goals

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:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

Europe’s Most Wanted

October 21, 2014 By Al Kavadlo and Danny Kavadlo 33 Comments

Danny Al Ferris Wheel Europe PCC Workshops

This October has been a groundbreaking month for the Progressive Calisthenics Certification. For the first time ever, two PCC workshops took place on consecutive weekends, both overseas – and both a rollicking success! The PCC family continues to grow and grow. The passion for calisthenics transcends intercontinental boundaries.

First, we conducted our inaugural workshop in The Netherlands at Trainingscentrum Helena in Haarlem, Holland. Hosted by the #1 Krav Maga instructor in the world (outside of Israel), Martijn Bos, our premiere event in The Netherlands resulted in new calisthenics achievements from each and every attendee!

Support Press Holland PCC

Human flags, muscle-ups and elbow levers were all fair game for participants, as were handstands, archer pull-ups and back levers. Every single person who came to PCC Holland achieved at least one personal best. It’s an exciting experience to witness firsthand the birth of such excellence!

Europe PCC Muscle-Up

Knowledge was shared, friendships were formed and new PCC instructors now walk among us. The solidarity and kinship among the newest members of the PCC family is a heartwarming thing to behold. As usual, it was hard to say goodbye at the end of the whirlwind weekend!

PCC Group Photo Holland 2014

There was little time to relish in the success, however, as we soon headed over to Sweden to conduct our second PCC event in Gothenburg. The momentum of groundbreaking achievements that began in Holland didn’t slow down one bit once we arrived in the land of the midnight sun. Positivity breeds positivity, and the Sweden crew proved it. Some of the most recognizable faces from the international street workout team Barstarzz even showed up to earn their Progressive Calisthenics Certifications!

PCC Sweden 2014 Barstarzz

The fierce calisthenics vikings of Gothenburg continued in the tradition of previous PCC classes by smashing personal bests, inspiring one another and having a blast the whole time! We love our job!

PCC Sweden L-Sit on Danny and Al

Now that we are back in the States, it’s hard to believe how quickly it all went; time flies when you’re having fun! The good news is, we get to do it all over again next month! PCC wraps up the 2014 season with a return to the good ol’ USA. Our final event of the year will take place at Drench Fitness in Milwaukee, WI on November 7-9. Spots are still open for this event. Go sign up right now!

And for our European fans, do not fret! You will have three opportunities to attend the PCC next spring when we come to Germany, Italy and Ireland on three consecutive weekends!

No matter where we go, spreading the joy of calisthenics is fresh and exciting every time! We can’t wait to see YOU at our next event!

PCC Group Photo Sweden 2014

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About Al and Danny Kavadlo:

Al Kavadlo is the lead instructor for Dragon Door’s Progressive Calisthenics Certification. Recognized worldwide for his amazing bodyweight feats of strength as well as his unique coaching style, Al is the author of three books, including Raising The Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-up Bar Calisthenics and Pushing The Limits! Total Body Strength With No Equipment. Read more about Al on his website:www.AlKavadlo.com.

Danny Kavadlo is one of the world’s most established and respected personal trainers. He is a Master Instructor of Progressive Calisthenics and the author of Everybody Needs Training: Proven Success Secrets for the Professional Fitness Trainer. A true in-person experience, Danny is known globally as a motivator and leader in the body-weight community. Learn more about Danny at: www.DannyTheTrainer.com.

Goals, Goals, Goals

January 28, 2014 By Steven Low 12 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

What would a doctor tell you to do?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Everything you do for training should have a goal.

If you are doing prehabilitation work, it should be with the expectation that the area you’re working on is improving either in performance or getting better. If it’s not, then there’s something you’re missing.

Likewise, your warm up should have a specific goal. Your flexibility training should have a specific goal. Your skill training should have a specific goal. Your sleep you should have a specific goal. Even your nutrition should have a specific goal.

