rvaldrich
Level 5 Valued Member
Howdy y'all! Been here forever, but haven't posted in...well, forever.
I fell down the rabbit hole of wanting to do EVERYTHING AT ELITE LEVEL!!! Went looking for how to combine gymnastics and power lifting and olympic lifting and parkour and cobblery and 19th Planet Shadow Kung Fu MMA, etc.
Stumbled across Pavel's classic quote of 'you combine two programs by doing one or the other' and that helped calm me down.
But!
I read a lot of posts about combining this program with that program and I sympathized with a lot of the people who felt the urge to customize (us poor, lost souls). I've been doing a program that I really love and it's been delivering performance like clockwork. I thought I'd share in case somebody else falls down the rabbit hole behind me.
TL;DR - Simple & Sinister, with two high-level calisthenic lifts each day for a comfortably challenging 2x3.
More in-depth:
Warm-up with Super Joints, then some easy martial arts stuff (forms, etc).
Simple & Sinister trifecta (squats, bridges, halos) with a 16kg bell (I've yet to see a strong case for going heavier)
Simple & Sinister. No timing, but 5 breaths between swing-sets; talk test between get-ups.
Two Calisthenics:
Monday - Front and Back Lever Pulls
Tuesday - Handstand Push-up and One-Arm Chin-up
Wednesday- Side Lever Pull and Windshield Wiper
Thursday - Pistol squats and Stand-to-Stand Bridges
Friday - Planche Push-up and Lever Row
I started two-three years ago after wandering in the desert of training programs (Gymnastic Bodies, Convict Conditioning, Athlean-X, etc). Despite weighing 210-215lbs, I started with the 16kg two-handed swings and shoe get-ups. I systematically worked up to (as of this morning) 36kg get-ups and 24kg one-handed swings. I've also reached mid- to high level progressions in all the calisthenics (eg: I started with standard pull-ups and I'm now adding reps to the assisted one-arm chin-ups).
The program has delivered very reliably, but also very slowly. It plays to my greatest strength, which is patience (which admittedly is counter-intuitive given my prior program-jumping). I train in twelve-week cycles. At the start of each, I set a new PR with the calisthenic lifts and then I stay at that progression, set, and rep scheme for the remainder of the cycle. No matter how easy it seems, I stay with those numbers.
With the kettlebells, I go up in weight for 2 sets a week (16kg x 10 sets Week 1 -> 20kg x 2 sets & 16kg x8 sets Week 2, etc, pausing progress at weeks 6 and 12). I inch up the weight at a snail's pace, so progress is slow but so consistent, I can set my calendar by it. I approach the calisthenics as lifts and their performance as practice. I'm just maintaining a skill, while gently nudging the difficulty up once a season.
I know mixing programs can be frowned upon but this has worked consistently and wonderfully for me. It's given me enough breathing room to constantly have energy and focus to dial in on little details, since the rest of the program is on auto-pilot.
I have scheduled to do get-ups with the Beast by the end of the year and I see no reason why that won't happen. Full Planche Push-up by this time next year, too. And likewise, it feels very doable.
Hope this helps some people. Happy Training!
I fell down the rabbit hole of wanting to do EVERYTHING AT ELITE LEVEL!!! Went looking for how to combine gymnastics and power lifting and olympic lifting and parkour and cobblery and 19th Planet Shadow Kung Fu MMA, etc.
Stumbled across Pavel's classic quote of 'you combine two programs by doing one or the other' and that helped calm me down.
But!
I read a lot of posts about combining this program with that program and I sympathized with a lot of the people who felt the urge to customize (us poor, lost souls). I've been doing a program that I really love and it's been delivering performance like clockwork. I thought I'd share in case somebody else falls down the rabbit hole behind me.
TL;DR - Simple & Sinister, with two high-level calisthenic lifts each day for a comfortably challenging 2x3.
More in-depth:
Warm-up with Super Joints, then some easy martial arts stuff (forms, etc).
Simple & Sinister trifecta (squats, bridges, halos) with a 16kg bell (I've yet to see a strong case for going heavier)
Simple & Sinister. No timing, but 5 breaths between swing-sets; talk test between get-ups.
Two Calisthenics:
Monday - Front and Back Lever Pulls
Tuesday - Handstand Push-up and One-Arm Chin-up
Wednesday- Side Lever Pull and Windshield Wiper
Thursday - Pistol squats and Stand-to-Stand Bridges
Friday - Planche Push-up and Lever Row
I started two-three years ago after wandering in the desert of training programs (Gymnastic Bodies, Convict Conditioning, Athlean-X, etc). Despite weighing 210-215lbs, I started with the 16kg two-handed swings and shoe get-ups. I systematically worked up to (as of this morning) 36kg get-ups and 24kg one-handed swings. I've also reached mid- to high level progressions in all the calisthenics (eg: I started with standard pull-ups and I'm now adding reps to the assisted one-arm chin-ups).
The program has delivered very reliably, but also very slowly. It plays to my greatest strength, which is patience (which admittedly is counter-intuitive given my prior program-jumping). I train in twelve-week cycles. At the start of each, I set a new PR with the calisthenic lifts and then I stay at that progression, set, and rep scheme for the remainder of the cycle. No matter how easy it seems, I stay with those numbers.
With the kettlebells, I go up in weight for 2 sets a week (16kg x 10 sets Week 1 -> 20kg x 2 sets & 16kg x8 sets Week 2, etc, pausing progress at weeks 6 and 12). I inch up the weight at a snail's pace, so progress is slow but so consistent, I can set my calendar by it. I approach the calisthenics as lifts and their performance as practice. I'm just maintaining a skill, while gently nudging the difficulty up once a season.
I know mixing programs can be frowned upon but this has worked consistently and wonderfully for me. It's given me enough breathing room to constantly have energy and focus to dial in on little details, since the rest of the program is on auto-pilot.
I have scheduled to do get-ups with the Beast by the end of the year and I see no reason why that won't happen. Full Planche Push-up by this time next year, too. And likewise, it feels very doable.
Hope this helps some people. Happy Training!