PCC

The First Rule of PCC

August 19, 2014 By Danny Kavadlo 45 Comments

Danny Kavadlo fight club tribute photo

People are always asking me if I know Coach Wade. “Is it true?” they ask. “Can he really do one-arm handstand push-ups? What does he look like? Is there a Progressive Calisthenics Certification coming to my city?”

“Yes there is!” I tell them. Tell everyone you know! The first rule of PCC is you DO talk about PCC.

The second rule of PCC is you DO talk about PCC. The next event is October 10-12 in Haarlem, Holland! This particular workshop really looks like something special. My brother and PCC Lead Instructor, Al Kavadlo, have personally met and trained with Martijn Bos, owner of Trainingscentrum Helena, Holland’s #1 Calisthenics and MMA studio, where we will hold the country’s first ever Progressive Calisthenics Certification. We are looking forward to meeting a lot of new friends there!

Danny Kavadlo Coaching Hanging Knee Raise — Danny Kavadlo coaches Martijn Bos at PCC Germany.

No wait. Back up. Let me start over.

For months, I couldn’t sleep. My brother Al and I were literally the top Personal Trainer and Fitness Manager in a company that employed thousands. Our job was to train everybody generically regardless of individual situations. Which company did we work for, you ask? A major one. In fact it is one of the biggest chain gyms in New York City. But we wanted something more.

Tired with the standard conventions of the industry, we chose to walk off the beaten path. Commercial fitness teaches trainers to believe that with isolation machines and protein powders, we will grow to be athletic, strong and functional. That if we buy this product or that pill, all our problems will be solved. But they won’t.

We’re a generation of men and women raised on gimmicks and machines. Advertising has us chasing treadmills and Shake-weights. Thigh-masters. Bowflex. We were wondering if another piece of equipment was really the answer we needed.

Al Kavadlo bridge

Many do what they’re told. Pull a lever, push a button. At PCC, we do Push-Ups instead of pushing buttons. We don’t pull a lever; we become the lever. It was right in everyone’s face. We just made it visible. It was on the tip of everyone’s tongue. We just gave it a name.

Danny Kavadlo Human Flag — Welcome to PCC

Every time we arrive in a new city, we meet people we’ve never trained with before, yet we have an instant kinship as fellow bodyweight warriors. We’re all part of the same family. Déjà vu all over again.

Al and Danny Kavadlo at Munich Airport — You wake up in Munich

To date, we’ve had nine Progressive Calisthenics Certifications in seven different cities, spanning three continents. Bodyweight training, the oldest and noblest form of strength training, is gaining a resurgence. Progressive Calisthenics is becoming this incredible, global community. PCC is the first and best bodyweight certification.

PCC Workshop in Sweden

“What’s next?” everybody wants to know. “Is it true? Is Coach Wade building an army?”

DO talk about PCC! Tell everyone you know!

The posse’s gettin’ bigger!

-DK

***

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.

The Bodyweight Revolution

April 15, 2014 By Paul "Coach" Wade 146 Comments

Al and Danny Kavadlo — **The Kavadlo brothers are the face of**
**the Dragon Door bodyweight revolution!**

If you have been keeping track of the fitness world over the last five years, you have definitely heard the term bodyweight revolution used by writers and teachers.

Lots of folks have used this term, but few—if any—have defined it.

To me, if there is a common theme behind the modern bodyweight strength revolution, it’s this:

Cutting edge athletes and coaches are starting to break down the distinction between bodyweight training and externally-weighted methods for adding strength and muscle mass.

What does that mean?

Well, up till fairly recently, the fitness “status quo” treated bodyweight training and, say, weight-training very differently. Weight-training was done to get ya big and strong as possible. To achieve this, you were supposed to follow three basic rules:

Train hard for strength and mass. (A given. No pain, no gain, bitches!)
Be progressive. (The goal is always: add weight to the bar!)
Focus on load, not reps. (Folks will ask: how much can you bench? Not; how many reps?)

Fairly simple, huh?

And it worked, too. For the last fifty or so years, barbells and dumbbells have been the “go-to” method for bodybuilders and strength trainers alike. Some coaches and exercise ideologists have gotten so wrapped up in the romance of the iron, that they have told us that these tools are the only way to maximize muscle and power. (This is horseshit, but you know that already, right?)

Compare this model with bodyweight training. Over the last forty-plus years, personal trainers, writers and fitness coaches have been force-feeding the world with a philosophy of bodyweight training which is built on the following three principles:

Train moderately for skill or conditioning. (e.g., soccer drills, circuit training)
You can’t be progressive with load. (Sure, you can add weight to pullups, but then you are weight-training, right?)
Build to high reps. (How many pushups can you do?)

Notice something? The bodyweight training principles are pretty much the diametric opposite of the weight-training principles! Why? Because it was figured that there was no point in treating calisthenics like a PROPER strength and muscle discipline, coz there was no way to make the load progressive. For this reason, bodyweight training ceased to be viewed as a power and strength method. It became relegated to a “fitness” method, or for a warm-up, prior to the weights. Worse still, it was viewed as a means for “light toning”. (Puke now, ye who have the buckets readied.)

Recent conditioning icons have shattered this illusion, and are actually bringing intelligent athletes round to the notion that you can break any bodyweight exercise into progressive chunks—all the way from easy rehab work, up to the hardest strength exercises know to mankind. I’m talking about revolutionary books like Al Kavadlo’s Pushing the Limits! and Raising the Bar; Brooks Kubik’s wonderful Dinosaur Bodyweight Training; and Pavel’s breakthrough Naked Warrior.

Bodyweight can’t build total-body strength? Give me a break! — **Bodyweight can’t build total-body strength?**
**Give me a break!**

This is the idea at the very heart of the modern bodyweight revolution. If you can use external weights progressively—in hard sessions designed to build load over time—why can’t you do the same using your body’s own weight? The answer is, of course, you can. You don’t need to treat bodyweight as a gymnastics or sports skill, or as a warm-up, or as a simple endurance discipline. You can do it progressively, just like weight-training. All you need is a solid understanding of the science of bodyweight progressions. And this is why the Progressive Calisthenics Certification (PCC) organization was born, to catalog and disseminate this traditional knowledge to anyone in the fitness world who wants it.

A lot of athletes—specially those already in the bodybuilding or powerlifting world—have taken this breakdown in the barriers between regular lifting and bodyweight training approach real literally. Hell, why not apply regular lifting templates to bodyweight training? This is what many have tried to do; and in this article I’ll discuss some ways of doing it. I’ll also show you a good alternative used by my own teacher, Joe Hartigen.

