How to ACTUALLY Progress in Calisthenics — Transcript

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1. 0:00Most people think of calisthenics like
2. 0:01this. Last week I hit eight reps. This
3. 0:03week I hit nine reps. And the week after
4. 0:05that I'm going to try to hit 10. This
5. 0:06works for a little bit, but then at some
6. 0:08point suddenly your reps stop going up
7. 0:10for weeks. Maybe even they go down. So
8. 0:12in this video I'll show you why chasing
9. 0:14reps actually hinders your progress and
10. 0:16how to measure your progress in a way
11. 0:17that works longterm, especially for
12. 0:19PLCH, front lever, and handstand
13. 0:20push-ups so [music] on. If you're new
14. 0:22here, I'm Simon. I'm the founder of
15. 0:23Okiru and I help my clients get from
16. 0:26absolute zero to skills and beyond
17. 0:28without spending two hours on workouts
18. 0:30every single day or a million exercises.
19. 0:32In the way I coach, reps are not your
20. 0:33primary focus. Instead, it is form and
21. 0:36it is intensity. [music] Once you
22. 0:37understand this, you'll most likely
23. 0:38never hit a plateau again. At least in
24. 0:40the way that you see it now. Let's start
25. 0:41with the basic problem. Your strength
26. 0:43and your neuro adaptation are two
27. 0:45different concepts. When you're a
28. 0:46beginner, you're tracking progress
29. 0:48probably something like this. And I know
30. 0:49it because I was doing this as well. So
31. 0:51it was 887 and then next week I would
32. 0:54try to do 888 and then the week after
33. 0:56that I would try to do 988. So on paper
34. 0:59you're progressing. You know it sounds
35. 1:00like progressive overload. So it sounds
36. 1:02and the paper shows you that you're
37. 1:04getting stronger. But in reality what
38. 1:06what's happening most of the time when
39. 1:07you're able to add a new rep every
40. 1:08single session. It simply means your
41. 1:10nervous system is adapting to the
42. 1:11movement. Your body is learning how to
43. 1:13utilize the strength that it already
44. 1:15has. You have to keep in mind that
45. 1:16strength comes in slower than your
46. 1:18nervous system adapts. And here's the
47. 1:20thing. This is not only for beginners.
48. 1:21If you're training, for example, pike
49. 1:22push-ups and you move to handstand
50. 1:24push-ups, you most likely realize that
51. 1:25at first getting the handstand push-up
52. 1:26is a little bit hard. But then once you
53. 1:28get used to the movement, suddenly you
54. 1:29get like plus two reps, plus three reps
55. 1:31every single week until you get to, for
56. 1:32example, five handstand push-ups and
57. 1:34suddenly you get stuck. You're stuck on
58. 1:36five handstand push-ups for 3 weeks. And
59. 1:38your reps sometimes are even going down.
60. 1:40And why that is? That is because your
61. 1:42nervous system finally adapted to this
62. 1:44new movement. It's already doing it as
63. 1:45efficiently as it can or can at the
64. 1:47moment. And now you truly see how slowly
65. 1:50your strength is increasing. So in that
66. 1:52case, let's talk about what to do when
67. 1:53you're stuck on let's say 555. Here's
68. 1:55the idea with body weightight training.
69. 1:57Form is intensity. It's not like in the
70. 1:59gym where you can simply do any exercise
71. 2:01that you want with perfect form and then
72. 2:03over time you simply slap on 2.5 kg and
73. 2:05you you're progressing every single
74. 2:07week. In calisthenics, you just cannot
75. 2:09do a new progression with perfect form
76. 2:10right away because it is most likely way
77. 2:12more intense than the previous movement.
