Tutorial

Organizing a Group Calisthenics Class

February 28, 2017 By Matt Beecroft 4 Comments

Al Kavadlo Leading Group Fitness
I can still remember my anxiety as I was about to teach my first Progressive Calisthenics class. I found it challenging to train myself, let alone a group of people with varying backgrounds, limitations (both psychological and physical) and fitness levels!

Perhaps you have recently qualified at a PCC, love calisthenics and are looking to share your passion in a group environment. Good luck, my PCC brothers and sisters; teaching calisthenics in a group setting can be tough! Given that most classes are 60 minutes long, devising a system to help people learn new skills and improve their fitness as expediently as possible can be very challenging.

The truth is there is no one “correct way” to structure a calisthenics workout, but there are some basic guidelines and principles that you can follow to ensure your classes are safe, fun and effective.

Here is a 5-step basic blueprint that I use for a one hour class that I hope will help you teach calisthenics in an intelligent and organic way.

The Warm-up

The warm-up serves a number of purposes, yet is often overlooked as a valuable use of time. It’s a great opportunity to check in with the body and the mind to prepare for training. The overall goals of the warm up are to increase body temperature and blood flow, making the muscles more elastic and pliable, and to increase the ROM of joints and start to “dial everything in” for the workout that is to follow.

The warm up should include mobility and flexibility exercises, including thoracic/shoulder, hip and ankle mobility and often the wrist, hands and forearms to prepare the joints and connective tissues for what is to follow.

The warm-up can also include “activation” sets, which involve a few reps of regressions leading up to the primary exercises you are about to practice. For example, you might use a few sets of squats and lunges to warm before working on single leg squat progressions.

Approximate time = 10 minutes

Al Kavadlo Leading Group Fitness
Strength First?

If you are working with beginners, building a proper foundation of strength needs to be your first priority.

For newcomers, following a structured set and rep scheme just like traditional strength training is paramount. Mastering basics like push-ups, pull-ups, squats and lunge variations are the bread and butter of calisthenics training. They have crossover into everything else.

Furthermore, if your students are planning to eventually work up to advanced holds such as bar levers, flags, or freestanding handstands, it is imperative to be looking to increase their time on more rudimentary holds. This means spending time on things like planks, frog stands and elbow lever progressions. The training needs to be structured in order to move to the next progression. A foundation of strength is crucial to achieve those higher level skills.

Or Skills First…

If your students have worked their fundamentals and strength for a while already, then the exercise that requires the highest skill, balance or power demand should be practiced when they are the freshest. Or alternatively, whatever is your highest priority should come first.

If your focus is something like muscle-ups, handstands or elbow levers, then trying to practice them after fatiguing your upper body will likely leave you too tired.

Once you have finished your “skills practice” at a particular progression, you can then do some “work sets” of reps/holds of some of related regressions or move onto other exercises.

Approximate time = 30 minutes

Al Kavadlo Leading Group Fitness
Finishers and Conditioning

I am a big fan of finishers and conditioning work at the end of sessions. Finishers and conditioning can be loads of fun and add variety to sessions whilst being very effective for skill and strength transfer. Exercises like bear crawls, inchworms, crab walks, frogger variations, etc. are all great choices. I also like to turn these types of movements into games whenever possible. Something like “crab walk soccer” can be a nice way to make your students forget how hard they are working because they are having fun!

Approximate time = 10 minutes

Cool Down

Not unlike the warm-up, the cool down is often glossed over by many people. It’s a great time to work those flexibility restrictions that might be inhibiting your practice as well as letting your body know that the workout is winding down and it’s time to shift into recovery mode. In addition to stretching, you cool down may consist of joint mobility, diaphragmatic breathing exercises and other body awareness drills.

Approximate time 5-10 minutes

Al Kavadlo Leading Group Fitness

Going out into the world to teach progressive calisthenics can be a daunting task. I’ve been doing it for a while now and still find it challenging. However, it is a lot of fun and highly rewarding to see your clients making progress.

Goals are important, but the process is even more important. Hopefully this basic blueprint will give you a structured approach to your classes while giving you ample scope to make them fun and effective.

Drop me a line a let me know how it goes!

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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

Five Tips for Training the V-Sit

February 21, 2017 By Grace Kavadlo 10 Comments

Grace Kavadlo V-Sit

When I attended my first Progressive Calisthenics Certification, learning to hold an L-sit was one of my goals. It’s a tough move, but I surprised myself and was able to nail it for a few seconds that weekend. Of course once I got the L-sit, I needed a new challenge.

Such is the nature of progressive calisthenics.

This was how I began my journey toward the V-sit, a move which progresses the L-sit by lifting the legs and hips higher, changing the shape of the body from a position resembling the letter “L” to one that looks like a “V.” Due to the shift in balance and leverage, it’s also a lot harder.

I mean A LOT harder.

It’s been almost 3 years since I went to my first PCC, and I’m just finally starting to get comfortable holding a proper V-sit. Like many advanced calisthenics exercises, training for this move requires a lot of patience. It also forced me to reassess several aspects of my training that I did not realize had been lacking.

Here are 5 things I learned along the way that helped me achieve this difficult feat:

1 – Make A Good “Compression”
Before I started working toward the V-sit, I thought I already had a very powerful core. Whereas conquering the L-sit bolstered my confidence, starting over with the V-sit was a humbling reality check. The two moves may not look substantially different, but the amount of abdominal strength required to perform a V-sit is exponentially greater.

