Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
How This Book Is Organized 2
Icons Used in This Book 3
Beyond the Book 3
Where to Go from Here 4
Part 1: Total Fitness: No Limits 5
Chapter 1: Calisthenics: When Your Body Is Your Equipment 7
Calisthenics: For All Bodies and Abilities 7
Why Calisthenics Is Better than Any Other Workout 8
You save time 8
You save money 9
You save space 9
You can do it anywhere 9
No gymbarrassment 9
It’s always open 9
It’s safer 9
You will not stop seeing results 10
Getting the Results You Want 10
Become stronger 10
Burn more fat 10
Get better with age 11
Regain your youthful metabolism 11
Live injury free 11
Getting Comfortable with Bodyweight Exercises 12
Use muscles you didn’t know you had 12
Get off the bench 12
Discovering the Eight Abilities You’ll Build Through Calisthenics 12
Muscular strength 13
Power 13
Muscular endurance 13
Cardiovascular endurance 13
Speed 13
Coordination 13
Balance 14
Flexibility 14
Rounding Up Your Gear for Home Workouts 14
A backpack 14
Towels 16
Trees 16
Table 16
Chairs 16
Video camera 17
Pull-up bar 17
Bosu ball 17
Suspension straps 17
Elastic bands 17
Your Body Is Your Home 18
Chapter 2: You Were Made to Move 19
Fitness Equals Function 19
Practice the movements most important to your survival 20
Put the pieces together 20
Locomotion: The Secret to Your Best Physique 20
Understand locomotion 21
Improve locomotion as quickly as possible 21
Your Body Is a Tower 21
Your body’s ability to resist stress depends on its alignment 22
Ideal joint alignment 22
Spinal stabilization 22
Joint functions 22
Weight shifting 23
Focusing on Developmental Movements 23
Mobility 23
Stability 24
Force absorption 24
Load sharing 24
Perfect posture and physique 25
Your Performance Pyramid 25
Avoid neglect 25
Aging does not equal disabling 25
Living Pain Free 26
Coordination helps you avoid injury 26
Functional exercises are the safest 26
Lessen hip and knee pain 26
Ameliorate lower back, neck, and shoulder pain 27
Putting the Building Blocks of Calisthenics in Place 27
Focusing on Attention and Breathing 28
Performance Leads to Efficiency 28
You only get good at what you do 29
Focus on the fundamentals 29
Mastery of life 29
Chapter 3: Setting Goals and Staying Motivated 31
Knowing What You Want from a Calisthenics Program 31
Evaluate where you are and where you want to be 32
Create specific goals 32
Step away from the scale 33
See your effort pay off 35
Embrace the mental boost 35
Throwing Your Ego Out with the Weights 35
The true measure of your merit 36
Start small and progress gradually 36
Finding and Keeping Your Motivation 36
Big rewards, small costs 37
Independence day 37
Making your health a top priority 38
Overcoming Obstacles 38
Dealing with injuries 38
Modifying your routine when life gets in the way 38
Picking up where you left off 39
Facing Down Your Excuses 39
Giving in to your excuses backfires 39
Resisting your excuses creates a better you 40
This is your time 40
Part 2: the Exercises 41
Chapter 4: Getting Down with Floor Exercises 43
Gaining Big Improvements with Small Exercises 43
Developing better posture 44
Improving hip, spine, and shoulder functions 44
Better coordination means getting more for less 44
Back Lying Exercises 45
Dead bugs 45
Glute hip-ups 46
Up and overs 47
Windshield wipers 48
Crawling Exercises 49
Dirty dogs 49
Hip circles 50
Pointers 51
Straight wide legs 52
Front Lying Exercises 53
Hip twists 53