78. 2:14So you have to start working with your
79. 2:15body angle, with how much pressure you
80. 2:17put on your main movers, with your form,
81. 2:19with your elevation, with your grip,
82. 2:20with your control. And every single time
83. 2:21you've adjusted one of these concepts,
84. 2:23you are making the exercise more
85. 2:25difficult. If I'm doing a pike push-ups
86. 2:26and I'm doing it slightly deeper, it's
87. 2:28already harder than the last time. As
88. 2:30another example, you can do pike
89. 2:31push-ups with weight split 50/50 between
90. 2:33your hands and your feet. And over time,
91. 2:35you might be still stuck on, let's say,
92. 2:36five reps, but now you're doing 80% body
93. 2:38weight on your shoulders and only 20% on
94. 2:40your feet. Now you can see the
95. 2:41difference between these two movements
96. 2:42despite the reps being exactly the same
97. 2:44being that the second movement is way
98. 2:46more intense. So rather than thinking of
99. 2:47whether I managed to do more reps than
100. 2:49the last session, start thinking of did
101. 2:50I make the exercise more difficult than
102. 2:52the last time or is the exercise
103. 2:54becoming easier for me? And this
104. 2:56increasing the intensity becomes your
105. 2:58new metric. To make this next point make
106. 3:00sense, I want you to realize that if I
107. 3:02ask you or ask beginner, someone who's
108. 3:04been training for 3 months to do a
109. 3:05single handstand push-up, it's most
110. 3:07likely going to be very very intense and
111. 3:09very difficult. But if I tell the same
112. 3:10person to do a thousand wall push-ups or
113. 3:12knee push-ups, it's going to be also
114. 3:14very difficult. But the difficulty lies
115. 3:16in two different things. In the first
116. 3:17example, it is intensity. It is that one
117. 3:19single rep, that one single exercise is
118. 3:21simply too intense for the person. But
119. 3:23in the second, the intensity is very
120. 3:25very low, but the endurance factor makes
121. 3:27it way harder. So despite both exercises
122. 3:30being as difficult, the first exercise
123. 3:32is simply very high in intensity. That
124. 3:34that movement is still maybe too
125. 3:36difficult for this person. [music] But
126. 3:37in the second example, the person can
127. 3:39already do the exercise in their sleep
128. 3:41most likely. So repping out this
129. 3:43exercise is not intense. It's the
130. 3:44endurance factor that makes it harder.
131. 3:46So for this same person, doing these
132. 3:48both exercises can be the same
133. 3:49painstaking experience. Both might be
134. 3:51very difficult. But the second [music]
135. 3:53is way more about endurance and not at
136. 3:55all intensity. So here's the new metric.
137. 3:57The new metric is RP, which means rate
138. 4:00of perceived exertion. Keep in mind that
139. 4:02RP is a slightly different concept and
140. 4:03I'm aware of it. taking it out of
141. 4:05context a little bit, but this is the
142. 4:06most similar scale to our goal. For this
143. 4:08purpose, you can use as a scale from 1
144. 4:10to 10 of the intensity of a single
145. 4:13repetition. By doing so, you start
146. 4:14thinking of reps and sets as irrelevant.
147. 4:17Those become simply product of your
148. 4:18highintensity training. If you're stuck
149. 4:20on six rep and the RP is seven, and
150. 4:23after a few weeks, you're still stuck on
151. 4:25the six reps, but now the RP is five,
152. 4:26that means you progress strength-wise,
153. 4:28and the problem is endurance. This may
154. 4:30sound foreign to you, but as I give you
155. 4:32this example, you'll finally understand
156. 4:33it because this is what happens for the
157. 4:35most part in pull-ups. People who learn
158. 4:36pull-ups gain, let's say, six reps very
159. 4:38very easily, usually relatively, but
160. 4:41everything above that sometimes becomes
161. 4:42incredibly difficult. You stop being
162. 4:44able to progress very fast. And around
163. 4:46that 10 reps, it's very hard to start
164. 4:48gaining more and more reps unless you
165. 4:50start training in a endurance way. And
166. 4:52so, it's fully possible that you are
167. 4:53able to rep out, for example, three high
168. 4:55pull-ups all the way to your waist, but
169. 4:57you are not able to do 15 pull-ups in a
170. 4:59row. Now, if endurance isn't your goal,
171. 5:01then you spending time on getting from
172. 5:0310 to 15 pull-ups misses the point. It
173. 5:05becomes a waste of time because your
174. 5:07goal is to get stronger in pool. It's
175. 5:08not necessarily to rep out as many
176. 5:10pull-ups as I can, but simply make each
177. 5:12pull-up harder. So, how do you do that?