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

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

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

The Week of a Thousand Push-ups

December 10, 2013 By Danny Kavadlo 23 Comments

As 2013 winds down and I reflect on the days and months behind me, I find that it’s impossible for me to go a moment without mentally celebrating the launch of the Progressive Calisthenics Certification. From the United States to Sweden (and soon to Australia, Ireland and more), the energy and talent that fills these rooms is simply magnificent. It is almost becoming a common occurrence to witness amazing feats, such as a first ever muscle-up, back lever, or pistol squat. As mind-boggling as that seems, these spectacular displays of strength, balance, and sheer training ethic are becoming what could almost be considered “normal.”

But it isn’t. Not to most.

The truth is that in the world of commercial fitness, these feats are about as far out as it comes. With machines comprised of shining stacks on sliding tracks have become the standard, our simplicity is bold like a ruby in a pile of rocks. We stand proud, defiantly deviating from product-based workouts encouraged by the man. Given the tightness of the calisthenics community, it is sometimes easy to forget how far we fall from the mainstream. We’re not looking for 7-minute abs and 21 day transformations. We seek something more. We are on the outskirts of physical culture, the edge of the norm. Dammit, we are the freaks and geeks of fitness!

So, what does that have to do with the Week of a Thousand Push-ups? Well, quite a bit. Even though the noble push-up is one of the most popular—and best—upper body exercise of all time, like the room full of Personal Records at the PCC events, the thought of doing nothing but a thousand push-ups for a week would blow most people’s minds. But that is exactly what my personal training client Mike did recently. As you know by now, we are definitely not “most people.”

Mike’s Story

Mike was going out of town for a week and planned on continuing his training even though we would not be meeting. We have trained twice a week for years and he is serious. On this particular business trip, his time was limited and he was going to be without a gym, bicycle, or pull-up bar. Although my personal clients know better than to make excuses, they are sometimes uncertain of what to do without me. I am often asked some version of “what should I do while I’m out of town?”, to which I generally reply: “Keep it basic–squat, push-up, pull-up.”

But this time Mike already had an idea in mind… and it was more basic and brilliant than I could have imagined!

“The week of a thousand push-ups,” he said.

The way it came out of his mouth, I thought it was a movie title: Simple. Concise. Even catchy.

Mike had it figured like this. There are seven days in the week, therefor an average of over 143 per day would put him at a numeric advantage. He intended to keep his plan as simple as possible, doing his first set to failure every day, then doing recurring sets throughout the day until he surpassed his daily goal 143.

Though it’s nice to start with a plan, like many activities in life, it’s often best to improvise. As I would have done under the same circumstances, Mike changed his intended plan throughout the week. Some days, he did indeed go til failure on his first set; others, he did multiple sets of twenty or thirty throughout the day. There were days of over 300 push-ups before noon. There were also days where he barely met his goal. There are many ways to skin a cat.

Needless, to say, my man Big Mike wound up doing way over the thousand push-ups he planned on! (The next time I saw him, we trained legs.)

Keepin’ It Real

Prior to his week of a thousand push-ups, Mike informed me that to “keep an even playing field’” he would be doing only push-ups of the classic variety—feet together, two handed, no incline. He explained that this method would eliminate the temptation to switch to easier variations if his goal of 1,000 proved too challenging. I respect his decision. The classic push-up is honest, strong and true. It’s a classic for a reason.

However, there’s also something to be said mixing it up, in push-ups and life.

Mix-Master Mania

Any one who truly knows me is well aware of my passion for the push-up in all of its wonderful forms. From the fragility of knee push-ups, to the muscular methods of plyos, to me, every single type of push-up has an art and beauty intrinsic to it that makes it stand on its own.

We already discussed some training techniques and methods (Divide evenly, go until failure, multiple daily sets), but what about different kinds of push-ups?

Although some push-up varieties are more challenging than others, it can be fun to do a thousand push-ups of several variations. Have fun and be creative. Mix it up! Here are just a few of my favorites:

The narrow grip push-up, shown here, places more emphasis on the arms.

