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Progressive Calisthenics - The Official Blog for the PCC Community

skill training

The Joy of Troubleshooting Progressive Calisthenics

September 2, 2014 By Adrienne Harvey 41 Comments

 

Adrienne NYC Push-Up

One of the many things I enjoy about teaching at PCC workshops as a Senior PCC Instructor is helping people get past where they’ve been “stuck” on a given progression. This is also very rewarding with my own clients at home, but since I know them so well, it’s a bit easier to predict where they are having trouble. With a room full of new people—most if not all of who are very physically accomplished—the task of helping them troubleshoot their progress takes on a new level of difficulty. And since I don’t know them very well, what I like to do is to help them determine where the “sticking point” really is, and why the problem is occurring.

From there it’s much easier to figure out what needs work. The bigger hope is that by going through this process, the attendee will learn how to evaluate their own future issues and be able to do the same thing for their clients!

Some of the most enjoyable moments at a PCC workshop surround the privilege of watching the “light bulb” come on for someone. While most of the time people assume that someone can’t do a move just for a lack of strength, this isn’t always the case. Other sticking points can be related to coordination, mobility, an unfamiliar movement pattern, a lack of proprioception in a new position (upside down!), fear, or any number of very mental reasons.

The following are a few examples of successful troubleshooting, and the train of thought in each. The first and last are from my own struggles, the middle two are from a recent PCC Workshop. Hopefully these examples will give you ideas to try in your own practice, and if you’re an instructor, with your clients or students.

To Me, There Was a UNIVERSE of Difficulty Between These 2-3 Steps

I am still very much in pursuit of a feet together, straight-leg, full on, no excuses, held for time, press flag. Mainly because you just don’t see women do them, or if you do, it’s in the context of an extreme straddle position, which while it is still very impressive, is not nearly the feat of strength I want to demonstrate. Watching Al and Danny pop up into the human flags at will, and at length at any PCC workshop inspires an incredible amount of very motivating envy.

kickup to chamber press
This is more difficult than it looks…

Having conquered the clutch flag, which I can do on any given day, for time, reliably, and have now coached tons of other men and women to do, I originally approached the press flag with a false sense of security. I took to the first step of “support press” rapidly, and the same with the press hang. Though it took a whole lot of practice to feel comfortable with that unusual grip. I studied the photos in Convict Conditioning Vol 2 a bit obsessively, I watched videos. I found video of a woman in Russia who does not seem to be affected by gravity, but by watching her, gained a LOT of knowledge. I even went so far as to attend a couple “pole fitness” classes (stop laughing) and quizzed some of their most advanced teachers and students about that unusual and at first very not-secure-feeling grip.

While I could do the press hang, and was even able to lift my feet (legs straight and together) reasonably high off the ground after a while, when I tried to kick up into that overhead vertical position to come DOWN to the press flag, some part of my body was putting on the brakes. Suddenly, my grip seemed unsure, just thinking about kicking up with that much force was making my palms sweat right through my trusted “secret weapon” known as “liquid dry hands”. What was going on?

“Just kick up really hard,” the guys said. Then I realized something very significant. While I don’t like to make training very “gender specific” this is one area that’s of obvious concern—center of gravity! Guys typically will have their center of gravity within the upper body (and closer to the pole on a flag) than women who typically will have a lower center of gravity around the hips. That’s certainly the case with me. This explained why kicking hard enough to get my hips high enough to be over my head was causing a little mental distress.

Here’s what I did over the period of several weeks:

  • Increased my confidence in the necessary grip by practicing it more and more, even just hanging there!
  • Practiced the kick-up with and without the grip being in question. I found some bars that were parallel (think gymnastic stall bars, or a welded-in-place ladder) and allowed me to wrap my hands fully around this neutral grip. With increased confidence in this practice grip, I felt ok enough about really LAUNCHING myself into the air at nearly full force! From there I was able to dial back and learn exactly how hard I’d need to kick up.
  • I put it all together and was finally able to kick up while gripping a pole, and stay up there with my feet pointed towards the ceiling. Eventually I became comfortable enough with this that I could find the places where the leverage was and was not so favorable, and found the next areas of STRENGTH I’d need to build up to keep progressing towards the full flag.

She Had All the Strength She Needed…

At a recent PCC, an attendee was obviously more than strong enough to nail an elbow lever, but somehow didn’t know that quite yet. Similar to my own experience with the flag above, we just needed to mentally put two and two together.

