calisthenics

Borrow These Calisthenics Cues From the Recent NYC PCC

November 21, 2017 By Adrienne Harvey 6 Comments

One of my absolute favorite parts of any teaching situation is the opportunity to troubleshoot and help teach the troubleshooting process. This not only helps the participants with their own workouts, but teaches them how to help their clients make big changes quickly.

And whenever there’s a new group of people at a PCC, there are new questions, issues, and viewpoints. This was certainly the case at the most recent PCC held at Crunch Gym’s flagship location on 59^th Street in Manhattan. As the Kavadlo brothers always say—and they’re totally right about this—on the first day we enter the room as strangers, but leave as friends. The amount of networking, cooperation, and brainstorming among the participants this time was especially high. Can’t wait to see what comes of these new friendships and alliances.

While it’s unrealistic to claim that everyone who attends a PCC workshop is guaranteed to experience a big breakthrough in their training, it seems to happen frequently. People attending a PCC are usually either trainers, instructors or serious enthusiasts, but we all have our blind spots. The combination of the demonstrations, lectures, Q&A, and the partner practice sessions on all three days of the PCC creates a powerful learning environment. Even though I’ve been involved with the PCC since the very first workshop back in 2013, I still learn something new every time. Should also add that since even the most recent time I helped instruct, the curriculum has continued to evolve and improve.

All of that being said, it is extremely rewarding to give someone a game changer cue or idea that almost instantly takes them to the next level. So, in this recap of the NYC PCC workshop I’d like to revisit a couple of my favorite cues that came up at the workshop. To those who might think I’m giving away too much, understand that these ideas really are best absorbed real-time in the context of a PCC workshop.

“Point at Yourself” and “Pew-pew!”

Something I’ve seen both online and at PCC workshops with people who are so close to performing a perfect pistol squat is a slack looking foot on the leg held in front. Often, these same people will have the idea that they somehow aren’t strong enough to do it. But with one (or both) of the following cues they are often able to generate enough tension to pull off the move with precision.

The first cue is a personal favorite, it’s simply to think of pushing through the heel of the suspended leg while pointing the toe back TOWARDS you. “Point your toe back at your nose.” You’re basically flexing the foot as hard as you can, which causes the quad to contract very strongly, keeping the straight leg straight out in front of your pistol squat. You will want to stretch out the quad a little after this, and some folks (myself included, especially if I’m a little dehydrated) may actually get a little cramp in the quad. Common sentiment, “Oh I didn’t know I needed to contract the quad THAT hard”

Al also reminded us that generating extra tension from the upper body can also really help the pistol squat. Get in touch with your inner 007 and make the “pew-pew” fingers while strongly clasping your hands together. This can make for much more stable pistol squats in terms of tension and balance, and as in the example above, cute photos.

“I’m gonna hit you in the tummy, ok?”

By the time someone attends a PCC workshop, they’ve done a LOT of push-ups in preparation for the Century Test. But, changing the angle or the points of contact from a standard pushup in one of the many advanced progressions taught at the PCC can make the exercise feel brand new again. Old habits can sometimes creep back when the focus moves from the familiar standard pushup. The novelty of trying a new progression can cause even the most advanced of us to forget the crucial basics.

Such was the case with a participant I helped at the workshop. He had been repping out fantastic standard push-ups and all the other variations perfectly until this point. While raising one hand high on a platform to try a nearly one-arm uneven push-up, he seemed to forget about his midsection. But, without trunk stability, this advanced push-up would be impossible. I knew he could do it based on previous performances, and after seeing his lower back sagging on the attempt, I said, “Wait! Use your abs, I’m going to hit you in the tummy, ok?”

He said, “OK,” so I gently gave him a couple little chops right in the tummy. The first one let both of us know that he had let his core go slack, and the second one revealed that he’d fixed the situation. His back was suddenly straight again and he was able to successfully complete a rep of this difficult and frankly extreme push-up variation.

No matter what push-up variation we’re discussing, the push-up at its heart is a moving plank. And that of course requires abdominal stability The more advanced the progression, the more extreme the stability requirement.

PCC NYC Participants Muscle-Ups

One Last Thing…

At the workshops I’ve been invited to help teach over the years, I’ve noticed that while we have a ton of fitness professionals attend, we also have many people from other fields. As someone with a computer science background I’m always pleased to see developers, engineers, and other technical professionals show up to a PCC and perform extraordinarily well. The idea that they are setting such a strong example in their lives outside the fitness industry is also excellent for public health. Fitness and the ideas in the PCC and Convict Conditioning really are for everyone.

NYC PCC November 2017 at Crunch Gym 59th Street

While we may all admire and aspire to the most advanced steps, and videos and photos of those feats are typically the ones that go viral, the bread and butter basics of calisthenics are applicable to all human bodies. The early progressions, especially as taught at the PCC and in Convict Conditioning are powerful for any level. And the newly certified PCC Instructors from this most recent NYC PCC at Crunch’s flagship gym are ready to bring these transformative ideas to the world.

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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 has modeled in multiple Dragon Door titles including The Neuro-Grip Challenge, Rings of Power, DVRT, Neuro-Mass, Pushing the Limits, and several others. For her recipes and workout programs to further support performance, body composition, and of course—FUN, check out her website: http://www.giryagirl.com.

My Get Strong Transformation Challenge Story

November 11, 2017 By Grand prize Winner, Brian Stramel 7 Comments

Brian Stramel Before After Get Strong Challenge

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”
-Zen proverb

I bought Get Strong when it first came out at the introductory price, and eagerly read it in a day or two. I was no stranger to calisthenics and it looked like a great program… that I would start as soon as I finished up what I was doing at the time. At the time, I didn’t even consider entering the 16-week challenge.

I was also not paying close enough attention to my nutrition, even though I was keeping up with my workouts. Mostly owing to my love of craft beer, my weight had crept up to an all-time high. I remember feeling just blah. I didn’t move as well, and my belly was pressing into my shirt–worse yet, it was pressing into my Army (National Guard) uniform. That was it, I decided I needed to fix this! But, was the Get Strong 16 Week Transformation Challenge still going on?

So, I squeeked my entry in at the last minute, and took my Phase 1 Test on June 30^th. Checking my log, I beat the test standards on every exercise except for the active hang. My grip gave out right at the 60 second mark on that one.

I got motivated to build an outdoor bodyweight gym, and did that as a 4^th of July project.

Onward into Phase 2!

Phase 2 was a wake-up call for me. I had a solid foundation already, so I passed weeks 1-4 as written with no issues. Slow, controlled reps, I even spent extra time on the handstands. But, the Phase 2 test was another story. I failed on handstands, so it was back to weeks 3 and 4. I failed again, so rinse and repeat!

