- What's up?
Elite THENX athletes.
It's Chris Heria.
Today I'm here with Zay.
We're gonna show you how to transform your body
with calisthenics.
(electronic music)
All right guys so let's get started.
So today we're gonna be talking about
how to transform your body with calisthenics
and Zay right here is a clear example
that you don't need any fancy equipment
or anything like that to create a body
that is not only aesthetic but is actually strong
and capable.
So Zay why don't you give them a little background
of where you first started?
- When I first started I remember I was coming off of
an ACL surgery.
This was late 2013.
I reached out to a few friends,
you know what's the best way to get in shape.
I had signed up for a gym membership.
I was just gonna start lifting weights initially
but you know my friends, good friends of mine,
told me you know to start calisthenics.
I'm like what's that?
How do I get started?
So they just told me like you know just the basics.
Pushups, pullups, dips, and I was like really?
You know so I was like you know what.
They're in good shape themselves and that's what they did
so you know I'm gonna take their word for it.
When I first started I was probably doing like
two pullups the most.
I was probably doing like around 15 pushups.
I think my push was decent.
15 pushups.
Dips I was able to do like about 10, 15 dips as well
and I was weighing around 187 when I first started.
- 187. How much do you weigh right now?
- [Zay] Right now I'm 160.
- Wow. Yeah and you look big for 160 too.
So when you first started what type of
workouts were you typically doing day by day?
- So I took my friends' advice.
They told me to master the fundamentals,
so pushups, pullups, dips is the exercises that I tried
to focus on.
Remember my reps weren't high so what I had to do
was I bought a resistance band to help me with my pullups.
I also used it to work on technique, stretched with it.
I was just trying to focus on high repetitions
for pullups, pushups, and dips.
So after doing pullups with the band
I found myself going from two pullups to like 10 pullups,
to 15 pullups after a few months.
The same thing with pushups.
My pushups went up.
My dips went up.
You know I started seeing my body change.
I started shedding fat.
- That's the cool thing about calisthenics is like
I mean it's tough at the beginning,
manipulating your body weight
but it eventually gets easier.
You're able to like stack on more reps faster
especially if you start with like good and proper form
from the beginning.
It's a lot easier to increase repetitions
and of course if you're giving in quality repetitions,
doing more repetitions is gonna make you stronger
in the end.
You know if it's all about the hypertrophy
especially if you're not putting on extra weight,
really it comes down to the time under tension
factor to start building muscle with calisthenics.
- For sure.
- So that's what you did.
That's awesome bro.
So this is where you're at today at 160 pounds.
You went from...
- [Zay] 187.
- To 160.
- Yeah.
- So now what is like a typical workout
that you're doing today?
Are you doing weights and calisthenics?
What's your routine?
- So I'm still doing calisthenics.
I'm not lifting weights.
So if I do wanna put on mass,
weighted calisthenics.
Weighted pullups, weighted dips, weighted pushups.
- Hell yeah. That's exactly what we're into
on the THENX Channel.
In fact how about we do a Zay workout right now.
What's a typical workout for you that we could do today?
- So I'm still sticking to the fundamentals.
The routine I have for you guys today is
25 pushups, 10 pullups, 15 dips, and 10 chinups
and we're doing that 10 times.
- Awesome. Let's go for it right now.
- Let's do it.
- Diamond, normal, how do you want it?
- We'll do the first one regular.
- All right. Here we go.
- Ready?
(electronic music)
- How many was that?
- That's 25. I did 25.
- All right. Just making sure.
- That boy was gonna do 30.
(laughing)
- I really lost count man. I was waiting for you.
What's the next set?
What's the next move?
- So the next one is 10 pullups.
- All right. Perfect.
So let's go on ahead. Let's do 'em right here.
- All right.
(techno music)
- This is great man. This is great.
The dope thing about like training the basics
it's like you really, really feel that bro.
- Yeah.
- And the way that we're building muscle
is through hypertrophy, through time under tension.
Trying to hit higher reps to break those muscle fibers
and trying to stay on, keep that muscle engaging
as long as possible.
- For sure.
- Uh what's the next move?
- 15 dips.
- You ready?
- Let's go for it.
Do you normally take breaks or you go straight in?
- I go straight in man.
- Let's go.
- The good thing about these workouts also
is like you can, it's also warming up your body, right?
So like the first three exercises might feel easy but...
- True.
- Afterwards...
- Yeah.
- Gets a little harder.
- Yeah.
(techno music)
- All right.
So the last workout is gonna be 10 chinups.
- Mmhmm.
- And then we're just gonna do this 10 times.
- All right. So we got...
- You ready?
- After these 10 chinups we got nine more to go.
- Nine more to go.
- Hell yeah. Let's do it.
- 10 chinups.
- So along these different rounds of course,
we can always like switch up the different grips.
- Yeah.
So like a few reps in I just like to do keep it simple.
You know regular shoulder width, regular pullups.
Maybe like a few sets in I'll do diamond,
maybe I'll do like a wider pushups.
- And that way you get to also like train different muscles
that you're not engaging in the first round.
- Exactly. Exactly.
- Excellent bro.
- I'll do like wider pullups.
Maybe close grip chinups, you know.
All that.
- Awesome, awesome.
So legs you have like just a separate day just to train legs
and just a separate day just to train core as well.
- Yeah.
Yeah I mean like during these workouts even sometimes
I'll incorporate like metrics so I'll do like box jumps.
I'll do body weight squats.
- The cool thing about this routine here is that
you're working the antagonist muscles.
You're working on your pulling as well as your pushing.
There's a lot of studies that say if you work on those
back to back the opposing motions,
that actually strengthens those motions together.
So it's great to be incorporating antagonist muscles
into your routine.
So let's go for this last one.
We got 10 chinups.
- 10 chinups.
- Let's go for it brother.
Same time. Here we go.
(techno music)
- Wooooo.
There you have it guys.
That's the Zay routine right there.
Now...
- We got nine more to go.
- We have nine more to go.
(laughing)
That's the first round.
For sure.
So thank you guys so much for watching.
So proof right here that you can build solid muscle
and a strong foundation just with calisthenics
from any point that you are.
Whether you're super skinny, overweight.
There are no excuses.
And if you're doing calisthenics,
you are definitely gonna see an improvement.
You're definitely gonna progress.
So with that said guys,
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Mad love. Peace.
(electronic music)