pull-ups

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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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.

How Bodyweight Exercises Use Your Brain To Create Strength

October 8, 2013 By Ryan Hurst 20 Comments

It’s an exciting time in the world of strength and fitness. We’re seeing a lot of converts from weight training to the types of bodyweight exercise taught in Progressive Calisthenics.

Many of these “converts” find themselves humbled and surprised by the incredible challenge presented by bodyweight exercise, even after spending years developing strength and skill with barbells, dumbbells, and the like. As they continue to practice and improve, they find strength that wasn’t there when they trained with regular weight lifting exercise.

So what is it about progressive calisthenics that is so different and unique from weight training?

One of the big benefits of this type of training is how stimulating it is to the nervous system. The simple act of moving your body through space, as opposed to moving an implement, switches on the connections between your brain and body.

At the risk of sounding trite, it really is a “natural” and innate process to take your body and hang, swing, climb, pull, and jump through the air. Movement since we could walk upright has been meant to get us somewhere, and moving our whole body – not just parts of it – is what we were born to do.

Of couse, I’m preaching to the choir here, but by understanding how the exercise movements in Progressive Calisthenics stimulate the brain, we can learn to leverage that connection for greater strength and skill development.

Movement, Muscle Memory, and the Mind-Body Connection

As noted above, much of the “secret sauce” comes from movement.

When performing progressive calisthenic type exercises, from pushups to pistols, and from rings to monkey bars, the majority of the time we’re moving our head around in space, which we’re not used to doing with barbells and machine exercises.

I teach both children’s and adult classes and I see how a lot of people who come from a weight lifting background have trouble when they first start up at our gym. They get dizzy and disoriented quickly when doing certain movements while the kids don’t seem to have any of the same issues. Maybe it’s because kids get to roll around, swing on the monkey bars and do normal “kid stuff”, while the adults are stuck in their offices most of the day and then work out on machines a few times a week.

This increased head movement lends an incredible amount of sensory information – the visual position changes, vestibular (inner ear) stimulation, and even the sensations on the skin from the air we’re cutting through.

All of these compound to stimulate our brain and the connections between it and every part of our bodies.

So-called muscle and body “memory” is actually the result of the repeated body motions strengthening the neural pathways used in those particular skills. With repeated practice, we grease the groove, and bodyweight movements tend to be learned in a faster and more stable manner because of all those sensory inputs. It’s actually easier for the body to “remember” these moves as opposed to the dull and forgettable lifting exercises.

The catchphrase “movements, not muscles” refers to training full body patterns versus isolating body parts to build up certain muscles. In a whole body move such as a one arm pushup, it’s the coordinated engagement of all of your muscles that creates a successful repetition. You’re not working on your chest or triceps alone; your whole body works together to perform the exercise.

This full body connection is key to athletic performance and will improve your ability in your chosen sport.

4 Bodyweight Exercises that Blow Their Weighted Counterparts Out of the Water

There are many examples of bodyweight exercises that better utilize this neurological connection than their weighted counterparts.

Below, I’ll highlight how four such exercises leverage increased stimulation to recruit the entire body in tasks that might otherwise isolate just a few muscle groups.

1. Pull-up vs. Pulldown

A prime example of the difference between a bodyweight movement vs. a weighted movement is the bodyweight pull-up compared to a pulldown. There is the obvious difference of moving your whole body in a pull-up, but there are also a few other key differences that make pull-ups so much better than a pulling on a cable.

First, aside from the infamous kipping pull-ups, it’s much more difficult to cheat on a pull-up. Pulldowns by their very nature encourage cheats like laying back or heaving on the handle when you get fatigued. Similarly, it’s easier to rest a bit using a machine, since you can wiggle and shift a little, whereas in a pull-up, you’ll need to concentrate and dial in your form even more when you are tired. And of course, the whole body “tightness” that you need to perform a good pull-up can’t really be done on any machine.

2. Jumping vs. Any “Cardio” Machine

You’ve likely been in a gym and seen people chugging away on treadmills, stairsteppers, and bikes going nowhere, and you just know deep down there isn’t much that would be more boring for the mind and spirit. That’s why you see so many people on them with earbuds on or staring at the TV!

