Bez Tytułu - Issue #232
This issue is different…
No links this week. I wrote something instead.
I'll be doing this occasionally, when something's worth putting down properly rather than just linking to.
Let me know what you think.
And if it hits, share it with someone who'd get it.
🎧 Listen & Go
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My 2 years journey with calisthenics and what it did for me
Reading Time: 4 minutes
Yeah, the title is clickbait and no, it’s not another life-changing piece.
It’s about hardship, how the beginnings suck and why the proper environment makes or breaks your consistency and progress.
Where I Started
I’m 33 at the time, working from home full time. My life was effectively a 16-hour daily sentence fused to a computer chair. My “daily exercise” was a 200-meter shuffle to a nearby convenience store to stock up on supplies: smokes and sugary drinks.
I had a couple of flirts with the gym before, but the idea of moving steel in vertical or horizontal motions, a number of times with a grin on my face till the muscles give up, never stuck with me for longer than a couple of months. It’s not consistency I lacked, it was the lack of joy and fulfillment.
The Humiliation
The year is 2023, September. A buddy of mine was on his health redemption arc at the time. He nagged me into my first calisthenics training.
And it was brutal. I got to learn that I can’t do push-ups, pull-ups, well, any exercise properly. Thank you to the failed PE curriculum, I guess.
I left the place physically and mentally wrecked and defeated.
People say don’t compare your day 1 to someone’s day 100. It’s hard not to, when you walk in and see people defying the laws of gravity. Guys and girls doing planches, handstands, muscle-ups or just simply 15 pull-ups without breaking a sweat. That crushed whatever self-worth I had at the time.
I still remember the way home, whining to my buddy that this is psychotic and inhuman.
What Kept Me Going
Three things stopped me from quitting.
Someone who keeps you honest.
My buddy rooted for me. That, and the fact my mom didn’t raise a quitter, pushed me to keep showing up. Head down, trying to keep up with the grind.
The social aspect.
Everyone was going through the same ass-kicking as I did. I just didn’t realize that at first. People were encouraging others to push and celebrating when someone hit a milestone or overcame a limitation. A small society started forming. Same faces at every training. You learn their names, what they do outside the training room. They become your training buddies, your technique coaches. Some come just to chat and fool around, which is also fine. That small group is another reason you keep showing up.
The progress.
I know I’m not Columbus discovering America by saying this. But slowly, with each week, I started noticing how I’m doing better at trainings and how much my physique was changing. Most of all, however, it’s the mental change that counts the most. More confidence. Feeling guilty whenever I skip a training instead of dreading the next one. Being a calmer person, not stuck inside my head with all the “what if” scenarios, which by the way 99% of them will never happen. Too tired after trainings to worry about such stuff.
The Actual Lessons
The above are enablers. The system that makes consistency possible. But the real takeaways cut deeper.
Doing hard things is what your mind needs.
I still whine when the trainer comes up with more creative ways to “torture” us, yet I keep doing it. My mind is free of worries afterwards, or at least the problems I had going in don’t seem that bad right after. When you practice something for a year with marginal improvements (I swear I will do a planche without resistance bands one day), it teaches you about patience. Especially in the world of instant gratification, you learn again to appreciate and celebrate small things. I don’t think there’s a better sport for that.
You don’t have to prove anything to anybody other than yourself.
There are people at my gym who could easily be my kids, doing crazy stuff, or who have been training for 10+ years. If I focused on that, I’d have failed after 2 to 3 trainings. I know I won’t win 1st place in a national contest, and that isn’t even my goal. The only person I need to prove anything to is myself.
Treat your body like a machine.
Do regular checkups (doctors). Schedule regular maintenance, you’re not the Terminator anymore (physiotherapy). Make sure it runs on good oil (supplements, and at least try eating healthier). The older we get, the harder the recovery is. Look out for your body the way you look out for your car. Else you risk falling apart like confetti when you hit retirement.
So That’s My Story
I still struggle on a daily basis.
I do have addictions.
I do procrastinate.
I do have days I don’t really want to go and I stay home.
I’m not perfect and I’m not going to portray myself as someone who is.
But I did improve a lot from the point where I started. Even when relapses happen, I get back on track. That’s what 2 years of grind and a support system built around it gives you.
If you are in the same space as I was 2 years ago, I highly recommend this kind of activity. I bet with a small effort you’d find a local group of people training. If not calisthenics then something else, but make sure it’s in a group setting and it is bloody hard. It will help your body. More importantly, it will help your mind. And building that mental resilience is the most important thing you can do for yourself in today’s crazy world.