During this time, we also took our family vacation. Since Get Strong just relies on something to step up on and pull on (and the workouts are short) I could keep up with my Phase 2 workouts on vacation without it detracting from family time, even while camping!

Back from vacation, I was able to pass those pesky Phase 2 handstands and move on to Phase 3. Phase 3 was a lot of fun, I enjoyed the split routines and extra volume devoted to the upper and lower body on their respective days. Handstands remained a challenge and while I passed week 3 as written, it was at the raggedy edge of my ability. So, I camped out in week 4 for a few weeks and just passed the Phase 3 test on October 23^rd.

I met my goal of getting to Phase 4 by the end of the 16-week challenge timeline. I know the real work is just beginning as I work steadily towards the Phase 4 test.

By focusing on my workouts, dialing in my nutrition, and eliminating most of the empty beer calories, perhaps dabbling with intermittent fasting (thanks for the tip Al!), I have made tremendous progress over these 16 weeks. The stats: I lowered my body fat by 7%–from 16% down to 9% (digital caliper measured). I dropped 23lbs and lost six and a half inches from my belly and over three inches from my waist! More importantly, I look and feel better than I did a decade ago when I returned from a tour in Afghanistan, and I was in great shape then.

The final bonus of this journey is that I witnessed a really cool culture of fitness develop within my family. The kids (8, 8, and 13) call the bodyweight rig the “ninja gym” after American Ninja Warrior and love playing on it. They also all knocked out at least one chin-up after getting inspired by watching me work out. My wife is feeling left out as the only one in the family who can’t do one. That won’t last, however. She’s now passed her phase 1 test and is determined to surpass her chin up goal!

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Brian Stramel is the Grand Prize Winner of The GET STRONG 16-Week Transformation Challenge

Taking The GET STRONG Transformation Challenge

May 16, 2017 By John Du Cane, CEO and founder, Dragon Door 26 Comments

John Du Cane Pull-Ups Get Strong Transformation Challenge — John Du Cane comes off the bench to help John Du Cane with the *Get Strong* Phase 3 Pull-up and Chin-up sets.

What mechanism acts as both the Great Protector of our health and well-being—while often acting as the Great Saboteur of our attempts at physical transformation?

That mechanism would be Homeostasis:

“The tendency of a system, especially the physiological system of higher animals, to maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its parts to any situation or stimulus that would tend to disturb its normal condition or function.”
“A state of psychological equilibrium obtained when tension or a drive has been reduced or eliminated.”

As the cliché goes, we are creatures of comfort. We seek to minimize pain and to quickly eliminate any perceived threat to that comfort. Without this overriding tendency, of course, our internal systems would collapse—as they de-regulate into a chaos of conflicting and unbalanced energies.

But when we seek to transform ourselves physically, the whole construct has to shift. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Now, we have to deliberately, savagely, nastily traumatize our own bodies—to shock them into change…

We have to willfully terrorize ourselves out of the sloth of our addiction to ease…

Far from reducing or eliminating tension and drive, we need to psych ourselves up into an unreasonable quest for dis-comfort, dis-equilibrium—and a kind of planned mayhem. We freaks of fitness storm the barricades of complacent physical mediocrity—and to hell with the naysayers and stay-at-home couch potatoes…

However, all this savagery of intent still screams for proper leadership. Whatever the fire burning in your belly, you’ll go nowhere fast if you don’t have wise guidance from fitness experts who are true masters of their game.

Otherwise we become a foolish, disorganized rabble, our dreams of physical transformation derailed by misinformation and false promises.

And here’s the great beauty of a well-organized, well-planned transformation program: it helps jump us out of the rut of our normal meandering exercise patterns. Instead of two steps forward, three steps sideways, one step back, woops, two more steps back, yikes, half a step forward and so on—boom, we suddenly have our marching orders, a goal to achieve, fire in our eyes, confidence in our hearts, competitive juices flowing and a sense of driving purpose.

30 perfect Feet Elevated Push-ups can be surprisingly demanding

Now—against all the homeostatic odds—we can embrace the pain-drenched ecstasy of the struggle for physical glory. And succeed, right? 🙂

Get Strong is exactly that well-organized, well-planned, proven program you can count on to effect the changes you desire. You can do it on your own, of course, but why not join forces with other bodyweight exercise enthusiasts?

So, when Al and Danny Kavadlo created their Get Strong 16-Week Transformation Program, we thought it would be perfect to include a community contest to help motivate us all to give this thing our best possible shot. We can join forces with a bunch of fellow maniacs, urging each other forward, come what may…

While waiting for the printed copies of Get Strong to arrive from China, I decided to preview the Transformation Program myself. Almost without any exception I train alone: bodyweight exercise, kettlebells and Chen Tai Chi. Mostly in my office. This is all well and good, but this solitary training has its pitfalls—as I quickly realized once I embarked on the Program. I will describe my experience below, but first, here’s the contest we devised:

To qualify:

Submit one or more Before photos taken within three days of beginning the contest.
Submit one or more After photos taken with three days of completing the 16-week contest.
Submit an article detailing your performance progress through the Get Strong program, beginning with the Phase 1 Test as the baseline.

Entries can be submitted up to October 30, 2017, sent to support@dragondoor.com
Winners will be announced November 15, 2017.

Judges: Al Kavadlo, Danny Kavadlo and John Du Cane.

Grand Prize: $500 in cash, one free RKC or PCC workshop, interview, dedicated PCC blog piece.
Next four best entries: Interview, $300 off any Dragon Door workshop.
Next fifteen best entries: $100 off any Dragon Door workshop.

We have also set up a private Facebook group The Get Strong Transformation Challenge. Purchase the book and we will automatically invite you to join or accept your request to do so.

My experience with the first three phases of the Get Strong Program

The First Phase is called The Foundation—and it is literally that. Raw newbies would need the full four weeks, if not additional weeks, to be able to test out. The thing though about all the Phases, is the inclusion of one or more exercises that you may have been neglecting in your own practice.

John Du Cane Handstand — A work in progress on my Wall Handstand—some technical tightening needed on that left elbow…

At age 68, my current biggest vulnerabilities are my elbows and my right knee. I had reduced my pull-up practice because of tendinitis in those elbows, so I definitely felt the one-minute Active Hang part of the Phase 1 test. Those tendons were letting me know of their existence… Yes, I tested out with ease overall, but I realized Phase 2 was going to up the pain factor by a fair amount.

