I’ve been dissatisfied with my routine for a while now. For the last 3 weeks, I upped my game to working out 6 days a week – and honestly I’ve never enjoyed working out more. I’ve also adjusted my calorie intake to monitor macros better. Right now I’m eating 200 gr Protein, 100gr carbs, and letting fat fall where it may.

Tipped off by Steve Kamb who runs Nerd Fitness, I looked into who HE uses as a trainer – a guy named Anthony Mychal. I like alot of his philosophy on working out. And he successfully sold me on alot of concepts I was already on the fence about. I’m nervous though today as I type – because this is the very first workout I’ve done without doing back squats. I worked hard in the gym. I am slightly sore and I felt my muscles burn. I got sweaty to Katy Perry and I learned alot about my body.

Ant is into gymnastic moves and “Tricking” which is a showy sport. He blends weightlifting and body weight work in his base routine, in a way where they support each other.

This new routine spends one day a week focusing on a major lift. and then a ton of support work. Today was deadlift day.

I’ve never been good at dead lifts. I’ve bene lifting now for coming up on 2 years, and I’ve still never deadlifted more than my body weight. When my back squat out paced my deadlift I knew something was wrong.

Ant explained the dead lift very well – and gave me a hint I will never for get. Don’t be afraid of bruising your shins. You will grow callouses to this. So day one I got 150 lbs up 5 times. And it didn’t hurt my back!. I treat the deadlift like 2 seperate movements and suddenly BOOM I’m in the air with a buck fitty. I should be able to build that up hopefully now that I have a semblance of what I’m doing.

I also did my first set of front squats today. 3×6 at 35lbs. I learned fast that the bar in the front really challenges your lower back to stay upright. I couldn’t believe a weight that light was almost tipping me, when I just did a 215 back squat at 5×5 on Friday.

My body fat and my weight are still slowly going down. This is helping alot as I work towards my first goal gymnastically – the top position on the rings. I knocked out 8 chin ups supersetted between deadlifts (I can actually complete 1! That all by itself is awe inspiring to me)  I knocked out 50 pushups supersetted between front squats. (the last 10 with raised feet – and I guess all sets going forward. I’ve kinda outgrown the regular pushup)

On a complete aside  I used a cinder block to do donkey calf raises with just my body weight. I’ve never worked my calves directly. They have a strange tingle. I’ll probably ride out the week with them at body weight, then look at adding weight.

Finally I made the decision that if I eve want to get into the top hold I need to do some more body weight training. I did four ab exercises. Honest to god – I never thought I would work my abs, but that seems to be only part of the equation. Attempting to do lying leg raises and toe touches I discovered just how bad my mobility truly is. I also discovered just how week my back and arms are. I tried 4 different heights to get into a pike and straddle position. Yeah, I never fully made it into either but I stretched my whole body out trying and my triceps are still feeling it as I type this.

Do I think it was a good hour and a half in the gym? Yes. Do I think this type of workout will get me the results I want? The jury is still out. What I DO think though is that this type of whole body workout, centered on body weight, will give me toold and flexibility to start building up momentum. If I can’t do most basic gymnastic movements, I doubt I will ever get to the point where I can do rings, let alone have the physique I want. These types of exercises are challenging me in new ways, and engaging my mind. I’m also getting to keep the bulk of my weight lifting program as a barbell program as I do it.

10-15 lbs to go I hope.