Weight lifting and calisthenics are not as different as some people may think. They both use progressive resistance to make your muscles bigger and stronger. The biggest difference between the two is in how you progress the resistance. With weight lifting, you maintain a fairly consistent technique while adjusting the weight you lift. Calisthenics does the opposite where you adjust …
5 Tips For Stronger Arms
Building stronger arms is a simple affair. All you need to do is bend or extend your elbow. However, despite the simple nature of effective arm workouts, there can be a few pitfalls that will sabotage your progress. Check out these 5 tips to take your workouts to the next level and build bigger and stronger arms today: #1 Improve …
How to Begin Playground Workouts
Playground workouts are an excellent way to get outside and breath new life into your stale workouts. Nothing is better than getting out in the sunshine and fresh air while unleashing your creative nature with some workouts you may not practice in a commercial gym. While a playground workout may seem simple enough, I’ve learned a few things over the years regarding …
How Many Sets Are Best for Building Muscle?
I get a lot of questions regarding how many sets are best for building muscle working on skills or losing weight. A lot of these questions come from reading a lot of conflicting recommendations from various experts. Some advocate doing no more than 1-2 sets. Other’s claim high volume is the key to build muscle and strength. With so many …
Exploring Freestyle Workouts w/ Adrienne Harvey
Freestyle workouts can help you break out of workouts that feel like a soul sucking dead end job. It’s easy to forget that working out is supposed to be fun and an enjoyable part of a healthy lifestyle. Adding a little playfulness and creativity can breathe new life into any stale routine. Freestyle workouts are a great example of how …
Use Peak Set Training to Know How Many Sets You Should Do
There’s a lot of debate regarding how many sets you should do to build muscle. On one hand, you have examples like Mike Metzer and Dorian Yates who endorse using only one or two work sets. On the other, you have guys like Arnold who embrace volume training and grind out many sets. Science and empirical evidence have shown that both …
Use Your Lats to Build More Muscle
I always used to think of the lats as a narrow muscle group that ran up the sides of the back. I also used to think they were only really used in moves like pull ups and maybe rows. Lately, I’ve been learning a lot more about this incredible muscle and it’s made a massive improvement in almost every exercise I …
How to Improve Every Hanging Exercise
Hanging is a staple in calisthenics. From pull ups, leg raises and even levers require a lot of hanging ability. Unfortunately, we don’t hang from trees or ledges as our primal genetics are designed to do so our hanging muscles are weak. Not only do we have a weak grip, but the muscles that transition tension from the arm to the torso …
The Link Between Range of Motion & Muscle Growth
Range of motion is one of the most important elements in progressive calisthenics. It’s why many of the steps in Convict Conditioning use range of motion as a way to progress and regress almost every exercise. It’s just a shame many people fall for the idea that there’s an ideal range of motion to use in each exercise. This is …
Tackling the PCC With Adrienne Harvey
Here she is, the one and only Adrienne Harvey! Yes, the one and only Girya Girl is on this week’s episode of the R.D.P Podcast. In our conversation, Adrienne pulls no punches about what it takes to excel at the coveted Dragon Door PCC Century test plus. We also get into some of her best tips for diet, nutrition, fat …
The Front Lever for Beginners
Front levers are magic. They work your entire back super hard, yet keep your spine and lower back safe. They will also lock down your back tension which carries over to improving almost every exercise imaginable. They are crazy efficient too. Just grab a bar, hang for a 10-15 seconds and you’re done one set. Check out this video …
UPDATE: Veterano Plus Workout
I’ve been using this Veterano Plus program for over a month with great success. Now I’ve made a few key changes to include the shotgun muscles from Convict Conditioning 2 and a tip to speed up recovery to help you build even more muscle and strength!