Jumping exercises are the polar opposite of these machines. Propelling our bodies up for distance or height while landing accurately and safely requires our full attention and concentration. And there’s nothing better for getting the heart rate going than fast and powerful jumping.

Of course, everybody thinks they know how to jump, and in this case, nearly everybody is wrong…

By learning to jump with correct form and developing precise control over our technique, the jump takes on whole new levels of neurological stimulation that go far beyond simple power output.

3. Pistol Squat vs. Any Weighted Squat

I’m sure I don’t have to tell you what an awesome exercise the pistol squat is. It builds strength, flexibility, and balance like nothing else. But what sets it apart from weighted squats – of which there are many variations – is the difficulty with cheating and breaking form.

When performing weighted squats, breaks in technique can sneak up on you without you noticing. When the weight gets piled on and you’re cranking out the last reps, it’s fairly easy to lean forward, let your knees buckle, and raise your butt first when standing up. With the pistol, on the other hand, doing any of those things could throw off your balance, so you’re more likely to maintain a safe and stable line. Of course, there are many ways people cheat when it comes to the pistol, but it is harder to do so than with the barbell squat.

As with other exercises mentioned, one of the benefits of the pistol is the lack of a heavy load on the back. Since back issues can be a problem for so many people, heavy barbell squats can be bad idea until the back is properly rehabilitated.

4. Inverted Bodyweight Row vs. Barbell Row

One of the most important advantages of the inverted bodyweight row over the barbell row is safety. To perform the barbell row safely, without risk of injury, you need to have good form and an already strong and stable low back. If you practice barbell rows without an already stable core, you could hurt your back pretty badly. Add in trying to hold good form when you get fatigued and you’ll be skirting the edge of a cliff.

With the inverted bodyweight row, that particular issue doesn’t exist. So if you have any back issues to begin with, bodyweight rows are the way to go. Don’t be fooled, though. The bodyweight row will still work pretty much the entire body, and will probably help you to improve your core stabilization.

Of course, this list could go on, but I think you get the idea.

Stimulate Your Body, Stimulate Your Brain

The exercises listed above are just a few examples of the advantages of training with bodyweight movements over training primarily with weights. There are some general benefits, though, that should be reiterated.

When you move your body through space, rather than staying still and moving weight around your body, you stimulate your brain through providing increased proprioceptive input. What this means is building a sense of where your body is in space.

Proprioception is what allows you to bend your elbow or flex your foot a precise amount or in a precise way, even if your eyes are closed and you can’t see what you’re doing – you still feel it.

Once upon a time, it may not have been as important to specifically address proprioception, but today, we spend most of our time sitting still. As a result we spend less of our time engaged in activities that increase proprioceptive input naturally, such as running, climbing, and just generally moving the body. To combat the perils of prolonged sitting, it’s important to engage the body in coordinated movements that increase the proprioception that would otherwise be neglected.

An additional benefit of most bodyweight exercises, including all of the exercises listed above, is the required full body coordination and tightness.

For instance, when you do a pull-up, if any part of your body is loose, you’ll leak power through the loose parts and wind up fatiguing quicker and not getting the full benefit of the exercise. Continued practice in maintaining this full body tightness and form carries over to a lot of athletic endeavors, because it strengthens the neural pathways that are devoted to the control of those muscles.

Moving yourself around in unusual angles and with harder leverages creates strength and flexibility in the best way possible. You learn to have powerful and graceful control of your body in a lot of different situations.

It’s also important to approach training with a sense of fun and excitement in developing your strength and flexibility. Exploring how your body moves and experimenting with different movements helps you to look at your strength in a whole new way.

As I mentioned earlier, I teach both kids and adults and it’s great to see adults moving with the same freedom and abandon as their kids. I love teaching exploratory bodyweight exercise and even more, I love how it’s gotten folks to enjoy and have fun with their training again.

