bluejeff
Level 7 Valued Member
I was watching the kneeovertoes guy on Mark Bell's podcast, and he was demonstrating how he could do full sissy squats and lay flat on his back with his legs folded underneath with absolutley no warmup.
I also had the opportunity to attend a workshop with calisthenics legend Simon Ata ("Simonster Strength"). Someone asked what a "tiger bend pushup" was, and with almost no warmup, he kicked up into a handstand and performed a freestanding handstand pushup, a freestanding tiger bend, and a 90-degree pushup, while talking the entire time. I think we maybe had done some arm and wrist circles or something before that. Simon has trained from a young age, and likely has some "good genetics" or whatever. But those skills were CLEAN, and he made it look as if his body weight was like 10 lbs.
So my thoughts here are this. What are everyone's opinions on training so increase your capacity to do something "cold," with little to no warmup?
I think its a valuable goal, to be able to perform on demand. I also think its interesting to think about training in a way that you need to do a lot of things first just to be able to do the thing that is your main practice. That seems odd to me, in a sense. What does it say about one's actual level of "fitness" if they have to foam roll, stretch, do muscle activation, cardio and so on...just to be able to do their main training sets? What does it say about training in general? Obivously warming up is useful, but what does it say about general "fitness" and health? Are we actually healthy if we need a lot of preparation to do our main exercises?
I also had the opportunity to attend a workshop with calisthenics legend Simon Ata ("Simonster Strength"). Someone asked what a "tiger bend pushup" was, and with almost no warmup, he kicked up into a handstand and performed a freestanding handstand pushup, a freestanding tiger bend, and a 90-degree pushup, while talking the entire time. I think we maybe had done some arm and wrist circles or something before that. Simon has trained from a young age, and likely has some "good genetics" or whatever. But those skills were CLEAN, and he made it look as if his body weight was like 10 lbs.
So my thoughts here are this. What are everyone's opinions on training so increase your capacity to do something "cold," with little to no warmup?
I think its a valuable goal, to be able to perform on demand. I also think its interesting to think about training in a way that you need to do a lot of things first just to be able to do the thing that is your main practice. That seems odd to me, in a sense. What does it say about one's actual level of "fitness" if they have to foam roll, stretch, do muscle activation, cardio and so on...just to be able to do their main training sets? What does it say about training in general? Obivously warming up is useful, but what does it say about general "fitness" and health? Are we actually healthy if we need a lot of preparation to do our main exercises?