all posts post new thread

Bodyweight Program, training with bodyweight only.

Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Hi.

1) you have two partially opposing goals. 1) To gain muscles and strength 2) If I understand you correctly using only bodyweight. Particularly lower body hypertrophy and erector spine ( the back muscles that you use for deadlifts) cannot be that easily trained with bodyweight. I am sure there exist people who only do bodyweight who has huge legs, but they are not many. So if I were you I would be clear about my priorities: Is it most important to only use bodyweight or is it most important to gain strength and muscle mass as fast as possible. Strength and muscle mass is more easily gained by a barbell.

2) A lot of strength and some hypertrophy in the upper body can be gained through bodyweight training. Pull-ups, push-ups, and rows for rope or rings builds good strength. Also an ab-wheel can be useful.

3) I think Steven Low´s book about gymnastics is good. The name of the book is Overcoming Gravity: Amazon product ASIN 0990873854
4) There are many strong first resources. Some are free some are not. The free ones could be found if you search on the Internet for Strongfirst Push-up program, and Fighter´s pull up program. You can also see instructions on YouTube if you search for Strongfirst push ups. strong first pull.ups etc etc. Karen Smith also have many great videos on YouTube. The ones that cost money are some of the bodyweight books you can find on Amazon written by Pavel: Naked Warrior and Bulletproof abs. You can also reach out to one of the Strongfirst instructors and ask them to design a program for you. And there is also video instructions here on the Strongfirst page where you can see some hours of instructions about how to make those different bodyweight exercises and what to pay attention to. They are very nicely made. Then you have strong first one day seminar in bodyweight training and the bodyweight instructor course that lasts for two days.
 
Last edited:
This is why I love understanding principles then applying them to programs. Getting stronger is about exposing your muscles to more than they're used to handling. Going from 1 pushup to 10 is getting stronger & would be pretty simple or done a lot of ways. Increasing your bench from 500 to 600 will require a lot more specifics & complexity. Hypertrophy is also giving your body a stimulus that is greater than your minimum, but not over your maximum recovery. If the stimulus is there, and diet is tuned to support, then growth will occur. Do that over a decade & you'll have great progress. Again, starting gains is simpler than going from most jacked guy in the gym to Ronnie Coleman. All require progressive overload that improves over time and what worked at one point may be different that what will work at the next point... While pushups may work well when a person is at one point, maybe someday it won't be enough. Great discussions, as always.
 
And, of course, the StrongFirst bodyweight course could be a great start for technique pointers. (I don't know if it includes programming.)
It is mostly technique and drills focused. The programming section is more an overview of general programming advice without any examples of implementing those principles in a program. If you go in expecting something like the SF Barbell course where they give you the basic principles and your first year of programming, you will be disappointed. Or at least I was.

That said, when I asked for help with implementing the programming section, SF was extremely helpful getting me to a usable program.
 
That said, when I asked for help with implementing the programming section, SF was extremely helpful getting me to a usable program.
I'd be curious to see what kind of program you ended up with. I also have the course but never built a program around it.
 
I discovered the Free Start Bodyweight Basic Routine program, and wanted to know if anyone had used it and had advanced with it? So I would like to know compared to Convict Conditioning programs revisiting style going with 3 × 10 and changing stages, the Get Strong program and the basic routine, what would be the "best" program to advance in calhistenia, for the muscle and the strength? If there are people who have tried and have answers, I'm in favor! Thank you very much, Luigib.
Id be interesting to hear thoughts on Convict Conditioning as well

This Program looks interesting

3 Days / Week:

A: Pull-Up / Squat
B: Push-up / Leg Raise
C: Hand Stand Push Up / Bridge
 
I'd be curious to see what kind of program you ended up with. I also have the course but never built a program around it.
The program Brett helped me make was basically a rotating focus on 3 of the exercises. So I would do 3-5 rounds of 3-5 reps of 3 drills for OAP in a slow circuit, then do a 3-5x5 of a drill from the other two exercises I was working towards like the pistol and tactical pullup. The next workout I'd put the focus on pistol work and do 3-5 rounds of 3-5 reps of 3 drills for pistol progressions in a slow circuit and so on.

