• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • Contributors
  • Resources
    • Q&A with Paul “Coach” Wade
  • Workshops
  • Products
  • Forums
  • Articles
  • Blogs
    • RKC Blog
    • Strong Medicine Blog
  • Archives

PCC Blog

Progressive Calisthenics - The Official Blog for the PCC Community

Archives for November 2016

Progressive Calisthenics In The Forbidden City

November 29, 2016 By Danny Kavadlo 13 Comments

China PCC 2016

Never in my life did I imagine that my calisthenics journey would take me all the way to Beijing. I knew that working out would get me in shape: lean, fit, solid and strong. It was also very obvious to me how much fun I was having in my training. And, yes, I was certainly aware of what a remarkable community I had stumbled upon (although I must confess: I didn’t realize quite how many amazing people I’d meet along the way).

Without a doubt, there were many virtues that I predicted, even expected.

But this? Flying halfway around the world to a foreign land and meeting a roomful of strangers who felt like my brothers? Well, damn. This was some other worldly stuff indeed!

We’re big in China! Other-worldly indeed!
We’re big in China! Other-worldly indeed!

But upon reflection, it makes sense that the Progressive Calisthenics Certification has traveled all the way to China (twice!) in 2016. After all, the Chinese have an ancient tradition of bodyweight practice.

From Kung Fu to moving meditation, it’s plain to see that minimalism, honesty and purity are rooted deep within Chinese physical culture. When I think about it, the massive success of the Chinese translations of so many Dragon Door titles (like Convict Conditioning, Diamond-Cut Abs and Pushing The Limits) really isn’t surprising at all. No matter what side of the world we’re on, us freaks and geeks of fitness have much more in common than apart.

Pushing the limits in China!
Pushing the limits in China!

Interestingly enough, John Du Cane (arguably the greatest pioneer in modern fitness) founded Dragon Door in 1991 as medium to introduce the Eastern practices of Tai Chi and Qigong to the Western world. Twenty-five years later, we are now introducing the Western practice of Street Workout to the East. It comes full circle.

When PCC Instructor Annie Vo and I stepped off the plane in Peking International Airport, we got even more than expected. Any possible cultural or language barriers were non-existent that weekend, as we all spoke the same language of movement and harmony.

chinapcccossacksquats4

It was a tremendous honor that this certification was held at the Fitness University of Beijing. Further, our hosts Beijing Technology Publishing did a stellar job at assembling an all-star group of practitioners, trainers, coaches and bodyweight warriors. They even brought in television and film crews to document this monumental occasion. We are grateful for having been a part of it.

As is always the case at PCC, there were numerous PR’s, feats of strength and groundbreaking physical achievements. We muscled-up over bars, defied the laws of gravity and let our freak flags fly. The calisthenics fanatics of Beijing proved to be an unstoppable force to be reckoned with during this amazing experience.

Let your freak flag fly at PCC!
Let your freak flag fly at PCC!

 

When all is said and done, the weekend flew by. The hours and days we shared teaching, training and learning together proved to be the experience of a lifetime. I’d personally like to congratulate this fantastic group of newly certified PCCs. We came a long way for this event. Thanks to each and every one of you for making it so incredible.

Keep the dream alive,

-DK

China PCC 2016

****

Danny Kavadlo is one of the world’s foremost authorities on calisthenics, nutrition and personal training. He is the author of the Dragon Door titles Strength Rules, Diamond-Cut Abs and Everybody Needs Training. Most recently, he co-authored Street Workout with his brother, Al Kavadlo. Danny is known for his minimalist philosophy, simple approach and motivational talents.

A true in-person experience, Danny is a Master Instructor for Dragon Door’s Progressive Calisthenics Certification. He has been featured in the NY Times, TRAIN, Men’s Fitness and is a regular contributor to Bodybuilding.com. Learn more about Danny at www.DannyTheTrainer.com

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Workshop Experiences Tagged With: 2016 China PCC, Annie Vo, China PCC, Danny Kavadlo, PCC, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop, workshop experience

Five Ways to Fast Track Your Freestanding Handstand

November 22, 2016 By Matt Beecroft 18 Comments

Al Kavadlo handstand beach

As an adult you’ve decided to embark on an inversion and hand balancing journey. Seriously, are you crazy?