The wide push-up is also a great variation and is a precursor to archer push-up.

Doing push-ups on your fists places a unique challenge on your hands, and extends the range of motion of your push-ups.

Get creative. Employing inclines is an excellent way to step up your game. Combine this method with different grips (like fingertips) for an added challenge. Have fun with it. The sky’s the limit!

As with the Week of a Thousand Push-ups, Mike and I have continued to keep our training exciting and, of course, effective. That’s what it’s all about. As is often the case, the client inspired me!

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When You Want to Succeed—Cut to the Essentials and Put Forth Supreme Effort

November 12, 2013 By John Du Cane, CEO and founder, Dragon Door 22 Comments

John Du Cane does his best to cut to the essentials and put forth a supreme effort, be it in Dragon Door business or his own health practices.

Michelangelo commented that sculpting his perfect statue was a matter of chipping away the extraneous stone until the perfect form revealed itself. He also commented that if people had any idea how hard he worked, they wouldn’t marvel so much at the results of his labor. And herein lie two of the secrets to great success in any endeavor: hone your skill at cutting to the essentials—and put forth an unremitting, focused, supreme effort.

As athletes, we are in the business of cultivating ourselves as ongoing works of art. We are physical culturists, dealing with one of the most malleable and frustratingly entropic materials imaginable: our own bodies. Nothing degrades like human flesh left to its own devices. Nothing falters and falls apart like a directionless, undisciplined spirit. The winds of impermanence are constantly blowing against the sand paintings we create of ourselves. Faced with such vulnerability and uncertainty, we continue to cultivate ourselves with pride and diligence, celebrating the transient beauty of our beings—or we disgrace ourselves and degrade into decrepitude.

Two entropic forces contribute to our decline—rather than our glory—as human works of art: Lack of focus and laziness. The road to lack of focus is paved with the baubles of variety. Laziness is a crisis of the spirit, best overcome by the inspiration of hero-figures and the connection to a group of mentors and motivating fellow-seekers.

Variety is a double-edged sword. We need variety to entertain us and to explore potentially rewarding new methods. Yet variety is the Great Distracter, pretending there’s a magic secret over the horizon, whose capture will finally reward us with success. When the real secret to progress is and always has been the diligent application of a few core, essential practices.

PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo is a hard-working practitioner of the essentials and a role model for the dedicated cultivation of the body as an ongoing work of art.

In many types of physical cultivation, success can be measured. You document heavier lifts for more reps. You run faster, you punch harder. You reduce body fat percentages. You increase muscle size. You pass physical tests, you enter competitions. You keep a log book (right now, I have set strength goals for myself with kettlebell practice—and a daily log has made a huge difference to my progress.)

For many other types of physical culture—like my own personal practice of Qigong and Tai Chi—progress and success is extremely hard to measure. How do you measure movement skill or internal energy levels? Not easily! Much of the measurement here stems from your own internal monitoring and gauging of your well-being. Cutting down to the essentials and committing to a daily, dedicated practice becomes all the more crucial.

How are you doing these days with your personal physical cultivation? How is the artwork coming along? What could you discard or do differently from now on, to progress as a fine piece of ongoing art?

Live and Learn

July 2, 2013 By Jack Arnow 8 Comments

Jack Arnow performs a one arm chin-up at the age of 66

In high school I won a race by pushing myself past my limits. I just wouldn’t listen to my body. I threw up as I crossed the finish line, and was sick for the next 2 days. When I found chinning, I’d do reps until my muscles locked and began to spasm. I was a small, skinny, asthmatic kid who was overcompensating. I’d get injured often. I was poor and worked out in my apartment, schoolyards and parks. Back then I had no name for what I did, but “bodyweight training” probably described it best.

