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 continue building a physique and see how far I can go with exercises that feel like they're in my natural wheelhouse.

Daily morning workouts. Whenever a particular muscle group feels worn down, I skip the exercises that tax the worn-out group and inflate the number of sets of the remaining exercises proportionally (sometimes pulling from both rings and floor workouts if there are few exercises available). Each exercise is taken to failure.

1. [1 set, filmed] planche on floor or iron cross on rings (rotate daily)
2. [1 set, filmed] maltese or planche or back lever on rings (rotate daily)
3. [3 supersets] forward-leaning slow dips & deadhang slow pullups
4. [2 supersets] handstand pushups (against wall) & pistol squats