The CC-Style Template

When it comes to sets and reps, I generally prefer a real simple, old school, American-style double progression. You warm up with some fairly easy exercises, then hit your major technique hard for two-to-three sets. When you hit your rep goal, you move to a tougher exercise. Don’t go to failure—always leave a little energy left in your limbs to complete an exercise safely, or in case you need to defend yourself. That’s the Convict Conditioning approach—and trust me, it works just as well for weight-training as it does for calisthenics. Many old school bodybuilders and strength athletes have used this kind of program with great success—it’s not a million miles away from the sort of training performed by old school strength marvels like Doug Hepburn, or modern-day bodybuilding champions like Dorian Yates.

Hepburn—like all the ultra-strong old-timers—used bodyweight training alongside his lifting. He also trained infrequently, going all-out with low sets. Sound familiar?

Popular Strength/Mass Templates

Of course, there are other rep/set formats than the CC approach. Dozens. Here’s a roll-call of a few well-known ones:

The 5×5 system
Pyramid training
Ladders
Heavy singles

All of these popular weight-training approaches can be used with bodyweight—in fact, they are being used right now. But no method is perfect, and there are problems when applying these methods.

Using singles is a good example. A heavy singles workout might consist of, say 10 sets of 1 rep, using 85% of your max. This is pretty easy to accomplish if you are working with your bench press; but it’s a lot tougher to translate it to your bodyweight pushups. For a start, how do you define “85%” of effort accurately? Which pushup progression do you select? With the bench press, you can add a tiny increment, maybe 2lbs to the bar every so often. How do you add such microscopic increments to your pushup form? How do you maintain this system, long-term with such fuzzy variables? You are kinda pissing in the wind here.

A bigger problem with most training systems is that they waste the athlete’s precious energy. A really great rule of thumb in muscle and strength work is that the degree to which your body adapts is proportionate to the stress you put it through. But what athletes constantly forget is that the muscle-building and strength stimulus is based on your best set, it’s not spread over your other sets! As I’ve said elsewhere:

To put that shit simply, if you want to get diesel, you need to do a lot of work in a single, relatively brief set. Your peak set! Trouble is, a lot of athletes are in the habit of exhausting themselves before they reach that peak set.

Bodybuilding is possibly to blame for this. Back in the seventies and eighties, it was all about “pyramiding”; you would typically warm up with 15, 12, 10 and 8 reps before knocking out a few peak sets of 6-8—then you would reverse the process. (You go up in weight, then down, hence the term “pyramid”.) The problem with this was that by the time you had done the first four sets you were too shot to do very much in your peak sets! Then you would repeat all those lighter, higher-rep sets again, just adding more volume to eat into an already overloaded recovery system.

The same problem is true of the popular “ladders” method of training. With ladders, you start with one rep—say, a pullup—then take a short break, and do two pullups. Break, then three. All the way up to your peak set, of, say, five reps. Then you take a short breather, do four reps, then break, then three, and so on down to one rep. See the problem with this? If your peak/best set here is the five rep set, you will have already done TEN reps of that exercise before you reach it! If the five reps really represent your best, then doing ten reps of the same beforehand is definitely going to adversely affect your performance in the five. In essence, ladders are a good way of doing a lot of work, but a pretty imperfect way of doing high quality sets.

5×5 is a more traditional method—it was used by Arnold’s hero, Reg Park, back in the fifties.

**Bodyweight back work: Big Reg Park**
**rocking some behind-the-neck pullups.**

Park’s method was to use two warm-up sets of five, then three sets of five with the heaviest weight you can handle for a particular exercise. Once you can hit the 3×5, you go up in weight.

It’s a simple (and pretty effective) idea. The problem—in terms of hitting one great, “peak” set—is that it makes you hold yourself back. You are inevitably (even if only subconsciously) holding yourself back from giving your all on the first hard set, in order to get the five reps on the final two sets. You need to do this, because if you really gave your all grinding out five reps on the first heavy set, you would be pretty unlikely to be able to repeat that twice. So with 5×5 you never have the motivation to really give your all and hit that one peak set.

Enter the Mentor: Joe Hartigen

One template which doesn’t contain any of these problems was taught to me in the 1980’s by my mentor, Joe Hartigen. Joe was a bona-fide calisthenics master, and although he was in his seventies when I met him, he was much more powerful than me, and remained incredibly strong in pulling movements right up to the final year of his life. Joe had forgotten more about training methods and the history of physical culture than I will ever know, and I learned virtually all the progressions in Convict Conditioning from him.

Despite the fact that Joe was an icon to me—and several others in San Quentin—we didn’t train in exactly the same way. We had different backgrounds, for one thing. I came from a “new school” calisthenics approach, one based on building up high reps in squats, sit-ups, pullups and (especially) pushups. In fact I would often return to these high-rep workouts—often ultra-endurance bodyweight work—throughout my time inside, particularly in Angola. (Think “thousand pushup days” and you got the idea.)

Joe was very much a man who favored lower, more intense, higher quality reps. He typically shook his head when he looked at my training journals, and—likewise—I must admit that when I was younger and dumber, I possibly looked down on his methods as a bit old-fashioned. Like a cool photograph, but colored in sepia. In later years, I realized he was right on the money, and although I modified my own training to better match his thinking, our workout styles were never quite the same.

The Hartigen Method

When it came to sets and reps, Joe had a pretty fixed method for working out. I’ve never heard a name for this scheme, so I’m gonna call it The Hartigen Method (although there’s no way he was the first to use it). This approach is simple to apply, allows for the use of real hard exercises, and is progressive—so I thought I’d put it out there for any ex-lifters or strength athletes looking for a new way to work with bodyweight exercises.

Here’s how it works:

1. Pick the hardest exercise you can do for 5 reps in good form.

2. Warm up, and perform a 5 rep set.

3. Rest approximately 1 minute. Shake your muscles loose as you rest.

4. Perform 4 reps of the same exercise.

5. Rest approximately 1 minute. Shake your muscles loose as you rest.

6. Perform 3 reps of the same exercise.

7. Repeat this procedure until you have performed a single rep.

That’s it! In essence, Joe picked an exercise he could do five good, strict reps with, and did 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

It’s that simple. Joe’s theory was that if you could bust out five reps of an exercise you were working on, then after a minute’s rest, you should be able to do four reps. After another minute, you should be able to do three, and so on. Joe felt this rep scheme offered low reps for strength and muscle, but also enough reps—fifteen total—to give an athlete plenty of hard practice on an exercise, but without burning out.

Plus, using this method you can hit an exercise hard in under ten minutes. Even if you were working with four exercises in a workout (two or three would be better!) you could be done in half an hour. Joe’s method works great with weights, too—kettlebell presses and rows would be a wonderful superset, if you’re that way inclined. (5 presses, a minute’s rest, 5 rows, a minute’s rest, 4 presses, etc.) You could superset pushup and pullup exercises the same way.

