Diet relapse is a very common occurrence when you tend to eat very “clean” for a given period of time and then fall off the wagon and overeat thus setting yourself back. This can happen at random times, but it can also follow a pattern. Two of the more common patterns of dietary relapse is eating well all day, but falling …
The Importance of Instant Gratification in Fitness
Instant gratification is often seen as a bad thing within our fitness culture. Supposedly, the path to long-term success in fitness and weight loss runs through denial and being able to deprive yourself. I used to believe this myself until I started to see some serious flaws in the plan. For one, denying yourself what you want can be a great way …
Achieve Fitness Independence With Fitness Alignment
Fitness alignment is the number one goal of the Red Delta Project. Achieving it means you experience less stress, greater results and have a lot more fun. Unfortunately, there are a lot of malevolent forces within our fitness culture that can easily pull you out of fitness alignment. Many of these dogmatic ideals are like wolves in sheep’s clothing. They are …
6 Questions That Will Change Your Body and Your Life
I want to present you with 6, simple yet profound questions that have the potential to change your body and your life. These 6 questions are part of the new Smart Bodyweight Training Digital Workbook which you can download here for free. This workbook is a quick-start guide to help you get the most out of my recently released second book, …
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 …
How to Avoid the Most Common Diet and Exercise Trap
Diet and exercise traps are everywhere just waiting to trap you, and your progress for years on end. Some of them are outright scams that steal your time and money. Others are pseudo-science fads that have little merit. Today I wanted to expose on the biggest and most damaging traps that almost everyone falls into. I’ve fallen victim to this fitness trap …
Getting Wild With Monkii Bars Co-Founder Monkii Dan
I recently had the privilege to sit down with Dan Vinson, (aka Monkii Dan) who is the co-founder of monkii bars suspension trainers. In a world of me-too generic suspension systems, monkii bars are in a class all their own. The level of craftsmanship and detail that’s gone into these things is unprecedented. That’s why they are the only commercially available …
Overcoming Diet and Exercise Resistance
Diet and exercise resistance can make achieving your fitness goals very difficult, if not impossible. It’s just like riding a bike with the brakes rubbing. It makes you work much harder while gaining little benefit. This week’s episode fo the R.D.P Podcast is all about the 3 biggest sources of resistance that can hold your potential in check. The first …
The Link Between Your Muscle and Health
Muscle and health go together like peanut butter and chocolate. In many ways, it’s very hard to have much of one without the other. However, a recent comment on my YouTube channel got me thinking that the two may not always be linked. In some ways, the artificial pursuit of muscle could be even an unhealthy pursuit through the abusive use …
What You Need to Know About Unilateral Calisthenics
Unilateral calisthenics training is when you use one side of your body is working differently or harder than the other side. The most common examples are archer push-ups, one arm pull-ups, lunges and single leg squats. Sadly, unilateral calisthenics is still not very common which is a shame because they do wonders for helping you build muscle and strength. …
How Technical Erosion Effects Your Muscle Growth
Technical erosion is the process when the quality of your technique breaks down as you train. It could be a shift in body position, a decrease in range of motion or even how you apply tension in your muscles. In either case, the quality of your technique is slowly eroding like a sandcastle in the surf. In some cases, this …
How to Finally Reach Your Fitness Goals in 2018
2018 is the year you finally reach your fitness goals once and for all. Whether you want to burn fat, build muscle or improve performance, 2018 is your year. This isn’t some New Years motivational garbage either. This week’s podcast is all about the essential principles that will bring you the results you want. The more you satisfy these principles the …
7 Myths About Progression
Progression is the essence of what makes your fitness habits effective for fat loss, building muscle and improving performance. If you want your body to change in any way, then progression should be the focus of everything you do. Simply put, you get the results you want when you progression your training and fitness habits. If you fail to progress your …
Training for Your Body Type
Training and eating for your body type can make it easier for you to achieve the results you want. On the other hand, losing weight and building muscle can be very difficult if you use methods that don’t work for your type. If you’ve ever felt like a particular diet or workout wasn’t a good fit, there’s a good chance it …
Training For Stength vs Building Muscle
All forms of strength training are great for both building muscle and growing strength, Despite the similarities between the two goals, building muscle and improving strength (or any other aspect of performance) actually require different training methods. In this week’s podcast, I discuss some of the major differences between building muscle vs building strength as per Coach Paul Wades advice …
3 Things Every Effective Workout Must Have
An effective workout needs just 3 things to help you lose weight, build muscle and improve performance. Anyone can acquire all three with relative ease but very few ever do which is why most people fail to achieve the results they want from their workouts. In this week’s podcast I discuss each of these three things in detail. I also …
How to Gain Personal Trainer Benefits While Training Alone
Nothing beats working with a personal trainer or coach. They help keep you accountable, provide motivation and teach how to make your workouts more effective. What if you don’t have access to a trainer or coach? How can you gain some of the benefits without the expertise? Flying fully solo in your workouts is seldom the best way to go, …
What is the Best Muscle Building Routine?