Phase 2 is called Brick and Mortar. I did NOT pass the Phase 2 test at the end of the four weeks and had to repeat Weeks 3 and 4. The villain was the Wall Handstand. Amazingly, I had never practiced handstands in my life. Strange, but there it is… So, I entered Phase 2 a handstand virgin and paid the price. The test requires a 60-second hold. I made it to 55 seconds! An undoubted weakness that I have enjoyed confronting in Phase 3—which requires two sets of 60 seconds in Week 4.

Did I have any other problems with Phase 2? For the testing, probably the toughest part was only being allowed one minute between each exercise. Those who have taken the Century at the PCC would appreciate the energetic demands of completing 30 Push-ups, 10 Chin-ups, 20 Hanging Knee Raises and 40 Squats plus an additional four exercises with just one minute rest between each…

On to Phase 3, Concrete and Iron, where things start to get more challenging for sure…

Phase 3 is where both my elbows and my right knee asserted themselves. Phase 3 introduces Assisted One Leg Squats and Bulgarian Split Squats. As a former sprinter and longtime martial artist my legs have been my strong point—pistols for instance were never a problem. However, for quite a while now, I have stopped doing unilateral leg work—and have just done regular squats or double-kettlebell squats. It was a shock to discover how much weaker my right leg was than my left. I have enjoyed the challenge of fixing that—big time.

Combining relatively high reps of Assisted One-Legged Squats and Bulgarian Split Squats is not the breeze you might think it to be…

My elbows are really squawking from attempting 2 sets of 10 Pull-ups, plus 2 sets of 10 chin-ups plus 3 sets of Hanging Straight Leg Raises—mixed in with other arm-intensive drills in close succession to each other. Here, I am straight-out being sensible. From bitter experience, I know that pushing into the realm of tendinitis will be highly counterproductive to future progress… There is good, constructive pain, then there is foolish, destructive pain… So I am going to take the time I need to advance without injury, whatever pace that might require.

John Du Cane Hanging Leg Raises — 3 sets of 10 reps. I don’t feel this in my abs, but I sure feel it in my arms…

The most challenging new exercise for me in Phase 3 has been the Feet Elevated Pike Push-up. I had never performed this move in my life other—so another hump to surmount.

To succeed with the Get Strong Program, particularly when you are older, proper recovery is essential. I have become acutely conscious of needing that much more sleep, that much more rest and that much cleaner a diet. To that end, I have found Wim Hof’s ice therapy and breath-holding exercises immensely helpful. A very recent and wonderful addition to recovery has been my discovery of the Air Relax dynamic compression system. It’s hard to truly quantify, but I believe it has cut the recovery time for my leg work by perhaps as much as 50%. Exciting…

All in all, test-driving the Get Strong Transformation Program has been an exhilarating personal experience for me—and I have been immensely enjoying the additional strength I have gained from a religious adherence to the Kavadlo Brothers’ blueprint.

I hope many of you join me in taking the challenge—and I look forward to hearing your stories down the road!

How to Restore Desk-Damaged Physiques with Calisthenics

May 9, 2017 By Adrienne Harvey 23 Comments

Adrienne Harvey UnDesk Lead Photo

Years ago, well before the PCC, and just after Convict Conditioning began to get extremely popular, I heard Andrea Du Cane say that we shouldn’t live in the posture of our sport. In many cases, we should also not live in the posture of our work.

It seems as though many of our clients (and in some cases ourselves) spend the majority of their working hours seated at a desk looking at a screen, then spend hours staring at a small screen. So, let’s take a moment to work with some do-anywhere calisthenics exercises to help build healthy habits while undoing some of the desk-damage so we can continue to help our students, clients, and ourselves safely build strength.

In 6th grade, a brilliant friend (math genius and fellow computer nerd) and I would get to school early to boot up a lab of dinosaur-era computers. Already at that young age, my friend had the dreaded forward leaning head, hunched shoulders, and rounded upper back from hours and hours of programming. Thankfully, I was still spending a reasonable amount of time playing in the backyard on the monkey bars—while getting regular reminders from Mom to stand up straight and keep my shoulders back—which saved me from the same situation.

But, pulling long hours at work, then tapping at tiny screens has left almost everyone pretty susceptible to bad habits and weaknesses that can hold us back in our calisthenics training—and in our everyday enjoyment of life.

First, for those of us who are instructors, it’s important to remember our scope of practice. If a student or client is in pain or has a medical issue—or even if you’re just unsure about the situation—always refer them to an appropriate medical professional.

As much as it would be great to think that a standing desk would solve all the sitting related problems of the world, some of us have noticed that intense cognitive tasks requiring full concentration and extreme focus just don’t seem to go as well when working at a standing desk. That has definitely been my experience, as my typing speed and overall productivity seem to suffer if I try to do highly mental tasks at a standing desk. So, under the assumption that we or our students/clients will need to work at a desk for a significant period of time most workdays, let’s discuss how we can help.

We already know that it’s important to take breaks from seated work. I’m a huge fan of the Pomodoro technique—it can also boost productivity at the same time. Basically, set a timer for 25 minutes of work, then take a 5 minute break to walk around, do a few movement exercises, then repeat the 25min, 5min cycle four times before taking a longer break.

Poor posture habits while standing and sitting often stem from a lack of core or (as Paul “Coach” Wade would say) midsection strength. It’s also pretty common for people with weak midsections to have or develop back issues. Think of the midsection as a cylinder, if the “front half” isn’t doing its fair share, then the back half will be carrying an extra burden. If the abs aren’t able to hold us upright while standing or seated, then the back has to compensate that much more—often leading to discomfort or worse.

The great news is that instead of doing endless questionable crunches, the PCC and Convict Conditioning methodology emphasize training the midsection specifically, and instruct us to engage it when performing most (if not all) of the other calisthenics exercises. For example, It’s hard to even imagine performing a pistol squat without abdominal involvement—the same is true with any advanced push-up (it’s critical for Neuro-Grip push-ups)—and just about every other exercise in the PCC and Convict Conditioning curriculum.

While many different schools of training have their own approaches to counteracting the very modern problem of too much sitting, in this post I’ll mainly focus on calisthenics strength, and very basic mobility. Nothing too fancy is necessary for most of our general population clients to work on counteracting the dreaded desk body. But, if you are inclined to work more on mobility and flexibility alongside your calisthenics strength, definitely check out Al Kavadlo’s Stretching Your Boundaries.

I think of “un-desking” as having the following components:

Unlocking the hips and hip flexors
Abdominal/midsection strengthening
Stretching and strengthening the shoulders and upper back

Unlocking the Hips and Hip Flexors

The short bridge (also sometimes called the hip bridge or shoulder bridge) is a regular part of my mobility warm-ups and those I teach to others. It’s accessible for nearly anyone. When practicing the short bridge, the beginner is comfortable and in control as they work towards bringing the hips higher while engaging their glutes.