Making progress
Progression couldn’t be simpler with this method. When you can do all 15 reps—that is, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1—for three workouts in a row, you move to a slightly harder version of the exercise. As with all bodyweight strength, having an extensive toolbox of progressions is key to moving forward; it’s also why the PCC Instructors’ Manual includes hundreds of progressive exercises.

There will be times you don’t get 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You may only get 5, 3, 2, 1, 1. That’s fine, and to be embraced. When you don’t get the full 15, use these principles to move forward:

Try to add a rep (or two) next time; shoot for 5, 4, 2, 1, 1, then 5, 4, 3, 1, 1, and so on.

Whatever you get, always push yourself hard on the first set—that’s your peak set.

Adding reps on the earlier sets is more valuable than adding reps on the final sets.

Never do more reps than you are aiming for; stick with 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Aim to perform ALL five sets, even if those sets are very low rep; e.g., 3, 2, 1, 1, 1.

Exercises, post-set work and warm-ups

Joe often performed more exercises than I stuck to. Most people today would probably call his routine imbalanced. In particular, he loved hanging exercises, and would do all kinds of weird variations of pullups, leg raises, levers, holds and hangs. Strangely, despite being such an aficionado of hanging work, he would typically do only three exercises for the rest of his body—one-leg squats, flat one-arm pushups, and some kind of inversion; handstands, but often headstands (I rarely saw him do inverse pressing, these were typically static). I have watched Joe do bridges, and do them easily, but like the man himself, these were an exception rather than a rule.

Whatever his last exercise of the session was, Joe would often make his very final set harder by completing a ten second dynamic-tension isometric at the top position of that very last rep. He’d follow this with a slow negative of about ten seconds. He claimed that this little “trick” for finishing his workout told his body that the session was over, and increased his hormonal profile. I’m not sure that’s true, but if Joe’s physique—at over seven decades—was testament, then he knew what he was talking about.

Al Kavadlo Push-Up — **No matter what exercise you finish with,**
**you can squeeze it at the top for an isometric benefit.**

What about a warm-up? Interestingly—like Reg Park—Joe never went over five reps on his warm-up sets. He would typically do two or three warm-up sets of five reps, and he always applied Charles Atlas-style dynamic tension during his warm-ups. If he was doing an exercise like one-arm pullups, he would perform an exercise about half as tough on his warm-ups—two-arm pullups. Always five reps. Why not more? Joe felt that you should always train to meet your goals. His peak sets were always five reps, so he thought if he did more in his warm-ups, his body would get confused and start adapting to higher reps instead! I’m not certain I agree with that, but it gives you some food for thought, eh?

I often advocate using progressive exercises when warming up—maybe start with a real easy exercise for high reps, then follow with a slightly harder exercise for less reps. But Joe only ever used one exercise technique in his warm-ups, no matter how many warm-up sets he did. I used to wonder why, for example, he’d perform two sets of regular pullups before his one-arm work; why not one set of regular two-arms, then something harder, like assisted pullups? I asked him once. Because I can make the two-arms as hard as assisted pullups, dumbass! he replied. And it was true. His capacity to tense his muscles during training—dynamic tension—was so profound, he could make seemingly easy exercises as seem as hard as advanced ones. He was able to adjust the intensity of any exercise by 100% or 1%, just using the power of his mind.

That was how profound his body wisdom was. Not many athletes could aspire to this level, although it’s possible with time and patience. I still admire the man to this day!

Lights Out!

Well, that’s it from me. Thanks again for reading—it means a lot to this dopey fella that you guys and gals still take the time to read my weathered musings. I hope this article has given you a new idea to play with. Looking for a lower-rep strength and mass routine that fits well with bodyweight? Give The Hartigen Method a try…tonight!

Oh, and if you liked hearing about Joe’s attitude to training, check this article out. I wrote it for my good buddy Neil Bednar.

You could do a lot worse than modeling your training around old Joe’s philosophy. That brother was something else!

***

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

PCC Australia – The Experience of The Century

March 25, 2014 By Darren Manser 26 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Squat: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20

Push up: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15

Squat: 4, 8, 12, 16, 20

Push up: 3, 6, 9, 12, 15

Squat: 4, 8, 12, 16

Push up: 3, 6, 9, 12

Squat: 4, 8, 12

Push up: 3, 6, 9

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

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

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6, 8

Chin ups: 1, 2, 3, 4

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6, 8

Chin ups: 1, 2, 3, 4

Knee Raises: 2, 4, 6

Chin ups: 1, 2, 3

Knee Raises: 2, 4

Chin ups: 1, 2

Knee Raises: 2

Chin ups: 1

Total hanging knee raises: 60 reps

Total chin ups: 30 reps

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

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

Finally, it was off to Melbourne for me.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So what did I learn from this process?

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

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

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

I Failed the Century… and What I Learned as a Result

February 11, 2014 By Marcus Santer 41 Comments

Al and Danny Kavadlo in NYC

“Nothing happens without hard work, time and discipline.”
Al Kavadlo

I know, it’s a real cliche. But like most cliches, it contains an element of truth—I hit 40, looked at myself and my life and thought, “Is this it? Is this all I’ve done?” And because I couldn’t afford to buy a Porsche, I decided to do the other cliched thing men frequently do when they hit 40, I decided to get into the best shape of my life. Not that I was in bad shape to start with, but I definitely had that ‘Skinny Fat’ thing going on.

I’d spent the last 10 years focusing solely on Qigong (think Chinese Yoga if you’ve never heard of Qigong) to take care of all my physical, emotional, mental and spiritual needs. But looking in the mirror at my 6 month pregnant belly, I had to accept that as good as Qigong had been for helping me say goodbye to depression and thrive in spite of the stresses and strains of modern 21st century living, when it came to keeping me physically strong and looking good, it simply wasn’t delivering the goods.

Something had to change.

Now there’s something you should know about me before we go any further. When it comes to research I’m a bit OCD, because when I commit to something I go all in. But I won’t commit to anything until I’ve really done my homework. Know what I mean?

This formula has helped me to succeed in most things I do:

1) Work out what I want to achieve.
2) Find a Method that has a proven track record for delivering what I want to achieve.
3) Find a good teacher that teaches that Method
4) Work my arse off: Persistence, discipline, tracking progress.

Using this formula I discovered:

1) I wanted to get into the best shape of my life.
2) When it came to physical exercise, calisthenics was my preferred method because it could help me grow strong and I didn’t have to waste $1,000s on equipment, memberships and so on.
3) The best source I could access was something with the odd title: Convict Conditioning.
4) I was ready to invest the required hard work, time and discipline.

The 3 things I loved about Convict Conditioning which made it stand head and shoulders above any other information I could find back in 2011 were:

Paul ‘Coach’ Wade is direct with a no bullshit approach to getting strong.
The progressive, step by step nature of his system.
A focus on ‘The Big 6′.