A friend brought me to a vacant lot in Brooklyn where Jasper Benincasa had put up a chinning bar. Lots of kids would work out on it and play stick ball or touch football in the adjacent streets. I became a regular, stopping by almost every day on my way home from school. It changed my life!

Now, more than fifty five years later I still workout almost everyday, primarily for the wonderful physical and emotional feelings that the workouts produce, but I also like the respect and attention that I get from young folks. And today’s wisdom is that it’s good for my health too!

Injuries, including elbow tendinitis and rotator cuff problems have long been my nemesis. Mindlessness and overtraining have been their root cause. Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

Focus on your day to day training, not just the high of achieving your goals. Future results are never a certainty, so enjoy the journey.

If your training ever becomes a chore, be creative and try new things. As I approached 50 years of age, training to regain a one-arm chin, I became desperate. Worrying that aging was causing my muscles to atrophy, I over-trained, despite the signals my body was giving me. Although I did regain the one-arm chin, I lost it again. Experiment on yourself to see what works for you, but always approach new routines cautiously and slowly in order to minimize the possibility of injury. I say minimize the possibility of injury, because you will make mistakes. All humans make mistakes. Another reason that injuries occur is that your body changes all the time. What worked today may not work tomorrow. You are a work in progress.

If you are feeling really good because you are advancing quickly towards your goals, that is a time for extreme caution. That’s when you may be likely to push it just a bit too hard and get injured. If you are upset that you are not advancing fast enough, or have reached a plateau, that’s another time to be careful. Perhaps it’s not a time to increase intensity or volume, but try something new. At all times listen to your body. Each day may be different. After one set, or one rep, or in the middle of one movement, stop if something feels wrong. Make training plans, but alter those plans if necessary. If you are uncertain how to proceed, stop to use your brain, the most important asset you have. Considering an alternative may prevent injury.

I last did a one-arm chin about 5 years ago, because I realized they were getting harder for me to do. I felt happy and smart to stop them before I became injured. I had taken up yoga, planned to get certified as a yoga teacher and wanted to continue to give massage. I did not want to risk my ability to do these things. The memorial for chinning legend Jasper Benincasa in March 2012 inspired me to try to regain a one-arm chin. I’ve advised many others how to train for a one-arm chin. I came to the conclusion that I should just listen to my own advice! I’ll be 71 in a few months and am enjoying my training immensely. It’s two steps forward and one step back. I’ve learned not to set time goals. Setting a goal such as “I will get a one-arm chin by January 1” is a terrible idea. Putting a time limit on reaching your goal may lead to making bad day to day decisions. You may focus on “getting there,” rather than listening to your body moment by moment. That will increase your likelihood of injury.

If you’re feeling weak one day, listen to your body and do less or even rest entirely. Keep in mind that you are a many-sided being, and all things affect how you feel, affect your mood, affect your strength and affect your ability to focus and recover. If you had to work overtime and are tired, if you had an argument with a friend, partner, or family member, if the weather is rainy and cold, if you are stressed out or many other factors can reduce your strength. It may even be more efficient to resolve non-training issues before continuing.

It has become clearer to me that my training and goals have long been one-sided and imbalanced. I reached very high levels in chinning (pulling) and front levers, but neglected legs, pushing and flexibility. I thank Paul Wade, and Al and Danny Kavadlo for my new insights, because I believe a more balanced approach will reduce injury. After doing half handstand push-ups at home this morning, I went to a neighborhood park in Brooklyn and attempted muscle-ups, assisted bridges and skin-the-cat. I couldn’t do a muscle up or skin-the-cat when I met Al and Danny recently, but I made them my goals. Today, a teenager in the park was impressed with my muscle-up, but I still can’t do skin-the-cat. Nevertheless, I taught the teenager to do one.

