Today I write what I've been working on for the last two years, which marks when I really got into working out. In the beginning, for the first months, I mostly used machines, tried som kettlebells and some barbells, for 2-3 times a week. I also did spinning every week. I tried working out due to back problems and general pain in my body. Then I moved to another city (beginning of 2013) and started working out at home. I read about convict conditioning, intervals, crossfit, functional training, and street workout. I had some back problems and so I did some physical therapy, which I'm not sure really helped - my back still gets tired really fast and hinders me in daily life. I had wrist problems, which I don't have anymore, even though I pushed through the pain and continued doing what I did. I still have shoulder problems though, perhaps because I have really tight shoulders. So I try to take it easy with the shoulders. At the start of 2013 I also switched to barefoot training, or firefingers. It was quite nice, but I didn't do any plyometrics due to weak knees, neck and wrists, which all hurt. I tried running but it didn't quite work, especially with the fivefingers. After a while I got more comfortable with jumping and such though, if I had control. That is still the case when it comes to my knees - when using skipping ropes or something else which is quite fast, my knees start aching immediately. I fixed my neck though - it doesn't hurt when running or jumping anymore.
During the first half of 2013 I did some working out outside, as well as in my room. I used quite a lot of my gym ball in the beginning - I really loved the gym ball for rollouts, doing side planks, scorpion variants, pushups, lunges, etc. I barely use it anymore. During the spring of 2013 I accumulated a lot of workout equipment, too. Dumbells and such, which I used. Kettlebells. A Slam Ball. A Rebounder. Some cables. Much of this I haven't really used, some I've saved for working out with others when it's warm, some I've saved for the time when I want to invest time for really learning it (rings), and some of the stuff I'll probably not be using very much, because there always seems to be something more worthwhile working on, if I ever want to get strong and perform some of the moves I want to perform. The gymballs are that sort of thing.
After the summer of 2013 I got a new gym card in my new city, and started working on strength with barbells and such. I started running on the treadmill, for the first time ever. I got confident that I needed to do more plyometrics in order for my knees to adapt. It went quite well, until I got an injury which lasted for a couple of months. I dropped the fivefingers and figured that instead of using the vibrams for some things (deadlifts) and using other shoes for other stuff (running), I'll just use shoes for everything so that my body gets used to the same feeling across different workouts.
At the start of 2014 I tried crossfit for a month at an affiliate. This too got me thinking. I went back to the gym and stopped using all of the machines, basically, except for the rower and the treadmill. Not even leg presses for me anymore - just squats. I use some bands and such though. And probably will eventually do some assistance work with machines because professional strength athletes seem to be doing it, but I'll probably not be doing many hip adductors anymore but instead working on my straddles, mobility, wide L-sits, and such.
Weightwise I went from 51-56kg at the beginning of 2013 without thinking about it, when I started working out 5-6 times/week without the gym card. 5-6 times/week is where I've been at for the whole year. Then I bulked up to 59kg, and then bulked down to 53 over the summer. Then I stopped the calorie deficit and went up much faster than theoretically possible, to 59kg again. And this on like 2000-2500kcal/day iirc.
And now, a breakdown of my progress in specific exercises which I've been doing a lot.
DEADLIFT
Started seriously doing it september 2013, because I was afraid of it and my back breaking, me shitting out my intestines, etc. Probably the exercise which I've gotten the best at, for some reason. I don't know how much my max was in the beginning because I didn't do any maxes, but like 8x3 with 90kg. Today I do less reps generally, with my max being 130kg. Today I also do sumo deadlifts for variation. When I do many reps I do them quick, crossfit style, and generally don't do negatives, which I did in the beginning, because I was schooled in the Convict Conditioning-think, which means an even cadence, slow reps, and waiting at the top/beginning for a second.
Generally I've done deadlifts after resting days, seeing how they are quite taxing, and because I love them so much. So I've been doing them at least once a week heavy, and now when I do olympic lifts I guess they appear more, but not very heavy.
BRIDGES
Feels like I haven't gotten anywhere here. Maybe it's due to my tight shoulders? I've done bridges at least once a week for reps or training with the wall or whatever, and then I've been doing some bridging when working out my neck (also once a week), and I've been using bridges in various forms in interval training (for example in the crab walk) and as stretching like almost every day. Yet I can still barely walk, don't feel I can bend more easily for the bridge, and still feel very unstable with it. Can barely get down into it from standing, and it looks like hell.
FLAG
Learned the clutch flag quite easily. Tried the human flag almost every day for some time this fall, but my shoulders hurt from it. Switched to doing some lighter stuff, just the stretch, or side planks. Yet I can barely hold side planks for more time than I could when I started working out 2 years ago. Weird.
HANDSTAND
Did mostly handstands against the wall while standing on my head, and quite quickly managed to pull off 5 of them on some days, and sets of 3x3 on most days. I've continued with this but haven't gotten my reps up. Then I switched to doing freestanding handstands against the wall, but this too feels like it doesn't go anywhere, and it takes so much strength for me to do it that I cannot really do it for reps or whatever, but just do it most of my training days for a couple of tries. Tight shoulders? :P I've no idea.
