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PCC Australia – The Experience of The Century

March 25, 2014 By Darren Manser 26 Comments

Darren_ManserWhen I signed up for the first ever PCC Australia, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I didn’t find out about the event until fairly late,  so I only had 3 weeks to get ready for The Century.

The first time I attempted the test, I completed the 100 reps in 8 minutes and 50 seconds. Not bad. I’ll be able to shave those 50 seconds off in the next three weeks, I thought. I decided to send Andrew Read from Dragon Door Australia an email to make sure I was doing it right. Andrew responded to my email very quickly.

“100 repetitions need to be completed within 8 minutes.  Once you start the exercise you cannot stop until the desired reps are completed.  You must complete ALL ten chin ups in a row.”

Crap, Crap, Crap. I thought I was able to stop throughout the set.

Three weeks out my max rep chin ups was a whopping eight reps. And that was fresh, with no hanging knee raises before.  How the hell am I going to do 10 chin ups AFTER holding onto the bar to do 20 hanging knee raises–especially at the end of three days of attempting all sorts of new and interesting techniques?

I then stumbled across Coach Wade’s article about kicking ass in the Convict Conditioning certification. Ideally you need to do 50% more for each activity prior to the weekend.

How the hell was I going to do that? I decided I was just going to keep doing the Century. I’d stop all other training and simply practice the test.

In the beginning I did the century morning and night for two days straight.  What a stupid idea!  As a result of me being 105kg (231lbs), I’m way too heavy to jump into that much volume.  I was now way too sore and the PCC was getting way too close.

After a couple of days with no training, it was time to rethink the strategy and start again.

My new strategy was to do as much work as I possibly could whilst staying as fresh as I could so I decided to do ladder super-sets.  I combined the squats and the push-ups and then the hanging knee raises and the chin ups.  I based the ratios on what was coming up in the PCC.  It looked something like this:

Squat:      4, 8, 12, 16, 20

Push up:  3, 6,   9, 12, 15

Squat:      4, 8, 12, 16, 20

Push up:  3, 6,   9, 12, 15

Squat:      4, 8, 12, 16

Push up:  3, 6,   9, 12

Squat:      4, 8, 12

Push up:  3, 6,   9

This adds up to a total of 184 squats and 138 push ups.  All done with excellent form (at the time I thought I was doing a brilliant job, that was of course until I did the PCC and realized how you can polish every little technique to get more out of it).

The ladders for the hanging knee raises and the chin ups looked like this.

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6, 8

Chin ups:       1, 2, 3, 4

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6, 8

Chin ups:       1, 2, 3, 4

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6

Chin ups:       1, 2, 3

Knee Raises: 2, 4

Chin ups:       1, 2

Knee Raises: 2

Chin ups:       1

Total hanging knee raises: 60 reps

Total chin ups: 30 reps

Ideally I would rest for a couple of minutes in between ladders, although sometimes the morning permitted this and sometimes it didn’t.  Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I have 6 children and I also run my own Natural therapies business, as a Naturopath, Acupuncturist and Kinesiologist.  So between my sets I would lift up my 3 youngest children (Bodhi 4, Tyson 3 and Ruby 15 months) up onto the chin up bar, so they could hang.  Or I would hold their feet and they would do a handstand.

I would do the routine three or four mornings in a row and then have a rest day. I made a deal with myself that I wouldn’t test myself again with the chin ups before the weekend. I simply didn’t have enough time to recover from a training session like that.  I was however, hoping and praying that the adrenaline from the event and the other attendees cheering would help raise me over the bar.

Finally, it was off to Melbourne for me.

The Course was AMAZING.  On the first morning, the first thing we did was the hollow position.  We drilled this again and again.  Then we applied that position to almost everything that we did.  WOW!! It is totally amazing how much better a push up feels whilst doing this. I even feel my poor little abdominals now whilst push-upping.

Then onto the next exercise, then the next exercise.  Every single section we did across the weekend, I had a first.  There was not one activity that I didn’t improve on.

The weekend flew.  The generosity of both Al and Danny was definitely one of the highlights of both the course and my life.  The support from the other attendees was amazing.

Sunday afternoon we arrived at the Century test.  There were a lot of fine looking specimens in the room.  My heart rate was jacked.  My palms were sweaty.  How on earth was I going to hang onto the bar–let alone do the test?  I had a massive feeling of letting down Al and Danny if I couldn’t do it.  I also thought I was letting down my kids, particularly my boys.  (I want to be a good role model for them).

As I watched the other people do the Century I was inspired.  Some people were amazing.  Some people were only just getting through.  A couple of others were not making it.  Then for some reason I thought, “The best thing I can do is the best that I can do.”  If I hadn’t prepared enough then that’s my fault.

Finally it was my turn to test.  I decided to take it nice and easy.  I started with getting to 30 squats and decided to have a rest in the top position.  (Once you start the set you can’t move your feet with the squats, shift your hand and lift your bum in the push ups or let go of the bar with the hanging knee raises and the chin ups.  Although you are allowed to let go of the bar in between the hanging leg raises and the chin ups).  Then I did another 10 squats until Andrew, my counter, says, “You’re done with the squats.” This caught me off guard – for some reason I thought I had to do 50. No complaints here!

On to the push ups! I waited maybe 30 seconds to allow my heart rate to fall slightly and then started my set.  I moved to 15 reps.  I stopped in the top of the push up position, took  a few breaths, then did 5 more repetitions to make 20.  Then 10 singles from 20 to 30.  YES!!!! The push ups were now done.

From the push ups I moved straight across to the hanging knee raises.  I wanted to get them done as quickly as possible so that I could have a long recovery before the pull-ups. I’d been practicing hanging knee raises a lot in the last three weeks and I actually got through them easier than I expected. All that was left was the pull-ups!

I had a lot of time left on the clock, so I took full advantage of it. I shook out the tension in the arms as much as I possibly could. I caught my breath and let my heart rate slow down. Before I knew it I was down to one minute and it was time to start the pull-ups.

