- What's up, Thenx athletes?
It's Chris Heria.
Today I'm gonna show you six moves you can do right now
to master calisthenics and your body weight.
With calisthenics, you're either pulling your weight,
pushing against your weight,
or holding your weight in an isometrics hold.
And in order to progress in calisthenics,
you need to create a progressive overload by one,
increasing the resistance
of an exercise with different angles, harder progressions,
or just adding external weight using a vest or belt.
Two, increasing the repetitions.
Three, reducing your rest time, or four,
increasing the whole time
of an isometrics exercise over time.
The same rules will apply
to the six exercises I'll be sharing with you today.
And no matter how hard or easy any or all of them might be,
you'll be able to scale each one with an easier
or harder progression that you can start doing today.
So you can master the fundamentals,
creating a strong foundation to build on
while developing all the muscles throughout your body,
and master calisthenics as every exercise you will do
throughout your calisthenics journey will stem
off one or a combination of these six exercises.
Starting with the first exercise we have
the pull-up.
Pull-ups are arguably the best exercise
you can do for your laps,
but they will also work your biceps, rhomboids,
rear delts, traps, and your core.
So first I'm gonna show you what
a proper pull-up looks like,
and then I'll break it down.
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If you can't yet do a pullup, you would start with one
of their earlier progressions, like the Australian pull-up
or jumping pullups, master those, and move on to the pullup.
And for a complete step-by-step breakdown
as a total beginner, check out my video,
"How to do the Perfect Pull-up,"
where I go in depth
on both how to build the strength for your first pull-up
and how to do your very first one with perfect form.
The pull-up starts off with your grip,
so stand directly under the bar and grab the bar shoulder
with the part with a slight overgrip, palms facing forward,
and thumb wrapped under, not over the bar.
Next up, you wanna retract your scapula
with your shoulders rolled back and down with your chest up.
From here you wanna pull the bar towards your chest first
emphasizing pulling from your elbows,
bringing your chest to the bar, as opposed
to pulling straight down with your elbows out
and just trying to stretch your neck to get your chin
over the bar.
Doing it properly will not only increase the range
of motion, but will better target the intended muscle groups
while preventing injury.
And once you've mastered the pull-up with perfect form,
you'll wanna increase those repetitions.
Check out my video, "How To Do Your First Pull Up:
0 to 20 Reps," where I break down step by step
not only how to do your first pullup with perfect form,
but increase that one pull-up to 20 repetitions and beyond.
And once you can do a good amount of repetitions in a row,
you'll wanna progress them
onto harder progressions like high pull-ups, muscle up,
explosive muscle up, one arm pullups, and so on,
increasing the overload
and building your strength and muscle even further.
And I've made a video breaking down how to unlock each one
of these harder exercises as well.
And I'll link a couple more
in the video description and onscreen.
When it comes to building a big and strong chest,
there's not many exercises that can do it like the pushups.
It's one I've been doing
for years and definitely a favorite of mine.
Pushups are also great for developing your triceps,
shoulders, traps, suras, anterior, and your core.
I'm gonna go ahead
and show you what a proper pushups will look
like and the breakdown for you guys.
Now, if you want to do harder exercises like muscle ups,
you not only need a really strong pulling strength,
but pushing as well.
And one of the best ways to develop this is with one
of the fundamental exercises to calisthenics: the pushup.
If you don't yet have the strength to do a pushup,
you can start with your hands
on an elevated surface; that allows you to do a pushup
by reducing the resistance and work your way
over time to a lower surface
until you're ready to do them on a completely flat surface.
But again, if you need a complete step-by-step breakdown
as a total beginner, check out my video
"How To Do The Perfect Pushup,"
where I explain exactly how you do it
with perfect form every time and build your strength up
to being able to do your very first one.
So to start off,
you want to have your hands shoulder-width apart,
your feet together, and your body as straight
as possible with your elbows locked out basically
in a straight line from your heels to your shoulders.
You'll also need to keep your chin forward
as you look straight ahead,
and with your shoulders
above your hands in a controlled motion, bend at the elbows
as you lower your straight body toward the floor.