Moose antlers 54
Twists and reaches 55
Y cuffs 55
Side Lying Exercises 57
Hip drops 57
Moon walks 58
Side crunches 59
Side leg lifts 60
Chapter 5: Lying to Standing Transitions (Developmental Movements) 63
The Role of Weight Shifting in Movement and Stability 64
Exercises for Coordinating Hip and Shoulder Functions 64
Rolling exercises 64
Lying to kneeling exercises 65
Kneeling to standing exercises 67
From lying to the stork stance exercises 68
Chapter 6: Strength Training Exercises for Your Core 71
Mastering the Abdominal Exercises 72
Bodyrocks 72
Reaching bodyrocks 73
Side reaching bodyrocks 73
Pillar reaches 74
Tripod scissor kicks 75
Mountain climbers 76
Mountain climbers across 76
Mountain climbers around 77
Rollouts 78
Hanging leg lifts 79
Scorpion kicks 79
Parallel leg crunches 81
Starfish crunches 82
Sit-ups 83
V-ups 83
Jack knives 84
Practicing the Lateral Stability Exercises 84
Side plank 85
Side v-ups 85
ITB (Iliotibial band) leg lifts 86
ITB kickouts 87
Learning the Lower Back Exercises 87
Reverse hypers 88
Swimmers 88
Skydivers 89
Chapter 7: Strength Training Exercises for Your Legs and Hips 91
Trying the Hip Hinging Exercises 92
Deadlifts 92
One-legged deadlifts 93
Romanian deadlifts 94
One-legged Romanian deadlifts 95
Narrow squats 96
Wide squats 97
T-arm squats 98
Overhead squats 99
Squats to deadlifts 100
Deadlifts to squats 100
One-legged squats 102
Squat thrusts 103
Bulgarian split squats 104
Dynamic squats 105
Learning the Lunging Exercises 106
Back lunges 107
Front lunges 108
Side lunges 108
Saxon lunges 109
Twisting lunges 110
Squats to lunges 111
Lunges to squats 112
Iron Mikes 113
Practicing the Kneeling Transitions 114
Long kneeling transitions 115
Short kneeling transitions 115
Side kneeling transitions 117
Bottom squats 117
Cossack squats 118
Strengthening with Step-Ups 120
Stork stances 120
Gate swings 121
Cross steps 122
High-knee marches 124
High-knee runs 124
High-knee skips 125
Chapter 8: Pushing to Strengthen Your Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps 127
Maintaining Ideal Alignment Under Stress 128
Practicing the Perpendicular Pushing Exercises 128
Classic push-ups 128
Staggered push-ups 130
Archer push-ups 130
Contra presses 131
Tripod push-ups 132
Dips 133
Seated dips 134
Bouncing push-ups 135
Semi-planches 136
One-arm push-ups 136
Trying the Inline Pushing Exercises 137
Military presses 138
Dive bombers 140
DF glides 140
Bear crawls 141
Chapter 9: Pulling Exercises to Strengthen Your Back, Biceps, and Forearms 143
Finding Tools for Pulling Exercises 144
Practicing Perpendicular Pulling Exercises 144
Let-me-ins 144
Let-me-ups 147
Trying Inline Pulling Exercises 150
Pull-ups 151
Assisted and negative pull-ups 154
Chapter 10: Exercises for Mobility 157
Enjoying the Benefits of Proper Positioning 158
Starting with the Spiderman Exercises 158
Hip swirls 159
Arm circles 160
A frames 160
Saxon tilts 162
Doing the Inch Worm Exercises 163
Bloomers 163
Deep squats 165
Vertical twists 165
Kneeling switches 168
Mastering the Quadruped Exercises 169
Kickouts 169
High kicks 170
Side kicks 172
Table tops 172
Trying the Starfish Exercises 175
Starfish twists 175
Starfish hip drops 177
Starfish push-ups 177
Starfish dive bombers 179
Part 3: the Workouts 183
Chapter 11: Mixing and Matching Exercises for Your Goals 185
Choosing Your Workout Types 185
Sets across 186
Supersets 186
Ladders 187
Timed sets 188
Speed sets 188
Circuit training 189