First of all, having seen the other moves that this particular attendee could already do, I knew that her abdominal strength was more than sufficient for a great elbow lever from the ground. But, she was struggling on the ground, and having a hard time finding that “floating feeling” balance that’s often a combination of body position and leverage. Fortunately there was a box nearby of nearly the perfect height.

She was able to experiment on this raised platform in two crucial ways that led to two PRs in a row:

  • Standing next to the box, she was able to pay close attention to the position of her arms/elbows and her trunk. She was also able to now see how to “push forward” to balance her body on elbows that were not as bent as they might look when others perform the elbow lever.
  • Once the arms/elbows/chest were in the right place, she slowly but steadily was able to bring her legs up from the ground higher and higher. In the time it took to blink, I saw her absolutely nail a perfect elbow lever then hold it—legs perfectly straight. Then, when John Du Cane came by with his camera, she tried it again and held it for so long that no one could believe that this was her second-ever elbow lever!
A virtuoso performance of the elbow lever by Al Kavadlo
A virtuoso performance of the elbow lever by Al Kavadlo

Just be Nearby So I Don’t Feel Like I’ll Fall on My Head

Sometimes all we need is a little confidence or reassurance, and that’s when a training partner, or empathetic instructor can really make a world of difference. This PCC attendee had longed to do a handstand but had a significant amount of fear of falling over—even while using the wall for support. This is very common since we are all much more accustomed to being “right-side up”.

We talked about headstands, crow stands and all those things she was doing very well, then moved towards the wall. What was the issue? Part of it was similar to my own with the progressions towards the human flag. She was afraid of kicking up too hard and falling over. So I got very close to spot (while also being sure not to be kicked), and made her promise to keep her elbows straight.

At first she didn’t kick hard enough, but that first push towards the wall was in itself confidence-building. The next kick was too hard, but no biggie, while staying in communication I helped her steady her feet until she was ready to come down. The next kick up was closer to ideal, and she didn’t need my help at all. She did it again with me nearby once more, then felt confident enough to start practicing them on her own. From that point I saw her do TONS of handstands with the wall during the rest of the breaks that day!

That Elusive Clutch-Lever…

Adrienne Clutch Lever Danny
In this magic show, Danny gets to wear the cool hat, but I’m doing the hard work…

Diamond Cut Abs by Danny Kavadlo coming soon

I was very excited to be asked to appear in some photos for Danny Kavadlo’s upcoming book Diamond Cut Abs, and of course wanted to be in as many cool photos as possible. When they first described the photo seen above, I wanted to make sure it happened no matter what.  Of course it involves the clutch lever and holding it for a bit, so that the synchronized “acting” Danny is doing in the photo would have the desired effect in the photo.

Al and Danny Clutch Lever
NOW it makes sense…

There was just one problem, for some reason I just couldn’t get the clutch lever move that day. I’d done it at home several times, I’d done it after a PCC workshop ages ago when we were all just hanging around, playing with moves and socializing. Today was NOT my day. I was frustrated with myself, and was doing a mediocre job of hiding it. So as we stood there troubleshooting it, I kept applying my secret weapon “Liquid Dry Hands” while listening intently to Al and Danny.

Then Al popped up and did one. Sure enough, right after seeing him DO a clutch lever, the move mentally clicked into place for me. BOOM. I had it. At least that time, but the timing of the photo was off, so we had to do it again, and again, and I started to stop being able to do it. I said, “Al!!! Do it again!” I needed another dose of “monkey see, monkey do” and sure enough, I could do it again. And we got the shot. It’s one of many very cool photos in Diamond Cut Abs which is a really fantastic book.  Can’t wait to see it all in print!

The take-home conclusion from this odd “monkey see, monkey do” situation was simply that I needed to spend more time on this move, to really fit into it and understand—mentally and physically—where I am in space, and how to reliably replicate that feeling on the spot. The prescription = more practice.

How did you move past a sticking point? Have you discovered a special “micro step” of your own? Please share it with us in the comments below!

 ***

About Adrienne Harvey, Senior PCC Instructor, RKC-II, CK-FMS, Primal Move Nat’l Instructor: Originally RKC Certified in 2010, and RKC Level 2 certified in 2011, kettlebell and bodyweight training have been crucial in Adrienne’s personal quest for fitness. A core member of the PCC team, Adrienne loves sharing her knowledge with small groups and individuals. She also loves to develop recipes and workout programs to further support performance, body composition, and of course—FUN.  Go to http://www.giryagirl.com for more information about Adrienne!

