Calisthenics For Dummies

Mark Lauren is an internationally recognized expert in bodyweight training. For 15 years, he trained U.S. Special Forces as a military physical-training specialist. With Joshua Clark, he is coauthor of You Are Your Own Gym and Body By You. Joshua Clark is an international best-selling and award-winning author, editor, filmmaker, music producer and journalist.

Introduction 1

About This Book 1

Conventions Used in This Book 2

Foolish Assumptions 2

How This Book Is Organized 2

Icons Used in This Book 3

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Total Fitness: No Limits 5

Chapter 1: Calisthenics: When Your Body Is Your Equipment 7

Calisthenics: For All Bodies and Abilities 7

Why Calisthenics Is Better than Any Other Workout 8

You save time 8

You save money 9

You save space 9

You can do it anywhere 9

No gymbarrassment 9

It’s always open 9

It’s safer 9

You will not stop seeing results 10

Getting the Results You Want 10

Become stronger 10

Burn more fat 10

Get better with age 11

Regain your youthful metabolism 11

Live injury free 11

Getting Comfortable with Bodyweight Exercises 12

Use muscles you didn’t know you had 12

Get off the bench 12

Discovering the Eight Abilities You’ll Build Through Calisthenics 12

Muscular strength 13

Power 13

Muscular endurance 13

Cardiovascular endurance 13

Speed 13

Coordination 13

Balance 14

Flexibility 14

Rounding Up Your Gear for Home Workouts 14

A backpack 14

Towels 16

Trees 16

Table 16

Chairs 16

Video camera 17

Pull-up bar 17

Bosu ball 17

Suspension straps 17

Elastic bands 17

Your Body Is Your Home 18

Chapter 2: You Were Made to Move 19

Fitness Equals Function 19

Practice the movements most important to your survival 20

Put the pieces together 20

Locomotion: The Secret to Your Best Physique 20

Understand locomotion 21

Improve locomotion as quickly as possible 21

Your Body Is a Tower 21

Your body’s ability to resist stress depends on its alignment 22

Ideal joint alignment 22

Spinal stabilization 22

Joint functions 22

Weight shifting 23

Focusing on Developmental Movements 23

Mobility 23

Stability 24

Force absorption 24

Load sharing 24

Perfect posture and physique 25

Your Performance Pyramid 25

Avoid neglect 25

Aging does not equal disabling 25

Living Pain Free 26

Coordination helps you avoid injury 26

Functional exercises are the safest 26

Lessen hip and knee pain 26

Ameliorate lower back, neck, and shoulder pain 27

Putting the Building Blocks of Calisthenics in Place 27

Focusing on Attention and Breathing 28

Performance Leads to Efficiency 28

You only get good at what you do 29

Focus on the fundamentals 29

Mastery of life 29

Chapter 3: Setting Goals and Staying Motivated 31

Knowing What You Want from a Calisthenics Program 31

Evaluate where you are and where you want to be 32

Create specific goals 32

Step away from the scale 33

See your effort pay off 35

Embrace the mental boost 35

Throwing Your Ego Out with the Weights 35

The true measure of your merit 36