Flows 189
Focusing Your Training with Training Splits 191
Full body workouts 191
Upper and lower body workouts 192
Pushing, pulling, legs, and core workouts 193
Adapting Your Workouts for Long-Term Progress 193
Volume and intensity 193
Consistency and variety 194
Progression and regression 194
Covering the Essentials to Avoid Injury 195
Joint functions and transitions 195
Beginning with warm ups 195
Wrapping up with cool downs 195
Allowing time for active recovery 196
Chapter 12: Following a 13-Week Program 197
Creating a Tailored Routine 197
Introducing the Workouts 198
AMRAPs 198
Timed sets 199
Circuit training 199
Block 1: Weeks 1-4 200
Monday 201
Tuesday 203
Wednesday 204
Thursday 206
Friday 208
Saturday 210
Block 2: Weeks 5-8 212
Monday 212
Tuesday 214
Wednesday 216
Thursday 218
Friday 220
Saturday 222
Block 3: Weeks 9-12 224
Monday 224
Tuesday 226
Wednesday 228
Thursday 230
Friday 232
Saturday 234
The Active Recovery Week 236
Monday 237
Tuesday 238
Wednesday 240
Thursday 242
Friday 244
Saturday 245
Part 4: Calisthenics for Special Circumstances 249
Chapter 13: Doing Calisthenics When You’re Pregnant 251
The Benefits of Exercise Before and After Baby 251
Taking Heed and Taking It Slow 252
Preparing for a Successful Pregnancy and Delivery 253
Getting fit before getting pregnant 253
Volume over intensity 253
Increased stress tolerance 253
Improved recovery 254
Chapter 14: Working Out with Limited Mobility 255
Getting the Essentials Right 255
Finding your safest starting point 256
How working with limited mobility inspired my program 258
Getting and Staying Prepared for Life 258
Getting up and down from the floor 259
Rolling exercises 259
Lying to kneeling transitions 260
Kneeling to standing transitions 261
Back lying to standing transitions 262
We’re the Only Mammals That Walk on Two Feet 263
Chapter 15: Starting Your Kids on Calisthenics 265
Keeping Your Kids Happy and Healthy with Movement 265
Leading by example and training together 266
Instilling/encouraging the joy of movement 267
Increasing your child’s injury resistance 267
Learning to learn better 268
Overcoming Complaints about Exercising 269
Chapter 16: Nine-Minute Workouts 271
Athleticism Leads to Efficiency 272
Structuring Your Workouts 272
Starting with the Pushing Exercises 274
Push-ups 274
Military presses 275
DF glides 275
Trying Out the Pulling Exercises 276
Let-me-ins 276
Let-me-ups (knees bent) 276
Let-me-ups (legs straight) 277
Moving on to the Hip Hinging Exercises 278
Squats 278
Romanian deadlifts 280
Back lunges 280
Part 5: the Part of Tens 285
Chapter 17: Ten Tips for Success 287
Stay Consistent 287
Schedule Your Workouts 287
Listen to Your Body 288
Strengthen Your Weak Side First 288
Rest and Recuperate 288
Don’t Do Too Much 289
Show Up 289
Keep a Playful Mindset 289
Count Your Wins, Not Your Losses 289
Eat a Healthy Post-Workout Meal 290
Chapter 18: Ten Bodyweight Training Myths 291
Men and Women Should Train Differently 291
Women’s Muscles Will Get Too Big If You Do Strength Training 292
You Can Reshape a Muscle by Doing Isolation Exercises 293
You Need High Reps for Definition and Low Reps for Mass 293
Muscle Can Turn Into Fat 294
You Can’t Build Muscle and Lose Fat at the Same Time 294
Going Hungry Means Looking Healthy 294
Exercise Machines Were Built for You 295
Bodyweight Exercises Don’t Allow You to Adjust the Difficulty 295
Aerobics or “Cardio” Is the Only Way to Burn Calories 296
Index 297