What is the best muscle building routine? Is it 5×5? Maybe it’s drop sets. What about volume training? According to some, it’s about going heavy or going home. Maybe you can build muscle from all of them. Maybe it’s not even about the routine at all. In this week’s podcast, I discuss the important elements of an effective muscle building routine …
Is Your Workout Effective or a Waste of Time?
I received a great question on the RDP YouTube channel the other day asking “how do you know if your workout is effective?” This is a very important question because it calls for brutal honesty in understanding if your workout is really effective. Chances are if you can’t say for sure that your workout is effective it probably isn’t. If it …
Does Muscle Fatigue Really Make You Grow?
The recent science seems to suggest that muscle fatigue is the primary stimulus for muscle growth. reputable sources like strongerbyscience.com and even Paul Wade’s C-Mass, point to muscle fatigue as the primary reason why a muscle grows. The evidence is compelling. It seems that as long as you bring a muscle to a high state of fatigue then it will grow …
Improve Your Physical Performance in Anything
Your physical performance is the foundation of your workout. Whether you want to burn fat, build muscle or Just move better, your physical performance is the key to making those things happen. That’s why it’ important to strive for better performance even if you’re not a competitive athlete. This week’s podcast is all about how to train for better …
This is Why You’re Struggling to Build Muscle
Many hard-working athletes are struggling to build muscle for a variety of reasons. Some may not be eating very well or sleeping enough. Stress is also a factor that can slow down muscle growth. Most of the time, the struggle to build muscle comes from inconsistent training. Changing up your routine or workout too often can send mixed signals to …
Top Fitness Myths in the Media
Fitness myths abound and many of them are fueled by the media that’s all around us including the internet, TV, and magazines. Many of these myths are not created as a way to purposely scam or con you. Most of them are the by-product of years of subtle, almost subliminal, messages you’re told about how losing weight or getting in shape …
Do You Really Need a Workout Routine?
A workout routine is a staple in the diet and exercise world, but how important is it to the calisthenics athlete? Do you even need a strict routine at all? Some folks claim you must have a routine and that doing random exercises will only produce random, and inconsistent results. Other’s seem to have a bit more of a freestyle …
Build Stability to Build Muscle and Strength
Stability the gatekeeper to your strength and muscle building efforts. Simply put, the more stability you develop, the bigger and stronger you can become. On the other hand, a lack of stability will handicap your ability to build muscle and strength. Don’t think that building stability means standing on balance disks and doing crazy “functional” training exercises. All exercises require …
Switching from Weights to Calisthenics 4 Things You Need to Know
So for whatever reason, you may be thinking about making a switch from weights to calisthenics based workouts. Maybe you’re looking for something new, or perhaps life isn’t allowing you to get to the gym. Whatever the reason, the pull-up bar is calling your name and the barbell feels like it’s less appealing each week. Despite the allure of not needing …
How Stress Makes You Fat and What To Do About it
Stress and fat are best friends. Where you find one, you usually find the other. This is why many of the best weight loss strategies are just as much about controlling stress as they are about controlling fat. The link between stress and fat Both mental and physical stress can influence how your body functions which in turn can alter …
Understanding the Source of Fitness Stress
Dogmas are the biggest source of fitness stress. They restrict your ability to make the best diet and exercise choices for your body and lifestyle. In other words, they prevent you from doing what’s best for you while forcing you to adhere to rules that place stress on your body, mind, and lifestyle. Like with all things in life, overcoming …