Start small and progress gradually 36

Finding and Keeping Your Motivation 36

Big rewards, small costs 37

Independence day 37

Making your health a top priority 38

Overcoming Obstacles 38

Dealing with injuries 38

Modifying your routine when life gets in the way 38

Picking up where you left off 39

Facing Down Your Excuses 39

Giving in to your excuses backfires 39

Resisting your excuses creates a better you 40

This is your time 40

Part 2: the Exercises 41

Chapter 4: Getting Down with Floor Exercises 43

Gaining Big Improvements with Small Exercises 43

Developing better posture 44

Improving hip, spine, and shoulder functions 44

Better coordination means getting more for less 44

Back Lying Exercises 45

Dead bugs 45

Glute hip-ups 46

Up and overs 47

Windshield wipers 48

Crawling Exercises 49

Dirty dogs 49

Hip circles 50

Pointers 51

Straight wide legs 52

Front Lying Exercises 53

Hip twists 53

Moose antlers 54

Twists and reaches 55

Y cuffs 55

Side Lying Exercises 57

Hip drops 57

Moon walks 58

Side crunches 59

Side leg lifts 60

Chapter 5: Lying to Standing Transitions (Developmental Movements) 63

The Role of Weight Shifting in Movement and Stability 64

Exercises for Coordinating Hip and Shoulder Functions 64

Rolling exercises 64

Lying to kneeling exercises 65

Kneeling to standing exercises 67

From lying to the stork stance exercises 68

Chapter 6: Strength Training Exercises for Your Core 71

Mastering the Abdominal Exercises 72

Bodyrocks 72

Reaching bodyrocks 73

Side reaching bodyrocks 73

Pillar reaches 74

Tripod scissor kicks 75

Mountain climbers 76

Mountain climbers across 76

Mountain climbers around 77

Rollouts 78

Hanging leg lifts 79

Scorpion kicks 79

Parallel leg crunches 81

Starfish crunches 82

Sit-ups 83

V-ups 83

Jack knives 84

Practicing the Lateral Stability Exercises 84

Side plank 85

Side v-ups 85

ITB (Iliotibial band) leg lifts 86

ITB kickouts 87

Learning the Lower Back Exercises 87

Reverse hypers 88

Swimmers 88

Skydivers 89

Chapter 7: Strength Training Exercises for Your Legs and Hips 91

Trying the Hip Hinging Exercises 92

Deadlifts 92

One-legged deadlifts 93

Romanian deadlifts 94

One-legged Romanian deadlifts 95

Narrow squats 96

Wide squats 97

T-arm squats 98

Overhead squats 99

Squats to deadlifts 100

Deadlifts to squats 100

One-legged squats 102

Squat thrusts 103

Bulgarian split squats 104

Dynamic squats 105

Learning the Lunging Exercises 106

Back lunges 107

Front lunges 108

Side lunges 108

Saxon lunges 109

Twisting lunges 110

Squats to lunges 111

Lunges to squats 112

Iron Mikes 113

Practicing the Kneeling Transitions 114

Long kneeling transitions 115

Short kneeling transitions 115

Side kneeling transitions 117

Bottom squats 117

Cossack squats 118

Strengthening with Step-Ups 120

Stork stances 120

Gate swings 121

Cross steps 122

High-knee marches 124

High-knee runs 124

High-knee skips 125

Chapter 8: Pushing to Strengthen Your Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps 127

