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- What's up?
THENX athletes, it's Chris Heria.
Welcome to another video.
Of official THENX.
Today I'm gonna show you guys the best calisthenics
exercises for each muscle group.
Now I've narrowed down these exercises
from my usual experience into
what I believe is the most efficient calisthenics exercise
for that specific muscle group.
And I'm gonna show you all these exercises
in today's full-body workout.
Now our first muscle group is gonna be biceps,
and the calisthenics exercise that I've chosen,
that I think delivers the best bicep gains has got
to be the hefesto.
And the reason has a lot to do
with the position and the angle
of this movement.
When your hands are behind your back
and you're trying to curl, that's gonna reduce the help
from other muscle groups.
And it's gonna emphasize more on
that bicep, and from this angle,
you're actually curling with strictly just
with your bicep all your body weight
which is something that you definitely don't normally do.
So this is a huge overload on the bicep,
so you don't need to do that many reps
with this exercise.
But if you can do a lot of reps,
you're definitely gonna notice your gains
in your biceps.
So let's go for some hefestos right now.
In fact, we're gonna use a resistance band
so we can add more reps.
All right. This is how you wanna put it.
Across your waistline.
Hold it on one side.
Hold it on the other side, and we're good
to go.
And then we're gonna slide our body right off.
All right?
Here we go.
Hold it tight, tight, tight, tight.
Hold, control, go all the way down.
Full range of motion.
All the way back up.
Back down.
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All right.
So that's basically the pulling part
of the hefesto.
And as you can see, pulling from over here,
you really have to focus all on your biceps.
You're not really using any help
in your back, your shoulders, and so forth.
So that's why I think
that this move specifically is the best move for biceps.
Well, let me know
what you think is the best calisthenics exercise
in the comments down below. All right, so we're gonna move
on to the next muscle group.
That's gonna be your back,
and I personally think the best back exercise,
calisthenics exercise, has gotta be the L-sit pull up.
And the reason I chose the L-sit pull up is
because when you're in this position,
it's gonna reduce the amount of momentum
that you use to perform this exercise
as well as forcing you to constantly engage
that back and engage more of your back.
If you notice that when your legs are up,
you can see a lot more activation
in that lower back.
So now we're broadening our activation
of our back. All right, so we're gonna go right
into some L-sit pull ups.
So make sure that you have that perfect form, guys.
We're gonna go about shoulder width apart,
have a nice over grip, get into a nice,
straight line with that L-sit,
and then pull.
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All right.
So there you have it.
L-sit pull ups. If you can do the eight to 10,
that's a perfect rep range.
Definitely start off on 'em.
You're gonna feel those gains right there.
So now we're moving into lats.
And my favorite exercise with lats,
what I think is most efficient
as well, has gotta be front lever raises.
Doing a front lever raise simulates the exact same motion
that you use when you're doing lat pull downs
in the gym.
In fact, gym machines are designed
for this motion that you're doing.
So this is the most natural movement
that you can be using for your lats especially
when you're pulling down with your arms straight,
that's the best way for lat activation.
So in my opinion,
front lever raises have gotta be the best especially
because of that overload that you're applying
when doing this exercise.
And I'm pretty sure you don't do it
with the same amount of weight
when you're in the gym as well
as you missing that balance and stabilization factor.
So this is gonna get you shredded.
Let's get ready too.
Shoulder width apart, have a nice over grip.
Lean from your back and see scapula activation
and from that position, you're gonna lean back.
Lean back, lean back, lean back,
lean back, lean back.
Come back down.
Keep those arms as straight, as straight
as you can.
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There you have it.
Some front lever raises.
So, again, I would say eight reps,
eight to 10 reps of that move right there, perfect.
Moving on to the next exercise,
we have chest.
In my opinion,
the best calisthenics chest exercise has gotta be the
explosive push-ups.
And the reason is because training explosive especially
with the same angle
that activates the chest the best is gonna make everything a
whole lot easier.
It forces you to use full power with every single rep.
Another great benefit to this move is the overload
that you get upon impact, being able
to slow your body down.
Tense, tighten, and control that body weight.
So I'm gonna show you guys how
to do 'em right now.
We're gonna drop down.
Go for some explosive push-ups.
So same position as a normal push-up.
You wanna make sure that you're straight lines
from your heel to your shoulder as well
as your hands are about shoulder width apart.
We're gonna go down, leaning forward.
But when we come back up, we're gonna explode
as hard as we can.
A full range of motion.
Arms straight.
Boom.
Come back down.
Especially when you come back down,
guys, don't slam on your wrists.
Absorb that amount of energy that comes down,
catch it at the bottom, push, absorb.
Push, absorb.
Here we go.
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Make sure to keep that full range,
and don't break that form no matter what.
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All right.
So there you go.
Explosive push-ups.
Eventually you guys will get better
at that. If you can't do it like that, you can always start
on your knees.
But of course you wanna make sure
that you can do proper push-ups
before you even try to do this stuff.
All right. So moving onto the next muscle group,
we're going to be doing triceps.
