Intermediate - Advanced Calisthenics

joeyboy11

Anyone here dabble in advanced calisthenics with exercises like handstands, planche, levers, muscle ups, pistol squats, nordic curls etc. ??

I'm a 32 year old male and been hitting the gym for 5+ years (consistently with good form and don't neglect core and mobility) and played sports before that so fairly well conditioned and looking for something new.

My only problem is the gym is very easy in terms of learning new movements (imo and experience) so balancing a new routine with skill movements and body weight exercises for strength/hypertrophy (don't want to lose muscle mass gained over 5+ years) is challenging.

Any advice or references on building a calisthenics programme incorporating learning new movements and hypertrophy would be very welcome.
Also note I'm happy to pay for one if it is highly recommended and saves me weeks/months of messing around by myself.

Mellor

joeyboy11 wrote: »

My only problem is the gym is very easy in terms of learning new movements (imo and experience) so balancing a new routine with skill movements and body weight exercises for strength/hypertrophy (don't want to lose muscle mass gained over 5+ years) is challenging.

I found it easy to slot in alongside strength training. Either by having a body weight day programmed. Or simply combining a skill warm up, followed by 2 barbell strength moves, then 2 body weight strength moves.

Any advice or references on building a calisthenics programme incorporating learning new movements and hypertrophy would be very welcome.
Also note I'm happy to pay for one if it is highly recommended and saves me weeks/months of messing around by myself.

Depends on what your current weights look like.
You could just integrate Reddit’s recommended routine.

Patsy167

As mentioned above, worth checking out Reddit's Bodyweight Fitness Community which has great resources

https://www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness/

Patsy167

There was a guy who used to post on here that had a great Fitness log - a mix of compounds and calisthenics skill work.

Well worth reading through to get an idea of programming.

Here is the log - https://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056660202

Black Sheep

Some bodyweight movements can be learned on your own, it's a question of knowing a few cues, being strong enough and then just doing the practice.

If you already have decent barbell numbers then you are strong enough for things like pistols for sure, they are not that hard and you could do them in any strength programme by putting them in as assistance or maybe accessory work depending how strong you are.

Example of a lower body day-

Main lift (Squat, deadlift, whatever protocol you are using i.e 3x5, 5x5, One top set with back-offs or whatever..)
Assistance lift (Another compound, whatever suits the main lift of the day)
Accessories (Here if you would normally do single leg exercises like DB lunges or whatever, you could sub in pistol squats, 3x10/10 per leg or aim for a total of 20-30 reps, it's going to be dependent on how strong you are)
Calves or whatever

If it was an upper body day then if you're strong enough to do high volumes of strict pull-ups you could start doing bar muscle ups. I'm not even going to mention ring muscle ups, but obviously they're the classic CrossFit movement a lot of people are familiar with. Programming wise, in an upper body day I would just sub the bar muscle ups from wherever your pull-ups or your vertical pulls are.

If you're not strong enough to do a high volume of the movement in question then you could do them as a skill practice some other time during the week, and take a 'grease the groove' approach. If you can only do 1-3 pistols, just start doing several over the course of the day until the volume is up high enough that you can do enough of them in a workout for it to make sense.

Pavel Tsatsouline's Naked Warrior is available for free online and still has, IMO, the best written coaching cues for pistols I have ever come across.

For bar muscle-ups check out YouTube.

For either movement it's a question of having decent body composition and a good foundation of strength already. In the case of pistols you need healthy ankles and knees too.

paw patrol

joeyboy11 wrote: »

Anyone here dabble in advanced calisthenics with exercises like handstands, planche, levers, muscle ups, pistol squats, nordic curls etc. ??

I'm a 32 year old male and been hitting the gym for 5+ years (consistently with good form and don't neglect core and mobility) and played sports before that so fairly well conditioned and looking for something new.

My only problem is the gym is very easy in terms of learning new movements (imo and experience) so balancing a new routine with skill movements and body weight exercises for strength/hypertrophy (don't want to lose muscle mass gained over 5+ years) is challenging.

Any advice or references on building a calisthenics programme incorporating learning new movements and hypertrophy would be very welcome.
Also note I'm happy to pay for one if it is highly recommended and saves me weeks/months of messing around by myself.

check out the ICA (insta @the_i.c.a ) they might be able to point you in right direction

they based north dublin - artane dublin 5

joeyboy11

Thanks all for the helpful replies. This is the programme I have settled on. I am still working on the optimum times/reps/sets so haven't included them.

Day 1
Hanging L-Sit
Captains chair knee raises
Hip flexor holds
Nordic curls
PLANCHE WORK
One arm push up
10 min push ups/tricep dips variations
One arm hang
FRONT LEVER WORK
Typewriter pull ups (band)
T Bar Row


Day 2
One arm high plank hold
Weighted dips
Lateral raises/Reverse flys
One arm hang
FRONT LEVER WORK
10 min chin ups variations
Forearm exercises
Pistol Squats

Day 3
LEG DAY
Hollow hold
Side Lying raises
Pistol Squats
Barbell Squat
Leg press (calfs)
Nordic curls
Skipping


Day 4
Hanging L-Sit
Captains chair Leg/knee raises
Hip flexor holds
PLANCHE WORK
One arm push up
10 min push ups/tricep dips variations
Typewriter pull ups (band assisted)
T Bar Row
Super man variations


Day 5
One arm high plank hold
PLANCHE WORK
One arm push up
Barbell Shoulder Press
Lateral raises/Reverse flys
One arm hang
FRONT LEVER WORK
10 min chin ups variations
Forearm exercises
Leg press (calfs)