I dived in and here are the results: I’m stronger now at age 42 than I was when I was 22. I look and feel better too. And it’s all thanks to ‘Coach’ Wade and the brilliant Convict Conditioning.

Why I Took the PCC in Sweden

“Welcome to the most advanced, evolved, engineered piece of fitness equipment in existence… Your own body!”
Danny Kavadlo

I’m always keen to offer the best to my own students, it’s important I’m doing everything I can to help them live a happier, healthier and longer life. And based on my own experience with Convict Conditioning I soon began encouraging them to pick up a copy and get practicing too.

But the majority of my students are as far away from the ‘ideal’ customer the Convict Conditioning sales page is targeted at as you can get. And unfortunately most were unable to get the benefits simply because they couldn’t get past the marketing. So I began looking for a way to teach my Qigong students calisthenics but in a way they would find accessible.

Marcus Santer with the awesomely talented Kavadlo Brothers--two of the instructors from the epic Sweden PCC — Marcus Santer with the awesomely talented Kavadlo brothers at the epic Sweden PCC

Something else you should know about me—it’s important to me that I’m suitably qualified to safely teach somebody something before I start. But trying to find a suitable calisthenics based instructor training course was proving to be a bit of a non-starter.

I saw that Dragon Door started teaching PCC courses in the USA, but I couldn’t quite stretch to traveling to the USA from the UK for a 3 day course. So you can imagine my delight when I saw there was going to be a PCC workshop put on in Sweden. I didn’t hesitate for a second. I signed up straight away and began working on:

‘The Century’.

The Century really bothered me because it’s the gateway between you and the right to call yourself a PCC instructor.

I knew I could do 40 body weight squats
I knew I could do 30 push ups
I knew I could do 20 hanging knee raises

But the 10 pull ups, hmm. Now I was worried.

On a really good day with a following breeze I could just about crank out 11. So how the hell was I going to crank out 10 after doing the 3 other exercises in The Century and under 8 minutes? But before heading off to Sweden, I’d managed to do The Century twice and I was optimistic I’d be able to pull it off on the day.

Boy, how wrong was I!

After two and half days of awesome, mind blowing calisthenics tuition from Al, Danny and Adrienne I was exhausted. So when it came time for The Century test, here’s what happened:

Squats – Pass
Push ups – Pass
Hanging knee raises – Pass
Pull ups – I got to 6 and I knew I was in trouble.

Hanging from the bar trying to get my 7th pull up was an experience I won’t forget in a hurry. Agonizing inch by agonizing inch I finally strained my chin over the pull up bar. “7!″ my examiner, Adrienne shouted.

I could hear the other PCC students urging me on. In spite of wanting to let go of the bar, the iron determination I’d forgotten I had simply refused to let go. I took a deep breath and pulled the bar… Slowly I ascended, millimeter by millimeter as the support of the group gave me strength I didn’t have. Ah, but this was no Rocky movie—I got 1/2 way and my arms simply stopped pulling.

It felt as if someone was setting fire to my muscles, and I had zero left in the bank—but still I wouldn’t let go!

I heard someone behind me shout, “Change your grip!” At the time, I had an overhand grip on the bar, the ‘pull up’ position. The underhand, ‘chin up’ grip can, for some people, make life a little easier. And somehow I managed to change my grip and gave it another go.

Nothing.

I hung there for what felt like an age and then it was ‘game over’ as my feet landed back on the floor with a heavy thud.

I’d failed The Century.

What Happened Next?

“There’s a lot of failure on the road to success and that’s good.”
Danny Kavadlo

After 3 days of full on calisthenics awesomeness (I did my first non-handed head stand and some other cool stuff) I simply didn’t have enough juice left in the tank. And hey, what use is a test if everyone passes? It’d be a pretty poor test right? Because then the only requirement for success would be being able to afford the cost of the workshop. You’d literally be buying your qualification not earning it. And that doesn’t work for me.

Luckily the generous people at Dragon Door give you 90 days to submit video evidence of you completing The Century. So the first thing I did was grab myself an accountability partner. Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned about getting something done it’s this—having someone to hold me accountable increases the likelihood of me getting the job done. It’s amazing what I can do if I know I’ve made a promise to someone else I’m going to do it.

The second thing I did was grab Danny and ask him how I should practice to nail The Century. His advice was to practice The Century.

So twice a week for the following 4 weeks I did that. And twice a week for the following 4 weeks I failed. Again and again and again. And then on 8th December, much to my amazement I finally did it. The video’s here if you want to watch it.

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned on the road to passing The Century is that failure really is just a stepping stone to success, that you can only really fail something when you give up.

Summing Up

Group photo from the legendary PCC Sweden Workshop

I was a little nervous about traveling from the UK to Sweden on my own to attend a 3 day calisthenics workshop. Would I make a fool of myself? Would I be too old? That kinda crap. But I was delighted to discover all my concerns were unfounded. A friendlier group of dedicated and friendly students you couldn’t wish to find. And as for the instructors, well, awesome isn’t a big enough word to do them justice.

So, if you’re on the fence about attending a PCC workshop. Based on my experience I’d tell you to book your spot ASAP and take advantage of the generous early bird discounts Dragon Door offers.

Thanks for reading and I hope you’ve found something of value in this article.

Kindest regards,
Marcus

Marcus Santer helps people to live happier, healthier and longer lives through the practice of Qigong. He is the founder and chief instructor over at Qigong15. The author of 4 books covering all aspects of Qigong his mission is to make Qigong as popular as Yoga, Tai Chi and meditation, because he believes Qigong is quicker to learn, less physically demanding and gives greater benefits than Yoga, Tai Chi and meditation all put together. You can find over 500 posts showing you how to live a happier, healthier and longer life through Qigong on his blog, Qigong15.com

Yoga, Calisthenics and the Journey of a Lifetime

January 23, 2014 By John Du Cane, CEO and founder, Dragon Door 30 Comments

**John, the Yogi who came in from the cold.**

As a teenager in the sixties UK, I was highly athletic. I played wing in Rugby, had a mean long jump and high jump and could sprint like the wind. Two of my track buddies at high school went on to great fame: the iconic musician Nick Drake and Mark Phillips, who went on to marry Princess Anne.

I also loved weight lifting and was drawn to pumping iron. Unfortunately the strength coach/trainer at my school was pretty darn clueless and I would lift away without much direction at all—either from him or any literature on the subject.

What I also discovered, in 1966, was the just-published Light on Yoga by B.K.S. Iyengar—which changed my life. I used this seminal and highly inspirational book to teach myself Yoga. Scary, perhaps, but finding a teacher in those days was challenging to say the least. By age nineteen, I could pull off a headstand while in a full lotus, had an eye-popping ability to rotate my abs, as a ridged column, through 360 degrees, with the method known as Uddiyana Bandha, plus a whole lot of other impressive looking stuff.

