slow movements and stop chasing reps.With full range of motion. Good solid tips bro. Thank you. This was informative and motivational as well! killer back man.
I don't recall ever seeing such a beautifully muscled back as is on display at the top of your pull ups. OMG it is virtually an anatomical drawing in the flesh! Your physique is uncanny!
Clear, concise explanations. Clear, practicable tips. This series is excellent. It is obvious that you have done plenty of research and preparation for your videos. Just great.
Can you please do a lesson on Hollow Core Hold? Form improvement + core conditioning + mind muscle connection The body shapes exactly like a pullup when doing.
what i noticed when i started doing this is not focusing on reps and counting but focusing on breathing like yoga. if you do good powerful reps you will get to a point where you start breathing really heavily. thats the time to take a break. i hate counting. it takes me out of it.. the first time i did it i was really sore for a few days and really felt the change. then later i didnt feel much and thought the reps werent doing anything. then i just did a few sets and then i felt it again. just do the sets and it will make progress.
Hey Kyle you inspire me. You convey succinct knowledge, and your videos prove that you've developed an absolutely shredded physique via clear mastery of these movements. It's time I start doing pullups instead of chinups. When I train I always remind myself to slow the reps and expand the range of motion. Thank you for that knowledge Sir. The rings intrigue me, too. Have never considered them until I watched your videos. Bearcrawls are absolute torture and I am amazed to see you championing them. What a great movement though I shudder to think of doing them. I currently avg. 400 chinups and 800 pushups per week. Do you think this is a healthy ratio?
Hahaha I love it, Michael! I think your ratio of chin ups to pull ups is excellent. As long as you are making steady improvement in form, movement quality, and proficiency, feeling recovered, and motivated, you are doing it right! Well done, brother! Keep it up and let me know if you ever have any questions.
Although you explain that rows can be beneficial, can pull-ups(or any similar vertical pulling pattern like lat-pulldowns) be enough to build both the lats and traps? If yes, would you also say that only doing vertical pulls could be enough to balance both horizontal and vertical pressing, to prevent muscle imbalances?
Thank you! A lot of it depends on your training experience. For beginners, I recommending staying higher reps of rows (generally 8+) so that they get more time to build motor patterns while building muscle. For experienced people who have a good level of strength, all rep ranges can be useful, but I still like to do the majority of my training with high reps.
Though rows don’t put the lats through full range of motion, I agree with your point and think it’s still important to do them as a way to target the lats at different angles, if you look at anatomical pictures of the latisimus, you can see that not all of them align with the vertial pulling movement of the pullup. Especially those higher up on the back. One argument that’s for completely forsaking rows altogether is that when you can do 20+ pullups, why bother with rows anymore, I think they should still be performed regardless of how “easy” they become. Do they completely forsake the pushup for the dip when the pushup gets too easy?
I agree 100%. I think rows are tremendously aludel for what they do- they are the perfect light day pulling exercise (less ROM and poor strength curve = easy recovery), they hit the lats differently, and are excellent for scap retractors. My issue with rows is really with how people train them in the calisthenics world- often times trying to overload them to the point where the ROM is reduced further, they get "arm pulled" with no scap retraction, and heavily cheated. I look at it like a great assistance move for the pull up and as an assistance exercise, I'm not really into pushing it at the expense of losing it's delicate form.
weaker rear delts and rotary cuffs and bad posture; that's why you still need to do them. it's like saying; "I can do 20+ handstand pushups, why bother doing pushups?"
Hello! I’m a big fan of your videos. I recently started working out two months ago. But full pullups is still kind of difficult for me, and I can only do around 2-3 before I fail. Do you have any recommendations for what I can do to build myself up for a wide grip pullup? Thanks!