How to Not Swing With Hanging Leg Raises
Hanging knee and leg raises are the gold standard in core training. They require strength and stability along your entire spine as well as strong hips. They also demand flexibility in the lower back to complete the package. The biggest threat to your progress is the tendency to generate a lot of momentum which can cause swinging. This swinging robs …
The Foundation to a Bigger Upper Body
All force in the upper body travels through your back. Even if you’re doing push ups and hand stands, the work you want your pushing muscles to perform needs to travel through your back in some way. This is why keeping your back tight and stable is very important in every upper body exercise you do including grip and …
Shoulder Training With Tree Handstands
Trees are God’s gift to anyone who wants to work on hand stand work. It doesn’t matter if you’re working on static poses or full blown push ups, trees offer everything you need. One of my favorite shoulder building moves is to do handstand walking or crawling around a tree. Because it momentarily places your muscles under a lot more …
The Fixed Bar Bodyweight Biceps Curl
Some of the best arm exercises are body weight moves and this is no exception. Like tiger bends, and floor triceps extensions, this fixed bar curl keeps your hands still while moving your entire body against gravity. This creates a lot of potential tension in your biceps while also sparing any stress on your spine and lower back. Give this …
2 More Squat Myths That Need to Die
Welcome back! In the last post I discussed 2 classic rules that are commonly applied to squats and why these rules may need to bend, or even break when it comes to doing body weight squats as nature intended. So let’s keep this party rock’n with 2 more squat myths that need to die! Rule #3- Don’t round your …
2 Squat Myths That Need to Die
The squat is one of those moves that I have long held a love / hate relationship with. On one hand I love having strong legs and the feeling of tension surging through my body in a big powerful way. On the other hand, I hated having that damn barbell pressing down on my back and the stress on my …
4 Essential Muscle Building Skills
I’ve learned the hard way that muscle building is a skill. I spent years believing that I would become big and strong if I could just work hard enough. That approach did work for a little while, but once I grew beyond the beginner stages I ignored the fact that I had to develop certain skills to keep building muscle. …
The Center Line Principal of Advanced Calisthenics
Understanding the center line principal is crucuial if you want to build more than just an average level of strength and muscle with calisthenics. Moving your limbs towards your center line had many advantages. It places more tension on your target muscles so they get bigger and stronger. It helps protect your joints, espeically the shoulder, and it helps to …
How to Master The Strait Bar Dip
Few exercises will build up your upper body strength and muscle like the strait bar dip. Unlike it’s 2-bar sibling, the strait bar dip requires substantial more coordination and strength in the arms, shoulders, chest and even the core. It is a staple of playground workouts the world over for very good reason. Check out this quick video I made …
I work at a Gym…and So Do You!
I used to get a lot of folks telling me “I would be in great shape too if I worked at a gym all day.” I don’t know what these folks think about my work day, sure some days I have chunks of exercise sprinkled throughout the day, but some days I’m so busy that I would be lucky to …
2 Ways to Progress and Advance Your Pull Ups
There are a million ways to progress and advance that classic pull up into a muscle-building, mass-exploding, strength-crushing move from hell. But where do you start? Many of the advanced moves are a massive leap away from the classic pull up so many folks never explore beyond the 2 arm version because the advanced techniques are too far above their …
Why Core Training is Not That Important
Core and abdominal training is great, but seriously, it’s not all that important. Back in the day, core training was all the rage and everything that was supposedly “functional” was about working the core. Then it was about the hips, then the legs and so on. The lesson I eventually learned was that there is no part of human body …
A Better Way to Stretch Tight Hamstrings
I’ve always been plagued by tight hips and hamstrings and it’s held me back in everything from Taekwon-Do to various aches and pains in my lower back. The funny thing was, every time I got on a dedicated stretching routine, things got worse. I actually became tighter and my muscles were all the more susceptible to pulls and strains. …
The Very Best Place to get in Shape
Without a doubt, I believe the very best place to get some exercise is outdoors. It saddens me that fitness has slowly become an indoor activity. When I was a kid my mother always used to tell me to get outside. It didn’t matter what I did, just as long as it was out of the house. Turns out mom …
A Simple Exercise to Switch on Muscle Growth
Muscle growth and strength is always limited by how well you can engage your target muscles. Engaging your chest, arms, shoulders, back and every other muscle in your upper body is heavily dependent upon your scapular alignment. This exercise is one of the best ways to condition your back muscles how to “set” or tuck your shoulders. If you can …
4 Facts About Muscular Tension
Tension is the primary thing that causes muscle growth. Growth doesn’t come from weights, supplements, diet or even your routine. All of that stuff is just a means towards being able to control the tension on a muscle. If building muscle is a goal of yours then creating and using tension should be the biggest focus of your program. Below are …
How to Kill Workout Boredom
Boredom kills your ability to progress and advance your workouts. No matter how hard you’re pushing yourself, a boring workout is only slightly better than worthless. It kills you mental edge. It kills your drive and desire. It kills your focus. Not to mention it’s also a total bear to get through. So I say it’s time we got …
4 Core and Ab Training Mistakes Everyone Makes
Working in a gym, I often see the same 4 abdominal and core training mistakes made over and over again. Here are some of the biggest examples of such mistakes that I’ve made in the past and I continue to see on a daily basis. Mistake #1- Not working with nearly enough tension The primary reason of most abdominal training …
2 Arm Blasting Body Weight Exercises From Hell
These two moves are hands-down the best way I know of for focusing and blasting the hell out of your biceps and triceps. These take a little practice to get the technique down, but once you get comfortable with them I promise you’ll be able to push your muscles harder than with any weight machine or preacher curl.
