Comprehensive Calisthenics Training Guide

is there actually a complete video for calisthenics I mean one that goes over the full week of training exercise tips building a strong foundation and how to progress even further it does now stay tuned and we'll go over everything you need to know about calisthenics even if you're starting from zero starting with chapter zero the scapula the scapula is not something you can grow because it's a bone an important bone with attachment to several muscles enhancing your scapular awareness is key to mastering calisthenics retraction is when you push your shoulder blades together protraction is pushing your shoulder blades away from you elevation is reaching out as high as you can basically shoulders over ears and scapular depression is bringing your shoulder blades down away from your ears practicing scapular movements gives you the ability to put your joints in the correct area avoiding injury and you can Master scapular awareness with these movements starting with scapular push-ups setup for scapular push-ups is very simple if you're a beginner start on your knees keep your arms locked out and simply let your shoulder blades touch and then push them away from you this is going to give give you awareness of going into a smooth retraction and protraction of the scapula and you'll need this later on the next exercise you can practice with is going to be scapular pull-ups you're going to learn how to depress your scapula by doing this movement start in a dead hang position squeeze your cord and start to unrug your shoulders away from your ears moving forward scapular wall slides is going to be the best exercise for practicing retraction simply set up with a wall make a 90° angle with your elbows don't forget to press your lower back into the wall and while keeping your lower back pressed into the wall we're going to reach out as far as we can and then go back to neutral position I'm not going to lie to you this exercise is going to feel incredibly weird but trust me you're going to need it later on and the last exercise we're going to talk about for scapular awareness is going to be inverted shrugs you can see I'm set up on top of my couch here I have my arms locked out and I'm simply strugging my shoulders over my ears and then returning back to neutral this is perfect for understanding scapular elevation moving forward to chapter one The Importance of wrist strengthening wrist stretching is essential start on the ground with me here and lock your arms out Simply Rock forward into your hands and notice how it feels on your wrist wrist stretching feels weird at first but it is integral for your growth and your injury prevention these are just a few wrist stretches that I've recommended for you I can't stress this enough you need to stretch your wrist daily before any workout it might seem slightly daunting at first but as your wrist open up and you gain more wrist Mobility you'll be thanking me later on remember we don't want to wait until we have pain to solve it so we're going to prep as much as we can by doing these wrist stretches this is actually one of the things I wish I knew about calisthenics earlier on and if you'd like a follow along guide for stretching your wrists simply check my stretching playlist progressing into chapter 2 building a strong Foundation before we get into the weekly routine we have to make sure our Push Pull and squat strength is at the proper level starting off with the iconic push-up keep your elbows tucked to at least a 45° angle at the bottom of the rep and make sure to fully protract your scapula at the top of the rep if you're overweight or lacking upper body strength start off with wall push-ups wall push-ups make it easier to practice proper form good habits and build strength just make sure to keep tension on your body and follow through with that smooth retraction and protraction of the scapula after you gain enough strength you can move to incline push-ups you can do a high incline or low incline depending on how strong you are what we're doing here is basically exposure therapy since our joints are not normally exposed to this much weight we can build that joint strength and Joint range of motion over time after you've reached the suggested level you can move on to standard push-ups and I need you to be able to do at least 18 to 25 of these in a row once you've reached that Plateau you're at the perfect level for push-up strength and you can continue on to the next challenge and that next challenge is going to be squats when you're performing a perfect standard body weight squat you want to push through the heel don't let your heel come off the ground ever start by placing your feet around shoulder length keep your chest up and flex your core you need to squat to at least 90° to be considered valid and like I said before push through the heels of your feet if you can't squat at all you need to start with chair squats chair squats give you a ton of safety and failure protection if really is the perfect way to work on your range of motion once you can complete around 18 to 25 chair squats you can advance by lowering the elevation or simply performing standard squats again I really want you to focus on keeping your chest up squeezing your core and pushing through the heels of your feet once we've mastered the standard squat we're going to move over to static lunges a unilateral leg exercise that can build a ton of strength in your lower body all while helping your muscular imbalances a good level to be at is being able to perform 20 of these on each side before advancing in moving forward to the iconic pull-up start your pull-up training by hanging off of a bar flex your core to bring your hips in line with everything else and we're going to keep this straight line throughout the entirety of the exercise make sure to pull to your lower chest to reach the top of the movement your scapula should be retracted or your shoulder blades touching at the negative portion of the rep make sure to lower yourself into a smooth protraction before returning back to that up position these are called bent leg rows and they will build a ton of strength especially in your upper back if bent leg rows become too easy for you I want you to straighten out your legs and still try to keep that straight posture by flexing your core and even if these straight leg rows become too easy you can always lower the bar the lower the bar is the more inverted you are and thus the more your back will have to work to get you into the proper position I wanted to make a note about scapular Pull-Ups here remember how we unrug our shoulders to get our shoulders away from our ears this is the perfect start to a pull-up use this tip to conquer the assisted pull-up Tire resistance band around the bar to help you alleviate some of the weight off your joints you can see even though we're building strength we're also not taking it too far from the edge of our ability being able to perform a standard pull-up is a testament to True strength don't shy away from The Challenge you'll get your first one in no time and finally the last basic we should Master is the dip there's no doubt you've seen these demonstrated before you'll notice I'm keeping my chest up and making sure my arms come down to a 90° angle you can also note that I'm keeping a bent leg posture throughout the entirety of the movement as you become more