If you think about it, children with amazing mobility, breathing, reflexive stability and perfect natural movement still can take 18 months to learn how to stand on their feet. And you have decided that you want to balance on your hands!  Are you out of your mind?

Read ahead, because I am too.

At 40 something years of age, 6 foot 3 inches and 90 kilograms (hardly genetically blessed to do anything in the calisthenics or gymnastics arena), I decided to do the same thing. Yep, I looked at what someone else was doing, and said to myself, “that looks like fun, if they can do it, I can.” That was on my first Progressive Calisthenics Certification or PCC in the US back in 2013 with the infectious spirit and great vibes of Al and Danny Kavadlo. I was hooked.

But little did I know of the journey I had decided to undertake.

Unlike a lot of other adults who embark on achieving the freestanding handstand, I wasn’t exposed to gymnastics as a kid, nor did I have friends into gymnastics. I also wasn’t a kid that spent time cartwheeling with my mates in the park. So let’s just say inversions and hand balancing were completely foreign to me until I started playing around with my first crow pose at the PCC in 2013.

Zip, zero, nothing, nada.

What do I love about the handstand?  Everything gets better from learning how to handstand.

Whilst nailing your freestanding handstand may be the long term goal (and it’s so sweet when you finally get there!), the journey is where the real gold is. Improved strength and mobility in the hands, wrists, shoulders and thoracic spine, as well as improved proprioception are just some of the physical attributes developed.

The mental aspects however, were more surprising to me. Overcoming my fears of falling, being upside down or simply self-preservation were surprising, considering my background as an Expert Level 2 Krav Maga instructor and Muay Thai coach. I think I was more comfortable being punched in the head rather than landing on it. It also taught me how impatient I was, and a lot about perseverance and persistence. Some days you will feel great and find your balance without much trouble. Other days, it just won’t be there. The handstand can be an elusive beast.  The handstand was a reminder to me about attitude, and how just turning up and doing the work is where it’s at.

Though I could write further about my journey, what’s more important is that I have been successful in helping others, some in their forties as well, achieve their first handstands in a relatively short time. Repeatable, expedited results with others as a coach, is what I endeavor to achieve

So here are 5 tips that will help you fast track your way to your first freestanding handstand.

1. Volume: Do the work

It maybe not what you want to read, but you have to do the work. Regardless of the discipline – calisthenics, circus, yoga or gymnastics, the best hand balancers do it most days of the week. Hand balancing is a very specialized skill. Regardless of my time spent with the Kavadlos on my handstand journey or engrossing myself in material from other experts in the field, they all advocate the same thing: volume. Many serious advocates will say to practice 5 days a week, though I’ve found that following a structured program just 3 days per week for an hour had a few of my students hitting their freestanding handstands in just 6 months with no prior experience. Repetition is your teacher. Even if it’s just cranking out a crow pose on the office floor for a few minutes, or the kitchen bench a couple of times per day, you need to spend more time, you know, balancing on your hands if you want to get good at balancing on your hands.

Grace Kavadlo Handstand variant

2. The Wrists, Hands and Fingers

While it would seem really obvious as you are putting your entire body weight through, and making fine adjustments with your hands, wrists and fingers, I am still surprised at the number of people who don’t spend enough time looking after these areas. Adequate time must be spent mobilizing and strengthening these areas properly. The most common complaint when working any handbalancing is soreness of the wrists, and though it will certainly take time for your joints, muscles, tendons and ligaments to adjust to the load, you still need to spend time looking after those areas every session.