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics, Tutorial Tagged With: Adrienne Harvey, coaching, mental training, PCC Workshop, progressive calisthenics, skill training, trouble shooting, troubleshooting

An Irish Blessing

May 13, 2014 By Danny Kavadlo 13 Comments

Blog.1Five days ago I boarded a plane to Ireland with my brother and fellow PCC Lead Instructor Al Kavadlo and Dragon Door CEO John Du Cane. It was uncharted territory for us and we did not know what to expect. This was Ireland’s first Progressive Calisthenics Certification. Not to mention the fact that we’d never been to the Strong Room or met our host Adrian Harrington. In fact, none of us had even been to Dundalk, Ireland. We were really going out on a limb with this one.

You could say we were “lucking” it.

Blog.2We got off the plane in the Land of a Thousand Welcomes, and rather fittingly were welcomed by Mr. Harrington himself. Looking into his smiling eyes, it took no more than a handshake and a few minutes to find out we were all kindred spirits. You see, in the world of body-weight training, there is a bond that exists which defies geography, history, even culture. There’s something special about the solidarity between calisthenics aficionados—we are connected, even when oceans apart. It seems that wherever we go, we stand united with our PCC brothers and sisters. The enthusiasm, dedication and purity bring us together from all around the globe, no matter what our roots. We’re all here for the same reason: to better ourselves and learn from each other. I love meeting people from different backgrounds, age groups and walks of life who share my passion. And the posse’s gettin’ bigger!

Adrian took us out to the lush, green, Irish countryside and served us a homemade breakfast of fresh eggs, “homegrown” ham, coffee (with butter!) and of course, homemade blood pudding, prepared fresh by his Mum. If you truly want to experience a culture, eat the food. We had never been here before, yet we felt right at home.

Blog.3When the workshop began the next day, it was déjà vu all over again. We could see that each and every one of the attendees, regardless of any differences in past history or present skill level, stood exactly where we stand. (Not to mention the fact that the Strong Room turned out to be one of the finest facilities I’ve ever practiced calisthenics.) We worked on push-ups, pull-ups, human flags and muscle-ups. In addition to the thrill of teaching these skills and the satisfaction of seeing so many PR’s (first muscle-ups, flags, one-arm push-ups and more), we got to make so many new friends. That’s the part you can’t really see on the internet. It can only be experienced firsthand.

Day two was even better. So many folks who were on the fringes of achieving the elusive back lever, one-legged squat and back bridge got to see their dreams become reality and so did we. Have I mentioned that I love my job?

In what felt like an instant, it was already Sunday, the third and final day of PCC. The pleasure of witnessing so many brand new inversions and elbow levers, the emotions running wild during Century testing and the tears of joy at the end of the day made it an experience none of us will ever forget. But it was is bitter-sweet; we shared so much with so many! Just two days ago, the people we met were perfect strangers, but now we see they were just like us all along. It’s so hard to say goodbye.

PCC Dundalk proved to be the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Blog.4We are thrilled to have made the trip and are looking forward to coming back. I await with anticipation the prospect of meeting more future members of our PCC family and doing it all over again. As the Irish saying goes, “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb… that’s where the fruit is.”

***

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.

Filed Under: Workshop Experiences Tagged With: Danny Kavadlo, Ireland PCC Workshop, Kavadlo brothers, motivation, outdoor training, PCC Workshop, Progressive Calisthenics Certification Workshop, skill training

Handstands Will Make You Better at Everything

February 4, 2014 By Mike Fitch 28 Comments

Mike Fitch Handstand

Yeah, it’s a bold statement, but hear me out. The mechanics of successfully performing a handstand will amp up all of your other exercise endeavors, making you stronger, more stable, and better coordinated, while the discipline required to master the move will make you a better human being overall. It will force you to take a long, hard look at the time you are willing to invest in reaching a specific goal.  It will also allow you to win money in a bar bet, steal the spotlight at any wedding and of course get the girl (or guy). Results may vary on the last three.