Start on the ground with your hands at your sides. Push down hard through your heels and strongly activate your glutes to get your hips as high as possible. This is nearly the opposite of slumping over at a desk. It’s sometimes helpful to think of pushing the hips up and over towards your head (but only THINK this, your feet need to stay on the ground).

Adrienne Harvey Short Bridge

The straight bridge is another extremely valuable early step toward a full bridge in Convict Conditioning that is very useful long after achieving a full bridge. Like the short bridge, you may also know it by other names. Those of use who spend a lot of time typing—and who are also pull-up enthusiasts can greatly benefit from this move. I love it and love to hate it. At the top of this bridge variation, be sure that the shoulders feel rotated back and down. Experiment with different hand positions (fingers facing forward, to the side, backwards) while working to bring your chest and body high off of the ground in a reverse plank position.

Adrienne Harvey Straight Bridge — Remember to try different hand positions when trying the straight bridge: fingers pointing towards the toes, out to the sides, or pointing backwards.

A favorite bodyweight stretch from the RKC curriculum also has great value for calisthenics practitioners. It’s no secret that I love kettlebells as much as I love calisthenics, and I’ve found that including this RKC hip flexor stretch in bodyweight only workout warm-ups can do wonders for bridging. If you find your hip flexors are tight and have never tried this drill before, give it a go! It’s a lifesaver after long car rides, or marathon writing sessions at the computer.

On a padded surface, get in a half-kneeling position. Without pushing forward in any kind of extreme lunge, simply think of tucking your tailbone while strongly activating your glutes. The front of your hip and thigh on the leg with the knee on the mat should feel a strong stretch. Take time with this powerful move and be sure to try it on both sides.

Adrienne Harvey RKC Hip Flexor Stretch

Abdominal/Midsection Strengthening

As mentioned earlier in this post, most if not all of the calisthenics exercises in the PCC curriculum and Convict Conditioning involve the abdominals. But if you or your students are having desk-related issues, focused abdominal strengthening can really help. The leg raise series beginning on the ground all the way up to the most exotic lever strongly impact the abs. Since the midsection recovers quickly, it can be trained much more often than most muscle groups—some may opt to train the midsection daily.

Adrienne Harvey Hanging Knee Raises — Double down on “un-desking” by combining slow and controlled hanging knee raises with a timed active hang. How slow can you go?

Stretching and Strengthening the Shoulders and Upper Back

Weak upper backs and weak shoulders tend to round forward during desk work—but so do the shoulders of active people—especially boxers and pull-up addicts! Spending time hanging from a pull-up bar can not only greatly increase grip strength, but it’s an opportunity to relax and activate the back with dead and active hangs—done for reps, this move is sometimes called a “scap-up” referring to the movement of the scapula. (In a past PCC blog post I outlined several different bar hang grips but in this case, even the most basic bar hang grip will fit the bill.)

Pay particular attention to how your shoulders and upper back are feeling, and if you’re a beginner, take it easy.

Adrienne Harvey Bar Hangs — The dead hang and active hang look and feel completely different!

Last but certainly not least, the Aussie pull-up, especially performed to the chest can help remind our shoulders to stay back where they belong. Far from being just a step on the way to the pull-up, the Aussie pull-up (aka bodyweight row) performed slowly with a nearly isometric hold at the top can help posture, upper back strength and lead to better lockouts at the top of standard pull-ups. Be sure to experiment with lower bars of various heights. The Aussie can be further regressed for beginners or deconditioned students by bending the knees. This shortens the lever of the body and places some of the body’s weight on the feet.

Adrienne Harvey Aussie Pullups, Bodyweight Rows

One of the great and occasionally frustrating things about progressive calisthenics is that there are so many options and there’s never time to talk about or do them all! I’ll just briefly mention dips here for intermediate folks, since the delightful chest stretch at the bottom of the dip (don’t dip so low as to risk impingement) is great after a day at the desk. Likewise a strong active hold at the top awakens many of the upper body muscles that suffer when we sit and slouch.

Adrienne Harvey Bodyweight Dips

Example Un-Desk Warm-Up Sequence (repeat for a few rounds if you have time):

Optimally begin by taking a short walk.

Short bridges: 5 reps, pausing for height and max tension at the top
RKC hip flexor stretch 1-2 per side
Dips and/or straight arm holds above dip bars
Bar hang alternating between dead hang and active hang (scap-ups) + a few pull-ups if they’re not maximum effort for you. This is not PR time.
Aussie pull-ups (aka bodyweight rows) 5 slow reps with max tension at top of each rep.
Short Bridge a few test reps to note improvement.

While it would be ideal for all workplace settings to have space for—and the social acceptance of—spontaneous exercise sessions, coming up with minimalist sequences for the work day can at least alleviate some of the issues until you can destroy the stress of the day at the gym or at home.

Bonus Slouch Slayer:

If you’re not sure if/when you’re slipping into a slouch at the desk, Place a mirror to the right or left of where you’re seated. While you work, take a second to catch a glimpse of your profile. Catching myself slouching a couple times was enough to build great upright posture habits at the desk. The moment you catch yourself in a really hunched slouch in that mirror, you’ll be motivated to sit up straighter, check your shoulders, abs, etc. At that point I’d also encourage you to stand up, and try a few of the calisthenics “un-desk” moves.

My home office is always a work in progress, but if I feel like I’m slumping, I’ll place that mirror to my left for a day or two – sure enough that fixes the problem!

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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. Go to http://www.giryagirl.com for more information about Adrienne.

Progressive Calisthenics Comes To Boston!

May 2, 2017 By Danny Kavadlo 6 Comments

Danny Kavadlo Boston PCC

In 1858, Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. famously referred to the city of Boston as “the hub of the solar system.” This past weekend, Boston could have been called “the hub of the calisthenics system,” as this historic American city hosted the first Progressive Calisthenics Certification ever held in the New England area.

I was lucky to be there and play witness to this amazing weekend. Here’s how it went down:

Day One

I treasure the first day of the Progressive Calisthenics Certification. Participants from different backgrounds, varied walks of life and numerous locations gather, wildly excited by the prospects, yet still unsure exactly what to expect. But if there is one thing that I’ve learned from my journey as a trainer, a calisthenics practitioner, a PCC instructor and a human being, it’s that bodyweight culture brings people together. In classic PCC fashion, we entered the room as strangers but left as family. From one-arm push-ups to full press flags (even a first-time one-arm pull-up!), many PRs were recorded—and multiple bonds were made. The calisthenics wrecking crew muscled up to the challenge and then some. The excitement in the room was contagious and the energy was priceless.