Hey man been watching your videos for a while, really enjoying the content simple and straight to the point, I am currently deloading and I am considering trying out the full body approach after years of doing pull, push legs or upperbody / lowerbody. I have purchased weight plates from 2. 5 lbs 5 lbs and 10 lbs and I have total of 50lbs when combined, I want to start weighted calisthenics but I will start with 5 lbs and stay there for a set period ( saw this in Dominik Sky on his vid about weighted calisthenics ) I will focus on time under tension really squeezing the muscle group I am training, with that said could I train with this method daily or should I do days wherein I just do bodyweight and how often to you change the exercise variations to ensure that each plain is well trained ( vertical / horizontal push and pull as well as legs ) as I really want to focus on some lagging areas in my upperbody like my arms and traps ?
Thank you! These are excellent questions and I could probably make a video addressing these in the future... 1) Yes you can train weighted calisthenics daily, but just like all daily training, I would suggest making sure you are not doing too much volume, too much intensity, or training to failure excessively. 2) You can definitely vary the training load daily to allow for more recovery, since different intensities are fatiguing in different way. This is a strong point of Daily Undulating Periodization models, and something I have played around with in the past. It can work super well! For instance, you can have an unweighted pull up day, a weighted pull up day, and then an unweighted row day, and repeat this cycle. 3) I'm less concerned about training planes than many other people. I'm primarily interested in looking at exercises, the muscles they train, and the strength curve/resistance curve of the exercise. I find vertical pulling, done as I often describe it, to be incredibly productive for mid/lower trap development. Rows, I much prefer to treat as an accessory movement, since it is less stressful (moves through less ROM), has a poor resistance curve for strength development, but can be useful for additional volume for the traps without hammering the lats as hard. I never train rows for strength, but just use them as an opportunity to further strength mind/muscle connection in the scap retractors/depressors. 4) Hammer chins (supinated grip) for the biceps, making sure you get a good squeeze in them. For traps, upper traps specifically, high hip bear crawls have done wonders for me, as have shallow pike push ups (I'll be showing these in a future video). Rows with your feet above your hands will also recruit upper traps to a significant degree.
K boges thanks for the reply man, really helpful stuff, it really good if you scale the exercise and not really work to failure on somedays but you are strict when it comes to the execution, but on somedays you go all out and maybe let a few reps be hard grinders a hard rep where to struggle to finish the end range of motion. This is good since I was had golfers elbow for doing the 100 pullups for 30 days as well as shoulder and sternum from doing dips, I am happy to say that the elbow pain is healed , but the shoulder and sternum pain is still lingering which is why with your approach I can ease in my way to do dips. I do want to ask three final questions, when you had shoulder issues how did you train your vertical pushing, did you only do straight bar dips, pike pushups, half rom dips etc and what are mobility drills you did to strengthen the weak links? And lastly do you include direct hamstring work on your training like glute ham raises ( like the ones from fitness faqs ) as well as glute bridges ( like the ones from Red Delta Project ) or deadlifts because the thing with BW training is that quad dominance is a real thing and not training the posterior chain really exposes the bodies weaknesses as well as having a higher risk for injury when doing sports which involve heavy movement of the legs ( like the NFL, NBA etc ) ? It would be nice to have a day dedicated to those parts to for better training longevity.
In video one of this series, 10-20 sets of chin ups a week are recommended for bicep growth. Could you also do an additional 10-20 sets of pull ups in that week to train your back or would those interfere too much? How would you program it? Thanks for the video.
Awesome video as always! What are your thoughts on crossing the legs while doing pull-ups? My legs naturally cross and I feel more comfortable that way but I see some people are against it because it rotates the pelvis and causes muscular imbalances. I see you are doing it as well.
Hey Kerem! This is a great question and one I've gotten a few times. Your experience is fairly common. I'm not totally convinced that this is as problematic as some claim. I do a mix of both crossed legs and straight legs, and haven't found an issue with it for myself or my clients. That being said, I'm open to hearing arguments supporting the claim. I haven't heard a convincing explanation yet, or seen accompanying proof, detailing the mechanisms for how this would have a significant impact on muscular imbalances. If you think about whats going on there though, the only real difference between the legs when crossed is a few degrees of knee flexion, and this shouldn't affect the load on the upper body because the legs are stacked in line with the pull of gravity. Without getting into the merits and limitations of EMG, I would be very surprised if the leg crossed position had any detectable difference on muscle activation of the prime movers, and if it did, I would be even more surprised if this was significant. I could totally be wrong though- I'm just speculating, and I would actually really like to see this investigated. Again, I have no proof for this. Just going by gut here. Plus, even assuming it does result in significant asymmetrical loading, simply switching legs each set would conceivably resolve the issue. Right? What are your thoughts?
