Primal Stride

The [BEST] And [WORST] Types Of Pull-Ups [RATED]

Suhail Agha — Sun, 09 Aug 2020 13:24:37 +0000

24 Different Types of Pull-ups You SHOULD And SHOULD NOT Do!

For all the types of pull ups out there, you only need 3 to build muscle and strength!

Some pull up variations are essential, some are fun, some are utterly useless and an absolute waste of your time!

In this article, we’ll discuss the:

Different types of pull ups that are essential to building muscle and strength
Types of pull-ups that are absolutely useless
Pull-up variations that I personally use to build muscular size and strength

Essential Pull-Up Variations In Order Of Difficulty

The pull-up variations listed below are in order of their difficulty. If you cannot do your first pull-up, simply follow the exercises listed below step by step.

Let’s begin.

Australian Pull-Ups

Australian pull-ups are the ground zero of your pull-up journey.

If you cannot perform a single pull-up this is the exercise for you.

They are done with your feet on the floor and your hands on a horizontal bar or gymnastics rings.

I highly recommend doing most of your pull-ups on gymnastics rings as rings facilitate a more natural movement of the body and wrists.

Australian pull-ups work similar muscle groups to pull-ups but are much easier to do.

This is because most of your bodyweight is supported by your feet.

The more vertical you are during this movement, the easier the exercise becomes.

The more horizontal you are during this movement, the harder it becomes.

It is possible to elevate your feet and make the exercise even harder to perform.

This advanced variation can and must be used for those of you doing bodyweight calisthenics.

Scapula pull-ups

Scapula pull-ups must be used in tandem with Australian pull-up if you are able to carry the weight of your body with your hands.

Scapula pull-ups don’t actually require you to do a full pull up, but they help build the lower traps.

In fact, scapula pull-ups can also be used as a warm-up to your pulling movements.

Doing scapula pull-ups with weight will bulletproof your shoulders.

They are done while hanging on a bar or rings and bringing your shoulders away from your ears.

Scapula pull-ups are important because they are the initial movement required to perform a proper pull-up.

Scapula pull-ups also allow you to get used to holding your bodyweight on the bar, a minimum requirement if you want to do full pull-ups.

As you get better with these, add reps or a light weight to a dipping belt.

Assisted/Sitting pull-ups

Assisted pull-ups use an external support to perform a full pull-up.

These are done by placing your feet on a chair, on the ground or on resistance bands, in order to lift yourself up to the rings/bar.

Assisted pull-ups are different from Australian pull-ups in that it is a supported vertical pulling movement.

While Australian pull-ups are a horizontal pulling movement.

Assisted pull-ups are not my preferred way to achieving your first pull-up.
This is because it is hard for newbies to tell how much assistance they are using to get themselves up to the bar.

Of course if you are using bands then you know the load of the band, but bands provide the most assistance at the easiest portion of the pull-up while offering least assistance at the top.

Thus, using bands means you still have to provide more assistance than you need to get your chin to the top!

I prefer using negative pull-ups instead of assisted pull-ups as there is no way to cheat the movement.

So feel free to skip this step if you like (in fact I recommend that you skip this step and move onto negative pull-ups instead).

Negative pull-ups

Pull-up negatives are extremely effective at building pull-up strength if you cannot do a pull-up.

Negative pull-ups allow you to build strength in the negative or lowering phase of the pull-up.

This is great because we are stronger during the negative portion of any exercise.

In fact as I’m writing this I’m thinking about experimenting with weighted negative pull-ups with a weight that I cannot pull myself up with!

Once you’re able to do about 10 pull-up negatives under good control, you’ll be more than ready to perform your first pull-up.

Another tip I like to give is to use an underhand grip and perform chin-up negatives instead.

This is because chin-ups are easier to do than pull-ups and also build your biceps better.

Chin-up negatives are the faster way to doing your first “pull-up”.

Chin-ups (Regular, narrow and wide)

I’ve said this in all my posts chin-ups are my favorite exercise.

Chin-ups are better than pull-ups, especially when you are doing them with weights.

Several studies have shown that chin-ups are better than bicep curls for the biceps, and ab wheel roll-outs for the abs!

Yes, chin-ups do build your abs too!

Chin-ups are also as good as pull-ups at building the lats.

Chin-ups are done with your hands facing toward you, keeping your palms in this position activates the biceps more than pull-ups.

This, saves you a lot of time from having to do bicep exercises afterward.

There are different types of chin-ups – close grip, narrow grip, wide grip.

Grip placement really doesn’t make too much of a difference, although I wouldn’t take a grip wider than shoulder width apart.

Just pick a grip width that suits you and go with it, you can’t go wrong with chin ups.

Pull-ups

Pull-ups are next on the menu, they are done with your palms facing away from you and shoulder width apart.

Pull-ups involve less bicep activation and are thus harder to do than chin-ups.

There are different types of pull-up variations – close/narrow grip, wide grip and as well as arched back pull-ups.

Grip variations are self explanatory, while the sternal pull-up requires you to lift your chest up to the bar instead of just getting your chin over it.

A lot of people believe that a wide grip pull-up activates the lats a lot more than a regular grip pull-up, but this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The wider grip shortens the range of motion that the lats travel through, thus making it an inferior lat builder.

Narrow grip pull-ups on the other hand take the lats through a longer range of motion while working the forearms as well.

But for almost everyone, the regular grip will work the best.

There is absolutely no need to use any fancy variations of this exercise because the basic version works best!

Weighted pull-ups can be done weighted as well, but I highly recommend doing weighted chin-ups instead.

Typewriter pull-ups on rings

Once you’ve “got the hang” of pull-ups (or chin-ups like I recommend), you can start training for the one arm pull-up.

For this you will need to start with some unilateral training (one hand work).

While the typewriter pull-up is technically not a unilateral movement, it does have the ability to place more stress on one limb over the other.

Typewriter pull-ups are better done on rings instead of a pull-up bar.

I much refer the chin-up version of this movement instead.
To perform typewriter pull-ups, pull your chest up to the rings and then straightened on arm out to the side at a time.

This will place more stress on one arm over the other and vice-versa.

Thus begins your one arm pull-up training. Typewriter pull-ups are a precursor to archer pull-ups.

Archer pull-ups

Just like the typewriter pull-up, you will benefit more from the chin-up (palms facing you) version of this exercise instead.

Doing archer chin ups will get you closer to getting your one arm chin up than pull-ups ever will.

This is because the next transition to the one arm pull-up is the one arm chin up!

Archer chins are also better done on gymnastics rings.

The rings move according to your individual arm length at the top, thus making archer pull-ups more comfortable than when doing them on the bar.

Archer pull-ups are the first true unilateral version of the pull-up you can perform.

To do them, pull your chest up closer toward one hand, while keeping your other hand outstretched to the side.

This is an advanced variation of the pull-up and will lead to strong single arm pulling strength!

One arm pull-up

The rare one arm pull-up is a good ending point to strive for when doing bodyweight pull-ups.

If you are chasing this goal, you have either have to or already put in a lot of work into your pull ups.

One arm pull-ups are a tough unilateral pulling movement to perform and take a while to master.

But, the one arm chin-up will come a lot faster than the one arm pull-up.

That is why it is important to keep chin-up training your primary exercise when it comes to your pulling movements.

Doing a one arm pull/chin-up is pretty much self-explanatory, but beyond the scope of this article.

Just know that once you reach this level of calisthenics prowess, you will already have high levels of muscular and strength development.

Neutral grip pull-ups

Neutral grip pull-ups are an excellent pull-up variation that can be used to break up your chinning and pulling.

The neutral grip chin-up is a highly functional movement.

Try and notice how you lift things up in real life.

A heavy hammer for instance is always picked up with a neutral grip.

So this exercise carries over well to real world activities.

The neutral grip pull-up builds the brachialis and brachioradialis muscles of the arm.

Building the brachialis makes the lower part of your bicep pop, which looks great when you wear a t-shirt.

The brachioradialis on the other hand makes the forearms look bigger.

Look around you for people with big forearms. You’ll see that anyone who uses a hammer, axe or wrench has massive forearms.

This is because of the way these tools build not just the forearm, but make the lower portion of the biceps look big too!

Neutral grip pull-ups are my second favorite pull-up variation after chin-ups.

This is because neutral grip pull-ups will do more for your strength and physique than regular pull-ups will.

Get strong at them, you won’t regret it.

Weighted Chin-ups/Pull-ups

Weighted chins are my go-to back, biceps and abs exercise.

Weighted chins build tremendous real world strength, from your grip, to moving your entire body vertically though space.

Getting strong at weighted chins will carry over to your deadlifts as well!

I prefer the weighted chins over weighted pull-ups and I also use weighted neutral grip pull-ups every now and then!

French Pull-Ups

French pull-ups are a decent pull-up variation for those doing bodyweight calisthenics.

I do not recommend doing them with weighted calisthenics.

French pull-ups require you to perform a pull up and hold the pull-up at 3 different positions – the top, the middle and just above the bottom.

These static holds between reps add time under tension to your pull-ups, thus adding progressive overload to bodyweight calisthenics.

But, f I were trying to master bodyweight calisthenics, I would chase down the one arm pull-up instead.

False grip pull-ups

False grip pull ups work the grip and forearms.

They are useful if you want to learn to do the muscle up or ring muscle ups.

They are one of the basic ring grips to learn more advanced ring exercises.
I don’t use them, because for my purpose of building muscle and strength, the regular grip is more than sufficient.

The false grip pull-up isn’t some extra ordinary pull-up variation, it simply is a useful skill to learn if you want to transition to muscle-ups or ring muscle-ups.

The false grip pull-up is done differently on the bars as opposed to the rings.

They both involve you curling your wrist with closed fists.

The difference between a bar false grip pull-up is that your closed fists aren’t holding onto anything at all.

You’re placing your forearm on the bar with clenched fists.

This is highly uncomfortable and I don’t recommend doing this version of the false grip pull-up.

Instead, use rings for your false grip pull-ups.

They’re more specific to the skill you want to perform (rings muscle-ups).

But you can also do bar pull-ups while holding onto the bar as you would the rings. This is the better way to do this exercise, if you plan on doing it at all.

Front lever pull-ups

Front lever pull-ups are something that gets neglected a lot by the bodyweight calisthenics community.

Yes, they are hard to do but they are an excellent back and biceps and abs building exercise.

Unfortunately they cannot be scaled to build the back and biceps without adding weight at some point, but I have seen some athletes perform single arm front lever pull-ups.

But, this isn’t a very effective way of doing the exercise, so just add weight when you can.

But when you add weight, make sure your feet are on the ground – essentially performing a weighted Australian pull-up.

Pull-Up Variations That SUCK

Just like the best pull-up variations listed above, there is a long list of pull-ups variations that absolutely SUCK.

I wouldn’t be caught doing the following pull-up variations with a yard pole, and neither should you!

Kipping pull-ups

Enemy number one of the pull-up is the kipping pull-up.

There is simply no way to justify the need for this movement.

The internet is filled with memes of people flailing in the air like live worms on a fish hook!