Here’s some examples you might add to your routine:

Maximizing Your Mental Movement Muscles

Though this mind-body communication is baked right into Progressive Calisthenics, there are a couple of things you can do to be sure you are getting the most out of the work you put in:

Pay attention to your movement in space. This increases proprioception and develops coordination.
Take a note from Al Kavadlo and remember to smile. Have fun with the movements and enjoy exploring new skills and learning as you go along.

The benefits of bodyweight exercise are endless, as anybody involved with the PCC method knows. It’s a good idea, though, to understand the details behind why you’re feeling much better from this type of exercise performance. You can then adjust your technique and your exercises as needed to improve even more.

***

In former lives, Ryan Hurst has been a gymnast, a swordsman, and a yoga teacher. Now he teaches an integrated approach to strength and movement skill at http://gmb.io/

10 Hot Bodyweight Exercises You Should Be Training

September 10, 2013 By Alex Zinchenko 39 Comments

Ok, so you got serious about this “progressive calisthenics” thing. And now your head explodes from endless dilemmas: should you train this or that? What’s better: the planche or the one-arm push-up? Should you be working on one-arm chin-up or front lever pull-ups? Possibilities are limitless while our resources are definitely limited. You can’t think “screw it”, and train with every technique at once. You must choose something if you want to make any meaningful progress. So what should you choose? Let me give you 10 hot calisthenics exercises you should spend time training (in no particular order).

1. Handstand

If you don’t train this exercise you are missing out big time. This would be my number one priority. Why the handstand? Well, if you can stand on your legs, shouldn’t you be able to stand on hands? Not convinced? Ok, then here is what I can tell you from experience. The handstand develops your upper body like nothing else. There’s simply no substitution. It makes your shoulders and arms more stable and robust. You’ll definitely feel the newly gained strength and stability in all other pushing movements. For example, all my training clients benefited from implementing handstand training into their routines and increased their pushing numbers (some of them had a 20% increase, which is great, in my opinion). Anyway, no matter what your goal, you should strive to learn the handstand as soon as possible. And, of course, it looks awesome. If you are struggling to learn the skill here are 10 tips that will help you.

2. Handstand Push-Ups

I differentiate handstand push-ups into two types:

Wall-Assisted Handstand Push-Ups [WA HSPU]
Free-Standing Handstand Push-Ups [FS HSPU]

They are two quite different things. When we are talking about WA HSPUs we are talking about an almost purely strength move. Balance is not an issue here, while FS HSPUs will require decent balance and stability as well as proficiency in the handstand. No matter what you prefer, it is good idea to train both. Once you get good at them you can increase difficulty in one of these ways:

Increase range of motion;
Add a weighted vest;
Move to one arm work.

Ideally, you should end with weighted full ROM one-arm handstand push-up.

3. Chin-Ups/Pull-Ups/One-Arm Chin-Up

Everybody knows these exercises. You can call them whatever you want, but you can’t deny the fact that chin-up is one of the best lat and biceps builders known to man (if not the best). It is an essential pulling movement pattern and it should be practiced a lot. I won’t get deep into details here, but for the regular chin-ups your main technique points are:

Back should be arched
Shoulder blades together
Chin up until chest touches the bar

Also it would be a good idea to practice chin-ups on different apparatus. Do them on bars, monkey bars, rings, towels etc. This will add spice to your training.

Another interesting thought would be to perform them every day (of course, assuming you can do at least 10-12). Try doing 30-50 Chin-Ups total (in as many sets as needed) every day for the next 3-4 weeks and you can be amazed with your new set of guns and barn door back.

When you are able to perform at least 15 chin-ups it will be a good time to slowly introduce one-arm chin-up work. My main tip would be to get into it very slowly. You don’t want to experience intolerable elbow pain, right? Anyway, I believe that the one-arm chin-up is definitely an exercise you need to master someday.

