Body Weight/ Gymnastic Training Exercise NT'ers Unite!

nobody133

nobody133

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Dec 20, 2007
[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]You see a gazillion threads on every non-fitness based forum about Weight Training routines, arguments about what constitutes good cardio and what doesn't, Bench Press maxes, etc.
It's time we get a thread dedicated strictly to body weight exercise routines. (Not that those of you who use weights are excluded, but this thread is more slanted toward planche/ front lever/ pushup/ core based exercises). Whether it's your planche progression, your front lever, or you're 10000000 miles ahead of me and are working toward 90 degree pushups, share your goals and the exercises you're using to get there.

I'll kick it off with my current routine:

Daily:

Pike Crunches 5x25

Straight Back Ball Planche Holds 5x30 sec

Ball Planche Pushups 3x5

Supermans 5x25

Dragon Flags 3x5

Pistol Squats 5x5 each leg

Straddle Handstand Press- No Sets and Reps- Every time I pass through living room

MWF:

Core Routine-

Plank 3x2 minutes

Side Plank 3x2 minutes each side

Side v-up 3x25

Windshield Wiper Pullups 3x5

6" ABC's 1x upper 1x lower

T/TH:

Pushup Routine- (bitten from workout by PetAirRC on youtube)- 

- Switching Staggered Pushups 3x10 each

- Circular Pushups 3x10 each direction

- Pushup to Standing Pike 3x10

- Wide Straight Arm Pushups 3x10 each arm

- Split Leg One Arm Switching Pushups 3x10 each arm

- Cross Arm Knife Edge Pushups 3x10 each

- "Airflare" Pushups 3x10 each direction

- Leg Sweep Pushups 3x10 each leg

- Side to Side Lean Pec Pushups 3x10 each side

- Attempt to do one marine pushup 3x

My goal is to have straddle planches and high planche pushups by the end of 2011. My current biggest weaknesses are my lower back/ hip extensors, my core flexibility, and my obliques. Any other ideas are greatly appreciated.
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I'm still trying to straighten out my side plank...any ideas on what I can do to improve it?
 
I've been interested in BW training for a while. I lurked at Gymnasticbodies's forum and saw a bunch of their youtube vids and WODs.

That Petair vid is sick, that guy is STRONG. Appreciate you sharing that, keep 'em coming if you see more.

I'm thinking about devising a beginner plan and also incorporating pre-hab to prevent wrist injuries/damage.

Thus far, I've only done ring dips, L-sits on parallel bars and rings, and Skin the Cats. I was working on Bboy freezes and gymnastic holds until I hurt my thumb (which turns out to be incredibly important, I realized).
 
Originally Posted by Mercutio

I've been interested in BW training for a while. I lurked at Gymnasticbodies's forum and saw a bunch of their youtube vids and WODs.

That Petair vid is sick, that guy is STRONG. Appreciate you sharing that, keep 'em coming if you see more.

I'm thinking about devising a beginner plan and also incorporating pre-hab to prevent wrist injuries/damage.

Thus far, I've only done ring dips, L-sits on parallel bars and rings, and Skin the Cats. I was working on Bboy freezes and gymnastic holds until I hurt my thumb (which turns out to be incredibly important, I realized).
Click to expand...
bodyweightculture.com has a great buildup for beginners called the 20 level challenge. It's far from perfect, and it isn't a set workout regimen so you've got to construct your own sets and reps, but it gives you benchmarks to hit before progressing so you don't go straight from nothing to way too much. Also handstand training is a great (and safer) precursor to other bodyweight training in that there's little risk for wrist injury, while strengthening the shoulders, wrist, forearms, fingers, and core. 
The Petair vid is my favorite I've found yet. Here's my second favorite:
http://www.extreme-exercises.com/craziest-pushups-on-youtube/
 
Originally Posted by play2much2004

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I'm still trying to straighten out my side plank...any ideas on what I can do to improve it?
Click to expand...

First of all, how's your front plank?
But I would probably start with side crunches and bicycle crunches to establish some base oblique strength. Then progress to side plank with feet on the ground, forearm on an elevated surface, then once that gets easier, go down to side plank on the ground, and eventually some of the different side plank variations.
 


Ideally though you want to keep the legs locked out and straight at the knee. I'll have to look through some of those bodyrock workouts. That chick is chiseled.
 
Thanks, OP.  I've been wanting to to something similar to these.  I'm a little bored with just lifting weights.
I've never heard of most of these exercises though or how to do any of them.
 
