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Progressive Calisthenics - The Official Blog for the PCC Community

Convict Conditioning

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:

  1. 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

  1. 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!

  1. 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

  1. 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!

  1. 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.

 

****

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

Filed Under: Motivation and Goals, Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: calisthenics, calisthenics progress, Convict Conditioning, goals, Matt Beecroft, measuring progress, PCC, progressive calisthenics

Natural Muscle—How Much Can You Gain…Really?

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

Al and Danny Kavadlo for Paul Wade

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

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

How much muscle can I gain without steroids?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

CALISTHENICS: 20/16 20 Exercise Tactics and 16 Programming Approaches to Keep the Dream Alive (Part Two)

January 12, 2016 By Paul "Coach" Wade 147 Comments

LeadImageAlDannyPhoto1

Apparently one of the movie sensations of 2015 was Fifty Shades of Grey—a flick about the pleasure you can get from absorbing punishment. Well, I didn’t see that pile of crap myself, but I can see we have plenty of dedicated masochists in the house today…you came back after reading Part One. Good for you!

This article ain’t about making that mythical “new start” for the New Year—new starts are easy as pie. It’s keeping going that’s hard, good buddy. With that in mind, the first part of this article was about new training techniques and approaches to keep things fresh. This second half is about finding some new programming approaches to help you express freedom and creativity in your training. You’re not meant to use ALL the stuff I present to you here—just take it as the ramblings of a crazy mind. Who knows? Hopefully by the end of this article, you’ll have some fun new toys to whip out when you feel the urge.

Enough smut. Let’s go!

#1. MASTER THE SQUARE OF PROGRAMMING

I’m a big believer that athletes should develop their own programs—teach a man to fish, and all that jive, huh? With this in mind, I want to expose you to a useful bit of PCC theory we use to help coaches and trainers visualize the basics of programming.

There are four basic variables of any program:

  1. Mode is what you do;
  2. Volume is how much you do;
  3. Intensity is how hard you do it; and
  4. Frequency is how often you do it.

Imagine these four as axes on a square—the “corners” of the square being maximum (highest reps, intensity, volume, and the peak complexity/skill of the mode—e.g., compare kneeling pushups with high-skill hand-balancing):

Diagram1_image2

Now, in theory, any workout you care to imagine will make a pattern on this square. By visualizing different patterns, you’ll be able to understand all these four variables’ roles in a program. For example:

a. Injury rehabilitation

This requires lots of volume, lots of frequency, and low intensity, over very easy-skill exercises. So the square pattern might look like this:

Diagram2_image3

b. Skill training

Learning complex bodyweight skills—such as an elbow lever—also requires lots of practice (volume and frequency). But you should keep fresh, which means lower intensity. So the square pattern will look more like this:

Diagram3_image4

c. Hypertrophy training

The muscles need plenty of rest (low frequency) but moderate volume if they’re going to grow. You need fairly basic exercises, and you need to work them hard (intensity):

Diagram4_image5

d. Strength training

Sets are moderate to high, reps are low—making the total volume somewhere in the middle. Intensity is high, exercises are big and basic:

Diagram5_image6

What’s that? You disagree with the data pictures in the squares? Perfect! The beauty of this approach is that you can tailor your own squares. What line graphs are to understanding and displaying economics, the square of programming is to understanding and illustrating programming theory. Think of it as a shorthand. Look at your personal goals, then see where your own workouts fall in the square.

Neat, huh?

#2. UNDERSTAND YOUR REPS!

One of the biggest favors you can do in programming your training is to understand the role that reps play. It sounds obvious, but if you want to get strong, you are going to do it more efficiently with sets consisting of low repetitions. If you want muscle growth (hypertrophy) you need more reps. For a mix of strength and size, you need somewhere in the middle. For rehab purposes—you need higher reps still

Enough jawing—a picture is worth a thousand words. Memorize this chart, then eat it.

Chart1_image7

Yep, you’ll find these type of charts differ slightly. But you’re reading my article, so I guess you want my opinion on the matter. Just for you, brown eyes—in black and white.

AlKavadloPlayingNinjaChina-001

#3. NINJA PCC STRENGTH TACTICS

I’m often asked the best way to train for strength—not mass, just strength. In the PCC Instructor’s Manual we put out eight tactics which should be considered the foundation of all strength training—honestly, I can’t put it better than I did there, so I’m going to share them with you here:

  1. Keep strength work brief and focused. Strength and volume are mutually exclusive. Focus on low reps, and take plenty of rest in between sets when strength training.
  1. Warm up. The nervous system can take time to “wake up” and generate maximum strength output. Gradually increase the difficulty of your work sets (without burn-out) during a training session to tap into your full strength potential.
  1. Brace yourself. The idea of “bracing” when the body is needs to exert or absorb force (the two are the same) is an ancient one. Prior to your technique—whether static or dynamic—deliberately flex all your muscles, and keep them tense as you train. This would comprise an excessive energy drain during a higher volume set (e.g., a hypertrophy set), but when applied during low-rep pure strength training it works well.
  1. Grip/root. Generating tension in the hands during training increases upper-body power by amplifying nerve branches running through the torso to the arms and hands. Powerlifters have used this technique for decades, gripping the bar hard during deadlifts and bench presses. Grip the bar as strongly as possible during bar work, and focus hard on “gripping” the floor with your fingers during pushups. When your feet contact the floor (e.g., squats), employ the same tactic with the feet, by generating static torque in the legs, calves and feet, and bracing the lower legs. This is called “rooting”.

RaisedPushUp_image8

  1. Inhale to improve leverage. Breathing in a big lungful of air prior to a positive movement can increase strength on many techniques. When the lungs are full, pressure inside the trunk increases, making the torso more “solid” as a leverage base.
  1. Utilize controlled exhalations. Learn to “hiss” as you exhale during negative movements. This will dramatically tighten the trunk muscles and core. Controlled exhalations can increase force production during a punch or a kick; this is why boxers and martial artists seem to hiss when they strike powerfully.
  1. Find your psych. High levels of strength are associated with hormones like epinephrine, which can be produced by emotional arousal. You are unlikely to see a strength record broken by a relaxed athlete—learn how to apply controlled aggression.
  1. Employ plyo. Explosive movements (jumps, clapping pushups/pullups) force the body to rapidly recruit huge numbers of motor units, amplifying neural facilitation. Performed before work sets, plyo temporarily raises the baseline of strength.

Expensive manuals of strength have been based around these eight simple techniques, which can double a novice’s strength in a matter of months if applied consistently. You’re welcome.

 

#4. 1-10-1

This is a very traditional approach to bodyweight training that’s about as old as the dinosaurs. It got popular again in the 70’s and 80’s when Arnold S. (yeah, that Arnold S.) discussed it in several training articles.

It’s a beaut for getting a lot of training under your belt on the basics like pushups, squats and pullups. Just pick an exercise you can do for over ten reps and hit it like this:

Set # Reps: Set # Reps:
1 1 11 9
2 2 12 8
3 3 13 7
4 4 14 6
5 5 15 5
6 6 16 4
7 7 17 3
8 8 18 2
9 9 19 1
10 10

Gupsidedown_image9

It’s a basic pyramid, allowing you to get 100 reps in total over 19 sets. Training this way has a lot of pluses: it’s high volume, and allows you to build in a lot of reps into your program without getting too fatigued; it also works great as its own warm-up. Sure, this is not the program for you if you’re on the hardcore edge of your training—trying to eke out another rep on a tough exercise, or master a new step—but it’s an excellent device to help you build on the basics. And who doesn’t need more of the basics? The basics are like exercise candy, baby!

 

#5. TIMED WORKOUTS—THE PRESSURE VALVE

I feel sorry for modern trainees for a lot of reasons. The prevalence of steroids and dumb expectations is one reason. The utterly mental obsession with programming is another.

I’ve been called a throwback and a Neanderthal for my programming ideas: or, to be fair, my LACK of ideas! When I started training we generally picked up a few bodyweight exercises from watching others do them, then we did them. We trained hard as we could, increased our reps and got stronger. We didn’t really talk much about programming.

Folks today are obsessed with programming. Maybe it’s the internet—I dunno. But they talk about rep ranges, cycling, periodization, percentages…Jeez, if training had been like this when I started, I might not have bothered. I wouldn’t have understood that shit!

I hear from a lot of guys in a similar position. They want to train hard—they are aching for it—but their routine is getting them down. They find it boring, constraining, being stuck in a workout rut: but they’ve expended so much time and energy working on the “perfect” program, they feel constrained to follow it.

My solution: for a few weeks, throw your program in the garbage. Seriously. Replace it with a stopwatch, and do this:

  • Set yourself a fifteen-minute period every other day for training.
  • Try to give yourself access to a bar, a basketball, and the floor.
  • Do NOT plan your workouts hours ahead of time!!
  • Take five minutes before training to put some ideas together about what to do. No more.
  • Feel free to change your plan “on the fly”. Improvise.
  • Do not repeat workouts. Try to keep fresh.
  • Try to train as nonstop as you can for the fifteen minutes.

This is actually a surprisingly refreshing, exciting method of training. The best thing about it is that it completely removes any mental pressure than has built up, and is cramping your training. You might be thinking—fifteen minutes….damn, that ain’t long. But trust me, when you are faced with filling that time, nonstop, you’d be amazed what you can pack in there!

AlWallSplit_image10

And what should you be looking to pack in there? This is where the creative fun starts…anything you like that’s bodyweight is game! Here are some options:

  • Mobility work: twists, hamstring stretching, joint rotations, Egyptians, teacups…all groovy.
  • Skill-strength work: any exercise you can barely perform for a single rep? Great! Keep returning to it during your training session!
  • Pushing: pushups, jackknife pushups, chair dips, tiger bend pushups
  • Pulling: Aussie pullups, pullup variations
  • Cardio: Burpees, star jumps, running on the sport, jumping jacks, shadow boxing, up-and-downs—all for nice, high reps.
  • Grip work: Fingertip pushups, timed hangs
  • Inverse work and balances: Handstands, headstands, elbow raises, crow stands
  • Leg work: Pepper in plenty! Squats, close squats, shrimp squats, lunges, broad leaps, vertical jumps, spin jumps, etc.
  • Soft tissue work: any sore spots? Time to massage out the trigger points you’ve been neglecting!

See what I mean? That’s plenty to pick from right?

Don’t forget—you don’t need to stick to a strict rep range, or even a strict order. You can do ten pullups, or ten sets of one. You can do five sets of pushups, or none. You can start the session with grip work, then return to it later. It’s your call—you’re free again!

 

#6. THE HEAVY-LIGHT SYSTEM

You beautiful, fresh-faced hunks of gorgeousness are too young to remember, but back in the seventies and eighties, there was a war going on in gyms. Not the Cold War, or a war between Man and Machine—a war of bodybuilding styles.

In one camp were the heavy lifters. They claimed that unless you were bending bars with giant weights, and getting stronger on a diet of doubles, triples and singles, there was no way you could reach your brawny potential. On the other side were the muscle pumpers, or spinners; these guys insisted that bombing and blitzing the muscles with higher, exhausting, pumping reps was the true key to getting truly swole.

Eventually, thesis and antithesis found their synthesis, and bodybuilders began using the heavy-light routine. This involved beginning your bodypart training with the biggest weights on compound exercises you can handle. From there, you move to higher rep exercises to engorge the muscles and keep them pumped and primed. A nice solution, no?