The Myth of the Muscle Building Rep Range
The muscle building rep range is hallowed ground for anyone looking to get jacked. If you want to get bigger that coveted 8-12 reps is home base for your workouts. Heaven knows I’ve spent most of my time there, and the results have been great. Lately, I’ve been putting some pieces together and it’s making me question if the existence of …
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 …
How to Use Peak Set Training for Optimal Workouts
This week’s topic is something I like to call peak set training. The benefits include improved recovery, less stress on your joints decreased nervous system fatigue and ultimately, more muscle growth. Sound good? Then let’s get started. How does peak set training work? Phase 1: Warm up sets Peak set training uses the natural bell curve that occurs when you …
3 Body Weight Training Lessons I Wish I Learned Years Ago
I’ve learned a lot of things about body weight training over the years, some of which I wish I knew a long time ago. If I knew even half of what I know now, I would have gained a lot more muscle and strength without enduring so much stress. The good news is that I know these things now, and …
How Chronic Fitness Stress Kills Your Progress
Fitness stress is the #1 enemy in your quest to build muscle, burn fat and improve performance. It erodes emotional motivation while beating up your body. Almost every challenge you face in fitness is due to stressful diet and exercise habits. Wait, isn’t some fitness stress necessary for progress? Yes, some types of fitness stress are important. You won’t …
Why You Should Still Practice Isolation Exercises
Isolation exercises have become less popular lately. Some experts turn their noses up at hip and shoulder exercises claiming that big compound moves are the best and they are all you should do. There is a lot of value to compound moves like dips, lunges, and pull-ups, but are they really all you should or need to practice? Are isolation …
Should You Always Train To Your Limit?
Physical change requires hard work, but do you always need to train to your limit in each workout? I always believed the body only changed when you pushed it right to the edge of what it can do. Holding back, even a little bit, would fail to stimulate any change. This sentiment has been echoed in internet memes and social media …
Do You Need to Eat After a Workout?
Do You need to eat after your workout? The knee-jerk answer is “of course you need to eat after a workout! If you don’t you might seriously handicap your ability to recover!” You may not need to eat anything at all. The first reason is that your workout may not be a very big influence on your daily calorie and …
Circuit Training for Muscle and Strength
Circuit training is very popular these days and for good reason. It’s very efficient which makes it easier to fit into a busy schedule plus it provides a variety of benefits including strength, endurance, and mental stamina. But what if you want to focus on building muscle and strength? While circuit training can build those qualities, it usually isn’t done in a …
How to Change Your Fitness Set Points
Fitness set points can seem pretty scary. The idea that your fitness destiny is predetermined by your genetics threatens the promise of making positive changes. What’s the point of even trying to lose weight or build muscle when your own body will default to the same set point? While there is some debate over whether such set points exist, it’s hard …
What is the Best Calisthenics Diet?
Nutrition is a turbulent topic of debate and this is still true when considering what diet is best for calisthenics athletes. Most dietary advice tends to favor one of two approaches. On one side you have the “eat big to get big” crowd that emphasizes food quantity. These are the same folks who claim you need to be in a calorie …
How to Achieve Infinite Calisthenics Progress
Calisthenics progress is often perceived as something that’s very limited. Even well-educated fitness experts will claim that, while calisthenics is a sound training method, it can only take you so far. This perception is one of the reasons why many people don’t want to devote their time and energy to calisthenics. Why invest yourself in a limited system? The reality …
Is Your Healthy Lifestyle too Stressful?
