When I got into doing body weight exercise several years ago it was inspired from watching others doing incredible things on the bars via endless YouTube videos. Despite being right around 40 years old at the time I decided I wanted to pursue this as well despite the bar scene being dominated by people that are considerably younger than myself.
I have gotten many things from my work on the bars, an improved physique, a better outlook and a sense of pride in my accomplishments are just a few. Well things have started to come full circle.
If you are reading this, you more than likely have seen some of my numerous videos that detail my journey in improving at body weight movements. My videos are kind of unique as I do a lot more talking in them than what you typically see in the genre. I try to express what is going through my head when it comes to some of my triumphs and struggles on the bar. It seems like some people actually kind of like that.
Despite a skill set that is definitely not all that impressive I have become relatively well known in the bar community because of my weird videos and my participation running contests in the Bar-barian forums. It’s sort of strange.
Well anyway I mentioned about coming full circle. One of the things that I really like is when somebody gets little nuggets from my videos and uses it as part of their journey to accomplish a new feat or skill. I just had that happen again today.
Chris is a guy very much like me (49), an older guy that fell in love with body weight work and more specifically, focused on pulling off a muscle up, something I targeted for a couple years. (he has been trying for 8 months) He has commented on a bunch of my videos and communicated with me several times about them, looking for advice on getting his first muscle up at just under the half century mark of years on the planet.
Well yesterday he finally pulled it off, it was great. After he triumphantly got off the bar with the sounds of his family cheering him on he took some time to outline his experience, thanking several people along the way, including me. I was touched and thought that was awesome.
My experience with the bar community has been nothing but a bright shining light in my life that often finds itself shadowed by other dark aspects of my personality. Being able to help motivate others to push themselves to achieve new personal bests is a great thing and only motivates me to keep going. We all feed off each others accomplishments, it is a very healthy and positive cycle.
Seeing Chris get his first muscle up has now put a fire in my belly to go out and get better at my own muscle ups, it’s awesome how it works.
Way to go Chris.
Dufisthenics 
Wow Shawn-Thanks so much-I’m really glad I found this blog-As I said, you really got me started-I wanted to build a pullup/dip bar in my backyard, so I did a search, and your plans were at the top-Plus you had pics-I’m not a mechanical guy like you so I need visuals-then I saw you were 43 and training to do a muscle up-I just wanted a pullup/dip bar, nothing extreme to actually do on them. Muscle ups were seemingly impossible to me-But watching your progress, and especially the commentary to your videos lit the fire in my belly to make it a goal. And I appreciate all your input over the last 8 months. Funny thing is after I got it yesterday, my wife who did the taping, who also used to be a gymnast, said to me “I never thought you’d get over that bar even though you tried to every day. I’m really proud of you, and this is a great lesson for our boys.” So in a sense your blog post here comes full circle for me as well. And for that I am deeply touched. Thanks Shawn! Chris
I am glad you found my corner of the world as well Chris. It’s a win all the way around for everyone involved. It’s only the beginning!
This is awesome guys. Chris I like what your wife said about it being a great lesson for your boys. Impossible is nothing.
Dan-it really has been awesome! Shawn didn’t direct me to his blog-I think I found it on Bar-Community or FB, but when I read it it really came full circle for me as it did for Shawn. The comments have all been positive. No DISLIKES (yet)-lol. I went back and posted to all the guys in my credits for inspiration, and everyone has been congratulatory-even got a few subscribes, asking for more videos. So now I can’t rest on my one laurel. I have to improve, and I will. And Duf even said, he will now focus more on his MU’s. So we all help motivate each other, and that’s a great feeling to have. For 8 months every night I was out on those damn pullup bars saying this is what I have to do to get over that bar.
So finding Shawn to get info on building the pullup bars, led me to you, which started this bodyweight journey. And we know there are a lot of people out there who want to do more, they just don’t know where to start, and if older guys like us can do some of these things, then that gives them a motivation to make a goal, and pursue it. I don’t know if 8 months for a MU is longer than some, but it is doable. But it is kind of like paying it forward, or another way of thinking about it is “sending the elevator back down to bring somebody else up to the top.” You spent 8 months advising me, and you never said to me “Dude, you aren’t progressing-maybe you should try something like water aerobics.” lol But you never waned in your support for me, and I never lost sight of what this would mean to me to get over the bar. Because you were always so positive, I wanted it even more so I could say Barology works. And if it gets you a few sales, that’s all good. One guy I talked to on FB last night says he ordered Barology!
As I said, I’ve done the Ironman triathlon 4 times, which is inconceivable to most, but for me this MU quest took way more discipline and work on my part. It doesn’t seem comparable, a ten hour race vs a split second MU, but for me this was more gratifying. The Ironman never seemed impossible because I knew with my swimming background I could walk the marathon if I had to in order to finish, but the MU did because the Ironman taught me my limits. And I knew the MU was going to require real dedication on my part.
My wife was a gymnast in high school, and she could do MU’s all day-Now she’s thinking she may have to go back to do some-She confided to me after she filmed the MU that she never thought I’d get it, but she never was negative about it because the focus on the journey was causing me to lose weight, get more ripped etc. And it was a good lesson for our boys. That night at dinner she said to them “see Daddy had a goal, and he wasn’t able to reach it fast, but he didn’t give up. And you two boys have to realize that life isn’t always easy like it is for you now. Sometimes you fail, but if you don’t keep trying when you fail, you will always fail.” We tell our kids they can do anything if they work for it, but they have to realize nothing really worthwhile comes easy. So that is a good life lesson for all no matter your age. Hard things take a long time to achieve. Impossible things take a little longer. But in the end, like you said, impossible is nothing! Thanks Dan and Shawn! To be continued….