There isn’t a secret or magic trick to increasing your pull ups, but it isn’t as difficult as many people believe. You may think that I’m another coach who can’t relate to your situation, but I can. I still remember when I was struggling to do 2-3 pull ups.

I struggled because I didn’t train for them, and when I did train for pull ups, I didn’t train properly.

I fear many people are making the same mistakes I made. I want to share how you can skip the frustration and master the pull up.

Your Training Should Match Your Goals

The majority of the fitness industry is all about HIIT, cardio, bodybuilding, or training until you puke.

I’m not a fan of this, not because there’s anything wrong with these training styles but because these methods get the most exposure. There are so many different ways to train, but your training should always match your goals.

The goal here is to increase the number of pull ups you can complete consecutively, and those methods I mentioned don’t work.

When I was learning to do pull ups:

• I did it the common way of 3 sets of 5-10 reps.
• The aim is to do 3 sets of 5 reps.
• Then every week or two, you increase the reps 3×6, 3×7 until you reach your goal.
• What generally happens is that in the first set, you can probably do five reps, but after that, you will struggle even to do 2-3 reps.
• That’s what was happening to me, and I would also keep hitting plateaus—stuck at the same reps for a while.

If I could do it all over again, I would use a technique called Grease The Groove (GTG). This is how I teach my clients to get their first pull up and to increase the amount they can do in a row.

Grease the Groove for Better Pull Ups

For example:

• Let’s say you can manage just about four reps in a row.
• Throughout the day, you’ll do multiple sets (4-7 sets) at 50% of your max, which is two reps.
• If one rep is your max, then do multiple sets of one rep.
• Rest for a minimum of one hour between sets.
• Perform this 4-6 days a week.

After two weeks, test your pull ups to see how many you can do in a row.

Learning a new movement pattern is just like learning a new skill.

The more you do something correctly, the better you get at it. By doing the reps at 50% intensity, you limit fatigue, and you’ll focus more on the correct technique.

It won’t feel like you’re doing much, but your body is learning the movement. Frequency and consistency are kings when it comes to learning.

In a week, you’ll accumulate a lot of reps.

You can do this in addition to your regular training but if you’re not recovering between sessions, then reduce the workload.

Pull Up technique:

Get Your First Pull Up

If you can’t do a pull up yet, you can still use this technique. In addition to your regular pull up training of 2-3 times a week, do GTG with these exercises. Focus on one for two weeks, rest for a week, and then do GTG with the other exercise.

Jump Negative Pull Ups:

• Jump up as much as you need to pull yourself up.
• Try and go slow when coming back down.
• At first, you might drop straight down, but as you get stronger, you will be able to go slower.
• If the jump is too much, jump from a box to assist you.

Isometric chin-ups:

Jump up and hold yourself at the top of the pull-up. Try to keep your chin over the bar.

You Can Handle Your Bodyweight

Some of you might think that you were never meant to do or will never be strong enough to do pull ups, but you are. Put the negative thoughts and feelings aside and do the work.

Pull ups are a natural movement that your body is well capable of doing.

Train your pull ups frequently throughout the week, and focus on the proper technique. Otherwise, you will only be cheating yourself. Be patient, and you will master your pull ups. You can use GTG to improve other exercises as well.

The post How to Boost Your Pull Ups in 2 Weeks appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

With social media, we can often feel disheartened because we are exposed to the very best, whose job is to have a certain handstand.

There is no competition or judges for the regular person; you are only training for yourself.

It’s important to know what you want from your handstand journey. The majority of us aren’t gymnasts or professional hand-balancers, so we don’t have to have a perfect handstand, whatever that is.

With social media, we can often feel disheartened because we are exposed to the very best, whose job is to have a certain handstand.

There is no competition or judges for the regular person; you are only training for yourself.

This article is for people who want to improve their kick up consistency, which means kicking up into a handstand and holding it most of the time. I know from personal experience, it’s frustrating to waste energy constantly falling and not actually holding a handstand.

It’s important to be comfortable on your hands so that you can make cool moves such as:

• Press to handstand
• Handstand pushups
• Walking handstand

I call this a journey because it is. You can have the best training one day, then the next day nothing goes right.