For me personally, the “first knuckle push-up” is one of the most important drills in my warm up.  Having the fingers spread, index fingers pointing straight ahead, shoulders above the wrists and in a kneeling or push-up position, raise the heel of the palm while keeping the knuckles and fingers on the ground, with a 4 second lowering eccentric on each rep for 3 sets of 10-20 reps. And if you have a problem getting good ROM because your knuckles are all banged up from hitting stuff, it can be assisted by using your other hand to anchor or press your fingers and knuckles down whilst you raise the heel of the palm off the floor.

handstandhandplacement3

3. Face the Wall

Facing the wall handstands are an absolute necessity if you want to achieve a great handstand. While facing away from the wall also has its advantages, facing the wall helps to achieve a straighter looking handstand and a nicer “line” or shape. About 50 years ago circus performers and strongmen performed mainly “banana back” or arched back handstands, but with the advent of modern gymnastics aesthetics, artistry and scoring criteria, it’s meant that the straight line handstand with the toes pointed is often the preferred method. Try working up to 5 sets of 45s-60s holds thinking about your “shape” or “line”. That usually means hands a few inches from the wall, shoulders open, the rib cage pulled down to a posteriorly rotated pelvis with the chest and hips against the wall.

Patrick Madigan handstand towards wall

4. Don’t Face the Wall

I am totally going to contradict myself both with this point and the next, but hear me out. One of the few drills that will really help you start to build the strength and motor control required in the hands is the heel pull. This is done facing away from the wall with your hands roughly a foot away. Gently kick up to rest against the wall, then using only your fingers, hands and forearms, pull your entire body off the wall, without using your feet at all. This is the most important point – do not use your feet to push off. Besides getting an amazing pump through the hands and forearms, it will also show you where you are leaking force through your body, and require you to tighten everything up into a straight line.

When done correctly, your entire body will float away from the wall as one unit, and pull you into your handstand. This is a crucial exercise as it teaches you that you cannot use your feet to push against anything when you kick up into a freestanding handstand. The only things that can balance and stabilize you are your fingers, wrists and forearms. It is also exciting as many will feel what it is like to achieve their first handstand and it is crucial for building confidence. Work up to 15-20 sets holding your handstand for as long as possible each time. Once you hit a few handstands like this, you should feel ready to do a freestanding one!

al kavadlo handstandwall5

5. Get Off the Wall

Yes, it’s another contradiction, but the wall and its security are also going to be your crux or vice if you don’t get away from it. Right from the beginning, you need to play around with just kicking up into a freestanding handstand. Children usually just play and catch on pretty quick. I know what you are going to say, you aren’t a spring chicken any more. I get it. There is the fear of falling on your head, which is why learning to cartwheel and bail out is really going to help here. The problem with the wall is that it’s there. When people practice against the wall, they usually kick up haphazardly and without any control. The issue with this is that it teaches you the complete opposite of what you need to do when finally kicking up into a freestanding one. When you kick up into a freestanding handstand, it needs to be done softly, gradually, and under control. The problem with a lot of the facing away from the wall handstand work is it teaches the total opposite of this. The wall also becomes a security blanket that people struggle to wean themselves away from. You need to get away from the wall if you ever want to hit your freestanding handstand.

Kirsty Grosart PCC handstand

****

Matthew Beecroft is a PCC Team Leader, Senior RKC, and CK-FMS certified instructor. He is also a GFM and Animal Flow instructor and Expert Level 2 instructor with Krav Maga Global and a Muay Thai coach who has trained amateur and professional Muay Thai champions. He can be contacted through his website www.realitysdc.com.au or his Facebook page facebook.com/MeetLifeHeadOn

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: handbalancing, handstand technique, handstand tutorial, handstands, Matt Beecroft, progressive calisthenics

Natural Muscle—How Much Can You Gain…Really?

November 8, 2016 By Paul "Coach" Wade 333 Comments

Al and Danny Kavadlo for Paul Wade

I’ve found that these days I keep getting asked the same questions over and over. Why did you get those lame tattoos? How come your face looks so much older than your body? Who are you, and what are you doing in the girls’ locker room?

