Transcription
What is the fastest way to unlock different calisthenics skills? So far, what we understand is that the rate in which you unlock calisthenics skills is directly affected by your height, your weight, and the length of your limbs. Shorter athletes who have a harder time gaining weight will find it much easier to unlock different calisthenic skills as compared to athletes who are taller and heavier. This happens because a good number of calisthenics exercises play around center of gravity, which is directly affected by your height and your weight.
With that said, I'm going to break down the fastest methods to unlock calisthenic skills and how you can implement these methods and put them into your own routine so that you can see the fastest growth possible.
Hi, my name is Damon. Welcome back to the channel. Let's start off with the muscle-up, because this is the skill that usually gets people into calisthenics. The conventional muscle-up is a combination of both pulling and pushing movements that requires a majority of the upper body muscles, and hence the name. Before we get into the muscle-up, it's crucial that you're able to do at least 10 to 15 dips and at least 5 to 10 pull-ups with clean form. Having this foundation is going to build your body's base strength and make it much easier for you to start your journey.
While the muscle-up might seem like a movement of strength, it actually requires a decent amount of technique to get your body over the bar. The technique for the muscle-up can easily be attained by swinging your body in a straight line and pulling back the very moment your body swings backwards. When you're pulling back to get over the bar, use your legs to perform a C-shaped motion. This is similar to the pullover in the gym. The wrong way to do this would be to perform a straight arm pull, because the momentum needs to be driven over the bar, not just directly upwards. If you find yourself unable to pull yourself over the bar even with the right technique, it means that your legs are not strong enough, and you need to move on to conditioning.
When you're conditioning for the muscle-up, it's going to be very helpful for you to perform high pulls using your triceps and your lats instead of doing regular pull-ups with your lats and your biceps. This is going to condition your muscles for the necessary beginning motion of the muscle-up. Over time, with proper conditioning, you will gradually find yourself pulling higher and higher, with your chest touching the bar, managing to pull yourself above the bar but losing grip, and eventually pulling yourself over the bar and sticking the landing. From here, all you have to do is a straight arm dip, and you will achieve your first ever muscle-up. I personally took between 3 and 4 months of doing 50 pull-ups every single training day before I was able to get my first ever muscle-up. So if you're struggling to learn the muscle-up, give yourself a little bit of time. This is a move that even gym-goers might struggle to do.
Now let's move on to my personal favorite: static movements. Static movements are essentially moves in calisthenics where you hold your body in a certain position for as long as you're able to. Once you have achieved these static movements, you can proceed to make them harder by including various combinations to push your muscles' endurance to its limits. While there are many static movements in calisthenics, the two most popular ones by far are the front lever and the planche, where your body is held in a horizontal position above the ground. The question is, why are these moves so hard to unlock? This is so because the front lever and the planche are straight arm movements that primarily isolate the torso of your body. The front lever utilizes a majority of your back's muscles, and in this position, your core, legs, and arms' jobs is to ensure that your front lever is clean and your body is stabilized.
The front lever also happens to be one of the easiest skills that you can unlock by far. This is because the strength needed for the front lever can easily be obtained through day-to-day conditioning of the back muscles with pull-ups, muscle-ups, and weighted calisthenics. After I was able to do a minimum of 20 pull-ups and five muscle-ups individually in a row, all it took was just 2 months of front lever conditioning before I was able to hold it for a clean 10 seconds.
Now what about the planche? The planche is by far the most annoying static move in calisthenics, yet the most aesthetic and accessible static skill in all of calisthenics. You learn the planche, you fly anywhere. Just to put it out there so that you guys know this, it took me a total of 3 years of conditioning to hold the full planche for 8 seconds. Back then, I was 5'7" and 167 lbs. So why is the planche so much more difficult to unlock than the front lever? The reason is because while static moves isolate the torso, the planche isolates muscles in the torso. In the front lever, your entire back is pretty much engaged just to hold the position, right? But in the full planche, only your shoulders and a small part of your torso known as the serratus anterior is engaged. This explains why it is so much harder to unlock and learn the planche as compared to the front lever. It legit took me a total of 3 years of conditioning my basics, such as the handstand push-up, the planche press, and planche leans, for me to have achieved that eight-second hold. So if you're wondering why you're making close to zero progress in your planche journey, I hope this explains it. This move is a beast. For those of you who want to see my planche journey, I'll link it in the description below. Go check it out. It will give you a rough idea of what I've done in my planche journey to unlock it and what you can implement into your training routine as well.
And now the handstand. The handstand is more or less considered a balancing static skill. It takes very little strength conditioning but a lot of discipline. I took a total of 6 months to get a 10-second handstand and another 3 months to clean up my form. When it comes to handstands, it really isn't so much about strength but more about discipline and patience. The reason I took 6 months to balance it consistently for about 10 seconds was because I was very inconsistent and I was still a prisoner of instant gratification. If I had practiced the art of delayed gratification back then, I would have had it in under 3 months of practice. Here's how you can do it as well. Getting the handstand is really all about understanding how much kick-up strength is needed to get you into position and your body's positioning when you're upside down. When you get into the position for the handstand, your objective is to push away from the floor as much as you can. You then want to set your body into a piked position and pike yourself as much as you possibly can. From here on, all you have to do is practice kicking up until you find the balance, but that's easier said than done. Most people either fall forwards because they're kicking up too much or backwards because they're kicking up too little. In reality, this is the most tedious part of handstand; it's learning just how much kick-up strength is needed so that you can find the sweet spot for the balance. This is also the part of handstand training where most people just give up, but if you don't overcome this hurdle, you will likely never be able to unlock it or hold the handstand. To make matters worse, the handstand is a must-learn skill if you are training for the planche. This is because when you're performing planche combinations, the handstand is essentially a resting point for your body and your shoulders before you return back to the planche position. On the bright side, learning to balance the handstand is going to help you unlock the handstand push-up, which is a key reps and sets movement that you can combine together with your planche combinations.
Now, how can you create a routine that puts all these training movements together? If you are a true-blue calisthenics athlete who wants to unlock every single calisthenics move, I recommend starting your training with a 30-minute handstand kick-up practice. This is going to warm up your wrists, your shoulders, and a little bit of your back before your main training. In your main training, explosiveness should always come first, followed by static skills, and then reps and sets. This is because you want to utilize all the energy of when you are fresh to explode in the first part of your training. You want to then do static skills next because static skills consume the most amount of energy because you have to hold your body in a certain position for as long as you can. You can then end up your training with regular reps and sets. So if you're training for pulls, you might want to start off with three to five attempts of a muscle-up or high pull. After that, you can work on front lever progressions for a minimum of three sets. You can then end off your training with doing sets of regular pull-ups. If you're training for push, you might want to start off with movements that require a lot of explosive strength like planche push-up variations or handstand push-ups. Afterwards, you can work on planche progression holds and end off your training with dips and push-ups.
Now, this video was highly requested by many people who wanted a proper training program that they can follow. However, I do want to mention that no two people should follow the same exact routine, because different routines work for different people. Personally, this is a routine that I felt worked best for me and gave me the most growth, but if you feel a different way, switch out your routine and do what suits your body best. Also, I take inspiration from the comment section, so comment whatever you want to see in the next video. My name is Damon, and I'll see you soon. [Music]