comfortable and aware of the bent leg dip you'll be able to work lower into the range of motion till basically your butt is tapping the ground at the bottom of the the rep dips are a great way to improve your lower chest and give you massive triceps after you've reached the proper level which is performing 15 bent leg dips you're going to be able to straighten out your legs this adds a bit more difficulty and tension to the dip exercise again be careful with the range of motion that you're using don't go past any range of motion that's too uncomfortable unless you've unlocked it after we mastered the straight leg dip you're going to tie a resistance band around parallel bars and use this to do assisted dips it's important I tell you although the resistance band is helping you the most at the bottom of the rep you need to pause at the bottom this will help you solidify the movement and get that muscle stimulation that you need for the exercise naturally after assisted dips come standard dips performing these on the parallel bars we need to perform at least 12 make sure you're keeping tension on your body throughout the entirety of all these movements and although my gem has parallel bars you don't have to use them to perform the dip properly a straight bar block Rings or wall like I'm using will be just as fine it really doesn't matter where you decide to perform your dip training the only thing I ask of you is to be intentional about your movements keep that straight line throughout the entirety of the exercise and lean into it on the decline so you can feel the chest muscle fibers now that we're at the proper level let's look at the workout plan starting with Monday push Day suggested rest is at least 90 seconds since it's push day it's going to be big on scapula retraction and protraction so we're starting off with some core and Joint prep remember to keep straight arms and tension on your body when you perform your scapular push-ups the next exercise we're going to do is called the hollow body hold this is an anti-extension core exercise that is essential for the calisthenics athlete keeping your lower back pressing into the ground makes the magic happen and then we're going to look at the stability of our obliques by doing side planks two sets each side for at least 30 seconds make sure to actively squeeze the obliques on the working side and reach out as far as you can on the opposite now that our core and joints are prepped and you've done your wrist stretches we're going to go into the perfect warm-up I'm only going to show you the perfect warmup for each of these days once to avoid any unnecessary film as a general rule of thumb for warming up you want to avoid any kind of static stretching and focus only on Dynamic this kind of stretching is key and you'll be at your best performance as long as you're working the muscles that you're about to use and don't worry about doing every single one of these exercises you can simply pick around two to three of your favorite ones and perform those until you reach a gentle sweat pushing strength ends up being some of the easiest type of strength to unlock and calisthenics because as humans going through our active daily living activities we end up pushing a lot more than pulling like I said before you want to reach a gentle sweat so rest during this time is optional or if you're going to rest rest for no longer than 30 seconds to keep your heart right up plank walks are one of my favorite exercises of the ones I've shown you so far you get a real opportunity to work on scapular protraction while also utilizing your pushing muscles but if you're short on time and you'd prefer not to use these kind of exercises you can simply skip in place this is a great way to warm up as well skipping in place or doing high knees is a great way to get your blood flowing instantly they can also help you warm up your lower body which is essential for basically every calisthenic exercise but if you're still not a fan of the exercises that I've shown you you can always do the optional work work like working on a treadmill or doing an exercise bike for a set number of minutes now that we're properly warmed up let's get into strength training we can turn our hands slightly outwards and make sure to keep a straight arm throughout the entirety of this movement it's important to note you'll feel most of the pressure on the front three fingers of your hands and leaning forward activates the front delt to a great extent this is called the pseudo plch lean it's a true calisthenic staple and it's going to be the prerequisite for learning the full planch later on following up the planch lane is going to be the Hindu push-up this is going to be a great exercise for building upper body strength and increasing your body awareness I want you to take proper note of the movement see how I start into a pike bend my arms and swoop down below as if I'm into a cobra position but I make sure that my body does not touch the ground you'll have an easier time with this exercise if you keep your legs spread for the weight distribution and as far as the proper breath work you should be breathing in as you push back and breathing out as you swoop down next up is going to be the classic body weight dip only doing three sets of seven reps when it comes to this like I said before you can do dips basically anywhere I'm doing them on a wall outside and it's working fantastically next up is a variation of the push-up it's called The Pike push-up and it's similar to a military press start off in a pike position make sure you're flexing your core and flexing your legs to keep them straight on the decline make sure your head goes above your hands and you push up and out through the scapula and keep your elbows tucked to avoid any unnecessary pain next up is going to be the diamond pushup we're following the standard push-up procedure but we're keeping a diamond position with our hands that increases our tricep activity and chest activity remember to protract your scapula at the top of the r and the best way to end a push day is going to be with a wall handstand making sure to go back to wall or chest to wall it really doesn't matter just make sure you keep your toes pointed you're flexing your core and your arms are completely locked out most importantly don't forget to breathe now on the Tuesday that's going to be pool day just like with push day we're going to start with some core and Joint prep the first exercise we're going to do is the cat and cow pose following that up with the bird dog pose opening up our core and getting some lower back activation and last but not least you should do this exercise before every pool day scapular pull-ups again practicing scapular depression by keeping straight arms and learning how to shrug your shoulders away from your ears to avoid any shoulder injuries remember scapular pull-ups is like starting the initial form of a pull-up don't sleep on how useful it is moving forward to the perfect warm-up I've attached exercises that complement the pool day we're in like I said before I'm only going to show you these once and then it's up to you to choose the best ones that you like to use or you can simply follow the exercises that I provided here and you'll be set up for success again rest during the warm-up is optional but if you're going to rest at all please rest for only 30 seconds because we want to keep your heart