Boston PCC Flag: The flag flies high in the State of Massachusetts! — The flag flies high in the State of Massachusetts!

Day Two

PCC was pure beast mode the second day! The morning began with leg progressions, ranging from squats and lunges, to pistols and beyond, followed by back bridges in all their forms. It was fantastic to see people coming out of their comfort zones and stepping up to the challenge. Attendees helped each other bring out their best, training hard and stretching their boundaries.

Following floor holds such as the L-sit and dragon flag, the afternoon found us back up on bar for front and back lever progressions. The feats of strength, balance and flexibility were rivaled only by the solidarity and encouragement.

Angelo Gala Bridge — PCC builds bridges.

Day Three

The final day of the Progressive Calisthenics Certification is always bittersweet. As the attendees are celebrating their physical prowess and accomplishments, they are also preparing for the whirlwind weekend to come to an end. But the truth is, it’s just the beginning.

Now that we’ve all met and trained with each other, it’s on us to keep it going in the future. In addition to the new moves and skills we’ve acquired, we’ve also adopted a new family in our calisthenics brothers and sisters.

The Boston PCC Brotherhood! — The Boston Brotherhood!

I’d like to personally congratulate this new group of certified PCC instructors! As our community continues to grow, we also grow as individuals. With upcoming workshops in London, Poland, New York, LA and Australia, there are more opportunities than ever to get certified. Remember, the first rule of PCC is you do talk about PCC, so keep on spreading the word!

The posse’s getting bigger,

-DK

PCC Boston 2017 Group Photo

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Master PCC Danny Kavadlo is one of the world’s leading authorities on calisthenics and personal training. Danny has authored several internationally-acclaimed, bestselling books including STRENGTH RULES and DIAMOND-CUT ABS, has been translated into over a dozen languages, and appeared in The New York Times and Men’s Health, Bodybuilding.com and TRAIN magazine. When not traveling the world as a Master Instructor for Dragon Door’s acclaimed Progressive Calisthenics Certification, he trains individuals one-on-one in his native New York City.

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.

Three Keys to Unlock Calisthenics Muscle

February 7, 2017 By Matt Schifferle 9 Comments

Al Leading PCC

Building muscle has always been my main objective and it probably always will be. This is just as true with my calisthenics training as it was when I hoisted the iron. I wouldn’t have anything to do with progressive calisthenics if I harbored even the slightest doubt that it could pack on beef.

I fully believe it’s possible to gain muscle with calisthenics, which I know is a perception that’s a little left of center from many who seek bigger arms and a wider back. I credit my unusual perception to the fact that I don’t think like most people when it comes to building muscle, much less building it with calisthenics. Here are some of the biggest ways my mind has shifted over the years:

It’s Not About My Routine

I follow a very simple workout routine that’s based off of the Veterano plan in Convict Conditioning. It’s simple, basic and easy to wedge into my schedule. One thing’s for sure, I certainly don’t credit it with building muscle.

I depend on my routine like a rocket depends on a launch pad. It provides structure, balance and points me in the right direction. Beyond that, I don’t expect much else from it. I don’t believe it’s the key to building muscle or dialing in some secret combination that’s going to bring me success.

My routines are simple, but that's not why I build muscle. — My routines are simple, but that’s not why I build muscle.

I also don’t concern myself too much with rep ranges. I don’t shoot for a specific range of reps that’s supposedly best for building muscle. I’ve been successful with low reps, high reps and everything in between. As far as I’m concerned the best rep range for building muscle is always how many reps I can do now, plus one more.

It’s Not About My Diet

I used to eat super clean back in the day. The funny thing is, I made much faster gains when I loosened up and ate a pretty liberal diet. These days, there’s not a whole lot I won’t and don’t eat, from steamed broccoli to ice cream.

When it comes to muscle hypertrophy, a healthy diet is part of the recovery process. This means a good diet should remove stress from your life, not increase it. This goes for both physical and mental stress. A diet that causes guilt, cravings and unsatisfied hunger is an unhealthy diet. After all, how can a diet be considered healthy if it’s just one more thing you need to recover from? That’s like taking a vacation that stresses you out!

Most of my diet is pretty basic. Lots of plant foods and some protein at each meal is key. I keep treats as treats and generally stay away from beverages with sugar and calories. I eat what I like, when I like and how I like. Most of the time that means whipping up a stir fry or a kale salad with salmon. Sometimes it means ordering pizza and downing a beer or two.

I also don’t “eat big to get big.” I’ve tried that method many times but it always just made me softer. Admittedly, I have eaten more when I’m making gains from time to time. The difference is I’m not making gains because I’m eating more. I’m eating more because I’m making gains. I just listen to my body and trust that it will ask for more when it needs it. If it’s not telling me it needs more food then I respect that as well.

It’s Not About My Equipment

I used to work for a store that sold home fitness equipment. Everyday I heard the idea that getting results was all about using the right equipment. I crammed my small apartment full of gadgets and doo-dads believing it was the key to success.

It’s funny how things change. These days, all I want is a solid pull-up bar and I’m good to go. I’ve learned that 99.99% of success in training depends on how you use your muscles, not whether a weight machine is designed with the correct “vector articulation angles.”

This is why I’m always a fan of simple equipment like a pull-up station, kettlebell or gymnastics rings. The less you have to think about your gear, the more you can think about what you’re doing.

So if it’s not so much about the diet, the routine or the equipment, what is it about?

Well, to be honest, there’s not much I concern myself with. In fact, there are only 3 things I ever think about when it comes to my training:

Matt Schifferle Tension Chart

Pretty much everything I do boils down to just those three things. Even though that list is pretty short, each aspect of muscle tension can become a discipline in and of itself. I’ve made it my mission to study and learn as much as I can about each one to help me build more muscle.

To start off, I’ve become obsessed with tension control. Ever since I came across the book Muscle Control by Maxick, I’ve made it a habit to practice tensing my muscles on a daily basis. Granted, I’m not striking a bodybuilding pose in the middle of a meeting. I just lightly tense up my lats, abs or glutes a few times throughout the day. It’s not much, but I’ve found this habitual tension makes a massive difference in controlling my muscle tension in my workouts.

I also don’t rely on a certain technique to control my muscle tension. If I want my triceps to work harder in pushups I know it’s up to me to make it happen. Controlling muscle tension is the responsibility of my mind, not necessarily the exercise I’m doing.

I’m also constantly working on dialing in my technique to adjust the resistance of every exercise I do. My Taekwon-Do instructor always taught me to think like a technician in my training. We would drill down to the slightest details that might seem trivial, but can make all the difference in the world.