4. Pistol

You can’t ignore your leg training unless you desire that set of toothpicks you can often see in commercial gyms. There is an exercise that can help you not to look that stupid. It is one-legged squat a.k.a. the “pistol”. You know that it works your legs from all angles and pretty well. But there’s a problem with the pistol. Once you can do 10 reps in the exercise it becomes more endurance oriented rather than strength. What to do in such situation? The simplest solution is to add weight. A weighted vest should be ideal. If you don’t have one then you can use a backpack. Here’s the article on how to do it. Also you can use kettlebells, a sandbag, or a barbell. If you have nothing you can grab a stranger (girl, preferably) and put him/her on your shoulders for added resistance.

But what to do if you have nothing at hand, there are no people around and you feel unstoppable urge to train your legs? You can combine pistols with jumps. Try to jump onto a platform from the bottom of the pistol position. Or you can try broad jumps in pistol position. Use your imagination.

5. Planche/Planche Push-Ups

The planche is another awesome gymnastic position/move you can effectively implement in your training routine. Is it essential? Probably not. But it is a very good test of your straight arm scapular strength. It works your delts, upper chest, lats and biceps quite decently. Also it’s a staggering sight to see a human being holding their body parallel to the ground on straight hands.

Here are a couple of tips:

Most people don’t have the necessary flexibility in the wrists so it will be a good idea to turn your hands a bit sideways.
Always perform this skill with your elbows locked. Otherwise, it is not a planche.
Don’t overdo it. If you want to train it more than two times per week don’t go even close to failure. Otherwise, you’ll feel very annoying pain in your forearms.

Once you master the specific planche position it is good idea to try push-ups in it. For example, once you can hold an advanced tuck planche for at least 10 seconds you can try to add push-ups in this position.

6. Front Lever

The front lever is another useful skill in our arsenal. It works arms and back while torching your core. Many people think that it is easy. Obviously, they are fooling themselves. You’ll need lots of time to master the skill especially if you are 80+ kg and tall.

Again, as with the planche you want to keep your elbows locked. And also you don’t want to overdo it for the same reasons.

A good tip for mastering the front lever is to use a “false grip” while performing it. More on this later in the article.

7. Human Flag

Everybody loves the human flag. It’s a core killer as well as test of upper body strength and stability. There are lots of tutorials on the human flag out there. What can I add? Here are couple of thoughts:

Don’t start training the human flag before the handstand is mastered.
Learn the human flag on Swedish bars first (or use some kind of ladder). Then move to pole version.

8. Push-Ups/One-Arm Push-Up

What’s so hot about push-ups? Not much. Purely the fact that they lead to the one-arm push-up. And the one-armer is hot by any stretch of the imagination.

A lot can be said about this move but I’ll concentrate on technique points. For me a one-arm push-up “counts” only if:

feet are not wider shoulder width;
shoulders are parallel to the ground;
body is perfectly straight looking from the side;
twist of the body is MINIMAL looking from the top.

You may ask: “is it even possible?” Yes, it is. But it will require lots of patience and hard work to achieve. Maybe even more than any other complex bodyweight skill. If you need some more inspiration here you can find 10 tips for mastering the Perfect One-Arm Push-Up.

9. Back Lever

The back lever is not a very hard skill but it is essential for learning the planche. Also there are lots of other skills that use this position so it will be smart to spend some time learning it. The most important thing I’d like to share with you is what to do when the back lever is mastered. The most basic thing you can do is to learn Back lever pull outs. You get into the inverted hang position, then lower down into the back lever position, hold it for a second and pull yourself back into inverted hang. Repeat for desired amount of reps.

10. Muscle-Up

I can’t leave this article without mentioning the muscle-up. You can hear or read different things about this skill. Some people say that it is essential and you should master it as soon as possible. Others (usually brainwashed with modern bodybuilding) argue saying that it’s useless because you combine pulling and pushing. They state that you can’t load the pulling and pushing pattern as much as you could if you split them.

Nevertheless, I believe that muscle-up is one of the skills you must learn. And I’m talking about controlled muscle-up here, not the kipping one.

There are two points I’d like you to concentrate on:

Use a “false grip”—with the thumbs over the bar, rather than wrapped around it. Watch some videos on YouTube on this subject. One exercise that will help you here is false grip chin-ups.
The main struggle is the transition part. There are three exercises that will help: Russian dips, chest-over-bar pull-ups (pull yourself very high) and muscle-up negatives.

