- What's up, Elite THENX athletes.
It's Chris Heria.
Welcome to another video of Official THENX.
Today we're gonna do a special video
for all you viewers that keep saying we need
to do something a little easier for the beginners out there.
So today, we're gonna do how to start calisthenics
and lesson one, pull-ups.
Let's master those pull-ups.
(upbeat music)
Alright, so let's get started.
So today we're gonna be covering how to start calisthenics
and for the first lesson, it's mastering the pull-up.
Now if you've never been able to do a pull-up,
if you've never even tried to do a pull-up,
if you've never worked out before,
or if you have been working out, but you still
can't manage to do a pull-up or even if you can pull-up,
but you still find yourself like swinging and moving around,
this video right here is gonna help you.
We're gonna break down the pull-up into progressional stages
so it's not so intimidating.
So let me show you the first step right here.
Now this step is called Australian Pull-Ups.
Your grandma could do this, your mom could do this,
anybody could do this move because
what makes this move difficult is the angle
and the position of your body.
You see if you get a bar that's waste height
and you find this in the gym by the Smith Machine,
you can just pull the bar down, you could
find this on the side of some parallel bars.
You wanna find a low bar and this is where
you're gonna do this move.
Now an Australian Pull Up looks like this.
You wanna be straight from your heal
to your shoulder and you wanna pull up to your chest.
(upbeat music)
Not down like this and not up like this.
Perfectly straight, everything is tight and symmetrical.
Now, what makes this move difficult is the angle
in which you start doing this.
So if you can't do it all the way at the bottom,
you can start with a higher angle from here.
Start pulling from here,
just make sure your body is straight.
And then you can develop that pulling strength
and go lower until you can do it properly
and go all the way down, here.
Now, naturally most people have the strength
to at least do one from the bottom like that,
one Australian Pull Up.
(upbeat music)
And if you can do more, great,
if you are there, perfect, let's keep going
and if you can't even do one yet,
just focus on holding that move
and if you can't hold the move focus on coming down,
hold, then go back up and again
and also focus on doing some at a higher angle like this.
Now, we're gonna introduce something that's gonna
increase your repetitions from here, different grips,
wide grips, shoulder width, and closed.
These different grips are gonna have you accessing
different muscles that you wouldn't normally
be targeting because of the different grips
and these different grips are gonna not only
strengthen your back and your biceps
in the areas that you wouldn't normally be hitting them,
but also it's gonna get you really used to
the pulling movement.
It's not just strength that gets you good at pull-ups,
but pulling is also a technique.
When you realize how to use the technique
you're gonna be able to do more reps
and when you can do more reps with the technique
you're gonna get stronger 'cause you're doing more reps.
So now I'm gonna show you guys what that looks like.
So we're gonna get down into our Australian Pull-up
and we're gonna start with that shoulder width.
This is what shoulder width looks like.
This is wide, and at the beginning,
you're gonna ask how wide can you go.
As wide as you can comfortably in order
to do it properly.
And then this is closed.
(upbeat music)
You wanna focus on these three grips at the beginning.
So if you can only do one rep or three reps,
you'll do that one rep closed,
then you'll do one rep shoulder width,
and then one rep wide.
You can only do three reps before you max out,
then you just do three reps 'til you can't go anymore,
wide 'til you can't go anymore and then closed
until you can't go anymore.
So, that right there is like a mental thing right there.
Normally you would gas out and you would give up
after your three reps or after your one rep
or however many reps you can do.
But instead of just stopping and waiting
until you have the energy to go again,
you stop and you go to the next one
and you do the same number and stop and go to the next one.
So instead of doing three reps, you ended up doing nine
'cause there's three grips.
Alright, so before we move on, let me show you
how to activate your body and your scapula
when you're doing this move,
the technique, like I was mentioning earlier.
So the technique into Australian Pull Ups
is there's three gears and it starts
with the scapula position, pulling in from the back,
and then the arms and then you're gonna finish off
with the grip and your forearms to bring it really close.
Now if you focus on these three gears,
one, two, and then three,
you're gonna get a lot better at this pulling technique,
you're gonna be able to do a lot more reps
and you're gonna get a lot stronger.
And you're gonna be able to move on to the next progression
between being able to do real pull-ups.
You see this is what people should be doing,
when instead you see them doing kipping pull-ups
and swinging around when they're doing pull-ups.
The only reason they're swinging around and kipping
is because they can't keep their body straight.
They don't have the strength to do this move
actually properly.
If you increase your technique on your Australian Pull-ups,
your real pull-ups are gonna look super perfect,
super perfect.
So now you wanna get those wide,
as many as you can, shoulder width,
and then closed.
So as you can see, you're trying to increase
that number that you normally would max out at.
So eventually, once you do wide, shoulder, and closed,
and if your max was three, it's gonna turn into four
or five within a couple days.
