This is where the fun begins!
Now that you’ve build a strong foundation, you’re ready achieve your first advanced calisthenics moves!
In this page, you’ll find out:
- How to grow stronger with bodyweight training
- How to condition your wrists and shoulders for safe calisthenics practice
- A list of intermediate training resources to get you started
If you’re not yet at the intermediate level, check out the “Beginner Calisthenics 101” to develop a strong foundation fast.
How To Progress Towards
Advanced Calisthenics Moves
When you’re training with weights, it’s pretty obvious how to grow stronger…
You just add more weight to the bar.
But calisthenics are another type of animal.
So…
How do you grow stronger with calisthenics?
Usually, most people try to add more reps to the exercise they’re training with.
While that’s not bad, it doesn’t help you to grow stronger.
To grow stronger you have to train with harder and harder exercises.
How do you make an exercise harder?
One way of doing it is by manipulating the leverage.
Let me explain…
If you’ve already followed the Beginners Bodyweight Plan, you already have some idea of how that works.
Let’s take as an example the push up:
You can make the exercise easier by training an an incline surface or by training on your knees.
Respectively, you can make push ups harder by:
- training on a decline surface
- training with harder variations (eg. diamond push ups)
- training with one arm variations (check the resources below for more info)
- etc
Similarly, you can make easier/harder other calisthenics moves.
Have You Mastered The Hollow Body & You’re Looking For A New Challenge?
Then DOWNLOAD “The 5 Best Core Exercises”
and take your core strength to the next level!
-Advanced Fundamentals-
How To Strengthen Your Wrists & Shoulders
Wanna progress to advanced calisthenics movements?
Then you have to strengthen your wrists and shoulders. Period.
If you condition you wrists and shoulders successfully, then you’ll progress towards advanced movements – like handstand push ups – more easily and safely.
On the contrary, if you don’t put the necessary time in training your shoulders and wrists, the chances of getting injured are very high and you may never actually achieve some of the skills you’d like.
-Calisthenics Wrist Training-
As you gradually move away from the beginner level, it’s important to train your wrists more and more frequently.
While the topic of wrist conditioning is pretty extensive, you can easily get started by watching the video below:
The easiest way to implement wrist training is to add the exercises into your warm up routine.
As you get more advanced, you can start to train your wrists daily.
For more info on wrist conditiong, check out my article:
-Calisthenics Shoulder Training-
Having strong and mobile shoulders is very important in bodyweight training – especially if you want to achieve gymnastics skills like the front lever.
There are 4 shoulder positions:
- Scapula depressed – shoulders away from the ears
- Scapula elevated – shoulders towards the ears
- Scapula protracted – shoulderblades away from each other
- Scapula retracted – shoulderblades together
Each upper body bodyweight exercise requires a specific shoulder position (or a combination of them).
Check out the video below to get an idea on how the different positions look like:
For more info on how to strengthen and condition your shoulders, check out these 2 articles:
Have You Mastered The Hollow Body & You’re Looking For A New Challenge?
Then DOWNLOAD “The 5 Best Core Exercises”
and take your core strength to the next level!
Intermediate Training Resources
How To Develop Strong Legs With Calisthenics
While lots of people consider weight lifting superior to calisthenics in regards to leg training, there are still some very hard bodyweight leg movements that can challenge even the more advanced athletes!
Read this article and find out:
- How to achieve the pistol squat
- How to achieve the shrimp squat
- How to train for explosive leg strength
- and way… way more!
10 Simple Ways To Increase Your Pull Ups
The Ultimate Guide To Archer Push Ups
How To Do One Arm Push Ups
-Complete Guide-
Build Explosive Strength With
Behind-The-Back Clap Push Ups
This article is a guest post I’ve written a while back.
Here, you’ll find out how to achieve the behind-the-back clap push up.
The Most Comprehensive Handstand Tutorial
I’m not the author of this article.
But I had to share it with you, as it’s probably the best article about handstands available!
If you’re looking to achieve a free standing handstand, then this article is all you need.
Have You Mastered The Hollow Body & You’re Looking For A New Challenge?
Then DOWNLOAD “The 5 Best Core Exercises”
and take your core strength to the next level!
Image credit: hs