@@Kboges I agree with you and I haven't seen any effects because of crossing legs. But I'm not knowledgeable in muscle anatomy like you and I try to be safe than sorry later. So I'm trying to fix it.
Hey mate, I’m new to all of this and I’m struggling to understand when to breath during these exercises, both push-ups and pull ups. I find I keep holding my breath out the whole time, as per Wim Hof Method exercises. Kind regards, Nicko
I absolutely love pull-ups but for this reason I've often neglected rows, actually I've done mostly vertical pulling throughout my calisthenics journey. And I feel as a consequence of this, I have very underdeveloped rear delts and back thickness in general. So would you recommend me focussing more on rows for the time being, or should I do a little bit of them every session?
Yes, that would be a great application. Don't neglect continuing to strengthen your pull ups, but add in additional row volume to target your scap retractors. You can also use them to develop the arched back pull up, which might be the best overall calisthenics back exercise.
Wow.top notch content. You've literally made me want to forget everything i've known about training. Your approach seems so sustainable. However am. Lost concerning the daily scheduling of the number of sets and reps and how to structure an exercise protocol. Any help about this
Love the pullup! I only do neutral grip. It is just easier on my shoulders. I do reverse bent-over flies to kind of supplement the rear delts. I am thinking about getting into the rings. That way I can just kinda glide into the best hand position for my shoulders. I guess my question would be....am I leaving much on the table by only doing neutral grip pulls?
I also started doing neutral grip because of same reason. I think it’s all about proper technique , because regardless of grip, they will always work your full back
Yes, I agree with that. I do believe that wide grip palms forward is a better back exercise but, any pullup or chinup will engage the back. Maybe with neutral or chin-up you leave 5% on the table. I am just guessing on the percent after all 5 out 4 people have trouble with fractions😂 @@brookswashere3400
@@UncleDanBand64 yeah, and I’m willing to trade that small percentage for better shoulder health . My outlook is to be strong till old age without any deformities .
I think if they are performed with good scap retraction, they will hither rear delts just fine. If done in the hollow body position and with protracted shoulders, I don't think so.
It probably depends on your individual genetics and leverages, as well as your form. There is research showing strong EMG amplitudes in the posterior Deltoids from pull ups and chin ups; enough to suggest a pretty good growth response. Personally, I feel like my rear delts are fine from pull ups/chin ups and some rows for assistance work.
If your pullup bar is short (I'm using a power tower), for the arched back pullups would you recommending bending knees behind you? I'm trying to make sure I don't load the lower back to much when doing these. I've noticed that I am not really getting that close to the bar when I try arching -- will just doing more attempts of arched back pullups get me there eventually, or should I add in some rows?
Hey D T! Yeah keep the knees bench and the hips extended. How much your arch the low back is going to be individual. The main thing is to make sure the thoracic spine is in extension, and how much lumbar extension it takes to facilitate that will vary. Yes. More attempts AND rows will help get you there. I really suggest lightening up the row intensity so that you develop the mind/muscle connection in the scap retractors. This made a big difference for me.
Find a bar (or similar - the average park/public playground will have something) that's low enough to sit or crouch under with your arms fully extended and do the various pull-ups like that, until you get stronger.
Hey boges, will supermans create enough of a stimulus for hypertrophy for an aesthetic lower back and like actually look decently impressive or will they just help/prevent back pain instead and not do much for hypertrophy
Hey I only have a pair of dip bars and some resistance bands. I can do push-up variations for chest and triceps, and then squats, lunges and calf raises for legs, but I try to do inverted rows for my back and I do bicep curls using resistance bands. Is this okay? I don’t have access to a Pull-up bar working out from home.
