[thelastquestion]

I just wanted to mention that I have been a big fan of TRX bands from https://www.trxtraining.com. (They seem to have a bunch of different products on there, but when I bought mine many years ago, they only made one thing. They all seem the same to me.) It's just a single, small piece of equipment you can bring anywhere and is extremely versatile. It also allows for a scale of difficulty for various exercises to match your fitness level. I have not trained for extensive periods of time exclusively with TRX bands, but I've used them for many years alongside traditional weight training and when I don't have access to the gym.

There are many online resources for TRX exercises and workouts, so I won't expand on that here unless otherwise requested. That plus a backpack you can load up with heavy things can take you pretty far.

I second the other comments that have mentioned to avoid sugar. Different people may react differently, but I find my general wellbeing and discipline to have had a strong inverse correlation with my sugar consumption.

Regarding pushing to failure or not: I personally have found success pushing to failure (depending on the workout, on the last set at least), and, in general, I would recommend this approach. Likelihood of injury will increase as you push closer to failure, so remember to stretch, warm up, and focus on form. For some people, there may be a mental benefit to pushing to failure as well.

[matsemann]

I've always preferred the "Redcord" variant compared to TRX. But yeah, that kind of training allow you to do lots of stuff. Can be a nice stepping stone to calisthenics, before one is strong enough to do some of the exercises. The bands allow you to offload some of your bodyweight, for instance doing push ups at an angle. And then later when pushups are too easy, can lift the feet off the ground to make them heavier again.