That’s my personal life, but in my life as a coach I get a lot of repetitive questions too. Since I wrote C-MASS, here is a doozy that crops up over and over again:

How much muscle can I gain without steroids?

Yeah, you’ve heard it too, right? Well I can’t promise you that I can give you a concrete answer, but at my age I sure am getting good at rambling—so if you’ve got five minutes, stick around and listen to old Uncle Paul. There’s five bucks in it for you. (There’s not.)

Alright. Let’s start with a baseline. (I’m going to focus on the males here because, well, it’s only the males that seem to care about gaining maximum muscle—forgive me, my bodyweight bodybuilding sisters.) How much does the average untrained dude weigh? Modern stats tell us that the average American male these days weighs around 190 lbs. But modern stats are misleading, because we are interested in muscular bodyweight, right? And let’s face it, the modern generation is the fattest ever. Fat Albert, fat. So let’s go back to the sixties—before the obesity epidemic was in full swing. In that decade, stats tell us that he average male was a much sleeker 166 lbs. Now, this wasn’t a lean, steel-cut “six pack” Kavadlo-type athlete—just a regular, untrained not-fat dude. So let’s make this a pretty rough weight for “Mr. Average”—166 lbs.

Now, the Million Dollar Question: how much muscle could our Mr. Average gain, just through training and eating right?

The problem with answering this question in the modern era can be summed up in one word—drugs. Drugs have skewed Joe Public’s vision of what can be achieved by training, more than most people could even imagine. (More on that in a little bit.) So in order to look at what’s really achievable naturally, we need to go back to a time before steroids hit the training scene.

You might be surprised how far back that actually is. Most people probably associate the first true “steroid-era” with the seventies, and the larger than life physiques of men like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Lou Ferrigno, as seen in the movie Pumping Iron (which was based around the battle for the ’75 Mr. Olympia). In fact, similar (and in some cases, identical) compounds to those used by the seventies crew were already for sale in the US in the late fifties. The Soviets were experimenting with steroid-based drugs for Olympic lifters in the forties, which is no surprise because testosterone was first synthesized in the early thirties. If we go even further, natural testosterone—from animal cajones—was first being injected into humans as far back as the nineteenth century. (Hell—that’s before even I was born. I think.) So bodybuilding drugs ain’t new, kids.

As a good guideline though, we can say that—in America, at least—steroid-based PEDs were not being tested on weightlifters until the fifties. So if we go back to the forties, we should—probably, if not absolutely definitely—be able to find drug-free, natural bodybuilders at their peak. This, in turn, should maybe give us at least a clue how big and lean our Mr. Average could aspire to get, at a push.

So let’s look at arguably the best (and most muscular) bodybuilder from the forties: the guy the other lifters all called “the King of Bodybuilders”: Clarence “Clancy” Ross. Clancy was Mr. America 1945—the biggest bodybuilding title in the world back then. (The Mr. Olympia title wasn’t created by Joe Weider until 1965.) How big was he? He was about 5’10, with 17 inch arms, and he weighed in at 185 lbs pounds, soaking wet.

First things first—to many of you on the fitness scene now, this will seem like a ridiculously light weight for a “big” guy. Hell, lean bodybuilders nowadays sometimes hit the stage at close to 300 lbs! So as a result some of you may be thinking…185? At 5’10?! Did this guy even lift?

Uh, yes, He did. In fact, Clancy was a monster who outlifted 99% of modern bodybuilders: he could curl 200 lbs, bench 400 lbs, squat 500 lbs and—get this—perform a standing press of 320 lbs! (Good luck seeing that in a modern gym.) He was also a big fan of traditional calisthenics.

That 185 sure looked good on old Clancy. He had a six-pack like bricks on a building, pecs like huge slabs, muscular, separated quads, round, thick delts and loaded guns.

Bodybuilding King—Clarence Ross!
Bodybuilding King—Clarence Ross!