Yeah this is hard. Definitely lower body fat seems to be key but it's genetic how low you have to go. Some guys got a great genes and can keep higher levels of body fat and show the lower abs. Personally, I store all my fat in my midsection, and I have to be pretty lean to show them. You can see in my latest thumbnail I'm higher body fat and I lose that lower ab definition. Working on getting it back. Should have it shortly. To get there I upped my steps and dropped the desserts I was eating.
Hi K Boges, I am love love loving the content. I picked out a few things and that made a huge huge huge difference in my training from this channel. Thank you so much! When I first found this channel I made sure to watch all the videos and like them all and comment a little bit to help channel grow. It was at I think 30 something thousand subscribers at the time. I have a question for you. Do you have any tips on getting my lats to contract as well as yours?. I can get a great contraction if I round my thoracic however not so much in the position that shown in the thumbnail of this video with a straight spine. Looks to me like you're getting 100% lat contraction here. I hear all the guidance you say in this video that's all very helpful. Using all of this I seem to get a great contraction in rear delts, mid to lower trapezius, Teres, etc. however still could be better with lats.
Hey Kai! Thanks for the support and happy the content has resonated with you! Paused reps, chest up, with a wide grip. When I first tried these, I got a lat cramp the activation was so high. With my in-person clients, I will have them do these once their pull ups get strong, and frequently people will get lat cramps. If you aren't quite strong enough to do them, just keep building your pull ups strength and row (for scap retraction strength) and when they become accessible for you, your mind/muscle connection in the lats will develop tremendously.
@@Kbogeshonest question, just for the sake of numbers how would you start the rep x set count and till what rep X set count would you advise to go till after which it might start being counteractive?
Most of my training over my life has been calisthenics, but I have definitely lifted weights too. Hard to say what has built what, but pull ups have been probably 90% of my back gains. Deadlift never did anything for my back, unfortunately.
Personally, I found dead hangs to be magic for my shoulder. I would recommend looking into Dr. John Kirsch and the "Kauai Study" to see if it is applicable to you.
Greetings coach. I found your channel by luck and glad I did; your advices make sense to me unlike almost everything I heard about back development, for a start. Yeah that's my main priority "building my back", so.. what do you think about using resistance bands to get the first successful pullup? I ask because a year ago I used to pullup from zero to around 4 in 4 weeks. I was consistent but due to personal life changes I stopped training. Now Im trying again but struggling at 2nd rep no matter what I do, and I don't wanna give up.
Bands can be a good idea. I remember I did a lot of negative reps. Jump up and slowly lower yourself down. Even before I could do one pullup I would do sets of 10 negatives. Also do a few bounce pullups(that's what I call them. You hang off the bar and do an explosive calf raise to start you out of the bottom.
How does deadlift build you back? Isn’t it a hip-dominant movement? You are only pulling your shoulders downs for stability which engages the lats, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you are working the lats.
Yeah great points here! Deadlift is probably not the best lat builder; I would have a hard time thinking of an argument making that case. However it will train your spinal erectors, and a lot of the para-scapular muscles. But to return to the lats, they are going to get worked in the dead, but they are in the shortened position and the ROM is very small. However, the lats assist the spinal erectors in maintaining back extension, so they aren’t just acting on the bar to stabilizing it front to back, but also to keep the back in extension.
Usually with bear crawls. High hip bear crawls (forward and backward for 3-5 minutes straight) are one few exercises that gets both my traps and lateral dents very sore. It fires my traps so hard I've actually gotten cramps from them.
Kyle, for someone who is at a level where they can only do assisted pullups (via band or machine), how many sets/reps do you reccomend to get them to eventually do unassisted pullups?
@@Kboges there are gyms bro but very far away and its dangerous to walk to them, I used to live in the States all my life I was raised there but I had to move to Mexico and I miss how there used to be a gym in every corner down there haha
I have trouble with bodyweight rows. It's really difficult for me to not feel my biceps overworking during my sets. I've changed the grip, the thumb position, and so on, yet I still have difficulty
You could try doing them slower and focusing more on the mind muscle connection or doing them at the beginning of your workout so that your back muscles aren't fatigued and they are able to do most of the work. Hope this helps😊
While i dont necessarily chase reps and i start with the best form possible to me, i usually get so close to failure that the last 2 or 3 reps are done with poor form cuz I'm just hanging on. Is that a bad thing?