Do not do these for whatever reason you can come up with!

Using your body’s momentum to get yourself up to the bar during a pull-up is cheating yourself by not doing the movement.

The main thing you get from doing kipping pull-ups, is getting better at doing more kipping pull-ups. Just Stop!

No ifs, ands, or buts.

Half rep pull-ups/chin-ups

Half rep pull-ups aren’t really a type of pull-up, but they do exist.

They go hand in hand with pull-ups like kipping pull ups and have no place when building muscle and strength.

Doing half reps on any movement, let alone pull-ups will lead to sub optimal results.

When doing pull-ups or chin-ups make sure that your elbow is fully straightened out at the bottom of the repetition.

Half reps are done when your elbows remain bent at the bottom of the movement.

Half reps can also be done by not getting your chin above the bar.

While getting your chin above the bar is considered a full repetition by most people, the best way to judge a pull up is if you lock your elbows out at the bottom and touch your hands to your chest at the top.

Behind The Neck Pull-Ups

Behind the neck pull-ups target the back musculature a lot more than regular pull-ups, but the cost is not worth the effort.

A lot of people have destroyed their shoulders doing behind the neck pull-ups.

I discourage anyone from doing this version of the pull-ups as it is mostly unnecessary since the inverted weighted rows and chin-ups that I suggest you do will cover all your bases.

Commando pull-up (Mixed grip)

Mixed grip pull ups can be done is different ways. The commando pull-up for instance is done with both hands facing each other, one in front of the other on the bar.

Mixed grip pull-ups can also be done with one hand facing toward you and the other hand facing away from you.

Using a mixed grip is an unnecessary novel way of doing pull-ups and have no potential benefits over their base counterparts.

If you do one set with you hands placed a certain way, you have to do another set to balance out the uneven stress placed on your body.

These are another time wasting exercise created to cure your workout boredom.

L-sit pull-up

L-sit pull-ups are meant to work the abs while doing pull-ups.

But, regular pull-ups already work the abs.

Sure if you want to place even more unnecessary tension on the abs go ahead and do these.

Mostly, they’re just a waste of time.

They’re done by lifting your legs straight out in front of you, making an L-shape with your body, while hanging on the rings/bar.

Do your regular pull-ups instead, and add a targeted ab exercise like hanging leg raises or ring ab roll-outs instead!

Around the world pull-up (Circle pull-up)

Around the world pull-ups are like archer pull-ups and typewriter pull-ups in one exercise.

They’re harder than both the typewriter and archer pull-up and not specific enough to goal of achieving the one arm pull-up.

Typewriter pull-ups get you used to performing unilateral movements by building strength at the top of the movement.

Typewriter pull-ups prepare you for the next step in your one arm pull-up progression – Archer pull-ups.

Archer pull-ups allow you to build enough unilateral pulling strength to do negative one arm pull-ups.

If you are either able to do typewriter or archer pull-ups, do them instead of around the world pull-ups. They will get you to doing your one arm pull-ups faster!

X -pull-ups

X pull-ups are done on parallel bars with your hands crossing over each other in the form of an X.

This means that one hand is in front of the other, thus creating asymmetrical forces in the working muscles.

Exercises that asymmetrically load the muscles can lead to imbalances in the long run and must be done twice, so that the load is distributed evenly.

X pull-ups also have a reduced range of motion and are nothing but a showboating exercise.

You’re better off doing regular hammer grip pull-ups mentioned above.

Skip these, they will do you more harm than good.

Towel pull-ups

Towel pull-ups are actually a really good exercise to build your grip strength.

But, the pull-up part of the exercise, just doesn’t need to exist.

Towel dead hangs are a much better option that will build similar grip strength while also being really good for the shoulders.

If you’re done with heavy pull-up training and you have more left in the tank, do more pull-ups! Don’t meddle around with other exercises where the grip gives out before your targeted muscles do!

You can work on your shoulder health and grip work at the same time by simply hanging on the bar!

Muscle-Ups

Muscle-ups are one of my favorite topics to talk about in calisthenics.

Muscle-ups are hailed as one of the best bodyweight calisthenics exercises but this isn’t true.

If you take a close look at the muscle up, you’ll notice that it is a combination of two exercise – the pull-up and the straight bar dip!

The muscle up patches these two exercises together in an inferior way, especially when done with a swing or “kip”.

Let’s face it, most muscle ups are done with a slight swing, especially when weight is added.

You cannot load the pull-up version of the muscle up easily, thus making it inferior to the weighted pull-up or chin-up.

At the top of the muscle up, the straight bar dip is inferior to the parallel bar dip because it incorporates a reduced range of motion and it cannot be loaded heavily.

As I’ve explained above, cutting your range of motion with half reps, reduces the amount of strength and muscle you can build per rep.

If you really want to get big and strong, get big at weighted pull-ups and dips separately!

Explosive pull ups – Chest to bar/Waist to bar/Plyometric/Clap/Wide to Narrow/Over-Under pull-ups

Explosive pull-ups are an excellent way to build muscle and strength.

All my pull-ups are done as explosively as possible.

But none of my pull-ups include letting go of the bar with my hands, clapping or any of the other acrobatic stunts.

Even a heavy weighted chin-up can be done as explosively as possible, it may move slowly, but the intention to move the weight as fast as possible must always be present.

I have always recommended that all of your reps be done as explosive as possible, but there is no need to let go of the bar during explosive pull-ups. Unless you want to fall and risk being injured. There is a huge difference between training and showing off.

Pull-Up Variations I Personally Use To Build Size And Strength

The only exercise I’ve used to target my back, biceps and abs is the pull-up, more specifically the chin-up.

The chin-up is an excellent upper body strength and size builder, but so are most basic versions of this exercise.

For “variation” I use the following 3 pull-up exercises, neither you nor I need any more:

Weighted Chin-Ups
Weighted Neutral Grip Chin-Ups
Weighted Pull-Ups

If you aren’t doing weighted calisthenics, then you will need the pull-up variations listed above to achieve your one arm pull-up.

From there you can vary grips (pull-up and chin-up grip) to do your pull-ups.

You don’t need to mess with hundreds of different pull-up variations, especially as a beginner.

Get strong at the right ones and you will see fantastic gains in size and strength.

Conclusion:

The pull-up variations listed above, cover the broad spectrum of pull-ups in existence.

Some pull-up variations make sense, they exist to carry you to the next stage of your calisthenics training. Other forms of pull-ups are just flashy styles that are nothing more than a good party trick.

If you have all the time in the world to train, then by all means go ahead and try them all, you’ve got nothing better to do after all.

But if you’re serious about training for the specific goal of putting on muscle and strength then only certain types of pull-ups make sense.

The post The [BEST] And [WORST] Types Of Pull-Ups [RATED] appeared first on Primal Stride.

How To Build Cobra Lats, Python Arms And Rock Hard Abs With Weighted Chin Ups

Suhail Agha — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 16:21:23 +0000

Why I Choose Weighted Chin Ups For Superior Strength And Size!

Weighted chin ups build the lats, biceps and abs better than the isolation exercises dedicated to these muscles.

If you’re looking to build a strong and athletic physique then weighted chin ups are non-negotiable.

But weighted chin ups can do much more than that!

Heavy weighted chins build strength that carries over into the real world!

I have personally used weighted chin ups as the only major exercise to build my back, biceps and abs for years!

If you can increase your weighted chin up to the standards mentioned below, you will build a cobra back, python arms and rock hard abs in the process!

In this article we’ll discuss why weighted chin ups are better than:

Bicep curls
Pull ups
Ab wheel rollouts and Weighted crunches
Lat pull downs

And also:

Why you should be doing weighted chin ups
How to do your first weighted chin up
How to progress with chin ups
Weighted chin up standards – How heavy should you be chinning

By the end of this article, you will know the exact path I have taken to build real world chinning strength!

Let’s begin!

Why [YOU] Should Be Doing Weighted Chin Ups

Weighted chin ups are known as deadlifts for the upper body!

Just like deadlifts weighted chins:

Work the majority of the muscles of the upper body.
Build and require incredible grip strength.
Moves the entire body through space, while moving an external load along with it.
Carry over well to everyday life

Deadlifts require you to lift heavy things off the floor.

While we might not be lifting or moving heavy objects off the floor on a daily basis, heavy deadlifts prepare you for these events.

The same applies to weighted chin ups.

While you might not have to climb and scale walls, gates, rocks or hills, weighted chin ups build the muscles required to scale these vertical obstacles.

Both weighted chin ups and deadlifts make you a more capable human being.

Whats more is that the strength built during weighted chin ups will carry over to your deadlifts and vice versa. This is because, deadlifts and weighted chins both build incredible grip strength.

Another reason why you should be doing weighted chins is because doing them saves a lot of time!

Weighted chins activate the lats, biceps forearms and abs much better than the isolation exercises dedicated to these muscles.

Imagine how long it would take to do a couple of sets of biceps curls, lat pull downs and weighted crunches as opposed to one set of weighted chin ups.

IF you’re like me and want to get in and out of the gym as fast as possible while getting an extremely effective workout, weighted chin ups are the exercise for you!

That said, let’s compare weighted chins to:

Bicep curls
Weighted pull ups
Ab wheel rollouts
Lat pull downs

Weighted Chin Ups Vs Bicep Curls

Weighted chin ups are better than bicep curls because they allow you to place more stress on the biceps.

The main driver of muscle growth is progressive overload – placing more and more stress on the muscle over time.

The simplest way to induce progressive overload is to increase the load on the muscle.

Weighted chin ups allow you to place more load on the biceps because you can use more weight during the exercise.
This means bigger and stronger biceps in the long run!

Personal EMG experiments have shown that the bicep muscle activation is far greater on the weighted chin up when compared to bicep curls.

Weighted chins are also a more functional exercise with real world carryover.
They also build your back and abs at the same time.

Weighted chin ups will do more for you in less time than bicep curls ever will!

Weighted Chin Ups Vs Pull Ups

Weighted chin ups are far better than weighted pull ups because they:

Allow you to carry more weight than weighted pull ups
Take the muscles through a longer range of motion than weighted pull ups
Involve more muscle mass than weighted pull ups

How does this matter?

Using more weight during an exercise places more stress on the muscles. Recovering from this stress makes the working muscles bigger and stronger!

Since weighted chins are easier than weighted pull ups, they allow you carry more weight during the movement thus making you bigger and stronger.

Weighted chins also take the muscles through a longer range of motion, this allows more muscle fiber recruitment.

More muscle fiber recruitment results in a bigger and stronger muscle.

Weighted chins also recruit more muscle mass in the movement.

Take for example the biceps. Facing your palms toward you during chin ups, recruits more of the biceps than having your palms face away from you (during pull ups).

Everyone and their mom wants to build their biceps! So why not use a slight change in the wrist position during chin ups and work your biceps into the movement as well.

Weighted chins save you a lot of time by building the biceps along with other muscles and real world strength!

Weighted chins are a huge time saver and thus better than pull ups.

Although, the pull up is no slouch either, it only loses by a small margin to weighted chins.

When it comes to just using your bodyweight, the story is different.