178. 5:14You add weight, you make it more
179. 5:15explosive, you control it more, you add
180. 5:17dead stops, whatever it is that makes
181. 5:19the exercise more difficult would bring
182. 5:21you more strength gains than if you
183. 5:23tried to get more and more reps. So,
184. 5:25always focus on RP. focus on how
185. 5:27difficult the reps are and you'll never
186. 5:29be stuck again. All right? So, for
187. 5:30example, if you're stuck on pe push-ups,
188. 5:32rather than trying to add more and more
189. 5:34reps, what you should focus on is simply
190. 5:35shifting more weights onto your
191. 5:37shoulder. Even if it ends up being only
192. 5:39two repetitions, it's already better
193. 5:40than the last week where you did, for
194. 5:42example, six reps because those two reps
195. 5:44were difficult or more difficult. And in
196. 5:45this scenario, if you simply just add a
197. 5:47few more reps of the previous form right
198. 5:49after those first two, then you already
199. 5:51did a way more intense and difficult
200. 5:53set. And so you're progressing now over
201. 5:55time as you train your pike push-ups
202. 5:57will be for example 90% of the pressure
203. 5:59in your shoulders and only 10 in the
204. 6:00feet. Your form is perfect. Now that is
205. 6:03the point where you move on to the next
206. 6:04exercise. You basically made the RP of
207. 6:06the perfect form of that exercise too
208. 6:08low. And now to actually increase the RP
209. 6:10you are forced to go for the next
210. 6:12progression. So keep this in mind.
211. 6:13You're not trying to hit a magical
212. 6:15number that will unlock a next
213. 6:16progression. You're trying to constantly
214. 6:18push for that intensity. You're trying
215. 6:19to up the RP and then adapt to it so
216. 6:21that the RP drops and then you make it
217. 6:23harder. So you keep going for the higher
218. 6:25RP. Now I'll show you my own example
219. 6:27from my own training and how I use this
220. 6:29whole theory to my own training and see
221. 6:31the progress. [music] So 3 weeks ago I
222. 6:33couldn't do a single good form front
223. 6:34lever pull-ups. I could rep out some
224. 6:36with stretch reflex, without elbow
225. 6:38lockout, without dead stop, with kipping
226. 6:40with my hips, right? So I was training
227. 6:42that bad form because the RP on those
228. 6:44were already pretty high until I could
229. 6:45rep it out for let's say three, four
230. 6:47repetitions. Now at that point my first
231. 6:49reps became quite easy. So what I do is
232. 6:51I simply apply some form cues uh to make
233. 6:53the exercise a little bit cleaner and
234. 6:55form is intensity. Therefore the
235. 6:57intensity or the RP of the exercise
236. 6:59becomes higher. So for example the week
237. 7:01after that what I start working on is I
238. 7:03stop using the stretch reflex. I try to
239. 7:06go into a dead stop before I start the
240. 7:07pull-ups. Now the intensity of this
241. 7:09exercise gets way higher. It becomes way
242. 7:11harder to pause before you start pull as
243. 7:13opposed to using the stretch reflex to
244. 7:15pull. So, the progress is happening
245. 7:16despite my numbers going down or my
246. 7:18numbers staying the same. All I have to
247. 7:19do now is to keep training it until I
248. 7:22can consistently get into this no
249. 7:24stretch reflex pull-up, familiarize
250. 7:25myself with it until its RP goes down.
