Niiiiiiice looks great!! Been working so long to get mine, such a big milestone :D

I can only do the negative on these and only half way. I don't use an ab wheel either. Nicely done.

I love those!

I didn’t know that they’re called that until this moment.

ha! I thought they were talking about reducing the weight, but it's really about lowering them ^^

I runner friend of mine told me to just make smaller steps to avoid knee problmes. This was kind of awkward at first for me, but I quickly got used to it.

That's awesome! I'm actually built for running, tall and lean. But I never ran when I was younger, other than running everywhere as a kid. So I now that I am an adult getting into it, I am definitely kinda awkward about it. I wish i had run when I was younger. Especically since I have the perfect body type for it.

Did it ever mess up your knees or anything? That's the number one complain I hear from long-term runners. So I am always careful to make sure I don't do that. I don't have any knee issues, but I don't want them! lol

I used to be a hard runner for about 25 years, always running to music playlists that evolved over time. I would challenge myself based on my vibe for each run, telling myself to go full out for the next chorus, or guitar solo, etc. Further into my playlist, when I knew I'd be well warmed up, and at my peak, I would put 3 or 4 higher intensity songs in a row, followed by a rest song that still kept up a decent pace. It worked great for me.

Years later, after I'd gotten away from running and gained quite a bit of weight, I'd get skeptical looks at cardiac workups when I said I used to run. Then they'd run the tests and say "You should start running again, you're heart is fine." One cardiologist even said that all that hard running when I was young is still paying dividends DECADES later.

The guy who was my running mentor when I was young said "Running is the King of exercise."

When I first started running, this is how I built myself up.

I started small: just 3 minutes a day, 3 days a week. Then moved up to 5 minutes, then 7, and kept slowly adding time from there. It took several months, but eventually I could run 45 minutes at a time, and it actually felt easy.

I’ve thought about doing more, but I’ve also seen a lot of long-term runners end up with bad knees. So I’ve usually kept myself around the 45-minute mark, about 2 or 3 days a week. For me, that feels like a good balance between staying in shape and not overdoing it.

But I do it on a treadmill so safer. Way more boring though, but safer. lol

Yep, for cheap and healthy, def the way to go go. I mix in with weight program, but I'd honestly be fine with just calisthenic only.

There are a whole range of calisthenic exercises that work a lot of muscle groups that are great to do every day and will improve strength significantly, like the McGill Big 3 for core strength. It's also not easy, especially with exercises like pull-ups.

If the goal is muscle hypertrophy perhaps the result is less than ideal, but for maintaining one's health I've found it to be tremendously useful. Plus, it doesn't require anything besides a mat or a pull up bar.

You need to be relatively healthy to do full range calisthenics. For people starting off at a deficit then weight training allows immediate muscle targeting while someone gets back into healthy range

Well yeah. I think pushing the body to that kind of exhaustion makes no sense. But humans always wants to compete. :)

Ive messed up my shoulder too, I think its also the rotator cuff... But its slowly healing. Too slowly, but.. Yeah.

I messed up my rotator cuff doing Tough Mudder last year. I didn't want surgery, so I have been doing bodyweight stuff and slowly building up to weights. I get a free gym membership to the gym down my street, and last night was first full workout using light weights. So far, so good.

Just like you say, I think as long as you get tired, thats what matters. You can do a few heavy lifts or you can do many lighter lifts, and muscles will grow in both cases. Just perhaps different types of muscles.

I was doing body weight training at home for years and I got nice muscles just from doing that. No weights at all.

I didn't find it super clear in the article, but I have read in other places, that it's the lowering the weight down in any movement that makes it work. So it doesn't have to be super heavy, just come down slow and fatigue the muscles.

So I guess if you use lighter weight, it can go up faster. But yeah, it's not clear on how any of this saves time

To be honest, I think the real takeaway is that ANYTHING you do works as long as it's consistent. I've seen multiple studies that show that different rep ranges, heavy vs light, etc all show good results if ya just keep doing it and make it a habit.

I personally think the heavy stuff is for younger joints, lighter stuff is for older joints. I used to be a huge advocate of heavy, but I have seen too any older lifters who went heavy for too long, walking around in constant pain. The lighter weights guys seem to avoid that.

as someone who does squats and deadlifts regularly, the thought of only doing half that motion is kinda hilarious. tbf, they give examples of exercises where you could focus on the more effective half but I don't see any of that actually delivering on the promise of cutting your workout time in half.

In fictional "in universe" dollars. lol

I think it's awesome that we can do this in our home for almost free.

consider going to a sauna everyday.

Oh good idea! I never thought of that

If you're too lazy to do cardio, consider going to a sauna everyday. It provides some of the cardiovascular benefits of cardiovascular exercise. It dilates the vasculature, and causes the heart to be quickly. To dissipate heat. It is literally cardio

Yep, good points. I'm naturally lean, so for me personally, I have always been more into the weights, since that gives mr best results. I def need to get more cardio in though. I keep saying I'll do more cardio, but....lol

Calisthenics are functional body workouts using bodyweight. They are the core of health.

Weights just to build muscle isn't complete by itself. So if you're super active already, and you have great functional mobility, weights are a good adjunct.

However, if you're like most people, and you sit in an office all day, and you barely get to move your body, then calisthenics are going to have the most impact and benefit

Yeah, straps or gloves are not really what I'm looking for indeed.

I got one of these grip spring fidget thing, they are good! I'm doing normal pinch reps with these but also wrist curls when closed (idk how that movement is called exactly...). I think that's an arm wrestling thing that makes for a harder exercise!

I know that straps exist for training arm movements where the grip often fails before the muscle being targeted reaches failure, but that sounds like not what you're aiming for

I briefly worked at a manufactory where I used unpowered, fully mechanical remote manipulator arms with squeeze grips to control the fingers. I could barely use them at first. My mom gave me a simple standard grip trainer, and after about 2 weeks of using it daily (basically using it as a fidget toy) I had significantly improved with the mechanical arms.

So, definitely don't underestimate the humble grip trainer!

This kinda goes into the use it or lose it philosophy. Exercise your full range of motion both for muscles but neurology benefits. The laudable mind body connection