Since bodyweight chin ups are easier than pull ups, once you exhaust your gains on chin ups, progressing will mean moving over to pull ups, or chasing the one arm chin up instead!

Chin Ups Vs Ab Wheel Rollouts

Personal EMG studies which measured the the activation of the ab muscles during the chin ups showed that chin ups are one of the best ab exercises out there.

In this personal EMG study, chin ups activated the rectus abdominus muscles more than:

Planks
Ab wheel rollouts
Hanging leg raises and even
Dragon flags!

Weighted chin ups are the ultimate anti-extension exercise.
This means that as you pull yourself up to the bar, you are fighting gravity from pulling your legs behind you.

Doing so activates the rectus abdominus muscles more than other anti-extension exercises.

In fact, during chin ups a lot of people unconsciously lift their knees up to their chest.
This activates the abs a lot more, almost like doing leg raises while doing chin ups!

But you don’t have to do your chin ups this way to get the benefits of intense ab activation!

Weighted Chin Ups Vs Lat Pull Downs

Lat pull downs are an excellent exercise to build your back and biceps when you cannot do chin ups.

But lat pull downs are an inferior exercise.

This is because chin ups activate the biceps, lats and abs more than the lat pull down.

This is saying a lot considering the lat pulldown is known for its lat building capability.

Chin ups force you to overcome gravity as you pull your body through space making them more athletic than lat pull downs.

Plus, chin ups can pretty much be done anywhere as long as you have a place to hang from. Lat pull downs on the other hand requires access to special equipment.

Which brings me to my next point about using chin ups as an exercise.

The [BEST] Piece Of Equipment For Doing Chin Ups

Many people prefer to do their weighted chins on a sturdy bar and that makes a lot of sense.

A sturdy bar doesn’t have the instability that gymnastics rings bring to the table, but pull ups bars are fixed. You cannot lug them around with you.

Doorway pull ups bars are okay, but I wouldn’t be using a lot of weight on them in the long run.

I believe the best piece of equipment for weighted chin ups is the gymnastics ring. I personally do my chin ups on gymnastics rings.

The great things about rings is that they allow you to rotate your wrists to a position that makes chinning comfortable for you.

This is especially true for those with injuries. The ability of the rings to move to a position that doesn’t cause pain is a huge plus.

Rings can also be taken anywhere, if you can find a tree, you can hang your rings on it and get a good workout in.

Rings can also be used for exercises other than chin ups.

The other piece of essential equipment for weighted chin ups (apart from the weight) is a dipping belt.

Dipping belts come in many shapes and form, but you want to get one that is:

Comfortable
Has a long and sturdy chain

Having a comfortable dipping belt means that it won’t be digging into your sides when performing weighted chins, dips or push ups for that matter.

You also want a long enough chain if your planning to go heavy with your weighted chins. And obviously the chain should be rated to carry enough weight.

How To Progress With Weighted Chin Ups

Making progress with weighted chin ups is as simple as adding weight.

Jokes apart, if cannot do weighted chin ups yet:

Try getting to 3 sets of 6-7 reps of bodyweight chin ups
Once you reach this stage, just add 2-5 pounds (0.5-1 kilo) at a time
Keep adding weight as long as you can
The moment you get stuck at a particular weight, add reps via an additional set
If you still get stuck after all these adjustments, reset your weight by 10-15% and build back up. You will find that you got way stronger on the way back up.
When building back up, make your last set an AMRAP set – as many reps as possible. This way you can increase your volume while building back up.

Follow this process repeatedly and you will be banging out heavy chin ups in no time!

Weighted Chin Up Standards – How Heavy Should You Be Chinning?

Numbers tell you where you are and where you need to go.

The first standard to aim for is to get your first weighted chin up.

From there your next goal is to get to 0.25 times your bodyweight.

If you achieve this goal for 5 repetitions, you should have a decent back and noticeable biceps.

Getting a 0.5 times bodyweight weighted chin up will put you on the map.

You will look wide from the front and the back and your biceps will be huge.

The next stage is to try and get a 0.8 times bodyweight chin up.

You would have reached the elite level, with what you came to accomplish – cobra lats, python arms and rock solid abs.

Bodyweight plays a huge factor here. But everyone can achieve a 0.25 times bodyweight chin up for 5 reps. So go hard and keep getting stronger!

Conclusion:

Weighted chin ups are your best friend whether you’re a calisthenics athlete or not!

Weighted chins are better than:

Bicep curls for the biceps
Lat pull downs for the lats
Ab wheel rollouts and dragon flags for the abs

Heavy chins build incredible real world strength thus making them a non-negotiable exercise.

The post How To Build Cobra Lats, Python Arms And Rock Hard Abs With Weighted Chin Ups appeared first on Primal Stride.

Zero To One Arm Pull Up Progression – The [ULTIMATE GUIDE]

Suhail Agha — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 18:23:06 +0000

The [ULTIMATE] Pull Up Progression Guide - From ZERO To One Arm Pull Up HERO

The feeling of achieving your first pull up is incredible!
The feeling of being able to do the same with one arm is even better.

Regardless of where you are on your pull up journey; this pull up progression guide will show you how to master the rare one arm pull up!

Here’s what you need to know about mastering the one arm pull up:

The concept of Relative Strength – Your bodyweight and pull ups
Pull Ups Vs. Chin Ups, Which is better?
Are Lat Pull Downs good for Pull Ups?
Weighted Pull Ups – Are they worth your time?
The path from ZERO to your first One Arm Pull Up

I’ve used this EXACT formula on myself and several others in order to get from ZERO to my first one arm pull up.

Let’s get started!

Relative Strength - Your Bodyweight And Pull Ups

Pull ups require you to pull your entire body through space.
This means that the heavier you are, the harder it is going to be to do pull ups.

Lightweights that can’t do pull ups need to only build their pulling strength with the steps mentioned below. Once this is done, they should have no problem getting their first pull up.

Most calisthenics athletes don’t weigh a lot, some of them don’t even work their legs.
They perform incredible gravity defying stunts due to their low bodyweight.

Even if they do work their legs, it is with bodyweight exercises that don’t build any respectable size or strength. This in turn keeps their bodyweights low, allows them to flip and fly through the air.

This is especially true for pull ups as it is for the one arm pull up!

But your life is not lived on bars, and neither is mine, so having a strong pair of legs is a must! Don’t use your bodyweight as an excuse not to build big and strong legs.

Having a lighter bodyweight makes pull ups easier.

If you can do the same number of pull ups as your skinnier counterpart, you’re stronger. The more weight you move, the stronger you are.

If you cannot do any pull ups at all, you might have to lose some weight to get your first pull up.

If you’re on the heavy side, you have to do two things to get to your first pull up:

You must get leaner
You must get stronger

The great news is getting stronger is possible no matter what you weigh!

Losing fat while building muscle and strength is the holy grail of working out and it can be done especially for those:

New to training
Coming back to training after a long time

The pull up progression below will make you strong enough to get your first pull up, one arm or otherwise!

Pull Ups Vs. Chin Ups – Which Is Better?

The quick and simple answer to this question is that chins ups will always be better than pull ups.

Chin ups move your muscles through a longer range of motion, while working the biceps at the same time!

Because chin ups recruit the biceps better than pull ups, they are easier to perform.

This means that you will get your first chin up before your first pull up.
Chin ups also allow you lift more weight during weighted calisthenics.

This makes you stronger as strength is the production of force against an external resistance.

The more force you produce, the more weight you move. Thus weighted chins will make you stronger than weighted pull ups!

But, what if you don’t want to perform weighted calisthenics (for whatever reason)?

Then I still suggest doing chins over pull ups, because they build more muscle mass. Once you have exhausted your gains from bodyweight chins, you can move onto pull ups.

The pull up progression below prioritizes chin ups over pull ups until the final step!

You can choose to substitute chin ups with pull ups in the exercises listed below, but:

You won’t build your biceps as effectively
It will take you longer to progress to one arm pull ups

A Word On Lat Pull Downs – Can They Help Build Pulling Strength?

Many calisthenics athletes will say that lat pull downs cannot build strength for pull ups.

I used to think the same. But this is not true.

If you get strong enough to perform the lat pull down using the equivalent of your bodyweight, you will certainly be able to get your first pull up.

In fact, if you are carrying excessive amounts of bodyweight, getting strong on lat pull downs is a good option.

Although you can build pulling strength Australian pull ups as well.

Again, I suggest using an underhand grip on the lat pull down when performing the exercise. You might as well build bigger biceps while getting stronger.

Relative Strength - Your Bodyweight And Pull Ups

Weighted Chin Ups – Should You Use Them For One Arm Pull Ups?

Can weighted chin ups build enough strength to perform one arm pull ups?

Absolutely, yes!

Weighted chin ups will build your pulling strength faster than bodyweight pull/chin ups.

In fact, this is the path I urge you to take if you want to build muscle and strength as efficiently as possible.

The calisthenics community prides themselves in the fact that they don’t need any equipment to build muscle.
While there is some truth to that claim, in reality, EVERY calisthenics athlete uses equipment to get big and strong.

Even the ground beneath their feet is technically equipment being used to build muscle and strength.

Bodyweight trainees also use parallettes and pull up bars to get the rest of their work done.

This is where the great divide between bodyweight purists and weighted calisthenics athletes appears.

Should you use weight or not?
For some odd reason the calisthenics community looks at weights as an untouchable piece of equipment!

The fact of the matter is – reaching your body’s true potential for strength and size cannot be done without weights.

Remember getting strong is the bodies ability to produce maximum force against an external object.

The heavier weight you use during your calisthenics movements, the stronger you become!

Bodyweight calisthenics is a survival skill, it is NOT a from of training that can be used to gain maximum muscle and strength!

There is a huge difference between surviving and thriving! What do I mean by bodyweight calisthenics being survival training?

Imagine (for some weird reason) you had no weight to carry around.

Having a grasp of basic calisthenics exercises will enable you to maintain your muscle and strength for a brief period of time. That’s it.

There is no doubt in my mind that weighted calisthenics is far better than bodyweight calisthenics when it comes to the efficiency of building size and strength.

This does not mean that you must lift weights.

But, adding weight will more than cover all your bases – making you as big and as strong as possible!

Pull ups, dips, squats, deadlifts and power cleans are all essential movement patterns that can be used in everyday life.

Now that you know all you need to know about pull ups in general, let’s get down to the meat and potatoes of this article – your pull up progression guide.

The exercises listed below will take you from ZERO to your first one arm pull up in no time.

The complete pull up progression guide – From ZERO To One Arm Pull Up HERO

All exercises in this pull up guide can be done on rings or bars.
But if you are serious about progressing to a one arm pull up, I highly suggest investing in a pair of gymnastics rings.

Rings make the transition from beginner to advanced pull up training seamless.

Rings are a versatile piece of equipment that can be used with other calisthenics exercises as well.

So get yourself a good pair of gymnastics rings before you start!

The exercises are listed below in order of their difficulty.
Start with an exercise that you can perform for a couple of repetitions.

Move to the next exercise on the list once you are strong enough.