Whether you made a training mistake or not, accept injuries as part of training and being physically active. Don’t beat yourself up. Try to see the positive aspects. You may rest the injured area, and develop coordination and strength in new areas. Getting the injury can be a wake-up call to improve your technique or change another aspect of your training which will prevent further setbacks. An injury may temporarily (or perhaps even permanently) reduce your strength or ability. Although you should feel proud that you reached some of your goals, never forget that you are much more than your achievements. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that no-one will love or admire you because you can’t do them right now. Most of my friends, but especially my dear wife, think I’m nuts to spend “so much time” exercising. They love me anyway. They appreciate the many things I’ve learned from a lifetime of training: the value of determination, discipline, hard work, enthusiasm, passion and confidence. It’s relatively easier to be joyful when things are going great, but when you are injured or facing other difficult circumstances, continue to let your little light shine.

I believe you have the ability to become your own life and training guru. Learn from trainers and others with experience, read books, and be open to new ideas wherever you find them, but fundamentally no one has the capacity to know yourself as well as you do. Make it your responsibility to become your own guru. For bodyweight training, volume and intensity are very important. Too much and you will get injured. Too little and you may not reach your goals. And the particulars change often. After all is said and done, you are the best one to make that call. Review your growing experience, and try to apply insights often. People are similar but also different. Learn what works for you. Don’t think what works for you, works for others, and vice versa. If some things I wrote in this article don’t work for you, disregard them. That is natural.

Should you be able to internalize even one idea that improves your training or makes you happier, I will feel this article was a success.

(Video Courtesy of www.alkavadlo.com)

***

Thoughts on Mobility and Flexibility Training

May 14, 2013 By Steven Low 5 Comments

One of the questions people looking to get into gymnastics or bodyweight strength training ask me is, “How much mobility or flexibility do I need in [insert body part here].”

To which I invariably reply, “It depends.”

The reason it depends is because each individual has his or her own goals that they are working towards.

First, let me define how I differentiate between mobility and flexibility:

Mobility generally refers to active movement within your given range of motion.

Flexibility generally refers to the passive movement of the joints towards the end range of motion with the goal to increase the total range.

The demands of a recreational gymnast are different from the professional athlete which are different from the serious strength trainee. And even these depend on one’s goals and level of commitment.

For example, in most athletics where you need speed, such as sprinting, football, basketball, or other sports, increasing hamstring mobility and flexibility beyond a certain point starts to decrease performance. In particular, the hamstrings need to be tight enough that the stretch-shorten cycle can activate, which helps to conserve muscular energy and provide the rubber band rebound effect that increases overall speed. If you give a sprinter the mobility and flexibility to easily move into splits like a gymnast, it will manifest as a decrease in performance.

On the other hand, if you are a martial arts practitioner you definitely need a large amount of flexibility, perhaps even full splits if vertical kicks are an important part of the specific martial arts. The mobility and flexibility demands of the particular sport and the techniques they employ matter a lot for how much mobility and flexibility training you need.

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Photo from: threetwoonego.files.wordpress.com

For your average recreational athlete looking to “get healthy” and perhaps develop some cool bodyweight strength movements, they may not need anymore hamstring flexibility than what is required to do a good bodyweight squat or pistol.

Alternatively, a specific gymnastics/bodyweight technique like the straight arm press to handstand may require significant hamstring flexibility to where you can do a full straddle or pike stretch where your chest can go to the floor.

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photo from: drillsandskills.com

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photo from: http://woman.thenest.com/

These different scenarios illustrate some of the conflicting nature of how much mobility and flexibility are needed to work towards certain goals.

If you are a sprinter or need great top-end speed for athletics but also want to work towards the splits or the straddle stretch for the straight arm press handstand, you need to be aware that these goals are at odds with each other. There will be trade-offs in your ability to sprint fast if you develop your flexibility beyond a certain point. If this is fine with you, then by all means do it. But the trade-offs are there whether you’re aware of them or not.

The shoulder in particular has the greatest range of motion of any joint in the body. A move like a German hang or skin the cat is good for increasing shoulder flexibility and getting the muscles and joints comfortable in an awkward position. It is also great for stretching and preparing for the back lever, which is one of the primary bodyweight isometric positions.