Transitioning from an L-sit into a V-sit is not just about lifting your legs higher – you also need to bring your hips farther forward. This means compressing your trunk by drawing your pelvis toward your sternum, and that requires significant abdominal activation, particularly when your legs are above you in the air. It can help to practice other exercises that involve this type of abdominal compression, like “toes-to-bar” hanging leg raises, to better get a feel for this.

I also recommend the “boat pose” from yoga, as it mimics the V-sit, while allowing you to stay seated on the ground. This makes the exercise considerably less difficult while still letting you get a feel for the body alignment needed for the V-sit.

V-sit Variations Collage 2

2 – Elevate Your Training
Practicing this move with your hands elevated on parallettes or yoga blocks can be helpful during your journey to the V-sit. Not only does holding onto something make it less brutal on your wrists, but it also gives you extra room for your hips and legs.

When I first started toying with the V-sit, I would begin by holding a bent-knee L-sit on my parallel bars. From there I started experimenting with sliding my hips forward in front of my hands. This helped me figure out that I needed to shift my weight back in order to move my hips into the proper position. From there I could practice leg extensions, gradually reaching my legs farther in the air each time.

3 – Stretch Your Way to Success
Though many people tend to skip this portion of their training, if a V-Sit is one of your goals then you will probably need to improve your hamstring flexibility.

The classic toe touch or forward fold is a great way to loosen the backs of your legs in preparation for the V-sit, and there are several ways in which you can approach it: You can bend over from a standing position, practice the gym-class style “sit and reach” while on the ground, or even try it hanging with your legs raised and feet hooked beneath the bar. I recommend spending some time in all of these positions as a warm-up for your V-sit practice, as well as throughout the day.

In the beginning, these moves can be practiced with a slight bend in your knees, or with your legs slightly apart. As your flexibility increases (where you can touch your toes without overly rounding your back), you can start to slowly straighten your knees and/or bring your legs together until you are in the full expression of each pose. You may find it helpful to exhale fully as you fold forward. When you reach your “edge,” focus on drawing your abdominal muscles inward to go deeper. It may be helpful to repeat this process several times.

Forward Bend Collage

4 – Use Helping Hands
When performing this move, proper hand positioning is important for success. If your hands are placed too far away from your body it will be difficult to generate tension between your arms and your torso. Furthermore, turning your hands out and pointing your fingers to the sides (or behind you) can allow you better leverage to lean back farther without tipping over. You can also practice “tenting” your hands to help you find a little extra clearance when you begin practicing the V-sit on the floor.

5 – Don’t Forget to “Tri”
There is an immense amount of triceps strength needed in order to do any type of L or V-Sit. You also need strong lats, a powerful chest and iron forearms. One of the best pieces of advice I’m continually reminded of every time I’m at a PCC event is to “get great at the basics.”

This means you need to do your push-ups, pull-ups, squats and knee raises. Anytime you find yourself at a plateau with a new skill, you can always return to these foundational exercises. Yes, you need proper technique and training to conquer the V-sit, but that journey begins with perfecting the basics.

The V-sit takes practice and patience to achieve, but you’ll never get there if you don’t try!

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Grace Kavadlo is a PCC Team Leader, personal trainer and group exercise instructor located in New York City. She is a columnist for Bodybuilding.com and can be seen in several Dragon Door books, including Al Kavadlo’s Zen Mind, Strong Body and Paul “Coach” Wade’s Explosive Calisthenics. For more information about Grace, check out her website, www.DieselGrace.com.

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

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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.

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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.

Grip Strength for Greater Triumphs

September 6, 2016 By Adrienne Harvey 13 Comments

Adrienne Harvey Senior PCC Grip Training

Many times we associate grip strength and grip training with those ubiquitous spring-tension grippers and strongman training. While I really enjoy grip training with heavy odd objects, giant kettlebells, etc. it’s also very possible to train for a monster grip using bodyweight training only. With just a little creativity, bodyweight grip training presents infinite variations and challenges—and you can do most of it just about anywhere.

Having a strong grip is a prerequisite to so many bar-based calisthenics exercises—if you can’t hang on long enough, then you won’t be able to do a meaningful number of reps. Beginners will often need to build up their grip strength, as modern life and desk-based jobs don’t seem to test or build our grip.

As many PCC instructors and instructor candidates already know, grip strength is essential to passing the Century Test—you’ve got to be able to hang out on that bar for a while to do those twenty knee raises. In the excitement of testing, those twenty knee raises can seem to take a very long time, and you’ve got to hang on for every single one of them. Then, after the knee raises, the guys still need to do 10 pull-ups, and the ladies have to do their 10 Aussie pull-ups as well.

Convict Conditioning Vol. 2 remains one of my absolute favorites, and that’s not just because of the flags, it’s also the focus on grip training. The book begins with a comprehensive guide to hand and grip strength, and every time I look at it, it gives me more new ideas for training, some of which are presented below.

All Angles and Surfaces

At the PCC and in the Convict Conditioning book series, you’ll notice that there’s a variety of grips demonstrated—the “tactical” no-thumbs overhand grip most commonly seen on pull-ups, overhand with thumb wrapped, the chin-up grip with palms facing you, neutral grip with palms facing each other, wide grips, narrow grips, just a few fingers on each hand, two-arm, one-arm, finger-tip grips, and more.

Adrienne Harvey Bar Grip Training Collage — A few examples of the nearly infinite number of bodyweight grip training options.