Technique Isn’t Everything
“Technique isn’t everything. It’s the only thing.” If I ever open a gym I’m putting that up on the wall in big BOLD letters. Everything you’re looking to gain from your training boils 100% down to your technique and how well you can maintain it. If your results are lacking, look to your technique. Never consider anything other than …
Intro to Handstand Push Ups
Few moves will build upper body muscle and strength like the handstand push up. The only problem is it’s a really tough move to even start training even for the experienced exercise enthusiast. I’ve met more than a few folks who can lift a weight fine enough but struggle with handstand push ups. Even those who claim they can …
I Always Lift with My Ego
Lifting with your ego is something many experts caution you against. I however, aim to lift with my ego as much as possible. The difference between my approach is that my ego isn’t attached to weight or reps. My ego is 100% focused on my technique. The technical side of an exercise is always what’s most impressive, especialy when …
Secrets of the Best Abdominal Exercise
The hanging leg raise is without a doubt one of the greatest ways to target your abdominals. All of these planks and crunches don’t even come close…….if you know what you’re doing. Problem is most folks will hardly scratch the surface of the potential contained in such a move. Sure they are hanging, and yes their legs do some …
Are Isolation Exercises Holding You Back?
My initial workouts were heavily focused on exercises that would isolate the muscles I wanted to grow. Looking back, I now believe these moves actually held back my progress even once I focused on compound movements. The tricky thing about muscle isolation is the fact that the body likes to use muscles in synergy. So The abs like to work along with …
More Muscle & Less Elbow Pain From Pull Ups
The pull up is one of the best moves to pack on muscle, but it’s also a common cause of elbow pain. Luckily, it is possible to build more muscle and end that elbow pain with a simple tweak. With the pull up, the rear shoulder muscle is kind of like the weak link which holds back the tension …
Bulk Up Your Arms & Triceps With Tiger Bends
Tiger bends are as old as the hills and will bulk up your triceps muscles unlike anything else. You can do them anywhere, they can easily adjust to any strength level and they also build strong joints. A word on that last point though. If you feel it a bit in the elbows at first back off the range …
Volume Creep is Workout Poison
More is not always better, especially when it comes to your workout. Just adding more endless sets to your routine can cause what is known as volume creep. Volume creep is one of those false ideals that runs rampant throughout our fitness culture. It makes us believe we are getting a better workout. It feels like we should be getting …
Don’t Do Weighted Calisthenics Until You Read this
Adding more weight to your body weight exercise may seem simple enough, but there are a few risks to be aware of. The first issue is that you shouldn’t sacrifice your technique in the name of greater loads. Using a shorter range of motion or different body position doesn’t always mean you’re getting stronger. Often times, it simply means you’re …
Advancing Your Hanging Leg Raise
The hanging leg raise shares the following common characteristics of calisthenics exercises: – Almost anyone can do it. – Most people choose not to because it’s “too easy.” – Once you get the technique dialed down, it will challenge you in ways unlike anything else. Not to mention it also will build you a physique that looks and performs …
Why Your Grip Makes or Breaks Your Total Body Strength
Your total body strength is often limited by your grip strength. The other day I was at the Denver Museum of Science and Natural History and they had a fun little challenge testing your ability to hang off of a ledge. It was a neat set up where there was a wooden ledge attached to a timer. As soon as …
A Stronger Plank for Stronger Abs
The plank is a rather new staple for core training. It’s quickly replaced the crunch in many routines and for good reason. That said, there are still plenty of ways the plank is abused and misused. Trying to hold the position for too long and trying to keep the body strait are a couple that come to mind. In …
How to Do a Stiff Arm Pull Up
The stiff arm pull up is one of my favorite back exercises. It looks cool as hell and it completely works your entire back like crazy. As a bonus, it also torches your shoulders, abs and even your biceps even though you don’t bend your arms. Here’s a quick video on how to get started with this seldom used, …
You Can’t Build Muscle Until You’re Stronger
I’ve long said that strength doesn’t come from muscle. Muscle comes from strength. There are a number of meanings behind this saying. The first one is that it pays reference to your inner strength, the power that comes from within when the going gets tough. For when your muscles are burning and your body feels like it’s made of …
Sit Ups vs Leg Raises