And then you're doing five, three by three,
and then six, three by three, by that time
you'll already be doing pull ups.
But, let's keep going with the progression.
Alright, so before we move on,
there's one more technique I wanna show you to apply.
And these wide grips and this next technique
that I'm gonna show you, you wanna take these techniques
with you everywhere, whether you're doing pushups
or pull-ups and whether you're doing 'em on Australian bars
or the actual pull-up bar alright.
So this next one is about isometrics, hold,
and the negative hold.
So on your last rep, right,
you're gonna hold it at the top when you can't do
any more reps.
After that, when you can't hold it any longer
you're gonna come down as slow as you can
and then you're gonna drop.
You wanna try to do this with every single grip position.
So you can do it with the wide, one, two, three,
on your last one hold it as long as you can.
When you can't anymore, come down slow.
Then move on.
The next one, hold.
Come down slow and then three.
(mid-tempo music)
Now, there are so many benefits for this.
For example, normally when people finish working out,
they do their last rep, and they gas out
and they give up, boom.
And they just wait until their good again
to just do those reps again.
And more than likely it's not gonna be the same
amount of reps anyway.
So, when you add this isometrics hold into your last rep
you're hanging on more than the average person would.
So, if you can't do another rep,
of course you're not gonna do it with bad form,
but you're gonna hold on and you're gonna keep
that muscle activated.
You're gonna create that time under tension
and this is gonna give you real strength.
And when you can't hold anymore, again,
normally people would just let go and give up,
but not you, not THENX athletes.
We're gonna keep that muscle under tension
until we can't, can't, can't, can't, can't boom.
And then let go.
You exert the muscle all the way, til the end.
Complete, complete, complete failure.
Normally people say they train til failure,
it's not true, if you're not doing stuff like that,
you're not training 'til failure.
Alright, so you wanna apply this,
the different grips, and then the isometrics holds,
and the coming all the way down.
Now you wanna practice these moves and get your reps up.
When you can do about six each, hold it,
and then come down, you're ready to move on
to the next progression and the next progression
is right here into a real pull-up bar.
So now, you're developing some real pulling strength,
but as you can see this pull up bar is a different position
from the Australian and you're actually using
your own weight now.
So you're coming up from here.
So now what I want you to do is here's a new technique
to bring you into pull-ups.
So all you guys that can already do pull-ups
or that are having trouble in your pull-ups
check this out.
When you're pulling, people normally just come up
grab the bar, come up, come down, right.
They're pulling like this.
Here, you can see the range of motion,
the highest you can go is to your neck, to your chin.
I want you guys to reposition your scapula's forward,
see like the Australian, pull up and pull like this,
just like the Australian Pull-up.
How do you do that?
So your bring your scapula's forward,
lean back and you keep this position.
Scapula's forward, arms here, now watch what happens
when you pull up from here.
(mid-tempo music)
You have a greater range of motion.
As you can see, you can pull to your chest,
you can pull to your abs,
you can pull to your belly button
or you can even pull to your waist
the better you get at this technique.
So this is how you get super super high pull-ups,
explosive pull-ups, straight muscle ups,
and so forth, but that's later on.
Just focus on keeping your scapula's straight.
So now, here we go, jump pull-ups.
This is the next progression.
So you're gonna keep your scapula's straight,
you're gonna jump to the bar, and then come back down.
It's pretty simple
You wanna focus on this move now that you have developed
this new pulling strength.
Max out right here, do the wide,
shoulder, closed right here.
Boom, whatever number you're at.
If it's three, five, one, whatever.
Back to the closed.
(mid-tempo music)
Alright, so as you can see you're actually doing
a real pull-up for a second, then coming back down.
You always wanna make sure that you maintain perfect form.
Keep your body straight and tight when you do it,
come back down.
Now, here's the secret.
When you can't do anymore, you've maxed out,
you move back down to the previous progression,
the Australian pull-ups.
So now we go again, max out wide,
max out shoulder width, remember you guys
could add in the isometrics, down as low as you can.
Also, that works out your muscles
in different ways that reps would never work 'em out.
And then closed.
If you want dense muscle, you want isometrics holds
and negatives.
Alright, so that's the little workout technique
right there.
The actual technique and workouts,
for the whole complete introduction to calisthenics program
it's on THENX.com.
So become a member right now to get full access
to that and full access to all our workout programs,
all our daily workouts, technique guides,
and everything.
Alright so let's keep moving on.
So, by this point you guys wanna practice
maxing out the hardest progression, working
on your way down, while using the techniques
of the grips, the isometrics holds, and the negatives.
Alright, so once you've been practicing that
now we move into jump negative pull-ups.
You've increased your strength, now you can jump
up to the top and then you can just come down
in the negative.