I positioned my hands on the bar and started my first few repetitions. When I made it to 6 repetitions, I remember thinking, “I can’t believe it, only four to go!”  I pulled really hard  again – now only three repetitions left.  Pulled hard again for number eight.  Two to go!!! By this time the other two people who were testing at the same time I was had already finished.  All the people were now cheering for me.  Pulled hard once more, and I only had one repetition to go.

An image of my 4 year old son pops in my head.  I decide that I’m going to do the last rep for him.  I yell out a massive “Come on” to psych myself up.  The crowd is cheering so loudly, Danny and Al both walk over and are standing in front of me, willing me to complete the last repetition.  Andrew, my counter, was cheering too.  I pulled as hard as I possibly could whilst only thinking about my son.  I must do it for him.  Somehow, some way I get over the bar.  Everyone cheers.  Al and Danny are both jumping up and down.  They come over to me and high-five me and give me a big hug.  I have tears in my eyes.  What the hell just happened?  How the hell did that happen?  What an amazing feeling.  I was then presented with my official instructor shirt and my certificates.  Then went outside and cried.  I did it!

So what did I learn from this process?

Ideally I should have been 15kg (30lbs) lighter.  This would have made all of the movements and the test a great deal easier.  More practice before the event would have been good, too.  Now that the course is over I am so motivated to incorporate this into my lifestyle, not just as a work out. I am really looking forward to what is possible.

The whole PCC course was amazing.  The presenters, Al Kavadlo and Danny Kavadlo were AMAZING with their knowledge and their time.  All in all this was THE best course I have ever done.  I would thoroughly recommend anyone to do this course.

I would like to say a massive thank you to John Du Cane, Paul Wade, Al Kavadlo, Danny Kavadlo and Andrew Read.  You have all changed my life in one way or another.  I love you all.

PCCAustraliaOfficial

Filed Under: Workshop Experiences Tagged With: Al Kavadlo, Andrew Read, Australia, bodyweight, calisthenics, Century Test, certification, Darren Manser, Dragon Door Australia, PCC, progressive calisthenics, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop, workshop experience

Goals, Goals, Goals

January 28, 2014 By Steven Low 12 Comments

Goal.Almost everyone I’ve talked to knows the importance of incorporating training goals to improve your performance. Basically, training goals allow you to build a routine around them that is specific to them.

For example, if you’re training for the planche, then you typically want to be working on planche isometrics as well as some other type of pushup motion – such as one arm pushups, pseudo planche pushups, or another similar motion such as dips to supplement your strength gains. You would make sure that your sets have at least 2-3 minutes rest between them (if not a bit more) to ensure muscle recovery. You would also ensure that you would have 3 or more sets of an exercise to ensure sufficient volume for building strength.  Finally, you would attempt to progress on exercises as much as possible each week to make sure that you’re not stagnating.

Likewise, if you were working on gaining pure hypertrophy you’d want to have a mix of repetition ranges between about 5 and 12. You’d want to have about 30 seconds to about 2.5 minutes rest between sets. You’d want to make sure you’re mixing compound exercises and isolation exercises together in some sort of bodyweight and weights hybrid routine.

Each of these types of routines have specific goals, and from the goals – if you know what the literature says on training information – you can accurately build a routine towards your goals. That was the main thrust of my book Overcoming Gravity. To help trainees learn to build routines towards their goals in the area of bodyweight training.

Now, I didn’t talk as much about goals for other physical activities, which is the purpose of this article. From what I have observed most people do not understand that they even need to do this, much less have the information they need to know on HOW to do it.  So let’s talk about some examples.

If you sprain your ankle or hurt your back lifting something, what would the common layperson do?

What would a doctor tell you to do?

If you guessed RICE – rest, ice, compression, and elevation – for the ankle, and muscle relaxers and rest for the back you’d be correct. However, these methods actually prolong your recovery from injury. This is what most people don’t understand, but it makes sense to them when you explain it.

For instance, if you went to a physical therapist after spraining your ankle or injuring your back would you choose to not do anything they told you to? Of course not. A physical therapist would typically work on the injured area to figure out if there are any potential imbalances or other issues that need to be rehabilitated. They would give you non-painful range of motion exercises with concurrent stability exercises, and they may use modalities for pain. They would also give you a home exercise program that you would be doing all of the other 5-6 days with exercises that you would need to do at least 1-2 times a day (if not more) when you’re not in therapy.

This happens across the board with any type of injury – even catastrophic injuries such as knee replacements, rotator cuff surgeries, or ligament repairs, or any other type of major surgery. Early mobilization, muscle activation, and stabilization exercises are the key to better outcomes.

So if you get injured, the best thing to do is never  pure rest. There is always something you can be doing to rehabilitate it. In a lot of these cases, a common layperson or even an experienced trainee may need to see a professional to get specific injury advice. This is what I would recommend if an injury has not significantly healed within about 1-2 weeks with non-painful mobility, stability work, and other types of early rehabilitation.

No one wants to be injured for 1-2+ months and have no clue on how to make it better. Don’t do this to yourself if you’re injured!  The goal behind an injured part of the body is to restore the stability and range of motion, manage the pain well, then move into more specific rehabilitation. This goal underlies all of the recommendations above.

Now, this information is good, but let me get into some of the more applicable information for everyone else.

For example, let’s take someone with a tight back from a previous back injury – from say, 6 months ago. Or even a tight back from just having one come on from hard training. Or how about a tight shoulder or elbow tendonitis that comes on after training hard?

What is the typical recommendation for these types of situations that aren’t exactly injuries but require some amount of prehabilitation?

The common thread with these types (that is echoed across Facebook, other social media, common training articles, forums including Reddit, CrossFit, Performance Menu, American Parkour, and other various forums I visit) is that you need to do soft tissue work. Most of this includes some sort of massage, foal roller, lacrosse ball, or other implement that helps to loosen the area.

I’m going to suggest to you that this is incomplete information. Why is this information incomplete?

The body has nociceptors in place to tell you if you are putting an area at risk of injury which will signify pain to your brain. Likewise, it has mechanoreceptors and other sensory feedback that will tell the body if an area is unstable or potentially at risk for injury.

What does a body do when there’s pain or instability? It tightens up the muscles in an attempt to protect the area from further damage. This is why all of the muscles around an injured ankle get stiff and tight.