Every single time you perform the exercises mentioned below, make sure you’re making progress with them.

This can be done in several different ways, if you want to know more:

Follow the pull up progression mentioned below step-by-step until you get to your first one arm pull up!

The Australian Pull Up

This is ground zero, the starting point for anyone trying to build strength for pull ups.

If you can’t perform even one pull up, the Australian pull up is going to be your best friend for a while.

With the right piece of equipment – Australian pull ups can be done by anyone regardless of their training background.

I recommend doing these on gymnastics rings. Rings allow your to tailor the intensity of the exercise to suit your strength needs.

Australian pull ups strengthen your upper back, lats, rear delts, and biceps.

Strengthening these muscles will help you get your first pull up.

Australian pull ups can be made harder by bringing your upper back closer to the ground.

Using Australian pull ups along with lat pull downs, can put you on the fast lane to getting your first pull up!

Once you’re strong enough to do a couple of sets and reps of Australian pull ups, move onto the next exercise.

Negative Chin Ups

Negative chin ups are essentially the lowering phase of the chin up.

To perform this exercise, get yourself to the top of the pull up bar/ rings and lower yourself down with control.

Negative reps are an invaluable strength training technique that is often underutilized.

Negative reps, allow you to build strength in the negative portion of the movement, even though you’re not strong enough to perform the positive.

The lowering/negative phase of the chin up must be done in a slow and controlled manner.

Supinating your palms (palms facing toward you) also builds your biceps, which can help tremendously during pulling movements.

Once you’re comfortable with negative chin ups, you can do one of two things:
Move onto the next exercise variation or try your first chin up!

Assisted Chin Ups (No Machines Allowed!)

The assisted chin up is for those of you who tried and did not get your first chin up after doing pull up negatives for a while.

Assisted chin ups should never be done on an assisted pull up machine, The assisted pull up machine doesn’t produce the instability that is prevalent during regular pull ups/chin ups.

Instead of performing assisted chin ups on a machine, do them with bands or with your feet elevated on a chair instead!

Placing a band or chair beneath the feet, makes the exercise easier to perform.

But don’t forget that you’ve now built strength in the negative portion of the pull up. So, pull yourself up with assistance, then lower yourself down without it.

This will build more than enough strength to attempt your first pull up.

Note – Bands come with different resistances, choose one that you can get only 3 reps for multiple sets with, and continue adding reps from there.

Once you can get more than 5 reps (for sets) with a particular band, change the band you are using to one with lower resistance. This will make your pull ups progressively harder than before.

Chin Up Singles

Chin up singles are another often neglected tool in the pull up progression system.

Many people who get their first chin up transition to chaining half reps instead of building strength with singles over time.

Singles are invaluable that they allow you to take a break between each rep while taking the muscles through their full range of motion.

Chaining singles allows you to perform multiple sets. Once you are able to get 4 sets of 5-6 singles, you’re ready to start chaining your chin ups.

Chin Up Chains

One of my favorite upper body pulling movements is the chin up.
Why chins over pull ups? Chins build your biceps. Case closed.

Chins are also easier than pull ups because of the bicep recruitment during the movement.

If you’re struggling with your pull ups, give chins a go.

In fact, I rarely ever do pull ups, I’m always trying to get my chin ups stronger. And what magically happens is that my pull ups gets stronger too.

If you’re going down the weighted calisthenics route, chin ups are the better exercise, they allow you to move move weight, thus making you stronger in the long run!

Weighted chin ups are all you will need from here to build impressive pulling strength.

You could just start adding weight over time and reach your first one arm pull up using only weighted chins.

Pull Ups

If you’ve decided to forgo heavy weighted chin ups, then your next step is to start getting better at pull ups.
Pull ups don’t build the biceps as much as chins do.

Bodyweight pull ups are harder than chin ups because they don’t involve the biceps as much.

They will thus build a bigger and stronger back in the process.

Now don’t get me wrong, pull ups will still build your biceps, just not as much as chins will. You can add a set of ring biceps curls into your routine if you like.

You actually don’t have to do pull ups at this point, but since this is a guide to your first pull up, go ahead and try one out anyway.

Typewriter Chin Ups

Typewriter chin ups are your first introduction to unilateral (single limb) training for the one arm chin up.

While typewriter chins are technically not a unilateral movement, they do have a unilateral element to them.

Typewriter chins will provide an additional stimulus to the biceps at the top, thus allowing them to grow further this way.

The top of the movement has most of your bodyweight on one limb, adding strength in the static hold position at the top.

While I am not a big fan of static holds, the typewriter pull up (chin up to be precise) helps worth learning the skill to perform the archer pull up.

I highly encourage you to do your typewriter chin ups on rings, as rings allow for free movement of the arms during the exercise.

Also, rings carry over well to the next exercise in the one arm pull up progression.

Archer Chin Ups

Archer chin ups start where typewriter chin ups left off.

Even though the archer chin up is not a pure unilateral movement as one arm is still supporting the movement, it comes damn close.

Archer chin ups are one of my favorite bodyweight pulling movements for building serious size and strength in the back and arms!

Pull ups and chin ups can only take you so far with just your bodyweight, archer pull ups or chin ups will allow to place an immense amount of stress on the working arm thus building fantastic upper body pulling strength!

Once you’re able to do archer chin ups for reps, you’ll be close to doing your first one arm chin up.

Single Arm Chin Up Negatives

If you’re performing chin up negatives with control for reps, you’re one step away from getting your first single arm chin up!

But this exercise should not be done just by itself. Single arm negatives must be combined with archer chin ups for best results.

Always start by performing the archer pull up to get yourself to the top of the ring/bar and then lower yourself using the single arm negative.

Once you’re able to do these for reps, you will be able to get your first one arm chin up.

One Arm Chin Up Singles

The feeling of getting your first one arm chin up is incredible.

I still remember the first time I was able to do mine. I thought I was the strongest kid on the face of the earth.

When you first start doing one arm chin up singles, you won’t be able to get too many of them in a row.

You will have to build training volume in order to produce enough stress on the muscles to grow.

Thus, do your one arm chin up singles at the start of your training session and then add volume with the archer pull up – negative chin up combo.

This will add strength and size to your frame, thus enabling you to chain your single arm chin ups over time.

Single Arm Pull Ups

Of course, once you start chaining one arm chin ups, one arm pull ups will be on the menu next.

The one arm pull up is more closely related to a neutral grip chin up.

It is never really done with the palms facing away from the body.

In fact I believe that the one arm chin up is more natural of a movement than the one arm pull up.

The body wants to turn the movement into a chin up, but it is you who is fighting to turn it into a pull up.

Either way, you are now pulling with one hand. This is the pinnacle of bodyweight pulling strength!

Conclusion:

The journey to the one arm pull up is simple and straightforward.

The path is laid out for you for free in this article. Just follow the plan step-by-step and you’ll be doing your first one arm chin up in no time.

The post Zero To One Arm Pull Up Progression – The [ULTIMATE GUIDE] appeared first on Primal Stride.

Archer Pull Ups – Master The One Arm Pull Up

Suhail Agha — Sun, 12 Jul 2020 09:56:37 +0000

Archer Pull Ups - The [SECRET] To Unlocking The One Arm Pull Up?

Archer pull ups are one of those calisthenics exercises that just look cool, but are they worth your time?

In this article we’ll discuss:

Who should be doing Archer Pull Ups – Are archer pull ups actually worth your time?
The BEST piece of equipment to learn and perform archer pull ups
Archer pull ups Vs archer chin ups, which is better and which one should you be doing?
How to do archer pull ups with perfect form!
Archer pull up progressions – How to do your first archer push up?

Let’s begin.

Are Archer Pull Ups Worth Your Time – Pros And Cons Of Archer Pull Ups

Archer pull ups are a unilateral pull up variation that uses one hand as a stabilizer while the other hand does the work.

Archer pull ups work the muscles of the upper back, lats, and biceps of the working arm.

The main reason to be doing archer pull ups, is if you are working towards the one arm pull up.

This means bodyweight calisthenics athletes that are serious about taking their pulling strength to the next level should be doing archer pull ups.

The archer pull up is the stepping stone to performing your first one arm pull up!

Archer pull ups can also be performed by weighted calisthenics athletes who want to work towards a one arm pull up.

Although weighted calisthenics athletes do have the option of skipping this exercise and focusing on increasing their pull up strength.

This is because the resistance from heavy weighted pull ups can be enough to build one arm pulling strength!

As we all know, using an external load when performing calisthenics (aka weighted calisthenics) is far more efficient at building strength than bodyweight calisthenics.

Like all unilateral movements, the problems with archer pull ups are that they:

Take more time to train than regular pull ups. This is due to the fact that you have to do two sets (one for each hand) to train both sides evenly, as opposed to working both hands in one set. And believe me, this can take a lot more time and effort, especially as your workouts get harder.
You will always be able to do more reps with your dominant side than with the other. If you want to keep the “balance” between both arms, you will have to limit the strength of the dominant arm to do even reps with both. So you’re not really making your non-dominant arm as strong as the dominant arm. Instead you’re making the dominant arm as weak as the non-dominant arm. But with unilateral training, there is no other choice. Especially for those doing bodyweight training, unilateral training is a must.

The Best Piece Of Equipment For Archer Pull Ups

The best piece of equipment to practice your archer pull ups are a good pair of gymnastics rings.

Rings allow you to perform the archer pull up in a way that mimics the one arm pull up mechanics better!

This is because at the top, the rings adjust themselves according to the length of your outstretched arm.

Rings also make the regression to archer pull ups – typewriter pull ups better to perform! Thus allowing your typewriter pull ups strength to carryover to archer pull ups.

Rings adapt to your joint movements and make the movement much smoother to perform compared to the bar. Get your hands on a good pair if you’re truly interested on working on your one arm pulling strength!

Archer Pull Ups Vs. Archer Chin Ups – Which Is Better

The age old battle of the pull up vs chin up rages on forever, this time between the archer pull up and the archer chin up.

If you’ve read any of my articles that compare these two movements, I always choose the chin up over the pull up.

Why?

The chin up brings more muscle mass into the movement by supinating the wrist – facing the palms toward you. Thus chin ups build your biceps better than pull ups, while still working the back and lats.

Chin ups will almost always be the better exercise to perform, they provide more bang for your buck, thus saving you a lot of time. You don’t have to perform extra sets of biceps curls if you perform chin ups.

When it comes to archer chin ups, the story is the same. Archer chin ups will build your biceps more than archer pull ups and are thus a superior movement.

Bigger biceps will always translate to more pulling strength down the road.

Archer chin ups also provide range of motion than archer pull ups! Thus archer chin ups have the ability to build more muscle than archer pull ups.

Another benefit of learning archer chin ups over archer pull ups is that the archer chin up is easier than the archer pull up. Thus, archer chins are the stepping stone to archer pulls.

Transitioning from archer chins to archer pulls is as easy as switching your palm position. Of course, the archer pull up will is a lot more awkward of a movement to perform.

The bar/ring tends to get in the way of the shoulder when trying to get maximum range of motion.