You can also explore this general method with bodyweight training. There are several ways to go about it, but here’s what I suggest:

  • Pick an exercise you can barely perform for one repetition: maybe a strict handstand pushup for shoulders. (This is the “heavy” portion.)
  • After warming up, perform that technique for five single repetitions.
  • Take at least a minute between reps—more if you want to.
  • Now pick two pumping exercises for the same area; say, pike pushups and handstand inverse shrugs. (This is the “light” portion.)
  • Perform two sets of each “pumping” exercise, aiming at 10-15 reps.
  • Rest less than 30 seconds on the lighter work.

This approach might seem old-fashioned and mixed up to modern athletes—but if you can stomach it, it actually has a lot going for it. For a start, it allows you to explore your full strength potential when you’re fresh, allowing you to constantly master newer and harder bodyweight feats. (Don’t forget—you can use holds, like levers or free handstands, for the “heavy” bodyweight stuff—since it’s one rep, you don’t need to be moving.) The lighter (but harder and more painful!) work ensures that your muscle mass will always be constantly growing.

HeadstandNYCPCC_image11

I’d advise cycling three workouts:

  1. Horizontal push/pull (pushup progressions, Aussie pullups or back levers)
  2. Lower body and abs (squats, leg raises or front levers, bridging)
  3. Vertical push/pull (handstand work, pullups)

This template allows for a lot of finagling—you can go three times in a row, three times a week, and so on. Give it a shot, handsome.

 

#7. DEFAULT MODE—CLASSIC CONVICT CONDITIONING

Most of you reading this will have a pretty good idea of what the Convict Conditioning view of sets and reps is. But a few of you won’t, which is why I want to take a moment to outline it here. Convict Conditioning is at the opposite end of skill work, and is heavily set in the muscle and strength building portion of the square of programming. There are some minor variations, but at its heart, Convict Conditioning couldn’t be simpler:

  • Warm-up well with 1-4 lower intensity sets
  • Perform 2 hard sets of 8-10
  • Rest until recovered between sets
  • Take 48 hours+ before hitting the same exercise again
  • When you reach a rep target, find a way to make the exercise tougher
  • Wash, rinse, repeat

This, ladies and gents, is what foolproof basic training looks like. Convict Conditioning is essentially old school, intense, power/bodybuilding-type training—which is why so many bodyweight aficionados, mired as they are in gymnastics-born systems—find it difficult to accept. Convict Conditioning is about gradually and progressively using bodyweight training as a tool to build muscle and raw strength. It is NOT about using skill-type methods to teach the nervous system into performing bodyweight “tricks”. This can be done quite quickly—but so what? If you are performing Convict Conditioning-style bodyweight work, and someone tells you to stop, because you could progress faster through the steps using skill-style or GTG training, run to the hills. They do not understand the system, nor what you are trying to achieve. It’s like a skinny guy walking into a gym and telling a bodybuilder to quit his methods and switch to Olympic lifting, cuz “you’ll be able to get a heavier clean and jerk much quicker that way”. The two are different things!

DannyChicagoWrestlersBridge_image12

Is the Convict Conditioning way “best”…? Well, best for what? For becoming a skilled gymnast, no. For racing through progressions, no. For building a blend of muscle and strength simultaneously? Yep, I believe it IS the best. Yeah, you can apply other methods, but if you are looking for a method to use as the backbone of your training, something you return to over and over, you could do a lot worse. I say that with no ego—two hard sets and home? C’mon, I didn’t invent that shit. It’s been around since the pyramids, and will be around—and working well—long after I’m gone.

 

#8. SUPER HARDCORE: 5 X 5

If there’s a “classic” set and rep scheme for mass and power in the weightlifting world, this is it—the hallowed 5 x 5. 5 x 5 was heavily used and promoted by super-stud Reg Park, who was “Ah-nold’s” hero back in the fifties. Reg not only built the most badass physique on the planet (yep, he took gear—sorry but he did), he also moved more weight than Charlie Sheen has done coke, being the second man ever (after big Doug Hepburn) to bench press 500 pounds—and this was in the damn fifties, when the average man would have trouble rolling that weight.

How did he do it? He did it with his classic 5 x 5 routine: a method that became so popular, it’s still the mainstay of many hardcore routines to this day. There are many variations of this workout, but the basic one involves:

  • Picking 3-5 BIG exercises—no isolation fluff!
  • Perform five sets of five reps
  • The first two sets should be progressive warm-ups
  • The final three sets should be with the same weight: your top weight
  • If you can’t get five on the last three sets, continue training with that load until you can
  • When you can get five on the last three sets, jack up the load a little bit

Like most other basic approaches, this one can be stolen for bodyweight. Is it perfect? Hell no. But it’s a change, and sometimes that’s what the body—and mind—really needs.

Just pick a bodyweight strength exercise you can perform for 6-8 reps, if you’re pushing all out. Then perform two warm-up sets with easier drills (two sets of five reps) then hit your hardest exercise for three sets of five. Like Park said—if you can’t get fives on the last three sets, stick with that exercise. If you can get the three sets of five, move to a harder variation. Do this for a few of the big exercises—pushups, pullups, squats, handstand pushups—and you have a serious strength and size workout on your hands.

The trickiest part of repurposing weights programs for bodyweight use is having enough progressions at your fingertips. When you want to move forward with a barbell, you can just slap five pounds on the bar and repeat. But with bodyweight, you need to be more subtle. Tiny progressions can be made, however, if you have the right knowledge—the “hidden steps” as I can them. Slight shifts in hand or foot position; limb alignments; different body angles; depth changes. This was the real reason that I worked on the Progressive Calisthenics Certification with John Du Cane and Al Kavadlo. I wanted to create an entire generation of super-bodyweight trainers and coaches, with a toolbox of progressions so vast, that any programming method would become possible!

Don’t ever listen to goofballs who tell you that you need to use “special” programming approaches for bodyweight. It’s not true—whether you are performing dumbbell bench presses or one-arm pushups, your muscles have no idea whether you are performing calisthenics or hoisting a bar. They only contract and relax—that’s it. They don’t go onto Reddit to discuss the nuances of their day. If a collection of sets and reps works for weight-training, it will, under most circumstances, work for bodyweight!

 

#9. HUNDRED REP SETS?

Let’s face it—if you were to look at the rep ranges of the average calisthenics athlete throughout their career, you’d be faced with a mind-blowing level of tedium. What’s your favorite rep range? 6-8? 8-12? Truth is, we’re creatures of habit. Once we find rep ranges we like, we usually stick with ‘em. That’s no bad thing: until we get bored.

Let’s change things up. Kiss them single and double digits goodbye, and let’s go triple. You haven’t lived unless you’ve performed a hundred reps straight on a calisthenics exercise:

Set # Reps:
1 100

The method couldn’t be simpler. Grind away at an exercise until you hit a hundred. Probably best not to start with pushups though—unless your last name is Kavadlo.

https://youtu.be/9GL17uq_tB4

If you’re new to this method, start with light stuff—kneeling pushups, half squats. You’ll be amazed at the feeling these “easy” exercises give you in your muscles. As well as enjoying the burn, you should savor these high-rep delicacies, knowing that you are building your circulation, lactic acid/waste removal systems, releasing endorphins and natural analgesics, nourishing the joints and basically just being cool as f**k.

As you gain in strength and stamina, every dedicated athlete should aspire to this kind of level:

  • Close squats x 100
  • Pushups x 100
  • High incline pulls x 100

What? You want to do them all in one session? God damn, you stud! What a workout! Let me know how it feels to be awesome!

 

#10. ABBREVIATE TO ACCUMULATE

Human instinct is to overcomplicate anything we think about a lot. Unfortunately, the Golden Truth of programming is the opposite of this—if in doubt, simplify.

I recently read a program designed for the absolute beginner who wanted to get as big and strong as possible. I couldn’t believe it—there were about twenty exercises over three workouts! There were flyes and lateral raises, machine movements, this and that. You’ve probably seen similar routines yourself.

This is totally wrong. Getting big and strong—quick—is like beating someone up. If you really want to destroy someone, don’t hit them all over their body, in dozens of places. Pick only a small number of places and pound them there—over and over and over again. It’s the Principle of Concentrated Energy. This is Sun Tzu, Von Clausewitz shit I’m giving you here, son!

HollandPushUpPCC_image13

Those of you (the smart ones) familiar with my training philosophy will know this already, but it bears repeating. To get bigger and stronger, cut back. Cut back your exercises and your sets. You only have so much energy—neural energy, muscular energy, hormonal energy. You need to pour that energy where it counts: the big efforts on the big exercises. It’s pure Pareto Principle: 80% of your gains come from 20% of what you do. So put everything you can into that 20%!

If you are deadly serious about just getting as big and strong in calisthenics as fast as possible, do this:

  • Pick three movement types: a vertical push (the pushup family), a vertical pull (the pullup family) and a lower body move (the squat family)
  • Begin with fairly easy versions of the exercises to learn form, condition your joints and build psychological momentum
  • After a light warm up, perform two hard work sets
  • Work hard to build reps—while keeping your form pure. The harder you work, the faster you will progress
  • Every time you meet a rep goal, move up to a slightly harder exercise (use the rep targets and progressions in Convict Conditioning)

Progressive bodyweight training really is as simple as that. Why do we constantly wring our hands over it, and overcomplicate it? You could write that shit on a match box.

At first—when the exercises are easy—you should be able to perform all three exercises per session; either three days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday) or on alternate days. As you get stronger and it takes longer to recover, take two days off between workouts. When progress slows down again, think about performing pushups on day one, squats on day two, pullups on day three, and repeating on a six-day cycle, with one day off each week.

One final tip—if you are really serious about jacking up your strength—emotional and physical—in 2016, grab hold of my favorite strength book: Strength Rules by Danny Kavadlo. I don’t get paid a red cent for promoting his book, but I’d be dishonest if I didn’t tell you this book is awesome. I learned a huge amount from it. Get it and build your year around it. You can thank me in 2017!

 

#11. BODYBUILDING: “GOLDEN AGE” PROGRAMS

One of the less fashionable ways to use bodyweight nowadays is by applying a bodybuilding template. Why? Because the idea of bodybuilding—isolating different muscles—is seen as very dysfunctional. Calisthenics naturally lends itself to total body training. But you know what? Screw being hip—let’s do it!

One of the classic bodybuilding programs is the old three days on: push, pull, lower body. On push and pull, you’re going to be working 3 different movement-types during each session; four, for lower body:

A. PUSH:

Horizontal pushes (pushup variations, elbow levers)
Vertical pushes (handstand pushups, handstands)
Triceps work (bodyweight extensions, tiger bends, dips)

B. LOWER BODY: Squat progressions

Squat progressions
Bridge progressions
Leg raise progressions
Bodyweight calf work (one-leg raises, jumps, etc.)

C. PULL:

Horizontal pulls (Aussie pullups, front lever work)
Vertical pulls (Pullup progressions)
Biceps work (close pullups, supinated Aussie pullups, etc.)

