Believe it or not, the gyms "back in the day" looked much like what everyone is trying to use as a fad today, calling everything "old school" is TRUE, but, old school strength back in the day was NOT being used as a fad.
It was a way of life for these lifters and athletes. They lived and breathed mastering their body, gaining strength, packing on muscle and manipulating their nutrition to improve their health & performance.
Rope Climbs, Gymnastics training, hand walking AND the use of powerlifting, olympic lifting and kettlebell training all COexisted.
The men from the older days knew that these were just tool and methods and putting them all together improved their health and strength.
They were right 🙂
Bodyweight Training is an absolute MUST have in your workouts, but, NOT just the strength movements such as dips, push ups, pull ups and leg raises.
You need to use the gymnastics movements that demand your body to demonstrate balance, control, strength & coordination.
Here are the Movements you want to try and incorporate into your workouts, either as stand alone bodyweight workouts or in addition to a traditional muscle building workout or 5 x 5 workout:
- rope climbs
- ring training (push ups, pull ups, ab exercises, rowing, face pulls, etc)
- hand walking
- tumbling
- jumping/ box jumps / vertical jumps, broad jumps, etc
- power hopping/ sprinting up stairs / jumping up stairs
- bridging
- cliff hangers (monkey bars)
- headstands / handstands
The above is just a short list, but certainly a GREAT way to start, implementing 1 - 2 of them into your warm up before your workout and then implementing 1 - 2 more of them into your workouts.
Trust me, I too thought that being good at push ups and pull ups was where it all counted, but I got my ass handed to me during a gymnastics class in college during my undergrad years.
The instructor threw us into the fire and my body was in shock. We did these bodyweight movements and exercises:
Full body plyo push ups, hand walking on parallel bars, squat jumps on crash pads and knee tucks forwards / backwards over the pommel horse while holding ourselves upright.
If you're not exposing yourself to your weak areas while training you are likely cheating yourself and making Bull S**t excuses.
Put yourself through a challenging workout consisting of the bodyweight drills that make your muscles cry, "What the hell is going on here!!??" Go ahead, walk on your hands, bear crawl backwards, try to climb your away across a steel beam or monkey bars and see how your lats, grip and abs feel!
Do me a Favor.... Drop me a comment with the bodyweight workout you're gonna put yourself through as a challenge and a way of starting to make you a better athlete. We can all learn from one another.
Looking forward!
--Z--
31 Responses
Zach I feel ya man on this blog. That is why I purchased the Book Convict Conditioning from dragon door, and will be adding it to my repertory soon to kick ass, and take names.
Aligator pushups! Right on! before I watched the video I was thinking (circa 1968) back to my grade school football days when we did “aligators”, which was basically a clapping pushup but instead of catching yourself with your arms, you threw them out to the side and landed on your stomach. today that would probably get a football coach a lawsuit. HAHA What you showed here in this video is brand new to me. Going down and doing some of those right now in the home gym.
Been doing a ton of convict conditioning as of the last month. Put on 7 lbs of muscle and dropped my body fat percentage from 8 -6.1%.
Yesterday I decided to use a bit of equipment for the first time in 2 months. did a circuit of:
Kettlebell swings 1 min with a 20 kilo
10 slow pull ups
15 squats
1min with a 20 kilo snatches
5 uneven pull ups using only one arm but holding on to a towel with the other
15 Close stance squats
1 minute of tire flips with a 200 lb tire
5 uneven pull ups
15 jump squats
1 min of sledgehammer shots on the tire
I’m 137-139lbs depending on If I gave birth in the bathroom or not haha
33 years old, 80-ish kgs, 6 ft, training to be strong and healthy for my family.
I had a great workout yesterday and I’m really feeling it today in a good way. I’m trying to focus on what is difficult and my weaknesses:
4 rounds of 5 x pull-ups, 8 x dips, 10 x PVC pipe overhead squats
5 rounds of 24kg kettlebell farmer walks (length of sports hall and back), bear crawl (length of sports hall), frog jumps (back down sports hall), farmer walks again, right leg hops up sports hall, left leg back.
This was awesome, felt great all day – you know you’ve found a good work out when the farmer walks are the ‘rest’.
