Transcription
Everybody thinks they need to lift heavy weights to develop monster level strength. But in reality, you can achieve insane levels of strength from the comfort of your own home with nothing but your own body weight.
So today, I'm going to show you five amazing exercises that will help you unlock your true potential and become the strongest you've ever been in your life. And even if you don't think you're strong enough for these movements, don't worry, because Sensei Kevin will show you how to start training for these moves, even if you're starting from zero.
Now, the first exercise is one that almost nobody does, but is severely underrated. If you want to unlock some massive togi forearms and develop the crushing grip of a gorilla, you're going to want to start incorporating these into your routine. See, everybody knows dead hangs, right? It's a classic calisthenics move, but did you know that there is a progression that is levels above the regular dead hang? Take your hands, wrap them over the bar, kind of like you're grabbing it with your wrists, and once it's secure on the bar, drop into a dead hang. And now you have the best ultimate forearm exercise, false grip hangs.
This simple modification makes normal dead hangs an absolute beast of a move and makes it a lot more strength demanding. That constant wrist flexion puts so much stress and tension on your forearms that they're going to have no choice but to grow bigger and stronger. When you do these at first, you're going to feel incredible amounts of cramping. But that's how you know it's working. And once you get the hang of it, no pun intended. You can add false grip to any movement you want. False grip while you row. False grip while you pull-up. You can literally fall grip anything, and I do mean anything, like the door handle of a refrigerator.
If your forearms are getting too crampy or you can barely hold on for 5 seconds, then here's what you can do. So, instead of committing to the full false grip hang, do not clip this. You could try doing a half false grip hang. With one arm, go into the false grip position and with the other arm, do a regular dead hang grip. This is going to be much easier. You're going to be lessening the load on your forearms, but you're still going to be benefiting from that false grip position. And of course, with strong enough forearms, you can carry mom's groceries all in one trip. The the ultimate goal, by the way.
But you didn't click on this video just to have a crushing grip. You came here to unlock monster level strength that'll rival even characters like Garo. And this next exercise is going to help you do just that. See, if you want to get stronger at anything, you need to increase the amount of load that you can take, which sounds a little sus, but without weights, how are you supposed to do that? Well, it's actually pretty straightforward. It's kind of like how Deku used to channel One for All in select parts of his body. He shifts all of his strength to one side. And we can literally do the exact same thing without blowing our limbs off. And the best exercise for this is the assisted one-ar chin-up.
Take something like a strap, wrap it around your pull-up bar. Now, grab it with one arm while the other arm takes a chin-up grip. Now, perform the chin-up as if it were normal, but something is going to be different. Because of the different grip with the strap, you're going to be pulling with less force with that arm, which forces your other arm, your working arm, to be picking up more of that load. You're going to be doing fewer reps and increasing the strength in your back and bicep.
Now, there are variations to this depending on what you prefer and what equipment you have. If you don't have any equipment, you can just use your fingers. Try grabbing on with just two fingers, one finger, or even your pinky. But I think the best way to do it is with a resistance band. It helps with the initial part of the movement and then it gets harder at the top of the movement. If you are struggling with this, I recommend a few things. One, you can either grab higher in the strap, use a thicker resistance band, or use three fingers. All of that is going to make it easier to pull. Or if even that's too hard for you, you can try mixed grip chin-ups. This is going to help you get used to pulling unevenly and get you to build that initial foundational strength.
But the thing is, taking more load isn't the only way to get stronger because the next exercise is going to show us how we can unlock superhuman strength by just adjusting our body position. In fact, you can use this technique to get so strong that you start to float. And I'm only half joking. Imagine holding the bottom of a push-up position. Pretty easy. Most people can do that. But now, try shifting your body forward. As you start to do so, you can feel it gets significantly harder the more forward you go. And if you move forward enough, you start to levitate your feet and you are performing the 90deree hold.
The reason that this move is going to make you superhuman strong like more than 90% of regular people is all due to your center of gravity. As your center of gravity moves towards your hands and your feet start to do less work, your chest, shoulders, and triceps need to do even more. They need to push with even more force in order to keep yourself up. On top of that, this move is an isometric exercise, meaning you're resisting force and staying static the entire time. This creates so much tension and maximizes the amount of force that you can exude with your muscles that it increases your strength probably 10fold. But you don't need to understand any of that in order to make yourself stronger.
Now, obviously, not everybody out there is going to be able to do this exercise. So, this is where you'll want to start. First, try leaning and see how far you can go. Test your strength a little. get a good feel for it. Once you get used to that, try doing smaller pulses to get your feet off the ground. Now, you're getting used to holding your whole body weight, even if it's just for like a little second. After that, try holding the entire move, but bending your legs. This is going to concentrate your center of mass even more on your hands so that everything is kind of stacked on top of each other and requires less force to actually push your body up. Once you get good at that, you can extend your legs into a straddle. So you make it slightly harder, but still not as hard as a full 90°ree hold. And then and only then when you are strong enough, you can close them legs and perform the full 90° hold.