What does it do if there’s potentially an overuse injury developing?  It tights up the muscles again to protect the area, and signals to the brain a nagging type of pain or discomfort.

You see, many people use soft tissue work to loosen up the tight muscles that comes with previously injured areas or areas that are starting to develop overuse injuries, but they don’t do anything afterward to follow it up. This is why foam rolling without any follow-up is incomplete.

Most people’s goals are to get back to training, usually for optimal performance. Foam rolling in this case is definitely incomplete and does not get you back to the goal. Why? Because people have to continue foam rolling week after week if the back does not get less tight or improve measurably.

This is where you see your progress stagnating. If you’re beating your head against the wall not making progress then you need to change something up. As Einstein said, the definition of insanity is…

Let me give you an example of what someone would do if they have a tight lower back, especially from a previous injury.

So if you went into physical therapy, the physical therapist would likely work on your back to loosen up the tight muscles because they are not conducive to good movement. However, this soft tissue work would be followed up with muscle activation exercises, especially if there was a lot of previous pain.

Typically, these would include exercises specific for the tranverseus abdominus muscle because when there’s pain, the timing of the body’s activation of the muscle for core stability is thrown off. Then this training would be followed up with specific isolation exercises which would develop into compound exercises. This approach works for the majority of back related injuries.

So if you have a tight back, foam rolling is generally OK as long as there is no pain and it loosens up the area. But if that’s all you do for it then it’s incomplete. You will likely have to foam roll it indefinitely before and after every training session.

If you do foam roll or use other soft tissue work you should be following it up with exercises for prehabilitation. TVA activation is pretty specific, but a lot of the pilates and yoga poses emphasize keeping the core tight while doing leg lifts, bird dogs, hip bridges, and other exercises that work pretty well. Following this up with one of the best exercises for trunk stability, the reverse hyperextension, is typically right on the money. Performing reverse hyperextensions in a slow and controlled manner works most of the back muscles in an eccentric pattern which helps them to fire and turn on in the correct pattern again.

In conclusion, if you take nothing else away from this article, take these:

  • Everything you do for training should have a goal.
  • If you are doing prehabilitation work, it should be with the expectation that the area you’re working on is improving either in performance or getting better. If it’s not, then there’s something you’re missing.
  • Likewise, your warm up should have a specific goal. Your flexibility training should have a specific goal. Your skill training should have a specific goal. Your sleep you should have a specific goal. Even your nutrition should have a specific goal.

You should be looking to optimize and improve all facets of your training. And to do that you need goals. And you need to modify aspects of your training or your life to align with your goals.

Don’t keep beating your head against the wall with no results.

***

About Steve: Steven Low, Senior PCC and author of Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength, is a former competitive gymnast who, in recent years, has been heavily involved in the gymnastics performance troupe, Gymkana.  With his degree from the University of Maryland College Park in Biochemistry, Steven has spent thousands of hours independently researching the scientific foundations of health, fitness and nutrition.  Currently Steven is pursuing a doctorate of Physical Therapy from the University of Maryland Baltimore which provides him with insights into practical care for common injuries.  His training is varied and intense with a focus on gymnastics, parkour, rock climbing, and sprinting.  He currently resides in his home state of Maryland. His website is http://eatmoveimprove.com.

Filed Under: Motivation and Goals Tagged With: bodyweight, calisthenics, goal-setting, goals, healing, injuries, isolation exercises, Overcoming Gravity, pain, Steven Low, training

The Ten Commandments of Calisthenics Mass

October 15, 2013 By Paul "Coach" Wade 150 Comments

How to build real muscle using bodyweight methods: Part I

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Finally the tide is starting to turn.

Young and old athletes (and wannabe athletes) are switching over to calisthenics in their droves. There is a growing consensus that if you want a coordinated, supple, mobile, functional body, the best way to get it is using your body’s own weight. Rubber bands, plastic gadgets, cables, machines and infomercial ab gimmicks are out. The floor and the horizontal bar are in. We’re going old school, baby!

But what a lot of athletes (and coaches) still don’t realize is that bodyweight is also an awesome tool for packing on slabs of dense muscle mass.

Yes, you can see a lot of incredibly powerful bodyweight athletes with fairly low levels of muscle mass performing ridiculously impressive feats like muscle-ups, the human flag, one-arm handstands and whatnot. That doesn’t mean that bodyweight training doesn’t increase muscle mass—it can (and much more effectively than current bodybuilding methods).

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Lionel Ng is built more like a karate master than a bodybuilder. But he has trained himself to perform impressive feats of total-body strength—like the one-arm elbow lever and the human flag—using calisthenics. (Many thanks to the awesome Basic Training Academy, Singapore for the use of the image.)

What it means is that there are a lot of athletes out there who use bodyweight in a specific way to develop movement strength, and skill, while deliberately maintaining their body mass at lean n’ mean levels to keep them lithe and sleek—after all, if performance is what you’re lookin’ for, the lighter you are, the easier bodyweight techniques will be, right? For these guys, extra pounds of muscle is nothing but drag, inertia. They don’t want it.

However…not everyone wants to be a clean-burnin’, high-voltage, low-weight, gazelle. Some of us want to be bulls. Big, beefy, scary-looking muthas with bulging arms, plate-armor pecs, thick, wide lats and dangerous delts. The good news is that bodyweight training can give this to you—and it can give it to you while keeping you mobile and supple, and protecting your joints.

But if extra inches of muscle are what you yearn for, you can’t train the way the gazelles train—inspiring as they are. If you want to bulk up to your maximum potential, you need to follow a different set of rules, stud. You need to religiously observe your own mass-building Commandments.

What Commandments, you ask..? Read on, future champ.

COMMANDMENT I: Embrace reps!

These days, low reps, high sets and low fatigue are the “in” methodology. Why low reps with low fatigue? Coz it’s great for building skill. If you want to get really good at a movement—be it a handstand or an elbow lever—the key is to train your nervous system. That means performing an exercise perfectly plenty of times, to beat the ideal movement pattern into your “neural map”. The best way to achieve this is to do a few low reps—not hard or long enough to burn out or get too tired—then rest for a bit and try again. Wash, rinse, repeat. This is typically how very lean, low-weight bodyweight guys train to get hugely strong but without adding too much muscle. It’s a phenomenal way to drill efficient motion-pathways into your nervous system, while keeping fresh. Like I say, it’s ideal for training a skill.