You can even hold the isometrics too
at the top if you want.
That will help a lot.
Don't forget, try the different grips.
So, top, down slow.
(drum heavy music)
Alright, so we're almost there.
So you would practice that,
max those jumping 'til you can't do anymore,
the jumping negatives, move on to the jumping,
move on to the Australians, and then that would
be your set and you would keep doing that.
After a couple days you would eventually
have enough strength to invest in a resistance band.
Now if you're looking for some resistance bands
you can find them on our shop, THENX.com/shop.
Check that out.
Alright, so, we put a resistance band around
and now we're gonna actually simulate a real pull-up,
but we're gonna have some resistance.
Now you can try a thicker resistance band,
try one that's gonna challenge you,
but you're gonna still be able to do perfect reps.
Here we go.
Make sure it's perfect, all the way up,
all the way down.
(drum-heavy music)
You guys want full range of motion.
That's another thing, why people are always
lacking in their pull-ups, they do pull-ups like this.
Sometimes you see people doing pushups like that too.
I never understand that, you'll never get strong doing that.
How do you expect your whole entire muscle
to get strong if you only use a small part of it.
You need full range of motion.
Full range of motion in your pull-ups guys.
All the way up, all the way back down.
So now, you practice these resistance band pull-ups,
boom til you can't do anymore.
The jumping negatives til you can't do anymore,
the jumping pull-ups til you can't do anymore,
the Australian's until you can't do anymore.
Now, don't forget to be adding in the grips
and the holds and the negatives.
So now we're ready finally at this point,
you should definitely be able to do your very first pull-up.
Now when you do your very first pull-up
you wanna start from the beginning doing 'em perfect.
If you're even starting from your first one
kipping and stuff like that you're gonna grow
your one kipping pull-up into 20 kipping pull-ups
and that's not impressive, you know.
Start with a perfect, perfect pull-up, master that one
and then grow that one mastered perfect pull-up
into five mastered perfect pull-ups.
Then to 10 and to 15 and to 20 and beyond
using these techniques and by going on THENX.com
and becoming a member and taking all
our workout programs there.
So now, when you're at this point,
it should basically be a check off list, right.
My body is straight, my scapula's are rolled forward,
I come in like this, however if I'm doing
a wide, shoulder, or closed I'm gonna go
for shoulder width, make sure my body is straight
at this point right here, locked.
My feet are tight together and pointed straight
and my core is really tight.
From here, pull.
All the way up, all the way down.
So now to increase this perfect pull-up,
it's the same technique.
You work your way down the progressions,
max out the progression that challenges you the most.
If it's the pull-up, the resistance band pull-up,
jumping negative, jumping, or Australians.
And then you wanna max 'em out and go all the way down
'cause that's really working all the way down to failure.
So that's basically how you start guys.
Your first lesson, master the pull-ups.
Like I said if you master the pull-ups
and you do it really good.
Even if that's one, that one's gonna turn to 10 then 20.
You're gonna have some solid foundation.
Everything's gonna be so much easier.
So before we cut off, I wanted to give you
a little bit of extra credit for those of you
that are getting really good at your pull-ups.
The next step, once you start getting really good
at pull-ups, you can do about 10 pull-ups or so,
you wanna start doing weighted pull-ups.
Put some weight on, whether you hold it between
your legs, whether you put a weight vest on,
whether you put a belt on, and you wanna
start maxing that out.
It could even be 10 pounds, even if you wanna
start with 10 pounds.
And then just take it off and then max out
your pull-ups, go into resistance band and so forth.
But start with those weighted pull-ups
'cause you guys will see unbelievable gains
when you start doing weighted pull-ups.
The biggest guys in the gym, some of them
don't even do weighted pull-ups
and you can see it, you know what I'm saying.
Their bodies don't look like, you know,
like it's developed that type of real strength.
So if you guys are looking for that real strength
go on and become a member right now to THENX.com.
Download our app.
It's in the video description at the bottom.
You can take our workouts
and our programs with you everywhere.
These are the best workouts you're gonna find
to getting you into the best shape
using weighted calisthenics, using weights
and calisthenics, all combined for every fitness level.
A huge database with over a thousand videos guys.
And if you need a little bit of help,
a little pump with that workout, something
to push you, we just came out with THENX IGNITE,
our pre-workout that has cut out all the bullshit
that other pre-workouts put inside it
that gets you feeling jittery and just nasty.
It's just clean pure ingredients.
And a sick focus, I mean I'm using it and I'm loving it.
So if you guys wanna check out that pre-workout
you can order it right now, THENX.com/shop
and get it to you guys right away.
Thank you guys so much for watching.
We're still gonna keep going with the introduction
to calisthenics and the second lesson is pushups.
See you then guys, thanks for watching.
(mid-tempo music)