Cheers Zach, your stuff is really inspirational.
Hey guys we hit this for what we called our Monday morning wakeup
Sandbag clean and press x 20
Wide grip chin x 10
Plyo box jumps x 40
Russian twist x 20
Alternating rope whip (battle rope) x 30 secs
100m sprint
Rest for 3 mins then hit it all again 3-4 times
Train hard and enjoy
Reverse lever, with 405 lbs hanging of him WOW, what a beast! Im trying to perform some ring stuff myself and cant yet hold either the front or reverse lever. Been training with the rings since i first heard about them from this site, and ican honestly say that my shoulders have never felt better and my strength has shot through the roof. Bodyweight is the way forward,just dont forget the free weights and kettlebells. Been playing around with clubbelss recently aswell, cant say anything about the effects yet, hasnt been long enough, but you can feel everything working in every swing 🙂
I like doing different animal walks across the floor forward and backward like bear crawl, crab walk, spider walks, inch worms and wall walks mixed with frog hops and duck walks. I usually do these for time like 2 mins on 1 min recovery for 5-6 rounds. Bring out the animal!
G’day Zach.
I’ve been putting together a bodyweight program for myself that goes along simliar lines to what you’ve mentioned.
This is intended to supplement my current strength and conditioning training.
I’ve separated my bodyweight training into three groups, agility based, skill based and strength/conditioning based.
Agility includes;
Bush running. Basically, heading out to the bush (you might say the woods, I’m aussie) and trying to head in a straight line, improvising with any obstacles in my path. I jog this to imnprove my ankle strength, and typically includes tree climbing, cliff climbing, jumping over obstacles, climbing/ducking under/through obstacles and occasionally swimming. I do all this barefoot as I believe it’s better for my feet, both structurally and through the workout they receive. Obviously you would need to condition your feet for quite some time before you tried this.
Skills based includes;
Handbalancing. Which includes planche, headstands and handstands.
Acrobalance. I do some work with a local circus and this is great for strength, particulary when performing the movements in flow.
Gymnastics/Tricking. If you haven’t seen tricking you should. It’s excellent for developing speed, power, balance and athletic movement.
Strength and Conditioning includes;
This is more your run of the mill bodyweight.
I’ll be using a variety of pushups, squats, and pulls for conditioning.
For strength I will be using one arm push ups, one arm pulls (which I can’t do yet but hope to achieve within the year), pistol squats and back bridges.
My current strength and conditiong training will go down to a low maintenance level.
I once did this
burpees x 1 minutes (min 15)
chiunps x 8
x10
rest 3 minutes and 20 more rounds
Zach i call aligator push ups spider man crawl
the kids love them
remember you cant get strong talking about it
you need to just do it
Zach
You are a warrior
Keep up the good work
Here’s something i put my son through:
Group #1
– Pushups
– Lift 100 lb. heavy bag from squat position and extend up on toes
– Pullups
Group #2
– Rows where you pull yourself up on the bar and feet are on a bench, body parallel with floor (not sure what they are called).
– Kettlebell swings (homemade kettlebell)
– Diamond pushups or dips
Each group is performed three times. Complete group #1 three times before moving to group #2. No rest between exercises, but small rest between the sets of three exercises in a group.
Works you pretty hard and it’s a fast workout.
Zach, I am 36 yrs old, I have been in love with exercise and athletics ever since I can remember. I have two boys 5 and 3yrs old. I made it a point to get them started in a gymnastic program as soon as possible. They have been going at it for a year now and the results of their practice have been priceless. I make it a point to encourage health and strength to them, and in return I get joy and pride watching them play and practice tumbling and climbing. Especially when my 3 year old says, ‘daddy, I want Broccoli with my dinner because that’s healthy’! Priceless.. well, with that said, my bodyweight workout to you actually was created by my 5 year old son Jax. He decided a couple weeks ago to create a HandWalking course for himself to maneuver over, around and through! He used the plastic steps that you can stack up. I held his feet(wheelbarrow style) and he challenged himself by making some higher and some lower. He used some of the steps to jump over and in the middle of with his hands. To make it even better after completing the course each time he made the next round even more challenging and called them level 1,2,3,4! It was amazing and I was truly proud! So, my challenge is just that. Create a handwalking course using whatever obstacles are available. Challenge yourself, maybe even your children to make it through different levels of difficulty! Its fun and rewarding. –
Hey Zach,
I started doing body weight exercises while waiting for a double spinal fusion,L4-L5-SI. I really couldn’t do much sine I could barley stand or walk but I could do some push ups, chins,dips and even some step ups, after I took five minutes to stand up. Two weeks after my operation my surgeon freaked out when I told him I had been doing chins and dips. So I had to rely on a ten pound dumbbell for about three months, I was 32 years old. I will be 41 in about a month, I now do one arm push ups, one leg squats, handstand push ups, and am working on my one arm chin. Combine that with dumbbell Olympic lifts and odd objects and I’m in the best shape of my life.
