Throughout high school, I started each morning by going down to the basement to lift weights for an hour. But this routine fell apart as my schedule became more hectic during and after college, and eventually I stopped exercising altogether. Six years later, after losing all my strength and muscle mass, I set out to recover it.

While it wasn't feasible to recreate the old environment of a basement gym, I identified the key factors that led to success in that environment, and realized that they could be accomplished in a bedroom with gymnastic rings hanging from a pull-up bar.

Initially I focused on simply getting back into shape: getting ripped and then building mass.

Then I started taking things more seriously, trying to maximize performance on various calisthenics. I've started posting on YouTube to hold myself accountable for making progress. It really helps to see video evidence of tiny improvements compounding into massive long-term gains.

While my main goal is just to have fun staying fit, I do want to maintain a decent physique and see how far I can go with exercises that feel like they're in my natural wheelhouse.

Daily morning workouts alternating between the following:

Rings Workout (45m):

1. [10m, filmed, 2 sets] tuck planche on rings, 4m rest
2. [10m, filmed, 2 sets] iron cross (parallel grip, loose fingers, lowered shoulders, tight chest), 4m rest
3. [10m, filmed] 4m rest, strict back lever
4. [10m, 2 supersets] tuck front lever to L-sit chinup, 50lb banded wide dips, 4m rest
5. [5m] shoulder/elbow rotations

Non-Rings Workout (45m):

1. [15m, 2 supersets immediately after waking up] handstand pushups, shoulder-width pullups, 1m rest, 100lb-weighted pushups, 5m rest
2. breakfast, etc.
3. [15m, filmed, 2 supersets] straight-arm elbow lever, 3m rest, tuck planche on floor, 3m rest
4. [5m, 2 sets] one-arm half-chinups, one set each arm
5. [10m] legs/cardio (shrimp squats, exercise bike, run, whatever)