Actually, Clancy was undernourished and underweight for his frame when he started training. But if he had been the “average” male weighing 166, that would mean he put on close to 20 lbs of muscle as a result of his training and diet (actually probably more like 25-30 lbs, as Clancy was leaner than the average guy.) There were a tiny number of men in the forties who were bigger than Clancy—George Eiferman is an example—but there are always going to be taller guys or real genetic outliers who screw the curve. The fact remains that Clancy is a great example of what “big” is for a male of good health, average height, and normal-to-excellent genetics.

In reality, when guys ask me about how much muscle they can add, it’s obviously impossible to answer. You’d need to see into someone’s genes to know the answer—to also know their hormone levels, dietary habits and work ethic. But as a good rule of thumb, most men who are not underweight and are dedicated to their training and eat and rest adequately can gain 20-30 lbs of solid muscle via training alone. (Obviously you can dial up or down the numbers according to height.) Clancy is an extreme example—among the world’s best—but as you can see from his photo, 20-30 lbs of muscle on a fairly lean physique is enough to make you jacked as sh**. Hell, if you are lean enough, as little as ten pounds of muscle added to your frame will make you look like a buff dude. Toxic drugs are not required to look great.

At this point, a lot of younger guys will be shaking their head, and saying I’m just an ancient loser who’s setting the bar too low for athletes. (They’re right about the ancient loser part, sure.) I get emails all the time about this guy and that guy who does bodyweight-only on YouTube, and is built like a friggin’ Pershing tank. Many of them weigh 200 lbs with change, and are often sliced to the bone. These men are putting on 40 plus pounds of muscle using bodyweight training, their fans tell me. Well, sure they are. They are on steroids. Do you think you are only allowed to use bodybuilding drugs if you lift weights? Jesus, there’s steroids in all sports now. Hell, even the International Chess Federation started doping tests for steroids in 2003. (I’m not kidding. Look it up.)

Why are so many modern athletes lying about their natty status? A simple law of human behavior. Anything which gets rewarded happens more, and anything which gets punished happens less. There are lots of rewards for lying about drug use—more fans, more views, more sponsorship, more respect, etc.—and plenty of punishments for telling the truth—stigma, being banned from sports, jailtime, etc. Of course these guys lie: I don’t even blame them. The problem is though, it creates false expectations, particularly for the younger athletes. They think they suck, or their training sucks, because they don’t look like some juiced up balloon in six months. As a result, they either get despondent and quit training—and so lose a myriad of lifelong benefits—or figure it out and take the drugs, ruining their hormonal profiles and setting up a future health minefield along the way.

It’s understandable that so many people overestimate the amount of muscle that a natural athlete can put on, because drugs have skewed their view of reality beyond belief. To see just how much drugs have changed the picture, check out the biggest bodybuilders after drugs began to infiltrate the scene. Let’s take a look in time lapse, every twenty years:

  • The best bodybuilder in the world in 1945 (Clancy) weighed 185 lbs.
  • Twenty years later, the best bodybuilder—the 1965 Mr. Olympia, Larry Scott—weighed 200 lbs: heavier AND leaner than any Mr. America in the forties. (All this, and he was three inches shorter than Clancy!) What caused this huge jump? By now bodybuilders were using the oral steroid Dianabol and almost definitely injectable steroids like Deca-Durabolin, which was available from the late fifties. They were probably taking fairly light to moderate doses (by modern standards) and only using the drugs before competition, coming off them for long periods.
  • Twenty years later—it’s 1985 and the world’s greatest is Mr. Olympia, Lee Haney. At 5’11, Haney weighed in at a phenomenal 245 lbs. With paper-thin skin and dehydrated, Haney weighed about 70 lbs more than old Clancy! What caused this quantum leap? Maybe Haney was just more intense in the gym, or trained better? In fact, no—by all accounts, Clancy Ross could outlift Lee Haney on his best day: so it wasn’t the training. The real reason is that by now the top bodybuilders were using much larger doses of drugs, for much longer periods. They were also “stacking” multiple oral and injectable compounds, and beginning to use low doses of Human Growth Hormone (HGH)—which, at the time, was extracted from corpses, meaning that if the dead body had a disease, you got it too. (Oh, it made you a bit bigger than the competition, though.)
  • Fast forward another twenty years to 2005 and basically things have got ridiculous at the top level. Mr. Olympia now is Ronnie Coleman, and he’s stepping onstage weighing 290 lbs (!), ripped to bejesus, and looking something like a cross between a walking chemical toilet and a badly-drawn comic book. This guy weighed well over a hundred pounds more than poor little Clancy, while being only about an inch taller. What caused this latest “improvement”? Huge doses of the same old steroids, now stacked year round, plus much larger doses of more modern, synthetic growth hormone, along with widespread heavy use of insulin, which it turns out, is a another massively anabolic drug when applied in a certain protocol. Hell, guys are now literally shooting oil into their muscles just to keep the expansion happening.

This is the context modern students of bodybuilding have to enter—is it any wonder they have lost all sense of what’s real? Let’s get some reality back. Let’s look back to the old physiques—the guys under 190 lbs, with abs: look at Eugen Sandow (180 lbs), Clancy Ross (185 lbs), Roy Hilligenn (175 lbs). These men were pinnacles of strength AND health, and looked as big (and healthy) as any normal person could want.

Hilligenn: shorter and lighter than Clancy, but still a slayer.
Hilligenn: shorter and lighter than Clancy, but still a slayer.

One more common question, to finish. This muscle gain—20-30 lbs—can it be done using calisthenics? Or are weights required? My answer is: maximum muscle mass CAN absolutely be achieved with bodyweight-only training. External weights are not required. You only need to look at the current rash of calisthenics stars who are using the same kinds of drugs as the hardcore bodybuilders used back in the sixties (Dianabol, Deca, test). Guess what? They have the same types of upper-body measurements as the bodybuilders had then! This is because your muscle mass is not determined by your training stimulus, but by your hormonal profile.

I hear gym lifters tell me: yeah, bodyweight exercise might be good for the upper-body, but you can’t build huge legs with calisthenics alone. Again, this is something of a modern illusion. what folks don’t realize is that all these “huge” legs aren’t being built with barbells but drugs. Remember—it’s the steroids that make you big…the training is way down the list! Look at those huge, overgrown cows and bulls these days; they have huge hips and asses just like modern bodybuilders, but it’s not because they are going to some secret bovine gym. It’s because they are being shot with hormones—steroids and growth. In fact, some popular modern anabolic steroids (I’m lookin’ at you, trenbolone) are literally just the dissolved animal steroid pellets farmers give to livestock to make them bigger.

It ain’t the drugs, bro! It’s heavy squats!
It ain’t the drugs, bro! It’s heavy squats!

It’s a prevalent myth that you only grow if you take steroids and train hard. There are plenty of studies that show you will grow more than any hard-training natural athlete just by sitting on the couch, if you are loaded up with steroids. It’s your hormone levels that primarily cause growth: like I say, training is very secondary. Remember: these drugs are legitimately used for people with horrible injuries and wasting diseases, to add muscle mass…the patients aren’t lifting weights, but the drugs work anyway. Remember going through puberty? When over a year (or even a summer, in some cases) you went from being a scrawny boy to suddenly having some muscles? It happens whether you exercise or play video games. It was caused by a sudden surge of natural steroids.

Training heightens the effect of the drugs, but not nearly as much as most non-athletes think. Clancy Ross built 24 inch quads by doing squats with 500 lbs…meaning his LEGS in 1945 were the same size as Ronnie Coleman’s ARMS in 2005! I’m pretty sure Ronnie wasn’t doing 500 lb curls. Work your legs hard with squats, one-leg work, sprinting and jump training, and yes, they will reach their natural limit. But they won’t ever be 36 inches unless you’re also willing to inject your body every day to make them that way.