rate up following the Cobra push-up we're going to finish up our perfect warmup with reverse planks kind of swinging into this movement and making sure to keep a braced core at the top entering strength training hang on a bar and keep your knees to your chest and raise yourself into the sky until your ankles touch the bar Lower yourself back down with straight arms carefully and controlled this is called a front lever raise and it's a prerequisite for the front lever skill follow following the front lever Rays we're going to open up our shoulders with the skin the cat movement you might recognize this position from when you were younger and played on the playground little did we know when we were younger we were doing all these movements that seemed easy but were actually strength building techniques this movement can be scary so make sure you don't goast a comfortable position following that exercise you're going to bang out some rows for the hose doing a nice three sets of seven reps getting some huge back development finally getting to put these pull-ups to use three sets of five reps make sure to apply tension to the lower half of your body body to remain still during the movement now we're almost done here but we're going to use body weight curls to finish up our biceps for the end of this workout take note of the similar position that you've seen in other exercises make sure to curl till your nose touches the bar or until your hands touch your temples and just like on push day we're going to finish up with wall handstands five sets holding for at least 15 seconds it might not seem like it yet but learning to be inverted is going to be essential for your calisthenics future proceeding forward to Wednesday the leg day jumping right into the warm-up for leg day we're going to be doing heel to toes when it comes to my warmup for my leg day this is something you can follow to the tea legs are an important muscle and Foundation of your body so I make sure to pre these properly when it comes to this folded squat make sure you grab the back of your ankles and squat safely and raise yourself back into the sky following this warm up exercise you can start to do alternating Archer squats you don't have to raise yourself into the sky perfectly but just squat side to side but again if you're short on time and you'd prefer not to do these exercises you're good to go with just skipping because skipping and high knees does not require much mobility and it's a great way for you to get your blood flowing instantly I know I've been showing some scary looking techniques and exercises but if you've been following along you're more than ready and at the proper level to perform these moving forward into strength training if you're standing up and you start to sink your hips into the ground you'll feel the weird sensation in the back of your legs this Sensation that you're feeling is called your hamstrings I think it's essential to get the blood flowing in your hamstrings before you do any kind of squatting movement pattern so choose one of these body weight RDL movement patterns that match your strength level like I said before you have the strength for all of these but some of them require balance and your body has to get used to it over time no matter what just remember to sink your hips back bend your knees and reach down to around lower calf level before you start to bring your hips back forward into a neutral position now that the blood is flowing in our hamstrings we're at the perfect place to squat so we're going to do our squatting here for three sets of seven Reps don't forget to keep your chest up and press through your heels the next exercise is going to be step-ups and you're going to love this one start on any kind of elevation and slow SL lower yourself with one leg choosing a slow Ecentric before exploding to the top is going to force you to have control and this unilateral exercise is going to thank you tremendously with leg gains moving forward to reverse lunges if you have any kind of knee pain this is going to take any of that pressure out the knee and place it directly into the hip make sure you do three sets of eight reps on each side and you're considered valid and just like with static lunges keep your chest up next up is going to be the horse stce Squat and bring your hips forward pay attention to keeping your chest up and activating your quad muscles so you don't sink further further below this isometric is tough and challenges you while also increasing your Mobility the next exercise is going to be calf raises I'm sure you've heard about this before set up with any kind of small elevation or box let your heels sink into the ground then explode onto your toes feeling that contraction in your calf muscle following up this exercise is going to be negative pistol squats utilizing only the negative portion of the rep making sure to decline for at least 3 to 4 seconds to be considered valid and since we're already on the ground we should focus on compact leg lifts this is an essential exercise for practicing core compression make sure to use a wall if you can't get your legs up focus on keeping your legs straight and keeping your arm straight throughout the duration of the movement we're almost done here the next exercise is going to be the one-legged plank we're going to perform this on one side and then do the other raising one leg into the sky activates your glutes and leg muscles in a way that you never even thought of and lastly finishing up with a hollow body hold making sure to solidify and practice that anti- extension moving on a Thursday cardio and Mobility day guys and gals we have to start taking our cardiovascular health seriously do some form of cardio on the exercise bike or your preferred form if you do happen to have access to an exercise bike doing one set for 15 to 30 minutes is going to be essential and tremendous for you now that we're all warmed up for our Mobility training we're going to start off with the cat and cow pose making sure to feel this in our lower back and our spine throughout all of the movement make sure to breathe in as you round your spine and breathe out as you lift your head up again go slow so you can feel this movement in your spine and lower back following up is going to be the Cobra pose we're going to swoop down and raise ourselves up making sure to not not clench our butt cheeks during this movement feel the stretch in your lower back spine and shoulders next up we have child's pose making sure to sit back on your heels and reach forward as far as you can additionally try to touch your forehead to the ground or for a greater stretch touch your chin to the ground hold this for at least 60 seconds the next exercise is going to be Superman's you've seen this before simply lay on the ground with your chest facing the ground simultaneously raise your legs and hands into the air make sure to reach out as far as you can the next movement is similar it's called the reverse snow angel you're going to be lifting your chest off the ground and making a snow angel pattern you'll feel the stretch in the entirety of your back and shoulder muscles again you're only performing this for 60 seconds next up is going to be the squat to Pike hold simply start in a squat position and then raise yourself into a pike hold progressively work deeper into the Pik hold position flexing your core and leaning more into