I got my hands on the E-book of Raising the bar by Al Kavadlo a few days ago. It was absolutely amazing to see the variety of exercises that can be done from just a simple pull up bar. The book demonstrated how to use the Bar to work every different Body part, and simple progressions that can be added to any workout routine. It has a lot photography demonstrating every step of the progressions being done, and the instructions for every exercise was very clear and easy to follow. Even after researching and practicing Calisthenics for so many years I was amazed by how much I gained from this book.
As a kid I remember how natural it was to jump rope, almost everyone knew how to. As we grow older many of these basic coordination patterns are forgotten. Jump roping can have a tremendous effect on your body’s cardiovascular system, and also gives you a great full body exercise. It can be manipulated through the use of different ropes to work on different goals, and the great thing about it is that you can buy a good jump rope for under $10.
Types of ropes
speed rope- The speed rope is the most popular jump rope, and it’s normally used by boxers. It allows the most number of turns per minutes and can be used to train for speed and coordination. The speed rope comes in many different variations: vinyl, leather or beads.
weight rope- The weighted ropes are great because they allow you to gain speed and coordination but also gives you a great upper body workout.
Jump rope can be a very intense endurance exercise so it’s very important to slowly progress into it.
Sequence of progression
2 Feet jump- This is usually the best place to start if you’re just getting back into jump roping. Simply jump and lift both feet off the floor.
Alternating Feet jump- Keep one foot off the floor and use the other foot to jump. Alternate back and forth with each foot.
Cross overs- The cross over is an extremely good movement because it requires you to use coordination of both your upper body and lower body. To start simply do a two feet jump, but this time cross your hands when the rope is under your feet. Make sure that you cross your hand wide enough or else the rope will get caught on your feet.
Doubles- The double is a great way to really increase your endurance. You preform a two feet jump but the goal is to turn the rope two times before your feet make contact with the ground. Most of the work is done by your wrist, so the idea is to move your wrist faster and your jumps remain at the same speed.
These are a few basic jump rope styles feel free to experiment and come up with something new.
Putting it all together
Once you’ve mastered each of the style above combine them during your workout. Switch from one style to another, it becomes alot eaiser to jump rope for a longer period of time. You can also set time intervals to jump.
Here is an example of a time interval:
Week 1 – 10 intervals of 1 Min
Week 2 – 5 intervals of 2 Min
Week 3- 3 Intervals of 3 Min
Modify it as based on you fitness level and set goals to accomplish.
Most of the content I blog about mainly consist of body weight exercises. However there are a few weight training exercises that I think really matter, and can help you develop a tremendous amount of strength. Two of these exercises are: the Squat and the Dead Lift.
The Squat & Deadlift
The Squat- The squat is one of the oldest and most effective exercises. It is something that we do unconsciously everyday and it can benefit everyone; weather you’re an 18 year old teenager or a 80 year old elderly person. Before attempting a weighted squat you should make sure that you can perform a regular body weight squat with perfect form. Some key factors to keep in mind when doing a weighted squat is to keep your heels planted to the floor, and keep a straight line down your spine. Some progression that you can take to strengthen your regular body-weight squat are: Hindu Squat and Pistol Squats
The Deadlift- Just like the squat, the Deadlift is a very old and effective exercise. It’s a full body exercise, that almost anyone can benefit from. While there are many different forms of deadlifts, the most common form is the barbell deadlift. Remember to keep your back straight and keep most of the weight on your heels. Most of the movement that occurs during a deadlift happens in your hips, so keeping your back straight doesn’t mean you cant lean forward. In fact leaning forward is part of doing a correct deadlift. When you’re doing a deadlift your heels should always be in contact with the floor.
The Dragon flag is one the most challenging body-weight exercises. The first time I encounter someone doing the dragon flag was during a scene in Rocky III, I remember thinking to myself how cool it looked ,and how cool it would be if I could actually do it. While it looks like it only works the core, The dragon flag uses almost every muscle throughout your body, and can help you build a tremendous amount of strength & endurance.
These are a few simple progressions on how to train for the Dragon flag
Leg Raise
Leg Tuck
Leg raises- simply start by lying flat on a bench and try lifting your leg until it is aligned to a 90 degree angle with your body. The hanging leg raise is also another great exercise to add in combination with the regular leg raise to train towards achieving your first dragon flag.
Leg Tucks- Simply start by laying flat on a bench, do a regular leg raise and extend your hips towards the sky. Bring your hips back down and lower your leg for one repetition.
Negatives- Doing negatives is a great way to train for the dragon flag, simply start by doing a regular leg tuck, but this time on the way down perform the negative phase of the dragon flag.
Just as with any other advance exercise, practice makes perfect. These progressions are just a few of many ways to train towards achieving your first dragon flag. Feel free to experiment and create additional progressions as you train.
THE HINDU PUSH UPS AND HINDU SQUAT FOR A FULL BODY WORKOUT
The Hindu squat & Push ups are two of the most effective functional body-weight exercises; when combined they work your entire body, and can help you build a tremendous amount of strength,endurance, and flexibility.
The workout of a Champion: The Hindu Squats and Push Ups have been used by Indian wrestler for centuries. It is said that the Great Gama, an early 19th century east Indian wrestler who held a record of 5000 wins, and 0 losses during his 50 years wrestling career; Did 3000 Hindu push ups, and 1000 Hindu Squats everyday.