For thousands of years, athleticism has been demonstrated through feats of bodyweight strength and skill, with fit individuals judged not just by their bodies’ tone, but by how skillfully they could use their bodies.  Even in the golden age of bodybuilding, Arnie and the boys were known to challenge each other post workout with hand balancing and bodyweight strength contests.  We then saw a lull in these activities, with the popularization of the fixed-axis weight-lifting machine and single-plane isolation “robot training,”  but luckily for you and me (and the human race), the idea of skills practice and self-mastery is making its way back into fitness.

My favorite field, progressive bodyweight training, includes a multitude of exercises that are always sure to elicit an envious “I’ve always wanted to do that!”  Pistol squats, muscle-ups, human flags, HAND BALANCING – these moves are sure to catch the eye of any fitness enthusiast.  And the great thing is that any of these feats are possible to learn with the proper progression training, time commitment, and, most importantly, consistency.

Just as it takes a baby about 12 months of daily conditioning and practice to eventually stand on their own, it can take an adult months or years of repeated practice to build the neural grooves associated with a perfect handstand.  Are you willing to invest that kind of time?  I can guarantee that it will be one of the most humbling and gratifying journeys that you’ll experience.

While performing a great handstand is certainly a worthy goal unto itself, you’ll find that the skills you build in the process will transfer over into your other training, making you a better athlete and enhancing your quest toward a better body. Here are some examples of the tremendous carry-over you’ll see:

The Kinetic Chain

Let’s start with a simplified definition of the very complex concept of the kinetic chain: everything in our body is connected to everything else.   A handstand is a prime example of the connectivity of the kinetic chain, with each position, alignment, and movement requiring constant communication and neuromuscular efficiency in order to maintain that perfect balance. If just one thing changes during our hand balance, such as flexing our toes instead of extending them, then our body must immediately adjust to this new shift. 

Hand balancing is, obviously, performed on your hands, so that’s a great place to start thinking about how everything is connected.  Your fingers are some of the densest areas of nerve endings on the body, and have the best tactile feedback and positioning capability. Kicking up into your handstand initiates a sort of neuromuscular “super highway,” with all of those little finger receptors sending and receiving information throughout the body.  Your body’s communication must be perfectly orchestrated to keep you in balance, like a super effective emergency dispatcher taking calls, sending reinforcements, and keeping you safe (aka preventing you from crashing onto your head.)

The body has to adjust to the hand placement in relation to the shoulders; to the elbows being over the wrists but under the shoulders; and the hips, where are the hips in relation to the shoulders?; and it goes on.   So if we do this efficiently, and amp up our body’s abilities to communicate and make minute adjustments in a flash, you may already see how handstand training can benefit other athletic goals. But, I promised that handstands will make you better at everything, so let’s keep on going. 

Al Kavadlo Performs a Handstand

 Internal Tension

A tense body is a strong body.  Why is it so easy to balance a ruler or a bat vertically on your hand? Because the object is rigid, with no bends or “leaks.” Whether you are lifting your own body or grinding out a 1000 pound deadlift, the concept is the same – you need to create a rigid structure from which you can pull, push, lift or balance.  In Progressive Calisthenics, there is no room for any part of your body to lose connection or leak tension, and you learn very quickly about any leaks in your chain.  Mastering total body tension will not only accelerate your handstand training, but will be directly applicable to most of your other training as well.

 Grip Strength

In addition to “tense the whole body,” you’ll hear a lot of HB coaches tell you to “grip the ground.”   In our foot we have the luxury of a heel which plays a clever game of leverage to make walking and standing fairly easy tasks. Unfortunately, we don’t have the same advantage in our hands. So, the fingers must DIG into the ground, countering the body’s tendency to over balance (topple over), or let up to counter an underbalance.  It’s this constant battle between the finger extensors and flexors trading off between the rolls of agonist and antagonist that keeps us upright.   And along the way you’ll be conditioning for some brutal forearm strength.

Shoulder Stability

Few exercises can compare to a handstand for building shoulder stability. And let’s face it, nobody is going to be staring in amazement while you’re performing more band internal/external shoulder rotations.

 The shoulder – so incredible, so complex, and so commonly abused – can be an important source of power, but also a source of hidden weakness impacting your training in ways you don’t even realize.  Over repetition syndrome, poor form, and especially faulty postures can create imbalances that lead to injury or instability. But even if you don’t feel pain, if your body senses a weakness in the shoulder, it will automatically restrict the amount of power passing through that joint, and can actually dial down the surrounding muscle excitation.  I’m going to assume that everyone would rather be tapping into all of their strength for their efforts. As the saying goes, “you can’t shoot a cannon from a canoe.”