251. 7:27As soon as it goes down a little bit, I
252. 7:29add in another form cue, which is to
253. 7:31stop kipping with my hips. As you know,
254. 7:33any exercise without the kip becomes way
255. 7:35harder than when you're kipping. So, the
256. 7:36intensity goes back up again. I'm
257. 7:38increasing the RP. Following the same
258. 7:40logic, I managed to do it in my first,
259. 7:42for example, repetition. and I add in
260. 7:44some bad form volume right after that.
261. 7:46So for example, I add in two or three
262. 7:48more ugly repetitions just because the
263. 7:50ugly reps are not regression, they're
264. 7:52simply what I used to do, right? So if I
265. 7:53manage to replace one by one rep into a
266. 7:56more perfect form, then I'm progressing.
267. 7:57And as the final step, what I did was I
268. 7:59focused on locking out my elbow fully
269. 8:01because it makes the exercise more
270. 8:02intense. And at this point, I have
271. 8:04combined all these cues that I've been
272. 8:06practicing and I managed to do single
273. 8:08flex perfect from lever pull-up. And you
274. 8:10can see that this whole process is
275. 8:11simply gathering the slightest form cues
276. 8:13that make the exercise more intense. And
277. 8:15thus, I'm making the exercise more
278. 8:17intense every single session slowly and
279. 8:19adapting to it and therefore unlocking
280. 8:21the skill. You see, it's not about
281. 8:23trying to get 10 ugly front lever
282. 8:24pull-ups and hoping that a magical
283. 8:26number like 10 will transition me right
284. 8:28away into a single perfect pull-up. It's
285. 8:30a constant attempt to increase my RP or
286. 8:33keep the RP stable at, for example,
287. 8:35eight. And every time it starts dropping
288. 8:37because my body is adapting to the
289. 8:38movement, I simply up the difficulty, up
290. 8:40the intensity by introducing a small
291. 8:42small form cube. So you see it is all
292. 8:44about maintaining the RP at around
293. 8:46eight. And this every single time it
294. 8:48starts dropping, I bring it back to a
295. 8:50higher RP with form cues. I make the
296. 8:52exercise more difficult, more intense
297. 8:53with these form cues and therefore I'm
298. 8:55progressing. Now there are times where
299. 8:56you actually stop thinking about
300. 8:58intensity and you focus purely on
301. 9:00volume, but this would be a topic for
302. 9:01another video. So if you would like to
303. 9:03see it, let me know in the comments.
304. 9:04Now, if you're listening to this and
305. 9:05you're thinking, I have no clue how to
306. 9:07apply this to my PL, to my front lever,
307. 9:09to my handstand push-ups, then that's
308. 9:11literally what I do in my one-on-one
309. 9:12coaching. If you're thinking, okay,
310. 9:14that's some really valuable information.
311. 9:16Well, that's exactly what I teach my
312. 9:17clients. My goal is obviously to help
313. 9:20you gain skills, get stronger, but at
314. 9:21the same time, it is to educate you. My
315. 9:23goal is for me to be your last coach
316. 9:25ever because I will teach you everything
317. 9:26about structure, about training methods,
318. 9:28about progression, about skills,
319. 9:30whatever it is that will make you an
320. 9:31independent athlete. So, [snorts] stop
321. 9:33waiting. click the link below and book a
322. 9:35call with me. Now, alternatively, you
323. 9:36can also join my Oku community for free.
324. 9:39We're hitting close to 500 members and
325. 9:40actually for that occasion, I'm doing a
326. 9:42giveaway where I'm giving away two
327. 9:44months of free one-on-one coaching. And
328. 9:46so, I I promise finally I invested in
329. 9:48lights. I have one here, one here, one
330. 9:50here. And I hope that this video quality
331. 9:52is better [music] and to your liking.
332. 9:54So, you know, if you appreciate the
333. 9:55effort, just drop a like, subscribe,
334. 9:57comment something, and uh yeah, I'll see
335. 9:58you in the next