- What's up, ThenX Athletes?
Today I'm gonna be showing you three calisthenic skills
that anyone can start learning no matter where you are.
It takes zero equipment
and it's gonna completely transform your physique
and tremendously improve your skillset.
Now, you've probably seen these three skills somewhere
and thought to yourself,
"Yeah, I'm never gonna be able to do that."
But the truth is you definitely will.
You just need to know what to train and how to train for it
and that's what I'm gonna be showing you today.
These three skills are also fundamentals to calisthenics.
So they're gonna have you progress very quickly.
As every other more advanced skill,
like the full planche, full planche pushups,
handstand pushups, and so much more
stems from the three exercises
that I'll be showing you today,
which is why these three skills are gonna condition
and strengthen your body to be able
to do more advanced exercises
that require you to lift your body
off the ground from your hands.
And using your entire body weight for every rep
is also gonna completely transform your physique,
not just because you're working with a heavier overload,
but also because you're recruiting
a lot more muscle groups at once.
And if you need more information and routines along the way,
just download the ThenX app in the App Store
or Google Play Store.
It's a complete program that you can follow along to
and work towards every single week
to finally achieving your goals
like the millions of ThenX athletes around the world
that have used these same technique guides
in the ThenX app to unlock these skills.
All right, smash that light button
and let's get right into it.
The first skill we're gonna be breaking down
is the L-sit hold.
A lot of people have trouble with this exercise,
but I'm gonna show you how to train for it
as a complete beginner from the very beginning.
And that's gonna be flexibility, hip flexor strength,
core strength, and shoulder depression strength.
We're gonna be covering all four of those
in these progressions.
So regularly stretching your hamstrings
is gonna make it a lot easier.
If you need some hamstring stretches
and more info on the L-sit,
check out the video I did,
"How To L-Sit Hold On The Floor."
Now let's start off with the very first progression.
And keep in mind for the rest of this video,
when it comes to calisthenics training,
it's just like weights,
but we increase the resistance over time
using progressive overload.
But instead of using weights,
we use harder and harder progressions.
With each progression, the angle of position will change,
allowing more body weight to be applied.
Once you're able to do an exercise comfortably
with perfect form for the required amount of repetitions,
then you're ready to move on
and attempt the next harder progression.
Now, starting off with the very first progression
that anyone can do to start learning the L-sit hold,
we're gonna sit with our back straight
and flat against the wall,
hands down on the ground, depressing with your shoulders,
and we're gonna try to lift up our legs,
just like that.
Now, if that's too hard,
you can always start with one leg first.
You wanna be able to do 10 with each leg.
And then eventually being able to do 10 with two legs.
This move is gonna strengthen your hip flexors
as well as increase the flexibility in your hamstrings.
Once you can do 10 pumps with both legs,
they don't want you to attempt to hold that position
for at least 10 to 15 seconds.
(light vibrant music)
All right, so there you have it.
Master these progressions.
Once you can do them comfortably
with perfect form for the required amount of repetitions,
you're ready to move on and attempt the next progression.
Now moving on to progression number two,
we're gonna be going for a tucked L-sit.
Instead of doing it on the floor,
we're gonna be doing it on an elevated surface.
This is gonna require less core and hip flexor strength,
so this is gonna be the best and easiest place to start off.
And eventually, the better and stronger you get,
you can move it down to the floor.
So first things first, lemme show you what it looks like,
then I'll break it down.
Now, to get into this exercise,
you first wanna start off by just sitting down
at the edge of your chair.
Place your pumps on the surface and push down
and depress your scapulas as hard as you can,
while lifting your knees up and engaging your core.
Now, this is a static hold,
so the goal is to increase your hold time.
When you're first starting off,
you may only be able to hold it for a second or two,
and that's okay.
Go for three attempts in a row every minute
on the minute until you improve.
Eventually, the more you do it,
the stronger you're gonna get.
And over time, you want to attempt to hold it even longer
and longer and break your record
until you can comfortably hold it
with perfect form for at least 15 seconds,
then you're ready to move on to the next progression.
All right, there you have the tucked L-sit hold.