The Red Delta Project was created from the belief that a healthy lifestyle should improve your quality of life rather than compromise it. Unfortunately, the common belief is that you must adopt stressful diet and exercise habits to get in shape. There are a lot of memes out there portraying the idea that you’re supposed to suffer for your results. it’s …
The Unstoppable Power of Fitness Beliefs
Your fitness beliefs make or break your success in everything from weight loss to building muscle. Even though the Henry Ford Quote about “whether you think you can or can’t your right” is becoming a bit old hat, it’s absolutely true. Your success hinges more on what you believe than what you may know. In this information age, we’re told the key …
Improve Your Leg Raises w/ Supportive Tension
Leg Raises are becoming the gold standard for my core and abdominal training. The more I learn about them the stronger my abs get. Recently, I’ve been playing with adding a lot more tension in my arms and upper back while doing them from a hanging position. While the muscles in my back don’t lift my legs, they do play …
Calorie Balance vs Calorie Counting for Weight Loss
The debate over calorie balance is a common example of how many people mistake a principle of fitness for a fitness method. Those who argue against calorie balance point out that counting calories or severe calorie restriction do not work very well. I agree that calorie counting and calorie restriction are not very good methods for long-term weight loss. However, …
Maxick’s Muscle Building Wisdom
Maxick’s book, Muscle Control, is filled with muscle building wisdom. In it, he makes a strong case for improving muscle control to enhance the effectiveness of exercise. One of the biggest points he mentions is the importance of focusing on using your muscle as opposed to just getting the work done. Maxick spent time working in manual labor and he observed how many …
The Simple Truth About Abs
Building up your abs and core strength isn’t very complicated yet a lot of experts seem hell bent to make it seem like it is. Each year there are new books, products, and gadgets that turn a simple process into a complicated mess. Some of these myths are half-truths that have been warped by time and bro-science. The old adage …
The Practice & Benefits of Micro-Workouts
I predict the next big thing in fitness will be the use of shorter, yet more frequent workouts. You might look back and think “I can’t believe we use to workout for over an hour 2-3 times a week!” There are many reasons why daily 15-20 minute workouts might work best for you. Easier to fit into a busy schedule. Not …
The Truth About Deep Squats & Knee Pain
I know, I’ve heard it before too. The notion that deep squats cause too much stress on the knees and that you shouldn’t bend your knees more than 90 degrees. It’s well-intended advice, and might even help, but is there more to the story? Are deep squats and lunges really bad, or are they only bad in certain circumstances? More …
How to Improve Muscle Tension in Your Lats
Your muscle building potential depends largely on how well you can direct tension through your muscles. If your mind-muscle connection isn’t strong you’ll struggle to make progress regardless of how you train or what equipment you use. The good news is improving your muscle tension skills will improve your results even if your routine isn’t perfect or you’re using old equipment. In this …
How to Find Reliable Fitness Information
Despite having more diet and exercise information than you’ll need in 10 lifetimes, it can be pretty hard to find reliable fitness information on the internet. Even simple questions like how much protein you should consume or the difference between split and full body routines can lead you down an endless rabbit hole of debate. How are you supposed to comb …
Do You Need Sore Muscles to Make Gains?
Nothing beats waking up and feeling a little stiff and sore from your workout. It lets you know that you really pushed yourself and maybe even stimulated some muscle growth. As satisfying as a little DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) is, it can be quite elusive. You can crush a workout and not feel a thing the next day. Other …
The Freedom of Exploratory Progression
Most calisthenics methods use a method of progression that’s like those old-school video games that progress from point A to point B. They work in levels with the idea that you ascend in a number of steps. It’s a good method, but it sometimes forces you to fit a square peg into a round hole. progression requires improving many skills …
5 Reasons Why I Don’t Use Steroids
I was asked the other day why I don’t take steroids. After all, I am in the muscle and strength business so wouldn’t it make sense to be at least a little tempted to juice up once in a while? Well, I don’t have a single good reason to avoid taking steroids; I have 5 and here they are. #1 …
How to Do Leg Raises on a Doorway Pullup Bar
Doorway pull up bars are great. They are cheap, easy to set up and turn any doorway into a bodyweight gym. The only downside is they are a bit low to the ground for most people. This means you won’t be able to get a full body hanging stretch without your feet resting on the floor. It’s not a deal …
My Quick Ab and Core Workout
You don’t need a long abdominal workout to get great results. You don’t even need a lot of exercises done for countless reps either. All you need is one, maybe two, exercise that you do for a few super hard sets. Take my latest core workout for example. It only uses one primary exercise (leg raises) for a few hard sets followed …
Harder Pullups Without Weight
There are many ways you can increase the resistance of your pull-ups. You can add extra weight to your body with weight vests or a dip belt. You can also progress your technique as explained in Convict Conditioning. Both of these methods are effective, but they also each have a drawback. Adding weight to your body can place more stress …
2 Muscle Building Rep Strategies
Building muscle goes far beyond how many sets and reps you do. It’s not always about the numbers on a spreadsheet, but what the reps are doing to your muscles. You can do the same number of reps and sets, yet cause different levels of muscle stimulation. Take for example the following strategies: One involves going all out and pushing …
Are Dead Hang Pull Ups Good or Bad?