your hands each rep the following exercise is going to be the prayer squat whilst keeping your prayer hands you're going to look like you're stretching your groin pushing out with your elbows against your knees Mobility training is a essential please don't sleep on it on to the next day Friday full body workout I've given you a variety of warm-up exercises for you to use choose your ideal one and make sure to reach a gentle sweat we're going to open up our full body workout with the bird dog pose making sure to open up those core muscles and get those warmed up don't forget you want to do the bird dog pose on each side so make sure you alternate the next exercise is going to be the pike planch lean as you can see we're keeping a bit of a wider Pike here in order to lean properly this should improve our planch lean next up is the classic incline push-up only three sets of 12 reps following this up is going to be another pushing exercise the Cobra pushup starting from the ground and pushing your way up to that Cobra pose making sure to not flex your glutes and feel that stretch in your lower back and shoulders if there's one thing we won't have it's lower back pain next up is a different exercise called the back bridge press starting off with our back pressing to the ground keeping our hands reversed and pressing into the sky some people call this the wheel pose just make sure to keep your chin tucked into your chest during this exercise and push out with your feet next we have a variation of the pull-up called The Hammer grip pull-up this is when you have two bars that are facing each other this exercise is similar to the Hammer curl where you're working the brachi Alis moving forward getting some more unilateral work in here with the Archer squat make sure whichever leg you're squatting towards that you're keeping that heel into the ground you'll see tremendous improvements in your outer quad sit on the back of your heel on a bench and then extend your other leg forward raise up and you're in the perfect position for the Bulgarian split Squad make sure to do two sets of six reps each side next up is Saturday this is going to be our second leg day of the week as said before choose your ideal warmup just make sure you reach a gentle sweat this workout starts out with archer squats making sure to keep that heel pressed into the ground like I said before you'll see improvements in your ankles hips and outer quads following this is going to be step-ups you can adjust the elevation however you'd like just make sure you have a controlled negative portion of the rep and your leg muscles will thank you single leg loot Brites are a slept on exercise I want you to do this for at least three sets of eight reps and make sure you do both sides you can keep the top leg extended or bent for the squat start on your toes and make sure you flex your core to keep your body in line with your hips your knees should Touch Above your toes on the decline and don't forget to grab on to something to help you through the latter half of the movement and as you gain strength and control in this movement learn to use that assistance lesson less following up is going to be wall sits for three sets of 60 seconds making sure to keep that 90° angle need I say more we all know how terrible wall sits can be and finally our last exercise for this plan is going to be the hollow body hold ending it off with the another anti-extension exercise making sure to keep our lower back pressing to the ground holding it as long as possible and never forget rest day your muscles need time to repair and recover themselves chapter four how long should you do this plan if you want to see some significant changes you should do this plan for at least 3 months after 3 months I can guarantee increased mobility and Improvement in your body awareness unparalleled improvements in your strength especially in your upper body noticeably visible changes throughout your entire physique and improvements in your confidence and mental image because now you understand you can get better at things things chapter 5 Where Do We Go From Here when people reach a certain level in calisthenics there's a few things they do one of them is mastering skills people usually go towards some skill specialty like the plan and malz these are the Pinnacle of pushing strength movements other people shift towards the front lever which is an unparalleled pulling strength movement it requires a dramatic amount of pulling strength and understanding of your body similar to the front lever some people choose to do the human flag a combination of pushing and pulling to hold yourself up midair the human flag truly looks like you're defining gravity another skill people try to master is the Iron Cross this is most commonly performed by gymnasts as you need rings to perform it properly I know this movement looks simple but it's incredibly stressful on your tendons I mean look at the way he's holding his body up it's unnatural but if you don't fancy the iron cross a lot of people go for the muscle up gaining a Mastery of the muscle up takes a tremendous amount of time as you're learning how to pull and push properly technique must be perfected to gain a smooth and seamless transition you can also see people that want to master the Pinnacle of pullup strength they do things called one arm pull-ups this is a beastly maneuver and it's definitely nothing to play with there's also the 90° push-up which is arguably one of the hardest push-ups in the world as you start off in a handstand push-up you lower your body to 90° before pressing back up into that neutral there's also the dragon squat which is the Pinnacle of leg strength flexibility and Mobility just looking at this makes me think I'm going to injure myself and there's also the Pinnacle of handstand training which is the one arm handstand and hollow body handstand a handstand itself already takes years to master so just think about how long the one arm handstand or hollowback handstand could take but if skills aren't your thing people usually go towards gymnastic Rings the instability of gymnastic Rings offer up a constant Core workout as you have to flex your core and keep the Rings in line Rings stimulate the deeper muscle fibers on our body that often go neglected it really is one of the easiest ways to level up your calisthenics training as they're pretty inexpensive and you can find them in most fitness stores the third option people do is weighted calisthenics this is simply when you add weight to your calisthenics movements so think about push-ups pull-ups squats and dips with weight tied around you weighted calisthenics offers up unparalleled strength and Joint Mobility because when you end up removing the weight and just doing your body weight you'll be flying through the movement with ease and another reason people do weighted calisthenics is because it gives you so much more Mass from The increased resistance I hope you guys appreciate this video check out strict fit.com for my app and programs