Now, as I mentioned before, this is great for developing isometric or static strength. But what about strength through range of motion? Because if you want to move boulders like Tangero, then you need to start practicing your pushing. So this next exercise, which is in fact the most anime on this list, why did I say like that? which is in fact the most anime on this list is going to come in and get us super level of pushing strength. You've seen characters like Goku, Rockley, EPO do this all the time. It's the king of all push-ups. I'm going to stop beating the bush. I think that's how you say it. It's the one- arm push-up.
Being able to push the majority of your body weight with just one arm is the pinnacle of calisthenics chest strength. It's one of the first skills I unlocked when I was starting out as a beginner and it was a great gateway to multiple strength moves to come. And to do a one- arm push-up, it's actually really simple. Get in the push-up position, but bring one leg to one side. Next, take the arm that's on the same side of that leg you just moved and put it behind your back or against your leg. Then, to perform the push-up, lower down and aim to get your shoulder on the working side to touch the floor. This is going to keep your body nice and parallel so that you're not cheating the movement. You'll want to concentrate on flexing your core so that your torso isn't twisting while you're pushing. and then just drive your hand into the floor, pushing yourself up, and boom, one- arm push-up achieved.
Now, as a beginner, this is going to seem very daunting. So, here is exactly how I got started and how you can get started. The first progression you'll want to try is archer push-ups. They mimic the one- arm push-up, but now you have a supporting arm. Your your working arms got a buddy now. Thus, not as demanding. You don't have to push with much force. If you're finding those too difficult, you can always bend the supporting arm a little bit, or you can practice uneven push-ups. This is going to help your body get used to pushing unevenly and using more force on one side than the other.
Once you get more comfortable with some of those progressions, you can actually start practicing the form of the one- arm push-up without actually doing the one- arm push-up. You can do one- arm push-up negatives. You can even do elevated one- arm push-ups. Either one you choose, you're going to be developing a much stronger chest without fail.
But for true monster strength, we need to look past just horizontal pushing. Just take a look at one of the greatest monsters in all of anime, Aaron Joerger. And I'm not talking about his war crimes. His oh so horrific war crimes. I am not talking about that monster. I'm talking about when he carried that massive boulder in season 1. Yeah, that monster. Now, you probably will never get to that point. But this next exercise can get you close. And I guarantee you've never done these before. Some of you might have never heard of these. Floating pike push-ups.
These, like regular pike push-ups, they work your shoulders. But at the bottom, you float your body on top. So, you're supporting your entire body weight with just your shoulders for a brief 3 to 5 seconds and then push up like a normal pike push-up. Not only is this amazing for strength, but you learn to balance on your hands and you combine it with the benefits of static moves like the 90° hold. Plus, this variation keeps everybody accountable. A lot of you guys are cheating your pike push-ups. Some of you guys are bringing your forearms back, which is robbing you of good shoulder gains. the floating pike. It forces you to lean forward so that you can actually float and leads to strength for other moves like a handstand.
Where should you start if you're just beginning? Well, first get good at regular pike push-ups so you can build that foundational shoulder strength. Then, as you get more advanced, increase the difficulty with elevated pike push-ups. I would even consider doing some wall handstand push-ups to build even more of that strength. Floating pike push-ups are surprisingly harder than wall handstand push-ups. You can even do a frog stand to work on that balance. Then as you get stronger and you think you're ready, just practice holding that floating position for like one or two seconds at a time. Then eventually you'll be able to perform a full floating pike push-up and have the strongest shoulders in the entire galaxy.
But Kevin, what about damn chicken legs? H well, you're right. Strength isn't just about the upper body. We do have to focus on the legs as well. But one of the most challenging things about calisthenics is the limited training we have with legs. Luckily, there is one exercise that I always recommend to develop those incredibly strong legs, and that is shrimp squats. You may have seen pistol squats, but I would argue that these are far better for strength. And why do I say this? Because the shrimp squat requires you to hold your off leg. So, the amount of momentum you could generate via a pistol squat would be significantly less. Not only that, but you have to go super slow in the eentric, otherwise you bump your knee, and that's going to hurt pretty bad.
Now, I would still recommend doing pistol squats. In fact, you should probably get really good at assisted pistol squats if you want to do well with shrimp squats. But if you're not at that level yet, then consider doing single leg step-ups. These require no extra balance if you use a wall. And they're also a pretty good move for getting stronger legs without weights.
But Kevin, I don't just want strong legs. I want big legs. Mhm. Hey, I get it. I used to struggle with skinny ass chicken legs when I was just training from home. So, I know exactly what you mean, which is why you should watch this video next if you want to learn how to develop anime level legs with zero weights.