This is another template that stands a lot of tweaking. In the sixties, the big bodybuilders would generally do this three-session cycle over three days (Mon to Wed), really hitting their heaviest weights and busting ass. Over the next three days (Thu to Sat) they’d repeat the cycle with somewhat lighter days, taking Sunday off completely to recharge for the next week. Hardgainers can still follow the routine, but doing the three days over Monday, Wednesday and Friday, rather than twice per week. Most drug-free bodybuilders fall somewhere in the middle, perhaps taking a day off after leg day and before the next cycle, thus spreading the three workouts over five days rather than three or seven.

AdrianVSit_image14

In my humble opinion, an even better way to work the three-day cycle is to mix up the upper-body work: swap biceps to the push day, and triceps to the pull day. Why? Well, for starters small muscle groups like arms can be worked more frequently and still grow. But the most important reason is intensity: after pushups and handstand work, most athlete find it impossible to give their triceps a damn good beating. But after pullups? Triceps are still fresh for the slaughter. Same principle for biceps. Check it:

A. UPPER-BODY I:

Horizontal pushes (pushup variations, elbow levers)
Vertical pushes (handstand pushups, handstands)
Biceps work (close pullups, supinated Aussie pullups, etc.)
Hanging forearm drills

B. LOWER BODY:

Squat progressions
Bridge progressions
Leg raise progressions
Bodyweight calf work (one-leg raises, jumps, etc.)

C. UPPER-BODY II:

Horizontal pulls (Aussie pullups, front lever work)
Vertical pulls (Pullup progressions)
Triceps work (bodyweight extensions, tiger bends, dips)
Fingertip pushup drills

 

The best way to hit this for most athletes?

DAY 1: PUSH/BICEPS

DAY 2: LOWER BODY

DAY 3: OFF

DAY 4: PULL/TRICEPS

DAY 5: OFF

Like I said before—this isn’t set in stone. No programming is. You can skip the rest days if you’re raring to go, or add in more if you are always sore/not recovering. Nothing bugs me more than coaches who say; use my program as it is, or not at all…don’t change a thing! Athletes are not retards. They are individuals, with brains. If they don’t have ideas, experiment and start working stuff out for themselves, they’ll never learn what works for them. They’ll always be dependent on external “experts”.

Still, I guess that works well for the experts, right?

 

#12. WE COULD TAKE IN AN OLD STEVE REEVES MOVIE…?

Back in his day—the drug-free forties and fifties—Steve Reeves was the greatest bodybuilder in the world. His physique was so impressive—previously unheard of mass, combined with classical lines—that it led him to Europe and made him, for a brief time, the highest paid movie star in the world.

https://youtu.be/nisz2sMQ6d8

Reeves built the bulk of his muscle on plain vanilla training: the whole body done a deal three times per week, with just one working set. Yep, Reeves used weights, but it doesn’t mean we can’t rip off his template and apply it to bodyweight training:

  1. Burpees: 20 reps
  2. Australian pullups: 10 reps
  3. Jackknife pushups: 10 reps
  4. Jackknife pullups: 10 reps
  5. Pushups between chairs: 10 reps
  6. Close squats: 15 reps
  7. Bridge pushups: 10 reps
  8. One-leg calf raise on step: 20 reps
  9. Incline tiger bend pushups: 10 reps

You might need to tailor this workout to meet your strength level: feel free to drop or add reps, or alter the exercises. This is just an idea, folks.

Often we make our training too complex. We overthink it. Reeve’s original-style routine is a great way to go back to basics, and get a good honest workout under our belts.

Make no mistake, this kind of template can be very powerful. Reeves himself claimed that he put on thirty pounds in his first summer of training this way! Ironically he was later disparaging of this kind of “simplistic” training, saying that he’d moved on to more sophisticated methods. Maybe that was a bad move—Steve put on thirty pounds of muscle in his first three months with this method, but didn’t gain twenty pounds over the next two decades.

So much for sophisticated!

 

#13. JOE HARTIGEN SETS

One of the most perfect set-and-rep schemes I ever came across was invented (or reinvented) by my mentor, Joe Hartigen. I wrote more about the Hartigen Method here, but it fits in really well in this article. It looks like this:

Warm up: with easy sets of 5 reps

Set # Reps:
1 5
2 4
3 3
4 2
5 1

Looks simple huh? It is!

Just pick the hardest exercise you can perform with great technique—five reps should be very close to failure. Warm up with a few easier exercises—but keep to five reps. Then, get stuck into your work sets. Do your five rep-max set, and rest for a minute or so. Now, draining as that set was, after a minute you can probably still manage four reps, right? So do it. Another minute’s rest and you can manage three, and so on—right down to one.

AlFingerTipPushups_image15

I love this method, which is why I’ve talked about it before. This is an elegant way to train. Unlike methods like 5 x 5 and 1-10-1, it allows you to get your hardest effort out the way immediately, and with the most efficiency.

Those of you who’d like to learn a little more about Joe’s broader training philosophy, check the article I wrote here.

 

#14. GERMAN VOLUME vs CALISTHENICS

This is another method drawn from the weights world—bodybuilding specifically—just to show you future greats that you don’t have to limit your mindset, just coz you are working with the greatest gym ever—the human body.

In C-MASS I discuss the difference between building strength and building mass. This confuses some folks, so I keep it stripped back: high load/tension is what builds strength. Stress/chemical drain is what builds mass. Typically, bodyweight athletes have taken their techniques from gymnastics, which is really more about building strength than mass. That’s why you have so many skinny guys performing amazing bodyweight feats. The trouble is, athletes interested in bodyweight then look at all these skinny guys and think: damn—calisthenics doesn’t build any beef at all!

Not true. You just need to apply bodybuilding methods—which drain the muscles—as opposed to gymnastics methods, which prime the nervous system.

Say what you like about their methods, but bodybuilders know how to program for mass!
Say what you like about their methods, but bodybuilders know how to program for mass!

With that in mind, here’s a classic pure mass method, straight from the Eastern Bloc. Although the name, German Volume Training, sounds kinda scientific and intimidating, this method is simpler than you might think, and actually translates effortlessly to bodyweight work. Pick an exercise you can perform 20-30 reps with, in good form. Then perform ten sets of ten reps with that exercise, with sixty second’s timed rest in between sets:

Set # Reps: Set # Reps:
1 10 6 10
2 10 7 10
3 10 8 10
4 10 9 10
5 10 10 10

 

  • Pick only one exercise for this method
  • If you can’t make the full hundred, note your reps and try to improve each session
  • Scale back your other exercises to a minimum during this protocol
  • Use the method for one exercise only, twice a week
  • After a month, return to regular training

I know this approach will have the low-rep skill-strength lovers pissing down their pant legs, but trust me—it works. At first, achieving the full ten sets of ten will be impossible. Your muscles will be screaming, your body pumping out more stress hormones than an actress getting a lift home with Bill Cosby. But persevere. Radical jumps of muscle size have been noted on this routine.

You’re a crazy radical, right? You’ll try something nuts once in a while? I knew it. That’s why I love ya like I do.

 

#15. HEAVEE DUTEE, BABEE!

In Convict Conditioning I advocate damn hard training on all work sets. I don’t however, advocate going to complete failure; I believe you should always leave a little bit of energy in your limbs in case you need them to defend yourself, or for another emergency situation. It’s how I was taught, and it’s how I teach now.

That doesn’t mean I think training to failure is a “bad” thing. It’s more like following through when you go to the bathroom; you don’t mean to do it, but sometimes you just push a little too hard. We’ve all been there. My ultimate view of training-to-failure is simple: your adaptation (how big and strong you get) is in direct proportion to the intensity of the stressor (how hard your training is). In other words, the harder you train, the better you get. Modern babble aside, everyone who has trained long-term knows this in their heart of hearts. You know it too, right?

Mentzer_image17The king of High Intensity Training was Mike Mentzer. He shocked the training world with his one-set-to-failure philosophy, and he practiced what he preached. It was hard to argue with those results, either: back in ‘78 he was the first ever bodybuilder to win the Mr Universe with a perfect score. Many in the know also thought he was the winner of the highly controversial 1980 Mr Olympia, which was actually taken by a well out-of-shape Arnold S., who entered as a last minute contestant.

What would Mike make of bodyweight training? Actually, we have a pretty good idea, because his mentor—the famous Nautilus machine inventor, Arthur Jones—was, ironically a big fan of bodyweight work. He went so far as to write that pullups, dips and one-leg squats would maximize any athlete’s muscle mass.

Fancy some calisthenics, Heavy Duty style? I suggest this:

DAY 1:

Pullup progression:
8-10 strict reps (to failure)
2 forced reps
2 ten second negative reps

Handstand pushups:
to failure

DAY 2:

Squat progression:
10-15 strict reps (to failure)
2 forced reps (or self-assist)
10 reps (with an easier progression: to failure)

DAY 3: OFF

DAY 4:

Dip progression:
8-10 strict reps (to failure)
2 forced reps
2 ten second negative reps

DAY 5: Off

Repeat cycle

That was fun, eh? But screw “fun”, Paulie…is this program any good? Yes and no. If you want to ramp up your muscle and strength over ten next ten weeks, and you have a partner willing to help with the forced reps, go for it. But after ten weeks you’re gonna start dreading training. You’ll find little niggling injuries. You’ll get colds. These are all really your system’s way of avoiding the pain. For long-term results, if your training ain’t fun, it’s not gonna happen.

…Speaking of fun…

 

#16. ULTRAREPS: 1000 PUSHUPS IN 12 HOURS

Low reps and keeping fresh—strength as skill—is the dominating approach in bodyweight strength, and it has been in years. And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s all a part of God’s Great Creation. Like dysentery, or pubic lice.

But let’s be honest—it’s gone too far. You’ve got athletes terrified of reps. Scared crapless of actually pushing themselves, and busting their butts on basic exercises like squats, pushups and pullups. The way some of these dudes today program, you’d think their dicks would drop off if they hit double digits on an exercise.

I’m here to tell you: that’s bullshit. There are times a man (or woman) needs to push themselves way beyond what they ever thought they could do. Doing this builds huge chemical stores in the muscles, massive stamina and intestinal fortitude.

In jail there is one bodyweight challenge which is taken very seriously indeed. The man who completes it earns instant respect as one of the true “black belts” of cell athletics. Forget singles, doubles and triples. Forget twenty rep sets. You thought a hundred reps was big boy stuff? How about a thousand reps in a single day?

DannyKavadlo_image18

It might sound impossible—and for most people, even very experienced calisthenics athletes, it is. But if you lay the groundwork and prepare for it methodically—a lot like training for a marathon—it can be achieved. You can achieve it. Before we get to anything resembling a program, here’s some Cliff Notes on the prep:

  • The pushups need to be tolerable. Getting the chest 4-6 inches from the floor is acceptable, as is moving fast. Slow and controlled is great, but if you try that shit here it WILL kill you.
  • Yeah, you need to get good at pushups before you do this. Unless you can do fifty reps in a regular set, don’t even think about this.
  • You also need good recovery ability throughout the day. Unless five hard sets of pushups (doing double figures) is easy, keep trying until it is.
  • You also need good recovery ability day-to-day just to get through this training. This is really just the result of consistent, fairly frequent training over the last few months. Unless you can perform pushup sessions with minimal soreness the next day, don’t try this at home.

Once you meet these basic criteria, you can think about beginning the real training. Obviously, a thousand pushups can’t be achieved by strength training—it’s all about stamina. The key to a successful build-up is gradually developing this stamina. If there is a “secret” to acing the 1000 Pushup Challenge, it’s this: many small drops fill the bucket. The easiest way (!) to make the grand is not by huge, mega-sets, but by lots of small sets, frequently.