Dead hang pull ups are a point of debate in the world of progressive calisthenics. Some people say they are great and make pull ups harder and more effective. Other’s say they are bad for the joints and might even make pull ups less effective. As usual, the truth is somewhere in between. There are pros and cons to doing dead …
Is There a Perfect Workout Routine?
I’ve never been a big follower of following a specific workout routine. You won’t find me staying up at night researching the latest science on what ingredients go into a great workout routine. I’ve always taken a much more liberal approach towards workout structure. Sometimes, I’ve been a little too carefree and my workouts have lacked the structure to produce …
Is Sitting Destroying Your Knees?
Sitting just may be creating the modern plague of something called neuromuscular amnesia. In simple terms, when you don’t make a habit of putting tension through a muscle, your mind starts to “forget” how to use it. Then, when you do need to use it, in an exercise or activity, you can’t use it as nature intended. The result is …
The Table of Progressive Elements
One of my goals in writing book 2 of the Red Delta Project (check out book 1 here) is to make progressive bodyweight training simpler and easier to understand. Currently, there are many techniques and countless variations of each. It can seem next to impossible to understand how they all fit together, let alone how to apply them. This is why …
Staying Fit & Sane During the Holidays
It’s that time of year again! It’s time to trim and decorate, not to mention slack off and over indulge. Or at least that’s the general consensus among folks this time of year. But what do you do when you’re a fitness minded individual? The holiday season can create a tug of war between enjoying the holiday season and staying in shape. …
Advance Your Calisthenics w/ Leverage
Leverage is one of the most powerful ways you can advance your bodyweight training. It can instantly load very high amounts of resistance on your muscles while keeping joint stress to a minimum. The best thing about using leverage is you can adjust the tension on the fly. You don’t need to stop a set or adjust equipment to change your …
The Trap of Over Qualifying Exercise
Over qualifying exercise is one of the biggest reasons why you may be struggling to get the results you want and it’s easy to fall into this trap. At first, you learn about the “best exercises” to reach your goals. Then a buddy tells you about the “optimal rep range for muscle growth.” Then the pro body builder in the …
Advanced Centerline Calisthenics
The centerline of your body holds the key to building muscle, blinding performance and even fat loss. Examples of the potential of the centerline have been a secret performance enhancer for centuries. Ancient forms fo martial arts, dance and even manual labor have long used the centerline as a guiding principle for power and control. Using your centerline involves more …
How Much Muscle Can You Build?
Muscle building potential can vary greatly from one person to the next. Some people can build a lot of muscle fairly easily. Other’s are going to have a hard time putting on just a little bit. So the big question is, how much can you hope to gain? More importantly, how much can you also hope to maintain? Also, …
Advance Your Bodyweight Training w/ ROM
You can improve performance, burn fat and build muscle by increasing the range of motion (ROM) in your bodyweight training. Even adding as little as half and inch can make a large difference. Increasing your range of motion can improve performance goes beyond flexibility. The old time strength athletes used to talk about “subtle strength” which is not only processing …
Advancing Bodyweight Training w/ Time
Time is a crucial element in the progression of your bodyweight training. You can use it to burn fat, improve performance and burn fat. Check out these simple ways you can change the time you train to influence the 3 key principles of exercise science. #1 Progressing S.A.I.D for better skill and performance Learning skills and being able to perform …
3 Push Up Progressions to Build Muscle
Book 1 of the Red Delta Project is now available so now I’m working on book 2! In this book, I’ll be detailing how you can build muscle, strength and burn fat through bodyweight training. The key to doing this is to use what I call the table of progressive elements. These elements work just like weight plates on a barbell …
Build Muscle With Your Mind
A lot of people who go looking to build muscle and strength never find the results they want. Much of the reason is that they are looking in the wrong places. We’re told that the key to getting bigger and stronger is in the latest routine or the best equipment. Maybe the key is in the diet or the …
How to Avoid Common Fitness Traps
Traps and snares abound in diet and exercise. These traps lure you into their jaws with promises of results and security, only to snap shut and limit your potential. One of the most common traps is the cardio trap where you find yourself eating a lot because you workout, and you workout because you eat a lot. This creates a …
The Source of Muscular Change
A lot of experts will tell you that the key to building muscle and strength is in having the right routine, doing more reps or adding more weight. While these things are certainly important, they are not the root cause that is in charge of your muscle training. Things like reps, and the equipment you use are influences towards the …
Why Build a Bodyweight Home Gym?