For example, when doing a push up, where is the weight on your hands? Is it more towards the palm or the fingers? Speaking of fingers, which fingers have more weight on them? Are you gripping with your fingers to tense up your hand and forearm? Which fingers are gripping harder? Are they pulling tension towards your thumb? Which direction is the thumb pointing? Is any of this changing as you lower yourself to the floor? Does it change even still when you push back up? How about if you pause at the top? What happens if you slightly twist like Angelo Grinceri teaches in Intrinsic Strength Training?

There's a lot more to pushups than just pushing up. — There’s a lot more to pushups than just pushing up.

I could keep writing pages about every little detail but the point is, all of these technical details serve to not only help control where tension is in the body, but how much of it is in various muscles. The slightest technical shift can make a huge difference in how much tension is in a given muscle. Every workout I do is an experiment to discover and master these small adjustments to make my muscles work as hard as possible.

Third, as Coach Wade explains in C-Mass, stimulating muscle growth is about working the muscles to a high state of fatigue. This is why I’m always working on increasing the time under tension with any exercise. Sometimes, this means doing an extra rep. Other times, It’s just half a rep or even just holding an isometric position for a couple of extra seconds at the end of the set. As long as I’m enduring just a little bit more time under tension I’m stimulating some muscle growth.

Finally, I don’t get too caught up in numbers and quantification. Sure, I keep a workout log but what’s most important to me is how an exercise feels from one workout to the next. Controlling muscle tension is just as much an artistic and sensual experience as cooking, painting or playing music. If you’re finding it easier to pop up into a handstand or do a pull up, you are making progress even if the numbers in your log don’t immediately increase.

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Matt Schifferle, PCC Team Leader 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.

The Muscle Building Advantages of Calisthenics

January 10, 2017 By Matt Schifferle 30 Comments

Matt Shifferle Neutral Grip Pullup

I’ve been building muscle with bodyweight training ever since Convict Conditioning was first published. When I attended the first PCC, a few people told me they thought I still lifted weights because I had a decent amount of muscle. Not that I can blame anyone for their doubt. I was once one of those guys in the gym hogging up the preacher curl machine telling everyone that you needed to lift weights to build muscle. It’s funny how things change; now I believe calisthenics is one of the best muscle building methods, bar-none. Most of reasons for this belief are because of 5 massive muscle building advantages calisthenics offers you.

Advantage #1 Low maintenance training

Even die hard weightlifters admit that bodyweight training offers unmatched convenience and deficiency. You don’t need a gym or fancy equipment, nor do you need to wedge a long workout into a busy schedule. You just simply drop down to the floor or grab on to a bar and you’re in business.

While many admit to these advantages, others are unaware of just how convenience and efficiency are essential toward packing on muscle. This is due to the fact that building, and maintaining, a muscular physique requires months and even years of consistent training. The convenience and efficiency of calisthenics makes it easier to continue your training even as life becomes turbulent. This ensures your training stays consistent long enough to build the success you want.

Advantage #2 Technical progression

Building muscle through calisthenics isn’t really any different from building it with weights except for one thing: With weight lifting you keep your technique fairly consistent while adjusting the load you lift; with calisthenics, you use a consistent load while you modify your technique.

Progressing an exercise through technique requires you to develop more than just strength and muscle. You also need to develop the “softer” qualities like balance, stability, flexibility and muscle control.

When I first started training in progressive calisthenics I was humbled by how much I needed to work on these softer qualities. At first, it felt some of the exercises were not building strength or muscle because they were more about flexibility or stability. Eventually, I discovered that developing these softer qualities was the key to more muscle growth. The more I improved my softer qualities the more harder qualities like strength and power progressed as well.

Advantage #3 Emotional and mental focus

Effective training requires much more than tense muscle and proper technique. You need to put some heart into what you’re doing to reach beyond what you can currently do.

There’s just something about moving your body through space that requires more mental and emotional focus. Consider the difference between running on a treadmill versus hiking along in a path in the wilderness. These days, commercial gyms place televisions and similar electronic devices on their cardio equipment to stave off boredom and mental fatigue. Such distractions are not necessary and even unwelcome with bodyweight training. Through using exercises that require as much growth within your heart and mind you build the quality of your training and not just the intensity.

Advantage #4 Intellectual challenge and growth

Progressive calisthenics requires you to continuously analyze and improve how your body works. It strips away the false promise that your success depends on having the perfect routine or using the right equipment. This leaves you with little else to think about except to learn how to use your body better which is the true essence of effective training.

I wasn't able to do a pistol squat until I learned how to use my hips in a better way. — I wasn’t able to do a pistol squat until I learned how to use my hips in a better way.

Every workout is a lesson in how you are currently able to use your body and the weaknesses that you need to work on. Maybe you lack hip strength in your squats or perhaps your shoulders shrug from fatigue during push-ups. All of these little experiences invite you to explore how to adjust your technique and muscle control to improve how well you use your body.

Advantage #5 Workouts that are simple, disciplined and focused

I live by the 3 tenets of simplicity, discipline, and focus. Calisthenics embodies all three of these tenets perfectly because it requires mental and physical focus, continuous discipline and of course a simplistic approach to training.

It takes a lot of discipline to remain focused on simple workouts. The modern media constantly churns out advice that can quickly make training more complicated and fancy. Before you know it, you’re using a room full of gadgets to perform fancy exercises in a routine that’s based on rocket science. All of this fancy and complicated stuff might feel important, but it ultimately distracts you from what matters most.

Building muscle means focusing on just 3 things:

When your training involves little more than pushing yourself off the floor or lifting up your legs, there’s not a lot of clutter to distract you from working your muscles longer and harder. It may not be fancy, but that’s the point. The most exciting results are often produced from methods that appear boring at first glance.

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Chaos-Proof Calisthenics Workouts For Long Term Success

January 3, 2017 By Adrienne Harvey 26 Comments

Adrienne Harvey Archer Pull-Up

One of the greatest things about Convict Conditioning style progressive calisthenics exercises are their extreme portability. We no longer need a giant gym stuffed full of highly specific machines to get a workout. For many of the exercises, we just need a floor. As the now-famous line from Pushing the Limits goes, remember, “if you don’t have a floor to work with, then you’ve got bigger problems!” On any given day, you may see me or one of my neighbors working out using the apartment building itself. In fact, one neighbor in particular has been giving the railings a heck of a workout with high rep, raised pushups—not bad for a guy that chronologically qualifies as a “senior citizen”.