Inspired by old time strongman training—which, properly scaled, is great for absolutely everyone—Paul Wade even includes adding a towel (and later two towels) to timed hangs for an extra challenge. A towel is hard to grip and hang from given its large diameter when bunched up, and because the hand is challenged in a less-familiar and surprisingly challenging vertical orientation.

One day, frustrated by the lack of a plain straight pull-up bar in a commercial gym, I came up with the following variation. I put one hand on one handle, but then looped a small hand towel around another one, then did a short set of 5-6 pull-ups. I made sure to switch sides every other set. It was a great grip challenge and can be done most anywhere.

I’m always looking for new places to do pull-ups. While my city is not constantly covered in scaffolding like NYC, I have been able to find great grip-challenging pull-up spots like I-beams, vertical rafters (very difficult, just doing short hangs there), open stairwell stairs, hand-only rope and pole climbs and more. The next time you visit a playground with young relatives, look around for grip challenge opportunities.

Chamber Press Neutral Grip — This is a favorite place to practice flag regressions like the chamber press. The “easier” neutral grip lets me focus on the rest of the movement.

One of my all-time favorite tips from Zach Even-Esh, author of The Encyclopedia of Underground Strength and Conditioning, is to vary the grip on each set of pull-ups (or push-ups) in a workout. Towards your last sets, you might be forced to get very creative.

Speaking of push-ups, if you haven’t tried, them, Neuro-Grip push-ups are a fantastic challenge of yet another angle of grip strength and training. I’ve found that the focus and strength required from them has helped with other exercises like dips, etc. on rings and even when performed on parallel dip bars.

Neuro-Grip push-ups Your Grip = Your Health?

Recent studies have found that grip strength is often an indicator of health. While it seems to be generally accepted that our grip strength declines as we get older, this is yet another opportunity to rebel against the mainstream. We can build up, increase, and maintain our grip strength into our later years if we keep training intelligently. Good health, grip strength and general strength will help us remain safe and independent in our senior years. That sounds good to me even now.

It Goes Both Ways: Train Your Extensors!

Adrienne Harvey Fingertip Pushups

Keeping our hands healthy means that it’s also important to “go the other way” too. In workouts which really emphasize grip training, I like to pair a grip intensive exercise with another exercise that either stretches or challenges the extensors—basically a superset. The extensor exercise can be something as simple as a well executed straight arm plank for time, push-ups, frog or crow stand, handstands if appropriate—or if you’re ready for it, you may want to experiment with fingertip straight arm planks or push-ups at this time too. There’s really no limit to the level of difficulty. It’s important to be patient and gentle though, as fingers seem to take a while to strengthen, and just a second to injure.

Here’s a sample combination from the last part of a favorite at-home workout:

45 second pull-up bar straight arm hang
30 second or longer crow stand
rest
60 second pull-up bar straight arm hang
45 second or longer crow stand
rest
90 second (or keep going for a max PR) pull-up bar straight arm hang
45-60 second straight arm plank

Grip Confidence and Breaking Through Mental Barriers

This last section might not apply to everyone, but I’ve observed both with myself and others that once we really begin to work on—and TRUST—our grip strength, then we’re often suddenly able to make a lot more progress on the skills which were otherwise right at the edge of our abilities. Getting the vertical chamber press and the next few human flag steps after it (human flag with one leg straight, one leg bent) were absolutely dependent on my confidence in my grip. I knew I had the strength, especially through the core, but in the past, kicking all the way up to vertical was fairly iffy. Turns out, my brain was putting the breaks on. Training my grip while still working on the rest of those progressions (but with a stall-bar-based neutral grip) was key. After finally putting the pieces back together, I’ve been able to reliably do the move on the first try and I’ve still been (slowly) progressing forward.

Adrienne Harvey PCC One Leg Flag

Is there a bar or vertical pole move that’s proved extra challenging for you? Could it be improved with a stronger grip and/or greater grip confidence?

Please share your experiences and questions in the comments below.

Train STRONG!
Adrienne

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Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC Instructor, RKC-II, CK-FMS, has been RKC Certified since 2010, and RKC Level 2 certified since 2011. Kettlebell and bodyweight training have been crucial in Adrienne’s personal quest for fitness. A core member of the PCC team, Adrienne loves sharing her knowledge with small groups and individuals. She also loves to develop recipes and workout programs to further support performance, body composition, and of course—FUN. Visit her website, GiryaGirl.com for workouts, recipes, and more.

A Twist to the Push-up: Introducing the Intrinsic Strength Push-up

August 16, 2016 By Angelo Grinceri 11 Comments

Angelo Grinceri IST Push-Up

Men and women of all fitness levels are familiar with the push-up and its ability to challenge and build full body strength and muscle. There are many ways to regress and progress the push-up to fit the needs of any everyday athlete. Regressing the push-up’s difficulty can be as simple as changing the angle of the body or adding the use of your knees for a closer point of contact to redirect weight away from the upper body and arms. Progressing the push-up to a more advanced variation can consist of changing or removing an extremity position, adding an external resistance, and changing the angle of the body to redirect more weight into the upper body and arms. Each push-up progression delivers a unique challenge (as with most functional exercises) that can be felt throughout the arms, shoulders, chest, back, and especially the core.

As progression remains a staple focus to any athlete’s training program, the need to challenge the body further than performing more repetitions or adding more resistance to the same exercise over and over again becomes a necessity.

