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Progressive Calisthenics - The Official Blog for the PCC Community

Progressive Calisthenics

Danny Kavadlo On Body-Weight Training

February 11, 2013 By Danny Kavadlo 26 Comments

danny_kavadlo_flagusq

I have been practicing calisthenics and strength training for over twenty-five years. When I was a kid, minimalism wasn’t a style of working out: it was the only way. We were a family of five living in a part of Brooklyn that many current Brooklyn residents still don’t even know about. There were no gyms and we were too young for them anyway. My memories of Phys Ed at school are limited to either sitting at my assigned floor spot, or getting yelled at by the psychotic gym teacher. So how did I fall in love with working out at such a young age? Push-ups.

Danny_Kavadlo_plyopushup

I remember having push-up contests with my brothers on the old linoleum kitchen floor of that house in deep Brooklyn. If one of us would get fifty, someone else would have to get sixty. Then seventy-five. Ninety. I can’t remember what I did this morning, but I sure do remember the way I felt the first time I completed a hundred consecutive push-ups.

To this day, the pushup is still the exercise I’ve performed more reps of than any other. Only now, I can do more variations. These new skills, of course, leads to new challenges. And that’s exactly what’s so great about progressive calisthenics.

DK.Lsit

Next were pull-ups. There were no shiny packages of bars-that-fit-everywhere back then. No all purpose gyms as seen on TV. My schoolyard looked like a parking lot, not a playground. But we had to get our reps in somewhere, so we put a rusty metal bar in a doorframe. We were old school without even knowing it. After screwing two dark red grommets into the frame, we popped the bar in. It’s still there.

The pull-up contests we had back then were the stuff of legend. Rep after rep after rep. Set after grueling set. My brothers and I would spend hours in that room working that bar. We did it because it was fun. That’s the splendor of training with your body-weight only. Here we were, motivated by nothing other than our innate desire and necessity to move our bodies. This was Mother Nature at her finest: Pulling yourself over a bar. We were alive!

Danny.Kavadlo.Beach
My father, a practitioner of yoga since the 1970’s (way before there were “Yoga” sections at shopping mall book stores everywhere) introduced us to various headstands. One of my favorite teenage memories is returning home late at night to find my Pops doing headstands at 2am! My friends got a kick out of it too. But in all seriousness, there was always a great joy in watching him fully invert himself into a perfect tripod. At over 200 lbs, he was as graceful as a swan. He encouraged us to mess around with balance and flexibility at an early age, which is something I continue to do to this day.

Later on, I started putting extra emphasis on training my legs. I’m a big believer that you’re not strong if you don’t have strong legs. And I must say, I hit the ground running! I had only been doing classic leg exercises like squats and lunges for a few years before I tried pistol-squats. I was instantly addicted to the unique way this exercise combined full-body power with control, and even finesse. Again, I found myself attracted to the purity of this movement: The entire body acting together in harmony to get strong. Just you, your foot, and the earth… nothing more. Simple, yet so complex.

I learned (and I’m STILL learning) how to manipulate leverage and body positioning on single-leg squats to change the exercise. Just like with advanced pushups, there’s a certain beauty, an art form, to these workouts, due to the endless variations allowed by such minimalism.

Wilson Kavadlo doing push-ups.
Wilson Kavadlo doing push-ups.

In adulthood, I became deeply immersed in what is often described as “Extreme Calisthenics.” By coincidence (or perhaps cosmic plan), I became a father at the same point in my life. I am inspired now more than ever. These days performing (and studying) advanced moves like muscle-ups, bar levers, and human flags make me feel like a kid again! And of course, seeing my son knock out infinite sets of flawless squats makes me proud as a man.

Now he’s that kid in Brooklyn working on his pushups on the linoleum floor… And I’m that guy practicing headstands at 2am.