I enjoyed looking cool, feeling cool and being proud of what I could do physically. If that doesn’t motivate you to practice physical culture, I don’t know what to say…

At the age of twenty-five I finally traveled to India to study Yoga and meditation. Ironically, there in India, I switched my allegiance to Qigong and Tai Chi as my principal discipline for physical cultivation. The Hatha Yoga I had studied had had a transformative impact on me, but it did involve almost solely holding static postures. Qigong and Tai Chi opened up a different world that was motion-based and much more satisfying for me personally.

However, those crucial dozen years where I dove deep into Yoga gave me immense flexibility benefits that have extended to my current age of 64. For instance, without having rigorously practiced the headstand since my mid-twenties, I can still move effortlessly into a full headstand. Same for the full lotus and many other cool poses.

Naturally forty years of martial arts, kettlebells and other bodyweight exercise have helped me stay in nice shape into my sixties. However, I do believe that my years as Yogi John gave me a crucial foundation that I am eternally grateful to have laid for myself.

So, when Al Kavadlo presented his latest masterpiece, Stretching Your Boundaries to me, I was thrilled and immediately impressed by the spectacular way Al tied together Yogic stretching and flexibility methods with calisthenics. Along with Paul Wade, Al has been leading the inspirational charge in a new appreciation for the healing and athletic benefits of bodyweight exercise.

What I also love about Al’s work—and never more true than for Stretching Your Boundaries—is the aesthetic and the philosophy of physical culture he brings to the table. “Calisthenics” means “beautiful strength.” Strong, flexible, healthy, graceful body—with a mind and spirit to match. Al perfectly embodies that “beautiful strength-beautiful spirit” ideal, in my opinion. He brings a Zen lightness and equanimity to his practice. But he also brings the kind of sharp-mindedness and rigor to his physical cultivation that is another hallmark of Zen. We had Zen and the Art of Archery. Now we have the Zen Art of Stretching Your Boundaries.

I love, also, Al’s emphasis on the importance of joint health, circulation and breath work. The older you get, the more you need to move and breathe well. And nothing needs more movement for health and well being than the joints.

Just as Iyengar inspired me and millions of others to take up Yoga, Al is inspiring a new generation to improve their mobility, strength and health by integrating yoga and calisthenics in dramatic new style.

Let’s remember: we have the one body only to work with, a precious treasure that can be abused and trashed—or burnished, refined and transformed into an ongoing piece of living artwork. In Stretching Your Boundaries, Al hands you a priceless set of methods to refine your physical being. I urge you to take full advantage.

Yours in Strength,

John Du Cane

On Street Workout

January 14, 2014 By Danny Kavadlo 21 Comments

Danny Kavadlo Performs a Human Flag in the streets of New York City

There is no denying it: The phenomenon known as Street Workout has built a mighty following over the years, a following that grows exponentially every single day.

What started with minimalist calisthenics crews in New York has spread across these great States, and all over the planet. While not exactly the same, Progressive Calisthenics and Street Workout do have a lot in common. Just look at the wild success of PCC Sweden (where participants trained on actual urban scaffolding!) and next month’s sold-out PCC Australia, not to mention upcoming events in Germany, Holland and Ireland. Clearly, the principles of Street Workout have become an international sensation. A movement, if you will.

And we are not slowing down. You can’t ignore us. Street Workout is just so damn fun and good for you! It sometimes seems like the fitness world is nothing more than a bloated bastion of isolated movements and impractical applications. Street Workout is a breath of fresh air.

A variety of exercises demonstrated simultaneously by participants and PCC Instructors at the 2013 PCC in Sweden

Do It Anywhere
To begin, it encourages us to tap into the creative, even artistic, part of our cerebrums. Whereas commercial gym members use multiple thousand-pound machines to train one muscle at a time, we can look at a pole, fence or street sign and come up with a dozen exercises on the spot. The ability to observe and use your surroundings is a human trait that’s dying these days. Free your mind. Further, unlike a gym, there’s no fee for this club. We welcome all comers.

I used to know a guy who would drive 40 minutes each way to a gym to train for 45. He could have ran flights of stairs, done dips on a bench and pull-ups off a ledge in a fraction of the time. Hell, he could have done push-ups right there on the street—that’s what I’m talkin’ about!

Al Kavadlo Performs a Push Up on Cobblestones

Real Strength
Street Workout is more than just efficient and visually impressive—it also makes you really freakin’ strong! By encouraging harmonious full body movements over isolation and non-cohesion, this style of training builds real world power! Modern classics like high-altitude pistol squats and scaffolding pull-ups employ more muscle groups and promote greater overall strength than traditional gym exercises like leg extensions or biceps curls. I’m a lot more impressed by someone who can confidently pull his or her body up and over a real object, than somebody who moves a weight straight up and down a machine!

Danny Kavadlo Performs a Pull Up on New York City Scaffolding

It’s Fun
We are born with a primal urge to be outside. We’re animals, not built to sit under florescent lights in climate controlled, window-less rooms all day. It’s bad enough that so many good people have to do this at their jobs. Why do it during your workout?

Have some fun. Breathe the air. Feel the sun. Outdoor training makes you feel like a kid again.

Wilson on the playground

Community
This is the best part of all. Whenever and wherever there is a gathering of Street Workout enthusiasts, it’s like reuniting with old family, even if you’ve never met. The passion and energy are that intense. I can’t explain it, but there is a special kinship in our world, just as there is in the calisthenics community overall. I treasure being a part of it.

In his groundbreaking book, Raising the Bar, my brother and PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo refers to it as “The Bar Brotherhood”.

The Kavadlo Brothers

When all is said and done, working out, like life, should be full of challenges, fun and adventure. No training style embodies these elements quite like Street Workout does. So what are you waiting for? Let’s hit the pavement and train!

***

The Top Ten PCC Blog Posts of 2013

December 31, 2013 By Al Kavadlo 8 Comments

The Progressive Calisthenics Certification made its mark on the fitness world in 2013 and I am very excited to have been a part of it. It’s almost hard to believe that this blog has been up and running for an entire year, yet on the other hand, it’s amazing to think that in such a small amount of time, the PCC has already grown into an international phenomenon. Next year, we will be holding PCC workshops in a half dozen different countries!

I am proud of every one of the nearly 50 posts we shared this year on the PCC blog, so it was hard to assemble this list. With that in mind, let’s take a look back at my top ten PCC blog posts of 2013 (in no particular order):

We’ll start with the most popular post this blog has ever seen, Paul Wade’s Ten Commandments of Calisthenics Mass.

And let’s not forget my counterpoint to that piece: Building Strength Without Mass.