One of the biggest advantages of progressive bodyweight training is you don’t need to join a gym or buy any fancy equipment. You also have the freedom to train anywhere at any time. So why on earth would you want to invest in building a ? Wouldn’t that just negate the freedom of bodyweight training? While the freedom to train anywhere …
Bodyweight Master Review
Many people don’t know this, but long before I was a trainer and fitness blogger, I worked for 11 years in the fitness equipment industry. Maybe worked isn’t the right word, as I was absolutely obsessed with finding the best home gym equipment money could buy. I even got rid of my bed and slept on the floor, so I …
Do Weighted Calisthenics The Smart Way
Weighted or loaded calisthenics seems simple enough. You just take a classic bodyweight exercise and add some weight to your body to increase the resistance. It seems like a great way to build muscle and strength, but it’s fraught with risk. Part of the reason for this risk is weighted bodyweight training can jeopardize your technical convergence. This is the unique way …
Why You Should Build a Custom Routine
Fail to plan and plan to fail. That’s what they say, and for good reason. You’re not going to get very far without a well thought out diet or exercise plan. Unfortunately, many good plans turn into a rigid dogmatic approach to how you should “eat right” and exercise. While any plan is better than no plan, super strict approaches …
DIY Ultra Portable Suspension Trainer
This suspension trainer is the latest invention to come from the R.D.P Calisthenics Equipment Development Program. A.k.a, by tinkering around in my basement. This new suspension trainer is called the Bowline Trainer because it only uses the bowline knot in its construction. It’s designed to be ultra lightweight, portable and versatile. Unlike the Pruisk Trainer, it lacks the ability to make …
Fitness Plateaus and Progression
A lot of fitness and weight loss plans are built around the idea that you should make consistent progress from one week to the next. Some examples might be that you’re supposed to lose 2 pounds a week or lift 5 more pounds each workout. Expectations like are this are based on a linear model of progression. The idea is …
Easy Fitness Part 2 Exercise
In the last post, I talked about the virtues of seeking the path of least resistance when it comes to diet and exercise. The basic idea is the path of success is forged by finding ways to make the necessary work easier to accomplish. In this post, we discuss strategies on how you can apply this philosophy toward your workouts. …
Easy Fitness Part 1
Easy is not a word commonly associated with a successful diet and exercise program. If anything, many experts will decry the very mention of the word and insist there are no short cuts. I sure used to be such a person, but I’m learning my lesson. Not only is striving for the path of least resistance possible, but it’s also possibly …
Convict Conditioning Tips w/ Brian Byrnes
I recently sat down with my buddy Brian Byrnes who is a practitioner of Convict Conditioning and progressive calisthenics. Brian is one of the few people who truly understand the value of building a solid personalised workout routine. As I explain in my book, Fitness Independence, a lot of people take one of two approaches towards their routine. 1- People pick …
Muscle Building for Hardgainers
Building muscle is tough, especially for those who don’t have the genetics of someone who’s naturally shaped like a super hero. Anyone can build muscle, regardless of your genetics. At the end of the day, your genetics can only limit the shape of your muscles and the limit of how much muscle you an build. Even though you may feel …
Build More Muscle With Calisthenics
I used to be the guy who never bothered with body weight training or calisthenics because I thought you couldn’t build much muscle with them. I figured there wasn’t much muscle building potential unless heavy weight was involved. Of course, that all changed once I discovered Convict Conditioning and progressive calisthenics. At first, I thought, okay maybe there’s some muscle …
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 …
Will Cardio Help You Build Muscle?