I don't want to bash the course. But it seems more targeted towards someone who can already do the exercises and are looking to add to their "bag of tricks" for coaching instead of someone who can't do the exercises and needs help getting there.
 
The program Brett helped me make was basically a rotating focus on 3 of the exercises. So I would do 3-5 rounds of 3-5 reps of 3 drills for OAP in a slow circuit, then do a 3-5x5 of a drill from the other two exercises I was working towards like the pistol and tactical pullup. The next workout I'd put the focus on pistol work and do 3-5 rounds of 3-5 reps of 3 drills for pistol progressions in a slow circuit and so on.

I don't want to bash the course. But it seems more targeted towards someone who can already do the exercises and are looking to add to their "bag of tricks" for coaching instead of someone who can't do the exercises and needs help getting there.
With bodyweight it has to be individualised to each person with drills and regressions instead of just finding the appropriate weight. I guess it makes it harder to really deliver a program with the course because of that.

So basically each session you'd switch which exercise you'd be doing 3 drills for and do only one drill for the rest. It makes sense. I'll keep it in mind when I'm back to full health and working on BW.

Thanks.
 
Id be interesting to hear thoughts on Convict Conditioning as well

This Program looks interesting

3 Days / Week:

A: Pull-Up / Squat
B: Push-up / Leg Raise
C: Hand Stand Push Up / Bridge
It depends a bit on how you look at CC imho. Most people seem to think just of CC Volume 1, disregarding the other two books and CC Mass.

As for the first book, the progressions are mostly solid, although there are some aspects that are a bit more wonky – sometimes, you have clear jumps in between two progressions, and in some cases I even think the reversing the order of two progressions is easier (step 6 and 7 of HSPU; step 7 and 8 of pistols; step 8 and 9 of one-arm push-ups). You could also argue that the difficulty is not the same across the board, not even for the master steps (sorry, 30 hanging leg raises to 90° is not identical in difficulty to a set of 6 one-arm pull-ups in my book, you’d need one-arm hanging leg raises for that), and some exercises might have benefitted from more progressions, or at least a guide how to make your own “extra steps” (e.g. running the beginning progression steps again with one arm). The one-arm push-up version is interesting, although somewhat vaguely explained (especially when it comes to bending at the waist – the version in the book with the elbow tucked and the body straight is A LOT harder than the version shown in the video curse), but I think it does a good job in illustrating how much room for improvement there is in the exercise. The one-arm HSPU in the way shown is made up, I think they admitted that nobody has ever done it in the way shown in the book, it was included for marketing purposes mostly. In my opinion, that diminishes the value of the book somewhat, I’d rather have a tried and tested progression to, say, elevated HSPU, ring HSPU or tiger bends in there. The 2-1-2 tempo is a bit unusual, but I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad idea.

The programming however is a nightmare if you consider it a stand-alone program. In many programs, you’ll end up doing a mere 4 work sets per training session, maybe 6 or 8 sets total counting warm-ups, and that just isn’t going to give you the ideal stimulus for improvement. The training frequency is also quite low for the single exercises for “New Blood”, “Good Behavior” and “Veterano”, only in “Solitary Confinement” and “Supermax” you’ll be working on each exercise twice per week. If you are past the beginner stage, those are the only two progams in the book I'd consider. If you decided to just stick to the strength work, I’d recommend training each movement at least twice, or better yet three times per week. I usually just go through all 6 of the exercises in one session, with 2-3 work sets apiece. Your mileage may vary, but with things like one-arm pull-up work or the advanced HSPU versions, I'd rather train more often than increase the number of sets per session, to give my joints less of a beating.
Personally, I think the only way the mini programs remotely makes sense is when including the other books as well. That way, you’ll add stretching and grip work, plus work on more explosive and skill-intensive exercises, maybe even add one or two "finisher" sets of exercises from CC Mass.