In Hand Balancing, the shoulder is the first line receiving all of that information from the sensors in the hands and forearm musculature, reacting to the head and hands below and the rest of the body above.  The muscles at the shoulder joint have to fire up like a synchronized light show to adjust to the constantly changing center of gravity over such a limited base of support, from the deeper muscles like Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres Minor, and Subscapularis (rotator cuff), to the bigger and more powerful Lats, Pecs, and Delts.  Even with the elbow completely locked, the heads of the Bicep and Triceps that cross the shoulder joint play a role in stabilizing the shoulder.  And that’s not even mentioning the other muscles that keep your Scapula strapped to your back.

 Simply put, handstands will make you stronger through increased activation and stabilization.

Free Standing Handstand

Spinal Stabilization

Handstands require not just spinal, or core, stabilization, but true multi-planar stabilization involving inversion of the body.

 Now, I realize there are many views on spinal stabilization and some debate over its efficacy and “functional” carryover to life or sport  (“You have to draw in to activate TVA!”  “No, bracing is the only way!”  “Let’s fight!”).  But we can probably all agree that the surrounding musculature of the spine (ie the core) needs to be able to properly stabilize to protect the spinal cord, and that the spine needs to be able to fight gravity’s constant pull, distributing the load while generating force and, more importantly, accepting external forces (whether that’s gravity, or a linebacker). It flexes, extends, rotates, laterally flexes and in the case of the handstand, stays perfectly still, and STABLE. 

When we are upright, we know that the core musculature should be firing to allow for gait pattern as in walking or running, or bending over to snatch up a kettlebell. But get inverted and everything changes.  The anchor or base is now the shoulder girdle, sitting on top of those mechanically disadvantaged hands. So now the spinal stabilizers have to figure out how to balance the pelvis over the shoulders, with the big legs riding on top.  This is true multi-planar stabilization! In a hand balance, all of the spine’s muscular units have to play their part to keep the spine in perfect alignment – i.e. spinal stabilization.

GETTING STARTED: TUTORIAL

I am constantly asked, “What’s the key to learning handstands?”  And there is a clear answer:  “To get good at handstands, you practice handstands.”   There is no other weighted exercise that will make you better at handstands – you just need to put in the time to practice the handstand-specific progressions and conditioning exercises. It IS skill specific training.

So here’s the part where you get to see what you’re made of.  Are you willing to put the time in to taking this challenge on? Are you ready to approach it with discipline, practicing often, even daily if necessary? You are no longer trying to merely increase your reps;  now you are working to improve yourself, master difficult skills, and achieve long-term goals.

I can tell you from my own experience that the handstand can be an allusive opponent.  I first learned an arch-back style handstand, which is common for most beginners, before I was challenged by a gymnast friend to learn the flat back style.  That process of re-educating took months! It was probably a year before I could easily switch between the two, along with other body positions, and stay up for multiple minutes. I learn more about Hand Balancing every single day and am humbled by it constantly.  I’m certainly a lot better now than I was a few years ago, and I definitely have more goals yet to reach.  It’s clear to me that it’s a life-long practice.  There’s no turning back now.

 Intro to Handstand Conditioning: The Wall-Assisted Handstand

Begin your handstand training with the simple Wall Assisted Handstand.  It may seem like the most basic conditioning exercise, but remember, a baby has to crawl before he could stand. The exercise itself is as simple as it sounds, but I have some tips to help make it wildly successful for you:

  1. First of all, you should have your front, not your back, facing the wall.  Otherwise you’re automatically training in an arch back handstand.  While the arch back is a legitimate handstand in itself, the mechanics are different and you may not get the same benefits I mentioned earlier.

  2. Follow these steps to get yourself safely into place:   Start by facing away from the wall. Bend forward and place your hands on the ground at roughly shoulder width.  Place your feet on the wall and walk them up until the body is elongated.  Walk your hands towards the wall until they are about 6 inches or so away from the wall (this may vary – just find a distance that feels comfortable psychologically).  The toes should be pointed with the top of the foot flat on the wall.

  3. Once in position, SET the body:  Grip the ground with your fingertips.  Lock the elbows completely, driving down into ground, creating as much space as possible between your toes and the ground.  When you successfully fire the traps, the space between your ears and shoulders will close.  Squeeze the glutes and quads, and draw in or brace the abdominal wall. Make sure not to hinge at the hips.

