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- Woo, what's up guys?
Today I'm gonna show you five things I wish I knew
when I first started calisthenics.
If I would have known these five things
I would've gotten to this fitness level
a whole lot sooner and progressed a whole lot faster
if I would have stuck to these five things
from the very, very beginning.
So if you're just starting calisthenics
and even if you're not
you're gonna be a whole lot better off than I was
when I first started
and you're gonna be making major gains and excelling
through calisthenics.
So the first thing that I wanna share with you guys
is basics, sticking to the basics,
and incorporating high, high repetitions into those basics
which means that you would have mastered that basic.
For example, if you can do 100 pushups in a row,
you're pretty solid in your pushing game.
If you can do 100 pull-ups in a row,
you're super solid in your pulling game.
When I first started, I really don't remember
really trying to achieve reps higher than 25
so it's really important that you guys
really master these movements
not just rep them out
but really get good at the technique of that motion.
Pulling is not just engaging your muscles
and getting you stronger to be able to do this motion
but the actual practice of pulling
is gonna get you a whole lot better
at using those muscles in combination
which is gonna advance your pulling technique
which is gonna get you into a whole lot harder exercises.
And get really, really high reps in your basics
so you're gonna be more comfortable with it.
Pull-ups pushups, dips, squats.
Even the basics in other techniques, for example,
the handstand, really get good at just holding a handstand
against the wall.
That's a lot of people's fault when they're first starting
is they wanna quickly advance
to the next progression, next progression,
because they can already do it,
you wanna build that solid foundation.
If you were to really focus
on getting that hold against the wall
then when you go on to trying to learn how to handstand,
the actual act of handstanding
is not gonna give you any stress
so you're gonna be able to completely focus
on your technique and your form while you're doing this,
you're gonna advance a lot faster
versus someone that is just still struggling
to just hold the handstand and on the floor
because they hadn't put in the work for the basics.
Now the second thing is gonna be perfect form, alright?
Perfect form in every single thing that you do.
You're not trying to just get through the exercise,
if you're just trying to get through the exercise
you're never gonna excel.
You need to be consciously putting in effort
towards trying to do it as perfect as possible.
The key to this is quality over quantity.
You're way better off doing five perfect pull-ups
than doing even 15 really shitty pull-ups.
You need to start clean form from the very beginning
and that's gonna make a huge difference,
and I'm telling you,
I've been there with the sloppy pull-ups
and I've also had to reprogram my training
and start to learn everything all over again
with perfect form, and let me tell you,
you're gonna feel way stronger
when you're putting in quality repetitions,
which brings us to number three,
something I wish I focused on at the very beginning
would be grip strength.
In most exercises your grip is the first point of contact
to every single exercise.
Having a really strong grip
automatically increases your endurance,
the amount of repetitions that you can achieve,
and your overall strength.
I remember when I first started calisthenics
just hanging on to the bar was really difficult,
I remember my arms were like burning from that
and when I was just learning how to hang with one arm
I remember that that was actually painful
just to hang with one arm.
And of course now I look back
and hanging out with one arm that's like a joke now.
So imagine the amount of strength and control
you're gonna achieve
from barely being able to hang on with two arms
to comfortably being hanging on with one arm.
That type of strength is gonna transfer over
into everything, into your handstands,
all exercises from the hanging position,
all exercises from the lifting position.
Your overall endurance, repetitions, and performance
is gonna increase by just simply
increasing that grip strength,
which brings us to number four.
Negatives, doing the negative of any exercise
will eventually give you the positive of that exercise.
Doing a lot of negative muscle-ups
will eventually result you in a muscle-up.
I actually ended up achieving the front lever
from a front lever negative.
When I first started doing front lever negatives
I would start from the top and I would come down really fast
but eventually I was able to come down slower,
and slower, and slower, and if you keep that form
while you're coming down, eventually,
you'll be able to come down as slow and controlled
and be able to stop flat into that front lever position.
That's why incorporating negative exercises,
especially from the very beginning is gonna excel you
really, really quickly.
What's gonna have you reach your goals
is the four things we just talked about,
mastering the basics, getting very comfortable with them,
which is why you're gonna be doing them
for high repetitions, to build that time under tension,
utilizing perfect form in every single exercise
and every single motion that you do.