 

 

Danny Kavadlo, Master PCC, is a Personal Trainer in New York City. He’s worked with hundreds of clients, including athletes, models, and celebrities. He is featured in the Convict Conditioning Series & Raising the Bar, and is known globally as a motivator & leader in the calisthenics community. Learn more at his website: www.DannyTheTrainer.com

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: bodyweight exercise, calisthenics, Danny Kavadlo, family, Kavadlo brothers, personal trainer, push-ups, rockstar

Al Kavadlo on The Century

February 5, 2013 By Al Kavadlo 30 Comments

Century TestingA key part of what makes the PCC different from many other fitness certifications is the inclusion of a physical requirement. It’s not simply enough to pay the fee, show up and get your certificate – you have to earn the PCC title!

In addition to demonstrating competency in teaching basic calisthenics exercises, PCC certified trainers must also pass Coach Wade’s “Century” test, a strength and conditioning challenge that consists of 100 consecutive bodyweight repetitions performed as follows:

Men  Women
40 Squats 40 Squats
30 Push-ups 30 Knee Push-ups
20 Hanging Knee Raises 20 Hanging Knee Raises
10 Pull-ups 10 Australian Pull-ups

 

The purpose of this test is to establish a baseline of competency in the performance of basic calisthenics. The Century includes a combination of movements that demonstrate strength and conditioning in the entire body.

A lot of people have asked about how the test will be judged. Here are some guidelines to make sure you are doing things the PCC way:

  • The exercises must be performed in the order listed above. No exceptions.
  • Squats must be performed with a minimum depth of top of the thighs parallel to the floor and a full lock out at the top of each rep. Arms may be raised in front, crossed, or placed on top of the head. Heels must stay flat the entire time.
  • Push-up depth must reach a minimum of 90 degrees of flexion as measured along the outside of the elbow and a full lockout must be achieved at the top of every rep. A straight body position must be maintained throughout the entire range of motion. No sticking your butt into the air or leaving your hips down on the ground.
  • Hanging knee raises must be performed with the knees being raised above waist level and a full extension of the legs at the bottom of every rep. Swinging shall be kept to a minimum. Arms must remain straight the entire set.
  • Pull-ups may be performed with an overhand or underhand grip. The chin must clear the bar at the top of each rep and a full extension must be reached at the bottom. Kipping will not be allowed. (Australian pull-ups are to be performed with the bar at waist height and a straight body position must be maintained throughout.)
  • Rest may be taken in between exercises, but each exercise must be completed in a single set. You may pause briefly between reps as long as the position is held (i.e. top of push-up position, bottom of pull-up, etc.)
  • The entire test must be completed in 8 minutes or less. The reps may be performed as quickly as you like as long as all the above rules are adhered to. Form first!

Watch the Century Test in action below:

—

www.AlKavadlo.com

 A veteran of the fitness industry, Al Kavadlo has recently been appointed as the lead instructor for the Progressive Calisthenics Certification. Recognized worldwide for his amazing bodyweight feats of strength as well as his unique coaching style, Al is also the author of three books, including Raising The Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-up Bar Calisthenics and the soon-to-be-released Pushing The Limits! Total Body Strength With No Equipment.

 

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: Al Kavadlo, calisthenics, Century Test, Convict Conditioning, PCC test, PCC Workshop, progressive calisthenics

PCC: An Invitation for Bodybuilders

January 29, 2013 By Paul "Coach" Wade 62 Comments

The new Progressive Calisthenics Certification is open to anybody who wants to learn more about bodyweight strength. I know it will be a fantastic resource for martial artists, personal trainers, footballers and yoga masters. But I also want to draw in a group of athletes real close to my heart—bodybuilders.

You might be surprised to hear me talk of a fondness for bodybuilding. I am known as a guy who pushes realistic, athletic workouts: not pumping and posing in a thong. Hell, I admit it: I have taken my share of potshots at the bodybuilding scene.

But bodybuilding is a bigger world than most folks give it credit for. Yeah, the idiot shooting himself full of thousands of dollars worth of dangerous crap while training like a schlub is a bodybuilder. But so is the guy trying to lose a little tub, while putting an inch on his arms. So is the underweight girl who trains hard to fill out skinny limbs and turn her flat ol’ butt into a nice round booty. So is the disciplined grandpa or grandma who wants to hold aging at bay by restocking their skeleton with some quality meat. In fact, the vast majority of folks who start training want to build some muscle, for whatever reason.