Tim “Home Gym” Clark
Zach, a couple of things I have done are: added some static holds, like frog stand and modified FS as outlined in coach Sommer’s book on building the gymnastics body. Also static holds on the pull up bar. With the wrestling club on Thursday nights we add some tumbling, hand walking etc. For some kids they could not do anything a year ago and can do hand stands and some hand walking now. I keep trying to add variety and get the kids in different body positions to get them used to it.
Pete
Rings workout! 3-4 rounds
a. recline row
b. dips
c. “L” sit
d. muscle up transition (pull thru) -technique
20-10 sec x2
Lower rings
a. Ring push up
b. plank with arm circles
c. “flyes”
d. pike ups-feet in rings
20-10 sec x 2
2 min rest
pull/push/core!
having a broken toe changes a lot with my bodyweight work.
10×10 routine post strength work.
-Pullup with 2.5 inch pipe.(One set over hand, other under hand)
-Push up(balancing on one foot)-Using my three position block, feet on bench, and regular.
-Glute/Ham
*Try to hit as many sets in a row without stopping.
Hey Zach,
Never would have done it in the past, but after coming down to your USC in December, bodyweight training is an integral component of our methods.
Before we did it from time to time, but now, it’s a tool we use regularly!
Thanks for the great post!
I’ve been doing CST and TACFIT and they gave me the most exciting bodyweight exercises i had learned outside the gym.
Bodyweight workouts are one of the fundamental keys to becoming a beast, no doubt. I neglected bodyweight workouts for the longest time. I finally incorporated them for the past 2 years and my strength/muscular conditioning went through the roof. Everybody above mentioned fantastic ideas and I love bodyweight supersets such as the push-up/pull-up combo for density training. Simple yet…damnnnnn! You either got more reps, or you didn’t.
*Did you notice the Dustin in the above post also likes the same combo? We, Dustins, know what we are talking about. Haha!*
Hand-stand push-ups…notice that many people haven’t mentioned doing them? Because they’re harder than hell! You gotta admit, when you see a guy kick up into a handstand position and crank out some upright push-ups unassisted, that is an jaw-dropper because you know it takes some serious strength to muscle-out something like that! That is what I am currently working on.
As everybody knows—pull-ups/chin-ups of all sorts are absolutely essential to building a killer upperbody. How is this for a challenge? Locate the nearest tree…and blitz your way up there. That’s right. Sprint, jump onto the tree, grab a branch/limb, pull yourself up…and continue to do so until you’re at the top. In this case, “monkeying around” could be a good challenge. 🙂
Another thing is to just get your ass out there and start sprinting. Many people haven’t had the ‘need’ to sprint since their high-school sports days. Many people would rather run 1-3 miles than to perform 10 all out sprints because sprints will kick your ass to the ground and laugh at you while ur wheezing and gasping for air. You want badass conditioning, jack up your sprints.
I have a giant rope tower about 20 minutes from my house. I spend 45 minutes climbing through that;
Backwards, forwards, up, down, and sideways. i even do it upside down (Killer).
When my grip is dead and my lats are screaming I hit the ground and rock out all sorts of push ups.
At the end of this my body doesn’t know what to think, my head is swimming and I sometimes dry heave.
Amazing
Here is a link to a picture of a similar tower: http://www.dreadlockssite.com/photo/very-tall-rope-tower?context=user
That dude is not me 😉
Zach your spot on!