Instead of flaring your elbows out and to the sides,
you want to have them bend back and near your body.
Once at the bottom
of the pushup, you'll wanna press back up,
still keeping those straight lines
in your body and chin facing forward.
So master your pushups with perfect form, of course,
and make goals and milestones like 10 push-ups
in a row, 20, 50, and even 100 pushups in a row.
And by then,
you'd have definitely developed a super strong push
and foundation for your calisthenics training and skills.
And there's many videos I've already made
to increase your pushup repetitions.
I'll link a bunch of them
on screen as well as in the video description below.
You can then start taking on harder progressions
and challenges like the one arm pushup,
which you can learn step-by-step from my video,
"How To Full Planche Pushup,"
where you can learn step by step
on how to go from just 20 pushups to plant pushups.
You're gonna be able to take on all
of these challenges once you increase your pushing strength
and you're able to do a good amount of pushups in a row.
Now moving on to the third exercise, we have dips.
Dips will of course build a strong chest
and powerful triceps, but they also work your shoulders
and require your traps and core for stabilization.
So I'm gonna show you exactly what a proper dip should look
like and then I'll break it down for you guys.
Calisthenics is all about using
and mastering your body weight to build strength
and muscle with the ability to manipulate
and control your body in all dimensions.
The pull-up helped you with vertical pulling.
The pushup had you covered with horizontal pushing,
and dips will help you with vertical pushing downward.
If you can't yet do dips,
you can always do one of the progressions,
like jumping dips, or you can do bench dips.
The dip starts with a really strong grip,
so squeeze the bar tight,
then slightly depress your shoulders down
and away from your ears.
And with a slight lean forward,
a tight core begin to descend by bending
at the elbows to a 90-degree angle
before pressing back up to starting position.
It is crucial that you have your elbows
at your side and not flared out to preserve the integrity
of your shoulders and avoid injury.
And just like pull-ups, this is one of the best exercises
that you can work on increasing the overload
by adding external weight with a weight vest
or a belt to drastically increase your strength and muscle,
and making everything that you do with body weight,
feeling weightless, and a whole lot easier.
The next exercise is another pushing exercise,
and one that will develop insane strength, flexibility,
and balance.
Except this time, we're pushing from our legs.
To truly master calisthenics, you'll need to be proficient
in every type of movement with your body,
which is why the pistol squat is an essential exercise
and fundamental to calisthenics.
And make sure to check
out a video I did called three best exercises
that hit every muscle without weights, where I break
down step-by-step exactly how to do a perfect pistol squat.
All right, I'm gonna show you an example
of a pistol squat and then break it down for you.
This exercise will also target some
of the largest muscle groups in your body,
like your glutes, hamstrings, and quads.
It also works your calves and core,
as you need to engage your abs
and lower back to maintain stability for this exercise.
But if you don't yet have the strength to do pistol squats,
you can start by doing negatives on a box or a chair.
The pistol squat starts
by standing straight, core engaged, feet together,
and pointed forward with your chest and chin up.
Then begin to raise one leg extended in front of you
with your knee locked out, and begin bending your other leg,
as though sitting down and back
into a chair slowly while keeping your body straight.
The key to this exercise is to maintain balance
and control throughout the entire movement, while of course
having a strong lower body to support your weight
on a single limb.
Once you've reached the bottom of the squat, press
from your heels while continuing to keep your core tight
and chest up until your leg is fully extended,
and build your reps up to 20
on each leg to really master this exercise.
Some limiting factors
to this exercise are balance and stability,
so make sure to stretch out your hamstrings and work
on your balance and build your reps up to 20 on each leg
to really master this exercise and remember to progress,
you'll wanna do one of the four things that I mentioned
at the beginning of this video.
Now we're ready to cover isometrics holds.
Now, before I show you how to do it,
if you want a more in-depth tutorial
on exactly how you can get an L-Sit,
check out my videos
"Why You Can't L-Sit Hold,"
and "3 Best Calisthenic Skills to Learn."