Speed:As with any exercise fluctuating the speed can greatly increase or decrease the intensity of the exercise. From my personal experience doing these exercises, going at a fast pace works my endurance more. While doing it at a slower and controlled pace it felt like I was getting more strength training done.
Hindu Push ups- The Hindu push up is an extremely effective full body exercise. It consist of 2 basic yoga moves, the Downward facing dog and cobra pose. To perform the Hindu Push up, simply start in the downward facing dog position, and then move into a cobra pose (without having your body make contact with the floor). Once you’re in the cobra pose simply lift your hips back to the starting position for a repetition.
Hindu Squats: The Hindu Squat is a non traditional way to squat. Most of us are taught to squat with our heels planted to the floor, while this might be very important when performing any weight squats, your body is made to support your own body-weight. The Hindu squat is done by standing with your feet shoulder width apart & Pointing your toes straight ahead, next Exhale and lower your buttocks while raising your heels and lowering your hands behind your back until your thighs are parallel to the floor. Keep your back perpendicular to the floor, and Inhale deeply and pull your arms in as if you were rowing a boat. Come back up by pushing off your toes and extending your hand straight in front of you and inhale.
Most people are motivated to workout in hope of achieving a six pack. Unfortunately most of the exercises they do, consist of only working the rectus abdominis, while this is a very important muscle, isolating it can lead to muscle imbalance, which eventually can lead to you having an overall weak core.
HAVING A WELL BALANCED CORE
Having a well balanced core simply means having all the muscle in your abdominal area working effectively, your core consists of the Rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques, and your transverse abdominis. All of these muscle play a very important role in stabilization, and usually work together to stabilize your trunk. The best way to work your abs is to work them the way they are meant to be worked.
The Plank- The Plank is one the the most effective abdominal exercises for a couple of different reasons, to start it doesn’t require you to have any fancy equipments, and can be done almost anywhere. check out my post on Plank if you’re not too sure how to properly do a plank.
Jack knife on a Swiss ball- The Jack knife can be an extremely effective Ab exercise if it’s done correctly, The first step is to get into a plank position with your hands on the floor, and your feet on the Swiss ball.Make sure that your body is alined in a straight line from your head to feet, then with control, slowly pull your feet towards your chest, return to the starting position and hold the plank position for ten seconds during every repetition. If at any time your hip starts to sink, it mean you’ve lost proper form and its time to stop or reposition yourself.
Hanging Leg circles- The Hanging leg circle is another great exercise that will force you to use your core muscle in a functional manner, to start, simply hang from a pull up bar and do a leg raise in a circular motion. Another similar exercise that also gives you a great core workout is the hanging leg raise, you can alternate between leg raise and leg circle to make the exercise more challenging.
L Sit- The L sit is one of my personal favorites, It’s the basic move to many advanced calisthenic exercises, and forces you to use all your core muscles in order for you to hold the L sit position.
The bar in my opinion is the only thing needed to get a great workout, the variations that can be done on a simple pull up bar are endless, and every exercise done on the pull up bar are functional, meaning they require you to use a combination of many different muscle group. Some of the exercise that can be done on the Bar are the Pull ups,L sit, hanging leg raise, and bar dip. Feel free to get creative and try to make up some of your own exercises, it makes working out a lot more fun.
As i woke up this morning after the troublesome hurricane Irene hit New Jersey, I started heading out to get my morning workout in the park, i was extremely disappointed to find out every park withing a 5 mile distance to my house was completely flooded. So my next best bet was to make use of whatever was laying around.
The great thing about body weight exercise’s are that they can be done almost anywhere, with minimal to zero equipment needed .The exercise’s that are demonstrated in the video are, the Australian pull ups. The L Sit. The elbow lever, side vault, and hanging leg raise.
Sticks & stones can break your bones, BUT did you know it could also be helpful in your exercise journey as well?
Learn how to workout using stuff that can easily be found outside.
WALL DIP
What is a wall dip? The Reverse wall dip is a great functional exercisethat can be done on almost any kind of ledge surface, just put your hands on the ledge and feet suspended on the wall as shown in the picture below, and do a dip. Beside being a great upper body exercise, the wall dip also works on the flexibly in your arms and shoulders.
Walking Log Lunge
Before attempting to do a log lunge, you should make sure you know how to do a regular lunge. So what is a log lunge?A log can be used to mimic a barbell in many different exercise,In this case it mimic’s the barbell lunge, thus the name log lunge, to increase the weight just simply find a bigger log.
THE PULL UP
As mention before in many of my previous posts, the pull up is the one of the most effective upper body exercise, it can be done almost anywhere, in this case on tree branches, doing a pull up on a tree branch requires you using alot more gripping than a regular pull up do. If you’re not too good at doing pull ups, check out my pull up post to get started on doing pull ups.
The full contact twist also know as the Russian Barbell twist is a great functional core exercise that can help you generate more power when preforming any rotational movement. It was developed by Russian shot put throwers, to enable them to throw further, fortunately for you, it can also help in many different tasks and sports in today’s modern society, for example if you’re into any of the following sports: boxing,Mix martial arts,golf,hockey,baseball,football,cricket and the list can go on, or even if you’re trying to get your daily chores done,like chopping firewood. Research has shown that the Full contact twist can help you generate more power when preforming any of theses rotation movements.
TIPS:
Keep your arms locked
Rotate the hips, and the feet(as shown in the video)
Focus on using your core muscle to twist the bar
Grip the bar at the top
The bar should touch your hips when lowered
If you are new to exercising, start with a more basic exercise like the plank.