It’s beyond the scope of this article to explain these exercises in detail, but if you want me to explain them just leave a comment and I’ll try to make it happen.

Another interesting thing about the muscle-up is that ring muscle-ups are actually easier than bar muscle-ups. Why? Due to the fact that you can pull the rings to sides during the transition phase.

Closing Thoughts

Of course, you’ll need much more than this article to create a reasonable program. My goal was to show you what exercises would develop your body and what you should focus on while programming your training. What now? You must absorb the knowledge and use it. Thanks for reading.

If you have a fitness-obsessed friend, you can do a good thing and share this article with him or her.

Play rough!

Alex Zinchenko

P.S. If you have any thoughts regarding the topic, let’s chat in comments.

***

It is a pleasure for the PCC to present Alex Zinchenko—the Ukraine’s hottest personal trainer! Alex is a strength addict, coach and author of the Rough Strength blog, where he shares his crazy ideas regarding training and nutrition. He is honest as toothache, straightforward like a train and dares to believe that heavy calisthenics, kettlebell and sandbag training along with intermittent fasting can deliver you all the results you want.

Erwan Le Corre talks Bodyweight – Part I

July 30, 2013 By Paul "Coach" Wade 14 Comments

Erwin_pic5 — **Erwan Le Corre is the founder of MovNat.**

Erwan Le Corre is an icon in modern fitness. Men’s Health once declared that he ranked amongst the fittest men in the world. Whatever your personal definition of “fitness”, Erwan undeniably has an amazing pedigree; in fact he is considered by many researchers to be the modern-day inheritor of the French Physical Education tradition.

Erwan spent his childhood exploring the countryside and training in the martial arts. He went on to become the most famous protégé of Jean Haberey, the notorious French stuntman and athlete. Haberey’s students met at night, and climbed bridges, ran and jumped across the urban skyline, and fought hand-to-hand in sewers. Haberey‘s underground society—dubbed Combat Vital—is widely considered to be an important forerunner of the modern bodyweight arts parkour and free running.

After seven years, Erwan left Combat Vital, and plunged into an intense period of in-depth research into traditional training methods. The result of these years of study and experiment was MovNat, Erwan’s physical education and fitness system which promotes authentic, natural movement through activities such as running, crawling, climbing and swimming.

Paul “Coach” Wade (author of Convict Conditioning) recently got the chance to ask Erwan his opinion on all things bodyweight, on behalf of the PCC community. The two-part interview that follows presents a unique insight into Erwan’s radical—and powerful—training philosophy. Erwan goes in-depth and pulls no punches, telling us exactly what is right with modern training—and also what’s very, very wrong.

If you are interested in bodyweight strength or movement training, you do not want to miss this!

Paul Wade: Erwan, thanks for agreeing to answer a few questions. Many people see you as the modern inheritor of a long tradition of “natural” physical culture.

Who is your all-time hero in physical culture, and why?

Erwan Le Corre: Paul thanks for inviting me, it’s appreciated.

First off I would like to dissociate Physical Culture on the one hand and Physical Education on the other. Historically there is some overlap between the two, but physical culture was mainly orientated towards feats of strength and the development of sculptural physiques. The term “culturist” comes from it, and is the forerunner of modern bodybuilding. Think Eugen Sandow or P.H. Clias for instance, the “Arnolds” of their time. I’m not saying they were not physical educators in some way, but in this regard there is, in my opinion, more substance to find when looking at the history of Physical Education.

Physical educators of the past had at heart the complete physical development of young people and the general population. So their aim was not just strength or sculptural physiques as in Physical Culture, but a more harmonious, general, and practical development of the body and mind. The type of “gymnastics” and “calisthenics” they promoted had not so much to do with a modern approach to gymnastics and calisthenics, in the sense that a lot of the training was based on practical skills. Movement skills practice such as jumping, running, climbing, throwing, carrying etc…were not done just for aesthetics, and not just for general physical conditioning through bodyweight exercise. The approach was way more practical, with exercises strongly resembling real-world physical actions and apparatus mimicking the environmental and situational demands of the real-world (there was also often a strong correlation with military needs and nationalistic ideas).