Pending the OK from my program director, I think I'm going to do my graduate research on the correlation between body weight training exercise strength and their weight training exercise counterparts (i.e.- how does the number of pushups and someone's body weight correlate to bench press maxes and vice versa). I'll keep the thread updated as I research, and possibly will be recruiting people from here to go on whatever programs I developed for my experimental groups.
 
Awesome stuff here! I've been wanting to invest in some rings. I'm a firm believer in body-weight training. I'm also a firm believer in weightlifting (clean & jerk, snatch). Some of those exercises I currently do, but I'm going to play around with those routines. Thanks!
 
Rings are much more affordable, but another thing I've been looking into is the Universal Strength Appliance. Looks to have endless workout possibilities. I've also considered adding hang cleans and jerks to my routine to help with my explosiveness. Imo two of the most useful core lifts for athletes other than squats.
 
tried going to the bodyweightculture site but it has been down or won't load on my browser(firefox). Any other sites for some beginner routines? definitely not on the level you are OP, tried some of your workouts and can't do a ball planche at all let alone hold it.
 
I'm glad you made this post, because I've been contemplating it for a while now. Kudos
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I had no idea there were so many different names for these kinds of workouts. It's crazy how much this calisthenic workout movement has taken off in the last few years.

That push-up routine is exactly what I need right now. I'm a huge believer in cross-training and working your muscles in different ways for maximum results/benefit.

I don't really have a set routine, but here's a workout I've been doing recently:

Run- 2 miles
Oblique Dips- 2 x 25
L-Seat pullups- 2 x15
Widegrip chinups- 2 x15
Hanging straight leg raises- 2 x15
Hanging knee raises w/twists- 2 x 30 (10 straight/10 twists to each side)
Perfect push-ups- 2 x 35
Prison squats- 2 x 75
Calf raises- 2 x 90 (30 on one leg, then switch)
Weighted jump rope- 5 minutes

My goal is to be able to do 90-degree pushups by the end of the year, as well as 5-10 muscle-ups. I can do 10-15 push-ups with my knees to my chest like in the beginning of that Petair vid, but I can't quite hold my legs out straight just yet.

I'll leave y'all with some ultimate inspiration...for those who haven't seen it, be prepared to be blown away: (40 seconds in is what a muscle-up is, for those that are curious)

The most ridiculous workout you're likely to ever see.
 
niiiice on that workout vid. I'm assuming you've probably watched some of the Barbarian vids if you seen that. The Barbarian Top 10 moves every year never ceases to impress me. Sadly I'll probably never meet the barbarian requirements because I've got rotator cuff problems galore that don't allow me to do muscle ups. 
For all of you looking for nasty bodyweight workouts, here's a guy I'd strongly suggest subscribing to on youtube. He posts workouts pretty regularly, and was at one point going for the 90 degree pushup world record (it was 2 years ago so he may have since broken it, not sure.) Check out Coach Geoff:

http://www.youtube.com/user/geoffcraft
 
If I'm all about legs are there enough body weight exercises I can do at home to fully compensate for squats and other leg exercises I do at the gym? Probably bout to lose my membership.
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One legged squats aka Pistol Squats are a great leg exercise. They can then be progressed into pistol squat jumps to make them more explosive.
Everyone knows about calf raises, but also bent knee calf raises and toe squats (not to be done with weight as it puts stress on the knees) help to target the often ignored soleus muscle of the calves. 

Warriors are a good bodyweight substitute for RDL's and hamstring curls

http://www.google.com/url...Iq0V60hDBu4R8QAUXCmorOMQ

There's a gazillion variations of Burpees. All are not only good lower and upper body strength exercises, especially if you have dumbbells or medicine balls, but also can be used for cardio. My favorite right now is the Spartan Burpee (couldn't find a vid but it's basically a Burpee going down, followed by one pushup to row each arm, then one spiderman pushup each arm, then Burpee back up), and also the wall Burpee .

Hope this gives you a little bit of ammo for if you lose that gym membership. 