is there actually a complete video for calisthenics I mean one that goes over the full week of training exercise tips building a strong foundation and how to progress even further it does now stay tuned and we&#39;ll go over everything you need to know about calisthenics even if you&#39;re starting from zero starting with chapter zero the scapula the scapula is not something you can grow because it&#39;s a bone an important bone with attachment to several muscles enhancing your scapular awareness is key to mastering calisthenics retraction is when you push your shoulder blades together protraction is pushing your shoulder blades away from you elevation is reaching out as high as you can basically shoulders over ears and scapular depression is bringing your shoulder blades down away from your ears practicing scapular movements gives you the ability to put your joints in the correct area avoiding injury and you can Master scapular awareness with these movements starting with scapular push-ups setup for scapular push-ups is very simple if you&#39;re a beginner start on your knees keep your arms locked out and simply let your shoulder blades touch and then push them away from you this is going to give give you awareness of going into a smooth retraction and protraction of the scapula and you&#39;ll need this later on the next exercise you can practice with is going to be scapular pull-ups you&#39;re going to learn how to depress your scapula by doing this movement start in a dead hang position squeeze your cord and start to unrug your shoulders away from your ears moving forward scapular wall slides is going to be the best exercise for practicing retraction simply set up with a wall make a 90° angle with your elbows don&#39;t forget to press your lower back into the wall and while keeping your lower back pressed into the wall we&#39;re going to reach out as far as we can and then go back to neutral position I&#39;m not going to lie to you this exercise is going to feel incredibly weird but trust me you&#39;re going to need it later on and the last exercise we&#39;re going to talk about for scapular awareness is going to be inverted shrugs you can see I&#39;m set up on top of my couch here I have my arms locked out and I&#39;m simply strugging my shoulders over my ears and then returning back to neutral this is perfect for understanding scapular elevation moving forward to chapter one The Importance of wrist strengthening wrist stretching is essential start on the ground with me here and lock your arms out Simply Rock forward into your hands and notice how it feels on your wrist wrist stretching feels weird at first but it is integral for your growth and your injury prevention these are just a few wrist stretches that I&#39;ve recommended for you I can&#39;t stress this enough you need to stretch your wrist daily before any workout it might seem slightly daunting at first but as your wrist open up and you gain more wrist Mobility you&#39;ll be thanking me later on remember we don&#39;t want to wait until we have pain to solve it so we&#39;re going to prep as much as we can by doing these wrist stretches this is actually one of the things I wish I knew about calisthenics earlier on and if you&#39;d like a follow along guide for stretching your wrists simply check my stretching playlist progressing into chapter 2 building a strong Foundation before we get into the weekly routine we have to make sure our Push Pull and squat strength is at the proper level starting off with the iconic push-up keep your elbows tucked to at least a 45° angle at the bottom of the rep and make sure to fully protract your scapula at the top of the rep if you&#39;re overweight or lacking upper body strength start off with wall push-ups wall push-ups make it easier to practice proper form good habits and build strength just make sure to keep tension on your body and follow through with that smooth retraction and protraction of the scapula after you gain enough strength you can move to incline push-ups you can do a high incline or low incline depending on how strong you are what we&#39;re doing here is basically exposure therapy since our joints are not normally exposed to this much weight we can build that joint strength and Joint range of motion over time after you&#39;ve reached the suggested level you can move on to standard push-ups and I need you to be able to do at least 18 to 25 of these in a row once you&#39;ve reached that Plateau you&#39;re at the perfect level for push-up strength and you can continue on to the next challenge and that next challenge is going to be squats when you&#39;re performing a perfect standard body weight squat you want to push through the heel don&#39;t let your heel come off the ground ever start by placing your feet around shoulder length keep your chest up and flex your core you need to squat to at least 90° to be considered valid and like I said before push through the heels of your feet if you can&#39;t squat at all you need to start with chair squats chair squats give you a ton of safety and failure protection if really is the perfect way to work on your range of motion once you can complete around 18 to 25 chair squats you can advance by lowering the elevation or simply performing standard squats again I really want you to focus on keeping your chest up squeezing your core and pushing through the heels of your feet once we&#39;ve mastered the standard squat we&#39;re going to move over to static lunges a unilateral leg exercise that can build a ton of strength in your lower body all while helping your muscular imbalances a good level to be at is being able to perform 20 of these on each side before advancing in moving forward to the iconic pull-up start your pull-up training by hanging off of a bar flex your core to bring your hips in line with everything else and we&#39;re going to keep this straight line throughout the entirety of the exercise make sure to pull to your lower chest to reach the top of the movement your scapula should be retracted or your shoulder blades touching at the negative portion of the rep make sure to lower yourself into a smooth protraction before returning back to that up position these are called bent leg rows and they will build a ton of strength especially in your upper back if bent leg rows become too easy for you I want you to straighten out your legs and still try to keep that straight posture by flexing your core and even if these straight leg rows become too easy you can always lower the bar the lower the bar is the more inverted you are and thus the more your back will have to work to get you into the proper position I wanted to make a note about scapular Pull-Ups here remember how we unrug our shoulders to get our shoulders away from our ears this is the perfect start to a pull-up use this tip to conquer the assisted pull-up Tire resistance band around the bar to help you alleviate some of the weight off your joints you can see even though we&#39;re building strength we&#39;re also not taking it too far from the edge of our ability being able to perform a standard pull-up is a testament to True strength don&#39;t shy away from The Challenge you&#39;ll get your first one in no time and finally the last basic we should Master is the dip there&#39;s no doubt you&#39;ve seen these demonstrated before you&#39;ll notice I&#39;m keeping my chest up and making sure my arms come down to a 90° angle you can also note that I&#39;m keeping a bent leg posture throughout the entirety of the movement as you become more comfortable and aware of the bent leg dip you&#39;ll be able to work lower into the range of motion till basically your butt is tapping the ground at the bottom of the the rep dips are a great way to improve your lower chest and give you massive triceps after you&#39;ve reached