But for stacks of jacked up muscle? Sorry, this method just won’t cut it. Muscle isn’t built by training the nervous system. It’s built by training the MUSCLE! And for this, you need reps, kiddo. Lovely, lovely, reps.

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To be big, you must first become weak—pay your dues with some serious reps.

To cut a long story short, you build big muscles by draining the chemical energy in your muscle cells. Over time, your body responds to this threat by accumulating greater and greater stores of chemical energy in the cells. This makes them swell, and voila—bigger muscles. But to trigger this extra storage, you gotta exhaust the chemical energy in those cells. This can only be done by hard, sustained work. Gentle work won’t do it—if the exercise is too low in intensity, the energy will come from fatty acids and other stores, rather than the precious muscle cells. Intermittent work—low reps, rest, repeat—won’t do it either, because the chemical energy in the cells rapidly regenerates when you rest, meaning stores never get dangerously low enough for the body to say “uh-oh—better stockpile bigger banks of this energy!”

The best way to exhaust the energy in your muscles is through tough, grit-yer-teeth, continuous reps. Learn to love ‘em. For huge gains, temporarily drop the single, double, and triple reps. Definitely start looking at reps over five. Six to eight is great. Double figures are even better. Twelve to fifteen is another muscle-building range. I’ve met very strong guys training with low reps for years who couldn’t build a quarter inch on their arms. They switched to performing horizontal pulls for sets of twenty reps, and gained two inches per arm in a single month! These kind of gains aren’t uncommon on Convict Conditioning, due to the insistence that you pay your dues with higher reps. They work!

COMMANDMENT II: Work Hard!

This Commandment directly follows from the last one. Using low reps, keeping fresh, and taking lots of rest between sets is a fairly easy way to train. But pushing through continuous rep after rep on hard exercises is much, much tougher. The higher the reps, the harder it gets.

Your muscles will burn and scream at you to quit. (That “burning” is your chemical energy stores being incinerated for fuel, which is exactly what you want!) Your heart-rate will shoot through the roof; you will tremble, sweat, and feel systemic stress. You may even feel nauseous.

Good! You are doing something right!

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Whatever modern coaches may say, don’t be afraid of pushing yourself.

Like I say, the current trend is towards easy sets, keeping fresh, working on skill. These days you don’t “work out”, you practice. “Working ” and “pushing yourself”….these are filthy terms in gyms today. They are considered old-fashioned, from outta the seventies and eighties. (Remember those decades? When drug-free dudes in the gym actually had some f***ing muscle?) I mean Christ, some coaches take this philosophy so far that you’d think if an athlete went to “failure”, their goddam balls would drop off. Jesus!

Sure, I don’t recommend going to complete failure on bodyweight exercise—at least, most of the time. I’d prefer it if you left a little energy in your body after a set to control your movements, and maybe defend yourself if you have to. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t work hard. Damn hard.

Far from destroying you physically, brutal effort—when moderated by plenty of rest and sleep—causes the body to release testosterone, growth hormone, endorphins, and plenty of other goodies Mother Nature always intended to reward Her hunters and warriors with.

So accept the challenge. Balls, wall—together, okay? Don’t ever be afraid to push yourself into new zones of pain and effort if you want to get bigger. I have seen twigs turned into oaks this way, and you can do it too—I believe in you!

COMMANDMENT III: Use Simple, Compound Exercises!

Again, this Commandment is related to the two which have gone before. If you are going to push yourself hard on moderate-to-high reps, the exercises you are doing can’t be complex, high-skill exercises. If handstands and elbow levers cause you to concentrate to balance, you can’t overload using them—your form would collapse (and so would you) before you were pushing yourself hard enough to drain your muscles.

So if you want to work with high-skill exercises, use the low reps/keep fresh/high sets philosophy. But if you want to get swole, you need relatively low skill exercises—this is what I mean by “simple” exercises. “Simple” doesn’t mean “easy”. Doing twenty perfect one-arm pushups is “simple”—it ain’t easy!

Cal5“Simple” means relatively low-skill—it’s not the same as “easy”!

Stick to exercises you can pour a huge amount of muscular effort into, without wasting nervous energy on factors like balance, coordination, gravity, body placement, etc. Dynamic exercises—where you go up and down—are generally far better than static holds, because they typically require less concentration and they drain the muscle cells more rapidly.

The best dynamic exercises are compound exercises, which involve multiple muscle groups at once. Not only are these simpler—the body works as a whole, which is more natural—but you are getting a bigger bang for your buck by working different muscles at the same time. (No weak links for you, Daniel-san.) For example, focus on:

  • Pullups
  • Bodyweight squats, pistols and shrimp squats
  • Pushups
  • Australian pullup variations
  • Dips
  • Bridges
  • Handstand pushups (against a wall—lower skill, more effort)
  • Leg raises

All of these movements can be made increasingly difficult to suit your muscle-building rep range (see Commandment V). There are no excuses for not kicking your own ass, here.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not to say that skill-based techniques—like elbow levers and handstands—don’t have a place in your program. They are valuable exercises and are taught extensively as part of the PCC curriculum. But using them exclusively for muscle gain is definitely a big mistake. Throw in simple, compound moves and watch those muscles sprout like never before!

COMMANDMENT IV: Limit Sets!

This is another pretty controversial suggestion—but, as always, it flows from the previous Commandments perfectly. Why? Well, if you are hitting your body with hard exercises, and pouring that effort into enough reps to completely exhaust the muscles, why would you need to perform lots of sets?

Depleting your muscle cells beyond the point your body is comfortable with is what causes the biological “survival trigger” that tells your body to add more energy (i.e., extra muscle) for next time. That’s all you need to do. Once you have pulled that trigger and told your body to make more muscle…why keep pulling the trigger, again and again? It’s a waste of time and energy—worse in fact, because it damages the muscles further and eats into your recovery time. In the words of infamous exercise ideologist, Mike Mentzer:

“You can take a stick of dynamite and tap it with a pencil all day and it’s not going to go off. But hit it once with a hammer and ‘BANG’—it will go off!”