  4. Don’t forget to breathe!

  5. Time yourself to see how long you can hold this perfectly tensed handstand.  Your goal is to first work up to one minute, then two. Once you can hold for two minutes, begin bringing your hands closer and closer to the wall.

  6. And here’s an important Bonus Tip:   If you’re not used to twisting or summersaulting out of a handstand, be sure to leave enough strength to get back DOWN the wall!

Wall Walking Handstand

Expect to be humbled by this isometric conditioning.  But keep up with your handstand practice, and it will absolutely fast track your way to being better at EVERYTHING!

For more information on Hand Balancing, check out our new 5-part video series, Hand Balancing for the Bodyweight Athlete, available as downloads or on DVD.

Mike Fitch is the Founder/President of Global Bodyweight Training, a fitness company providing training, education, and promotion of bodyweight training disciplines, as well as creator of the popular Animal Flow program. Mike’s current interests lie in exploring how bodyweight training disciplines can be integrated with skills-based practices, and multi-planar, fluid movement. He’s been featured in Men’s Health, Shape, and Fitness Magazine, as well as on The Doctor’s, Good Morning America, and LIVE with Kelly and Michael.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: carryover, coordination, hand balancing, handstands, Mike Fitch, progressive calisthenics, skill training, strength training

Structuring a PCC Recovery Day

November 5, 2013 By Angelo Gala 5 Comments

angelo1Hey 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.

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-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.

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-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.

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-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.

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-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.

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-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.

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-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.

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-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.

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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.

***

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.

Filed Under: Flexibility, Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: active recovery, calisthenics, meditation, PCC, recovery, skill training, strength, stretches, technique, yoga

Building Strength Without Mass

October 29, 2013 By Al Kavadlo 53 Comments

al1 I’ve been getting at least one almost every single day for a while now. In the beginning they were annoying, but after the first few times I actually started to get a kick out of them. I even came to find them flattering. After all, the people who send them are generally well intentioned and often don’t realize they are being rude. Some of them are actually very polite. I’m talking, of course, about emails like this one:

al2_emailIf I had seen the me of today when I was a teen, I probably would have wondered the same thing. After all, the main reason I got into strength training was because I was a scrawny kid who wanted to build some muscle. Fourteen-year-old Al would be very disappointed that after 20+ years of working out I still wasn’t as massive as the Incredible Hulk.

In fact, even though I’m about 30 pounds heavier now than I was at age fourteen (in spite of not growing an inch taller since then), I’m still a fairly small guy. And though my bodyfat percentage sits comfortably in the 8-12% range (I tend to naturally lean out in the summer), at a height of 5’11’’, I’m incredibly small by bodybuilding standards. Good thing I’m not interested in becoming a bodybuilder!
al3 As a kid, however, I desperately wanted to bulk up. Though I managed to beef up to 190 pounds by my early twenties, I eventually came to find that I felt and performed better when I wasn’t carrying so much mass. Though bulky muscle-men seemed ubiquitous to me in my youth, as an adult I soon discovered that to people who weren’t fans of pro wrestling and Arnold movies (which, shockingly, is most people), being overly bulky is a turn-off. It took me a long time to change my perspective, but I’ve since learned to embrace my physique and take advantage of its benefits.

Though there are a few notable exceptions, most advanced bodyweight practitioners tend not to have huge, imposing physiques. Instead, high level calisthenics athletes usually have more of a lean, athletic build. After all, if pound-for-pound strength is the goal, it helps to be relatively light. The higher your muscle to weight ratio, the better off you’re going to be in regard to bodyweight training. Though you definitely need some muscle mass to achieve high levels of strength, it’s more pragmatic to make a little muscle go a long way. At a certain point having too much mass becomes cumbersome. It’s weighs you down more than it helps.

Build Your Foundation

Regardless of whether your aim is to add muscle mass or simply get strong, the first thing you need to do when you begin training calisthenics is build a solid foundation. Though everyone starts at a different place, building to at least 40 bodyweight squats, 30 push-ups, 20 hanging knee raises and 10 pull-ups (those numbers might look familiar) is a prerequisite that should be achievable within a few months (or a few years, depending on where you’re starting).