A pattern I have seen—and have personally experienced—for long term success in strength, health, and maintenance of body composition is thinking beyond time-bound programs. Most people who have maintained a strong, fit, and healthy body for a lifetime have done so by seamlessly making training part of their lifestyle. On the flip side, we’ve probably all observed others jumping from program to program or from diet to diet without experiencing much success at all. I bet a number of us here have done that too. While it’s a great idea to try new things, we must give them a real, fair try at the same time instead of becoming human yo-yos! Fortunately, simple but challenging workouts with calisthenics and minimal equipment are extremely sustainable for a lifetime, regardless of how busy we get with life’s responsibilities.

Evolving and Refining a Lifestyle

When we strive to make strength activities part of a lifestyle, the pressure of “all or nothing” doesn’t loom as large. This can be especially useful for your new clients or students who have been overwhelmed by the prospect of extreme fitness programs in the past. And from time to time, some of us may also stack up too many changes to try all at once. Many beginners who come to us for training and advice will need to ease into calisthenics training for a while until they even enjoy it. A few sets of the beginning Convict Conditioning progressions coupled with being more mindful about food is a smaller starting hurdle than a written-in-stone hour or longer workout and specific meal plan for each and every day.

Also, when working with a specific goal or program, it’s very handy to have a backup plan for your workouts between programs, or when life gets in the way. So, even when we aren’t leaping forward toward that goal, we’re still moving in the right direction. More importantly, even with a shorter, simpler workout than what we should have been doing with our specific program, we’re still making a long term investment in our health, habits, strength, and fitness.

Adrienne Harvey PCC Dips

I will describe these highly sustainable training approaches in detail in my upcoming book with Dragon Door, Eat Strong, Lift Strong, Move Strong: Proven Secrets for Strength, Power and Robust Energy. But, the general idea is to work towards a given skill or strength goal while allowing for flexibility within a few parameters. In this blog post, I’ll outline a few general workout strategies to weave into your lifestyle or around a program. Many of these ideas are great to have as safeguards against life’s chaos wrecking our goals. As instructors and/or business owners, we may also spend so much time working and training others that we’re left in the frustrating and perilous position of having little time for our own workouts.

Full Body Tension, Full Body Results…

No matter what plan you choose, or how many different exercises you do—or don’t do—be sure to get the most out of your time and effort by using full body tension. Far from being isolation exercises, movements like pull-ups, squats (especially the advanced versions), and lateral work with flags require full body muscular participation for ultimate success. The good news is, you’re training your whole body at this time too. A few minutes of exercises performed with full, high tension effort is time well spent. Gripping the pull-up bar hard, gripping the ground with your hands and/or feet, engaging the glutes and midsection—all activate more muscle fibers and teach us to move and lift safely in life outside of training, too.

Adrienne Harvey Neuro-Grip Push-ups — Neuro-Grips pretty much force you to use full body tension, and I love them for it!

So this year, instead of a New Year’s resolution, consider a goal of consistency. Below are some of the approaches I take on very busy days, when otherwise I’d be tempted to neglect my training.

Recipes for Consistency:

Paul Wade’s “Consolidation Training” (some may know this as GTG, Grease the Groove) is described in Convict Conditioning Vol. 1 for building skills and strength. Using this strategy, you’ll perform an exercise several times on the same day without maxing out. For example, I may work on singles or doubles of the human flag progressions on the hour. Later in the day I’ll do a simple full body workout which might just be a few runs through the Century Test performed slowly and with extreme precision. Consolidation training works fantastically for any of the very high tension, high technique, and advanced bodyweight exercises like bar levers, dead hang muscle-up progressions, advanced pull-ups, and generally anything that’s very difficult for you. On the days that I have focused on bar exercises, my short supplemental workout might consist of squats, jump-squats, and sprints. High skill and balance movements like handstands also really benefit from the consolidation training approach.

At Home Training Variations

As an entrepreneur, I work a lot at my home office, and on heavy deadline days or product launches, I may not really have time to venture too far from that home office at all for my own training. Luckily, I’ve set up a pull-up bar in the hallway among other things, and of course have full use of the floor. I love to use the idea of “exercise snacks” along with Pomodoro technique productivity intervals: I work for 25 minutes, then practice an exercise or movement sequence for 5 minutes. At the end of the 4th 25 minute stretch, I take a full 10 minutes to do a more concentrated mini-workout. If you work at an office, depending on the corporate culture (and the exercises you choose), you may also be able to implement this at work.

Those who’ve read my website in the past already know about the “chores workouts” where I pit near max sets of a given exercise against a rest period of folding clothes or another short household task. This is a great way to build up higher reps on your chosen exercise. Have you tried it?

I recently read about a simple variation of consolidation training. A famous model placed a post-it note in a high traffic area of her house that simply read “15 squats”. Whenever passing near the note, she did 15 squats. Easy. I sometimes do a more involved version of this which includes the pull up bar and a designated area for mobility and floor based exercises. A lot can add up during the day.

Errands Circuit

One of my fondest memories of the early days of the PCC Workshops back in 2013 was when Al, Danny, John Du Cane, and myself were walking to a restaurant in St. Paul, MN. While we were enjoying a lively discussion, each of us kept pausing to point out “Street Workout-able” features in the landscape. We saw low bars for advanced raised feet push-ups, medium railings for Aussie pull-ups, skinny curbs for balance-challenging pistols, an edge of a planter for elbow levers, a round sign post for clutch flags, along with any number of poles, bars, railings for pull-ups and pull up variations… you get the idea. Developing a keen eye for these features (while keeping safety in mind, please) can turn most errand-related walks down the street into your own personal strength and skill obstacle course.

Adrienne Harvey Aussie Pull-Up — Caption: Look around for bars and railings that are approximately this height for an impromptu Aussie Pull-Up challenge!

Alternately, I also like to time my errands and workouts together. If I have to go to Whole Foods (which happens a lot) I’ll make sure my route to get there includes a short stop at a park so I can knock out a workout (usually a circuit including pull-ups, push-ups, squat variations, and a cardio component like sprints, burpees, or mountain climbers), then grab dinner or a snack at the hot bar before grocery shopping.

A Full-Body Format: Push, Pull, Legs, Plus….

The last paragraph in the errands circuit hinted at this approach. It’s been described in many great strength and fitness books for calisthenics as well as kettlebells and other forms of weightlifting. I am especially fond of the way Max Shank describes using push-pull as an approach to programming in Master the Kettlebell. On a day with minimal time to workout, this super-set strategy gets a lot of work done quickly, and allows you to work on a variety of skills in the same session.

Here’s one of many examples of this type of workout (choose number of rounds based on your fitness level and available time):

15 Push-ups
15 Aussie pull-ups (bodyweight rows)
30 Bodyweight squats (actively pull yourself down under tension)
1 Quick sprint or 30 mountain climbers
5-10 Pull-ups
Practice crow or handstands/handstand push ups resting as needed for one minute total

When I have time, after 3-5 intense rounds with minimal rest, I’ll end with sets of abdominal focused exercises like dragon flags (or the progressions up to) or hanging leg raises, and maybe even a set of twisting mountain climbers until I nearly face plant. Whew!