NECK
Stands of various kinds, mixing it up with side work and planks. Feels nice, but still can't do the things I've set out to do really. Not sure if I'm really gaining anything from the workouts, but as with everything else I'm not sure what I should change, seeing how when I worked out 3 times a week (more rest days) in the beginning I didn't really get much stronger either, which is even weirder considering I were supposed to have got my newbie gains. Not that I do any progressive overload on this exercise, as with many others, too, so that might explain it, but I don't know.
BENCH PRESS
Haven't been doing bench presses much, and did pushups and dips and dumbell presses instead. Yet I did 60kg a year ago, and when I started doing them more seriously after September, I could still only do 60kg. Shouldn't I have become stronger even if I didn't do bench presses specifically? I mean come on, is there no carry-over from pushups? Well, I haven't gotten stronger there either, but they, I'm thinking I should have. :P
DIP
Started trying plyometrics here, but have mostly done weighted ones. Haven't really maxed out on these, only went for 30kg for three reps, and since I haven't felt I could get any more reps with that weight I've instead been trying for more reps with lesser weight. At a standstill here, it feels like.
PUSHUP
Been trying out different variations, and working on the one-armed one for a long time. Was able to pull off 25-30 pushups before with good form, but haven't been able to do so for quite some time now. Perhaps because I've focused more on strength, yet I cannot do more reps with the one-armed one either, even if I train the pushup quite a lot.
ROWING
Tried 500m for the first time in the summer at crossfit gripen that attended at malmö festival, and got 2:15 I think. I quickly got down to 1:51 when I got my gym card, and did some for 2km and other distances, and usually warmed up with a combination of the treadmill and the concept 2 machine, yet I don't beat my scores anymore. Not sure I've figured out the correct technique either, as I'm always struggling. When I do how other people do, how one should do according to instruction videos, I barely get anything done. When I do how I do, I get better times, yet almost fall off/backward the machine. Very weird.
HANG
I thought I'd get better grip from hanging in bars for some time. Then I realized that when the hell am I supposed to do that, it feels like I'm slipping no matter what I do anyway - cleans, kettlebell swings, pullups, toes 2 bars, etc. If I combine two of those in one workout, then oh my god. I keep stretching my wrists between exercises because they get so strained from doing that type of training.
MUSCLE UP
Yeah... my shoulder hurts when I do it. I tried it a couple of times during the summer, and then when I started going to a gym I even managed to get one or two clean muscle ups without any pain or anything. Most of the times when I try it's not very clean and it hurts. Yet I try sometimes, but as soon as I do something else that day I can say goodbye to trying because it's so taxing on my grip, amongst other things. So then I can only train it first thing in the day, and sometimes I do, but then my shoulder hurts and I give up. So I've been training it assisted, with resistance bands, but I just don't seem to get any better...
PULLUP
Another mystery to me, seeing how I was able to do 15 of these when I was 59kg a year ago and just started working on these, and once even got up to 20, and nowadays I can only do 10, and that's if I don't pull my shoulders back and use more of my arms. If I do them "correctly" (shoulders retracted), which I've been doing for half a year now, my reps go down down down. Now I can't do as many as I used to be able even when I use my arms more, even though I've been doing pullups every week and more the whole year.
SQUAT
First couple of times was really shaky. I did 5-6reps with 70kg and it felt scary. I don't feel as scared anymore, even if I only can do a couple of more reps with that weight now. I have a hard time keeping my back vertical, so maybe that's why I haven't gained much in this exercise, although it's been a very big focus since September for me. I've started some sumo squats too which seem to fit me better because I can be more horizontal with my back, so there I can do some more reps, and for a single I did 102.5kg yesterday.
SQUAT PISTOL
Still cannot do a pistol with the left leg, unweighted, although I've trained for it several times a week for over a year now. It's the same with close squats - although the close squats I've managed to do at some occasions for like 1 rep, and then not being able to do them for weeks again. Tight calves? Not sure. I've been working all angles here, just as with the squats, with myofascial release, stretching, etc, after every workout. I've also been trying to do splits after every workout and sometimes when not working out, but here too I just cannot get more mobility going. Anyway, the pistols aren't going much forward either, as I could do 30kg with the right leg during the summer, and 25kg with the left leg I think, and can barely do that anymore, even if I train with weights every week. Sure I got injured in my right knee, so that would explain it, but still, it seems weird that I don't do any progress here.
SPRINT
Started doing some of that, mainly for 2km/1km on the treadmill since September or something, and seemed to reach my max in 8:30 after I rested out after my injury. Since then I haven't been able to duplicate it, getting so tired that I have to slow down.
LEG RAISE
Was able to do 6-8 with an even cadence a year ago, and that's basically where I'm at, still. Have do fast ones, going all the way, with weights, yet I seem to be going around in a circle. Hell, maybe that's just my destiny, my own personal hell, where everything stays the same. But hell, I've become more confident with moving weights around in general this last year and my wrists and neck and knees have gotten better, so that's always something. My body aches less to, but that I can partly attribute to me not overstraining myself in day-to-day life as much as when I actually studied.
