Going down the calisthenics route

TimeToShine

I want to leave my weights program for a while and concentrate on calisthenics. My aims are to be able to do the following:

-perfect form pistol squats on each leg
-10 L-sit pullups
-1 dead hang muscle up.
-5 handstand pushups or be able to hold a free handstand for 10 seconds.

Can currently do:

- no pistol squats (my balance is appalling)
-14-15 dead hang pullups (wide pronated grip)
-1 handstand pushup (just about - not free standing either)

Currently squatting 120kgx6, recently pulled 170kg for a single on the deadlift, cleaning 80kg for a few reps, pressing 50kgx6, Bench pressing 80kg x 6 at 5'6 and 78kg. Foam roll and stretch regularly.

If anyone could point me to a routine that would help me achieve my goals I'd appreciate it. I find that in spite of my numbers in the weights room I don't have nearly as much control over my body as I'd like to believe (not being able to do a pistol squat is pretty bad!). I intend on spending the next three months away from weights and am willing to whatever hits to my numbers/muscle mass that come with it. Thank you.

Ant11

TimeToShine wrote: »

I want to leave my weights program for a while and concentrate on calisthenics. My aims are to be able to do the following:

-perfect form pistol squats on each leg
-10 L-sit pullups
-1 dead hang muscle up.
-5 handstand pushups or be able to hold a free handstand for 10 seconds.

Can currently do:

- no pistol squats (my balance is appalling)
-14-15 dead hang pullups (wide pronated grip)
-1 handstand pushup (just about - not free standing either)

Currently squatting 120kgx6, recently pulled 170kg for a single on the deadlift, cleaning 80kg for a few reps, pressing 50kgx6, Bench pressing 80kg x 6 at 5'6 and 78kg. Foam roll and stretch regularly.

If anyone could point me to a routine that would help me achieve my goals I'd appreciate it. I find that in spite of my numbers in the weights room I don't have nearly as much control over my body as I'd like to believe (not being able to do a pistol squat is pretty bad!). I intend on spending the next three months away from weights and am willing to whatever hits to my numbers/muscle mass that come with it. Thank you.

Pistol squat is down to ankle mobility, sort that out and you'll be able to pistol.

10 L-sit pull ups are handy enough. If you can do 14/15 pull ups it's your core strength that's lacking so work on that. There loads of options, floor L-sits, parallettes L sits, which are generally easier then floor, hanging in an L-sit position. These will all have direct transfer to the L-sit pull up. There's loads more I could mention but this will get yi stared. If holding legs straight out is too hard start in a tuck and work from there.

A muscle up is all about technique, if you can do 14/15 pull ups you should have the strength for a muscle up. Most people either lack the pulling strength or the transition over the bar and the dip strength to push themselves up. If I could see you do it I could give you pointers of which you need to work. Or you can always break the muscle up down into different parts. 1.) work on high explosive pull ups (chest to bar) 2.) straight bar dips. 3 on a low bar with your feet on the ground do a small jump and focus on transition over the bar. This can all be done in reverse too. Starting on top of the bar. This too applys to ring muscle ups.

I'd focus more on the free standing handstand instead of the hspu. The hspu's is just shoulder strength and condition of being in that position.

A free standing HS has a lot more going on. It's something I'm currently working on and I average about 10's at the moment. Sometimes more, sometimes less. A google search will give you the basic foundations of what you need to know. There's a lot involved to type out here though.

TimeToShine

Thank you. On the muscle up - I can't get from the top position of the pullup to the dip position. I can do it when I start with a bit of a jump for momentum but from deadhang I just kind of bounce at the top of the pullup and flop back down.

For L-sit pullups - I struggle to hold my legs in front of me after about 4 pullups. Must be my core strength, even though I would have thought it's not too bad considering all the deadlifting I do!

For ankle mobility, I work on it whenever I stretch so not too sure what my problem is there!

How have you structured your routine? Are you still weight training as well or have you left it completely? I'm not too sure how to program a bodyweight routine - it's quite tough on the joints and I realize they need more time to recover than your muscles. I was going to do a push/core, pull/core and legs/core but not too sure. Thanks again.