Many folks disagree with Mentzer’s training philosophy—I don’t agree with all of it—but he certainly nailed it when he said this. The biological switch for muscle growth needs to be triggered with a hammer, not a f***ing pencil. One hard, focused, exhausting set on a compound exercise is worth more than twenty, thirty half-hearted sets.

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If you keep work sets low, you are much more likely to genuinely give your all when you train. Add sets and you subconsciously pace yourself.

I usually advise folks looking for maximum growth to perform two hard sets per exercise, following a proper warm-up. Growth will happen with one set, but two sets feels like a belt-and-braces approach. I sometimes advise more sets for beginners, but this not for growth—it’s to help them get more experience with a movement. It’s practice, basically. Once you know how to perform an exercise properly, two hard sets is all you need.

Many eager trainees ask me if they should perform more sets. The trouble is, adding sets does not encourage hard, high-performance training— just the opposite. Once you are doing five, six sets, one of two things happens; either you give your all and your last sets are pathetic compared to the first couple of sets, or you pace yourself, making all the sets weaker than they would be otherwise. Neither of these situations will promote extra growth. They just hinder recovery and increase the risk of injury.

Avoid “volume creep”. Training hard is very different from training long—in fact, the two are mutually exclusive. Keep workouts short and sharp and reap the rewards, kemosabe!

For Paul “Coach” Wade’s Bodyweight Muscle Commandments 5-10, tune in next week for part 2 of this article.

***
The models for most of these photos are the incredible Al Kavadlo and Danny Kavadlo! As ever, thanks you guys. The image of the one-arm elbow lever was provided by my buddy Jay Ding over at the Basic Training Academy. Check their site—they are doing some amazing bodyweight training, Singapore style!

***

Paul “Coach” Wade is the author of five Convict Conditioning DVD/manual programs. Click here for more information about Paul Wade, and here for more information on Convict Conditioning DVD’s and books available for purchase from the publisher.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: bodyweight, calisthenics, Kavadlo brothers, muscle mass, Paul Wade

[AUDIO] Do You Belong at the PCC? Find Out Here

June 1, 2013 By John Du Cane, CEO and founder, Dragon Door 3 Comments

The first Progressive Calisthenics Workshop is right around the corner, and the instructor team of Al and Danny Kavadlo, Steven Low and Adrienne Harvey are ready to explode your skills and knowledge base.

  • Can anyone, barring injuries, learn how to perform bodyweight exercises?
  • Do basic bodyweight movements use every muscle of the body?
  • Should attendees be nervous about the Century Test?
  • What if an attendee has never done a full pull-up before?

Hear the answers to these questions—and a whole lot more—when you listen now to this engaging interview with Danny Kavadlo and Adrienne Harvey.

Filed Under: Workshop Experiences Tagged With: Adrienne Harvey, audio, bodyweight, calisthenics, Danny Kavadlo, MP3, PCC, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop

Make Your Own Workout

May 7, 2013 By Al Kavadlo 34 Comments

Every day I hear from people who’ve read my books and want to thank me for writing them; these messages mean the world to me. As I discussed in my path to the PCC, the driving reason behind writing my books (and articles) is to connect with like-minded people with whom I can share my experience.

While most of the folks who write me do so to tell me how my guidance has helped them achieve new levels of strength, improve their body composition, or even take out a new lease on life, I also get messages with suggestions and criticisms. The most common complaint I’ve received regarding my books is from people who are disappointed that I haven’t provided more detailed structure on how to progress through the various exercises presented therein.

This is understandable. After all, between Raising The Bar and Pushing The Limits!, I’ve presented over two hundred different exercise variations for various goals and fitness levels, yet only a handful of sample routines.

However, this is neither an accident nor oversight; It’s a purposeful decision. While many fitness guides spoon-feed the reader with rigid specific regimens to follow, I’ve chosen to empower my followers by leaving the suggested program design open-ended.

My readers include folks of all ages, genders and athletic backgrounds. Each one starting off at a different place with individual strengths, weaknesses, goals and levels of commitment. The number of variables makes the amount of possibilities endless.

All of these people can get stronger with the same fundamental movement patterns, but each will do so at their own pace. I can’t predict exactly how everyone will progress. Trying to box all potential trainees into a one-size-fits all program will inevitably leave some folks progressing too slowly, while rushing others through the paces at a rate that is inappropriate for them.

Additionally, there are a myriad of unpredictable factors that can affect your workout on any given day: what you’ve eaten recently, the amount of sleep you’ve had, stress levels – even the weather. When I train clients in person, I come into the session with an idea of what I am going to do with them, but I always wind up making changes and improvising based on what is actually happening in front of me. I can do a lot for my trainees, but I can’t see into the future!

A workout regimen on paper is a good idea, but it’s still just an idea. You have to put your plan into action to get any benefits. And once you start doing that, it might not go exactly as predicted; you are inevitably going to need to make modifications. In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they couldn’t be more different.

Of course people need guidance and books are a wonderful resource. However, ignoring your body’s signals in favor of following a preconceived formula written by a stranger is taking a good idea too far. This is what I love about progressive calisthenics; in PCC, we teach pliable bodyweight progressions and exercise chains, not strict protocols and formulas.

Building your body isn’t the same as assembling that bookshelf you bought from Ikea. We aren’t all starting with the same pieces and we aren’t all building the same identical object. You really need to get to know your body for yourself in order for any fitness program to work.

In fact, it’s not actually the program that works at all – it’s you. Now let’s go get those reps!

About Al Kavadlo: 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 Pushing The Limits! Total Body Strength With No Equipment.  Read lots more about Al on his website: www.AlKavadlo.com!

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: Al Kavadlo, bodyweight, calisthenics, creating workouts, exercise, fitness, Kavadlo, motivation, program design, Pushing The Limits!, Raising the Bar, workout

The L-hold Tutorial

April 16, 2013 By Aleks Salkin 15 Comments

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The L-hold (also known as the L-sit) is one of the 7 static holds included in the PCC syllabus. Like all statics, L-holds are phenomenal for tendon strength and powerful, total-body co-ordination—but don’t expect to see them performed in gyms around America anytime soon.