So of course my personal, all-time hero is the famous French physical education pioneer Georges Hebert. The reason is that he did emphasize utilitarian training as well as contact with nature like I do. He’s my big inspiration, though not the only one. But the history of physical education doesn’t start or end with him. There were wonderful other pioneers before him (who did strongly inspire Hebert, such as Amoros or Jahn), and there are quite competent innovators that came after him too. Sorry for the discourse in Physical Education history in Europe, I hope more people start to understand that “functional fitness” didn’t start with kettlebells or modern calisthenics. There’s a LONG line of people before us and a long history of methods, systems and programs. There’s nothing new under the sun!

Erwin_pic1 — A rare physique shot of Georges Herbert (1875-1957). Herbert developed bodyweight assault courses for the military which were later dubbed ‘parcours du combattan’ —the path/course of the warrior.

Paul Wade: There’s no doubt about it—you’re right, there’s nothing new in physical training. Nothing good, anyway! Let’s look a little at how you go about “Physical Education”. A lot of MovNat seems to be based around moving the body in different ways. “Body competency” seems to be a huge part of what you and MovNat are about. Could you tell us a little about your philosophy of bodyweight training?

Erwan Le Corre: Well, prepare for a lengthy answer! MovNat is based around moving the human body in all the ways that are natural to it. To understand what “natural” entails from our perspective, you want to imagine a wild human animal, maybe one of our common ancestors, or one of the remaining ancestral hunter-gatherers, moving through natural environments for survival. Having to seize opportunities while avoiding threats. Unless they’re resting, playing or dancing, the movements they will have to perform are all PRACTICAL; they aim at doing something immediately useful in a variety of situations of the real life. Secondly they are ADAPTABLE, they must adapt to the physical environment where you are.

This simple observation has a lot to do with the way we approach physical training in MovNat. First off we focus on the practicality of the movements we train. For instance performing a “human flag” does have value from a bodyweight strength standpoint, but not so much from a practical standpoint; therefore it may be trained occasionally as part of your overall physical experience and background. Comparatively, significantly more attention and energy will be dedicated to actually practical climbing techniques, for instance a “tuck pop-up”, or climbing strength and conditioning movements, for instance the “forearm pull-up” which is the discrete component of the “tuck pop-up” that requires more power.

Erwin_pic2 — **There’s more than one way to pull yourself up—if you have the strength. How many methods have you explored?**

Environmental adaptability is the second main pillar of our philosophy. If you train a given jumping technique, say a broad jump, you are not just considering the strength gain and other physiological adaptations by training this movement at a greater volume or intensity. You are also looking at finely tuning your motor-control skills by increasing environmental complexity. Greater environmental complexity means a physical environment that becomes progressively more challenging. This can be starting first by jumping at ground level on a flat floor, then landing on a flat but restricted surface (still at ground level), then jumping from and/or landing on a small, slightly elevated surface, and ultimately performing a similar jumping technique but at a height, landing on a narrow, uneven surface, and potentially involving a danger in case of a fall.

That’s an example of progression in (environmental) complexity, without necessarily an increase in volume or intensity. The movement pattern remains the same, the volume and intensity too, but you must finely tune your motor-control if you want to be both effective (doing it successfully) and efficient (with minimal energy expenditure, in the shortest time, in a mentally relaxed state etc…). You see there is more to greater performance than just volume and intensity. When you add to the mix the necessity to increase movement adaptability, you open a whole new world of possibilities and challenges. It can be intimidating to those who prefer not challenging their comfort zone too much, but it is going to thrill those who want optimum preparedness for the real world. No extra amount of general conditioning will ever compensate for a lack of motor-skills and adaptability.