All right, moving on to the third progression.
Now we're gonna increase the difficulty
and bringing it down to the floor with tucked L-sit walks.
Lemme show you what it looks like,
then I'll break it down for you.
Now, to start off with this exercise,
of course, you wanna start off in a tucked L-sit position.
Place your hands on the ground just a little bit forward,
then depress your scapulas down
while lifting your knees and your hips.
You'll take just a small step
and keep inching your way forward for at least 10 reps.
Now, if this is too difficult,
you can always try doing this with your feet on the ground,
one foot on the ground,
and eventually no feet on the ground.
All right.
So there you have it. The tucked L-sit walks.
This is gonna be more difficult
than the tucked L-sit you did before,
because there's a lot less room for your legs,
which means you need even more hip flexors,
core strength and shoulder depression
to be able to lift your body high enough off the ground.
But this is gonna directly prepare you
and build your strength
to being able to do the real L-sit hold.
And by this point, you're already getting comfortable
with lifting your entire body weight for reps.
And now is when you're gonna start to see your body
and skills really transform.
Now, once you can do this comfortably
with perfect form for at least 10 repetitions,
then you're ready to move on
and attempt the next progression.
Now moving on to the fourth progression,
we're gonna be going for L-sit kicks.
This is gonna be a lot more difficult,
but by this time, you should have developed
a lot more upper body strength.
So let me show you what it looks like
and then I'll break it down for you.
You wanna be able to start in a tucked L-sit position,
then kick your legs out to full range of motion,
completely locked out and straight,
and then bring them back into a tucked position.
You wanna be able to do this as controlled as possible.
But when you're first starting off,
you may not be able to go all the way out
and it may not be that controlled, but that's okay.
Keep doing it every minute on the minute, maxing out,
and eventually you'll get stronger
and you'll definitely improve.
And again, I'm starting you off
on a higher elevated surface,
so that you have more room for your legs,
but eventually you wanna build the strength
and flexibility to be able to do it on the ground.
But once you can do the tucked L-sit kicks
with perfect form comfortably for at least 10 repetitions,
you're ready to attempt the last
and final progression to master your L-sit hold.
All right, so there's the L-sit kicks.
That last one, I just held it for a little bit longer,
but just to give you an idea
that the better you get at this,
eventually you'll be able to kick out
and just hold your legs out there completing the L-sit.
All right, moving on to the last and final progression.
After this, you should definitely be able
to master your L-sit hold.
We're gonna be going for tucked L-sit hold alternating legs.
I'm gonna show you what it looks like
and then break it down for you.
It's very similar to the previous progression,
but we're just gonna hold one leg out for a second,
bring it in and then alternate.
(light vibrant music)
Now, when you first start off,
you may be doing it really fast and sloppy,
but just like with every progression,
the goal is to eventually do it controlled
with perfect form.
You wanna be able to do it for at least 10 reps
with perfect form comfortably,
and then you're ready to move on
to the harder variation of this progression.
The next way to do it would be
to have one leg completely extended, have one leg tucked,
so you're alternating with one leg sticking out.
And for a second there, as you're switching legs,
you're actually holding an L-sit with both legs out.
And the more you do this, you're gonna get stronger,
and eventually over time,
you're just gonna be able to put them both out.
And you're gonna be able to hold that L-sit,
even if it's just for a couple seconds
and then you know what to do.
Attempt your L-sit hold every minute on the minute,
increase your hold time, and there you have it,
you mastered your L-sit.
And once you've mastered the L-sit,
you can then move into L-sit pull-ups,
L-sit to handstand, front levers,
start learning your planche, and so much more,
because you have the strength and ability
to hold your entire body weight off the ground.
And now we're ready for the second skill.
Moving on to the second skill
I'm gonna be showing you how to master,
that's gonna be the 90 degree hold,
and this is a very important exercise
to have in your arsenal.
This exercise is not only gonna develop
insane upper body strength,
but allow you to hold your entire body weight
from a horizontal position and even rep it out eventually,
developing superhuman strength in your shoulders,
arms, core, as well as your lower back.