My brother and fellow PCC Master Instructor Danny Kavadlo shared his personal experiences with Bodyweight Training.

PCC Team Leader Adrienne Harvey gave us her unique perspective on PCC Sweden.

A fantastic motivational piece from Dragon Door Founder and CEO John Du Cane on How to Be Successful at Anything.

Another classic post from Coach Wade, this time discussing the Tao of PCC.

PCC Team Leader Logan Christopher made a case for Curved Handstands.

PCC Senior Instructor Steven Low gave us this great piece on the Marriage of Bodyweight Methods.

PCC Team Leader Angelo Gala shared his Journey to the Back Lever.

And last but not least, this touching father and son calisthenics story from Peter D’Epiro.

Thanks to all of you who read this blog and support the PCC movement! I can’t wait to see what next year has in store for the PCC and the entire bodyweight strength training community.

We’re Working Out!

***

About Al 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.

The PCC’s International Debut in Gothenburg, Sweden: Nothing Lost in Translation

November 26, 2013 By Adrienne Harvey 22 Comments

The fact of Going To Sweden hadn’t fully hit me until the plane landed in France for a connection, and I stopped hearing English. As soon as I stepped off the plane in Gothenburg, it was immediately evident that Sweden was different. I’d never been to Scandinavia and despite the jet lag and lack of sleep was incredibly impressed by the gorgeous and efficient little airport—it was obviously the product of many smart people thinking about how to make it gorgeous and efficient. Even baggage claim was impressive, with three organically shaped baggage claim belts next to full sized tree statues featuring carved “leaves” and a pair of electric plugs at the base for charging phones. The plugs were labeled to indicate the power was even from a green source. After exiting with no hassle or passport stamping—which was a little disappointing since I wanted a Sweden stamp—our host, Fredrik Högström with Al and Danny Kavadlo were waiting and ready to go!

Not even 10 feet outside the airport, we’re already back in our habit of scouting out found items for flags, l-sits, and adventurous pistols. Before we reached the parking lot, Danny did a great human flag on a cool sculpture/planter topped with ornamental cabbages. As Fredrik drove us to town, Al, Danny and I wondered at the landscape as it slipped by on our way to downtown Gothenburg. The trees were different, cars were different, the roads were different, and of course we asked Fredrik about all of it.

After checking in and dropping off our bags at the hotel, Fredrik took us to lunch. Our first meal in Sweden would be Thai and it was delicious. We asked how to say “please and thank you” in Swedish (tack), as well as the words for beef (biff) and chicken (kyckling—which is fun to say for some reason). Espresso is espresso in Swedish, and chocolate “choklad.” After learning please, thank you, beef, chicken, espresso, and chocolate I felt fairly confident.

The lunch had energized us all, and even though Al, Danny and myself had been traveling for hours (my journey involved 3 airplanes), we decided to walk around Gothenburg to adjust to the time change. Almost immediately, the Kavadlo brothers snapped into action and began scouting places for awesome feats of bodyweight strength. The sun was out and so were our cameras. We started in with human flags, L-sits, and dragon flags, taking advantage of the good lighting.

It was amazing to see Al and Danny’s endurance was still strong after nearly no sleep and all the traveling. At the time it seemed a little crazy to do these things after so little rest, but it ended up being well timed since the sun wouldn’t be out for the rest of the trip and darkness descended very early. Thankfully the three of us had arrived a couple days early to adjust to the time change. We wanted to really be “on” to lead the physically and mentally demanding PCC Workshop, especially since this was the PCC’s international debut.

After coffee and some organizational planning, Fredrik took us on a tour of his gym, Kettlebell Center. We loved the giant pegboard, stall bars, pull up bars, kettlebells, giant battling rope—and of course we had to play with everything. A trainer named Hillevi was finishing up with her group class which involved a very serious circuit. I was excited to meet her as she was one of the women attending the workshop. So far, it’s been mostly men at the workshops, and I want to encourage more women to attend. The range of exercises covered at the PCC are fantastic for any and everybody as are the progressions. The women who do attend are often surprised at how well they can perform some of the progressions and master steps.

On Friday morning we could hardly wait to get started. The thing I first noticed about the participants was how excited they were and the variety of body types. Everyone looked very athletic, but it was obvious that there were a number of different specialists and athletes in attendance. This is something which can really bring a lot of value to workshops—a variety of athletic backgrounds and different skill and strength attributes. It’s a great opportunity to test out new cues, coaching and teaching approaches, and of course to learn from their experiences. Something I find fascinating are very mental cues. I wasn’t sure how many of these cues would be language dependent, so this would be very interesting.

We began the PCC in the classic Dragon Door way by gathering into a huge circle in the middle of the gym. After a greeting from John Du Cane, everyone in the circle introduced themselves. As expected, some of the best trainers in Sweden were in attendance along with accomplished trainers both in the RKC and new to Dragon Door who traveled from all over Europe. Amazingly, we also had someone attend from as far away as Kuwait!

Even though nearly everyone spoke perfect English, I still wondered how the nuances of our instruction would translate. But yet again, the universality of the strength and movement ideas we were teaching overcame any small language differences with ease. Since many of the attendees were accomplished fitness professionals from various fields (kettlebells, martial arts, calisthenics, yoga), this universal language of movement and strength was even more evident.

On the first day, when I was coaching someone with their clutch flag, I was reminded of a favorite “translation” between exercises. While helping someone at a previous PCC, I noticed exactly how much the clutch flag and the one arm elbow lever have in common. During a break in St. Paul, I played with the clutch flag and elbow lever together. Setting the angle of the bottom arm grasping the pole for a clutch flag, then keeping that same position, I came away from the pole and immediately tried the 1 arm elbow lever on the ground. For my particular build, the positioning was exactly the same, and have found it to be this way for some other people as well. Why mention this previous PCC realization/cue? Because it’s very easy to explain with just a few gestures and words. The way it translates itself will also depend on someone’s athletic background. Yoga practitioners tend to immediately grasp the idea because of how it relates to similar movements—even though the clutch flag might have previously given them some difficulty since being sideways while clinging onto a pole is incredibly strange at first. Pointing out the similarities between the two moves has been useful for coaching the clutch flag or the 1 arm elbow lever, whichever of the two they perform or understand best is the place to start.

Even though it’s incredibly rewarding to help people with the pull-up, I must admit to really enjoying coaching the flag. The attendees of the PCC in Sweden were very advanced with their own training, and while we love discussing how to help their clients progress with specific coaching methods, it’s incredibly fun to figure out just the right cue, combination of words, or exaggerated gesture to trigger their own success with a new move like the flag or clutch flag. While every attendee had a very solid grasp of the pull up, few people seemed to have given the clutch or press (human) flag much attention. Although it can be difficult to find an optimal place to practice flags, and because they’re sometimes dismissed as flashy “tricks”, I think the clutch flag and human flag have a lot to teach us. While it’s true that the human flag and clutch flag will always get attention when performed in public, the real value of the clutch and human flags are the proprioception, extreme tension, and control that they teach. The tension needed for the entire flag series translates into any full body drill, while really emphasizing lessons of body positioning and the extreme need for awareness of where all our “parts” are in space—while in a very unfamiliar plane!