Combining your archer chin ups with rings allow for more stabilizer muscle activation as well.

So invest in a good pair of rings!

Archer Pull Up Form

Proper form in the archer pull up will get you closer to performing the one arm pull up than if you use improper form.

To perform the perfect archer pull up:

Start from a dead hang position on the rings or bar and take a wide grip. Supinated grip (palms facing you) will work more of the biceps and is the easier movement to execute. But you can also use the probated grip as well. If you cannot perform this exercise from a dead hang, you’re not strong enough yet. Go back and perfect your typewriter pull ups and then come back here and try again.
Whether doing archer pull ups or archer chin ups, your supporting arm must have a pronated grip (palms facing away from you). For archer chin ups, your working arm will be facing you of course.
Before pulling yourself up, depress and retract your shoulder blade and bring your body closer to your working hand.
With the non working hand absolutely straight, pull your body up, making sure to get your chin above the ring/bar.
Then simply lower yourself back to the starting position.

You’ve now done your first archer pull up!

While doing archer pull ups, make sure to:

Keep your chest up. To do this, pinch your shoulder blades together and try placing them in your back pocket!
Keep your non-working arm absolutely straight. Doing so places more force on the working hand, thus making the movement harder to perform. Bending the non working arm engages the musculature of that arm, thus making the movement easier for the working arm. This is cheating the exercise. If you find that your non-working arm is bending, try “pushing” the ring/bar away from you using that arm.

Archer Pull Up Progression – How To Do Your First Archer Pull Up

If you can’t perform archer pull ups yet, don’t worry. Just follow the steps given below and you’ll be doing archer pull ups in no time!

First evaluate your strength. Can you do chest to bar pull ups with both hands?

If you can’t do chest to bar pull ups, work on that first, before attempting any one arm pull up progressions.

Once you can do chest to bar pull ups with good form for reps, move on to the next progression.

Enter the typewriter pull up. Typewriter pull ups are the gateway to performing you first archer pull up.

Typewriter pull ups are an excellent exercise to build one arm pulling strength with static holds at the top.

Once you can perform typewriter pull ups for reps, the next step is to work on archer chin ups!

Archer chins will help build your biceps while building strength to perform your first archer pull up!

Calisthenics isn’t that complicated. In order to progress, you have to master the regression first.

If you’re wondering about how to progress with sets and reps for pull ups, check the article listed below.

Conclusion:

Archer pull ups are the stepping stone to one arm pull ups.

They are an excellent muscle and strength building exercise for calisthenics enthusiasts wanting to take their pull up game to the next level!

Mastering the archer pull up requires the mastery of typwriter pull ups and archer chin ups first.

Once you’ve mastered these two movements, performing your first archer pull up will be a breeze.

Do your archer pull ups on rings for best results! You’ll be well on your way to doing your first one arm pull up in no time!

The post Archer Pull Ups – Master The One Arm Pull Up appeared first on Primal Stride.

Calisthenics For Women – Is It Worth Your Time? My [UNBIASED] Opinion

Suhail Agha — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 17:49:56 +0000

Calisthenics For Women – Is It Good For You? [ULTIMATE] Guide

More and more women are interested in calisthenics these days.

Calisthenics doesn’t require any equipment and can be done anywhere and at any time.

But is bodyweight training good for women? Will it help you achieve your goals?

In this article we’ll discuss:

What women need to know about calisthenics
Whether calisthenics can help women lose weight
Whether calisthenics can help women build muscle
How to start calisthenics as a woman

Let’s get started.

What Women Need To Know About Calisthenics

The first thing you need to know about calisthenics is:

Calisthenics is a form of exercise that builds muscle and strength by moving the body through space.

Think pull ups, push ups, dips, inverted rows, squats, and hip thrusts.

A common error is thinking that calisthenics consists of bodyweight exercises only.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth!

Calisthenics consists of bodyweight as well as weighted calisthenics.

So is weighted calisthenics or bodyweight calisthenics better for women?

Well, both!

Here’s why:

If you don’t have the strength to lift your bodyweight plus an external weight, then bodyweight calisthenics is a good place to start.
Once you’re strong enough to lift your bodyweight plus an external weight, then weighted calisthenics will be more efficient at building strength and muscle.
Bodywegiht calisthenics can be extremely challenging for the upper body. But when it comes to the lower body, bodyweight calisthenics falls short.

Thus if you want to:

Lose weight
Get strong
Build a fantastic booty
Learn to do a handstand, get your first push up or pull up

Whichever path you choose, weighted calisthenics is the best way to go!

I still remember the time my girlfriend asked me to train her. She wanted to achieve her first pull up and push up!

I told her that it was going to be a long road ahead, but she was committed.

The second thing you need to know about calisthenics is:

Calisthenics is harder for women than it is for men.
It is a physiological fact that women have lower amounts of testosterone (the male hormone) in their bodies.

This means that as a woman, you:

Build less muscle mass than men
Store more body-fat than men
Are physically weaker than (most) men, especially when it comes to upper body strength

But, the great thing about calisthenics is that EVERY exercise can be modified to suit your current strength level!

Can Calisthenics Help you Lose Weight?

If you’re looking to use calisthenics for “weight-loss”, think again.

What you actually want is “fat-loss” and “muscle-gain”.

Simply losing a whole bunch of “weight” will have you looking “skinny-fat”.
You will have no muscle definition and won’t have that “toned” look most women want.

I know that’s a lot of quotation marks, but if you want to look great at the end of your fat-loss journey, you must build or maintain as much muscle as possible!

And this is where calisthenics can help!

Calisthenics can help women lose fat and build muscle at the same time (if you are a beginner, or have not worked out in a while).

But using exercise to as a fat-loss tool is not the best idea. Exercise should be used to build or maintain muscle instead!

Exercise is not an efficient way to reduce the amount of calories you consume.

You’d have to workout for hours on end to burn off the calories you binged on in a couple of minutes!

It’s simply not sustainable!

So what do you do instead?

Use your nutrition to restrict the calories you consume instead!

Because when it comes to fat-loss its all about calories in versus calories out.

If you eat more you’ll gain more and if you eat less you’ll lose more. It’s really that simple.

Thus, it is better to use your diet to lose fat, and use calisthenics to maintain or build muscle instead!

Exercise can help put you in a calorie deficit, but not by a lot.

Calisthenics exercises, like hiking, jogging, jumping rope or bodyweight circuit training can help put you in a caloric deficit and thus help aid fat-loss. But don’t use these exercises as your primary weight-loss tool!

Your diet is more important than calisthenics or any other training modality when it comes to losing fat!

Can You Get Strong With Calisthenics?

Strong is the new sexy they say!

Having a good base of strength will give you a sense of independence as a woman. Strength will keep you less reliant on your male counterparts when push comes to shove.

Strength is the way we interact with our environment, and you must get strong.

Calisthenics can make you strong! But bodyweight calisthenics will only make your upper body strong.

Want to be able to climb a fence? Scale a wall, or just have a good time at your rock climbing gym? No problem, calisthenics has got you covered!

But bodyweight calisthenics won’t build a strong lower body. And the majority of your strength comes from the lower body, the part that’s in contact with the ground.

Bodyweight calisthenics falls short – in the legs department.

Now of course, if you don’t exercise, doing a set of bodyweight squats will be challenging. But it won’t be challenging for long.

Sooner rather than later, bodyweight squats will become way too easy. Then what?

Lungs, Bulgarian split squats, Step ups, will all get easy very quickly as well.

At some point, again, sooner rather than later, you will have to add weight to your bodyweight training.

Believing your favorite fitness Instagrammer or YouTuber says the set of butt circles they did was going to build your booty just like theirs is naive.

If someone you’re following has thick well defined legs, and a massive butt, they’re lifting heavy ass weights.

And that’s what I suggest you do as well. Nothing will grow your booty better than sets of heavy squats, weighted hip thrusts and deadlifts.

Trust me ladies, if you want a big booty, you’re going to have to work for it.

No amount of butt circles from your favorite Instagrammer will build your glutes, quads and hamstrings like heavy barbell work will.

So when it comes to the lower body, get your weighted calisthenics game on!

How To Start Calisthenics As A Woman?

Whether you’re a guy or girl, the calisthenics exercises you perform won’t change.

There’s this big myth in the fitness industry that men and women should perform different exercises, but nothing could be further from the truth!

So what are the best exercises to perform when starting calisthenics as a woman?

Just as with a man, it all depends on your current strength level.

Before starting any exercise program, learn the correct form and technique of each exercise and start with caution.

This means starting with low intensities and exercises that are easier to learn and perform.

In general you want to be able to perform the following exercises at some point in your calisthenics journey:

Dips
Pull Ups
Overhead press
Barbell Back Squats
Barbell Deadlifts

You maybe wondering why I have barbell back squats and deadlifts added to a calisthenics program.

That’s because, if bodyweight squats are considered bodyweight calisthenics, then barbell back squats are weighted calisthenics. It’s that simple.

The deadlift on the other hand is another weighted calisthenics movement. Think about it, when deadlifting, your entire body moves through space as you pick the barbell off the floor.

Barbell back squats and deadlifts will also build your quads, glutes, hamstrings, lower back and lats. These are the areas most women are looking to improve in terms of aesthetics.

Pull ups and dips and the overhead press will take care of the rest!

But what if you can’t perform the exercises mentioned above?

Fret not, just perform the regressions (easier variations of the same exercise).

To make pull ups easier – do inverted rows.
Can’t do barbell back squats? Start with your bodyweight.
Can’t deadlift? Pick something off the floor, anything will work just fine to start.
Can’t do dips? Do push ups instead!
Can’t do push ups? The article below will have you doing your first push up in no time!

NOTE: The name of the game is progressive overload.

If you are not making progress with the exercises mentioned above, your body will refuse to change!

The next thing you’ve got to do is make things harder during your next workout.

This will ensure you’re making progress!

How Often Should Women Train Calisthenics?

Three alternate days a week works well, you don’t need to do anymore!

An example would be:

Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Repeat again next week.

Make your workouts full body; use variations of the exercises listed above for a couple of sets and reps. Then make it harder the next training session.

You will make great progress this way. This is how it’s done, there is no magic bullet to hard work and progress!

Conclusion

Calisthenics for women is no different than it is for men.

Stick to the basics, and make things harder the next time.

Whenever an exercise becomes easier to perform, all you need to do is add some weight!

The post Calisthenics For Women – Is It Worth Your Time? My [UNBIASED] Opinion appeared first on Primal Stride.

Dolphin Push ups – Build Massive Side Delts Without Any Equipment!

Suhail Agha — Sun, 05 Jul 2020 12:20:54 +0000

Dolphin Push Ups - Bodyweight Lateral Raises Without Equipment!

Dolphin push ups are the ultimate bodyweight exercise for your side delts that requires zero equipment.

All you need is the ground beneath your feet!

Dolphin push ups are one of bodyweight training’s best kept secrets!

In this article, we’ll talk about:

The benefits of dolphin push ups
How to perform dolphin push ups for building massive side delts
What not to do when performing dolphin push ups
How to make progress with dolphin push ups (making them harder or easier)

Let’s begin.

