Bodyweight Training Tips From Sin City
Normally when you’re in Vegas with Jay Z pumping through the speakers and a big ass shakin right next to you at the pool you’d be thinking to yourself, “Maaaannn, look at those glutes, I’d love to see what that girl could do…
In the gym…”
Or maybe that’s just me.
Or the over 35 year old version of me.
Truth be told, I’m obsessed with strength and bodyweight training and am always thinking about it in some way or another. Even when there’s a bunch of tanned, thonged, tattooed booty’s dancing within close proximity to me.
What can I say? Improving human performance and the art and science of strength development fascinate me.
Last week I had to head out to a Sin City for a meeting and decided to stay in town for a few days for a much needed break. On our second night there we went to see the Cirque Du Soleil show, O. I’ve seen several of the Cirque shows but O is probably my favorite. If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend checking it out next time you have the opportunity.
Anyway, during the performance I couldn’t help but think about the effectiveness and importance of bodyweight training the entire time. If you’re not familiar with the show I’ll give you a quick summary. It basically consists of a wide variety of acrobatic stunts, gymnastics, high diving and numerous feats of strength on a stage that turns into a pool then back to solid ground right before your eyes in no time.
The physiques on the performers were incredibly impressive. The females all had lean, muscular arms and shoulders, clearly visible abs and rock hard glutes that you could bounce a casino chip off of. The male performers were all lean and in shape and those that performed the mind blowing feats of strength were absolutely jacked.
Strength is a Skill
What I saw on stage reinforced what I have said numerous times in the past, that strength is a skill. These men and women practice for hours at a time, nearly every day of the week. They have to in order to become masters of bodyweight training and pull of the incredible stunts that they do with flawless perfection.
To be able to hold a guy upside down with one hand palming his skull is insane! That takes an almost incomprehensible amount of strength.
To train for such a feat you have to practice often in a fresh state. No once per week, to failure and beyond, bodybuilding style workouts here. Nope, they’re hitting it day after day after day without ever burning themselves out.
This is no different than what Arthur Saxon did 100 plus years ago.
To gain strength rapidly, especially doing something you have never done before or something that takes a lot of coordination or skill, high frequency reigns supreme.
Now, I don’t think any of us will be joining Cirque Du Soliel and having guys do chin ups off of our flexed biceps while we hang twenty feet above the ground using nothing but the strength of our big toes to hold us up on the bar we’re swinging from.
But I do know that everyone reading this right now would like to get stronger. Most of you would probably also like to get better at some cool bodyweight exercises like pistol squats, front levers or handstands. Or maybe you’d just like to improve your pushups.
If that’s the case you have no choice but to utilize high frequency training. You’ll never get significantly better at those exercises, or anything new for that matter, by doing them only once per week. Improvements may come but they will be at a much slower pace then if you did practiced 3-5 times more often.
It’s like any physical endeavor in life.
Want to get better at martial arts? Practice every day.
Want to get better at basketball? Practice every day.
Want to do freakish feats of strength and athleticism like they do in Cirque Du Soleil? Practice every day.
Practice, Don’t Train
The key to making rapid strength gains is to get it through your head that you are practicing and not training. If you crank up Static X in your headphones and try to make it a Rocky IV training montage you will burn yourself out in a hurry. This will lead to slower strength gains. Think of it as practice (do it frequently and never to failure) instead of a workout and you will progress much more rapidly.
While I have said in the past that getting stronger is the best way to get bigger it also needs to be noted that there is a difference in training for maximal strength and training for hypertrophy. Hypertrophy will require more volume and the accumulation of fatigue which will demand a slightly lower frequency. Pure strength gains on the other hand, require less volume which means you can train for this goal more often.
If you want to get better at front levers you need to practice them 3-6 days per week and never, ever come close to failure. Simply do half the amount of reps you’d be able to do to failure as often as possible. Three times per week would be the minimum but you could easily get away with doing pistols (or chins or handstand pushups, etc.) throughout the day, five or six days per week.
How to Incorporate This Advice Into Your Current Workout Program
Pick one bodyweight exercise that you’d like to improve. Start doing it three times per week for 2-3 sets of low reps either at the end or beginning of your normal workout. You could even do it on off days or as a separate workout on training days. It doesn’t really matter. If you can do six reps do sets of three. Gradually increase your frequency until you get to the point where you’re doing the exercise every day, throughout the day. Simply bang out a few reps 3-5 times throughout the day. There’s no need to try to get better or add reps. Just add volume and frequency consistently for the next thirty days then test your max reps. I’m sure you’ll be quite pleased with the results.
PS. And if you want a pure bodyweight only training program, either to give yourself a break from heavy weights for 60-90 days, or because you train at home with limited equipment, check out Body Weight Body Building. You can download it right now as a member of the Renegade Inner Circle.
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