It doesn’t matter how experienced you are. There will still be bad days. You will get better at reading your body and adjusting.

Prepare Your Wrist

I’ve discovered during my personal training career that the majority of people have weak wrists. Don’t be discouraged if this is you, but you must accept where you are. We live in a beautiful society, but it has its disadvantages, one of them is we never use our wrists.

We don’t hang, crawl, or apply pressure to them (typing on the laptop doesn’t count).

Remember, the body is efficient. Use it, or lose it. This goes for physical, technical, and mental skills.

When I used to teach big classes, I quickly realized that if I had 2-3 exercises that involved a little pressure on the wrist, the groans I heard weren’t from physical exertion but wrist pain.

When you start training your wrist, it only takes a few weeks to see improvements. How do you strengthen the wrists?

Build habits in your daily life because just doing one or two days a week is not enough, even if it’s for an hour.

I love this Bruce Lee quote:

It takes 5-15 minutes daily to get the best results or spread it throughout the day by building cues or reminders.

For example, every day before you eat or after a shower, do a set or set a timer, anything to make it convenient for yourself by incorporating it into your life.

The majority of the day is spent making habits we’ve built. It’s not a habit when it takes too much energy and willpower.

What if you don’t get wrist pain?

Wrist work is still needed.

You have to realize that handstands aren’t a natural position.

Your ankles are designed to support your full weight and gravity, but our small wrists aren’t.

That’s why strengthening the wrists, fingers, and forearms are important, and also, the elbows and shoulders.

Progress in handstands and calisthenics is determined by how strong your joints and tendons become because these small areas have to withstand the load and force passing through them.

You can find more mobility routines here Prehab/ Rehab for:

• Wrists
• Elbow
• Shoulders
• Hips
• Knees
• Ankles

So before you go upside down, spend a week or two getting the joints ready.

When you get into handstands against the wall, there is bound to be some discomfort in the wrists (they will get stronger and adjust), but it shouldn’t be painful.

Babies Do It Every Day

There’s no perfect handstand program, but you’ll hear athletes/coaches saying their way is the best, and neither am I saying my way is the right way.

I’m sharing how I’ve taught myself and clients to balance on their hands. Everyone is different, and we all learn differently. That’s what makes the world go round.

Two components will make the difference regardless of what program or training style you apply.

The First Component Is Consistency

We hear this word all the time because, without it, there is no success. It doesn’t matter how great your training session might have been.

Training something once a week will do nothing.

You will not build the neural adaptation and spatial awareness to master the handstand.

When babies are learning how to walk/stand, they do it every day. They have the desire and curiosity to step into the unknown, learn, and adapt. That’s the kind of mindset you want to have.

You don’t have to spend hours every day, but make it a habit of being upside down. Those pockets of time when you’re bored or doing menial tasks, practice your handstand instead. Five minutes is all you need.

Heck, one set daily will do the job.

This is In addition to 2-3 training sessions (about 1 hour) a week to practice various drills and weak areas.

The Second Component Is Time on Your Hands

The second component is the actual time you spend balancing on your hands. Failing to kick up and hold the handstand can be a part of your training, but please, not the whole hour. It teaches you very little.

You need to get the most out of your training. You actually want to feel what it’s like to bear weight on your hands, shifting your center of mass and how your hands are constantly making small adjustments.

Do exercises on the wall or close to the wall, and that way, if you fall, you have support.

Some people can only hold a handstand in one particular position. I’m not talking about creating shapes with your legs because their area of influence is poor:

• If the legs go too much one way, they fall.
• If the shoulders are stiff, they fall.
• If the core breaks, they fall.

This could be that they’ve never actually spent time in those positions. How can you adjust if you don’t know what position your body is in?

Spend some time in a:

• Banana handstand (arched back)
• In a pike (are your glutes too tight, hands uneven?)

When you know what not to do, then you can correct it.

• When I was learning the handstand, I was obsessed with being in a straight line. Otherwise, it didn’t count.
• I would abort the handstand if I knew I wasn’t straight.
• This resulted in me not actually being able to navigate or adjust while being on my hands.
• My kick up was poor, and I didn’t understand what was going on.
• Then I started focusing on my hands, shoulders, and hips.