And I'm gonna be showing you the very first progression
that anyone can start doing
to start mastering this exercise.
That's gonna be a pushup hold.
So all we're gonna do is get down on the ground
and hold the bottom of a pushup.
Right now we're just building the foundation.
You wanna be able to hold this position very comfortably
and with perfect form for at least 45 seconds.
When you're at the bottom of your pushup,
make sure that you're engaging everything in your body
and your body should be in a complete straight line,
not drooping and not too high, completely horizontal.
You also wanna have your arms tucked in
and not flared out to ensure
that you're really using your arms as well.
But for a complete breakdown
with more in-depth info on how to do this
as well as eventually being able to rep planche pushups,
check out the video on how I went
from 20 pushups to planche pushups.
And check out the technique guide in the ThenX app
if you haven't downloaded it already.
You look at the end result, it may seem impossible,
but as you can see now,
you've already started training for it.
It's definitely doable.
All right, for the second progression,
we're gonna be emphasizing on strengthening our glutes
as well as our lower back.
That's actually what lifts the rest of our lower body.
So for this exercise,
we're just gonna need an elevated surface
and we're gonna go from some leg raises.
(light vibrant music)
So we're gonna lay down,
bring it in and extend.
(light vibrant music)
Make sure to really feel your lower back
and your glutes every time you extend.
Lock out your legs,
keep it straight.
Now, when you get really comfortable with this,
you wanna be able to hold it for time.
(light vibrant music)
There you have it, the second progression.
Again, not too difficult.
As you can see, we're building that foundation,
one block at a time.
That's gonna make it easier to move on
to the harder progressions.
And it's gonna compound when you put it all together
to do some extraordinary things.
So once you're able to do the reverse leg raises
for at least 15 reps comfortably with perfect form
and hold it for at least 15 to 20 seconds comfortably,
then you're ready to attempt the next progression.
All right, moving on to progression three.
Things are gonna get a little more difficult.
We're gonna be going for pseudo planche pushup.
I'm gonna show you what that looks like
and then we're gonna break it down.
Slightly different from the normal pushup.
You wanna lean as far as possible
so that your hands are by your waistline,
and then you wanna push from there.
Now, it looks simple, but it's actually pretty difficult
to do when you're first starting off.
So for your first time or your first couple times,
don't go all the way down to your waistline.
Just put your hands slightly lower
and eventually you'll develop more strength
to be able to put your hands lower, lower, lower
until you can comfortably push by your waistline.
It's also gonna help the range of motion in your wrists
to have your hands slightly pointed out
with your thumbs pointing forward.
Also, when first starting this progression,
you may feel like as you're pushing,
your body is sliding back
and your hands are coming back up to the top.
So one thing you can do to help fix that
and to maintain that position
is to put your feet against the wall.
That'll also help indicate on your progress
of how low your hands are going.
So with your feet pushed against the wall,
you can't move anywhere.
You'll start by pressing with your hands placed
at the lower chest area
and eventually place 'em a little bit lower,
press, a little bit lower,
press, till you're hitting it down by the waistline.
Then you wanna start holding the bottom
of the pseudo planche pushup for time
with your hands by your waistline at least 20 seconds.
Once you've mastered all this comfortably with perfect form,
you're ready to move on to the next progression.
All right, moving on to the fourth progression.
This is gonna level up the previous progression
and that's why you wanna make sure
to really master that pseudo planche hold.
We're gonna be going for 90 degree alternating toe taps.
And with this progression,
you're gonna feel a real 90 degree hold
even for just one second.
I'm gonna go ahead and show you what it looks like
and then break it down for you.
Make sure that you can lean far enough forward,
then you're gonna lift up one leg and then alternate them.
At the beginning, you may feel like you're jumping up
and coming down pretty hard.
That's okay.
The more you do it, the stronger you're gonna get.
But eventually, you'll be able to switch
and alternate a lot slower.
The goal is actually to raise your leg
versus kicking and jumping off.
(light vibrant music)
All right, there you have the 90 degree hold
alternating toe taps.