As far as progress, I haven't been working on my planche much, but I can still hold my ball planche about the same and I can also jump into it and catch now. I've been working on true handstand pushups (using paralletes). Still have yet to be able to do it without feet on the wall. My core is much stronger though than when I posted this thread originally. My windshield wipers are really progressing well, and piked crunches just about put me to sleep. Dragon Flags/ Candlesticks still kill me though. I'm stuck at about 3-5 all with horrible form on the concentric phase (going back up). My vert has also increased along with my Pistol Squat reps which are up to sets of 7 each leg. I got a minor setback when I took a knee to the quad playing basketball yesterday, but I think once I get over that I'll post a training video sometime this weekend or next.
 
thank you thank you thank you for starting this.

my crossfit coach is big on bw/gymnastic stuff so I hear about it all the time and I try to do stuff every now and then (not enough tho)

I transitioned from crossfit met-cons w/ slight weight training (almost 2 years) to (currently my 5th week of) strength training (think 5-3-1) w/ maybe 5 crossfit (heavy weighted) met-cons and now I've been trying to incorprate more bodyweight stuff to increase my core/all around strength.

to contribute:
http://gymnasticswod.com/ is the only thing I've heard of. all these links will keep me busy for a while.
 
Very nice. I'll have to check back there regularly to add to my regimen. gymnasticbodies.com also has a workout of the day section on their forum. Much of their stuff is gym based stuff though, so I will likely be using their Monday and Tuesday workouts (my crew goes to a local gymnastics gym those days) along with my regular stuff.
Also looking for some input because I haven't had any cross-fit experience, but do you play any sports or do any specific athletic activities outside of crossfit? From the reviews I've heard it's a great fitness tool, but the lacking in specificity can make it slightly less effective to use when training for well... something specific. What is your take on it MarkyMark? And also for those people that come into this thread with little to no fitness experience, who would you say it works for best? The very fit, occassional exerciser, the flat out beginner who is looking to lose weight, or everyone? I don't have a ton of knowledge on it so any knowledge you could give the board would be probably be helpful.
 
started doing bicycle crunches the other day (5 sets of 2 minute reps) and now I'm noticing my abs engage whenever I lift weights. any good exercises to build up quads? 
 
Of course, the king of quad exercises would be squats. Whether you do them weighted or single leg (without weight) is up to you and based on where you stand right now with your quad strength. If you've already got substantial quad strength give single leg a try. If not, keep building up your back squat with weight. Lunges are also really great in that not only do you gain quad strength in the front leg, you are getting a good hip flexor/ quad stretch on the back leg as well. 
Some good core exercises for engaging the quads, hip flexors, and lower abs would be things like lemon squeezers (youtube lemon squeezer core or lemon squeezer abs for example), flutter kicks, v-ups, v-twists, 6 inch holds (aka hollow holds), ABC's, and Hanging Leg Lifts (there's plenty more but these are the first that come to mind for me).

Also, working on the Front Lever progression is great hip, quad, shoulder, and core strengthening. 

I tried to use the common names for all the exercises in this post, so as far as I know, they are all pretty easily youtube-able.
 
Just an update on my progression. I plan on making a vid sometime next week of my workout now that I've got my workout schedule from now til the end of October set; also possibly a bboy vid if I decide to go to the jam this weekend and don't suck (haven't practiced in forever).

But anyway, here's my Monday (gym push day) and Tuesday (gym pull workout) for the time being:
Mon:
5x5 Tuck Planche Pushup
5x30 V-up
5x5 Bent Leg L-Sit Lifts
5x20 Oblique Bridges each side
5x3 Bent Leg L-Sit to Adv Tuck PL 5 sec hold each position
5x5 Pistol Squats
5x15 Sec Ring Stability
1x5 Muscle Ups (assisted concentric phase, unassisted eccentric)
Front Tuck Training
3x5 Back Bridge Wall Walks
3x30 sec Pancake Split
3x30 sec Straddle Split
1x30 sec Front Split (each)
5x30 sec Weighted Pike 30#

Tues:
5x5 Tuck Planche Pushup
5x5 Tuck Front Lever Pull
5x3 Tuck Front Lever to L-Hang (5 sec holds)
5x30 Lemon Squeezers
5x10 Back Extensions
5x5 Windshield Wipers (each side)
3x30 sec Weighted Pike 30#
Too Much Front Tuck work

My Tuck Planche is insanely solid now, and my tuck planche pushups are getting easier. My training cycle has me staying at Tuck Planche for 4 more weeks before moving to straddle, so I will stay with that, but I'll definitely be increasing the reps and hold times each week. I'm almost at Straddle Front Levers as well, but like the planche, I'll wait 4 weeks before making the move to let my body adjust to the training load. If I can stick to my schedule, I should be at Straddle Planche pushups well before the end of the year (ahead of my original goals). I'm backing off the consecutive day planche pushups and front tuck training though, as my body is just getting too tired to keep good form. I'll start working on a new flip next week to alternate with the front tuck.
 
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