Okay, ramble over. Go back to work. And remember, brethren—all this is just my opinion, based on what I’ve seen. I’m not claiming to have the final answers on fat-free mass indexes or stuff like that. If you still have questions, I’d love to hear ‘em. Slap them in the comments below and I’ll answer. If you think I’m wrong, yell at the screen. Or, better yet, hit me up in the comments section and tell me where I’m screwing up.

I’ve got a pot of coffee on the stove, and I’m always ready to learn.

Filed Under: Motivation and Goals, Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: bodyweight exercise, C-Mass, calisthenics, Convict Conditioning, Hypertrophy, muscle gain, muscle mass, natural muscle, Paul "Coach" Wade, Paul Wade

Five Tips to Crush the Century

November 1, 2016 By Bret Hamilton 4 Comments

Al and Danny Kavadlo

As a recently christened Progressive Calisthenics Certified coach, the Century Test is very fresh in my mind. The Century tests multiple qualities: speed, strength, endurance, and also has fairly strict technique standards for each rep of your squats, push-ups, hanging knee raises, and pull-ups/Australian pull-ups. Even though it’s not what I’d call easy, don’t let me fool you, the Century Challenge is defeatable, nay, crushable, if you prepare for it properly. Stay with me as I lay out the groundwork for what made me successful when it came time to test on the final day of my PCC.

First off, if any of the guys and gals out there who attended the June 2016 PCC in NYC are reading this…wow! We had some seriously strong individuals attend the PCC in New York, and there were a handful of people who were doing things above and beyond what I’ve ever seen in person before: freestanding handstand push-ups, stand-to-stand bridges, strict muscle ups and human flags. It was seriously impressive. Yet when it came time to do the Century, some of the same people who were performing those moves met it with a huge amount of apprehension, as if they had not prepared for it properly.

Here’s the thing: The Century is NOT a test of pure strength, it is a test of strength-endurance. You don’t need to be the biggest or strongest in order to destroy the 8 minute mark, but you need to train for it in a very specific way to minimize your time and need for recovery. Start preparing for it months in advance to give yourself a few attempts at it to see how you’re progressing, and make tweaks to it. Also, watch the videos of Al, Danny, and Adrienne demonstrating it. These videos were a serious help to me, because they gave me reference points for how quickly it could be done, and also made the technique standards appear more clear to me.

Rather than rehash technique standards for the Century, I’m going to assume you already know them, and if you don’t, go make sure to follow the link above first and then come back and finish this article. But I will say that in order to crush the Century, start by incorporating the following strategies in your training:

Al Kavadlo Pull-up at the UK PCC

1. Use the specificity principle to your advantage.

The test goes squats first, then push-ups, then knee raises, then pull-ups/rows. You should train the exercises in this order in your workouts, even if you are not doing the exact variations included in the Century test (i.e. you’re training movements in the same family of exercises, but not necessarily the ones specifically tested).

For added benefit, minimize your recovery time between those movements, transitioning from one to the next with little to no time between. This will prepare your body, and your mind for moving quickly. Remember, I’m helping you prepare to CRUSH the Century, not just pass by the skin of your teeth. Move with purpose.

2. Be confident doing push-ups that are harder than the ones tested in the Century.

Push-ups are one of the toughest parts of the Century Test, just because there are so many of them. If your pushups stink and you practically exhaust yourself doing them, you will set yourself up to fail when it comes to doing the pull-ups/Aussies because by then your arms will be shot.

In Convict Conditioning terms, this means guys should be able to comfortably do Close Push-ups and Uneven Push-ups, and ladies should feel confident doing 1/2 and Full Push-ups. Even if it’s only for a few reps, working at a strength level that is higher than what is required of you on test day is a smart idea. Your goal should be to have those pushups feel EASY come test time.