The Benefits Of Dolphin Push Ups

I really like dolphin push ups for building the side delts without any equipment because they:

Build broader shoulders
Work several different muscle groups at the same time
Can be made harder or easier depending on your strength level

1. Dolphin Push ups Build Broader Shoulders

Building broader shoulders involves building a V-taper.

The V-taper makes you look wider from the front and the back.
And are the cherry on the top because the side delts widen your V-taper.

If you only work with your bodyweight then dolphin push ups will help you get that broad shouldered look.

2. Dolphin Push Ups Work Different Muscle Groups

Apart from just working the side delts dolphin push ups also work the:

Front delts
Traps
Abs

Shrugging while doing dolphin push ups will will work the traps while also working the shoulders, and abs.

3. Dolphin Push Ups Can Be Made Easier Or Harder

Having an exercise that can be made easier or harder means that:

Everyone can use the exercise to build muscle
Everyone can make progress with the exercise

The ability to make progress with dolphin push ups means that you can continue using the exercise to build muscle and get stronger!

How To Perform Dolphin Push Ups For Maximum Results

Activation of the side delts is the main objective of performing dolphin push ups.
This is done by flaring the elbows out to the sides.

The more you flare your elbows out, the more you’ll activate the side delts, thereby mimicking lateral raises with just your bodyweight.

Thus, your starting position is extremely important.

To perform dolphin push ups:

Start on the floor in a low plank position. Flare your elbows out to the side and interlace your fingers. Adjust the width of your elbows if you feel any discomfort in the shoulder joint. The more your flare your elbows out the more you will isolate the side delts.
From here, lean forward till your nose almost makes contact with the ground, or your hand makes contact with your chest.
Then push yourself back to the plank position using just your shoulders.

It’s that simple.

What Not To Do When Performing Dolphin Push Ups For Your Side Delts

Form is extremely important when performing dolphin push ups, especially because we are trying to isolate the side delts.

To isolate the side delts as much as possible, make sure to flare your elbows out to the side!

The more you can flare your elbows out to the side, the more you will work your side delts.

This is because the function of your side delts is to abduct the arm – move your arm away from you to the side.

To place maximum stress on the side delts, make sure that you are using your shoulders to push your body back.

It is easier to lift yourself back to the starting position (plank position) by moving your hips.

Do not pull your body back with your hips, this completely removes tension on the delts and reduces the effectiveness of the exercise!

For maximum “core” activation, make sure to squeeze your glutes and abs. Don’t allow your hips to sink to the ground!

How To Make Progress With Dolphin Push Ups

Progressing with with any exercise is extremely important, and it’s no different for dolphin push ups.

If you cannot do dolphin push ups on your toes, do them on your knees.

This will reduce the amount of bodyweight placed on your shoulders, thus making the movement easier to perform.

Try aiming for higher reps, start by doing 10 reps, then move up to 15-20 reps before making the exercise harder again.

To make the exercise harder, simply move your knees away from your elbows.
Keep doing this until you can finally perform the exercise on your toes.

Once you can do 15-20 reps on your toes, for 4-5 sets, it’s time to progress by making the exercise harder.

Placing your toes on an elevated surface will place more of your bodyweight on your shoulders, thus making the exercise harder to perform.

Elevating your feet during dolphin push ups will also increase the effective range of motion of the exercise.

This will give you the ability to recruit more muscle fibers while getting stronger.

Conclusion

Dolphin push ups are an excellent no equipment bodyweight exercise that mimics the lateral raise.

Getting stronger at this exercises will build your side delts, thus giving you that broad shouldered look!

The post Dolphin Push ups – Build Massive Side Delts Without Any Equipment! appeared first on Primal Stride.

How To Build Broader Shoulders With Just Your Bodyweght!

Suhail Agha — Sat, 04 Jul 2020 11:44:24 +0000

How To Build Broader Shoulders With Bodyweight Calisthenics!

If you want to know how to build broader shoulders with calisthenics, you’re in the right place.

In this article I’m going to show you:

The secret to looking broader with bodyweight calistheincs
How to build your shoulders with bodyweight training
The top bodyweight shoulder building exercises

The Secret To Building Broader Shoulders With Your Bodyweight

You’re here because like me, you probably have narrow shoulders.

And if you were born with narrow shoulders, there’s only one thing you can do about it:
You MUST build a V-taper.

The V-taper isn’t just about building broader shoulders, it comes from building a wide back as well as capped delts.

The V-taper gives the illusion of a narrow waist and broad shoulders, and gives you that wide look from the front and the back.

So how do you build the V-taper?

Simple – build your shoulders and your build back!

It is the back that will give you the wide look, while the shoulders are the icing on the cake!

Whats’s great is that calisthenics back exercises also build the shoulders, so working on one also builds the other.

Thus working your back and shoulders have a synergistic effect that will give you the coveted V-taper that you and I are looking for.

In this article, we’ll only talk about building cannonball delts. But if you want to know how to build a wide back as well, check out my article listed below.

Read More: Weighted Chin Ups – How To Build A Cobra Back And Python Arms!

What You Need To Know About Building Broader Shoulders

In order to build wide shoulders, you must get stronger!
For natural trainees like you and me, there is no other way!

Here’s why:

Your shoulder muscles (or deltoid) is made up of 3 different parts (or heads):

Front (or anterior) delt – is highly involved in several pressing (or pushing) movements. It is responsible for lifting heavy weights – The Strong Head.
Side (or lateral) delt – doesn’t get involved in many calisthenics movements. It is responsible for giving your shoulders that wider look – The Good Looking Head.
Rear (or posterior) delt – is involved in all calisthenics pulling movements (rows, chin ups and pull ups). It is responsible for shoulder stability – The Wise Head.

In order to build huge shoulders, you’ll need to work all 3 heads.

The front and rear delts get worked during basic calisthenics pushing and pulling movements.

Thus, getting stronger these movements will give you most of your shoulder growth!

What’s more is these basic calisthenics movements will also work your chest, back, arms and abs!

But, just doing pushing and pulling movements will not give you the complete shoulder development you require.

Most calisthenics movements don’t effectively work the side delts. And it is the side delts that give your shoulders their width!

But, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve.

Now that you know that just performing regular pushing and pulling movements will grow your front and rear delts, all we have to do is to focus on building the sides.

The following is your complete plan to building fully developed shoulders with calisthenics:

Get yourself a pair of gymnastics rings.
Work on your pushing movements.
Work on your pulling movements.
After you’ve done your pushing and pulling movements – work on your side delts.

Now you might be wondering, why I’ve mentioned the side delts last.

The answer is simple – pushing and pulling exercises are more taxing than side delt exercises.

Pushing and pulling exercises will build the rest of your upper body while giving you 2/3^rd of your shoulder development.

Pulling movements will also build your lats, which are responsible for that coveted V-taper.

So always finish your pushing and pulling movements first, then work on your side delts.

But do NOT neglect building your side delts! They are extremely important when it comes to building broader shoulders!

So which pushing, pulling and side delt bodyweight exercise do I suggest performing?

Read on to find out!

The Best Bodyweight Exercises For Building Broader Shoulders

The following exercises are the best bodyweight shoulder building exercises that will also build your chest, arms, back and abs!

I have listed them in order of difficulty for your to follow based on your abilities:

Best Bodyweight Front Delt Exercises

The handstand push up is one of the best bodyweight shoulder exercises.

Handstand push ups work the entire shoulder, with emphasis on the front delt, followed by the side and rear delts respectively.

BODYWEIGHT PUSHING EXERCISES

FRONT DELTS (HIGH)

SIDE DELTS (MEDIUM)

REAR DELTS (LOW)

Pike push ups are direct regression of handstand push ups and target the same muscles.

Do these if you cannot perform handstand push ups.

If you cannot perform handstand push ups, any old push up variation will do just fine!

But make sure you are working your way up to performing handstand push ups!

But, if the side delts are what we should be focusing on, so why perform push ups?

Push up variations scale well, a lot of progressive overload can be placed on the shoulder muscles over time in order to stimulate growth.

The other exercises mentioned on this list will be very hard to scale with time.

You won’t be able to make as much progress with them as you will with your pushing variations.

So make sure to put in maximum effort when it comes to this movement.

As I’ve already mentioned above, push ups will also work your chest, arms and abs, so no negotiation here.

Dips are another pushing movement that works the front delts well!

Like push ups, dips will also build your chest and triceps, in fact dips will place more tension on the shoulder than push ups.

Best Bodyweight Rear Delt Exercises

Any bodyweight pulling movement you perform will work the rear delts.

This means rows, pull ups and chin ups all work the rear delts quite well.

What’s more is that these exercises will also build your lats, thus contributing to that V-taper.

BODYWEIGHT PULLING MOVEMENTS

FRONT DELTS (LOW)

SIDE DELTS (LOW)

REAR DELTS (MEDIUM)

The rear delts complete the three dimensional shoulder look.
So, if you really want to work on your rear delts (and you should), then rear delt flys and face pulls on rings are your best friends.

Ring face pulls are a pulling exercise that works the rear delts and upper back. It is one of my favorite rear delt exercises.

You can make good progress with this exercise as well, although not to the level that you can progress with your pushing movements.

Ring flys are great too!

RING FACE PULLS/RING REAR DELT FLY

FRONT DELTS (LOW)

SIDE DELTS (LOW)

REAR DELTS (MEDIUM)

Best Bodyweight Exercises For Side Delts

Y-raises and dolphin push ups aren’t well known bodyweight exercises.

This is because the bodyweight y-raise is mostly done on gymnastics rings, while dolphin push ups come from yoga.

But these two bodyweight exercises can place immense tension on the side delts. thus building broader shoulders with just your bodyweight!

Pick any one, or do both of these exercises after you’ve done your main pushing movements.

If you’re performing y-raises, then you will need a good pair of gymnastics rings, while dolphin push ups can be done without any equipment.

Out of these two exercises, I prefer the y-raise because it targets all heads of the shoulder well!

Y-raises also also an excellent trap exercise.

RING Y-RAISES

FRONT DELTS (MEDIUM)

SIDE DELTS (HIGH)

REAR DELTS (MEDIUM)

To make Y-raises harder, reduce the angle of inclination of your body.

Dolphin push ups also build the traps while building the side delts.

RING REAR DELT FLY'S

FRONT DELTS (MEDIUM)

SIDE DELTS (HIGH)

REAR DELTS (LOW)

To make dolphin push ups harder, place your feet on an elevated surface. Decline dolphin push ups will really place a lot of tension on the side delts.

Remember, perform your side delt exercise after your pushing and pulling movements for best results!

Conclusion:

Building a V-taper is the best way to look like you have broader shoulders.

The great thing about building broader shoulders with bodyweight training is that all the exercises work together to build a better physique!

Bodyweight pulling exercises help build your rear delts, while bodyweight pushing exercises help build the front.
The only part of the shoulders that need proper stimulation with bodyweight training is the side delts.

Using the bodyweight exercises mentioned above will help build broader shoulders, while building a wider back, bigger arms and a thicker chest at the same time!

