(electronic music) - Woo, what's up guys? Today I'm gonna show you
five things I wish I knew when I first started calisthenics. If I would have known these five things I would've gotten to this fitness level a whole lot sooner and
progressed a whole lot faster if I would have stuck to these five things from the very, very beginning. So if you're just starting calisthenics and even if you're not you're gonna be a whole
lot better off than I was when I first started and you're gonna be making
major gains and excelling through calisthenics. So the first thing that I
wanna share with you guys is basics, sticking to the basics, and incorporating high, high
repetitions into those basics which means that you would
have mastered that basic. For example, if you can
do 100 pushups in a row, you're pretty solid in your pushing game. If you can do 100 pull-ups in a row, you're super solid in your pulling game. When I first started,
I really don't remember really trying to achieve
reps higher than 25 so it's really important that you guys really master these movements not just rep them out but really get good at the
technique of that motion. Pulling is not just engaging your muscles and getting you stronger to
be able to do this motion but the actual practice of pulling is gonna get you a whole lot better at using those muscles in combination which is gonna advance
your pulling technique which is gonna get you into
a whole lot harder exercises. And get really, really
high reps in your basics so you're gonna be more
comfortable with it. Pull-ups pushups, dips, squats. Even the basics in other
techniques, for example, the handstand, really get good
at just holding a handstand against the wall. That's a lot of people's fault
when they're first starting is they wanna quickly advance to the next progression, next progression, because they can already do it, you wanna build that solid foundation. If you were to really focus on getting that hold against the wall then when you go on to trying
to learn how to handstand, the actual act of handstanding is not gonna give you any stress so you're gonna be able
to completely focus on your technique and your
form while you're doing this, you're gonna advance a lot faster versus someone that is
just still struggling to just hold the
handstand and on the floor because they hadn't put in
the work for the basics. Now the second thing is gonna
be perfect form, alright? Perfect form in every
single thing that you do. You're not trying to just
get through the exercise, if you're just trying to
get through the exercise you're never gonna excel. You need to be consciously
putting in effort towards trying to do it
as perfect as possible. The key to this is quality over quantity. You're way better off
doing five perfect pull-ups than doing even 15 really shitty pull-ups. You need to start clean
form from the very beginning and that's gonna make a huge difference, and I'm telling you, I've been there with the sloppy pull-ups and I've also had to reprogram my training and start to learn
everything all over again with perfect form, and let me tell you, you're gonna feel way stronger when you're putting in
quality repetitions, which brings us to number three, something I wish I focused
on at the very beginning would be grip strength. In most exercises your grip
is the first point of contact to every single exercise. Having a really strong grip automatically increases your endurance, the amount of repetitions
that you can achieve, and your overall strength. I remember when I first
started calisthenics just hanging on to the
bar was really difficult, I remember my arms were
like burning from that and when I was just learning
how to hang with one arm I remember that that was actually painful just to hang with one arm. And of course now I look back and hanging out with one
arm that's like a joke now. So imagine the amount
of strength and control you're gonna achieve from barely being able
to hang on with two arms to comfortably being
hanging on with one arm. That type of strength
is gonna transfer over into everything, into your handstands, all exercises from the hanging position, all exercises from the lifting position. Your overall endurance,
repetitions, and performance is gonna increase by just simply increasing that grip strength, which brings us to number four. Negatives, doing the
negative of any exercise will eventually give you the
positive of that exercise. Doing a lot of negative muscle-ups will eventually result you in a muscle-up. I actually ended up
achieving the front lever from a front lever negative. When I first started doing
front lever negatives I would start from the top and
I would come down really fast but eventually I was
able to come down slower, and slower, and slower,
and if you keep that form while you're coming down, eventually, you'll be able to come
down as slow and controlled and be able to stop flat into
that front lever position. That's why incorporating
negative exercises, especially from the very
beginning is gonna excel you really, really quickly. What's gonna have you reach your goals is the four things we just talked about, mastering the basics, getting
