BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Hi and welcome! I don't know how you found me, but thanks for reading!

I want to chronicle my exercise and fitness journey and progress, for my own record and for anyone else to learn from. And if others join the journey and have something to share, I hope you'll post a comment.

I'm 46 years old, 6' 4” tall, and weigh 185 pounds. In my younger days, I was never over 195 when in great shape. A couple of years ago, I discovered I had crept up to 225 in poor shape and decided, for the wife's sake, to make a change. I made some simple diet changes and lost 40 pounds, without any kind of exercise. (That's right, no exercise. I'll write about that another time.)

Now I was thin but still in poor shape. In my younger days, I used to hit the gym – weights, machines, etc. This time, I wanted something simple, inexpensive, and effective that I could do at home. The obvious answer – bodyweight exercises.

I did a lot of Internet searching and reading. There's a tremendous amount of info out there, if you invest the time. I'm going share the best with you, so you can save some of your time.

First off, bodyweight exercises have been around as long as bodyweight has, so in a sense, it's not “rocket science.” But on the other hand, just because you know some exercises doesn't mean you know how to use them effectively to gain muscle strength and/or size, or how to increase your conditioning. There are a lot of variables involved – you've probably heard of them, set, reps, progression, training to failure (or not), density, volume, zillions more. Most of this has been perfected to a science (even if there are conflicting schools of thought) in the weightlifting arena – BUT NOT WITH BODYWEIGHT EXERCISE! That made the search longer and harder. Sure I can do push-ups, but how many, how often, how hard, what kind, etc?

Anyway, long story short, there are a few folks out there who really make the bodyweight exercise stuff clear and lay out a USABLE plan for making progress in strength, size, and conditioning.

Since the start of my journey, I've mostly used programs written by Craig Ballantyne called Turbulence Training. Starting from sedentary, he's got exercise programs for every fitness level, very easy to use and stick to, and he's got more online daily resources of information and encouragement than ANYBODY else.

But for a focused strength building program, I've currently settled on Convict Conditioning. It's a book written by an ex-con about how to get strong in prison using bodyweight exercises. It is very thorough and well-constructed, showing valid bodyweight progressions from simple beginner exercises through the more advanced ones, giving exact details of exercises, sets, reps, etc. --and room to wiggle, if things are too hard. (And now there's a sequel of sorts, Convict Conditioing 2.)

Future posts (coming soon) will detail my experience with Convict Conditioning – using this bodyweight exercise system to gain strength and muscle. It's a fantastic system, and I highly recommend that you CLICK HERE and get yourself a copy, so you can follow along. I've got some good tips and advice from what I've learned to make your bodyweight exercise fitness journey more productive . . . coming soon!