So we start to add variations. As your strength and ability within the push-up progresses, you will be challenged with different positions and fewer points of contact. Each variation will bring a different challenge to the body.

Some of my favorite push-progressions are explained in depth within the PCC; such as the archer push-up, the pike press, and the 1-arm push-up.

Each of these push-variations changes the body’s position, changing the way the extremities and core integrate when challenged throughout each repetition—stimulating the body’s soft tissue (muscle, ligaments, tendons, fascia, and skin) in a different way through various ranges of motion.

Anti-Rotation Variations

Standard strength training and muscle building exercises focus on performing repetitions in the sagittal plane. One way to progress an exercise in the sagittal plane is by adding a unilateral component, increasing the difficulty that is felt throughout the entire body. Some examples of unilateral variations are a 1-arm plank compared to a standard plank and a 1-arm push-up compared to a standard push-up.

Both of these unilateral variations require extreme muscular tension that originates in the deep core and radiates out through the extremities to integrate the body as one unit; this is known as bracing. Bracing improves muscular integration, muscular strength, joint stability, and joint alignment — allowing the body to fight off the external forces that want to pull your unsupported side down to the ground. When a point of contact is removed in the push-up position, bracing the entire body tight is what allows the body to remain horizontal. Fighting against the forces of gravity and resistance wanting to pull the body a certain way is known as Anti-Rotation.

Without bracing the body for anti-rotation it would be nearly impossible to remain horizontal while performing a 1-arm plank and 1-arm Push-up.

Posi-Rotation Variations

What about training the body through rotation? I would like to introduce a Posi-Rotation variation to our classic strength training exercises. Pose-Rotation variations such as the Intrinsic Strength Push-up challenge the body to maintain core tension and joint stability as the body rotates in the transverse plane while on the ground.

Angelo Grinceri IST Diagram Page Our multifaceted, dynamic body moves in three dimensions with every step we take. The standard function of walking requires a synergistic rotation of the shoulders, spine, and hips. Whenever watching the body move, the transverse plane will always be in “plane” sight.

Since our spine rotates with every step that we take, All humans should be incorporating transverse plane training into their daily workouts.

Training the spine to rotate safely with control is an excellent way to stimulate the body’s ligaments, tendons, muscles, and fascia differently than a regular strict push-up.

Adding a rotational variation to this classic strength exercise will facilitate a different stimulation of soft tissue, leading to a more able body that is stronger in more positions while on the ground and standing.

As the body rotates through each repetition, the arms and shoulders have to adjust to the rotating torso – adding lots of variability throughout the entire body with different leverage points, ranges of motion, and body weight displacement.

Angelo Grinceri IST Push-Up Collage — Start incorporating the *Intrinsic Strength* Push-up as a simple transverse plane (global rotation) variant to your push-up arsenal.

The Intrinsic Strength Push-Up:

IST push-up variations deliver a unique challenge to any athlete from beginner to advanced. This push-up progression stimulates and strengthens the horizontal press with global rotation.

Intrinsic Strength Push-ups offer three variations to the horizontal pushing motion during the same set without having to change the position of the hands. This simple eye gaze over the right and left shoulder allows the muscles to stay engaged, providing the body with great T.U.T. ( Time Under Tension) while still delivering a variation. Improving strength and muscle throughout the chest, shoulders, back, arms and core is only possible through physical adaptation from Time Under Tension. The more time spent working the position, the more the body adapts to that position.

This horizontal rotation is performed by lowering down to the bottom of the push-up while simultaneously taking the eye’s gaze over one of the shoulders. This transverse plane variation causes the shoulders, torso, and hips to rotate to that same side, changing the weight distribution through the arms.

IST Push-ups Over Shoulder

How To Perform the Intrinsic Strength Push-Up

Start with your feet in a bilateral stance, shoulder width apart.
Walk both hands out on the floor until you are in a plank position.
While lowering down to the bottom of the first push-up, simultaneously take your gaze over your right shoulder and return to the high plank position.
Do a regular push-up, after returning back to the high plank position
While lowering down to the bottom of the third push-up, simultaneously take your gaze over your left shoulder and return to the high plank position.

Angelo’s Advice

Allow every joint to help with the full body rotation.
Your eyes will direct your head, shoulders, spine, and hips to rotate towards the same focal point (above the shoulder).
Actively apply pressure into the ground through your legs and feet to create lower body tension.
Actively apply pressure into the ground through your shoulders and fingers to create upper body tension.
This extremity tension will radiate through the core – ensuring core tension and more muscular activation.

When turning the head over the right shoulder, you will notice that:

More weight and tension will shift into the left shoulder.
A stretch will be felt throughout the left chest

Perform a series of three push ups to complete one repetition of an IST push up.
First push-up: look over the right shoulder.
Second push-up: look in-between your hands.
Third push-up: look over left shoulder.

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Angelo Grinceri, PCC, FAFS, is the author of Intrinsic Strength: A Breakthrough Program for Real-World Functional Strength and True Athletic Power Angelo’s fitness journey started with a focus on aesthetics and bodybuilding. As he grew as an athlete and coach he started to focus on strength training, corrective exercise, and athletic function. He realized a connection was needed between these different modalities and Intrinsic Strength Training® was born. Based in NYC, he can be contacted through his website, IntrinsicStrengthTraining.com. Follow him on Youtube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for Angelo’s Advice and follow-along workouts.

Partner Calisthenics: It’s Still Bodyweight Training!