Having an extremely solid grip
and incorporating negative exercises
to quickly excel you into harder exercises and progressions.
Which brings us to our fifth and last thing
that I wish I knew when I first started calisthenics,
and that is consistency and having a goal
and consistently challenging yourself to reach that goal.
Without a goal, no matter how big or small,
it's gonna be hard to calculate and motivate your progress.
If you're not constantly
trying to improve on what you're working on
then chances are you're gonna have little to no progress.
But the very act of having a goal is half of it,
you need to create milestones for yourself
to make sure and ensure you're moving
in a forward, upward projected.
We, as human beings, like to be constantly rewarded
and that motivates us to go further
so having a really far goal is fine
but you need smaller consistent goals
to keep you going, to keep you progressing, and,
you need to be consistently challenging yourself
in order to reach those goals.
So the way that I stay progressing
is to choose something that currently challenges me
and consistently work at it
and set a goal for myself by the end of the week
that I must achieve within that.
So now we're gonna get into a workout routine,
I'm gonna show you guys how to incorporate
these five things into your workout regimen.
Alright, so the first exercise we're gonna go with
is some pushups.
Like I said, we need to be drilling the basics
and we're gonna go for high reps, so for these pushups,
let's go for some diamond pushups,
let's go 50 times with perfect form,
so you see we just set a goal, 50, no matter what,
we're gonna kill these 50, even if you stop,
just keep going, stop, and keep going.
Let's go.
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There you go, 50 diamond pushups, now,
if that was the first time you've ever done 50 in a row,
there's your first goal, now we gotta do 60 tomorrow.
Alright, so the next exercise we're gonna get into,
hang from the bar,
we're gonna be working on that grip,
and I'm gonna challenge myself,
I'm gonna add some extra weight.
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There you go.
Quick little grip.
So if you guys are strictly working on this,
you do this for a lot more reps
and either go up in weight or go up in time,
go down in weight.
Alright, so next,
we're gonna go into perfect form muscle-ups, alright?
Keep that perfect form, here we go.
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Alright, there we go.
Couple quick reps.
Now if you've been working on your basics, high reps,
and that grip strength, this should be a piece of cake.
And speaking of that grip strength,
knowing how to grip
the bar correctly is gonna also make a huge difference.
Having more of an over grip
than just hanging right underneath, this is...
You're gonna have no grip like that.
You wanna over grip it like this.
Your callouses should be coming out right over here
not just up here and here,
you need to be using your whole hand to grip that bar.
That was a huge thing when I first started.
Alright, so the next move we're gonna go into now
is actually a negative move.
Remember, practicing the negatives
is gonna help you accomplish the positive of that exercise.
We're gonna go into negative muscle-ups
by using pull-overs.
So we're gonna do a pull-over,
we get to the top of the muscle-up,
we're gonna come down slow.
Alright, let's rep it out.
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Alright, moving on to the last exercise.
I'm really gonna challenge myself, guys.
Here we go, we're gonna go for hefestos.
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So I'm gonna add this resistance band
so we can put some reps on top,
this is an advanced move, guys.
Let's do as many as we can, here we go.
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Woo.
Damn.
Alright, I wanted to do more, but,
that's all I got for today.
There you guys go,
those are the five things I wish I knew
when I first started calisthenics, and,
that's how you incorporate 'em into your workout routines.
Thank you guys so much for watching,
I'm gonna see you guys next time,
I'm gonna tell you guys how I started calisthenics,
hopefully that helps you guys on your journey
when you get started.
We're right about to go back on tour,
right before we go back on tour,
we're gonna be in Toronto, Canada, for a workshop June 24th,
so go on to thenx.com/blog/events to sign up right now
if you haven't already.
Space is extremely limited
so if you wanna attend one of our workshops,
make sure you sign on right now, thenx.com/blog/events.
Find the city near you and I'll see you guys there.
Thank you guys so much watching,
I'll see you guys next Thursday
with how I started calisthenics.
We'll also add in some nutrition, and,
maybe we'll make a song together or something like that,
let me know what you want the next video to be about
in the comments section down below.
Mad love, peace out, guys.
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