The human flag is such a maximal move that every muscle is involved, and at least for some of us, total concentration is required. It’s easy to forget this when Al or Danny demonstrates the flag. Their polished performances hide the fact that they worked, struggled, and practiced the flag for many years. Over a coffee break, I asked Danny to tell me how long he’s been working on his amazing human flags—and the answer (thankfully) was for a lot longer than I would have guessed. Another reason that it is so fun to coach the clutch and human flags at the PCC is the potential for troubleshooting. With the participant on his or her side and in the air, this is often a completely new experience even for seasoned instructors/coaches/athletes/enthusiasts. The flag series can’t be accomplished with brute strength alone, and while you must be strong to do the clutch flag, it’s not the whole story. The clutch flag is also very interesting since it is so body dependent—different builds need to adjust for their own situations.

It was great to see that everyone not only easily understood all of the instructors, but really seemed to excel with their movements and coaching while at the first European PCC Workshop. Paul Wade’s ideas were NOT lost in translation.

***

About Adrienne Harvey, PCC Team Leader, RKCII, 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!

Structuring a PCC Recovery Day

November 5, 2013 By Angelo Gala 5 Comments

Hey there! How is your training going? Are you making lots of progress on your pistol, handstand push-up and bridge progressions? That’s awesome! How is your body feeling? It’s about time we address the purple and pink striped elephant in the room. Do you take the time to work on skill/technique development and regressions rather than just focusing on cultivating specific strength? How often do you take a day off? Do you include some active recovery or are you inclined to just take it easy and catch up on some youtube or boobtube? Yep, lots of questions coming your way, I know. I’m not trying to poke or point fingers at what you may be or may not be doing. Lets talk recovery and building a happy body that wants nothing more than to rebuild and be better than ever!

I personally LOVE the PCC minimalist approach, especially when it comes to recovery days. But what exactly is a recovery day? Following a simplistic approach to fitness, to me a rest and recovery day incorporates more of what you typically do less of.

Try making a point to emphasize eating and sleeping. Food provides the nutrients and building blocks that support the demands we place on our bodies. When we sleep, are body’s little worker bees put on their hard hats and rebuild our foundation to be bigger and better, allowing our muscles to grow stronger and longer. Catching up with friends and family reminds us of what is important in our lives providing a necessary distraction from the mental grind of vigorous exercise. Light cardiovascular activity is a must. Yes, I said it. I know that High Intensity Interval Training is all the craze right now with plenty of scientific research to back it up but please don’t forget that we need to be easy on our bodies from time to time. 20+ minutes of easy-moderate steady state exercise is a very heart healthy activity to include. Lastly restoring range of motion to our body’s joints and increasing our flexibility will keep our physical body in balance.

If you are wondering where to fit this in, take a step back to look at your weekly training block. How many days in a row are you pushing your body? The acclimated body can go hard for up to three days in a row before it will be asking for a de-loading day. If you are a little more advanced in your age, or have less than 3-5 years of consistent vigorous exercise under your belt, your body may require a break every third day. At a minimum one should back off at least one day a week with a preference of two (maybe three) days depending on your training history. Again, this does not require a total day of nothing on the agenda, just enough of a change of pace to allow the battery to recharge.

Structuring a Recovery Day:

It can be next to impossible to recommend a routine for everyone who reads this article, but I can at least provide some guidelines to help structure a recovery day based on the demands these workouts place on the body.

Recovery can actually to be very intuitive. Many of us are goal oriented and have been working on obtaining certain skills like a back lever or freestanding handstand push-up. Along the journey to these benchmarks we stumble across tight backs, sore shoulders and wrists or maybe even creaky knees. These are all signs from our body telling us that it may require a little extra love and dedicated time where you give back to your self.

Looking specifically at the movements found in the PCC curriculum, we ask a lot out of our shoulders, chest, triceps, forearms and core musculature as we work to support our entire body weight practicing all the push-up, handstand and arm lever variations. Though the single leg squat progressions do not place a significant demand on the lower body compared to a 2x body weight barbell squat, we may find that limits in our mobility hinder our ability to achieve full range of motion in the pistol squat, or at least challenge our confidence in the movement’s execution. If the bottom position of the pistol is easy to obtain, compare it to the shrimp squat, or even the double shrimp? Most likely we will find some difficulty along that journey.

I always structure a recovery workout for my athletes to begin with 20-30 minutes of a steady cardiovascular activity. A few suggestions may be an easy 5k run on a mostly flat to rolling course, a bike ride on the smallest chain ring of your crankset, a steady swim or up to a 5k row focusing on mechanics, cadence and breathe work. The steady cardio is programmed first in our recovery for a few reasons. Most importantly it will generate body heat and prep your soft tissue for manipulation and stretching. Steady cardio creates a calming / meditative effect on the body and mind. It also promotes an environment of self-exploration where you may develop the intuition of what areas of your body may need a little extra attention when it is time to stretch.

After the heat-building phase of the cardio warm-up is complete, it’s time to address some binding in the soft tissue with self-myofascial release techniques (self-massage). For this you can purchase all sorts of tools to address every area of the body such as foam rollers, PVC piping, rumble rollers, tennis balls, a tiger tail and so on. I suggest picking up a lacrosse ball, as it is the most universal tool, you can easily take it anywhere and it can generally apply enough pressure on your trigger points to promote change.

Using the lacrosse ball or roller is theoretically very simple. Pick a muscle group to work on and lay your bodyweight over the tool. Initially you will scan around your soft tissue on the tool looking for any tender spots or pain spots. Once something jumps out at you, stop moving and isolate the discomfort. Try your hardest to not move off the spot, then apply a contract and relax activation with the muscle group you are rolling over. You can do this by either squeezing the muscles you are resting on or moving the stimulated joint through its natural range of motion over and over. This will most definitely cause a bit more discomfort but let me be upfront and completely honest with you. When it comes to restoring / improving mobility or flexibility, its going to be uncomfortable. The more discomfort you can tolerate (aside from sharp pain, which is always bad) the more change you will make. If its not uncomfortable, then you wont be making much if any progress. Your only other option to break up the binding is to get a deep tissue sports massage on a weekly or biweekly schedule. If your budget isn’t big enough to afford regular body work, then get comfortable with being uncomfortable on a lax ball 😛

Personally, I beat my body up enough that I can spend all day doing soft tissue work, so in order to keep ourselves within a reasonable time cap, pick an area on the front side and back side of the shoulders as well as an area both on the front side and back side of the hips. Spend about 5 minutes on each or at least until you feel a bit of the discomfort begin to subside.