The post How To Build Broader Shoulders With Just Your Bodyweght! appeared first on Primal Stride.

Deep Step Ups Vs Pistol Squats – Did You Choose The Right One?

Suhail Agha — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 15:17:20 +0000

Deep Step Ups Vs. Pistol Squats – Which One Builds Bigger Legs?

The debate about deep step ups and pistol squats has been raging for a while.

Most calisthenics athletes say that the pistol-squat is the ultimate bodyweight squat progression.

But could they be wrong?

Can the deep step up keep match up with the mighty pistol squat?

I’ve put these two exercises against each other to see which one has:

Builds More Muscle And Strength
Requires More Mobility
Requires More Balance
Easier To Learn And Execute
Has The Higher Risk For Injury

Let’s see which exercise comes out on top, and which is better to start your training with.

Which Builds More Muscle – Deep Step ups Vs Pistol Squats?

Using bodyweight calisthenics to build strong and muscular legs is not easy.

This is because your bodyweight limits the amount of stress that can be placed on your legs.

The problem is our legs can carry more than just our bodyweight.

Thus, to build the most size and strength with bodyweight calisthenics, you must resort to unilateral training – training one leg at a time.

Deep step ups and pistol squats are some of the best single leg bodyweight exercises in existence. They both place an immense amount of stress on the quads, glutes and hamstrings.

Both exercises take the muscles of the lower body through their maximum range of motion.

This is the best way to build size and strength effectively.

In fact, when properly executed, both pistol squats and deep step ups have identical ranges of motion.

Thus, in terms of muscle building capacity, both deep step ups and pistol squats have the same muscle building capacity.

But depending on how they’re performed, deep step ups can target the quads, or the glutes and hamstrings. Pistol squats cannot!

You have the flexibility to use the same exercise for different results.

This makes the deep step up more versatile when it comes to building muscle and strength compared to the pistol squat.

Which Requires More Mobility – Deep Step Ups Or Pistol Squats?

Exercises that build the most muscle and strength must:

Have a low mobility requirements
Build your mobility over time

Exercises with low mobility requirements allow you to start building muscle and strength without waiting to improve your mobility!

But an exercise that requires less mobility and also has the potential to build your mobility; hits two birds with one stone!

Pistol squats have incredibly high mobility requirements. In fact, the biggest barrier to performing pistol squats is ankle mobility.

If you keep falling backward during pistol squat training, you don’t have the appropriate ankle mobility to perform the movement.

To perform the pistol squat, you must enough ankle mobility to for your knee to track forward. Doing so allows you to lean forward a bit, thus giving you the balance required to perform the movement.

If you don’t have this ankle mobility, performing pistol squats can be a challenge.

So what do you do if you don’t have the mobility to perform pistol squats?

Perform deep step ups of course!

Deep step ups don’t need the same amount of ankle mobility as pistol squats.
In fact, deep step ups will build both your strength and ankle mobility to perform pistol squats!

This is a double whammy and the biggest reason you should choose to train deep step ups over pistol squats.

Thus in terms of mobility requirements, deep step ups are better because they require less mobility to start, but also build your mobility at the same time.

Which Requires More Balance And Co-Ordination – Pistol Squats Vs Deep Step Ups?

Choosing exercises that are unstable isn’t the best choice when trying to build size and strength.
This is because the body will not be able to generate maximum force in an unstable environment.

Single limb exercises are inherently unstable. Deep step ups and pistol squats are no different!

But since we are limited to using only our bodyweight, removing one limb from the equation increases the the stress placed on the muscle.

Exercises that build more size and strength require less balance. That is why exercises that move the most weight (deadlifts and barbell back squats) are done on two legs! But I digress.

Have you ever wondered why the pistol squat is called the pistol squat?

The pistol squat gets its name from the hand position employed during the movement.

Reaching forward during the pistol squat provides the balance requires to perform the movement.

Have you ever watched anyone perform pistol squats with their hands behind their back?

Probably not, that’s because without using their hands as a counterbalance, they will fall down backwards.

Step ups on the other hand, also require significant amounts of balance, but not as much as pistol squats.

You don’t need to place your hands forward as a counterbalance when performing deep step ups.

Thus, even though deep step ups do require balance and co-ordination (you’re still doing the exercise on only one leg), they are more stable than pistol squats!

Which Exercise Is Easier To Learn And Execute With Proper Form?

Pistol squats are harder learn and execute compared to deep step ups.
This is because pistol squats require large amounts of balance and mobility.

Exercises that are inherently unstable are balancing acts and not strength and muscle builders!

If you don’t have sufficient hip and ankle mobility, training the pistol squat will be near impossible. Unless you can build up your mobility of course.

Deep step ups don’t require a excessive hip and ankle mobility, they are therefore are easier to train.

An exercise that is easier to train will allow you to progress faster toward your muscle and strength building goals.
Deep step ups also require less coaching in terms of form and technique when compared to pistol squats.

Thus in terms of ease of learning and ability to execute, deep step ups win hands down (pun intended)!

Which Exercise Has The Higher Risk For Injury – Pistol Squats Or Deep Step Ups?

If you have knee problems, pistol squats can hurt your knee.
This is because pistol squats require excessive amounts of forward knee travel.

Having a more vertical shin angle (knee above the ankle) alleviates a lot of stress around the knee joint.

But you cannot have a more vertical shin angle when performing pistol squats.

Keeping a vertical shin angle during pistol squats will place your bodyweight behind your foot, thus making you lose your balance.

This is not the case with deep step ups.

Deep step ups start at the bottom, in an already balanced position. This allows you to keep a vertical shin angle on the way up, thus reducing your risk for injury!

Conclusion:

Deep step ups build the same amount of muscle and strength as pistol squats
But deep step ups are better than pistol squats because they:

Require less mobility to perform
Are more stable than pistol squats
Are easier to learn and execute
Carry a lower risk for injury

The post Deep Step Ups Vs Pistol Squats – Did You Choose The Right One? appeared first on Primal Stride.

Dragon Flag Progression – Enter The Dragon

Suhail Agha — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 08:49:14 +0000

Dragon Flag Progression - 5 Simple Steps To Master The Dragon!

The dragon flag progression in this article will build and strengthen your abs to perform the dragon flag!

By the end of this article, you’ll be performing the dragon flag in 5 simple steps!

In this article I’m going to show you:

The benefits of dragon flags – Why you must do them.
The 5 step dragon flag progression system – Master the dragon.

Let’s begin.

Dragon Flag Benefits – Why Perform Dragon Flags

Besides the fact that Bruce Lee famously used Dragon Flags to build his “core”, you should be doing them too!

Dragon flags are a full body ab-exercise that builds and prepares the “core” for other calisthenics skills.

Apart from building the abs, dragon flags also builds the the lats, glutes, and spinal erectors.

This is because dragon flags teach you to be as stiff as a plank.

Read More: Plank Progression – The [ULTIMATE] Guide

The difference between static planks and dragon flags is that dragon flags move your body through space.

The “core” strength developed from practicing dragon flags carry’s over to several other calisthenics movements!

For example, practicing the dragon flag is a primer for unlocking the front lever. This is because front levers and dragon flags share similar mechanics.

But strength carryover from this exercise end here!

The total body control gained from dragon flags also carries over to handstands, planches and back levers as well!

If you’re working toward unlocking different calisthenics skills, then the dragon flag is an non-negotiable exercise for you.

The 5 step dragon flag progression system – Master the dragon

With a little dedication, anyone can unlock the power of the dragon flag!

Each step listed below is intense enough to be it’s very own ab-exercise.

I have specifically chosen these exercises so that you build your six pack while training the movement pattern to unlock the dragon flag!

Let’s get to it!

Step 1: Hollow body Hold

The most important part of the dragon flag is the hollow body hold.

The hollow body position reduces the amount of arching in the lower back thereby engaging the abs.

Make sure to master this position as you will be using it throughout your dragon flag training.

The hollow body position involves “tucking the tailbone between the legs” by squeezing the glutes and abs.

To do this:

1. Lie down on your back with your knees bent and feet firmly on the floor.

2. Try to tuck your tailbone between your legs by squeezing your glutes and abs.

3. If done correctly, your lower back should be in contact with the ground beneath you.

4. While holding this position, straighten your knees and bring your upper back off the ground.

This is the hollow body position.

Sets and Reps:

Hold this position for 20-30 seconds, performing 4-5 sets each.

Familiarize yourself with this position as you will have to maintain it during the progressions mentioned below!

Step 2: Garhammer/Reverse Crunch

Reverse crunches are the perfect starter movement for your dragon flag progression.

Done right, reverse crunches directly mimic dragon flags with bent legs.

Bending your knees during reverse crunches, reduces the load on the abs, thus making the movement easier.

Think of reverse crunches as mastering the bottom position of dragon flags.

To perform the reverse crunch:

1. Lie on the ground with your hands by your side, palms on the ground for support.

2. Initiate and maintain the hollow body position by squeezing the glutes and abs. Try to tuck your tailbone between your legs.

3. Bend your knees and bring your hips toward your chest by lifting them off the ground.

4. Then, bring your hips back down to the ground and repeat the process.

This is the reverse crunch.

Bringing your hips toward your chest forces the abs to work, thus building strength for the next step of the progression.

Sets and Reps:

Perform 3 sets of 15-20 reps 3 times a week.

Every time you perform this exercise, add 2 reps to each set.

Once you’re able to perform 3 sets of 30 reps each, move onto the next progression.

Step 3: Candlestick Leg Raises

Level 2 of the dragon flag progression involves the candlestick leg raise. Candlestick raises are a continuation of reverse crunches.

Here, you’ll have to make a tiny modification to the reverse crunch in order to perform the candlestick raise.

Candlestick raises mimic the top position of the dragon flag.

Modifying the reverse crunch allows you to practice the top and bottom positions of the dragon flag!

To perform candlestick raises:

During reverse crunches, instead of bringing your hips toward your chest, raise your hips up toward the ceiling. This will place your upper back on the floor with your hips stacked above it. All of your bodyweight must be placed on the upper back and not the neck.
From here straighten your knees and point your toes to the ceiling. Keep your knees and toes stacked above your hips, don’t point them behind you. Pointing the legs behind you instead of up will release tension from the abs, this defeats the purpose of the exercise.
From here, reverse the movement by bending the knees, and then lowering your hips back to the floor.
End in the hollow body position mentioned at Step 1.

Sets and Reps:

Perform candlestick raises between 15-20 reps for 3 sets every other day.

When you’re able to perform 3 sets of 30 reps, move on to level 3.

You’re getting close to your first dragon flag.

Step 4: Dragon Flag Negatives

Dragon flag negatives take over where candlestick raises left off.

Candlestick raises and reverse crunches break the dragon flag into two positions – top and bottom.

Dragon Flag Negatives join these two positions into one seamless movement.