June 28, 2016 By Al Kavadlo and Danny Kavadlo 13 Comments

Kavadlo Brothers Front Levers

We’ve often said that the possibilities are limitless when it comes to bodyweight training. Beyond all of the variations and combinations of calisthenics exercises that can keep one busy for a lifetime, the realm of partner bodyweight training opens up an entirely new avenue to explore. Though we recommend a solid foundation in bodyweight basics like push-ups, pull-ups and squats before attempting these moves, once you have established a baseline of strength and body awareness, you can have fun playing with these partner variants.

When performing coordinated bodyweight exercises in tandem with another human being, the proprioceptive challenges are increased, and you are forced to pay extra attention not only to your own movements, but those of your partner as well. The following exercises are all about communication and working as a team. Both parties must use their entire bodies in distinct ways to achieve success in this arena. Remember to switch roles with your partner when practicing these exercises, as each person’s role is different within each move and experiencing both sides of the equation will lead to a more well rounded training session.

So grab a friend and let’s get started! Hey hey hey – it’s still bodyweight training!

Human Flag and Human Flag Pole
This is the exercise that the Kavadlo brothers first became known for in the Dragon Door community. We appeared on the cover of Paul Wade’s Convict Conditioning 2 performing this feat which went on to become a signature exercise for us. The book also went on to become one of Dragon Door’s best-selling titles and has since been published in nearly a dozen languages. People all over the world have now seen this iconic image immortalized on that infamous cover.

German Convict Conditioning

The human flag is impressive enough when performed on a steel pole, but when it’s performed on another human being it is even more amazing!

At first glance, it’s easy to discern that the flagger has some extra work on his hands. Obviously, no one’s skin is completely taut, no matter how hard they train, so the flagger must constantly adjust his grip—and many other nuances—to the uncontrollable wavering of his partner’s skin.

The flagger must also be extremely conscious of where he places his hands. The lower hand should be placed close to the foot to maximize stability. If you put it too high, not only will you put yourself in a mechanically disadvantageous position, you may snap your partner’s shinbone!

The partner being flagged upon (the human flag pole) faces an enormous task as well. First of all, you’ve got to be as solid as a rock—both physically and in your mental focus—for someone to flag off of you. Secondly, be prepared to subtly lean away from the flagger as they lift their feet off the ground to get into position. Failure to counter the flagger’s weight will result in both of you toppling over. Extend your free arm to help strike a balance.

Reverse Human Flag and Human Flag Pole
Though still a challenging move in its own right, this “foot flag” variant can be more suited to intermediate level practitioners than the previous incarnation. Unlike the original human flag and human flag pole combination that put us Kavadlos on the map, which is harder than it looks, this variant is actually less difficult than it may appear.

Kavadlo Brothers Partner Calisthenics

Begin by having the person who will be the “pole” stand with feet together and knees partially bent. The flagger will then proceed to hold their partner’s hand(s) for stability as they step one foot up on top to their partner’s thighs. (Try to keep your feet low down on your partner’s thighs and close to the knees for a more solid foundation.) From there, the flagger will carefully slide their opposite foot behind their partner’s head (the partner can use his or her hand to help) and begin extending the body outward, while actively flexing that foot toward the partner’s neck for stability. When both people are ready, you may slowly begin to release the hands.

As with the previous variation, the person acting as the pole must lean in the opposite direction of the flagger in order to provide a counterbalance. It is important that the partner lean back from the hip and extend from the back, rather than solely at the knees, to provide the right leverage for this balance.

Partner Shoulder Stand
For those of you who feel that the previous exercises may be too advanced, the partner shoulder stand can be a slightly less intimidating place to start.

Begin on your back, with both arms in the air above your shoulders. Lift your feet with your knees bent to around 90 degrees, then have your partner stand below you and grab the tops of your shins. From there, they will lower their upper traps/shoulders into your hands and begin shifting their weight forward off of their feet. Keeping your elbows locked, press away from your chest like you are locking out a push-up as your partner shifts their weight entirely into your hands. The person on top should aim to get their hips in the air above their shoulders, eventually lifting themselves into a full inversion, supported only on the knees and hands of the other person.

Partner Shoulder Stand

Biceps Curl Front Lever
This is the feat that we can be seen performing on the cover of our new ebook Street Workout. While the standard front lever is already a difficult bodyweight challenge in its own right, performing it while hanging from the arm of another human being can pose an additional challenge.

First and foremost, the person acting as the base must keep a solid footing. From there, bend at the biceps of the arm to be levered upon until your forearm is parallel to the ground. Be prepared to keep complete body tension all over, particularly in this arm, as it will be supporting the entire weight of your partner.

At this point, the person performing the front lever needs to grip said forearm with all the strength he or she can muster. A mixed grip (overhand/underhand combo) is recommended to combat the elasticity of the skin. As is the case with the aforementioned Human Flag and Human Flag Pole, a bar is much more rigid than the epidermis. Now both partners need to maintain tension in the arms, abs, legs, glutes and shoulders as the party performing the front lever moves into position, keeping their arms locked out at the elbow and body parallel to the ground, while maintaining a straight line from shoulders to hips to feet.

It’s very common for people to inadvertently fold at the hips when attempting the front lever. Do your best to avoid this pitfall by looking at your toes to make sure you are maintaining a straight line from shoulders to heels. Smiles and scowls optional.

These exercises are just the tip of the iceberg. Watch the video below for more!