My own recent exploration of the L-hold started off somewhat embarrassingly – with a locked-up lower back. After botching my first dance with heavy pullovers, my lower back felt like a piece of wood – stiff and immovable (note to interested parties: common sense would dictate not to arch your back while doing pullovers. My common sense was evidently on a smoke break at the time. Don’t arch your back if you do them). I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t do pistols, I couldn’t do L-holds, I couldn’t even hinge at the hips without feeling like I was going to catapult face first into the ground.

I was in trouble with a capital “TROUB”.

Fortunately, I had a hunch that there was a simple solution to this sudden bout of inflexibility, and the answer lie in strengthening my low back’s next door neighbor: my abs.

I chose the L-hold because hanging leg raise variations were unbearable at the time, and because of the high promises made about L-holds in Convict Conditioning 2: “Cure bad hips and low back inside and out.” Could it really be that simple? Would the L-hold break its promise when I most needed it to deliver? There was only one way to find out, and fortunately the progression sequence Paul Wade laid out in Convict Conditioning 2 was just what the doctor ordered. I started with bent leg holds and found that pumping my legs between progressions increased the difficulty and skyrocketed my strength and blood flow to my low back all at the same time. To make a long story short, within a few short days my back was as good as new. In this post, I’m going show you how I approached mastery of the L-hold.

First and foremost, you are going to need two things: strength in the form of strong shoulders, lats, triceps, and (of course) abs. Be sure you’ve cut your teeth on dips, one-arm pushups and their progressions, handstands, pull-ups, and leg raises before you tackle this move. Second, you are going to need some good active flexibility, or as Coach Wade refers to it in CC2 “Tension flexibility”, in your hips and legs. Whereas passive flexibility is essentially yielding to the force of gravity to improve your range of motion, active flexibility uses muscle tension to kick gravity to the curb and move in an advanced range of motion against the Earth’s otherwise unforgiving pull.

L-hold domination

To begin with, start on some sort of raised surface rather than on the floor: paralettes, kettlebell handles (careful!), or a sturdy desk will do the trick. For the sake of variety, consider practicing them on all these surfaces. While I have no hard proof of it, getting good at a this or any skill in a variety of contexts may very well make you better at the movement overall.

To keep your shoulders happy, keep them pushed down as far away from the ears as possible, and keep your “elbow pits” forward for all the steps in each series. Let your shoulders round forward – flare your shoulder blades – and hold that position tight. Keep your gaze straight ahead.

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Nope! Chest is too wide and back is arched. You may not pass go.

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Bingo! Back is flexed, chest is sunken, abs are tight. You have redeemed yourself.

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Make your elbow pit point the same direction as your fingers.

Your goal is to work up to 20 second holds on each progression before moving on. However, because you’ll achieve that goal by getting stronger before focusing on endurance, I’ll give you a tool to get a taste of the next progression in the series to help build your strength faster and work your way toward the advanced L-hold more time efficiently. Not only will you be building static strength, but you will also be building dynamic strength, thereby giving you some built-in variety and the ability to feel out the movement a bit better.

When your arms start shaking and you are making ugly faces and grunting to get through your sets, you’ve already gone too far. If you’re working yourself into the ground you’re building fatigue, not strength. Knock it off.

You’re going to start with the bent leg hold. Prop yourself up on your raised surface, bend your legs to about 90 degrees, and…well, hold it. Hold it for as long as you (semi) comfortably can, take a break, and repeat.

Your journey through the progressions will go in this order.

1) Bent leg holds

–>Bent leg-to-straight leg

2) Straight leg holds

–> straight leg-to-N-holds

3) N-holds

–> N-holds-to-L-hold

4) L-hold

And if you want to take the first small step toward V-holds, you can add in this gem

==> L-hold-to-advanced L-hold

5) Advanced L-hold

Check out the video for the deeper details to kicking gravity in the face L-hold style. Note that during the dynamic variations I’m controlling my leg movement, not letting it control me (i.e. bouncing around and losing balance). Don’t move on until you can do the same.

 

Programming will be different from person to person. If you’re a rank beginner, you can get by initially with just two days a week of work. I say “initially” because the L-hold is not as taxing as movements such as hanging leg raises and Dragon Flags, so practicing them daily should become your goal.

The following programs are examples. You may progress faster, you may progress slower. Use these programs as templates, not gospel, and you will find that you have a solid base to work from and progress should roll in faster than you can spell “transverse abdominis.”

 

Beginner program:

Week 1: Don’t overthink it – keep your effort level at around 50%-80%. No need to go balls-to-the-wall just yet.

Monday: Bent leg holds

Thursday: Bent leg holds to straight leg holds

Week 2:

Monday: sets of bent leg holds and bent leg-to-straight leg holds

Thursday: Straight leg holds

 

After this, three days a week should be no problem. If that’s still overdoing it, stick with two days a week and progress as slowly as you need to. You don’t get a medal for racing through the progressions.

 

Intermediate program:

Week 1:

Monday: straight leg holds + bent leg-to-straight leg holds

Wednesday: bent leg holds

Friday: straight leg-to-N-holds

Week 2:

Monday: N-holds + straight leg-to-N-holds

Wednesday: straight leg holds

Friday: N-holds to L-hold

And if you’re more advanced and want to work on these daily, here’s an advanced program.

 

Advanced program:

Week 1:

Monday: (warm up: bent and straight leg holds) N-holds + N-hold-to-L-hold

Tuesday: (warm up: bent and straight leg holds) N-holds

Wednesday: (warm up: bent-to-straight leg holds) N-holds-to-L-hold + L-holds

Thursday: (warm up: bent-to-straight leg holds) N-holds

Friday: (warm up: bent-to-straight leg holds) L-hold-to-advanced L-hold

Week 2:

Monday: (warm up: straight leg holds) N-hold-to-L-hold

Tuesday: (warm up: straight leg holds) L-holds

Wednesday: (warm up: straight leg holds and N-holds) L-holds + L-holds-to-advanced L-holds

Thursday: (warm up: straight leg holds to N-holds) L-holds

Friday: (warm up: N-holds) Advanced L-holds

Congratulations! You have just kicked the L-hold’s ass! And now your abs are punch proof. But they’re not punch proof enough – not if you’re reading this anyway. For the average exerciser a full L-hold is a laudable accomplishment. But you’re not average, otherwise you wouldn’t be here reading this. The time to go above and beyond is nigh. Stay tuned. The V-hold is calling your name. And it will soon be time to answer the call.