So you wanna be able to do
the 90 degree alternating toe taps
for at least 10 reps with perfect form comfortably,
and then you're ready for the last and final progression.
All right, we're ready for the final progression.
If you mastered the previous progression,
then you should already be on your way
to kinda of holding the 90,
but this one is gonna solidify it.
We're gonna be going for 90 degree lean plus raises.
It's just like the previous progression,
but instead of lifting one leg,
we're gonna lift both legs off the ground
by leaning forward and then place them back down.
Remember, if you're not leaning forward enough
and your hands aren't by your waistline,
your lower body is never gonna get off the ground.
You need to meet that balance point
and have enough body weight on the opposing side,
your upper body, to be able to raise your lower body.
So now we'll finally get to apply it.
I'm gonna go for a couple reps,
show you what it looks like, then break it down.
(light vibrant music)
So as you can see, there's no jumping with this exercise.
I'm leaning forward enough
until my feet just raise off the ground.
And every other previous progression
is building you up for this.
That's why you don't wanna skip any progressions
and you wanna master each one,
build that solid foundation.
Remember the reverse leg raises and reverse leg extensions
is what's gonna help you raise
your lower body off the ground.
So make sure to really diligently work those as well
if you're having trouble with that.
Also, keep in mind as you're leaning forward
and you're ready to raise your legs
that you give an extra contraction on your hands
as well as the rest of your body
to make sure that you're giving enough push
to maintain that body position.
And just like the previous progression
with the alternating toe taps,
at the beginning you may be going up
and down really quickly,
but the more you do this,
you'll be able to go up nice and slow,
come down nice and slow until you're able to just come up
and just hold it.
Even if it's for a second or two,
do it every minute on the minute
and increase that hold time.
All right, now moving on to the third and final skill,
you're gonna be a well-rounded
and complete athlete after this.
I'm gonna be showing you how to hold your entire body weight
from an inverted position with perfect balance
and that's gonna be the handstand hold,
developing insane balance, coordination,
physique and strength in your upper body.
Don't worry about any excuses you may have
if you're not strong enough or have enough coordination.
We're gonna be building all of that up
from the very beginning,
just like all the previous skills.
So the very first progression we'll be getting into
is gonna be a pike hold
and it's gonna have other variations as well
that we'll get into right after.
Let me show it to you and then I'll break it down.
(light vibrant music)
I start off in a pushup position
and then I walk back with my core tight
on the tips of my toes
and straight locked out legs as I move up.
Your hips wanna be the highest point,
kind of like a triangle;
you wanna be in a straight line from your hands to your hips
and your hips to your toes,
engaging your core, your grip on the ground,
your shoulders and everything else
with your arms straight and locked out.
(light vibrant music)
All right, there you have it.
Most simple progression, a pike hold.
You wanna be able to hold this position
for at least 45 seconds.
And this is a relatively easy exercise,
so you'll be able to do it pretty quickly
and that's why you wanna add more variations
to this movement.
Once you can comfortably hold a pike hold,
then you wanna move into holding a pike hold
and doing shoulder taps, doing pike hold pushups,
and then eventually moving into pike walks.
All of these are gonna strengthen your shoulders,
preparing to eventually hold your entire body weight
inverted on your shoulders in a handstand position.
And with the strength you'll gain from these exercises,
you'll be able to increase the difficulty
and creating even more resistance to your pike
by elevating your feet, doing an elevated pike hold.
And once you can do the different elevated pike variations,
the shoulder taps for at least 10 in a row,
elevated pike pushups for at least 10 in a row,
and the elevated pike hold for at least 20 to 30 seconds,
then you're ready to move on to the next progression.
But keep in mind, if you want more information,
a complete breakdown on how to do this with routines,
complete guide, step by step on to master your handstands,
all you have to do is download the ThenX app
in the App Store or Google Play Store,
or just hit the link down in the description below.
And you can also check out the many other handstand videos
that I've done right here on this channel
that go way more in depth,
full 20 minute video, for example this one,
on how to handstand hold.
But the next progression we're gonna be going for
is gonna be wall walks.
I'm gonna show you how to do it
and then I'm gonna break it down for you.