They are bodybuilding, whether they know it or not.

pwade1

Bodyweight training builds muscle—but you need to make it progressive.

One of the great tragedies of the modern fitness world is that bodybuilding has become—maybe indelibly—connected to training on machines and other forms of equipment. You do not need special equipment to build muscle—what you need, first and foremost, is your body’s own weight.

Hey, everyone knows my opinion on this. You don’t need to listen to me. How about the guy who made all the training machines so famous?

Arthur Jones was—without doubt—the biggest figure in the history of training machines. It is unlikely that anyone will ever eclipse his success. The man is still a famous and controversial figure in strength and conditioning, years after his death. Jones was an inventor, exercise ideologist, genius, and ass-kicker. He single-handedly invented the Nautilus brand of machines back in the sixties. His son developed the popular Hammer Strength brand of training machines, and Nautilus Inc. has branched out and now also owns Schwinn, Universal, Bowflex and Stairmaster. Every exercise machine, in every gym, all over the planet, has been influenced by Jones in some way.

pwade2

Arthur Jones participating in his brainchild, the infamous “Colorado Experiment”.

 This should tell you something. Arthur Jones was the poppa of training machines.

So you would assume that Jones—above all people—would have sung the praises of machines? You’d probably guess that Jones would be doing all he could to spread the idea that building muscle needs to happen on expensive machines, right?

Wrong. Jones was a straight talker. At the height of his fame he caused thousands of jaws to drop when he published this:

“…just about anybody else in this country can produce nearly all of the potential benefits of proper exercise without spending much if anything in excess of about twenty dollars. You can build both a chinning bar and a pair of parallel dip bars for a total cost of only a few dollars, and those two exercises, chins and dips, if properly performed, will stimulate muscular growth in your upper body and arms that will eventually lead to muscular size and strength that is very close to your potential.

Adding full squats, eventually leading up to one-legged full squats, and one-legged calf raises, will do much the same thing for your legs and hips. Using this very simple routine, when you get strong enough to perform about ten repetitions of one-armed chins with each arm, your arms will leave very little to be desired.

Or, instead, you can do what many thousands of others are now doing and piss away thousands of dollars and years of largely wasted effort while producing far less results. The choice is yours.

One of the best pair of arms that I ever saw on a man belonged to a guy that I knew about fifty years ago in New York, and he never performed any sort of exercise apart from chins and dips, and damned few of them.” – Arthur Jones, My First Half-Century in the Iron Game

Interesting words, huh?

I’m not saying nobody should use machines—PCC isn’t about telling athletes what not to do. But when the guy who practically brought about the exercise machine revolution tells you that bodyweight works just as well, it counts for something.

pwade3

Arthur Jones oversees Mr Universe, the great Boyer Coe, through a set of chin-ups.

 The PCC curriculum is an expansion of Convict Conditioning; it includes both progressive pull-ups and progressive dipping chains; not to mention the one-leg squat progressions referred to by Jones.

Take this as an open invitation. PCC is not just for “functional” trainers and cross-training athletes. If you want to build some muscle—or if your job is to help others build muscle—participation at the inaugural PCC event will be a massive opportunity, either to maximize your own ability, or to fulfill your potential to help others.

You never get a second chance at being the first. Please don’t miss this one.

Keep doing those push-ups,

Paul

—————–

Paul Wade is the author of Convict Conditioning, Convict Conditioning 2, the Convict Conditioning DVD series and is the co-creator of the new Progressive Calisthenics Certification (PCC).


Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: bodybuilding, Boyer Coe, calisthenics, Colorado experiment, Convict Conditioning, Paul Wade, PCC, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop

Al Kavadlo on Progressive Calisthenics

January 21, 2013 By Al Kavadlo 58 Comments

(includes excerpts from Pushing The Limits)


All types of strength training operate under the same principle of progressive overload. Regardless of modality, the way one grows stronger is to begin learning a movement pattern with a relatively low amount of resistance and gradually add more as the body adapts.

