Hello everyone, my name is Toby Jones. I am 20 years old and currently a sophomore in college. I have been training for 4 years total and training specifically in calisthenics for the last 2 years.
Growing up I was always rather scrawny. This eventually grew to have quite the effect on me. All the men in my family are big. My father is 6’4, my grandfather is 6’6, and my uncle is 6’5. Now while none of them are particularly muscular, they are all large framed and carry a presence in a room. I topped out at 6 feet flat, and at a not especially lean 160-ish pounds, In a room with all the men, I looked like a child. A scrawny gangly child. This wasn’t helped by the fact that my best friend is naturally pretty ripped. The guy won the genetic lottery when it comes to body-fat percentage. While not overly large, every once of muscle he has shown itself prominently. As you can see in this hated (by me) picture.
It just so happened, that year was the first year the high school basketball team I was apart of was implementing a weight training program. I decided this would be my catalyst for change. In a way it was, just not in the way I expected.
I gave my best to the weightlifting program, but despite my efforts, I saw very little in the way of results. I got somewhat stronger but looked mostly the same. Even after I stopped playing basketball after my junior year, I doggedly kept training, hoping I would figure out what it would take for me to break through. At the end of that school year, I realized that I would lose access to a gym. Fearing the loss of what little progress I had made, I began researching methods about training at home or with little equipment. This naturally led me to calisthenics. The idea of it intrigued me, and from my research it looked like the most promising avenue to follow.
So, with that determination, I began my calisthenics training career. For a while I was simply performing the super basic circuit routines you can find online for free. Even despite that though, I almost immediately began seeing improvement. In strength, endurance, physique, and even coordination. This sudden jump in my physicality and athletism gave me a sense of excitement about training again that had been lost for some time. I continued to research, learn, and improve over the next year and a half. My training was very erratic, in that, I switched routines and training methods often. This was largely due to the fact I couldn’t make up my mind what was best and was lost in a sea of information. This kind of unfocused training isn?t ideal for progress, however, what I did do correctly was to stay steadfastly consistent. I always kept to working out 5 days a week, which allowed me to build a certain base fitness level with my pushups and pull-ups.