So to start off, you wanna be in a pushup position,
then put one foot against the wall
and slowly start to walk back
and walk with your feet and your hands at the same time.
(light vibrant music)
You also don't wanna take big steps
with your hands and feet.
You wanna take smaller steps with your hands and feet,
so it's a lot more comfortable.
You also wanna make sure to maintain your core strength
and maintain your body in a straight line.
And when you're doing this for the first time,
you don't have to walk up all the way up the wall.
Just walk up as high as you comfortably can
and then come back down.
(light vibrant music)
All right, so there we have the wall walks.
Eventually you're gonna build the shoulder strength
and the confidence to go higher and higher,
until eventually your chest is just flat against the wall.
Then you can go ahead and walk all the way back down.
But go at your own pace starting off
and eventually work your way up to that.
You're really gonna need to master
all the previous progressions
to have the strength to be able to do this.
So master this until you can reach all the way to the top
and be able to do it comfortably with perfect form
for at least four to five reps.
Once you can do that,
you're ready to move on to one of the last progressions.
Alright, so by this point,
you should have developed a strength
to be able to hold your entire body weight inverted,
especially if you mastered those wall walks.
And we're gonna be applying that in these last progressions,
starting off with a handstand kick up.
(light vibrant music)
So to start off, we're gonna start in a pushup position,
specifically a runner's start position.
You wanna be staring at a point on the ground
that's above your hands.
So your hands and the point
that you're staring at make a triangle.
And you never wanna look away from this spot,
because any micro movement of your head
is drastically gonna push your body
either backwards or forwards.
You want your hands placed shoulder width apart
and you want your fingertips aligned
with the tip of your shoulders.
From here, you're gonna kick with your bent leg
and swing with your straight leg
while leading with your hips,
meaning that the first thing to come up should be your hips
and your feet should follow along with it.
That's when you wanna start pairing both
of your legs together until you reach the top of the wall
and you wanna be in a tight straight line always.
In fact, when it comes to kicking up
and holding a handstand,
you wanna be in a completely stacked position.
Think of your body as a stack of books.
It's gonna be a lot easier to walk around
with a stack of books
than if the stack of books were all staggered;
it's gonna be a lot easier to fall over
when you're walking around.
So keep that in mind when you're doing anything inverted
that has to do with handstands.
And once you're finally able to kick up
and hold it against the wall,
it's just a matter of holding it for time
as well as increasing your kick up reps.
Now, these are two things that you can train separately.
Train for increasing your hold time once you kick up,
starting off with 10 seconds, moving on to 15,
20, eventually one minute,
and separately training your handstand kick ups,
just kicking up against into the wall
until you're comfortably in a handstand
and coming back down and doing it for a couple reps,
like five to 10 reps per set.
That's gonna solidify your handstand kick up
and develop the proper strength and balance
to be able to kick up into a handstand wherever you're at.
Now, once you can hold a handstand kick up against the wall,
you can pretty much already handstand,
all you have to do is learn how to balance,
and that's gonna be different techniques,
like finger pressing and releasing,
pulsing the pressure in your fingertips
until your feet pry off the wall
and then releasing the pressure in your fingertips
so that your feet can come back.
That's how you balance in a handstand.
But for a complete breakdown on how to do this perfectly,
just watch the video I uploaded not too long ago
on how to handstand hold
where I break down the whole entire handstand step by step,
as well as the finger pressing technique
a lot more in depth.
So check out that video
and definitely download the ThenX app
in the App Store or Google Play Store
to get the full technique guide
where we also provide you routines to do every week
to make sure that you're progressing
and eventually mastering your handstand hold.
So make sure that you're practicing
all three of these skills
that you could be training anywhere
and start taking your training to the next level.
Transform your physique and transform your capabilities,
not just looking strong, actually being strong.
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Again, thank you guys so much for watching.
If there's anything that you'd like me to cover
or something that you're struggling with,
let me know down in the comments section below
and I'll definitely make it into a video.
And if you enjoyed this video, learning some new skills,
check out this other video I made
on how to do a muscle up, and I'll see you there.
Mad love. Peace out.