I was 24 years old back then. At the age of 27 I started doing some home workouts. I tried pushups for the first time after a long time ago, I can't even remember when was the last time I did pushups. 

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So I was surprised how weak I was, I couldn't do more than 5 pushups.  So after few weeks my friend who was also inactive and in his story - overweight decided to start going to the gym.

 

And he also invited me to join him, at first I was hesitating, because I had insecurity of myself and my body, how I look. Till that point in my life, I was very insecure about myself how I look and also my mindset was very weak. So I decided to start going to the gym, I will be forever thankful to my friend who "forced" me to start going with him. 

 

After few months of training I gained a lot of confidence as I noticed progress in terms of strength and also I gained small amount of muscle mass as well. I was starting to like working out, I couldn't wait till the next session. Also my sleep has improved a lot, the problems I had with my lower back were gone, my neck pain was gone, my posture has improved.

 

I also started to make smart food choices, started counting calories and was getting more aware of my how my body reacts to certain type of foods. I had more energy than ever, I could finish tasks more effectively, make better plans, better choices in every aspect of my life.  

 

After a year into typical bodybuilding, I did a lot of research and gained a lot of knowledge in terms of nutrition, workout routines, muscle building approaches, training programs, proper execution of exercises and a lot more. 

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At that point I created my first Instagram profile @boki.road_to_strengthI started to connect with people and share our progress together, motivate each other and also motivate others to start taking care of their bodies and their health. The feeling of helping others was very fulfilling.  

 

My life has changed a lot in that year, a lot of experience in 1 year. I started to notice visual progress on myself. I gained around 5kg in 1 year. Later on in the next year I found out about calisthenics. I saw a guy instead of doing a normal pull up he went over the bar with his chest and pushed himself up. That move is called muscle up.And was like "wow that's crazy". To able to go all the way up, that's not easy. I was very inspired and at that moment I knew exactly what I want.  

 

At that point my focus has shifted. I started to incorporate bodyweight exercises in my workouts and my trainings have become even more fun. I didn't quit bodybuilding because I loved barbell work, especially benchpress, squats, deadlifts and overhead press. Actually combining them with bodyweight exercises gave me even more progress. I reached to 70kg bodyweight and my body fat was almost the same. 

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The next bodyweight skill I came across was the planche. And at that point when I saw it I had to question reality for a moment, because I couldn't belive my eyes, how can that move be possible? To be able to hold your body in a horizontal line with straight arms without your feet touching the ground. 

 

My inspiration level was the highest than ever. I wanted to try it, but first I did a research how to start training it and I came across a lot of tutorials, but I found the right ones. One of the best tutorials was from Calimnastic. I was very aware that this move is not easy and performing it uneducated will lead to injury. Right after that I found out about front lever. This move is opposite to planche, holding yourself on a bar with straight arms maintaining your body in a horizontal position.

 

This move was very hard also, but for me it was easier than the planche. And yes, the legendary handstand. This move I was doing in my younger age only for fooling around and not holding it actually for time, just jumping up and down. And I thought "oh yeah, no problem I can do it, I was doing it in my younger days, I'm sure I can hold it longer". Yeah I underestimated my self.. The handstand was one of the hardest things that I tried in my life! So many attempts, so many fails and yet such small progress. It took me more than year and half to actually hold a proper handstands for 30 seconds. 

 

The most important thing going through these long struggles and fails is that I was also training my mind. I reached a very high level of mental toughness. It was one of my best periods in my life. I felt confident in every aspect of my life. After I got confident in handstands, I started working towards handstand pushups. This was even harder.. Being able to lower from a freestanding handstand down with your head to the floor and push back up was not easy. It requires a huge amount of strength and huge amount of control and balance. It took me about 5 months after I did my first negative move to achieving my full range of motion handstand pushup. In my third year of my fitness journey I reached to 72kg bodyweight.

 

I was experimenting a lot that time and I created routines that gave me the best progress possible in terms of muscle mass and strength. I followed this type of training for the whole year and I did not change anything, of course except the intensity, which I was increasing as I was getting stronger, creating progressive overload. In my fourth year of my fitness journey which im currently at, I reached 77kg bodyweight and my body fat is almost the same.