

This will be long read but please bear with me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hello all!

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

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

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

I have the following questions regarding the paths to take :

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

Thanks for your help!