Erwin_pic3 — **“No extra amount of general conditioning will ever compensate for a lack of motor-skills and adaptability.” –Erwan Le Corre**

So yes, physical competency to us is movement competence and to develop it you need motor-skills, strength and other aspects of conditioning. This being said, we are not restricted to bodyweight. To us bodyweight just means locomotive skills such as running, jumping, crawling, balancing, climbing etc…i.e., moving your body through various environments. Sometimes, you need to move both your body and an external object, and your bodyweight movement becomes a manipulative action against greater resistance if for instance you’re lifting and carrying something heavy, and this is practical and adaptable training too.

I like to tell people, especially the big dudes who are mostly focused on strength and lifting heavy, that before they moving “heavy s**t”, they must be able to move the “heavy s**t” that they are. They usually get it because the heavier you get in bodyweight, the more difficult it can become to move your body with complex movements and through complex environments. They know it and can feel it inside, so it is hard to argue with something that just makes sense.

So physical competency starts with being to move your own body skillfully before anything else. My good friend Gray Cook says, “Don’t add strength to dysfunction” and he is so damn right. This simple common-sense is probably what led him to create the CK-FMS, so that kettlebell practitioners who primarily focus on the external load, manipulative side of exercise, would rediscover fundamental human movements and positions. After fixing basic dysfunctions they can better put their strength to use, or develop even more strength once they got rid of physical limitations, such as lacking full range of mobility. Move your body skillfully first, then skillfully move stuff around, not the other way around.

Paul Wade: I am in agreement with this, completely. It’s ridiculous how many people I see trying to squat with loaded barbells when they can’t even squat properly with their own bodyweight. A lot of the older generations of lifters and bodybuilders (pre-1960s) all did bodyweight work before, and alongside their weighted training to keep these essential skills at a high level.

Your attitude to “practical” movements is really interesting. These days, people are beginning to realize that calisthenics is about more than formal exercises like push-ups and sit-ups; bodyweight training can encompass a massive range of activities including “natural” exercises like crawling, balancing, jumping, and so on. I tend to think that both these types of bodyweight work—the formal/systematic, and the free/natural—work really well side-by-side in a training program.

What kind of role do more formal, traditional exercises (e.g., pull-ups, push-ups, bodyweight squats) have in your method?

Erwan Le Corre: People start rediscovering movement as whole, and there’s a slow shift of perception and paradigm towards a more movement-based approach to fitness. So far movements, usually basic, segmental and mechanistic movements have been used for the purpose of muscle building, strength or conditioning. With MovNat the approach is different, as the purpose of movement is movement itself, or movement competency if you prefer.

Muscles and joints are the tools, much less a finality. This being said, to perform practical movements effectively you do need a functional body that is also conditioned and strong. You will need full range of mobility, stability and strength, power, coordination, endurance, spatial awareness (proprioception and exteroception), and so on.

To answer your question more specifically, most formal strength and conditioning drills such as pull-ups have their place in our method all simply because they ARE natural movements too. Let me explain, what exactly is a pull-up? From a classic strength and conditioning standpoint it is an upper body strength conditioning drill. From a MovNat standpoint, it is a climbing movement. If you hang for instance to a horizontal tree branch and that you pull your body up, the end-goal is most likely that you intend to actually climb on top, right? You see, the movement itself hasn’t changed, but the intention and purpose have, as well as your perception of the drill. It is replacing movement in its original practical context. The strengthening value of the pull-up drill is the same, and we will practice it to develop upper body strength in the trunk, arms, shoulders, abs, forearms etc…so we can condition for more complex climbing techniques. Where our approach will differ is that we will try perform various practical ways to pull-up, for instance hanging from a much thicker surface or a flat surface, pulling hanging from your forearms (we call it “forearm pull-up”) etc…so we can adapt to specific environmental demands with effectiveness and efficiency. This is why for instance a “chin-up” (supinated grip) has much less value to us than a “pull-up” (pronated grip) chin to the bar or higher. Why? Because if you think climbing a horizontal surface and pull your body up chin to the bar, what do you do next? That’s right, you’re forced to bring each arm behind and over the bar so you can keep climbing. It is a waste of time and energy, it is inefficient.