When it comes to building the ultimate abs which is best, sit ups or eg raises? Debating one exercise against another sets up the mentality that one is good and the other is bad. In the end, you’re probably best off doing both. Why throw out a perfectly good exercise? That being said, I think the leg raise is often playing …
The Science Behind Weight Lifting Speeds
Lifting speed is kind of funny. If you lift slower the exercise is harder. If you lift faster…the exercise is also harder. It seems like a conundrum but here’s a simple way to understand lifting speed and how to use it to your advantage. The root cause of muscle building exercise is really simple. You have 2 elements which are time and tension. …
How to Pass the PCC Century With Flying Colors
When I first signed up for the PCC, I figured the century would be a walk in the park. Thankfully, I tried it and was humbled by the fact that I couldn’t even do it. I didn’t even come close! I also didn’t complete it the second, third or forth time I attempted it as well. Thankfully, I was able …
Why a Bigger Range of Motion Makes You Much Stronger
I’ve already covered why using a shorter range of motion can actually set you up for joint problems. Now I want to cover how a bigger range of motion makes you stronger. Using a shorter range of motion is very common within our fitness culture. Walk into any gym and you’ll see loads of people lifting weight and …
Body Weight Playground Workout 4 Super Leg Strength
When I made the switch over to calisthenics, I was worried that my leg strength would suffer. After all, I was using my heaviest weights to train my legs so if there’s one area of the body that demands heavy weight training then it would be the legs right? My to my pleasant surprise my leg strength greatly improved over …
Playground Workout for Chest, Shoulders and Triceps
The pushing movements have never been my strong point. Back in the day, I could row and pull weight like a monster but pushing was always a major weakness of mine. Part of the reason was weakness and instability in my shoulders. This imbalance and lack of strength lead to many shoulder issues along the road. Now my pushing …
Top Lessons I learned From the Dragon Door PCC
I’m back fresh from the first ever PCC (Progressive Calisthenics Certification) by Dragon Door.com and let me tell you it was incredible! I learned so much in 3 days it will take weeks for me to share it all with you. My whole approach for fitness and body weight training has been shot forwards my a hundred miles. This audio …
The Best DIY Suspension Straps
I’ve been obsessed with building my own suspension straps. So much so that I’ve spent far too much time and money trying to get every little detail perfect. I’ve lost count, but I’m guessing I’ve built about 30 different variations over the years. In this video series, I share with you all of my secrets about building a set …
How to Take Your Sets Beyond Failure
I’ve been playing with a new workout style that I really think you’ll like. A lot of conventional workout wisdom goes something along the lines that you start doing an exercise and then you stop when you can’t do it any more. There are a few ways we can relate to this: 1- You keep doing reps until you …
How Easier Exercise Makes Your Body Harder
I have a crazy idea when it comes to fitness. I believe that achieving success comes down to making it easier to do what is necessary to achieve that success. The easier you make things, the faster you’ll reach your goals and the lofty peaks of success suddenly are well within reach. This is why I’m such a big fan of calisthenics and the Triad …
How to Strengthen any Weak Muscle / Body part
We all have areas that are stubborn and difficult to train. For me, it’s long been my shoulders and forearms. For others it’s their legs or arms. Whatever your weaker areas are many folks try to “fix” the area with extra hard work and exercises that focus on that muscle group. While this can work, it often doesn’t. Sometimes …
3 Unique Ways to Advance Your Push Ups
The push up is only as limited as the knowledge and understanding you bring to the exercise. It’s for this reason that I present the following 3 videos to help you take your push up technique to the next level. Video #1: Why I threw out my push up handles: Video #2: What I’m using instead of …
The Super Power of the Loaded Pistol Squat
In a contest, I would take the loaded pistol squat over the back squat any day. It’s not just because the pistol requires more balance and hip control. It’s not because you don’t need a squat rack, barbell and lots of extra weight. And it’s not just because people stop and stare when I do them in the gym. …
Using Your legs For More Pull Up Strength & Muscle
Have you ever thought of your legs while doing pull ups? I know I never really did, but I should have been. Since over half of your body weight is in your legs, the use and position of your legs can radically influence the effect your pull ups have. Check out this quick video on how I used my leg …
Leg Use for Stronger and Safer Dips
The dip is one of the 3 cornerstone exercises in the Triad Muscle Revolution. It’s hard to beat, but it can be made better through the use of your legs. I’m not talking about swinging or kicking your legs or anything like that. Rather using them to help your upper body get into a more ideal position.