Ant11

TimeToShine wrote: »

Thank you. On the muscle up - I can't get from the top position of the pullup to the dip position. I can do it when I start with a bit of a jump for momentum but from deadhang I just kind of bounce at the top of the pullup and flop back down.

If you can't get your chest to bar you need to work on explosive pull ups. You can work on all 3 parts of it at the same time. You can try a bit of a swing before you do the pull up to get used to the movement and then slow it down to dead hang. Or climb on top of the bar and hold yourself in a dip and then just swing under and try pull back up. The swing should help. There's good tutorials online showing you transitions, which will be easier to understand coz you can see it. Or video yourself and post it here

For L-sit pullups - I struggle to hold my legs in front of me after about 4 pullups. Must be my core strength, even though I would have thought it's not too bad considering all the deadlifting I do!

It is your core. Try starting with your legs tucked on parallettes and work to be able to hold about 30seconds comfortably and then gradually move your legs out.


For ankle mobility, I work on it whenever I stretch so not too sure what my problem is there!

Hanley posted this vid the other day which explains ankle mobility clearly. Or look up kelly starrett.
http://youtu.be/pWqSxh0ZH_Q

I also make sure to stretch the soleus as well as the calf muscles and I stick a weighted plate on 1 knee when sitting in a squat as I've crap dorsiflexion.

How have you structured your routine? Are you still weight training as well or have you left it completely? I'm not too sure how to program a bodyweight routine - it's quite tough on the joints and I realize they need more time to recover than your muscles. I was going to do a push/core, pull/core and legs/core but not too sure. Thanks again.

At the moment I've taken a break from calesthenics stuff for a few weeks and doing weights and my handstand training on top of that. Generally when I'm doing calesthenics training I usually structure it around 2 to 3 main skills and other moves are accessory to that. 'Overcoming Gravity' by Steve Low is a great book for programming and progressions etc. I'll always have squatting or deadlifting in there too for legs. It really depends what you wana do. You can have a look in my log if you want or Ferike1 who posts here too has a log with calesthenics stuff in it too. At the start it might feel tough on the joints, it's mostly because it's new and you've to get use to stabilizing yourself especially if your on rings, get used to it after a while though and don't really notice it unless your doing things wrong.

TimeToShine

Cheers I'll have a read through yourself and ferike's logs and see if I can hash something out.

MikeC101

Reddits /bodyweightfitness has some progressions:

http://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/wiki/basic_exercises

And this: Overcoming Gravity (progression charts)

And Beastskills

May be of some use!

Cravez

TimeToShine wrote: »

Thank you. On the muscle up - I can't get from the top position of the pullup to the dip position. I can do it when I start with a bit of a jump for momentum but from deadhang I just kind of bounce at the top of the pullup and flop back down.

Try pulling your elbows through by your sides as you do the pullup into the transition. If you flare your elbows in any way it makes the transition alot harder

TimeToShine wrote: »

For L-sit pullups - I struggle to hold my legs in front of me after about 4 pullups. Must be my core strength, even though I would have thought it's not too bad considering all the deadlifting I do!

Sounds like you need more flexbility in your hip flexors. Do more stretching for this area and keep doing and progressing your L-Sits for longer periods (via push up handles, parallettes etc)

TimeToShine wrote: »

How have you structured your routine? Are you still weight training as well or have you left it completely? I'm not too sure how to program a bodyweight routine - it's quite tough on the joints and I realize they need more time to recover than your muscles. I was going to do a push/core, pull/core and legs/core but not too sure. Thanks again.

When I was doing calisthenics I was doing strength training with weights also. Maybe 3 days free weights and 1-2 days calisthenics. Sometimes mixing the two together (i.e One day do muscle-ups and follow up with deadlifts/squat etc)

You'll eventually get there but do a lot of shoulder flexbility work and grip strength training as well. You'll need the grip strength if you want to bang out reps of muscle ups down the line.