And in my opinion, the best calisthenics move
for that is advanced bench dips.
Let's get right into it.
So we're gonna get some dip bars,
or you can take another side of a box,
get to the other side of that box,
put your feet up.
Now when you normally do dips,
bench dips, you come down, and you come up
with that forward lean, right?
I want you guys to start leaning
on the back of your triceps, right.
So when you go down, you're leaning
on your triceps.
When you come up, you lean back
on your triceps.
All right?
We're gonna do this for reps.
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So always looking up, always leaning back.
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So you see when I lean back?
I'm emphasizing all the weight
back onto my triceps, which is reducing the help
from the shoulders, reducing the activation
from other unnecessary muscle groups.
So lean, lean, lean, lean, lean.
And if you're falling backwards,
that's how you know you're putting all
that weight on that tricep.
So now we're gonna move on into shoulders,
and I think you already know
what the next exercise is gonna be.
That's gonna be handstand push ups.
By far, hands down, no pun intended,
is the best shoulder exercise in my opinion
when it comes to calisthenics exercises.
And the truth is that the list for the reasons
why goes on and on.
It has a balance factor, it has an endurance factor,
it has a control stabilization factor.
You're using and pressing full body weight
above your head.
Doing this all simultaneously.
But another important factor is
that when you have your hands on the ground,
when you're upside down, your body weight is stacked
on your shoulders.
And just like when you're doing a squat all the control
and strength comes from your hips.
The same thing applies when you're inverted
for your shoulders.
So in my opinion, the handstand push up is king
when it comes to the best calisthenics shoulder exercise.
So we're gonna get into some right now.
If you can't do 'em free standing,
of course do 'em up against the wall
with your nose facing the wall.
And we're gonna get right into it.
All right, guys, let's go for it.
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All right, a little quickie right there.
I love that exercise as you can tell.
It's one of my favorite moves. All right, moving on.
We've got abs.
The best calisthenics ab exercise
in my opinion has gotta be toes
to bar. You guys see me do that all the time,
and there's a reason
why you guys see me do this move all the time.
And that's because of the full range
of motion you get through your abdominals.
When you're hanging in this position,
one, you're already activating your core.
And then from this completely open,
neutral position, you're gonna curl your entire abdominals
up all the way to the top and fully crunch
and come back down.
So you really don't get that full range
of motion with any other exercise.
So this is the best, best, best,
best move for abs in my opinion.
All right, you guys, so we're gonna get right
into it.
We're gonna go for 10 reps with this workout routine, guys.
Try to do it as perfect as possible.
Hands, slight over grip, shoulder width apart,
hanging nice and comfortable, feet tight,
tight, tight, pointed everything,
and no momentums.
Pull straight up.
Toes to bar.
Back down.
Don't let your feet drop.
Let's go for it.
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Holding tight, tight, tight.
Squeezing that core, breathing.
It's the best thing you can do
for this exercise.
Don't swing 'cause then you're gonna take all the difficulty
out of it.
It's not gonna be as efficient
for your body and for your abdominals.
Let's do this.
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So honestly, guys, the tighter you squeeze
on this exercise and the better of an over grip you start
with, it's gonna be a lot easier
to complete this exercise.
Now we're gonna move into the last muscle group I have
for you guys today.
That's gonna be legs, and the best leg exercise
for calisthenics
in my opinion has gotta be the pistol squat.
Now the first reason to why I chose pistol squats
for legs is because of the obvious reason
that what you normally do for two legs,
if you're doing it for one,
that's obviously a greater overload.
It's gonna require a lot more strength,
a lot more stability, a lot more endurance,
control, and of course power.
So that's why a pistol squat
in my opinion is enormously beneficial for the legs
when it comes to calisthenics exercises.
And of course there's more muscle groups
in your legs.
Such as the calves, hamstrings,
quads, glutes, and so forth.
But this will be an endless video
if I went through every single muscle group,
so we're just gonna sum it all up, the legs.
Next time let us know if you want us
to cover those specific muscle groups,
and we'll get right into it.
But for legs, pistol squats is king.
So if you've never done pistol squats before,
you can always start with some assistance,
holding something, as long as you keep
that leg straight.
You keep this leg straight.
Don't let the knee past your toes.
Should be good to go.
So with that, let's get some pistol squats.
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Sometimes you just need balance.
Plays a huge factor. You might be strong enough to do it,
but if your balance and stability isn't
on the same par with your strength,
you're not gonna be ultimately
as functional and as strong as you'd like
to be. So that sums it up, guys.
What I think is the best calisthenics exercises
for each muscle group.
Now I know there are some muscle groups we missed like traps
and so forth, but these were the muscle groups
that I had for your guys today.
So let me know what you think in the comment section
down below. What do you think was the best exercise,
if there are better exercises out there,
and what muscle groups you'd like us
to cover in the next video.
So with that said, thank you guys
so much for watching.
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So I'll see you guys next time.
Get ready for the Chris Heria weight
that's coming out real soon, guys.
More of that in the next video.
Mad love.
Peace out.
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