To perform dragon flag negatives:

Start by getting into the hollow body position by squeezing the glutes and abs.
From here bend your knees and raise your hips up in the air.
Then straighten your knees and point your toes toward to the ceiling/sky/whatever is above you.
Now, bend only one knee, and initiate your decent. Make sure to maintain the hollow body position throughout the movement. As you bring your hips back down to the ground, make sure your straight leg doesn’t sag beneath the level of your hips.
Once your hips are back on the floor, bend both knees and repeat the process again.

Keeping one knee bent allows you to reduce the load on the core.

As you get more comfortable with the movement straighten your bent knee out. This will increase the intensity of the exercise.

Continue straightening your knee until you’re able to perform dragon flag negatives with both knees straight and feet together.

Sets and Reps:

Perform 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps adding 2-3 reps every time you do the exercise (preferably 3x a week).

Once you can do 3 sets of 25-30 reps it’s time to move onto level 4.

Level 5: Enter The Dragon – How To Perform The Dragon Flag With Perfect Form

To perform the perfect dragon flag:

1. Your feet must be together.

2. Raise your hips and legs up together while maintaining the hollow body position throughout.

3. Your hips and legs must be stacked above the chest at the top, not behind the head.

4. All of your bodyweight must be on your upper back, never on your neck.

5. Lower yourself back to the ground, while maintaining the hollow body position. At no point should your legs drop below the level of your hips.

If you check off all points on this list – Congratulations, you’re now performing dragon flags.

Conclusion:

The progression system mentioned above will have you performing dragon flags in no time!

Every exercise mentioned above was hand picked to build your abs while getting you closer to mastering the dragon flag.

Make sure to milk every step!

The post Dragon Flag Progression – Enter The Dragon appeared first on Primal Stride.

How To Get Ripped Without Weights – The [ULTIMATE] Guide

Suhail Agha — Fri, 26 Jun 2020 09:47:19 +0000

How To Get Ripped Without Weights - Anywhere!

Learning how to get ripped without weights can be a daunting task.

Let’s be straight, if you want to get ripped without weights – you’re choosing the hard path!

Getting ripped without weights requires dedication and discipline without much margin for error.

Choosing the best bodyweight exercises to perform in order to build lean muscle isn’t easy.

That is why I have written this guide. I’m going to show you:

Exactly what to takes to get ripped without weights
The 5 exercises you need to get ripped without weights
The BEST piece of equipment for bodyweight training

Let’s begin.

What It Takes To Get Ripped Without Weights

If you want to get ripped without weights, you must:

Lower your body fat percentage – Watch what you eat
You must add muscle to your frame – Give your muscles a reason to grow

Luckily, bodyweight training can help you achieve the latter.

It is important to understand that building muscle and burning fat at the same time are two opposing goals.

This is because to get big and strong, you must:

1. Place increasing levels on stress on your muscles – Progressive Overload
2. Be in a caloric surplus – Eat more food.

And in order to lose fat, you should:

Continue placing increasing levels of stress on your muscles -Progressive Overload
Be in a caloric deficit – Eat less food.

But, studies have shown that if you are new to working out, it is possible to lose fat and build muscle at the same time!

But the common denominator here is Progressive Overload.

Making your workouts harder and harder whenever possible is the key to gaining muscle.

But, maybe you don’t want to get “big”. Maybe you just want to look lean and ripped – “shredded”.

Most people who want to get “shredded” are afraid they’ll look like bulky bodybuilders.

But, if it were that easy, I’d be looking like the hulk by now!

The truth is, putting on muscle mass is a slow and lengthy process.

Fat loss on the other hand can happen more rapidly.

But trying to lose fat without building muscle, will leave you looking skinny-fat!

Being skinny-fat means; you’re now both thin and fat at the same time.

You’ll look soft, because you have no muscle mass and thus no muscle definition.

Imagine losing a bunch of weight only to look thin and soft!

That’s a huge missed opportunity!
That is why this guide focuses on building muscle mass.

And choosing the right exercises will help you get there faster!

The Top 5 Exercise To Get Ripped Without Weights

If you think you need a hundred exercises to get ripped without weights, think again.

Doing a hundred exercises that “look cool” but have no significant muscle building capacity will have you spinning your wheels forever.

You’re then more likely to lose motivation and quit!

Bodyweight calisthenics is full of this garbage.

You’ll see athletes with impressive physiques, flying through the air, doing multiple somersaults on the pull up bar and think – that’s how they built their muscle.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth!

The truth is that calisthenics athletes take years to build their base of muscle and strength before attempting gravity defying stunts.

Don’t get distracted by the shiny lights.

If you want to build significant amounts of muscle, you have to master the basics first!
I have carefully selected the top 5 bodyweight calisthenics exercises that will put the most amount of muscle on you in the least amount of time!

You don’t need any other exercise other than the ones on this list to become a lean-mean athletic machine!

These 5 bodyweight exercises will help you build:

A Cobra Back and Python Arms
A Rock Hard Chest, Boulder Shoulders and Horseshoe Triceps
Ungodly Hamstrings
Quads For The Gods
Abs Of Steel

The 5 primary exercises mentioned below have a lot of overlap with regards to the muscle groups they work.

Let’s begin.

Building A Cobra Back And Python Arms

If you’re looking to build an aesthetic physique, attaining the coveted V-taper is non-negotiable.

The v-taper comes from building a back that’s wide like the hood of a cobra! And the exercise to do this is not the chin up!

If I could only choose 2 upper body exercises to perform for the rest of my life, they would be chin ups and dips.

These 2 exercises develop the majority of the muscles in the upper body and will reward you with a ripped athletic physique!

When it comes to upper body pulling exercises, the chin up is my favorite!

There’s something cool about lifting your entire body through space with just your two hands!

Chin ups are basically pull ups with your palms facing toward you. They are better than pull ups in several different ways.

Chins ups use more muscle mass in the movement than pull ups.

Facing your palms toward you, engages the biceps more than regular pull ups.

In fact, chins don’t just allow you to build huge arms and a wide back in just one exercise! Chin ups also work the abs extremely well!

Chin ups will be your primary back and biceps exercise.

For those of you who can’t do chin ups yet, inverted rows work well!

Inverted rows are the perfect starter bodyweight pulling exercise.

Chin ups and bodyweight rows work the same muscles of the back and biceps (depending on your grip).

Rows work more of the mid back, like the rhomboids and mid/upper traps. While chin ups work the lats and lower traps.

But just because you can do chin ups, doesn’t mean you give up on rows.

Combining both these exercises together will build you python arms and a cobra back!

Building Boulder Shoulders, A Rock Hard Chest, and Horseshoe Triceps

For the chest, shoulders and triceps, your go to exercise will be the dip.

Dips require you to push your entire body through space with just your hands.

Depending on your lean angle, you can emphasize working the chest or the triceps.

The more you lean forward, (which is the way I suggest doing it) the more you’ll work the chest, while still heavily involving the shoulders and triceps.

A more upright posture will work the triceps more along with the shoulders, while working the chest to a lesser degree.

Apart from building the chest, shoulders, and triceps, dips also build the serratus anterior.

The serratus anterior is a muscle that is important for aesthetics as well as shoulder health.

But, if you cannot do dips, you will have to work your way up by doing push ups!
Just like dips, depending on the variation used, push ups will also work the chest, shoulders and triceps.

The push up progressions mentioned in the article below will allow you to build enough strength to do dips.

The moment you progress to doing dips, push ups become your secondary chest, shoulders, and triceps building exercise.

Dips are harder than push ups due of the amount of load that is placed on the working muscles.

This is because dips place your entire bodyweight on your hands. Whereas during push ups your weight is distributed between your hands and feet!

Thus, dips move more of your bodyweight through space than push ups.

But, there is one exercise that hits the shoulders and triceps harder than dips – the handstand push up.

Handstand push ups place your entire bodyweight on the shoulders, triceps, upper chest and traps as well!

Progressing with your push ups will eventually lead you to proficiency with handstand push ups.

While dips will remain your primary upper body pushing exercise, substituting your push ups with handstand push ups will make you a bodyweight beast!

Building Quads Of The Gods

Unfortunately, it is in the leg department that bodyweight calisthenics truly disappoints.

It is extremely hard to build strong legs with bodyweight calisthenics.

In fact, I will go out on a limb here (pun intended) and say that it is impossible to build strong legs with your bodyweight when compared to lifting weights!

This is because our legs were meant to be strong enough to carry more than just our bodyweight for miles.

Bodyweight calisthenics just doesn’t have the material to build a solid base.

You will have to resort to lengthy, high volume, unilateral training when training your legs with just your bodyweight.

There are different exercises that can and must be used when it comes to bodyweight leg training.

But the deep step up, when done with strict form is one of the best.

Single leg squats, shrimp squats and the like work well if you have the mobility, flexibility and balance to perform these exercises.

Deep step ups don’t require high levels of balance, mobility and flexibility to perform.

Thus deep step ups are more accessible than single leg squats and will provide the same stimulus to your quads.

If you can’t do deep step ups, use a lower step and work your way up from there!

Single leg squats are cool and all, but they limit your gains instead of aiding them.

Building Ungodly Hamstrings

Bodyweight calisthenics athletes are limited when it comes to development of the posterior chain.

But there are some excellent exercises that can build you a strong base with your bodyweight only.

Nordic curls hold their own against the best weighted hamstring exercises!

In fact, most of your leg growth will come from this particular movement.

Nordic curls are especially good at hamstring injury prevention for any athlete that performs explosive sprints!
But, nordic curls are hard to do, so if you’re struggling to do them, use ring hamstring curls instead.

Both, ring hamstring curls as well as nordic curls will also build your lower back and abs!

Building Abs Of Steel

If you want an exercise that can will build your abs like no other, then look no further than ring ab rollouts.

Ring rollouts also build the lower back, glutes, shoulders, and chest at the same time.

This exercise is by far one of the toughest bodyweight ab exercises to perform.

What’s great about the ring ab rollout is that anyone can do it!

Depending on your strength level, the rings can be set to different heights, allowing you to make progress.

Doing regular ab rollouts will work your abs and lower back just fine, but why stop there.

Moving your arms out to the sides when doing ring ab rollouts will also build your chest as well!

What’s more? You can even transition to single arm ring ab rollouts if you want to take things up a notch!

This exercise is all you need to get your 6 pack!

The [BEST] Piece Of Equipment To Get Ripped Without Weights

If you’re serious about getting ripped without weights, then you’ll need a pair of gymnastics rings.

The majority of the exercises mentioned above can be done on gymnastics rings.

Gymnastics rings are gym in your backpack. The amount of exercises you can do on rings is limited only by your imagination.

Get yourself a pair of good gymnastics rings, you’ll have a gym with you everywhere you go!

Conclusion:

Getting ripped without weights is not easy, but it is achievable.

The 5 exercises listed below will help you build 90% of the muscle on your body by using only your bodyweight.

1. Chin Ups
2. Dips
3. Deep Step Ups
4. Nordic Curls
5. Ring Ab Rollouts

These 5 exercises are your bread and butter when it comes to getting ripped without weights, master them!

Just make sure you’re using the right calisthenics progression systems with these exercises.

The post How To Get Ripped Without Weights – The [ULTIMATE] Guide appeared first on Primal Stride.