Think about the math. If you woke up and tried to bust out 150 pushups straight away, you’d probably exhaust yourself for the rest of the day. But if you did two sets of twenty every half hour, over twelve hours this would equate to 960 pushups. You’d only need to make 40 before bed, and you’d hit the grand.

This is the best way to approach your conditioning. There are several ways to go about this—I’ve used and endorsed several—but here’s a good one, lasting just eight weeks:

  • Strip back your other training to zero over the next eight weeks. Pushups hit the entire body; from the arms and torso to the legs, and even the toes. Don’t worry, you’re conditioning ain’t going nowhere.
  • Work out every other day. (Remember—you’re building stamina here, not muscle.) Your goal is ten sets of pushups, max reps. Take two minute’s rest between sets. Constantly try to bring up your numbers through the eight weeks. Ten sets of 25 is a good start, although much higher reps are possible with time.
  • One day per week, have a “test” day. On test day, you’re going to be skipping the usual ten sets, and trying to build up your stamina throughout the day. Stamina can be developed a LOT quicker than strength. Test days should build in volume like this:

WEEK 1: Perform one set of 25 every hour over ten hours (250)

WEEK 2: Perform one set of 25 every half hour for five hours (250) then every hour for the next five hours (125) (TOTAL: 375)

WEEK 3: Perform one set of 25 every half hour for seven hours (350), then every hour for the next five hours (125) (TOTAL: 475)

WEEK 4: Perform one set of 25 every half hour for ten hours (500) then every hour for two hours (50) (TOTAL: 550)

WEEK 5: Perform one set of 25 every half hour for twelve hours (600)

WEEK 6: Add a second set of 25 reps to hours 1-3 (675)

WEEK 7: Add a further second set of 25 to hours 4-6 (750)

WEEK 8: Add a final second set of 25 to hours 7-9 (825)

TEST DAY: From here, you should be good to give the challenge a try the following week. Your goal on challenge day will be to hit two sets of 20 every half hour for 12 hours—you will add a twenty-fifth session of 2 x 20, or 4 x 10—or whatever you can manage to get forty reps!—before collapsing into bed. This makes 1000.

Some final tips:

  • Take two days off after every test day. You’ll need it.
  • This prep is flexible. If you can’t meet the test day standards on a given week, keep training until you can.
  • Take the final four days OFF before you attempt the challenge. Stretching is fine, but no pushups. This will allow your muscles to overfill their energy reserves. Don’t panic—you won’t regress.

Can you really do this?! Of course, if you want it. The body was designed to perform bodyweight exercise, and it can do better than you give it credit for. Yoshida of Japan did 10,507 pushups non-stop. You can do this, bro.

———

Phew! That’s quite a little programming journey we took there, huh? From low reps to ultrahigh reps, from strength training to pure bodybuilding, old school to bleeding-edge. Quite a little mental tour.

Was this info-dump systematic? Nope. Was it logical and consistent? Hell, no—it half the stuff in there contradicted the other half. (Like the Bible.) But that was the point of these two articles—freedom, change, variety. Acquiring ability to break off the shackles of our usual training and have the guts and motivation to try something new—trust me, that is how we keep in the game, year in, year out.

Remember, there are good routines and bad routines, but there are no perfect routines…and any calisthenics training is better than just quitting, because athletes who quit regret it down the line and wish they’d kept their hat in the ring. I guess from that perspective, “perfect” is whatever keeps you training, right?

Thanks for reading this—or skipping to the end and pretending you did. Either way, old Coach had a fine time sitting writing this for you guys and gals. I really, really hope you can take something from it that helps ya, however small. Please hit me up in the comments with any thoughts, questions, or just to say hi. I will answer all of you, and have a fantastic time doing so!

Big love again goes out to Adrienne and all the Kavadlo clan for the huge help they gave me in delivering this little ankle-biter.

***

Paul “Coach” Wade is the author of Convict Conditioning, Convict Conditioning Volume 2, the Convict Conditioning Ultimate Bodyweight Training Log, and five Convict Conditioning DVD and manual programs. Click here for more information about the Convict Conditioning DVDs and books available for purchase from Dragon Door Publications.

Filed Under: Motivation and Goals, Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: calisthenics, Convict Conditioning, Paul "Coach" Wade, Paul Wade, PCC, programming, programming workouts, programming your training, progressive calisthenics

The Hidden Powers of Short Bridges and Shoulder Stand Squats

September 29, 2015 By Adrienne Harvey 35 Comments

Shoulder Bridge

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been conducting a little experiment. Due to an intense work schedule, combined with not getting enough sleep, I found myself in a condition that was not optimal for intense workouts. So, I decided to revisit a few of the early steps of Coach Wade’s “Big Six.”

In Convict Conditioning, as well as at the PCC, the warm up for the work sets of our training can come from practicing earlier steps of the movements. For example, if our work sets consist of knocking out reps of full bridges, we would warm up for them with a few meaningful sets of short bridges or straight bridges (the first and second steps of the progression in Convict Conditioning).

The first step of the Convict Conditioning squat sequence is the shoulder stand squat. This step is outlined in the original Convict Conditioning book, but explained in a little more detail in the Convict Conditioning Ultimate Bodyweight Squat Course DVD and Manual. This move is controversial because for many beginners (especially those who are overweight), getting down on the floor, and essentially getting upside down, will present a big obstacle right away. Then, if they’ve managed to get into the shoulder stand, it can be difficult for some larger people to get into the end position simply because they may be in their own way. This can be a major obstacle and it really doesn’t take that much extra weight to cause either of these issues. So at the PCC, we teach some other beginner drills which are more easily applicable to people of all shapes, sizes, ages, and fitness levels.

However, I’d recently managed to mildly annoy—but not injure—my left knee. In general, I tend to err on the side of caution and will make no apologies for stopping an exercise or movement if I feel a certain type of discomfort. Over the years I think this attitude this has helped me remain uninjured even while doing a fair amount of intense training and advanced drills. Exercise should make us stronger, not screw us up!

Shoulder Stand Squat Sequence

Though accidents happen, avoiding injury during training should be a top priority. While we are all continually encouraged to “get outside our comfort zone,” part of our own individual fitness journeys should include learning to carefully monitor our physical selves. This of course will be different for everyone, and will change as we age. I’m not saying that we should be afraid of what we’re doing in the gym or in life, only that it’s a good idea to start paying attention to, and learning to understand the subtle signals from our bodies.

So I wondered what kind of benefits my annoyed left knee could gain from the shoulder stand squat—and if the unweighted movement might give me the chance to analyze what might have happened in the first place, or at the least identify some trouble spots. I also started to consider what some of the other beginner steps could bring to my other challenges and goals.

The following is what I did, at a reasonably slow speed, which took a lot of control:

Two rounds:

  • Short bridges – 25 reps
  • Shoulder stand squats – 25 reps
  • Bar Hang – 1 minute
  • Full bridge
  • Plow stretch

The rep range in my example above was chosen since those were the Convict Conditioning “intermediate standards” for the short bridges and shoulder stand squats. This wasn’t meant to be an especially taxing workout, but I did find parts of it surprisingly challenging, in a way that indicated I might be working with my nervous system as much as my muscles. The above rep ranges are not necessarily appropriate for everyone, and will take some experimentation. When in doubt, do less on the first round to figure out where you stand (and where you stand on that particular day).

Adrienne Timed Bar Hangs

Intrigued by the CNS response of the above example, on a day following a very challenging kettlebell workout in the same week, I decided to make a different version but with the same general ideas:

First round :

  • Short bridges – 25 reps
  • Shoulder stand squats – 25 reps
  • Crow stand – 1 minute
  • Full bridge
  • Plow stretch

Adrienne Crow Stand

Second round:

  • Short bridges – 25 reps
  • Shoulder stand squats – 25 reps
  • Wall handstand – 1 minute
  • Full bridge
  • Plow stretch

I ended with Coach Wade’s “Trifecta” and some deep squats. Everything felt easier and better executed.

Going back to the more advanced drills the next day, I had a new confidence, and could tell that progress was made that week, just from the two small sessions with the earlier steps. Since then, I’ve made it a point to have more sessions like these during a typical week.

I encourage you to revisit earlier steps you have learned from Convict Conditioning and/or the PCC Workshop. Even if you feel like you’ve long-since outgrown them, they still hold their own challenges and can teach you a lot (especially if you go purposefully slow). For those of us who are instructors, they also help us stay sharp and empathize with our clients when explaining and working through those beginning progressions. Never underestimate the power of those early steps!

***

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.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: Adrienne Harvey, Bridges, Convict Conditioning, PCC, progressive calisthenics, Shoulder Stand Squats

“Replek” Training for the PCC

July 21, 2015 By Karl Indreeide 24 Comments

Karl Indreeide Replek Training

As I prepared to attend the recent PCC Workshop in New York City, I began using a system inspired by the Swedish running technique known as “Fartlek Training”, a form of interval training where you let the terrain and your mood direct the speed and intensity of your running.

The name “Fartlek” translates to “Speed Play” in English and “play” is a very accurate word to describe it, as it’s close to the way a kid moves just for enjoyment or exploration.  It is running by feel, running by inspiration.

I decided to name my system “Replek” as it is a similar method to Fartlek, except instead of playing with your speed, you play with your reps.

The plan is well suited to the PCC Century Test as well as getting the most out of the workshop weekend. In addition to positioning you to pass the Century, it also adapts your body to handle a high volume of calisthenics over several days.

Replek is nice and forgiving. It takes your daily stresses, aches and pains into consideration. Like a sly lover, this plan lets you believe that the initiative and follow through are all yours, that there is no plan, really, no string-pulling, no forcing. It’s all about you and what you feel like doing.

You stay within your comfort-zone, don’t do anything you don’t feel like doing, and yet results appear and motivation grows. Your comfort zone will expand from the inside out, and what seemed like too much work a while ago just isn’t anymore. You didn’t break any barriers. The barriers just moved.

There is a time for working through adversity, facing your demons, finishing unbearable workouts and so on. To be able to fight through discomfort is invaluable. But so is getting results without suffering, and learning how to productively back off at the right moment.

Replek for PCC is done this way: You pick exercises or chains that you want to work on (pull-ups, push-ups, squats, leg raises, bridges, etc.), then you start playing a game with yourself.

Karl Indreeide Replek Training

Here are the rules of the game:

Wherever, Whenever
It is up to you if you want to do all your reps in a condensed workout, spread them throughout the day or do some combination of the two. I recommend that you mix all these modes. After a while, you won’t care, because you’ll have grasped the essence of the program, which is sneaking the reps in whenever possible.

Never to Failure
That means you must always stop at least one rep before your failed rep. Most sets should stay way clear of that. The only exception to this is when you on occasion, do some version of the Century Test.

Avoid Punishment
As this program is based on positive reinforcement, it is your job and responsibility to stay away from the punishment of injury, failure, getting overly exhausted or negative self talk  (or negative self talk about you giving yourself negative self talk). Stay away from the drama. Stay away from the heroism and struggle. Observe your form, do your reps, log your sets, stay fresh.