Erwin_pic4 — **Calisthenics strength and bodyweight movement skills can work together well. PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo is famous for his ability on the bar, but trees don’t pose a problem for him either!**

You see, just being good at pull-ups won’t necessarily translate to effectiveness or efficiency in every climbing movement or surface. It is important and even essential, but not sufficient at all. The reason is that both motor-skill and conditioning need specific training and adaptation. Think SAID principle, i.e., Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. This is why we don’t believe in just training in a (usually) short selection of general conditioning drills, because the “reality of reality” is that more specific demands can be placed upon you and your body won’t respond effectively and/or efficiently unless it has been trained to perform specifically. To us, “GPP” (general physical preparedness) programs do work, but work only to an extent. Contrary to a common belief, our observation is that they do not prepare you for “anything”, and people with a GPP training background who come train with us realize this. Within seconds or minutes. Again, most people don’t just lack techniques and motor-control, and MovNat is not just that (a set of techniques), they also lack specific conditioning and MovNat also addresses specific conditioning (not specialized conditioning).

I hope it all makes sense! If people in your audience want to understand this approach from an experiential standpoint, I invite them to find a bar that is about 4 inches thick (such as these metal structures for swings in kid’s playgrounds) and perform these 2 tests:

-max reps (pronated grip) pull-ups (compare to max reps with regular pull-up bar). If the number is significantly lower than what you can normally do, you lack grip strength. Isn’t it part of strength conditioning?

-starting from a full dead-hang (no motion at all), climb on top of the bar until you can straddle on top of it. You can’t jump off the ground, you can’t pull on something else than the bar itself, you can’t push off anything with your feet (like the vertical poles on the side). How many ways can you climb on top? How many ways do you know, and how many ways can you actually perform? For each technique you’ve used, how easy and efficient was it? If you couldn’t climb on top once, maybe you lack technique and motor-control, maybe you lack specific strength and conditioning, or maybe a combination of both. Same answer if you could only succeed climbing on top using one particular movement. You should be able to use 3 different ways at least, and ideally all 6 ways we teach in MovNat.

Next week we’ll post part II of this interview, where Erwan talks about his approach to training progressions, motor skills, training longevity, and debunks longstanding training myths—plus much more. Not to be missed!

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Erwan Le Corre is the founder of MovNat. To find out more about his training approach, head on over to http://www.movnat.com/.

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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.

Al Kavadlo on Progressive Calisthenics

January 21, 2013 By Al Kavadlo 58 Comments

(includes excerpts from Pushing The Limits)

All types of strength training operate under the same principle of progressive overload. Regardless of modality, the way one grows stronger is to begin learning a movement pattern with a relatively low amount of resistance and gradually add more as the body adapts.

In barbell or kettlebell training, exercises can be learned with a light weight to get a feel for proper technique before progressing to heavier poundages. This allows the lifter to learn the form without having to overcome much resistance. Due to the nature of bodyweight training, however, progress must be approached a bit differently.

A key principle of progressive calisthenics is manipulating leverage to vary the intensity of bodyweight exercises. Since there is no way to do a one arm push-up, pistol squat or one arm pull-up without a significant amount of resistance, we instead must practice variations in which the body is positioned in such a way as to create less resistance. As you grow stronger, harder variations can gradually be introduced.

In the videos below, you’ll see me demonstrating progressive calisthenics chains that can be used to increase one’s strength over time. I’ve done one video for each of what I consider to be the three most essential movement patterns: push-ups, squats and pull-ups. Though these clips go by quickly, a beginner should expect to put in a few solid years of training to advance from the variations at the start of each clip to the master steps shown at the end.

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www.AlKavadlo.com

A veteran of the fitness industry, Al Kavadlo has recently been appointed as the lead instructor for the Progressive Calisthenics Certification. Recognized worldwide for his amazing bodyweight feats of strength as well as his unique coaching style, Al is also the author of three books, including Raising The Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-up Bar Calisthenics and the soon-to-be-released Pushing The Limits! Total Body Strength With No Equipment.