The Two Assumptions When You’re Big & Good At Calisthenics :
When you’re a big guy and are good at calisthenics people tend to draw one of two conclusions about you :
•Convicted Felon
•Prior Military
I’ve been told flat out that “when we first met I figured you either just beat felony charges, or maybe were prepping to ship off”.
Big guy. Good at calisthenics.
One, the other, or both is assumed.
I’m neither, which surprises many.
I have so many stories on these notes.
A Junkie Coworker :
I had a junkie coworker who knew calisthenics via the jailhouse.
He spent a few months, a few times, doing pushups and lunges to alleviate jailhouse boredom.
Dude didn’t graduate high school, but to use his time locked up for heroin/meth possession he figured lots of pushups and lots of lunges as “what else is there to do”.
Pushups and lunges is a solid workout anywhere.
He was decently strong for ≤170lbs, and had the highest metabolism I’ve ever come across.
Remember what I’ve said about middleweights, metabolism, and calorie requirements?
He was like that to the nth degree.
Kid was effectively an ever starving space heater.
He’d eat pizzas, fast food, donuts, gas station food, and poptarts all day long, buying food every time the truck stopped, and drinking soda after soda, while always being so warm as to be uncomfortable to sit next to in the work trucks.
How meth didn’t cause him to automatically od I’ll never know.
Crazy Calf Development :
On a similar note I know two people with calves so ridiculous every bodybuilder is jealous, and the two don’t lift.
One grew up poor walking/jogging/running everywhere, no car in the family.
One’s mother had monster calves, while enjoying hiking in the summer, and taking long walks in the winter.
Some of the craziest human ability, genetics, development, etc is not to be found in the gym.
The Retiree :
A retiree doing burpees, bw squats, jumping jacks, db thrusters, and abs next to me asked if I was prior military having seen me do dips, weighted pushups, and probably pullups.
He was giving me props for being big and good at calisthenics, was surprised that I don’t currently lift weights, and himself being prior military assumed I must be too seeing as how I train.
Despite a bum shoulder, he was working around it, and going hard.
I gave him props for going hard at military PT…still.
Still!
A retiree doing military PT to this day. What’s your excuse!
That same day I saw another person who surprised me by doing burpees.
The Obese Girl :
A girl in her early twenties, taller, probably 5’8″, 5’9″, and obese, probably heavier than I, was supersetting burpees and leg raises, then thrusters and leg raises, kettlebell swings somewhere in there as well.
Funny, I’ve told an obese guy “you really want to change it, then 200 burpees in your garage/yard daily til you like where you’re at” before.
He’s done zero burpees since hearing the advice.
This girl was at the gym, with a worse starting point physically than him, and yet did to my estimation 100 burpees, 100 thrusters, about 200 reps of abs, and some kettlebell swinging probably 50 reps before each superset.
She’s putting in mad effort supersetting, she’s hungry, she’ll lose the weight!
Both the retiree and she were going hard at exercises I wouldn’t expect either demographic to be doing much less going hard at.
I love seeing this sort of thing.
Props to both.
Persistence & Tenacity