I would kick up, and whatever position my body was in, I would try and hold it.

Babies will try all different things, spending ten seconds here, then falling, another ten seconds there, and then falling.

That’s similar to a handstand journey, spend ten seconds freestanding, another 30 seconds doing a drill on the wall. Gather those valuable seconds on your hands. By doing them frequently, you will progress.

Guidelines

Don’t overcomplicate it, be consistent, and actually spend time on your hands.

Here’s a training template you can work off and adapt.

• Choose exercises to focus on the areas I’ve outlined.
• Most of the exercises you will do as a superset.
• A superset is when you perform one set of an exercise (B1) and then immediately switch to another exercise (B2).

You can rest when you have completed the set.

Handstand Session Template

Training sessions can be structured like this, or they can be irregular play.

You can change the exercises you do every month, week, or session by session.

Doing stretches during your session is good to loosen the muscles and to calm your breathing. The more relaxed you are, the better your handstands will be.

You can find a beginner handstand program here Handstand 0-60.

Flexibility and handstands go hand in hand because being able to stack your feet, hips, and shoulders on top of your hands help make handstands less draining.

Without shoulder flexibility (+180° overhead straight arm raise or backend), your wrists and forearms will take most of the load. These areas fatigue quickly under your weight.

It is much better to let the shoulder take most of the load, just like your hips do for your lower body.

Without hamstring flexibility, a forward fold, or the pancake stretch, you will be unable to control your kick up, and you will find it hard to have your legs straight in a handstand.

You can train your flexibility together or separately from your handstands.

There’s No Perfect Handstand

There’s no perfect handstand. There’s just the desire and curiosity to step into the unknown, learn, and adapt.

Spend five minutes a day on your hands and train 2-3 times a week, working on drills to improve your balance, endurance and kick up consistency.

You can always improve your alignment along the way. Take care of your joints because they will determine how far you can advance.

The post How to Learn a Handstand and Fall Less appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

There are various forms of calisthenics/bodyweight training that you can do, based on your goals.

With the amount of information we’re exposed to, it”s easy to overcomplicate our training. When it comes to calisthenics, it appears to look unsafe because we see the end product from the best athletes, but calisthenics is for all levels.

There are various forms of calisthenics/bodyweight training that you can do, based on your goals.

It’s important to keep things simple. You need to ask yourself this question “Does my training match my goals?” I see many times that people aren’t training specifically for the goals they want.

They say they want apples, yet they are planting orange trees.

This article is meant to simplify calisthenics training, guide you from beginner to advanced, and show you how all levels can use the body as a paintbrush to create a masterpiece.

General Strength- Beginner to Intermediate

I know the temptation to advance as quickly as possible is significant, but it will only lead to injuries, massive weakness, burnout, and frustration.

If you haven’t done this style of training before, then start with the basics. Work on the big six:

1. Pullups
2. Dips
3. Rows
4. Pushups
5. Handstands
6. L-sit

These are the pillars of calisthenics training because they cover the muscle groups used in many advanced skills. Do this for 3-6 months.

It may seem long, but it is the quickest way to advance.

If you skip this vital stage in your development, you’ll still have to come back to it because the chinks in your armor will show, and progress will be slow.

During this phase, the aim is to learn your first pullup.

For example, get comfortable with doing 12 + reps. As you progress, begin implementing different variations of these moves in the free beginner calisthenics program, Bodyweight Strong.

Use this time to improve your mobility and flexibility so that it won’t restrict you later.

Keep in mind less is more. More time in the gym and more days of training will not make for better results.

As a beginner, train 2-4 days a week. One hour per session is enough time to put in good, quality work while allowing adequate time for your body to recover.

Specific Strength- Intermediate to Advanced

This is when you start to focus on specific goals like static skills, freestyling, and rings.

Choose 2-3 goals to focus on:

• The front lever
• Handstand pushups
• Muscle-up 360s
• 30 Continuous pullups

It really depends on what you want and where you want to take your training.