I'm gonna show you what it looks
like to do an L-Sit on the ground
for a couple seconds and then break it down for you.
And one of the best introductions
to isometrics and another fundamental to calisthenics,
we have the L-sit hold.
Not only a great exercise
for developing and strengthening your abdominals and core,
but also your hip flexors, quads, triceps, shoulders, chest,
and even your lats.
The L-sit requires a bit of flexibility.
So really this exercise would start
with some shoulder and hamstring stretches.
And once you've warmed up, you're ready to go.
Start by sitting flat on the ground,
then place your hands on the floor beside you.
Now you're ready to grip the ground.
Depress your shoulders to lift your hips
off the ground and engage your core and hip flexors,
lifting your feet off the ground
as you point your toes forward and push your hips forward.
You also wanna push back slightly
with your arms, engaging your triceps and your rear delts,
and hold this L-sit position for as long as possible.
When first starting off, it'll be much easier to learn
on an elevated surface as it will allow much more room
between your legs and the floor.
But as I said before
this can be a pretty difficult exercise,
so make sure to check
out the videos that I just mentioned before.
And a good goal will be to work your way up to 10,
20, and 30 seconds of hold time,
at which point you'd be ready to try some more
advanced isometrics exercises from my videos
like how to front lever step-by-step and a whole lot more.
Make sure to check out every single one
of those videos to unlock all
of these advanced calisthenics exercises
once you've mastered your L-sit hold.
And finally, we come to the king of upper body exercises
with a vertical push, the handstand pushup.
And of course, to do a free-standing handstand pushup,
you'd first need to know how to do a handstand.
And if you need help with that,
check out my video, "How to Handstand: Anyone Can Do This."
I go into depth exactly how you can go
from zero to holding a handstand in no time.
All right, I'm gonna go for a couple handstand pushups
and then break it down for you.
Not only great for building incredible strength
in your upper body, but also develops a lot
of muscles like your shoulders, triceps, traps, chest,
and even your core and areas of your back,
while also improving your balance,
stability, and coordination.
So to start off,
you wanna make sure you're in a perfect handstand position.
That means your hands are shoulder-width apart,
hands gripping the ground firmly, head up
and slightly looking above the top
of your fingers, with your shoulders pushing down
and elevated near your ears.
You also wanna note that you should have a stacked
and straight body, meaning core
and glutes engaged with your shoulders stacked right
on top of your hands and your feet pointed upwards
directly stacked above your hips.
There should be no bend in your body,
and you should find your perfect balance point
before even beginning to do your handstand pushup.
But once you're balanced, you can then bend at your elbows
as you lower your body and chin toward the ground.
And once you've reached the bottom of the exercise,
maintain the slight forward, lean with the straight body
as you come down and push back up.
You can also practice this exercise against
or facing a wall if you can't yet hold a handstand.
And if you can hold a handstand, I would suggest
for your very first attempt just to work the negative
of the press and slowly bring yourself down
to the handstand push up as slow and controlled as you can.
Once you've developed the strength and you get the hang
of that, it'll be a lot easier to press back up.
But for a complete breakdown on how to unlock
and master the handstand pushup,
step-by-step starting from the very beginning,
then check out my video, "How to Handstand Pushup."
And once you've unlocked all six
of these fundamental exercises
and developed the strong foundation,
you will eventually master calisthenics.
There you have it, six moves you can learn
and use right now to master calisthenics.
These are the same exercises that I've been using
for over a decade to build my foundation,
skills, and phyisque.
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as well as joining the Thenx community
of millions of other Thenx athletes
just like you chasing that very same goal.
And once again, thanks so much for watching.
If there's something you'd like us to cover
on your calisthenics or fitness journey,
let us know down in a comment below,
and I'll make a video just for you.
And until then,
check out one
of our other videos that are gonna get you in the best shape
of your life and take your training to the next level.
And I'll see you next Monday
with a brand new video at 10:00 AM USA Eastern Time.
Mad love, and peace out.