Coaching and Using Powerful Push-up Elbow Positions

May 17, 2016 By Adrienne Harvey 29 Comments

I’m pretty sure there hasn’t been a PCC or SCC workshop where the following question hasn’t come up:

“Where do I put my elbows during the push-up?”

Or if it isn’t asked, there’s always more than a handful of people who need some coaching on elbow placement with the push-up.

Al’s answer is a real winner, and we can all benefit from hearing and reviewing it. Basically, you want to make sure your elbows stay below your shoulders. Keeping them way out at a 90 degree angle to your torso is not ideal, but they don’t have to be right next to the body either. For most people, the ideal arm position will create somewhere between a 0-60 degree angle between the upper arm and the torso.

The good news is the range of 0-60 degrees allows each of us to find a strong and comfortable place, but by intentionally varying the angle in our sessions we can recruit different muscle groups more intensely. Generally speaking within this safe range, when the elbows are close to the sides as on the left photo above, there’s more emphasis on the triceps and front delts. When the degree is greater, we can experience a little more recruitment of the pectorals.

There’s several reasons that the elbow issue keeps coming up, and will probably continue to be up for discussion with trainers and enthusiasts alike. Here are three of the bigger reasons:

There are a LOT of heavily used stock photos of people doing push-ups with their arms way out at big 90-degree angles. This is actually a huge pet peeve of mine because you’ll see these photos in well known, famous magazines and advertisements for everything from workout wear to every supplement you can imagine. The most extreme example I’ve seen was a (at least we were told) highly converting photo chosen to promote my friend’s boot camp. The woman in the stock photo had her elbows cranked out to such a degree that doing a push-up from that picture-posed position looked physically impossible!I could continue with more examples, but you get the idea—we’re all surrounded by tons of strange visual examples of something as simple as a push-up. It’s easy for even experienced exercisers to start thinking that this super-wide elbow angle is a preferred position, considering how often we see it in supposedly authoritative mainstream books, magazines, ads, etc. for men and women!

Elbows up too high can put shearing force on the shoulder joints, etc. I hated even taking this picture. OUCH!

The elbows can sneak out and up when someone has moved ahead to a more difficult variation too quickly. I’ve also seen many people start out with a great elbow position, then as they fatigue, the elbows start coming forward as compensation. At the same time, you’ll see their head jut forward to the ground as another, often simultaneous compensation. Beginners can sometimes be so focused on hitting a particular rep goal, that they won’t even feel these compensations happening.That’s where you, as a great instructor can help out.
If you are training on your own, check in from time to time by shooting a short video (just for you) on your phone and checking your form. Whenever I feel like something is “off” with any given exercise, I get out the camera, it’s a great tool. When you’re coaching a client and they’re doing well, you can also shoot short videos of them on their own phones—they will now have that as a reference (they’ll also probably proudly show it to their friends and end up sending you referrals). It takes everyone some time to build the body awareness to know when the form is breaking down. This is part of why it’s so important NOT to rush through the beginning steps of any calisthenics exercise.

I’m sad that we need to bring up this third reason. As with the “squat depth” debate there still are still plenty of dogmatic trainers out there who are insisting that “there can only be one” (true for the Highlander, but not for elbow position) correct elbow position for everyone all the time. So, feel free to break free from the “right and wrong” dogma and find your effective elbow placements within that generous 0-60% angle area. Experiment, have fun, and don’t do anything that hurts!

The important thing to remember (and which is stressed at both the SCC and PCC) is that the exact elbow position will vary with each person. It can even be fun to challenge yourself within this range after you’re comfortable with your own ideal elbow position. Always remember to think of pointing your “elbow pits” forward at the top of the push-up, and the points of your elbows aimed at your feet or toes. This will help maintain your position and keep the reps nice and productive for building strength and habits.

Point the elbow pits forward at the top of your push ups

What if someone can’t perform a push-up without putting the elbows way up high with their shoulders crushing their ears? This simply means they’ll need to work on an earlier step in the progression until they have enough strength. Push-ups on railings are great for teaching the elbow position while building the requisite strength. Be extra sure that the hands are placed in line with and below the shoulders, no matter what surface is used. Knee pushups performed with absolute precision are also very useful for gaining the strength and habit of a healthy elbow/shoulder position.

The same idea applies for the often-maligned, but still very effective knee push up…

It also applies to the raised push-up step…

Let’s start with the “smallest” angle. This is with the arms right next to the body—even touching. Yoga enthusiasts may recognize this position as similar to when they perform the chaturanga series of movements. The hands are almost automatically placed right under the shoulders with this position too. It’s a very stable feeling for most people. If I’m going for high reps, or am helping a student activate and use the whole of their torso (lats, serratus), then this is a great go-to position.

People with large lats from serious pull-up habits, as well as those who may have a few pounds to lose will naturally need to take their arms a little further away from the body. They will of course need to still be sure to engage the lats, keep the shoulders away from the ears and maintain a plank position and tension throughout the body.

Paying attention to elbow placement VERY much applies for the more advanced variations like this feet raised push up. A good elbow angle will ensure that you don’t face plant when you first progress to this variation.

Taking the elbows out to a 45 degree or larger angle will usually be a choice of personal preference given physiology, or a choice made to make the exercise different or a little more difficult. We know that taking the hands out wider past the shoulders will be more challenging for most as well. When you’re ready, explore different hand positions, and then prepare to progress to a really fun intermediate/advanced push-up, the archer push-up.

