Part 1

"If you cannot move your body and control it... then what business do you have moving other objects?"

- Ido Portal

My first post's goal was to get you interested in bodyweight training and its principles. This one will be a lot more meaty. Warning: shit is about to get technical, so if you can't be bothered to get into basic physics and physiology just skip to the recommended program at the end.

Methods of increasing difficulty. There are three main methods of making a bodyweight exercise more difficult:

  • Increased weight. Since we're talking about one's own bodyweight, this means positioning a muscle so that it has to support an increasing percentage of your own bodyweight. In the case of the deltoid (the main shoulder abductor and flexor), the muscle normally only lifts a very small percentage of your total bodyweight, the weight of your arm. By placing your body more and more vertically, the deltoid progressively has to move the weight of your torso and that of your legs, as in a handstand pushup. This can be demonstrated clearly in this progression.

  • Decreased leverage - lengthened lever arm. Resistance training exercises use your body parts as lever arms (not literal arms), with muscles attached on one side of them, trying to move weight attached to the opposite side. In the example of a biceps curl, the lever arm is the forearm, with the two heads of the biceps brachii muscle and the brachialis muscle pulling on the ulna and radia on the one side, and a dumbbell held in the palm on the opposite side. By making the lever longer, the difficulty is increased. Think about it this way: it is much harder to push a door open by pushing right next to the door hinge than by pushing on the door handle. Of course muscles can physiologically only perform a pulling movement, but the same principle applies. The iron cross is a great example of how shortening a lever can allow for easier exercise progression levers. Note: this one in particular is a bad progression for the Iron Cross, I may get into that more in another post.

  • Decreased level of muscular contraction. First, take a look at this simple explanation of how muscles contract. You can see that with fewer actin-myosin bridges working in parallel comes decreased strength. Note that this is usually not used as a way of moving upwards in a progression, since changing the level of muscular contraction usually means a fundamental change in the mechanics of a given exercise, at which point it is not clear if we are still talking about the same exercise progression. Additionally, in the few cases where it is actually used, the point where the exercise becomes the most difficult is not that of maximal extension of the muscle, but rather a specific level of contraction. This can be clearly illustrated in the case of the Back Lever, the Planche and the Maltese Cross (aka Swallow). Here you can see basically the same position, with the only varying element being the level of shoulder flexion or extension. If the above principle applied in all cases, one would expect the back lever to be the most difficult; in reality, the Maltese is by many orders of magnitude the most difficult.

Exercise Categories. Bodyweight exercises can be divided into two main categories:

  • Isometric holds: Mechanical stress is exerted with the muscle set in a certain length and level of contraction. Example: the Front Lever. Difficulty is increased mainly by increasing weight and lengthening the lever arm. Progressive overload is acheved through increased total time performing the movement.

  • Isotonic movements: Mechanical stress is exerted with the muscle moving through a concentric (muscle is shortened) and an eccentric (muscle is lengthened) phase in a certain range of motion. Example: the pushup. The eccentric phase is when you lower yourself down to the ground. The concentric is when you push yourself back up. Again, difficulty is increased mainly by increasing weight and lengthening the lever arm. Progressive overload is achieved through increased sets and reps.

Both of these categories have their own merits, and I find it useful to incorporate both of them in my training. Isometrics are usually harder on the joints and require slower progression. As you (should) know, muscles adapt to increased pressure much faster than connective tissue like tendons, since they have a much richer blood supply. Thus, you should always allow the connective tissue to catch up to your muscles, or else you are risking injury. This is the reason why many people (usually beginners) who start taking steroids end up with torn pecs and biceps, because their rapidly increasing strength causes them to lift more weight than their tendons have time to adapt to. A good way to program isometrics to allow for sufficient tendon conditioning is a Steady State Cycle (aka an SSC - more on that here). Isotonics can be programmed just like your classic weighted exercises, with increasing reps or sets.

And without further ado... drumroll

--- T.A.G.'s RECOMMENDED BODYWEIGHT ROUTINE --- [Beginner level]

  • Fundamental Static Position (Planche, Front Lever, Back Lever, L-sit/Manna) 60-second SSCs

  • 3x Pistol Squat / Hamstring Curl progression (alternate between workouts)

  • 3x Pullup progression

  • 3x Handstand pushup / Dip progression (alternate between workouts)

  • 3x Inverted row progression

  • 3x Pushup Progression

NOTES:

  • If you have been working out for less than six months, skip the recommended isometrics and do a plank progression instead.

  • You can find the necessary progressions here, here, here and by searching on youtube.

  • Choose and train no more than three exercise SSCs at once or you will be asking for injury.

  • While you can build leg strength with BWT, barbell work is usually vastly superior. If the equipment is available to you, I suggest replacing pistol squats with high bar squats and hamstring curls with deadlifts.

  • On isotonics, progress in the following way: On each training session add one rep to one of the tree sets. If you started with 3x4 it would go like this: 4-4-4 -> 5-4-4 -> 5-5-4 -> 5-5-5 -> 6-5-5 and so on until you reach 3x8-12 reps.

  • If you are an advanced lifter, split the exercises in an Upper-Lower or PPL split and add accessory exercises as needed. The bodyweight fitness subreddit also has a good programming section.

That's all for today folks, if I find some time I may also post a list of my recommended progressions for all the above exercises, plus a way to see if a progression is good or not. Tell me in the comments if you would be interested in that.