Like many lifters, I used to believe cardio was a waste of time in the pursuit of building muscle. I even used to spread the idea that doing cardio could even make you lose your gains. Of course, now I know better. Like all things with diet and exercise, the fault usually lies in user error. Don’t blame the tool, blame the …
Muscle Confidence for Muscle Mass
A lot of trainers talk about keeping your muscles guessing and “confused” in order to shock them into growing. While such tactics can work, I propose something that can work much better and produce results that last a lot longer. Rather than seeking muscle confusion, I propose you do exactly the opposite and seek muscle confidence. Muscle confidence is just …
A Simple Move to Improve Your Squat and Lunges
One of the biggest game changes I’ve found in leg training is learning how to pull into the bottom position of squats and lunges. Even though these moves are classically considered a push move, they do require a lot of pulling strength. This helps remove knee pain, improve stability and builds more muscle. Learning how to pull into a squat …
The Missing Ingredient in Your Flexibility Routine
I’ve been trying to improve my flexibility and mobility for most of my life. Most of the classic methods, like stretching and foam rolling, never did anything more than provide a tiny bit of relief that lasted a few moments. Now I’m facing the very real possibility that I’ll be turning 40 in less than 2 years, yet I’m feeling …
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 …
Build More Muscle & Strength with Push Ups
One of the most common reasons why people struggle to build muscle and strength with push ups is the lack of tension directed towards the centerline. As I explain in this Dragon Door article, all tension should be directed towards the centerline of the body. Failure to direct tension inwards can result in a host of issues ranging from poor …
Is it Important to Feel a Muscle Working?
Many experts claim that focusing on how an exercise feels is a waste of time. I used to believe this too. I fell into the idea that the numbers you put in your log and your program was the key to success. After many years of frustration and injury, I started training smarter rather than just harder. This meant the numbers …
Instantly Improve Your Handstand Balance
Balance is the most difficult part of handstand work, but it doesn’t have to be so. There are some people who can just pop up into a handstand, and do other hand balancing work, very easily. As always, the solution is the all in how you use the tension through your muscles. You don’t improve balance just by trying not to fall. …
Use Neutral Tension for More Gain With Less Pain
Muscle tension is the best thing and the worst thing for you. It can break your body and build it up. It can cause muscle growth as well as muscle strains and joint pain. It all depends on how you can manage it within your muscles. Lately, I’ve been using an approach I call Neutral Tension. Simply put, it using …
3 Best Strap Exercises for Bigger Biceps
I love doing biceps exercises on suspension straps. I even preferred them over free weight curls back before I was made the switch to progressive calisthenics. There are many biceps exercises you can do on suspension straps. Over the years, I’ve found 3 moves that work a lot better than all of the others. These include the scoop curl, the …
Advice for the Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Athlete
I believe growth and improvement should be a constant companion in your training. Something should be improving for you every week, or at least every month. This week I sat down with Girya Girl, Adrienne Harvey, to discuss the process of growth and development in training along your whole lifespan. We get deep into the most important lessons to learn at the …
Fit After 40 w/ Tommy Rembiszewski
I’m not one of those “age is just a number” kind of guys. Believe me, age and all of it’s demons is a very real threat to your fitness and health. It’s a very serious threat that you’ll have to face sooner or later. That’s why I invited super bad-ass Tommy Rembiszewski bad for another interview so I could pick …
6 Tips for Building More Muscle With Pull Ups
Pull ups are one of the best muscle building exercises ever. It’s a shame more people don’t take advantage of them. Here are 6 simple, anyone-can-do-them tips to help you build more muscle with whatever pull ups you’re doing in Convict Conditioning.
Break Free of Diet & Exercise Dogma for Good
Fitness dogma that dictates how you should eat and exercise is ever prevalent within our fitness culture. Most of the time these dogmas start out as simple ideas but grow into a mini-religion by the time they hit the masses. The issue I take with them is they both limit your freedom of lifestyle and results. It’s like locking both your …
Ring Push Ups vs Floor Push Ups
There are a million ways you can do push ups, which make them a great exercise for everything from building strength to improving flexibility. One possible variation is to do them on rings or suspension straps. While this does require the use of some equipment, there are several advantages to using them. Then again, there are many advantages to doing …