If you want to become stronger (more enduring, flexible, skilled, etc.) it comes down to progression. If you understand the principles of progression then you can achieve just about any physical thing. It’s just a matter of putting in the work over time. People often ask, how do you tear …
Unconventional Exercises For an Indestructible Body
A new article on using unconventional exercises to build unbreakable body has been put on Dragon Door blog. Building an Indestructible Body with “Outside the Box” Exercises Push-ups. You move in one plane of motion, up and down. Squats. The same thing. Pull-ups too. Everyone here will agree that bodyweight …
World Calisthenics Competition
This past weekend I was at the San Jose Fit Expo. Its mostly bodybuilding but there’s plenty of other stuff too. Unfortunately, I missed the grip competition though I did watch a little Mas Wrestling. There was Crossfit doing exhibitions and teaching too and plenty else. But I spent most …
How to Combine Bodyweight and Oldtime Strongman Training
The other day I received a question about how to combine bodyweight and oldtime strongman training. Since I hadn’t specifically covered that topic before I thought it was worth doing an in-depth article on it. I guess that makes this the third article in a series. The first one was …
Building up to the Back Lever
I put up another article at Breaking Muscle and this time it’s about building your way up to the back lever. How to Build Up to the Back Lever The back lever is a challenging and impressive exercise. It’s one of the lower level exercises performed on the rings in …
Why Bodyweight Should Be 50+% of Your Training
Bodyweight training. I have a special love for it. It’s the first kind of training that I did where I began to see real results. The bodybuilding at 24 Hour Fitness just wasn’t accomplishing much before that. I don’t have a naturally muscular build. I’m the classic ectomorph or hardgainer. …
Two Flexibility Workouts to Improve Your Pistol
I put up a new post at Breaking Muscle about two drills to help you improve your pistol. 2 Flexibility Drills: The Keys to Progressing Your Pistol The pistol is one of the best bodyweight exercises for leg training. Even the average person can work up to repping out two-legged …
Achieving Full Range of Motion in Handstand Pushups
I just put up another article at Breaking Muscle and this time it’s about working your way up to a full range of motion in handstand push-ups. How to Work Up to a Full Range of Motion Handstand Push Up When I first got involved in bodyweight training one of …
When to Psych and When Not To
Among weightlifters you see psyching up fairly commonly. Among people that do bodyweight training you don’t see it nearly as much. Why is that? Do you know? If you go back in the sports psychology research from about 30 or so years ago one of the things they often talk about is “Arousal …
How to Combine Bodyweight and Kettlebell Training
How to combine bodyweight exercises and kettlebell training? I published a big article on combining weights and bodyweight training recently, that’s been well received, but this time I’d like to focus on combining a specific form of weight lifting, kettlebells, along with bodyweight training. As I mentioned in the article …
Tour of My Gym
I’ve been asked to give a tour of my gym, so I decided to create this video and share it with you. My gym is actually located in a two-car garage, but since the gym takes all the space, no cars go in here. Apart from various bodyweight training and …
How to Combine Weights and Bodyweight Training
This is a common question among trainees that isn’t answered real well in a lot of places. But its not difficult if you understand a few critical things. When you do effectively combining weights and bodyweight is easy to do. There are some people that only lift weights. And there …
Bodyweight Exercises for Shoulders
If your workout consists of mostly bodyweight exercises and your shoulders are lagging behind, or you’re just looking to increase more size to them, then this article might be of use to you. The shoulders lag behind for a lot of people, but fortunately changing hand positioning and load will …
Progression Tips for Handstand Push-ups
A new article on handstand push-ups progression and my “Aha” moment has been put on Dragon Door blog. Handstand Push-ups and My “Aha” Moment When I got started with bodyweight training my goal was to be able to do a handstand push-up against the wall. My upper body strength had …
John Davis
John Davis was a weightlifter born in 1921 in Long Island. He was more into bodyweight training than weightlifting as a kid, and he was quite good at it. He was even able to hold a chin-up with 25 lb weight in the other hand, plus he could complete this …