3. Save time in the hanging knee raise by mastering the hollow body position.

When hanging on the bar, the hollow body position is achieved by making a slight posterior tilt with the pelvis (belly button tucked up toward your chin), and actively pulling the bar down towards the floor. If you can hold this position, you should start to be able to do your knee raises faster and cleaner than when you just hang out like a limp string bean. Practice explosively pulling your knees to your chest and forcefully extending them straight, all while maintaining the hollow body position, so you don’t sway around like a flag in the breeze.

Bret Hamilton Thompkins Square

4. Train your knee raises and pull-ups back to back.

This is the tip that made the Century such a snap for me. I tested myself a few times before heading to NYC in June, and each time I was able to complete the entire Century in under three minutes. How? When I hopped up on the bar to do my knee raises, I never let go when transitioning to do my pull-ups.

Though it made training higher level strength pull-up exercises harder, it did make me improve my strength-endurance, which is the number one quality tested by the Century. I even went one step farther with myself and purposefully trained my knee raises slowly 5 seconds up, 5 seconds down to force my grip strength to be challenged, then proceeded to get after the pull-ups, which was a real challenge. It over prepared me for the test, which was what I was after!

5. Over-train your grip strength to have peace of mind come test day.

If you lack grip strength, you will fail the Century. Don’t let that be the reason you failed, when grip training is so easily supplemented into a regular training program.

  • Do it first, when you’re fresh. It makes the rest of your workout challenging.
  • If you’re a gal, I recommend being able to hang on the bar for a minimum of 60 seconds, preferably more. Overcompensate in your training by hanging from a towel in one hand, and the bar in the other. Build up to 60, then repeat with two towels. If you can do this, your grip is good.
  • If you’re a guy, the twin towel hang for 60 seconds is my minimum recommendation, but would prefer if you could hang from the bar by one hand for at least 30 seconds each, and possibly with your hands stacked one on top of the other on a towel for 30 seconds each.

Again, make sure your grip is way better than what is required for the Century, and you’ll have peace of mind when it comes test day.

 

***

Bret Hamilton is the head coach and co-owner of Constant Forward Progress-Bodyweight and Kettlebell Training. He and his wife Megan live and train near Portland, OR. When Bret isn’t working with clients in the gym, he loves to jump on the trampoline, play pickleball, read a great book, and relax to video game now and then. You can learn more about Bret and CFP at constantforwardprogress.com.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: bar calisthenics, Bret Hamilton, Century Test, grip strength, how to pass the century, PCC Workshop, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop, The Century

Primary Sidebar

Featured Products

previous arrow
GetStrongBookCover
ConvictConditioningBookCover
StreetWorkoutBookCover
ExplosiveCalisthenicsBookCover
StrengthRulesBookCover
next arrow

Categories

Progressive Calisthenics Certification Logo
Click here for more information or to register for the PCC workshop

Get Strong Workouts TriadXP App
Get Strong Workouts App

Recent Posts

  • Top 5 Reasons Why an In-Person Workshop is the Best Way to Supercharge Your Training
  • HYBRID STRENGTH TRAINING IS HERE!
  • My Calisthenics Journey to the PCC
  • The Handstand Press: Complete Control Through the Handstand
  • The Get Strong App is Here!

Dragon Door Publications

Dragon Door Publications

Recent Comments

  • bross dandon on The Case for Curved Handstands
  • Johnny Flewellen Jr. on Strength for Life
  • Dan Earthquake on The Pursuit of the Daily Minimum
  • Johnny Flewellen Jr. on The Pursuit of the Daily Minimum
  • Johnny Flewellen Jr. on Yoga, Calisthenics and the Journey of a Lifetime
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER!

Copyright © 2025

Dragon Door Publications / The author(s) and publisher of this material are not responsible in any manner whatsoever for any injury that may occur through following the instructions or opinions contained in this material. The activities, physical and otherwise, described herein for informational purposes only, may be too strenuous or dangerous for some people, and the reader(s) should consult a physician before engaging in them.