Keep a Log
You always want to capture exactly which exercise/variation you do, your number of reps and sets and the daily total of any given exercise. The log is the most important tool of this method. The log is also crucial in keeping your motivational fire burning (pun not intended, but gratefully received). In the beginning you might actually have to force yourself to log. In a short while, however, you will have a deep desire to do so.

Just write the date and the reps for each exercise. You don’t need to bother with noting rest periods and so on, but can feel free to keep additional notes if you find it helpful. But we don’t want to punish you for training by forcing you to write an essay, do we?

This was my log entry for the 16th of May, this year:
BW squat: 50
Push-ups: 20/22/6/20/24/21/21/20/22/23/15 – 224
Shoulders feeling much better than yesterday
Wheel roll-out: 10/10/4 – 24
Pull-up: 9/6/9/7/10/ 10 (chin up)/5/7 – 63
Pistol:
R: 4/3 – 7
L: 2/2/2 – 6
Push-ups – one hand on basketball
V: 4/6
H: 4/6
Bottom position of pistol: 50 sec/50 sec
Short bridge:  1 min
Crow (sec): 10/20/20
Squat bottom pos: 5 min
Couch stretch: 4 min

Another day looks like this:
Pull up: 1/5/7/13 – 26
That was all the training I did that day. Still, getting the 13th rep in was very nice! It is not my historical best in that department, but the best I had done for a long time.

Personal Records
One of the great features of this program is that you can experience personal records on a daily basis. Your goal is to increase the number of reps during a set as well as the total number of reps of any given exercise during a day. Say your first day you do four sets of push ups: 5/10/15/7 = 37. The next day you do 4/7/16/10/ 3 = 40. Boom! You double-PR’d on the push up! Whenever you PR underline the number or write in bold as I did here, so it is always easy to track the history of PRs, and check your current status.  By the way, the PRs we are talking about are the ones within this program. Forget about past glory and previous heights of achievement. Focus on the present.

Less Structure
Some days you’ll have the time or inspiration to collect your reps within the frame of a more conventional workout. Structure those sessions however you like, and feel free to change trajectory mid-flight. Concentrate on one exercise at a time, or do super-sets, tri-sets or circuits. You are guaranteed to stumble upon combos or sequences that work really well for you, and that belong in your arsenal of go-to-workouts. You will also experience that there is drive in open-endedness, especially given that you have your previous PRs to relate to.

Test the Waters
Always be extra careful with the first few sets. Hone in on the perfect rhythm, and at the same time actively search for any discomfort or pain. Go slow. Think of these reps as screening. Maintain tension in all the right places. Does this feel like a good day for squats / push ups / L-sits? If so, go for it! If not, it may be best to back off and try something else. Other times an exercise will feel much better a couple of sets in, so don’t be to quick to abort, but also keep the “ live to fight another day” mentality at heart. If it is not a great day for squats, it might be an excellent day for pull-ups.

Stay Modest
Sometimes you will feel like a star. You become the exercise, you feel power running effortlessly through your whole body as you perform perfect reps. This is when you can astonish yourself with a crushing PR. Most of the time, though, stick to modest ones. Many small PRs are preferable to a few big ones. Try to not get more than one PR per exercise each day, and don’t PR on the same exercise two days in a row.  Remember that the PR is the reward that will keep you going. Spread them out. The smaller the increments, the more PRs you can enjoy. You are setting yourself up for a very productive schedule of reinforcement, and are safeguarding against overuse.

Whenever you PR – back off, and then see what you feel like the next day. The next day you might do a very low total number of reps in that exercise, just to recover, or maybe stay away from it completely. If you feel like too much time has passed since your last PR, then do a volume PR – these are always accessible. You can always get in one more rep during a day. Just make sure you don’t sacrifice your form just to get an extra rep. This is why you can rest as long as you need between sets.

Maintain High Standards
The aforementioned point taken into consideration, a standard to reach for might still be a good idea, as long as you don’t rush to get there. If you are preparing for the PCC, then passing the Century Test is an obvious goal. 40 squats, 30 push ups, 20 knee raises and 10 pull ups should feel very comfortable on their own, meaning you should be able to do 60 squats, 45 push ups, 30 knee raises and closer to 15 pull ups.

Prioritize
The last pull-up is where many Century hopefuls fail. Make the pull-up and pull-up related work the centerpiece of your efforts.  The push up is also a natural focal point – follow the progressions in Convict Conditioning or Pushing The Limits!

That’s it! Now all you have to do is start somewhere, preferably well within your comfort zone, and then let the Replek catch up with you and unfold. Enjoy the journey, have fun, and get strong!

****

Karl Kristian Indreeide, PCC, is part owner of Gym Ila in Oslo, Norway, where he teaches kettlebell and bodyweight training. He also runs HAVA-Instituttet, which provides consultation, seminars and full-scale health and social services.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: Century Test, Convict Conditioning, Convict Conditioning Training Log Book, Karl Kristian Indreeide, PCC, PCC Workshop, preparing for the PCC, progressive calisthenics, Replek, training log, training strategy, tutorial, workshop preparation

Upgrade your Life and Looks with the Knee and Leg Raise Chain

May 5, 2015 By Adrienne Harvey 46 Comments

Adrienne Harvey Hanging Knee Raise

The humble but powerful knee and leg raise progressions featured in the PCC Workshop and Convict Conditioning don’t always get as much attention as some of the more visually intense exercises. Even though these moves might not be tailor-made for showing off online, don’t underestimate their importance. These progressions are the sort of “strong silent type” movements which build the muscles and coordination necessary to attempt many more advanced moves. In the context of the Century Test, the 20 knee raises also (along with the bodyweight squats) have the same requirements in the men’s and women’s tests. These 20 knee raises have sometimes been or directly led up to the make-or-break moment in a Century Test.

Testing aside, the hanging knee raise and leg raise progressions are not only great for working on your midsection, they’re a great reason to spend more time hanging on the bar and strengthening your grip. In the video at the end of this blog post, you’ll see just one of the many possible grip variations you can use when practicing hanging knee raises. Almost by accident I started doing a challenging fingertip variation—just because the available overhead support happened to be an I-beam. It was a fun challenge that really raised the difficulty of a few sets of 25 knee raises in my workout that day. Hanging knee and leg raises are also a great way to determine what you need to work on most. What “gives out” first? Your abs? Grip? Shoulder engagement? Start in on a max or near-max set of hanging knee or leg raises and you’ll soon find out!

In a crowded gym with people fighting over the more “traditional” or ab-specific items, all you’ll need to do is find a good overhead bar and you’re set. Out in the “the wild”—on a municipal fit trail (like the one in my video) or even a playground, you can easily get in some ab work, without having to lay on the ground that might be muddy. The powerful knee and leg raise drills leading up to the hanging bar work in Convict Conditioning are extremely valuable, can be practiced anywhere at all, and start at a level where literally anyone can begin and benefit. If you’re still “on the ground” with your knee and leg raise progressions, you can always still work on your strength and strategy with timed hangs on the bar.

To meet PCC standards, you shouldn’t be swinging around with your hanging knee raises. A quick but not-so-easy way to make sure you don’t swing is to really control your grip on that bar. RKC kettlebell enthusiasts will recognize the idea of trying to “bend” or “break” the bar (or in their case the kettlebell handle). In the video below I break some sticks to give you the idea. Thinking of bending the bar in this way will stabilize your upper body and give you a solid foundation for hanging knee raises, hanging leg raises and any number of twisting variations that would otherwise have you looking like an out of control set of human wind chimes. Keeping yourself in control on the bar is a great habit to start developing and to have in your personal toolkit.

Adrienne Harvey Hanging Pike Raise

You can use the hanging knee and leg raises to a work on your grip, and to strengthen your other moves. Really, any time spent working on the bar will have positive effects on your training, strength, and physique. While many of us don’t publically talk about this last item—our physical appearance—let’s get honest about it for a minute. It’s simply human nature for us to want to look our best (at least to our own definitions). While the real benefits of these hanging knee and leg raise progressions are increased usable strength, a great side effect is some muscular development in the midsection. Provided your nutrition is in line, this can result in the coveted six pack, or the “flat tummy” touted in women’s fitness marketing. While I personally think performance and strength are better long-term motivators, having those positive visual side effects certainly doesn’t hurt! I will say that most people seem to have better long term training commitment if outward appearances are not their ONLY motivator.

Having a strong, trained midsection really sets you up for success (and safety, since a strong abdomen protects your back) with all kinds of lifting and other fun activities. I could even go so far as to say that having a strong midsection can generally improve your quality of life. (You can do everything from lift everyday heavy objects without injury to holding your own while trying a new activity like stand-up paddleboarding.)

Once you’re comfortable doing a few hanging pike raises (the PCC term for a leg raise taken up to shins to the bar) and have a reasonable grasp on pull ups, you can also try a fun and useful move called the “rollover”. While some people like to kip into this move, if you have the requisite strength, you don’t have to! Perform about ½ of a pull up, then pull your straight legs up and slightly past the bar, you’ll easily roll right over and be on top of the bar. This is a great way to practice bar dips or negative muscle-ups without burning yourself out trying to get on top of the bar. It’s also a lot of fun and looks cool! Towards the end of the video below, I demonstrate the rollover somewhat slowly so you can see what’s happening. While I had the necessary strength to do this move for a very long time, figuring out the timing of it was the crucial key.

This video is a medley of hanging knee and leg raise tips, variations, and training ideas I’ve put together just for you:

How are you using the hanging leg raise chain in your training?

***

Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC Instructor, RKC-II, CK-FMS, originally RKC Certified in 2010, and RKC Level 2 certified in 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!

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: abdominal training, abs, Adrienne Harvey, Century Test, Convict Conditioning, Hanging knee raises, Hanging leg raise, midsection, midsection training, PCC, PCC Workshop

How to Be “The Complete Package”—The Martial and Athletic Heritage of Explosive Calisthenics

March 19, 2015 By John Du Cane, CEO and founder, Dragon Door 109 Comments

Danny Kavadlo Superman

The greatest fitness writers grab you by the wrist—and yank you into a new vision of what it means to excel as a human being. These writers inspire you to transcend your self-imposed physical limitations and to fly high in your athletic aspirations. These writers open up whole new vistas of potentiality for you—and dare you to dream big.

These rare writers challenge you to separate yourself from the herd of also-ran followers—to become leaders, survivors and winners in the physical game of life. But they don’t just challenge and inspire you. They give you the means, the secrets, the science, the wisdom, the blueprints, the proven methods and the progressions—that make success inevitable, when you supply YOUR end in consistent, diligent, skillful application.

Al Kavadlo Angled Pike JumpThese writers each possess their own potent, soulful, visceral voice. They are artists in their expression. They resonate profoundly with their own distinct vibe. You can feel the implicit truth of their message in every sentence they write.

Now—sad to say—I don’t need all of my ten digits to count out the fitness writers who have rocked my world in this manner. And I’ll bet you don’t either… Such writers are as rare as the most iconic of athletes, the Michael Jordans of their domain…

And if God chopped off all of my digits, except for my right forefinger—and asked me to point at the greatest modern writer in fitness? Without a nanosecond’s of hesitation I would point at Paul Wade.