PS: The one thing CC doesn't really cover is (an-)aerobic conditioning, which is strange when comparing it to reports of typical prison training programs, which usually tend to feature running (whenever possible) and tons of burpees.
 
Last edited:
Hello,

Here on SF, there is this article:

Kind regards,

Pet'
 
and in some cases I even think the reversing the order of two progressions is easier (step 6 and 7 of HSPU; step 7 and 8 of pistols; step 8 and 9 of one-arm push-ups).

This is interesting I have recently found the Hanging Knee Raises (Step 6) easier than Flat Straight Leg Raises (Step 5), in both strength and flexibility required

The programming however is a nightmare if you consider it a stand-alone program. In many programs, you’ll end up doing a mere 4 work sets per training session, maybe 6 or 8 sets total counting warm-ups, and that just isn’t going to give you the ideal stimulus for improvement. The training frequency is also quite low for the single exercises for “New Blood”, “Good Behavior” and “Veterano”, only in “Solitary Confinement” and “Supermax” you’ll be working on each exercise twice per week. If you are past the beginner stage, those are the only two progams in the book I'd consider. If you decided to just stick to the strength work, I’d recommend training each movement at least twice, or better yet three times per week. I usually just go through all 6 of the exercises in one session, with 2-3 work sets apiece.

PS: The one thing CC doesn't really cover is (an-)aerobic conditioning, which is strange when comparing it to reports of typical prison training programs, which usually tend to feature running (whenever possible) and tons of burpees.


Yes I agree the weekly volume is light, would need to be fit into verity days of another program such as ROP or overlaid with anther complete program ie. "Promethean"( Dead Lift / Curl/ Shoulder Press) From the DD Iso Book looks interesting and could overlay with the lighter CC Programs

.
 
This is interesting I have recently found the Hanging Knee Raises (Step 6) easier than Flat Straight Leg Raises (Step 5), in both strength and flexibility required
I never did those to be honest, since I could already do full V-raises back when CC came out. Personally, I think the hanging knee raises can and should be scaled (pulling the knees up until they touch the armpits). It would be another possible "hidden" step.
Yes I agree the weekly volume is light, would need to be fit into verity days of another program such as ROP or overlaid with anther complete program ie. "Promethean"( Dead Lift / Curl/ Shoulder Press) From the DD Iso Book looks interesting and could overlay with the lighter CC Programs.
Yes, you could combine it with all kinds of things. Generally, I would say that doing too few sets and reps of a progression will inhibit your progress, because you are not honing that particular skill enough. I'd aim for at least 6-8 work sets per week for each skill.
As a side note, my brother was a freestyle acrobat back in the day (he focused on handbalancing and pulling work like one-arm pull-ups and slow bar muscle ups), so working on things like these was paramount for him. He usually did 10-30 sets per day for each skill he was working on at the time (plus a handful of the ones he was keeping on maintenance), 6-7 days per week, similar to how a gymnast would approach it. Granted, he was in his teens, so recovery wasn't an issue, and he'd often just do submaximal singles and focus on maximum control and slow execution. If you really want to focus on skill work and "owning" more complex moves (I'd consider some of the master steps to be just that), I'd say there is no way to get around a certain amount of volume.
 
Speaking of CC, has anyone put together a plan including all the elements from all the published material? It would be interesting to see what that looks like after consolidating the material from all the books and supplements.
 
Speaking of CC, has anyone put together a plan including all the elements from all the published material? It would be interesting to see what that looks like after consolidating the material from all the books and supplements.
You mean in form of a chart, like the ones that circulate for volume 1? That could be done, I suppose. It should be fairly easy for CC 2, but I think it would be somewhat harder for CC 3. The more technical it gets, the more you'll need longer explanations imho.
 
You mean in form of a chart, like the ones that circulate for volume 1? That could be done, I suppose. It should be fairly easy for CC 2, but I think it would be somewhat harder for CC 3. The more technical it gets, the more you'll need longer explanations imho.
Yes, like that. A written out workout plan that’s CC all-inclusive.
 
Status
Closed Thread. (Continue Discussion of This Topic by Starting a New Thread.)
Back
Top Bottom