In barbell or kettlebell training, exercises can be learned with a light weight to get a feel for proper technique before progressing to heavier poundages. This allows the lifter to learn the form without having to overcome much resistance. Due to the nature of bodyweight training, however, progress must be approached a bit differently.

A key principle of progressive calisthenics is manipulating leverage to vary the intensity of bodyweight exercises. Since there is no way to do a one arm push-up, pistol squat or one arm pull-up without a significant amount of resistance, we instead must practice variations in which the body is positioned in such a way as to create less resistance. As you grow stronger, harder variations can gradually be introduced.

In the videos below, you’ll see me demonstrating progressive calisthenics chains that can be used to increase one’s strength over time. I’ve done one video for each of what I consider to be the three most essential movement patterns: push-ups, squats and pull-ups. Though these clips go by quickly, a beginner should expect to put in a few solid years of training to advance from the variations at the start of each clip to the master steps shown at the end.

—
www.AlKavadlo.com

A veteran of the fitness industry, Al Kavadlo has recently been appointed as the lead instructor for the Progressive Calisthenics Certification. Recognized worldwide for his amazing bodyweight feats of strength as well as his unique coaching style, Al is also the author of three books, including Raising The Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-up Bar Calisthenics and the soon-to-be-released Pushing The Limits! Total Body Strength With No Equipment.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: Al Kavadlo, calisthenics, progressive calisthenics, pull-ups, push-ups, squats

Welcome to the launch of Dragon Door’s official blog for Progressive Calisthenics!

January 17, 2013 By John Du Cane, CEO and founder, Dragon Door 14 Comments

What are the two most remarkable events in the history of Dragon Door?

The first event was Dragon Door’s launch of the modern kettlebell movement and in particular the world’s first-ever kettlebell instructor certification program, the RKC in 2001. The impact worldwide has been astonishing and a joy to behold.

However, another event occurred in 2009 that may prove to have an equivalent impact on world fitness to Dragon Door’s championing of the kettlebell.

And that would be the launch of Paul Wade’s Convict Conditioning bodyweight exercise program. Convict Conditioning stormed to #1 bestseller status and has become Dragon Door’s most successful title of all time.

Why?

Why has Convict Conditioning become THE Bible for serious bodyweight exercise practitioners?

More than anything, it is because of Paul Wade’s brilliant system of progressions, based around six core exercises for supreme survival strength: pushups, pullups, squats, hanging leg raises, bridges and handstand pushups. With Paul’s progressions, you can begin with minimal ability and realistically, safely stack strength on strength—until you are as functionally strong as you could ever want to be. And then some…

The fitness world took notice—and history is being made as we speak.

Now, Dragon Door and Paul Wade are presenting an opportunity for trainers and bodyweight exercise enthusiasts worldwide to plunge deeper into the Convict Conditioning programs, with the Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop—to both master the progressions personally and be qualified to teach them to others.

If there is a white-hot trend in fitness right now, it’s bodyweight strength training. Athletes of all kinds are looking to the toughest, most brutally productive calisthenics techniques to spice up their workouts. We’re talking one-arm push-ups, pistols, pull-ups, handstands and hanging levers…

Sadly, there has been no international industry standard for bodyweight strength training instruction. Until now, with Dragon Door’s Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop.

To ensure that the bodyweight exercise community worldwide has a go-to educational resource to support their interest, Dragon Door is establishing the Progressive Calisthenics Blog. We intend this to become THE blog for high-level, practical, cutting edge articles and videos on all things bodyweight.

Besides regular contributions from Dragon authors Paul Wade and Al Kavadlo, expect to see some of the top names in bodyweight contribute their expertise.

The sky will be limit and we invite you to join the ride…

All the best in your training,

John Du Cane, CEO of Dragon Door Publications

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: blog introduction, calisthenics, Dragon Door Publications, John Du Cane, PCC, PCC Workshop, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop

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