I pride myself at recognizing true excellence in the world of fitness writing—but I almost jumped out of my skin with excitement when I first laid eyes on Paul’s Convict Conditioning in September, 2008. CC had greatness stamped all over it. Here was a work that could change the fitness landscape big time—and most assuredly it did. Now a legendary international bestseller, Convict can lay claim to be the Great Instigator when it comes to the resurgence of interest in bodyweight exercise mastery.

And—while Convict Conditioning 2 cemented Paul’s position as the preeminent authority on bodyweight exercise—there is no doubt in my mind that his magisterial new accomplishment, Explosive Calisthenics is going to blow the doors off, all over again.

What makes Explosive Calisthenics so exciting—and so profound in its implications?

See, it goes back to the laws of brute survival. It’s not “Only the strongest shall survive”. No, it’s more like: “Only the strongest, quickest, most agile, most powerful and most explosive shall survive.” To be a leader and dominator and survivor in the pack, you need to be the complete package.

Traditional martial arts have always understood this necessity of training the complete package—with explosive power at an absolute premium. And resilience is revered: the joints, tendons, muscles, organs and nervous system are ALL conditioned for maximum challenge.

Really great athletes are invariably that way too: agile as all get-go, blinding speed, ungodly bursts of power, superhuman displays of strength, seemingly at will…

How do you excel as a martial artist, as an athlete—or really at almost anything? You excel by relentlessly building your foundation and fundamentals. You excel by relentlessly practicing the skills it takes to master the moves. No one gets great by half-hearted, inconsistent application or by employing some special “hack” that’s going to magically transform you into a monster. Get real.

Luciano Acuna Jr. Flash Kick

Note the word “skill.” The foundation and fundamentals center first around the building of power and speed. But Explosive Calisthenics does a masterful job of elucidating the skill-practices needed to safely prepare for and master the more ambitious moves.

So, Explosive Calisthenics is for those who want to be winners and survivors in the game of life. Explosive Calisthenics is for those who want to be the Complete Package: Powerful, Explosive, Strong, Agile, Quick and Resilient.

But—the hallmark of greatness— Explosive Calisthenics doesn’t just inspire you with the Dream of being the Complete Package. It gives you the complete blueprint, every detail and every progression you could possibly want and need to NAIL YOUR DREAM and make it a reality. YOU, the Complete Package—it’s all laid out for you step by step.

Danny Kavadlo Swing DipFrankly, I shake my head at Paul Wade’s brilliance…the wisdom and sheer practicality…the compelling authoritativeness… the clarity. There’s been an enduring conspiracy theory that I am actually Paul Wade. That I secretly wrote Convict Conditioning and concocted a whole trumped-up marketing shtick to sell it with. Too funny! But, God, if only I could be that brilliant myself!

I am aware of how many hundreds of thousands of people around the world are now stronger and healthier as a result of Paul Wade’s first two volumes in the Convict Conditioning series. That’s wonderful to know and to contemplate. I am proud to have helped get the message out.

Now—for those who have the balls and the will and the fortitude to take it on—comes the next stage: Explosive Calisthenics. The chance not only to be strong and healthy but to ascend to the Complete Package. If you want it, then here it is…

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: CC3, Convict Conditioning, Convict Conditioning Vol 3, explosive calisthenics, John Du Cane, Paul "Coach" Wade, Paul Wade

The “Diesel 20”: Add Twenty Pounds of Muscle in One Year —Using Only Bodyweight

January 6, 2015 By Paul "Coach" Wade 255 Comments

Danny Kavadlo 1 Arm Push Up

Okay. It’s the New Year. It’s 2015—that means another year just slipped by you.

Another ****ing year.

That vague image you had of your ideal self: of jacking up to a dangerous, bone-shattering level of strength, and bulking up some serious muscle…you got there yet? Huh? Or are you still running around on a low setting, chasing your own ass?

Big changes need to be made, stud. And big changes require big personal challenges. A rich dude I knew back in the Bay once told me that it was EASIER to set—and meet—the goal of making a million dollars, than setting and meeting a goal of making a hundred thousand dollars. Why? Cuz the bigger goal is more inspiring. It unleashes more psychic energy; causes you to truly marshal ALL your forces to meet the challenge. The same principle that holds true for money holds true for your body. A big, inspiring, challenging goal is more likely to be met than a small, flimsy, pathetic one. So here’s a goal for ya:

I want to help you put on 20 pounds of muscle in a single year: using only bodyweight training.

Matt Schifferle Muscle
PCC Instructor, Matt Schifferle is a calisthenics master who exclusively uses bodyweight…does it look like he has a problem adding slabs of muscle? Check out the loaded guns!

Now, if you love training and that ain’t a goal to jack you up—you’re probably dead already. Twenty pounds of dense, solid muscle is an awe-inspiring amount of beef, and would totally revolutionize your body. Forget what you mighta seen on bodybuilding sites or magazines, where guys talk about putting on ridiculous amounts like fifty pounds in a year. That’s real rare, and when it does happen it is purely the result of huge amounts of steroids and other chemical poisons: it is mostly water, and what isn’t water is fake, artificial tissue that’ll disappear (taking extra with it) when the drugs are discontinued. That’s madness to me: if you want to look big using dumbass tricks, just stuff some goddam Kleenex in your sleeves. (In fact, modern bodybuilders are actually doing the equivalent of this. Google “synthol abuse” if you feel like laughing at the mentally challenged.)

What will twenty pounds of REAL muscle look like on you? Imagine a big, juicy quarter pounder burger patty. Now, remember that a quarter pounder burger is its raw weight: and that patty is at least a third bigger before cooked up. Now imagine four of these big, raw patties squashed together. That big, meaty lump is pretty much what a pound of muscle looks like. So imagine twenty of those lumps (that’s eighty large raw burgers).

It’s quite an amount, no? If you could plaster your torso, arms and legs with all that meat, you’d appear much, much bigger and more intimidating. (Remember, if you count bones, organs, skin and the rest, the average guy only has about forty pounds of lean muscle on his body anyway.)

And as for strength? Damn, son—if you really want to level up your raw power, getting diesel is a real good way to do it. Yep, there are some real pansy huge bodybuilders out there, and there are some tiny guys who can lift like Superman. But as a general rule, there is a direct correlation between muscle and strength. That’s why powerlifters and Olympic lifters move up through weight classes throughout their careers: as they gain strength, they gain lean muscle tissue. Plus, you’re not gonna be pumping out reps on silly machines, right? You are gonna be using the ultimate functional training tool: your body. You WILL become alpha-strong as a consequence of training for this goal.

How to really do it: six keys to success

You are probably expecting a routine here, right?

In truth, it’s very, very tough to work hard on just one routine for a year. Most athletes will get stale and bored, and quit. Thinking “programs” is not enough. Putting on the “Diesel 20” is a big ask—it’s kinda like going to war. Exercises and routines are your weapons and equipment. In war, the tactics you use are way more important than your weapons. We’ll talk programs a little later—let’s absorb the tactics first. Here are SIX Alpha-Building tactics to keep you on the straight and narrow:

  1. Joints first

If you are going into a year of hard training, you gotta be conditioned to it first. The job of a beginner—no matter what age they are—is to learn the correct calisthenics movement patterns, build basic strength, and condition their joints. If beginners launch into tough regimes designed to build maximum muscle, they will only end up hurt and frustrated. If you are a beginner and want a great starter routine for the New Year, I wrote one here just for you.

  1. Work the basics.

Despite what you might believe, tons of muscle is NOT built by working with dozens of exercises, working with isolation-type moves, or by working each muscle head “from every angle”. This might (or might not) be a method for putting the finishing touches on a physique that already carries plenty of beef—for actually building mass, its worse than useless. A better tactic is to structure your training around a handful of basic, compound movement-types, used progressively. I favor the “Big Six”: pullups, bodyweight squats, handstand pushups, bridges, leg raises, and pushups. (Some folks might choose to include dips as part of the pushup family.)

Al Kavadlo Bar Dips
I’m a pushup man myself, but I gotta say it:
dips can be an excellent upper-body builder.

Note that “structuring your training around” these six does NOT mean you are limited to six exercises. The Big Six are families of exercises: so when you are doing “pullups”, you might actually want to do two types of vertical pull plus a horizontal pull to work all your back muscles: three exercises, but they all come under the “pullup” banner. As long as you stick to the basics and work progressively, this is a good way to work everything to the max.

You can add other bodyweight work, certainly for the lower body: explosive jumps and plyo work goes well with squats, as does sprinting training. (Hill or stair sprints build more muscle on the legs than you might imagine: many UFC fighters actually favor this kind of work over barbell squats.)

Beyond this, if you want to throw in some different stuff into your sessions—maybe isolation movements or static exercises—sure you can. But use these things sparingly, as add-ons, rather than the backbone of your program.

  1. Mix low AND high reps.

High reps or low reps for maximum muscle gain? If you read my article, The Ten Commandments of Calisthenics Mass (Commandment X), then you know that you need BOTH. For upper-body, it’s a great idea to begin your sessions by using very hard pulling and pushing exercises which limit you to low reps. If you want, you can use more sets than usual. One useful method is to shoot for 10-15 reps over as many sets as it takes.

It doesn’t matter what exercise you use—dips, pullups, pushups, levers, handstand pushups, whatever—just use low reps for your primary push and pull movement, and constantly try to move up to harder and harder techniques. For the rest of the pulling/pushing exercises of your workout, you should shoot for higher reps, attempting to really drain the muscles. In the old days, this used to be called the “heavy/light” system. There are alternative equivalent methods, but this combination works very well over the long term.

You can use this approach for legs, too, but since the lower body has adapted to carrying you around all day, you can usually grow well using just higher reps.

  1. Sets and reps?

As I said above, if you are working with very hard exercises, where you can only get low (1-5) reps, you can use more sets to reach your rep goals. (If you can only do four strict pullups, for example, you might set a workout rep goal of ten reps, and do a set of four, a set of three, and three singles—or whatever you can manage.)

If you are pushing hard on muscle-building, higher rep sets (8-20) stick to one or two sets and just give it your all. (Extending your set—by changing grip, style, range-on-motion, speed or position—doesn’t count as a new set. It’s all one set, baby!) That’s miles better than just plugging away. Sure, for legs you can get away with adding more sets than this, but always emphasize quality over quantity.

  1. Hit it hard or go home.

If you want to transform yourself this year, work ****ing hard when you train. How hard? Hard enough to improve—it ALL comes down to this. “Improving” doesn’t mean “jumping to stuff that’s too difficult”. It means finding a baseline you find manageable but tough, and consistently improving form, adding a rep here or there, or making minor technical progressions. These all add up over the year to huge changes.

I’m not a generally huge fan of training to “failure” for most workouts. But the reality is that the harder you push yourself, the better your body adapts, to cope with the perceived effort. Eight reps is better than six reps. Fourteen reps is better than ten reps. If you are fired up and committed to gaining a LOT of muscle in the near future, you need to push yourself more than you might in regular strength training sessions.

  1. Stay away from the weights.

To those of you versed in modern fitness “culture”, this sounds nuts. Sacrilege, even. You gotta hit that bench, those heavy squats, or you can’t grow, bro! Sure. That’s why gymnasts are some of the most muscular natural athletes on the planet.

Yes—bodyweight training WILL jack you up.
Yes—bodyweight training WILL jack you up.

In the REAL world, using weights makes training TOO EASY. That’s why most gym-trained folks never change. Any fat weakling can do bench presses or machine curls. But strict dips? One-leg squats? Hanging levers? One-arm pushups? Only for REAL athletes.