the proper level which is performing 15 bent leg dips you&#39;re going to be able to straighten out your legs this adds a bit more difficulty and tension to the dip exercise again be careful with the range of motion that you&#39;re using don&#39;t go past any range of motion that&#39;s too uncomfortable unless you&#39;ve unlocked it after we mastered the straight leg dip you&#39;re going to tie a resistance band around parallel bars and use this to do assisted dips it&#39;s important I tell you although the resistance band is helping you the most at the bottom of the rep you need to pause at the bottom this will help you solidify the movement and get that muscle stimulation that you need for the exercise naturally after assisted dips come standard dips performing these on the parallel bars we need to perform at least 12 make sure you&#39;re keeping tension on your body throughout the entirety of all these movements and although my gem has parallel bars you don&#39;t have to use them to perform the dip properly a straight bar block Rings or wall like I&#39;m using will be just as fine it really doesn&#39;t matter where you decide to perform your dip training the only thing I ask of you is to be intentional about your movements keep that straight line throughout the entirety of the exercise and lean into it on the decline so you can feel the chest muscle fibers now that we&#39;re at the proper level let&#39;s look at the workout plan starting with Monday push Day suggested rest is at least 90 seconds since it&#39;s push day it&#39;s going to be big on scapula retraction and protraction so we&#39;re starting off with some core and Joint prep remember to keep straight arms and tension on your body when you perform your scapular push-ups the next exercise we&#39;re going to do is called the hollow body hold this is an anti-extension core exercise that is essential for the calisthenics athlete keeping your lower back pressing into the ground makes the magic happen and then we&#39;re going to look at the stability of our obliques by doing side planks two sets each side for at least 30 seconds make sure to actively squeeze the obliques on the working side and reach out as far as you can on the opposite now that our core and joints are prepped and you&#39;ve done your wrist stretches we&#39;re going to go into the perfect warm-up I&#39;m only going to show you the perfect warmup for each of these days once to avoid any unnecessary film as a general rule of thumb for warming up you want to avoid any kind of static stretching and focus only on Dynamic this kind of stretching is key and you&#39;ll be at your best performance as long as you&#39;re working the muscles that you&#39;re about to use and don&#39;t worry about doing every single one of these exercises you can simply pick around two to three of your favorite ones and perform those until you reach a gentle sweat pushing strength ends up being some of the easiest type of strength to unlock and calisthenics because as humans going through our active daily living activities we end up pushing a lot more than pulling like I said before you want to reach a gentle sweat so rest during this time is optional or if you&#39;re going to rest rest for no longer than 30 seconds to keep your heart right up plank walks are one of my favorite exercises of the ones I&#39;ve shown you so far you get a real opportunity to work on scapular protraction while also utilizing your pushing muscles but if you&#39;re short on time and you&#39;d prefer not to use these kind of exercises you can simply skip in place this is a great way to warm up as well skipping in place or doing high knees is a great way to get your blood flowing instantly they can also help you warm up your lower body which is essential for basically every calisthenic exercise but if you&#39;re still not a fan of the exercises that I&#39;ve shown you you can always do the optional work work like working on a treadmill or doing an exercise bike for a set number of minutes now that we&#39;re properly warmed up let&#39;s get into strength training we can turn our hands slightly outwards and make sure to keep a straight arm throughout the entirety of this movement it&#39;s important to note you&#39;ll feel most of the pressure on the front three fingers of your hands and leaning forward activates the front delt to a great extent this is called the pseudo plch lean it&#39;s a true calisthenic staple and it&#39;s going to be the prerequisite for learning the full planch later on following up the planch lane is going to be the Hindu push-up this is going to be a great exercise for building upper body strength and increasing your body awareness I want you to take proper note of the movement see how I start into a pike bend my arms and swoop down below as if I&#39;m into a cobra position but I make sure that my body does not touch the ground you&#39;ll have an easier time with this exercise if you keep your legs spread for the weight distribution and as far as the proper breath work you should be breathing in as you push back and breathing out as you swoop down next up is going to be the classic body weight dip only doing three sets of seven reps when it comes to this like I said before you can do dips basically anywhere I&#39;m doing them on a wall outside and it&#39;s working fantastically next up is a variation of the push-up it&#39;s called The Pike push-up and it&#39;s similar to a military press start off in a pike position make sure you&#39;re flexing your core and flexing your legs to keep them straight on the decline make sure your head goes above your hands and you push up and out through the scapula and keep your elbows tucked to avoid any unnecessary pain next up is going to be the diamond pushup we&#39;re following the standard push-up procedure but we&#39;re keeping a diamond position with our hands that increases our tricep activity and chest activity remember to protract your scapula at the top of the r and the best way to end a push day is going to be with a wall handstand making sure to go back to wall or chest to wall it really doesn&#39;t matter just make sure you keep your toes pointed you&#39;re flexing your core and your arms are completely locked out most importantly don&#39;t forget to breathe now on the Tuesday that&#39;s going to be pool day just like with push day we&#39;re going to start with some core and Joint prep the first exercise we&#39;re going to do is the cat and cow pose following that up with the bird dog pose opening up our core and getting some lower back activation and last but not least you should do this exercise before every pool day scapular pull-ups again practicing scapular depression by keeping straight arms and learning how to shrug your shoulders away from your ears to avoid any shoulder injuries remember scapular pull-ups is like starting the initial form of a pull-up don&#39;t sleep on how useful it is moving forward to the perfect warm-up I&#39;ve attached exercises that complement the pool day we&#39;re in like I said before I&#39;m only going to show you these once and then it&#39;s up to you to choose the best ones that you like to use or you can simply follow the exercises that I provided here and you&#39;ll be set up for success again rest during the warm-up is optional but if you&#39;re going to rest at all please rest for only 30 seconds because we want to keep your heart rate up following the Cobra