Women should aim for the same numbers, but with knee push-ups and Australian pull-ups in place of the full ones. This is not an issue of sexism. Biologically, women have a lower propensity for upper-body strength as compared to men. Of course with proper training, women have the potential to develop serious upper-body strength!

al4-adrienne Once you’ve established that baseline of fitness, you’ll have likely built a bit of strength, stamina and muscle along the way. If you aren’t looking to grow your muscles past this point, however, it’s time to start training more advanced exercises and leave the high reps to your warm-ups.

Skill Out

It is often said that strength is a skill, and like any skill, the way that you get better is consistent practice. The goal of a strength workout is not to focus on the quantity of reps, but instead the quality. I recommend sticking with sets of 3-5 reps. However, it is helpful to add additional sets to offset the low rep range and allow for adequate volume. For this reason, I suggest performing 3-5 sets of each movement in a given workout when strength is the primary goal. Remember, you don’t need to do the same amount of volume as you would in a hypertrophy workout. The most you’ll probably ever need to do of a single exercise is 25 reps per workout. We’re not necessarily looking to get a pump, either. In fact, you’ll want to take longer breaks in between sets when you’re doing pure strength work than when the goal is mass-building. I recommend anywhere between 2-5 minutes of rest between sets.

It’s important to understand that strength is as much neurological as it is physical. Whenever you try to get your body to do something that it isn’t used to doing, it has to build a new neurological pathway to make it happen. Even when you ask your body to perform a familiar movement pattern, it will have a hard time if the leverage has been made less favorable than what it’s become accustomed to. Your brain has never had to send that specific message to your muscle before, so it must work very hard in order to arrive there. The message often comes in fuzzy.

Imagine using a machete to chop your way through the thick vines of a jungle. This is how hard your brain must work to get your body to do something for the first time. Now imagine you’ve lived in that jungle for ten years and walked the same few routes over and over, gradually clearing away the brush little by little. Eventually the path would be easy to walk and you’d arrive on the other side much more quickly, and with much less effort.

al-5 The same thing happens in your brain with consistent training. Over time, the pathway becomes clearer and the message arrives faster. The body adapts to whatever stimuli it is consistently exposed to. A body that is regularly called upon to apply force against resistance will get better at doing so.

Lean Machine

Diet may be the single biggest factor that determines whether or not you will increase or decrease in size. If you want to grow, you’ve got to eat a lot. Conversely, if you’re not interested in gaining weight, you shouldn’t be overeating. Though nutrition is a bit more complex than a simple calories-in minus calories-out equation, nobody ever gained significant bulk without the calories to back it up. Conversely, you can’t lose fat without being in a caloric deficit.

Personally, I follow a very simple diet: I eat when I am hungry and stop when I am full. I avoid mindless snacking and stay away from processed foods. I’m not trying to gain mass, but I’m not trying to lose it either. People love to ask me how many grams of protein I consume each day or how I time my carbohydrate intake, but the truth is I don’t concern myself with such trivialities. There is no need for the average person to possess a profound knowledge of nutrition in order to have a lean, strong physique. One need not understand how free radicals and antioxidants work in order to know that eating blueberries is healthy.

al6 Regardless of your ambitions, the most important thing is being consistent with your training. Focus on making regular exercise a part of your lifestyle. Don’t over-analyze the details, especially if you aren’t doing the work physically. Of course if nutritional science is of genuine interest to you, there’s no reason to ignore that yearning.

Just don’t make your life any more complicated than it has to be. When all is said and done, the most important thing is to respect and appreciate the body you have. It’s great to strive for physical perfection, but the journey matters more than the destination.

***

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 lots more about Al on his website:www.AlKavadlo.com.

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: Al Kavadlo, Century Test, consistency, diet, muscle mass, skill training, strength, strength training, weight gain, weight loss

How Bodyweight Exercises Use Your Brain To Create Strength

October 8, 2013 By Ryan Hurst 20 Comments

Chap 7 - 10

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.

OAHS

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:

  1. Pay attention to your movement in space. This increases proprioception and develops coordination.
  2. 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.

One arm elbow lever

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/

Filed Under: Progressive Calisthenics Tagged With: bodyweight exercises, mental training, mind-muscle connection, one-arm handstand, pistols, pull-ups, Ryan Hurst, skill training

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

April 23, 2013 By Adrienne Harvey 21 Comments

AdriennePlank1arm1legKB

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

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

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

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

AdrienneGetUp

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

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

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

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

 ***

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

Filed Under: Motivation and Goals Tagged With: Adrienne Harvey, fitness, goals, injury prevention, patience, physical appearance, skill training, strength, training strategy, women

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