Bodyweight also keeps you honest. It’s simple to bulk up 20 pounds of fat and go do some deadlifts and convince yourself it’s “all muscle”. But when you are struggling to add reps to your pullups, you know the truth from the lies pretty damn quick.

Programs, Paulie?

Okay—that’s the tactics. What about the program?

Well, I can’t give you a program. That changes over a year. (For sure, the exercises you use MUST change, as you grow in power and mass.) There are plenty of programs you can apply these tactics to in Convict Conditioning, Raising the Bar and C-MASS.

Like I said, your program should ideally be based around six basic components (which are distilled into the Big Six). Pullup variations, bodyweight squats and leg work, bridges, handstand work, leg raises/midsection and pushups. They key is to work these six families hard. What does “hard” look like? Here’s a sample intermediate routine, containing just two workouts, cycled with a day off between each. The exercises may change if you are not this strong, but the flavor is there:

WORKOUT 1: Pullups, Squats, Bridges

Pullups

Everyone loves pullups! You warm up with two sets of five regular two-arm pullups and some hanging stretches, just to get everything loose. After that’s it’s archer pullups—an exercise you find pretty tough. You want to get ten cumulative reps in today: it doesn’t matter how many sets it takes. You begin with your weakest side, and manage to grind out four good reps. You repeat that on your stronger side, then get three reps on both sides. You finish with another set of two (both sides) and a single (both sides), making ten reps (4, 3, 2, 1). Not quite failure, but tough, stimulating work—you’re going for eleven reps next time, champ!

Not done yet, though. After some shoulder circling, you head back to the bar to finish off with regular, two-arm pullups. Your lats and biceps are so shot that strict, deep reps are out of the question now: so you only go ¾ of the way down, and swing yourself up. One set of nine of these, and there’s no point in doing any more vertical work: your lats are flash fried.

Al Kavadlo Shredded Back Pull Up
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED: Shredded upper-back!

Your upper-back and traps could use some more training, right? So it’s back to everybody’s favorite, horizontal pulls. You set yourself under a low bar and pull yourself up until your chest touches, forcing your shoulder-blade muscles to contract almost painfully, even from rep one. A strict set of eight, followed by a set of seven leaves your upper-back tissues pumped and burning as hell.

By now, your entire upper-back has had a great workout—front-to-back, side-to-side. You are a Spartan though, and want to finish off with a little treat for your grip—hanging grip holds. To help work the entire hand, you throw a couple towels over the bar, turning a tough exercise into a real bastard. Your forearms are pretty thrashed already, so you can barely last a few seconds each hold—three sets and yer hands are cramping, with your forearms feeling so hot, you want to plunge them into ice water. Great work. You are doing something right! Thankfully, your arms can take a break now. Legs are up next.

Squats

After a warm-up of jogging on the spot and jackknife squats, it’s time for the perfect neural primer if you want big legs: explosive jumps. Three sets following the rules and progressions I set out in Convict Conditioning 3 (released soon!) and BANG—it’s suddenly time for squats.

Perfect one-leg squats are a little tough for the rep range you’re shooting for, so you start with a version of assisted squats, using a doorframe to help pull yourself up. You go tough on yourself, though—each rep is slow, strict, momentum-free, and with as little help as possible. Ten strict reps per leg, for three sets, leave your quadriceps feeling like they’ve been surgically removed, dipped in battery acid, then sewn back in.

But you need more squats—for motor patterning and conditioning. (Don’t worry, those big leg muscles can take it.) So you work with deep, strict, perfect two leg squats—two sets of fifty reps leave those legs pumped and blitzed beyond belief. Not done yet though—you head outside for some sprints. (I’m betting you have a stretch of road. Somewhere.) You set a point around a hundred meters away, and hit it. At first it feels like you’re running through Jell-o, but you grit your teeth and somehow adapt. Five rounds of sprints with a minute in-between leaves those legs shot and shaky. You ever seen a sprinter’s legs, kid?

Allan Wells Sprinter Quads
Allan Wells is just one example of a champion sprinter with great legs who never touched a weight: he stuck to plyometrics and bodyweight circuits, and in the eighties his contemporaries said that when he flexed, his quads looked “like a road map”.

Bridges

Back indoors and though you yearn to crash on the couch, you still have another exercise to go: bridges. Everything is warm now, so you head straight to bridge pushups: fifteen reps seem easy, so you stretch out and switch to gecko bridge pushups—one arm, one leg. Only for champions, this. You are shaking and trembling, but manage four reps apiece. It doesn’t feel like enough, so you go back to regular bridge pushups, and bang out a set of twelve: each rep with a three second pause, tensing at the top. Just to bulk up those back-legs, you finish with two sets of straight bridges—twenty-five and eighteen reps leave your hamstrings (and triceps) aflame.

Convict Conditioning Bridges
Classic bridge pushups. Not sure what the book is called.

By now, it’s time to call it a day. But there’s a nagging feeling in the back of your mind: you suspect that you worked your legs so damn hard—all the squats, jumps and running—that you couldn’t give your spinal muscles all they deserved during the bridges. Your legs gave out first. Sure, you gave them a good workout, but “good” won’t build the Diesel 20, right? So you rock up to the overhead bar again, jump up and spin round into a back lever. Yeah, it’d be ideal to lever up and down, but your body is so brutalized now, just holding the lever is an achievement. You hold it ramrod stiff for three seconds—spinal muscles like steel pythons…five seconds…body shaking…eight seconds, and down. You give yourself a goal of thirty seconds total, holding the back lever: it takes seven ruthless, cumulative sets to manage it. By the end of it, you are sweating and exhausted, and your spinal muscles are thrashed to hell.

Do you do any more for your legs and back? Any squats, deadlifts, leg curls, hacks, adductor band moves? NO! Not because you don’t want to, because you can’t. Your muscles are worked to the max!

Forget what the fools tell you that you can’t build muscle with calisthenics. If you can train like this once or twice a week for a year, you will revolutionize yourself. This stuff would add mass to a pencil! Go have a steak and a good night’s sleep—you earned it.

WORKOUT 2: Handstand pushups, leg raises, pushups

It’s 48 hours, ten hours sleep and several quality meals since your last workout: but your legs are still a little stiff. Must be time to hit it again with workout 2! We did pullups, squats and bridges last time: this time it’s handstand work, midsection and pushups. Mostly upper-body. Your legs shouldn’t have to work too hard.

Handstand pushups

A good warm-up is always a great idea before shoulder work. So you start with shoulder rolling, active stretches, plus a few handstands against the wall. That gets some blood in there. Time to hit handstand pushups: for your first set, you bust out a strict set of six—not too shabby. Two minutes rest and you’re back on it—five reps. Maybe you could have got six, but it’s not wise to push too hard when your skull is hovering above the ground, right? You still want more, so you add sets rather than doing lots of reps all at once. Another set of 3, then a final perfect single rep, and you call it a day (that’s 15 reps: 6, 5, 3, 1). On that final single rep you hold your arms locked out for a total of about twelve seconds—seems like forever. You don’t quite crumple to the floor after this, but you ain’t far off.

Arnold Handstand Push-Up
Yep. Even Arnold himself used handstand pushups from time to time—
the legendary Frank Zane spots him.

You can feel the deep stimulation in the deltoids and triceps as you wander around, shaking out your wrists and arms. How can your shoulders and arms NOT grow after a beating like this? Hell, your whole damn upper-body feels like it’s had a workout!

Leg raises

Need to stretch out those compressed torso and shoulder muscles—after a break and a sip of water, you head off to the horizontal bar.

Your body is already warm, so after a couple sets of light, stretchy, knee raises, it’s time for the real stuff: strict hanging leg raises. With your legs as stiff as ramrods and using zero momentum, you bust out a set of eighteen. On the next set you only get six reps before you need to start swinging and cheating, but fight your way to eleven anyway. Two sets and your abs, waist and hips are toast.

Al Kavadlo Six Pack
Al’s six-pack was built with bodyweight training and nutritional discipline. No machines, drugs or supplements are necessary for a stripped steel stomach like this.

You drop down and walk to the other side of the room, to give your grip a bit of a rest, then you’re back—this time for hanging knee raises. These should seem easy after the straight-leg stuff, but your abs are tired: you can manage one really, really tough, messy set of twenty-one. Your hanging strength is spent now, so you head to the floor. You get on your back, not for a rest, but to work on some lying leg raises. One set of twelve strict, wheezing reps and you are nearly done. There’s a little gas left in those abs, so you quickly hook your feet under the couch and move to fast sit-ups. Just ten reps in, your abs are ready for suicide. By fifteen, “fast” is out the window, and you are gulping breaths on the floor between reps. You shoot for thirty, but twenty three is your absolute limit today—not because you quit, but because your stomach muscles do. How do you know you’re done? You can’t even get up for a full minute—your abs won’t respond. So you lie down and get your breath until you can face the next movement.

Pushups

You take a few minutes to walk off the pain in your belly, stretching a little to let the blood and waste products in your tight abs dissipate, then it’s back to your true love: the floor. A couple of easy warm up sets of pushups, then you’re into the real stuff. Let’s work the arms and shoulders with close pushups—one strict, slow set of twelve leaves your pushing muscles hot, and your triceps swollen like balloons. So we repeat the feat! Or try—you manage an agonizing-but-strict ten reps. You could not do more close pushups if you tried. So you place your hands a few inches apart, and the shift allows you another three pushups. Then you move a few inches apart again—two more. By now your upper-body is screaming in pain, and you are huffing like the Little Engine That Could. But you are a warrior, and there is more in you. So you switch to regular pushups, and manage to grind out five okay reps—with a little body English. This last set has lasted twenty reps—but WHAT a set it was. For sanity’s sake, you take a ten second breather, shaking out your arms and shoulders. Still not done, you get back into the pushup position and pump out some partials—nine half reps, six quarter reps, and finally about a dozen “pulse” reps: just bumping up and down, to squeeze the last bit of juice from your muscles. If the floor was a 500lbs barbell, it wouldn’t be any easier to push!

By now, the triceps and shoulders are blown to bits. But the pecs—after a three minute rest they got a little bit left in the tank. You set up two chairs a little way apart, and place your palms of the seats for stretch pushups, setting your feet up on a box at hip height to make things even tougher. Ten reps and your chest muscles are in agony. You manage eleven. But instead of crashing down, you pop your feet down on the floor to improve your leverage and continue. You manage another four reps only, your chest screaming at you the whole way. You’re toast.

Clint Walker Stretch Pushups
In the fifties and sixties, actor Clint Walker had the best pecs in Hollywood. The stretch pushups didn’t hurt none, huh? (You’re right. He shoulda played Superman.)

It takes you five minutes of rest before you feel ready to hit the shower. Another killer workout in the bank—but look on the bright side. You got another 48 hours to rest before going back to workout 1 and kicking yourself in the ass again.

Got the idea?

Gentlemen, it’s training like this that builds SERIOUS MUSCLE. It’s not easy. It’s not really fun. But if you can train like this for a year you will look like all those guys you always dreamed of looking like. I’m not saying you should do this workout—you can use any workouts you like—I’m just trying to give you a taste of the kind of hard-ass, focused training that will ramp up your muscle mass quickly.