push-up we&#39;re going to finish up our perfect warmup with reverse planks kind of swinging into this movement and making sure to keep a braced core at the top entering strength training hang on a bar and keep your knees to your chest and raise yourself into the sky until your ankles touch the bar Lower yourself back down with straight arms carefully and controlled this is called a front lever raise and it&#39;s a prerequisite for the front lever skill follow following the front lever Rays we&#39;re going to open up our shoulders with the skin the cat movement you might recognize this position from when you were younger and played on the playground little did we know when we were younger we were doing all these movements that seemed easy but were actually strength building techniques this movement can be scary so make sure you don&#39;t goast a comfortable position following that exercise you&#39;re going to bang out some rows for the hose doing a nice three sets of seven reps getting some huge back development finally getting to put these pull-ups to use three sets of five reps make sure to apply tension to the lower half of your body body to remain still during the movement now we&#39;re almost done here but we&#39;re going to use body weight curls to finish up our biceps for the end of this workout take note of the similar position that you&#39;ve seen in other exercises make sure to curl till your nose touches the bar or until your hands touch your temples and just like on push day we&#39;re going to finish up with wall handstands five sets holding for at least 15 seconds it might not seem like it yet but learning to be inverted is going to be essential for your calisthenics future proceeding forward to Wednesday the leg day jumping right into the warm-up for leg day we&#39;re going to be doing heel to toes when it comes to my warmup for my leg day this is something you can follow to the tea legs are an important muscle and Foundation of your body so I make sure to pre these properly when it comes to this folded squat make sure you grab the back of your ankles and squat safely and raise yourself back into the sky following this warm up exercise you can start to do alternating Archer squats you don&#39;t have to raise yourself into the sky perfectly but just squat side to side but again if you&#39;re short on time and you&#39;d prefer not to do these exercises you&#39;re good to go with just skipping because skipping and high knees does not require much mobility and it&#39;s a great way for you to get your blood flowing instantly I know I&#39;ve been showing some scary looking techniques and exercises but if you&#39;ve been following along you&#39;re more than ready and at the proper level to perform these moving forward into strength training if you&#39;re standing up and you start to sink your hips into the ground you&#39;ll feel the weird sensation in the back of your legs this Sensation that you&#39;re feeling is called your hamstrings I think it&#39;s essential to get the blood flowing in your hamstrings before you do any kind of squatting movement pattern so choose one of these body weight RDL movement patterns that match your strength level like I said before you have the strength for all of these but some of them require balance and your body has to get used to it over time no matter what just remember to sink your hips back bend your knees and reach down to around lower calf level before you start to bring your hips back forward into a neutral position now that the blood is flowing in our hamstrings we&#39;re at the perfect place to squat so we&#39;re going to do our squatting here for three sets of seven Reps don&#39;t forget to keep your chest up and press through your heels the next exercise is going to be step-ups and you&#39;re going to love this one start on any kind of elevation and slow SL lower yourself with one leg choosing a slow Ecentric before exploding to the top is going to force you to have control and this unilateral exercise is going to thank you tremendously with leg gains moving forward to reverse lunges if you have any kind of knee pain this is going to take any of that pressure out the knee and place it directly into the hip make sure you do three sets of eight reps on each side and you&#39;re considered valid and just like with static lunges keep your chest up next up is going to be the horse stce Squat and bring your hips forward pay attention to keeping your chest up and activating your quad muscles so you don&#39;t sink further further below this isometric is tough and challenges you while also increasing your Mobility the next exercise is going to be calf raises I&#39;m sure you&#39;ve heard about this before set up with any kind of small elevation or box let your heels sink into the ground then explode onto your toes feeling that contraction in your calf muscle following up this exercise is going to be negative pistol squats utilizing only the negative portion of the rep making sure to decline for at least 3 to 4 seconds to be considered valid and since we&#39;re already on the ground we should focus on compact leg lifts this is an essential exercise for practicing core compression make sure to use a wall if you can&#39;t get your legs up focus on keeping your legs straight and keeping your arm straight throughout the duration of the movement we&#39;re almost done here the next exercise is going to be the one-legged plank we&#39;re going to perform this on one side and then do the other raising one leg into the sky activates your glutes and leg muscles in a way that you never even thought of and lastly finishing up with a hollow body hold making sure to solidify and practice that anti- extension moving on a Thursday cardio and Mobility day guys and gals we have to start taking our cardiovascular health seriously do some form of cardio on the exercise bike or your preferred form if you do happen to have access to an exercise bike doing one set for 15 to 30 minutes is going to be essential and tremendous for you now that we&#39;re all warmed up for our Mobility training we&#39;re going to start off with the cat and cow pose making sure to feel this in our lower back and our spine throughout all of the movement make sure to breathe in as you round your spine and breathe out as you lift your head up again go slow so you can feel this movement in your spine and lower back following up is going to be the Cobra pose we&#39;re going to swoop down and raise ourselves up making sure to not not clench our butt cheeks during this movement feel the stretch in your lower back spine and shoulders next up we have child&#39;s pose making sure to sit back on your heels and reach forward as far as you can additionally try to touch your forehead to the ground or for a greater stretch touch your chin to the ground hold this for at least 60 seconds the next exercise is going to be Superman&#39;s you&#39;ve seen this before simply lay on the ground with your chest facing the ground simultaneously raise your legs and hands into the air make sure to reach out as far as you can the next movement is similar it&#39;s called the reverse snow angel you&#39;re going to be lifting your chest off the ground and making a snow angel pattern you&#39;ll feel the stretch in the entirety of your back and shoulder muscles again you&#39;re only performing this for 60 seconds next up is going to be the squat to Pike hold simply start in a squat