4 Tips on How to Achieve Umami in Exercise
In the last post I wrote about the satisfying and pleasurable idea of umami I thought I would dedicate a few words now to some ideas on how to increase your chances of umami with your exercise. After all, if exercise can bring about the sensation of umami more often you’ll gain far more pleasure from your workout and be …
Why Pleasure is More Important Than Pain in Fitness
In a previous post I wrote about how pain is weakness invading the body rather than leaving the body as some hardcore folks like to claim. As I’ve also stated in previous posts, every exercise you do is essentially a set of instructions you are “downloading” to the cells of your body. If we put the two philosophies together we …
3 Ways To Radically Improve Your Fitness Skills
Fitness is a skill. Actually, it’s a whole mess of skills that range from how you choose what to eat to the ritual you keep before you go to bed at night. I’ve been reading a great book all about how to improve your ability to improve your skill at anything, especialy diet and exercise. In today’s podcast I cover: …
Why Body Weight Training Builds Such a Sexy Physique #3
While progressive calisthenics is one of the most challenging of body weight skills, it’s also one the most rewarding when it comes to sculpting a killer physique. I credit this with the fact that progressive calisthenics requires your technical abilities to improve to reach higher levels of strength. If you want to advance to single leg squats or U-shape …
Theories on Why Body Weight Training Builds Sexy Physique #2
I must confess, I was one of those guys who believed that all I needed to do to build an attractive body was to either be as lean as possible or pack on muscle like crazy. All through high school and college I worked like crazy to bring my body fat levels into almost impossibly low levels. Then after I …
Advanced Body Weight Training Tip #2
Here’s a great trick to put into your technical progression tool bag. Pause at the bottom and the top of each rep of any repetition strength style exercise. The reason is simple. As you lower yourself down your muscles store energy much like a coiled spring. When you start lifting yourself back up, you can use some of that energy to …
This is Old School Abs!
Today’s video get’s right to the root of building an impressive set of abs. Now, I’m not exactly a six-pack type of guy. I don’t like the idea of training my body all for show and no go which is exactly what a lot of six pack training is all about. However some of the best principals of killer abdominal …
Killing Busy Work in Fitness
I’ve read more than a few books on productivity. Almost every book has at least a few pages dedicated to the idea of eliminating busy work during the work day. Examples include shuffling paper work, checking email, cleaning and organising things, getting coffee, chit chat and so on. If you can reduce the amount of busy work you do you’ll …
When Setting A Goal Isn’t Doing You Any Good
I’ve heard some folks refer to the practice of setting goals as an almost magical experience. Supposedly writing it down and reviewing it on a regular basis is part of the magic. The idea being that if you set a specific, realistic and time sensitive goal (and write it down) then motivation and inspiration is going to flow from you …
The Magic Behind Working Out Twice a Day
I’m writing this post in Colorado Springs, home of the USA Olympic Training Center and the NSCA training association. I tell ya, nothing kicks your butt more than doing a simple thing at altitude. I raced up a 5 story tall flight of stairs and nearly keeled over at the top. Despite my hacking and coughing, I felt pretty good …
Work Your Chest, Tris and Shoulders in Under 20 Minutes
This new body building style body weight workout will seriously work all of your pushing muscles as well as your core. If your basic push up routine is getting a little stale, give this a shot. I promise you’ll feel it the next day.