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Photo from gymnasticswod.com

If your goal isn’t to work towards manna, then it’s unlikely that you’ll ever need this type of mobility and flexibility in the shoulders.

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Photo from tumblr.com

However, the benefit of being able to move freely through a larger range of motion cannot be lost on the upper body. Unlike the lower body, where the muscles need to be tight enough to sprint effectively because of the stretch-shorten cycle, it’s very unlikely to do similar plyometric type movements with the upper body. So increasing the flexibility of the shoulders tends not to be a trade-off between various goals.

The main reason I train movements through a full range of motion over isometric or static positions is that it is better at developing strength. One of the key points within that is to become comfortable with your overall total mobility.

For example, if I was a random recreational athlete who wanted to be able to develop the back lever and many of the other gymnastics isometric positions, then becoming comfortable in a skin the cat / German hang is going to be useful. It helps you figure out how to apply force in and out of that position as well as become aware of what muscles are working when and where.

The same would be true of a squat. How can you become totally proficient with squatting if you never spend time at the bottom of the squat but only in moving through it?

This type of movement is delving into the realms between mobility and flexibility training. Maybe I don’t want to increase my shoulder hyper-extension anymore than I already have. Therefore, with the German hang, I use it as a general mobility exercise in the warm up. I can go from inverted hang down into the German hang and then pull back out. This allows me to develop the coordination, body awareness, and specific muscle activation that I need much like with moving into and out of the bottom position of the squat.

Once you have the flexibility you need, you just need to maintain it. You don’t have to spend additional time at the bottom of the position in order to stretch it out further.

So to answer the question “how much mobility or flexibility do you need?” you will have to specifically look at all of your goals and determine it from there.

If your ultimate goal is a manna then you will want to start developing the shoulder flexibility for it right away. You need the passive flexibility before you can start to apply active strength into the position. This is the two step process that should guide you through what you want to work towards.

If your goal is to be able to vertical kick for martial arts then first you have to be able to have the flexibility to do the splits. Thus, you develop your splits so as to improve your ability to actively use your legs to kick higher.

A sprinter may have all of the flexibility he needs to squat well already, while a desk job worker may need more flexibility in the calves, hamstrings, and hips in order to get down into the hole.

You need to specifically look at your body and your end goal and have a plan to bridge that gap.

Look at your goals and your current abilities

See the trade-offs, if any, and make adjustments

Train the flexibility, if needed

Then maintain with mobility work and apply active strength work

If you don’t really need more flexibility in certain joints, then you have no reason to train for it.

***

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

Reaping the Rewards of Patient Practice—Steady Progress and Injury Prevention

April 23, 2013 By Adrienne Harvey 21 Comments

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While many people have broken free of the “more is always better” idea in their bodyweight or calisthenics training, it still seems like there’s a tendency towards endless reps when it isn’t always necessary. That’s something I love about the approach to bodyweight training in Convict Conditioning, especially in the advanced progressions. I’m in maintenance mode right now (not trying to make significant changes in body composition), and am still able to acquire a lot of skill and strength with surprisingly low reps of near maximal-effort bodyweight and kettlebell drills.

Most of the time, there’s an element of spontaneity with my workouts—adapting them to the energy of the day, and making the most of it, even if that means it’s time to take a break. Also, I’ll use the time after a few days of rest to test my progress on a given move, or to establish a baseline for something I want to continue to learn. These “workouts” are often more like play. Primal Move has been a big influence on my programming—or lack thereof. My goals any more seem to be focused on the strict execution of certain moves or lifts—to the point that being able to do them on any given day in a variety of circumstances. I want to do incredible things and make it look easy, and that will only comes with patient practice.