***

About Aleks Salkin: Aleks Salkin is a calisthenics and kettlebell fanatic and Primal Move Fundamentals instructor currently headquartered out of Haifa, Israel. In addition to his love of old school strength training, he is also a devotee of intelligent flexibility training and tension flexibility in particular. Aleks grew up scrawny and unathletic until he was exposed to Pavel and his training methodologies in his early 20s. He currently spends his time spreading the word of strength and health both in person to his clients and online via his website and Facebook page. He is available for online coaching for select, dedicated individuals, and enjoys crushing weakness wherever it tries to hide. Find him online at http://www.alekssalkin.com/

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: abdominal training, abs, Aleks Salkin, bodyweight, calisthenics, Convict Conditioning, L-hold, L-sit, Paul Wade, tutorial, workout

The Marriage of Bodyweight Training Methods

March 19, 2013 By Steven Low 10 Comments

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Al Kavadlo and Adrienne Harvey ‘Overcoming Gravity’ with Bodyweight Strength

My name is Steven Low, author of Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength. I will be one of the senior PCC’s in June.

As I am sure you are all aware, I am just one author on the subject of bodyweight strength training. Paul Wade, Al Kavadlo, and others have written various articles and books on bodyweight strength training and have developed their own systems. Many of those looking to learn about bodyweight strength training have told me that they have a lot of the different book materials from a variety of the listed authors.

Thus, one of the questions that many people ask me is – what is the best program?

To answer this question let me give you some more of my thoughts on the bodyweight strength communities.

I personally do not think that the market of bodyweight strength books, DVDs, and online material is a competition. Everyone has their own take on exercises and programming methods which work. The key point is that the best program is the one that you will stick with to make progress. Any experienced trainer will tell you flat out that this is the truth.

Essentially, the best “program” is whatever helps you progress towards your goals whether it be Overcoming Gravity, Convict Conditioning, Raising the Bar, or other training methods.

One of the main criticisms of my book is that it has almost to much information, especially for newer people looking to get into bodyweight training. I completely agree. Learning how to train and construct routines can be a daunting task for a person new and interested in bodyweight strength training.

One of the terms we like to use in fitness is paralysis by analysis. If there’s too much information, it’s very hard to sift through it. This goes along with the concept that the best program is the one you will stick to.

There is no such thing as a perfect routine. There’s many reasons why this is true.

  1. All systems have their positives and negatives with regard to sets, repetitions, volumes, frequency, etc. Not everyone responds the same to the same program.
  2. Everyone is coming from a different athletic background or even none at all. A sedentary person is different from someone who has performed gymnastics – who is different from someone who played basketball.
  3. Programming should vary depending on the level of ability you are at. You don’t train a beginner with the volume of an elite athlete. If you throw 40 hours of gymnastics or any other sport at at a new person they would get injured within the first week.
  4. Previous injury history plays an important role as well as potential dysfunctions that people have that are not injuries. The highest predictor of injury is a previous injury. This tells me that someone who has had previous back or shoulder pain may have different needs than your typical average healthy person. Additionally, a desk job worker with poor posture may not respond well to specific training until their dysfunctional posture has been fixed.

al_IMG_6909

Different people have different training needs.

Essentially, all good training materials have ways of getting people started. The three key variables that are involved with a good starting program are:

  1. Focused towards your goals, and
  2. Made in a such a way that keeps you injury free, and
  3. Made such that you will stick to the program.

Get rid of all of the analysis. You will essentially learn as you train. In any sport or discipline you need to know how to do things – that is what the books and training materials are for. The other component that is often left out for many is that you actually have to put those things into practice as well. You cannot have one without the other.

Focus a program towards your goals, listen to your body, and train!

 ***

About Steven: Steven Low, author of Overcoming Gravity: A Systematic Approach to Gymnastics and Bodyweight Strength, is a former competitive gymnast who, in recent years, has been heavily involved in the gymnastics performance troupe, Gymkana.  With his degree from the University of Maryland College Park in Biochemistry, Steven has spent thousands of hours independently researching the scientific foundations of health, fitness and nutrition.  Currently Steven is pursuing a doctorate of Physical Therapy from the University of Maryland Baltimore which provides him with insights into practical care for common injuries.  His training is varied and intense with a focus on gymnastics, parkour, rock climbing, and sprinting.  He currently resides in his home state of Maryland. His website is http://eatmoveimprove.com.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: bodyweight, calisthenics, Convict Conditioning, Overcoming Gravity, PCC, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop, Raising the Bar, Steven Low, training, training methods, weight

The Tao of PCC by Paul Wade

March 12, 2013 By Paul "Coach" Wade 57 Comments

I am the man who wrote the book, Convict Conditioning. I am not a perfect man, and my book is not a perfect book; but I hope that when people judge the book, they will say that it got much more right than it got wrong.

They certainly couldn’t say that about the man.

Without improving, evolving, moving forwards, we are nothing. There is no standing still in life—you are either moving forward, or you are losing ground. That’s why I was so excited to be able to contribute to PCC. There is no doubt in my mind that PCC will do for bodyweight training what the RKC has done for kettlebells. And that would be incredible.

A lot of folks have asked me how PCC will be different from Convict Conditioning. I can sum that up in one word: KAVADLO. Al Kavadlo is, for my money, the greatest progressive bodyweight training coach on earth. PCC, as a total system, is much bigger than Convict Conditioning alone because it has been expanded by Al’s methods, tools and tactics. His “new-school” has met my “old-school”, and PCC is the result. PCC is as much Al’s baby as mine—maybe more so. It is flat out false to assume that the PCC is just a “Convict Conditioning cert”. People who love Convict Conditioning will love PCC, because Convict Conditioning forms just a part of PCC. But PCC is more than just Convict Conditioning.