Adrienne Harvey Hanging Leg Raises — Full hanging leg raises near the end of a workout can be brutal!

If you’re ready to advance in skills and strength in 2017, I hope you have found these ideas help. On a tough day full of obligations, there are still plenty of options to keep moving forward towards your goals, and to maintain a healthy active lifestyle.

Have you tried some of these ideas before? Do you have some of your own to add? I would love to hear from you in the comments section below.

Here’s to a happy and successful 2017!
I hope your training is going better than ever,
Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC

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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.

Five Ways to Gauge Your Calisthenics Progress

December 20, 2016 By Matt Beecroft 6 Comments

Calisthenics Progress by Matt Beecroft

When someone asks me how long will it take to learn an elbow lever, human flag, handstand or any other intermediate/advanced level calisthenics move, my response is always, “It will take as long as it needs to.”

For the most part, if your only concern is how long it will take to achieve your goal, I believe you are in it for the wrong reasons. Immersing yourself in a healthy daily practice of self-improvement is really where the gold is. Not the destination—although it is totally sweet when you do get there.

When it comes to learning calisthenics, everyone has different athletic backgrounds and everyone learns at their own pace. It also depends on the coaching and the cues that are used.

For example there is no “one” way to learn a handstand. There is no secret or holy grail. Some of the best hand balancers are self-taught, and while their methods may have worked for them, they may not work for you or your athletes.

Most gymnastic coaches will swear to you that their way is the best way and yet they all differ in their approaches. The background of the trainer, whether it is gymnastics, calisthenics, yoga, circus or b-boy will usually determine how the handstand is taught. So the cues that coaches use, and how that resonates with the student can heavily influence the learning outcome.

So the, “How long will it take me?” question is an impossible one to answer.

I’ve also been blown away by my own assumptions. Some people, because of their athletic background, I have assumed would progress very quickly, and have not, and others with no athletic background, have surpassed my expectations very quickly.

Such is the complex nature of skill training and calisthenics.

Advanced calisthenics exercises are skills, and skill work does not always progress in a sets-and-reps mentality, as other strength based training often does. That approach can work with early progressions, but as you get closer to your end point—be it a handstand, human flag, pistol squat or other such feat—the training needs to be more organic.

Al assisting handstand

So once you can kick up into a handstand, or perform any other calisthenics position, exercise or hold, how do you know that you are improving?

As you progress there are subtle things that you will observe. It’s not just whether you can hold the progression or do a number of repetitions that is important as you work towards mastery. And sometimes it can be really hard to know if you are improving or not.

Here are five questions to ask yourself in any of your exercises in order to gauge your progress:

How does it feel?

First, how hard do you feel like you are working on a scale of 1-10? This is known as the rate of perceived exertion (or the Borg scale or RPE) and ultimately we would like it to be a 6 or lower (10 being the highest). In other words, the hold or repetitions should feel “moderately easy” before you move onto a harder progression.

Similarly, I believe a progression generally isn’t achieved unless the participants perceived exertion level is a 7 or lower on a scale of 1 to 10, while their rate of perceived technique is a 7 or higher. And a rate of perceived discomfort (10 being agony and 1 being insignificant annoyance) should be no higher than a 3 out of 10, and there should certainly be no pain. Once all these things are roughly in line, then we are ready to move along to the next level as some proficiency has been achieved. If you feel you have plateaued at a certain number of reps or time for a hold, look for these three parameters. You are probably improving and didn’t even know it!

Matt Beecroft pistol squat

How is your breathing?

Here’s my best advice on breathing: don’t stop! Breathing is a big indicator of a person’s overall comfort level. When a participant is in fear or working at the edge of their threshold, they will typically inhale and hold their breath, bracing the body. This is a high threshold training strategy and it’s not typically sustainable for longer sets or holds. When breathing is synchronous with the movement performed, we have moved into a higher level and are one step closer to mastery of an exercise. If your breathing is comfortable and controlled, you are winning!

Are you in control?

Calisthenics is all about being able to control your body. If we look at the example of the handstand, many people are very heavy whilst kicking up and coming down from the wall. Being able to come into a position and out of a position softly, slowly and with ease shows true movement competency. When learning the handstand, kicking up against the wall too hard teaches you to over-kick, which will make learning the freestanding handstand more difficult.

As skills progress, your body awareness improves as does your awareness of your surroundings. This may mean your ability to gauge your distance from a wall correctly, or a fellow practitioner (scissor kicking someone in the head while coming down from a handstand is never a good move.) So if your calisthenics are becoming more controlled, and you are becoming more aware of your body and your training environment, then you are certainly improving.

partner headstand

Do you need a lot of preparation time or recovery?

What you will notice is that as you continue to work your calisthenics, the soreness and stiffness you once experienced isn’t the same. The body is an adaptive survival machine and it gets efficient quite quickly, so recovery from exercises you are used to doing is more expedient.

Secondly, as our skills improve we need less time to prepare the body. It has always amazed me that masters can often just go into a position, hold or perform repetitions or display amazing skill with no prior preparation – the body just “knows” it. That’s not to say they don’t warm up or do preparation work but the skill is performed on command. So as you progress in your training you will feel that you can move into a hold or do a certain number of reps when you feel like it without all the preparation, and depending on what your training entails, your recovery will be quicker too. This means you are making progress!

Is it repeatable?

To go back to our example of the handstand, being able to hold a consistent and repeatable 10 second handstand is what I consider actually being able to do a handstand. Not a fluke hold for a second or two depending on which direction the wind is blowing.

An “on command” and consistently repeatable 30 second freestanding handstand is considered a benchmark before moving onto more advanced balancing variations by many professional hand balancers. This is considered to be an amateur balancer!

Some days or weeks you will feel like you are not progressing at all, and then others you will feel like you are really getting somewhere. There are going to be lots of peaks and valleys that will be part of your journey. It is all just feedback. Please don’t worry about failure with your training. Often when you feel you aren’t getting anywhere or you have plateaued, is often where you are learning most. Just keep on turning up. It is all about the positive mental attitude.

Matt Beecroft L-sit

If you look for these markers of improvement listed above, you may be more dialed into the subtleties of your training, which in itself is a form of growth. Progress is not always set, rep or time orientated. It’s not always about the numbers!

There will be light bulb moments in your training but the real magic is in the small improvements from day to day, week to week and month to month. Learning calisthenics is never a linear progression. If you are like me, longevity is the ultimate goal and this is measured in years, not workouts.

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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