Maintaining Ideal Alignment Under Stress 128

Practicing the Perpendicular Pushing Exercises 128

Classic push-ups 128

Staggered push-ups 130

Archer push-ups 130

Contra presses 131

Tripod push-ups 132

Dips 133

Seated dips 134

Bouncing push-ups 135

Semi-planches 136

One-arm push-ups 136

Trying the Inline Pushing Exercises 137

Military presses 138

Dive bombers 140

DF glides 140

Bear crawls 141

Chapter 9: Pulling Exercises to Strengthen Your Back, Biceps, and Forearms 143

Finding Tools for Pulling Exercises 144

Practicing Perpendicular Pulling Exercises 144

Let-me-ins 144

Let-me-ups 147

Trying Inline Pulling Exercises 150

Pull-ups 151

Assisted and negative pull-ups 154

Chapter 10: Exercises for Mobility 157

Enjoying the Benefits of Proper Positioning 158

Starting with the Spiderman Exercises 158

Hip swirls 159

Arm circles 160

A frames 160

Saxon tilts 162

Doing the Inch Worm Exercises 163

Bloomers 163

Deep squats 165

Vertical twists 165

Kneeling switches 168

Mastering the Quadruped Exercises 169

Kickouts 169

High kicks 170

Side kicks 172

Table tops 172

Trying the Starfish Exercises 175

Starfish twists 175

Starfish hip drops 177

Starfish push-ups 177

Starfish dive bombers 179

Part 3: the Workouts 183

Chapter 11: Mixing and Matching Exercises for Your Goals 185

Choosing Your Workout Types 185

Sets across 186

Supersets 186

Ladders 187

Timed sets 188

Speed sets 188

Circuit training 189

Flows 189

Focusing Your Training with Training Splits 191

Full body workouts 191

Upper and lower body workouts 192

Pushing, pulling, legs, and core workouts 193

Adapting Your Workouts for Long-Term Progress 193

Volume and intensity 193

Consistency and variety 194

Progression and regression 194

Covering the Essentials to Avoid Injury 195

Joint functions and transitions 195

Beginning with warm ups 195

Wrapping up with cool downs 195

Allowing time for active recovery 196

Chapter 12: Following a 13-Week Program 197

Creating a Tailored Routine 197

Introducing the Workouts 198

AMRAPs 198

Timed sets 199

Circuit training 199

Block 1: Weeks 1-4 200

Monday 201

Tuesday 203

Wednesday 204

Thursday 206

Friday 208

Saturday 210

Block 2: Weeks 5-8 212

Monday 212

Tuesday 214

Wednesday 216

Thursday 218

Friday 220

Saturday 222

Block 3: Weeks 9-12 224

Monday 224

Tuesday 226

Wednesday 228

Thursday 230

Friday 232

Saturday 234

The Active Recovery Week 236

Monday 237

Tuesday 238

Wednesday 240

Thursday 242

Friday 244

Saturday 245

Part 4: Calisthenics for Special Circumstances 249

Chapter 13: Doing Calisthenics When You’re Pregnant 251

The Benefits of Exercise Before and After Baby 251

Taking Heed and Taking It Slow 252

Preparing for a Successful Pregnancy and Delivery 253

Getting fit before getting pregnant 253

Volume over intensity 253

Increased stress tolerance 253

Improved recovery 254

Chapter 14: Working Out with Limited Mobility 255

Getting the Essentials Right 255

Finding your safest starting point 256

How working with limited mobility inspired my program 258

Getting and Staying Prepared for Life 258

Getting up and down from the floor 259

Rolling exercises 259

Lying to kneeling transitions 260

Kneeling to standing transitions 261

Back lying to standing transitions 262

We’re the Only Mammals That Walk on Two Feet 263

Chapter 15: Starting Your Kids on Calisthenics 265

Keeping Your Kids Happy and Healthy with Movement 265

Leading by example and training together 266

Instilling/encouraging the joy of movement 267

Increasing your child’s injury resistance 267

Learning to learn better 268

Overcoming Complaints about Exercising 269

Chapter 16: Nine-Minute Workouts 271

Athleticism Leads to Efficiency 272

Structuring Your Workouts 272

Starting with the Pushing Exercises 274

Push-ups 274

Military presses 275

DF glides 275

Trying Out the Pulling Exercises 276

Let-me-ins 276

Let-me-ups (knees bent) 276

Let-me-ups (legs straight) 277

Moving on to the Hip Hinging Exercises 278

Squats 278

Romanian deadlifts 280

Back lunges 280

Part 5: the Part of Tens 285

Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Success 287

Stay Consistent 287

Schedule Your Workouts 287

Listen to Your Body 288

Strengthen Your Weak Side First 288

Rest and Recuperate 288

Don’t Do Too Much 289

Show Up 289

Keep a Playful Mindset 289

Count Your Wins, Not Your Losses 289

Eat a Healthy Post-Workout Meal 290

Chapter 18: Ten Bodyweight Training Myths 291

Men and Women Should Train Differently 291

Women’s Muscles Will Get Too Big If You Do Strength Training 292

You Can Reshape a Muscle by Doing Isolation Exercises 293

You Need High Reps for Definition and Low Reps for Mass 293

Muscle Can Turn Into Fat 294

You Can’t Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time 294

Going Hungry Means Looking Healthy 294

Exercise Machines Were Built for You 295

Bodyweight Exercises Don’t Allow You to Adjust the Difficulty 295

Aerobics or “Cardio” Is the Only Way to Burn Calories 296

Index 297