The Key to Mastering the Single Leg Squat
I honestly believe the single leg squat is the pinnacle of leg strength and control. Mastering this simple, yet difficult move will yield you plenty of lower body strength and power for anything you want to do. In this video I cover some of the finer points of the higher level performance of this fantastic exercise.
3 Simple Ways to Improve Your Ab Leg Raises
The hanging leg raise is one of the simplest, most challenging and most effective way to train your abdominals. Recently, I’ve added a few tweaks to greatly improve this already fantastic exercise that you can do anywhere.
The Risk and Benefit of Adding Weight to Body Weight Exercises
Yes, it looks impressive but……….. So you’re getting pretty proficient at body weight exercise and you’re thinking of adding a little extra weight to spice things up a bit. Adding extra wait to body weight exercise is a great way to add intensity to your basic movements. However there are some serious pros and cons to consider with such an …
Bigger Biceps With Strap Curls
Curls are a satisfying staple for building bigger biceps. Back in the day, I used to camp out on the preacher curl or biceps curl machine, but I gave that all up when I learned how to do curls on suspension straps. I find it’s much easier to build bigger biceps with a towel and suspension straps compared to conventional free …
Why Boring Exercises Produce The Most Exciting Results
The push up might not be very fancy and exotic, which is why its so damn effecive. I’m like a lot of folks who get distracted by new and fancy things. But when it comes to getting the most from my workouts, I rely on the most basic and “boring” exercises known to man. I’m talking about push ups, pull ups, running, …
Fitness Influences vs. Root Causes
Root cause vs influences. Which one are you going to bet your time and effort on? When it comes to a healthy lifestyle, there are root causes and then there are influences. Root causes give you everything you want and less of what you don’t. They bring you greater results a lot faster and with minimal effort. They also bring …
3 Reasons You can Build Strength with Calisthenics
Calisthenics can be a valuable asset if you’re looking to build strength and power. I’ve been practicing calisthenics for almost 10 years now and I’ve never been stronger and more capable in my life. I’m a stronger cyclist, skier, hiker and I can help a friend move into a 5th floor apartment with ease. A lot of people doubt the ability to …
Diet and Exercise Isn’t Really All That Effective
Even now, this car is still getting me further ahead than my last workout The fact of the matter is that almost all diet and exercise methods are not really all that effective. Even the worlds best methods don’t stack up on the whole effectiveness scale. No matter how hard you work or how hard you apply yourself you cannot …
4 Ways to Fix an Exercise Plateau
I know an exercise plateau can be frustrating, even infuriating, but you don’t need to go to great lengths to break out of one. You probably don’t need to overhaul your workout program or make big changes to your routine. Chances are, you only need to make a few little tweaks and you’ll be making progress in no time. Here …
How to Master Your Fitness Habits
Imagine what it would be like to finally master your fitness. What would it be like to have Jedi like powers over diet and exercise? How great would it feel to be able to physically perform at a high level with ease? Just as with any form of discipline, mastery should be your goal be it in diet, weight loss, or …
How to Do Pull Ups Without Elbow pain
Pull-ups are one of the safest exercises for your back, but elbow pain is one of the most common issues people deal with. The most notable injury is tendonitis of the biceps tendon near the elbow. This is due to the tremendous amount of tension created by the biceps during pull-up motions. While this does make the pull up one of the …
No Excuses! Everyone Can Do A Pull Up
I believe the pull-up is within the reach of anyone and everyone. In this video I’ll walk you through the exact method I use to help anyone slowly build up to the pull body pull up.
2 Unique Playground Workouts
The playground is the place where I can often reach higher and go further than I ever had before. Something about being outside and on different equipment makes me feel like the sky is the limit. No rules. No clocks. No limits. Check out this video for 2 unique super sets that are particular favorites of mine when I hit …
The Incredible Fat Burning Device That’s Collecting Dust in Your Garage
The great fat torching tool at work in the early days When I flip through photo albums of my past, I notice a drastic difference in my appearance during my freshman and sophomore years in college. I was always lean, but during that time I got super lean. It’s almost as if fat itself was being repelled from my body. …
Are You Up For the Latest Extreme Cardio Challenge?