position and then raise yourself into a pike hold progressively work deeper into the Pik hold position flexing your core and leaning more into your hands each rep the following exercise is going to be the prayer squat whilst keeping your prayer hands you&#39;re going to look like you&#39;re stretching your groin pushing out with your elbows against your knees Mobility training is a essential please don&#39;t sleep on it on to the next day Friday full body workout I&#39;ve given you a variety of warm-up exercises for you to use choose your ideal one and make sure to reach a gentle sweat we&#39;re going to open up our full body workout with the bird dog pose making sure to open up those core muscles and get those warmed up don&#39;t forget you want to do the bird dog pose on each side so make sure you alternate the next exercise is going to be the pike planch lean as you can see we&#39;re keeping a bit of a wider Pike here in order to lean properly this should improve our planch lean next up is the classic incline push-up only three sets of 12 reps following this up is going to be another pushing exercise the Cobra pushup starting from the ground and pushing your way up to that Cobra pose making sure to not flex your glutes and feel that stretch in your lower back and shoulders if there&#39;s one thing we won&#39;t have it&#39;s lower back pain next up is a different exercise called the back bridge press starting off with our back pressing to the ground keeping our hands reversed and pressing into the sky some people call this the wheel pose just make sure to keep your chin tucked into your chest during this exercise and push out with your feet next we have a variation of the pull-up called The Hammer grip pull-up this is when you have two bars that are facing each other this exercise is similar to the Hammer curl where you&#39;re working the brachi Alis moving forward getting some more unilateral work in here with the Archer squat make sure whichever leg you&#39;re squatting towards that you&#39;re keeping that heel into the ground you&#39;ll see tremendous improvements in your outer quad sit on the back of your heel on a bench and then extend your other leg forward raise up and you&#39;re in the perfect position for the Bulgarian split Squad make sure to do two sets of six reps each side next up is Saturday this is going to be our second leg day of the week as said before choose your ideal warmup just make sure you reach a gentle sweat this workout starts out with archer squats making sure to keep that heel pressed into the ground like I said before you&#39;ll see improvements in your ankles hips and outer quads following this is going to be step-ups you can adjust the elevation however you&#39;d like just make sure you have a controlled negative portion of the rep and your leg muscles will thank you single leg loot Brites are a slept on exercise I want you to do this for at least three sets of eight reps and make sure you do both sides you can keep the top leg extended or bent for the squat start on your toes and make sure you flex your core to keep your body in line with your hips your knees should Touch Above your toes on the decline and don&#39;t forget to grab on to something to help you through the latter half of the movement and as you gain strength and control in this movement learn to use that assistance lesson less following up is going to be wall sits for three sets of 60 seconds making sure to keep that 90° angle need I say more we all know how terrible wall sits can be and finally our last exercise for this plan is going to be the hollow body hold ending it off with the another anti-extension exercise making sure to keep our lower back pressing to the ground holding it as long as possible and never forget rest day your muscles need time to repair and recover themselves chapter four how long should you do this plan if you want to see some significant changes you should do this plan for at least 3 months after 3 months I can guarantee increased mobility and Improvement in your body awareness unparalleled improvements in your strength especially in your upper body noticeably visible changes throughout your entire physique and improvements in your confidence and mental image because now you understand you can get better at things things chapter 5 Where Do We Go From Here when people reach a certain level in calisthenics there&#39;s a few things they do one of them is mastering skills people usually go towards some skill specialty like the plan and malz these are the Pinnacle of pushing strength movements other people shift towards the front lever which is an unparalleled pulling strength movement it requires a dramatic amount of pulling strength and understanding of your body similar to the front lever some people choose to do the human flag a combination of pushing and pulling to hold yourself up midair the human flag truly looks like you&#39;re defining gravity another skill people try to master is the Iron Cross this is most commonly performed by gymnasts as you need rings to perform it properly I know this movement looks simple but it&#39;s incredibly stressful on your tendons I mean look at the way he&#39;s holding his body up it&#39;s unnatural but if you don&#39;t fancy the iron cross a lot of people go for the muscle up gaining a Mastery of the muscle up takes a tremendous amount of time as you&#39;re learning how to pull and push properly technique must be perfected to gain a smooth and seamless transition you can also see people that want to master the Pinnacle of pullup strength they do things called one arm pull-ups this is a beastly maneuver and it&#39;s definitely nothing to play with there&#39;s also the 90° push-up which is arguably one of the hardest push-ups in the world as you start off in a handstand push-up you lower your body to 90° before pressing back up into that neutral there&#39;s also the dragon squat which is the Pinnacle of leg strength flexibility and Mobility just looking at this makes me think I&#39;m going to injure myself and there&#39;s also the Pinnacle of handstand training which is the one arm handstand and hollow body handstand a handstand itself already takes years to master so just think about how long the one arm handstand or hollowback handstand could take but if skills aren&#39;t your thing people usually go towards gymnastic Rings the instability of gymnastic Rings offer up a constant Core workout as you have to flex your core and keep the Rings in line Rings stimulate the deeper muscle fibers on our body that often go neglected it really is one of the easiest ways to level up your calisthenics training as they&#39;re pretty inexpensive and you can find them in most fitness stores the third option people do is weighted calisthenics this is simply when you add weight to your calisthenics movements so think about push-ups pull-ups squats and dips with weight tied around you weighted calisthenics offers up unparalleled strength and Joint Mobility because when you end up removing the weight and just doing your body weight you&#39;ll be flying through the movement with ease and another reason people do weighted calisthenics is because it gives you so much more Mass from The increased resistance I hope you guys appreciate this video check out strict fit.com for my app and programs

Transcript for:Comprehensive Calisthenics Training Guide

Transcript for:
Comprehensive Calisthenics Training Guide