I train body weight everyday. I go new rules style and hit 100 reps of something everyday. I mix it up a lot and tend to change weak areas more. I have inproved all my lifts and my conditioning has gone through the roof. Most of what I do with my kids now is mostly body weight and odd object training. They love it! We been going to hills and stairs a lot too! This style has created beasts but even better improved the quality of movement that they produce! Bodyweight is king!
I am wondering if I should bodyweight as a warmup the old school then bodyweight to finish that off. I think doing alot of elevated pushups would help but for me I don’t know after I do my workout I go climb alot.
well here’s what i did yesterday
shut the gym door and turned off the fan. it was hot outside.
put on 2 t shirts. a flannel shirt. a jumper. a thick winter jacket. this is what we call vietnam.
did a sumo deadlift for a single. heavy but comfortable
pushups x10
punching bag (1 min)
jump rope (1 min)
jump lunge ( x 10 each leg)
kick bag ( 1min)
jump rope (1min)
bridge
dragon flags x 5
katas ( 1 min)
made it through 3 rounds.
3 rounds zero rest
i would never do this with a client but i like it.
i also make sure i’m hydrated before hand
inspired from zach’s article
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRzdE1cO9PA
Today I performed
100 Burpees
75 squats
50 sit ups
25 push ups
Felt great
Today I did:
10 x push-up
10 x diamond push-up
5 x pull up
10 x staggered push-up
10 x hindu push-up
5 x neutral grip pull up
10 x alligator push-up
10 x push up with leg threaded through
5 x pull-up
10 x wide push-up
10 x pike push-up
5 x neutral grip pull up
3 rounds of:
10 x sinle leg squats on bench L/R
10 x side jumps over bench
40m lunge walk
Felt good.
Glad you posted this Zach, just in time for spring break when I’ll be away from a gym. 1st off I gotta thank you for the info you gave in the CF journal. I think I will follow those ideas the rest of my life. Currently I weigh 330 and am 31 yr. old male.
Here’s my week:
Mon: 5×6 pistols each leg, complex with GHR for 8 reps
Sprint 50 yds uphill 2 sets of 8
Tuesday: Some kind of full body cardio or just walk
Wednesday: Partner pushups(partner makes you struggle by varying resistance-pushing on your back) complex with jumping pullups for 5×8
5 rounds of bear crawls
5 rounds wheel barrow up and down hill
2 sets inverted row AMRAP
Thursday: long and slow cardio
Friday: Shoulder something heavy X 30 (under 2:17 🙂
4 rounds of 15 burpees 30 second rest
Saturday: Frickin run till my fat ass faints
The 100’s:
split squat jumps=50/50
ring push ups
squats
reverse ring rows
pike push ups (the best way you can) if you have access to a latter put your toes on one step so that your body goes zig-zag with the back and hands vertical to the floor
So that’s 5 BW exercises,your mission=hit 100 reps on everyone of them 😉 50/50 for split squat jumps, continue with lunges when your power output drops.
I just started including a bunch of push ups/pull ups/ leg movements each day. Started on 10 of each a day adding a rep everyday now I’m on 33reps a day. Started doing bodyweight work in my workouts
e.g.
Overhead Press 5/3/1
-Superset-
pull ups – using close grip, wide grip overhand underhand, offest grips.
gotta get a hold of Convict Conditioning though start adding some more of this stuff.
Last week i got a rather bad message… and so i screwed the workout i wanted to do and instead i did the murph:
1 mile run
100 pull-ups (the first time i did more than 75 pull-ups in an workout)
200 push-ups
300 squats
1 mile run
all together in under 43 minutes. I felt much better afterwards 🙂
Am an handicapped person who works out. Had spinial cord dammage years ago.
Am doing Plyo Legs dvd workout from Power 90 Master Series. Then a little trainning session of five pull up, five dips, hanging knee up, five push ups for five sets each. Then some smaller box jumps for me.
Then it is off to the park to play on the parell bars, for a while. I hand walk the bars. Grabb and holds for some time hanging.
then will do some swings, and some push ups ontop of the bars. Just will play…