Now that we have successfully built requisite body heat and prepped our soft tissues to make change, its time to focus on increasing our flexibility since many exercises in the PCC curriculum require a fair level of specific flexibility. To do this we will work from the ground up.

-Single leg squats require a significant amount of ankle mobility so here we can utilize a standard Standing Calf Stretch focusing on dorsi-flexing our ankle as much as possible. Don’t forget to practice this stretch with the knee straight as well as bent.

-To get the outer hips, a Standing Figure 4 Stretch is achieved by crossing one ankle over the opposing knee. From this position, sit back as if you were sitting in a chair while simultaneously reaching your rib cage over the top shin. Do your best to keep your hips as neutral as possible rather than shifting them to help counter balance the posture.

-Inner thighs are most accessibly stretched in the Bound Angle Pose. Here push your lower back up against a wall and pull your heels together as close to your inner thighs as possible. For the remainder of the stretch, place your hands on your knees with fingers pointed toward your midline and gradually apply pressure down into your legs as if you could press your knees all the way to the floor.

-Stretch the backside of your legs with the traditional Head-to-Knee Pose. From a seated position, extend one leg forward and align the sole of your opposite foot against the inner thigh of your extended leg. From here, square the center of your chest with the knee of your extended leg and lean forward in an attempt to rest your bottom rib on your upper thigh bringing your nose-to-knee.

-Half Kneeling Hip Flexor Stretch with a side bend will open the front of the hips as well as prep the spine to bend and twist. Set up in a lunge position with the back knee on the floor. Bind your fingers and stretch both arms over head. From here slide your hips forward until you feel a significant stretch in the hip flexor muscle of the down knee then begin to side bend over the front leg focusing on a long stretch sensation from the top of the hip all the way to the bottom of your armpit.

-You are only as young as the mobility of your spine so to improve this, hang tight in the half kneeling position while you twist your opposite elbow over the front knee. Place your hands in a prayer position with fingertips facing forward then press your hands together to engage and deepen the twist.

-Heart Opener’s Pose is a great stretch for the mid to lower back, it improves your overhead position and acts as a great prep for bridging. Find your way into this posture by setting up in a quadruped position (kneeling on all fours). Prioritize the stretch in your middle back first by pressing your belly button down towards the floor, arching your spine. Finally, to stretch your shoulders and deepen the back bend, keep your hips stacked on top of your knees while you walk your hands forward until you can rest your forehead or even your chin on the ground.

-Address your shoulders with a Butterfly Shoulder Stretch. Again starting in a quadruped position, cross your elbows in front of your shoulders with the tops of your hands pressed against the ground. Stretch your arms away from each other, shrug your shoulders down away from your ears then slowly begin to rock forward until your chest aligns in front of your elbows and you feel a stretch on the outside of the shoulder that is stacked in front.

Following this blueprint may not cure all or any of your ailments, but it will certainly aid in your weekly workout recovery. It is easy to get consumed by the exercises that build strength and conditioning while losing sight of benefits gained by slightly backing off the intensity. Try adding this to your program at least once a week and let me know how it affects your progress.

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About Angelo Gala, RKC / PCC Team Leader: Angelo Gala has been a fitness professional in the Boston area for greater than 11 years. He is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist through the NCSA, and has studied the Pranavayu system of yoga under David Magone. He is a Dharma friend at the Sakya Center of Buddhist Studies in Cambridge, MA where he completed a 1 year intensive study of Mangalam Yantra Yoga under the guidance of Lama Migmar Tseten. Go to http://www.dragondoor.com/angelo-gala/ for more info.

I Am Not A Gymnast

September 17, 2013 By Al Kavadlo 23 Comments

When people see me performing bodyweight feats of strength like freestanding handstand push-ups or the front lever, they often ask a familiar question:

“Are you a gymnast?”

I don’t blame them for the misunderstanding – gymnastics is the only context most people have for what they’ve witnessed. However, there is so much more to the world of bodyweight training than gymnastics!

Though I’ve never been one to dwell too heavily on labels, I am most certainly not a gymnast. I am a fitness enthusiast who specializes in Progressive Calisthenics. To the casual observer, this may seem like a minor distinction. Allow me to elaborate.

Gymnasts participate in formal gymnastics, a highly-specific, competitive sport involving strict rules and guidelines. I participate in Progressive Calisthenics, an open-ended, individualized fitness modality centered around the concept that one’s own body weight (and the proper manipulation of leverage) can provide ample resistance for strength training, regardless of one’s current fitness level.

Of course the two things do have something major in common: Both can get you in the best shape of your life without the need for weights or very much equipment.

The mindset is probably the biggest difference: I train to be strong, robust and healthy. I train to make day-to-day physical tasks easier. I train for enjoyment. Gymnasts train to win – oftentimes at the expense of their health and fitness.

Competitive athletics are funny like that. Professional athletes are the fittest people in the world, but they are frequently forced to train through injuries. Many wind up pushing their bodies beyond what they can safely handle. The irony is that these people may get to be the best in the world for a brief, shining moment, but will often suffer for it later. The higher the high, the lower the low.

I prefer to take the middle ground. If I feel pain, I back off. If I need rest, I take it. By using this approach, I’ve managed to avoid any serious injuries or major setbacks in my training, despite over twenty years of strength work.

I have tremendous respect for the sport of gymnastics. Pro gymnasts are some of the strongest people on the planet. Their tenacity and dedication to their sport is second to none. My most impressive moves like muscle-ups and back levers are considered entry-level skills in gymnastics the same way that push-ups and squats are entry level moves in calisthenics training. A pro gymnast’s warm-up is more grueling than some of my workouts.

These athletes provide inspiration and motivate me to continually challenge myself, but I have no interest in being a gymnast. I train for fun and function. My only competition is within myself. The joy of movement matters more to me than whether or not my toes are perfectly pointed.

Progressive Calisthenics and gymnastics are two different things, each with their own set of pros and cons. If you want to learn the sport of gymnastics, there are people way more qualified to teach it to you than I am.

PCC is for exercise enthusiasts and fitness professionals who want to utilize bodyweight training to get stronger, feel better and move more freely. At PCC, we focus on how to progress and regress universal movement patterns for everyday people. We encourage fun over formality; presence over perfection.

Regardless of what you choose to call it, bodyweight strength training offers something for everyone. Whether you do gymnastics, calisthenics or any other bodyweight-strength modality, we are all more alike than we are different, and we all share one thing in common: The need to challenge ourselves and test our physical potential.

With the right amount of effort, it’s amazing what the human body can achieve.

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