At around 14 or 15 years old, I was in band class and remember seeing some of my good friends first learning to play the trumpet. They were trying their best, but they were making some terrible sounds. That same year, my family and I went to New Orleans and I saw a street jazz musician playing a trumpet with such ease that the trumpet might as well have been an extension of himself. He seemed to make the trumpet express whatever he wanted, however he wanted. Meanwhile back at home, my friends clumsily continued to mash what they hoped were the right combination of keys while struggling to maintain their breathing and embrasure.

Every move my friends were making was a conscious effort in this early part of their learning and obviously, a lot more practice was in order. The practiced ease and confidence of a professional musician, acrobat, or other performer is something that I greatly admire. The accomplished street performer who consistently delivers amid constantly changing and chaotic conditions demands equal admiration.

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The three stages of motor learning—cognitive, associative, and autonomous certainly apply to our training. In the cognitive stage every part of the movement or skill someone is learning is very conscious, right foot here, left foot there, etc. Sometimes people go through a mental checklist in this stage, every (remembered) detail is a conscious effort. In bodyweight exercise, during the cognitive stage we are also beginning to gain the necessary strength, along with figuring out where all our “parts” need to go! The first few times I tried to do a clutch flag I had to check and make sure my hands were facing the right directions on the pole, really think about which parts were on which side, what was stacked, where was the weight going, what needed to be tensed to the max. Now I can walk up to an appropriate parking pole and casually just pop up into a clutch flag because I’m well past the cognitive stage. Now that I’m learning the press flag, or “human flag,” I’m having to once again learn which hand goes where on the pole, where I’m facing… The process has started all over again—and that’s before getting to the strength components. (By the way the progressions for the clutch flag and press flag in Convict Conditioning 2 are just fantastic.) From the previous paragraph, my teenage friends were still in the cognitive stage, and the jazz musician in New Orleans was fully autonomous.

Generally speaking, when our form on a move gets sloppy, we are not learning, and our body and minds are in a self-protective mode. In most cases, this will lead to decreased performance with a greater risk of injury. Its so important especially with bodyweight exercise to remember that some of the moves can be near-maximal exercises. Without a barbell loaded up and bending in the middle, or a giant kettlebell to remind us, it can be easy to forget that we’re near our max—for muscles and the central nervous system. Keeping reps low, and staying fresh by taking necessary breaks (or supersetting non-related exercises) has been absolutely central to my own success. Just doing a few near maximal lifts or intense short sets throughout the day can be amazingly effective. It’s like making a small deposit in a savings account, which over time—and often more quickly than expected—really starts to add up. It helps to be dedicated, and it really helps to be a little stubborn!

Something I’ve been asked a number of times by people interested in bodyweight training is, “What do you do about injuries?” It sounds like a smart aleck answer, so I always try to phrase it politely, but what I really want to say in those situations is, “I just try not to have them in the first place, by stopping before it gets ugly.”

As a general rule, if I finally accomplish a goal exercise (a dead hang bar muscle-up is a good example), depending on how it felt, I might just stop right there and take a break. Regardless of where you are in terms of strength or skill, pushing a maximal move to exhaustion usually leads to some unpleasant consequences. I don’t want a potential injury or the lost training time that comes with it. An extra rep or two isn’t worth the risk. Besides, with a lifestyle which includes leading workshops, local classes, plus my own training, I simply can’t afford to take injury risks. Pretty sure your lifestyle doesn’t have room for needless injury either. I think, part of the learning curve with skillful exercise involves learning your own limits, and safely expanding those limits over time.

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About Adrienne Harvey, RKCII, CK-FMS, Primal Move Nat’l Instructor: I started studying kettlebell training over three years ago and became RKC Certified in October of 2010, and became an RKC Level 2 Instructor in July 10th of 2011. Kettlebell and bodyweight training have been absolutely crucial in my personal quest for fitness, and I love sharing these ultra-effective modalities with small groups and individuals. Similarly, developing recipes to further support performance, body composition, and general enjoyment is another passion. Go to http://www.giryagirl.com/ for more information about Adrienne!