Danny Kavadlo performing a precision demonstration of the archer push-up at a recent PCC workshop.

No matter what elbow angle is best for you, a real power-booster with the push up is the idea of having a spiraling feeling throughout the arm, and especially with the hands through the ground. A useful cue for this is to have your fingers pointing forwards, but at the top of the push-up, your “elbow pits” (see earlier phoot) will also be pointing forward. In a pinch—like those last few crucial reps of the Century Test—this spiraling feeling can make the difference between pass and fail.

Figuring out your optimal elbow angle can also lead to great success with the intermediate/advanced variations below, and of course your path to the one-arm push-up:

Close push-ups are safer and more effective when the elbow placement is right for you.

Neuro-Grip Push-Ups are nearly impossible without good elbow placement. — Neuro-Grip push-ups are nearly impossible without good elbow placement.

And the scary-looking back of the wrist push-ups (work up to these gently and only if appropriate for you) simply DEMAND proper form…or else!

Hopefully these ideas will help you and your clients/students continue to get strong and progress with the eternally useful, do-anywhere push-up. Please share your experiences in the comments below.

Train STRONG!
Adrienne

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Adrienne will be leading a one-day SCC (Strength Calisthenics Certification) Workshop in Gaithersburg, MD next month, and joining the Kavadlos at the PCC in New York next month as well. There are still a few spots available for each workshop, sign up today.

The Centerline Principle of Strength & Power

April 26, 2016 By Matt Schifferle 20 Comments

Matt Schifferle Centerline

I first learned about the magic of the centerline principle in martial arts. Everything from powerful kicks to dodging punches involved moving in relation to the center of my body as well as the center of my opponent.

As it turns out, the centerline is not only the key to powerful kicks but also developing strength and muscle when applied to progressive calisthenics.

Technically, your body has 3 center lines, one for each plane of movement. The scope of this post is focusing on the centerline that divides your right and left side along the sagittal plane.

Each plane has its own centerline. This article focuses on the frontal plane centerline. — Each plane has its own centerline. This article focuses on the sagittal plane centerline.

Focusing on your centerline is critical towards your strength and muscle building efforts. It opens the door towards developing more muscle control as well as improved performance. It also greatly reduces stress around your joints. Even your balance and agility will greatly improve by directing your muscle tension towards your centerline.

MattSchifferleMusculardiagram The image to the right shows how the muscles are arranged to direct muscle tension inwards towards the centerline. Almost every muscle has at least a few muscle fibers that direct force inwards towards the spine. This is yet another reason to practice back bridge progressions, as they develop all of the muscles in this image. While the bridge is classically described as a move for the posterior chain, it is also one of the best techniques for developing tension towards the centerline.

Knowing about the centerline is good, but it’s even more important to know how to use it in practical application. Below are three lessons on how to apply the centerline principle in your training.

Lesson #1: Avoid the “splat”

The centerline principal works because it encourages the tension in your muscles to converge between the right and left halves of your body. This serves as a powerful transfer of physical energy up against gravity.

You can find evidence of this even in nature, as anything that has been pushed up against the force of gravity is the result of two converging forces. A common example is the Rocky Mountains here in my home state, which were formed through converging forces deep within the earth pushing upward.

Converging forces push mountains up against the pull of gravity, just as they lift you up as well.

On the contrary, an object that does not have converging force holding it together eventually flattens out. A quick example is dropping a snowball or a glass bottle against a concrete sidewalk. As gravity pulls against the object and it meets an unyielding surface, the matter of the object spreads outwards. This is what I call the “splat effect” and it can happen to your body anytime you are working against gravity.

Gravity causes objects to spread out against the ground or floor. In this push up, I have to use my chest muscles to keep my elbows from spreading outwards.

Through directing your muscle tension towards your centerline you gain stability and muscle control so you can more effectively drive yourself up against the pull of gravity.

Lesson #2: Progressively apply force closer to your centerline

Many of the progressions in Convict Conditioning involve moving the hands and feet closer together. Close push-ups and squats are a great example of this. When you employ this style of progression you are putting force in a more direct perpendicular line against gravity. This brings you a host of benefits including greater flexibility, balance, muscle control plus more range of motion in the joints. It also forces you to be stronger since you are pushing your centerline in the most direct vector against gravity for the greatest distance possible.

Going narrow in grip or stance is a great way to make use of the centerline principle.

It’s important to understand that simply pulling your hands or feet closer to your centerline is only part of the progression. You also want to pull your elbows and knees closer in as well. To a certain degree, you can even pull your shoulders and hips in slightly. I like to think of trying to make myself as narrow as possible. This helps me draw myself inward sort of like a guy sucking in his gut on the beach, only now I’m pulling myself in sideways as opposed to front to back.

Lesson #3: “Screw” your limbs inwards

Many of the muscles in the legs and arms “wrap” around your body’s bones and joints, sort of like stripes on a candy cane. Even muscles that look like they run straight up and down the limb have an origin and insertion point that is slightly offset from one another. The reason for this is to partially create inward torque along the limb as you move about. This inward torque is very important for creating that converging force within the body when doing unilateral movement such as throwing a ball or taking a step.

Screwing in your limbs is a little counter intuitive at first because your arms and legs torque in opposite directions to one another. Your right arm and left leg torque in clockwise while your left arm and right leg torque counterclockwise. It’s sort of confusing at first, so I just keep in mind that the knees and elbows both torque inwards. The knees torque in towards your centerline as they bend in front of you, while your elbows toque inwards as they bend behind you.