Must be watching the Buffalo Bills Playing in the 3rd If you’re getting tired of the long and dull forms or cardio then I highly recommend lunging for distance. This is a form of leg conditioning that’s a real killer on the cardio system especially when you’re doing it with front loaded lunges. By holding onto a weight you …
The 3 Best Body Weight Exercises for Muscle Mass
Note: These moves, and the muscle building program are explained in more detail in the Triad Muscle Revolution. Calisthenics are often seen as lightweight exercises that do little more than improve endurance and muscle tone. I used to think this myself, however I’ve used (and have seen others use) the following 3 body weight exercises exclusively to pack on …
Make Your Own Grip Training Balls
These little balls pack one hell of a wallop for your grip. I’ve done all sorts of grip training and by far these little suckers are my favorite. You could buy a similar product on line for about $60, but these are cheaper to make yourself and a little more versatile as well.
Why You’re Only as Strong as Your Grip
There is one area of your body that is holding all of the keys to building your upper body. Make it strong and healthy and strength can be yours. But if it’s weak and unusable there is absolutely zero hope for you to build a strong and statuesque body. Period.
My Secret Weapon for More Strength & Muscle
Let’s face it, strength is sexy. I’m not just talking about the “look at me all sweet and vulnerable” kind of sexy. I’m talking about the “I can kick ass and take names, but I’m a lover not a fighter” kind of sexy.” There is one area of your body that, when strengthened even just a bit, drastically improves not …
Bring Your Dips to a New Level of Strength & Power
Dips, just may be the single most powerful and effective upper body pressing exercise. No joke. You can keep your bench press, your shoulder press and even your push ups. I’ll take the dip over all of them any day. This quick video has some tips I’ve learned through my love affair with the dip to help you gain even …
Ultimate Functional Training With Progressive Calisthenics
Both strength and balance are essential for functional strength outside of the gym. Over the past few years I’ve come to understand the essential relationship between balance and strength. To put it simply, strength without balance and control is largely useless. It’s like cramming a 700 horsepower engine into a car with worn brakes, soft suspension and bald tires. Even …
Ripped Abs and Jacked Shoulders With the TRX Pike Press
Yet another great exercise I love to do on the straps. Fantastic for the shoulders and the core!
6 Ways to Make Your Pull Ups Far More Effective
The Pull Up is one of, if not the, best pulling exercise for your upper body. Check out these tips on how to make this fantastic move even more fantastic-er.
Build Big Round Shoulders With Wall Walking
Shoulders have always been by Achilles heel. They’ve always been relatively weak as well as prone to injury. Despite anything and everything I did, I just couldn’t make them as strong and stable. That all changed with wall walking which forces my shoulders to become far stronger and more stable than ever before.
Build Your Range of Motion & Build Your Muscles
Improving your technique is the fastest and safest way to improve your workout. Improving your rang of motion is one of the fastest and safest way to improve your technique. Listen in and learn why almost all of the classic range of motion advice could be setting you up for frustration and injury. Plus the simple rule of thumb …
How Leg Position Influences Your Pull Ups
So ya want better pull ups? Ya wanna build a massive back and strong arms? Then look to your legs my friend! Yes, your legs. I know the pull up doesn’t do much with the legs, but that’s exactly why so many people neglect them and let them ruin their pull up technique. Think of a fish at the end …
Multi-dimensional Exercise Progression
I just finished a post on Multi-dimensional progression. After a week of letting that post digest I realized I was only talking about surface knowledge. In this post I’ll cover: – The exact 3 aspects of multi-dimensional progression and why you must have all 3. – Why if you miss out on just one aspect you can expect to hit …
Use Your Spine to Guide Your Calisthenics Technique
In a previous post, I talked about how you can only progress your exercise so far with volume or intensity. Keep piling on the sets or weight and eventually things will start to go south. Improving your technique however is an endless fountain of potential progress. You can spend years improving your technique and still have plenty of room …
What I’ve Learned From Doing Only Dips and Pull Ups (Updated)
Note: This post has been updated after continuing this project for 3 years. What started out as a simple project back in 2011 has continued to evolve over the years. At first I wanted to know if it was possible to build a lot of muscle and strength with just pull ups and dips, but now I’m continuing just …
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