very comfortable with them, which is why you're gonna be doing them for high repetitions, to
build that time under tension, utilizing perfect form
in every single exercise and every single motion that you do. Having an extremely solid grip and incorporating negative exercises to quickly excel you into harder
exercises and progressions. Which brings us to our
fifth and last thing that I wish I knew when I
first started calisthenics, and that is consistency and having a goal and consistently challenging
yourself to reach that goal. Without a goal, no
matter how big or small, it's gonna be hard to calculate
and motivate your progress. If you're not constantly trying to improve on
what you're working on then chances are you're gonna
have little to no progress. But the very act of having
a goal is half of it, you need to create milestones for yourself to make sure and ensure you're moving in a forward, upward projected. We, as human beings, like
to be constantly rewarded and that motivates us to go further so having a really far goal is fine but you need smaller consistent goals to keep you going, to
keep you progressing, and, you need to be consistently
challenging yourself in order to reach those goals. So the way that I stay progressing is to choose something that
currently challenges me and consistently work at it and set a goal for myself
by the end of the week that I must achieve within that. So now we're gonna get
into a workout routine, I'm gonna show you guys how to incorporate these five things into
your workout regimen. Alright, so the first
exercise we're gonna go with is some pushups. Like I said, we need to
be drilling the basics and we're gonna go for high
reps, so for these pushups, let's go for some diamond pushups, let's go 50 times with perfect form, so you see we just set a
goal, 50, no matter what, we're gonna kill these
50, even if you stop, just keep going, stop, and keep going. Let's go. (electronic music) There you go, 50 diamond pushups, now, if that was the first time
you've ever done 50 in a row, there's your first goal,
now we gotta do 60 tomorrow. Alright, so the next exercise
we're gonna get into, hang from the bar, we're gonna be working on that grip, and I'm gonna challenge myself, I'm gonna add some extra weight. (electronic music) There you go. Quick little grip. So if you guys are
strictly working on this, you do this for a lot more reps and either go up in
weight or go up in time, go down in weight. Alright, so next, we're gonna go into perfect
form muscle-ups, alright? Keep that perfect form, here we go. (electronic music) Alright, there we go. Couple quick reps. Now if you've been working
on your basics, high reps, and that grip strength, this
should be a piece of cake. And speaking of that grip strength, knowing how to grip the bar correctly is gonna
also make a huge difference. Having more of an over grip than just hanging right
underneath, this is... You're gonna have no grip like that. You wanna over grip it like this. Your callouses should be
coming out right over here not just up here and here, you need to be using your
whole hand to grip that bar. That was a huge thing
when I first started. Alright, so the next move
we're gonna go into now is actually a negative move. Remember, practicing the negatives is gonna help you accomplish
the positive of that exercise. We're gonna go into negative muscle-ups by using pull-overs. So we're gonna do a pull-over, we get to the top of the muscle-up, we're gonna come down slow. Alright, let's rep it out. (electronic music) Alright, moving on to the last exercise. I'm really gonna challenge myself, guys. Here we go, we're gonna go for hefestos. (electronic music) So I'm gonna add this resistance band so we can put some reps on top, this is an advanced move, guys. Let's do as many as we can, here we go. (electronic music) Woo. Damn. Alright, I wanted to do more, but, that's all I got for today. There you guys go, those are the five things I wish I knew when I first started calisthenics, and, that's how you incorporate 'em
into your workout routines. Thank you guys so much for watching, I'm gonna see you guys next time, I'm gonna tell you guys
how I started calisthenics, hopefully that helps
you guys on your journey when you get started. We're right about to go back on tour, right before we go back on tour, we're gonna be in Toronto,
Canada, for a workshop June 24th, so go on to thenx.com/blog/events
to sign up right now if you haven't already. Space is extremely limited so if you wanna attend
one of our workshops, make sure you sign on right
now, thenx.com/blog/events. Find the city near you and
I'll see you guys there. Thank you guys so much watching, I'll see you guys next Thursday with how I started calisthenics. We'll also add in some nutrition, and, maybe we'll make a song
together or something like that, let me know what you want
the next video to be about in the comments section down below. Mad love, peace out, guys. (electronic music) Smash that like button, guys.