Much more!

PCC: A Black Belt in Bodyweight

Perhaps the most important difference between PCC and Convict Conditioning is the fact that PCC is about principles, not techniques. Convict Conditioning is very easy for athletes to pick up and understand, because it presents six groups of ten techniques. PCC goes deeper than this. Anyone who has ever studied a martial art knows that they need to learn scores of techniques to achieve a black belt; but the closer you get to true mastery, the more you come to understand that it’s not the techniques that matter—nobody can remember a hundred techniques in a fight. What matters are the principles you absorb.

PCC is like this; you will drill and explore dozens of key techniques at the cert workshop; and the PCC Instructor’s Manual analyzes and illustrates over one-hundred and fifty exercises! But at the heart of PCC are the principles of bodyweight progression. Once you grasp these principles, you can make any calisthenics exercise progressive: from a rehab level, right up to epic Bruce Lee-level bad-assery. This is what it’s all about. Some people have accused Convict Conditioning of being too dogmatic; too rigid. Nobody could say the same about PCC, because it’s based on principles, not set exercises paired with progression standards. There is so much more flexibility built in.

(By Giga Paitchadze - Creative Commons License)

(By Giga Paitchadze – Creative Commons License)

Though they play an important role in the early stage, the techniques should not be too mechanical, complex or restrictive. If we cling blindly to them, we shall eventually become bound by their limitations. —Bruce Lee

 The punches and kicks—the 14 chains

A martial artist seeks to absorb principles, but he or she can only absorb the general by accumulating the specific—lots and lots of individual punches, kicks, throws, etc. The road to calisthenics mastery ain’t no different. Bodyweight athletes still need to learn individual techniques. They still need to learn about chains—i.e., technical progression sequences. It’s important to note that the fundamental movement-types in Convict Conditioning are all still present in the PCC system; however they have been expanded and added to. The seven fundamental movement chains in PCC are:

1. Push-ups—building to—one-arm push-ups

2. Pull-ups—building to—one-arm pull-ups

3. Handstand push-ups—building to—full handstand push-ups (between chairs)

4. Horizontal pull-ups—building to—“torquers” (one-arm, one-leg Australian pull-ups)

5. Dips—building up to—strict muscle-ups

6. Leg-raises—building to—strict rollovers

7. Squats—building to—wushu pistols

Anyone who knows Convict Conditioning well will see that all the major movements are here (save bridges, which I’ll address in a sec). Two new movement chains have been added to the system; the first is the horizontal pull-up. The basic form of this exercise will be well (and painfully) known by Convict Conditioning exponents, but here the progressions have been jacked up to an advanced level to add more symmetry to upper-body work (the vertical handstand push-ups and vertical pull-ups are antagonistic opposites; now the horizontal push-up has an antagonistic “buddy” in the horizontal pull-up). Complete dip progressions—missing from CC—have also been included, with these culminating in one of the most popular of Al’s bar moves: the uber-cool muscle-up (known as a sentry pull-up to CCers).

al_blacknwhite

 The muscle-up—part pull-up, part dip—is an advanced technique in the PCC dipping chain.

Where CC progressions can still be found in the PCC system, they are often approached differently, thanks to Al’s input. For example hanging straight leg raises are real popular in jails: but we got the feedback from athletes on the outside that they were just too easy. So we have expanded and advanced the progressions, making the advanced techniques much, much harder. One-leg squats have also been made harder. Everything is at a higher turn of the spiral. More progression options have been included for pull-ups and push-ups. Extra handstand pushups variations have been included.

As I have said, the PCC system is much larger than Convict Conditioning. Convict Conditioning is really about building raw muscle and motive power by utilizing fairly basic, fairly brutal, pulling, pushing and leg movements. But bodyweight strength training is about more than that—static holds, for example. Whereas Convict Conditioning didn’t include full progressions for static holds, PCC does. The system includes 7 static chains:

1. Press holds—building to—the elbow lever

2. Midsection holds—building to—the L-hold

3. Bridge holds—building to—the gecko bridge

4. Handstands—building to—the frog-press handstand

5. The back lever—building to—the full back lever

6. The front lever—building to—the full front lever

7. The side lever—building to—the press flag

That’s a pretty damn impressive roll-call of techniques: and very few men or women outside of professional gymnastics could complete all seven. Fewer still could assimilate or teach chains for all seven. But this knowledge is part of the PCC system thanks to Al’s know-how, and has been integrated into PCC because I’ve been asked so often about these holds; athletes want to learn about old school hand-balancing, flags, elbow levers, and so on. Fans of bridges wanted to know how I would include them as a form of static hold. All this is contained in the PCC system. This doesn’t mean you can’t begin using these “holds” as “moves”—levering up from a bridge into a handstand, for example. Remember, everything is about principles, not dogma. Once you understand how to work with the techniques, you can expand; you can explore. You learn the form, you absorb the form, you discard the form.

 

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 A bodyweight powerhouse, Al Kavadlo is no stranger to static holds. Perfection!

 The PCC Instructor’s Manual will cover all 14 chains in-depth (it’s over 600 pages), but it will only be available to athletes who attend the PCC event. The certification workshop itself cannot cover all 14 chains—over 150 exercises—but it has been painstakingly designed to cover the key techniques, training methods, and the principles behind progression.

The eleven training modules and two seminars over the three-day workshop will revolutionize you: no matter what your level of development. Sure, you may not come away able to perform expert hand-balancing, elbow levers, front-levers, one-arm pull-ups and human flags, but I promise you this: you WILL come away knowing exactly how to get there—or get someone else there—in the best way possible.

Ralph Waldo Emerson—the great Patriot, and possibly the greatest essayist of all time—said this:

As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

Come and join us in the PCC community. The principles you need to maximize your bodyweight potential are waiting here for you.

 —

Paul Wade is the author of five Convict Conditioning DVD/manual programs. Click here for more information about Paul Wade, and here for more information on Convict Conditioning DVD’s and books available for purchase from the publisher.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: Al Kavadlo, bodyweight, Convict Conditioning, Kavadlo brothers, Martial Arts, Paul Wade, PCC, PCC Workshop, progressive calisthenics

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