Design your program in 4-8 week blocks, with your overall training 3-6 days per week.

For example, if your goal is the muscle-up and handstand pushups, each exercise you choose for your program should improve some aspect towards reaching those specific goals.

• For the muscle-up, you work on specific pulling strength, explosiveness, grip, and core.
• Handstand pushups work on specific pushing strength and balance. If it doesn’t improve those aspects, then eliminate it.

I see too many people trying to cover every movement pattern and work on every weakness.

Less is more. You can always change your focus in the next program.

Build Strength

The word strength is used too loosely in fitness, so let’s define it. When I mention strength, I refer to absolute strength as 1 rep max and maximal strength (85% to 90% of 1 RM).

The stronger you are, the more calisthenics skills you can do.

Understand that your body has three energy systems that it uses independently or simultaneously to contract your muscles.

1. Creatine phosphate lasts 1-12 seconds and is used for high intensity and demanding tasks such as heavyweight or difficult bodyweight exercises that you can only do for low reps.
2. The glycolysis and oxidative system are used for muscle building, conditioning, and endurance.
3. The anaerobic system lasts for 10 seconds – 2 minutes. The aerobic system is low intensity and lasts for a long time. This is your endurance training or for daily tasks.

Strength training is taxing on the nervous system, requiring a minimum of 24 hours to recover between strength sessions.

• Train 2-4 days per week.
• Training your absolute strength to failure should be used sparingly to test your current level or gain that motivational boost.
• You cannot train like this all the time because your nervous system will not recover between sessions, and it will ruin your progress.
• Instead, train your maximal strength leaving 1 rep in reserve. If you know/ think that you can do 3 reps of an exercise max (e.g., muscle-ups), do 2 reps for all your sets.
• This builds strength while not overtaxing the nervous system.
• Train high sets in the 4-8 and 1-5 rep range.
• For isometrics (during contraction, the muscles don’t noticeably change the length, and the affected joints don’t move), 1-12s.
• Eccentrics (contraction caused by the muscle’s lengthening) 1-5 reps, each rep 7 seconds long.

Remember, if you feel the pump or burn in your muscles, you’re no longer training strength.

Build Muscle

Run from anyone who says, “You can’t build muscle with calisthenics.”

Your muscles don’t know the difference between bodyweight exercises, weights, or a table.

It can’t identify whether you’re picking up a 6 kg, 20 kg dumbbell, or bodyweight. Your body feels the resistance, intensity, and how taxing a movement is.

How does the training look? A rep range of 6-12 reps (working at 65-85% of 1 rep max) is the most effective way to stimulate muscle growth.

Instead of increasing the weight, you increase the difficulty of the bodyweight exercises.

Choose exercises that are challenging to you in this rep range.

When pullups become easy, do a harder variation such as close-grip pullups. Utilize the same muscle-building techniques you would with weights such as mechanical tension, eccentric damage, metabolic stress, push-pull splits, or drop sets.

The current culture wants to create a rivalry between calisthenics and weights when the reality is you can use both.

Gymnastics is a bodyweight sport, and they utilize weights in their training.

Many sports, football, basketball, athletics, use weights to improve performance, calisthenics is the same.

• Doing weighted calisthenics, such as weighted pull-ups and weighted dips, is a great way to build strength and muscle.
• Bodyweight exercises and weights are great for training compound movements (multiple muscle groups and joints).
• There’s a wide variety of isolation exercises (multiple muscle groups and one joint). With isolation exercise, you can target certain muscles, which is great for improving aesthetics.

The lower-body is naturally powerful, so bodyweight training can only go so far. That’s why weighted squats, deadlifts, hip thrusts are excellent for building muscle.

Match Training to Goals

I always say there’s no perfect way to train. It depends on your abilities and goals.

Make sure your training matches your goals, and train specifically with them in mind.

Train like a powerlifter if you want to do those advanced calisthenics skills.

Train like a bodybuilder if you want to be in the best shape of your life.

Train like an athlete if you want to be crazy fit or do freestyling.

The post How to Start Calisthenics Training appeared first on Breaking Muscle.