Another point is that you need to—always—vary the exercises you are using to reflect your strength and ability. For most people, the exercises in the above workouts, with those rep levels, would be too tough. For some hard cases, these exercises would be too easy. The exercises you use will change as you get stronger, fairly quickly: the athlete performing these exercises would “outgrow” them fairly soon, as he moves to harder and harder stuff over the year. (How do you “move to harder and harder stuff”? You meet rep goals on the exercises you are doing, then find ways to make ‘em a little harder. You got this thing, right?)

Fit Rebel Push-Up

Just Do It

If you are really up for this challenge—Beta to Alpha in twelve short months—one final piece of advice. Keep it secret. I don’t believe this modern bullshit that you should shout your goals to as many folks as possible. There is magic in secrecy, in knowing something nobody else does. Social media is one reason so few folks get in shape these days—they expend all their mental energy talking about their goals, and leave none for the goals themselves.

Shoot me a comment with questions or ideas—but don’t promise me you are gonna do it. Promise yourself. If you really want to go for this, get weighed, take a photo of your physique, and come back in one year to show me how awesome you got. I WILL publish it, and you WILL get famous.

I believe in you, kid.

A million thanks to the greatest calisthenics trainers on earth, Al and Danny Kavadlo, for providing most of the photos. Find Al at AlKavadlo.com and Danny at DannyTheTrainer.com. It was also an honor to be able to use shots of the Fit Rebel himself, Matt Schifferle. This guy is a master bodyweight bodybuilder, and really understands the science like nobody else in the world. Please check out his site, RedDeltaProject.com.

***

Paul “Coach” Wade is the author of Convict Conditioning, Convict Conditioning Volume 2, the Convict Conditioning Ultimate Bodyweight Training Log, and five Convict Conditioning DVD and manual programs. Click here for more information about the Convict Conditioning DVDs and books available for purchase from Dragon Door Publications.

Filed Under: Motivation and Goals, Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: Al Kavadlo, Big Six, bodyweight exercise, C-Mass, calisthenics, Convict Conditioning, Danny Kavadlo, goals, how to gain muscle with calisthenics, Matt Schifferle, muscle building, Paul "Coach" Wade, Paul Wade, progressive calisthenics

How to Put the “Active” in Active Rest

December 23, 2014 By Adrienne Harvey 14 Comments

Adrienne Harvey Active Rest Slackline

“Active Rest” is a phrase that we hear and say a whole lot without really thinking about it too much. On one hand the concept is extremely simple, a light workout day to speed recovery from a recent, more strenuous effort. But, some of us tend to over-complicate the issue and end up with a dauntingly over-engineered workout on what should be an opportunity for fun, meaningful practice, and optimized recovery.

Why not just be a couch potato?

It can be extremely tempting to just completely take some time off. And sometimes that’s necessary in cases of injury or really overdoing it in a workout. I’ve long held the belief that it’s better to err on the side of caution. Push and challenge yourself of course, but part of the learning process with the progressions in Convict Conditioning and the PCC is the self-knowledge that comes along with it. While coordination and proprioception are obvious mental “gains”, the value of learning your limits, and watching them change/improve should not be underestimated.

In our “gotta have it now” instant gratification culture, it’s sometimes difficult for those of us who are highly motivated to see the value in rest. More is always better, right? Not always! As I mentioned in a previous PCC Blog post about programming other modalities and interests with Convict Conditioning/PCC, Paul Wade’s routines like “Good Behavior” and “Veterano” (both outlined in the original Convict Conditioning book) provide plenty of rest and recovery time—as well as enough time to factor in a serious interest in sports, martial arts, etc.

How do you know that you’re not getting enough recovery time? Most people first notice when they’ve hit a plateau in their progress. While plateaus can result from many things (sometimes even psychological reasons!), it is easy enough to introduce more rest or active rest to your overall plan. Go getters and super motivated people who feel like they’ve stalled in their progress are especially encouraged to consider more rest. Similarly, I find that women who have fallen victim to the “must run/cycle/cardiostep to burn x calories or else” mindset can stall their strength and even weight loss efforts by not allowing time for recovery.

Active recovery is also really important as we get older. While I’m only just beginning to sneak up on 40, there’s definitely some changes I’ve had to make in my diet and rest schedule. I’m fond of saying that when we get older we don’t necessarily get weaker, we’re just no longer able to continue abusing our bodies. Both as we age and/or as our activity levels increase, it becomes even more important to pay attention to our self care and recovery. And at any age, paying attention to rest and recovery can certainly help prevent needless injuries.

Similarly, active recovery can also help us mentally recover from an all out effort or an intense week with workouts and with life.

So, after all this talk, what does an active recovery session look like? At its very simplest, an active rest day might include an extended stroll, especially if you’ve really had a tough week and workout. While I’m always up for a good walk, most of the time active recovery should involve a more than just wandering around the neighborhood.

Here are some of my favorite active recovery ideas, and I hope that you will add yours to the comments section below this blog post. After a long week, sometimes we all need help in the creative ideas department, so please be sure to share.

Stretching Your Boundaries by Al KavadloMobility or flexibility practice. Compared to most women, I’m reasonably inflexible (physically, let’s not talk personality) and consider it to be a challenging area. While I have no aspirations to become a contortionist or a yogi, some specific mobility and flexibility work would help my progress with a few calisthenics moves, and potentially provide additional injury prevention. While flexibility is an easy example of one of my own weak points, working on an appropriate shortcoming of your own can be a great basis for an active recovery day.

A shorter/lighter version of a favorite workout, or a lighter version of a workout within your strength program. This is a great opportunity to fine tune your technique with some of the earlier progressions, since “lighter” in calisthenics doesn’t mean grabbing a lighter kettlebell or barbell. Many times some very important insights can come from a “regression-session” like this. If you’re an instructor you may also find some helpful hints for your clients or students you haven’t previously thought about.

Work on balance or a specific skill. One of my favorite recreational activities is slacklining. It points squarely at another one of my personal challenges, extreme balance! It’s a fun mental challenge and is oddly relaxing. It calls for focus and mental engagement, but without constantly tensing up the muscles (or you will fall down!) Even though I’m still very much a beginner, forcing myself to “go with the flow” during slacklining has actually helped me “accidentally” work through some muscle stiffness from tough workouts the day before!

Your tai chi or yoga practice (or an abbreviated version of it) might be another option as well. I have a favorite old qigong routine that I’ve practiced since 2000 that’s heavy on mindfulness and breathing, but light on the physical exertion. It’s been a big part of my warm up and active recovery for years, and I can definitely tell if I’ve slacked off of doing it! Similarly, less intense or short forms from tai chi as well as some of the more relaxing/meditative varieties of yoga would be good choices to consider.

Whether you are a type-a go-getter who hates the idea of taking a day off, someone who is stuck on a plateau, or simply someone who wants to maintain optimum health, adding gentle activity to your rest days can prove to be productive and fun.

***

About Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC Instructor, RKC-II, CK-FMS, Primal Move Nat’l Instructor: Originally RKC Certified in 2010, and RKC Level 2 certified in 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!

Filed Under: Flexibility, Motivation and Goals Tagged With: active rest, Adrienne Harvey, Convict Conditioning, flexibility training, getting past plateaus, mobility training, programming, recovery day, rest day, Slacklining, Stretching Your Boundaries, Tai Chi, workout strategy, yoga

Calisthenics Grip Training

July 22, 2014 By Corey Howard 31 Comments

Handshake

I’ll never forget Gary. It’s not that Gary was such an amazing person, in fact he was quite bland. Imagine shaking hands with someone’s limp lifeless, overcooked soggy noodle hand. That was what made him disappointingly unforgettable. We’ve all met someone like that, and it creeps most people out. Shake my hand like you mean it!

On the other side of the spectrum is Rich. Rich has been crowned the World Arm Wrestling Champ many times. After introducing him to my father, my dad said, “that was like sticking your hand into a bunch of bananas! I wasn’t sure I was getting my arm back!” Your handshake says a lot about you. Grip strength says even more.

Al Kavadlo Human Flag
Grip strength is an essential part of many advanced calisthenics exercises, such as the infamous human flag, demonstrated here by PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo.

How can a strong grip help?  First, your grip is the linkage between your body and whatever it is you’re trying to control.  If you’re trying to put heavy objects overhead, a crushing grip can actually tighten the linkage in your shoulder and give you a safer press.  If you’re a calisthenic ninja, killer grip can keep you on the bar for more pull-ups or help your handstands as you grip the ground and drive upward.  But how on earth can you develop card tearing grip strength using only calisthenics?  According to Paul Wade in Convict Conditioning II, finger tip push-ups and towel hangs are all you need.  From my own experience, he’s right!

Finger tip push-ups are simple; just do a push-up on your finger tips!  Well, there’s a bit more to it than that.  This one killer exercise strengthens the entire hand from the fingers up through the forearms.  It’s easy to let your ego get in front of you with this one, so be sure to progress slowly and cautiously. I recommend starting these as incline push-ups.  This enables you to keep your technique spot-on and stay injury free.

Fingertip Setup Hand Position
Make sure you set your hand up with your fingers locked and spread.

It’s important to make sure you set your hand up with your fingers locked and spread.  Try and create a tall wide support structure with your fingers.  Ideally you want your fingers to look like they are flowing right up into your arm, there should be no odd bends or strains.

As you make progress with these just keep moving closer to the floor, and once you’re able to do 8-10 quality fingertip push-ups, try one arm push-ups, or 3 finger push-ups.

AlKavadlo Three Finger Incline Pushup
PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo demonstrates a 3-finger incline one arm push-up, unofficially known as the “Heavy Metal” push-up.

Towel hangs can start out easy, then progress to a battle of will between your body and your mind.  These work amazingly well for developing grip endurance as well as thick muscled forearms.

Again I strongly suggest starting out with a grip training drill you can do fairly well and slowly progress to the harder stuff like one arm hangs, thicker towel hangs, longer hangs, or even pull-ups or leg raises with a towel.  I would also encourage you to pull the shoulders down away from your ears while you hang.  This tightens up the shoulder complex and creates more stability.  Once you can hang for about a minute I’d suggest you bump it up a bit.  Remember, everything can be made more challenging with simple calisthenics tweaks.

Corey Howard Towel Hangs for Grip Strength
I love to use towel hangs for developing my grip!

I caution you about pushing too hard and trying to progress too fast.  Sometimes you can overwork these smaller muscles and not even know it until you have a painful case of tennis elbow.  Remember for most people, grip is the smallest link in the chain.  The last thing you want to do is allow your brain and larger muscles to overpower your grip work and cause an injury.

Grip training can be tricky but the rewards are huge! I can tell you from my own experience, Paul Wade’s combo rocks!  After doing these two movements fairly consistently I’ve had to add a link in my watch, and can no longer slip my wedding ring off for any pull-up work.  My forearms, wrists and fingers have thickened up a bit.  If you increase the size of the motor, most of the time you increase the output as well…. More grip strength!  More pull-ups!  Fire it up!!

***

About Corey Howard, PCC, RKC, CK-FMS: Corey Howard strives to constantly become stronger, and to help others to achieve their fitness goals. He is the owner of Results Personal Training, and can be reached at www.resultsptonline.com or www.coreyhoward.com.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: bodyweight exercise, Convict Conditioning, Convict Conditioning Vol 2, Corey Howard, grip strength, grip training

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