As the elbows torque in or out the tension in the back follows towards or away from the centerline.

It’s important to note that torquing your legs inwards doesn’t mean your knees cave inwards. When your torque is applied there should be very little lateral movement in both the knees and the elbows. This is why I refer to applying limb torque as “locking up” the limb. It makes it stiff and stable just like twisting a towel makes it stiffer.

MattSchifferleTowel1 — Lock it up! Applying torque on your legs or arms will make them more stable.

Lock it up! Applying torque on your legs or arms will make them more stable.

If you can apply all three of these centerline lessons you’ll quickly discover more strength, stability, and power than you’ve had before. More importantly, your strength will become more functional and you’ll prevent joint stress that will erode your health and vitality. Just like any aspect of progressive calisthenics, using the centerline principle takes time and practice, so be patient with it. Also, look for opportunities to apply it even if it doesn’t impact the moving limbs. You’ll be amazed at how torquing in your arms can improve abdominal activation with hanging knee raises. Keeping your hands together is also a great way to make narrow and single leg squats more challenging.

Best of luck with your training and let me know if you have any questions down below in the comments!

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Matt Schifferle a.k.a. The Fit Rebel made a switch to calisthenics training 5 years ago in an effort to rehab his weight lifting injuries. Since then he’s been on a personal quest to discover and teach the immense benefits of advanced body weight training. You can find some of his unique bodyweight training methods at RedDeltaProject.com and on his YouTube channel: RedDeltaProject.

How To Get Better At Pull-Ups

March 29, 2016 By Al Kavadlo 27 Comments

Al Kavadlo Pull Up

Pull-ups are my favorite exercise. I started practicing them at age 13 and throughout my lifetime I’ve pulled my chin over a horizontal bar more times than I can count. That’s probably why I’m good at them.

But that’s not the case for everyone. In fact, for many PCC candidates, the pull-up is the most difficult and intimidating part of the Century Test. Its placement at the end of the 100 rep sequence only adds to the challenge, but this is no accident. If you want to be a PCC instructor, you must be able to perform 10 proper pull-ups even when you are fatigued.

While there are no secrets or shortcuts in the world of calisthenics, if you feel like you’ve plateaued on pull-ups, there are certain techniques and training methods that may help you blast through those barriers and take your pull-up game to new heights. I’ll share a few ideas with you below, but before we move on, let’s be clear about how the PCC defines a proper pull-up:

The classic overhand grip is encouraged, though the underhand or “chin-up” grip is allowed during Century testing.
The shoulders may be relaxed at the bottom of the rep when the elbows are fully extended, but the scapulae should retract and depress as the rep begins.
The chin must fully clear the bar at the top, and a full extension of the elbows is required at the bottom. The body must also remain relatively straight throughout, with minimal hip or knee flexion.
Though you obviously have to lean back a bit to avoid hitting your head on the bar at the top of your pull-up, your torso should not travel very far forward or backward.

Tighten Up
One of the biggest mistakes people make when performing pull-ups is thinking of the movement purely as an arms exercise. Of course you involve your arms to a great degree when performing any type of pull-up, but the muscles of your back, shoulders, chest, abs and more all play their part. As such, it can help to focus on maintaining tension throughout your entire body as you pull your chin over the bar. Grip tightly with your hands, tense your abs, squeeze your glutes and flex your quads as your drive your elbows toward your hips to fully utilize your lats during the pull. Focus on maintaining total body tension during the descent as well in order to avoid picking up unwanted momentum.

Hang On
The “rest/pause method” is an old-school technique to increase your reps on just about any exercise, and it can be especially useful for pull-ups, particularly once you can do several in a row. After a brief warm-up, simply do as many proper pull-ups as you can, then continue to hang on the bar for a few seconds. After you catch your breath, try to squeeze out one more pull-up, then hang on for a bit longer, take a few more breaths, and try for one more. You might be surprised at how many extra reps you can manage this way, plus you will get additional grip work from all the extra hanging.

Al Kavadlo Pull Up

Pull-Up Pyramid
Implementing a pyramid protocol is a fun way to incorporate a fairly high volume of pull-ups without sacrificing proper technique. The idea is to gradually increase, and then gradually decrease the amount of reps you perform in each of several consecutive sets.

Begin by doing one pull-up, then come off the bar and take a short break. Next, perform two pull-ups, then after another break, do three. As the sets get longer, the breaks between them should get longer, too. Continue this pattern until you reach the point where you can no longer add another rep with proper form, then start working your way back down.

Pull-up Superset
A superset involves taking two exercises and performing them back-to-back with little to no rest in between. Typically the harder exercise goes first and when fatigue is reached, you switch to the less difficult exercise.

A great way to apply this concept toward improving your pull-ups is to perform a set of Australian pull-ups (aka bodyweight rows) immediately following a set of standard pull-ups. Take a long break, then repeat the superset again.

This method allows you to continue to work your pulling muscles once you can no longer perform any more pull-ups. You can do this 3-4 times in a single workout, but you’ll probably want to give your upper-body a day or two of rest afterward.

Learn To Love It
More than any specific training template or method, consistency and effort will always be the two primary factors that determine success. You have to spend a lot of time doing pull-ups in order to get good at them. There’s no substitute for hard work. Learn to embrace your pull-up practice and in time you may even learn to love doing pull-ups as much as I do.

Al Kavadlo Pull Up