Don’t think I can do or tolerate pull ups due to everything especially overtraining 7 days a week for several years. Able to do full Asian squats everyday.
Hey man. I noticed that I have shoulder pain when doing pull ups or even chin ups. I think this is possibly due to me attempting a tucked planche and failed, and after I did this, I had some shoulder pain. What should I do? The pain won't even allow me to do scapular pull ups
please, what do you mean by it's not for max bodybuilding ? do you mean competition levels ?like,that bulky looking ? what results can I expect ? thanks in advance!
You can get in great physical shape, but it's not Bodybuilding. That's a separate discipline seeking to maximize muscle growth in particular proportions.
So you say you developed a 500lb deadlift, unless that was hyperbole; wouldn’t that affect your back development forever (since as long that you stay active, muscle is very easy to maintain)? Particularly in the spinal erector region, i have doubts that you would be able to develop an impressive back with only calisthenics, and I wonder if your previous weight training experience combined with calisthenics is why your back is so aesthetic
Yeah it’s a good question. I’ve always had a strong back- did 21 pull ups the first time I tried in middle school. I could deadlift 3 plates very shortly after learning the lift. However, when I trained the deadlift, I trained it for very low volume (a single set per week) and did not gain much back size from it at all. My glutes and hamstrings definitely developed but my back didn’t blow up. I remember thinking that when I could deadlift 500, I would be totally jacked, and I really wasn’t; I was just fatter from a constant calorie surplus to drive my bw up. I do think my spinal erectors were bigger then for sure, but my lats, traps etc were not. I just wasn’t training them with enough ROM and volume to drive good hypertrophy gains. I do think I could develop a very aesthetic back without ever lifting though. But for erectors, you really need some dedicated work, but back extensions on a glute ham developer could do that safely and without a barbell.
Slow negative and slow positive has done me wonders! I avoided pronated grip be cause I wanted big Bis buttt you make a great point. Do you think Biceps are in a dangerous position when at the bottom of the pull up. A respected author commented that it puts them in a precarious position where they could rip. Great vid!
Totally agree! Even if tempo has no effect on muscle growth as some claim (and I'm not sure the current state of the literature reflects the whole picture), this misses how changing tempo can positively impact mind muscle connection, which we know can result in more growth. And yeah, for bigger biceps, the supinated grip is key!! Great question! I think "dangerous" is relative and the risks will almost certainly be higher for some than others . In all of my years training, I have never seen a biceps injury from chin ups, and I have only heard of 1 in all my life (sustained from heavy weighted chins, and I only heard about this on the internet). I consider straight arm work (like planches and back levers) significantly more dangerous and risky for most folks, and require special prep before training these. I'm not gonna say chin ups don't carry any risk to the biceps, because I think every exercises carries some risk with it, but I think in the real world, legitimate biceps tears from chin ups are exceptionally rare, especially when compared to biceps injuries from deadlifting and straight arm calisthenics/gymnastics training. However, if someone had a history of biceps tendon injuries, I would approach weighted chin ups cautiously and back of if I felt any soreness or pain that didn't feel muscular in nature. Thanks for the feedback and the thoughtful question!
slow movements and stop chasing reps.With full range of motion. Good solid tips bro. Thank you. This was informative and motivational as well! killer back man.
Thanks man, I appreciate the support!
He has the berserk guts back! I gonna try this
@@Kboges could this same thought process be applied to weight lifting as well?
@@bakedpotato3306 yes.
The symmetry, the definition, the strength! Wow! Every fibre showing up perfect. Great advice man.
Killer back my man. One of the best backs I've ever seen
That's an amazing compliment, Empty! Thank you!
I don't recall ever seeing such a beautifully muscled back as is on display at the top of your pull ups. OMG it is virtually an anatomical drawing in the flesh! Your physique is uncanny!
Wow, thank you, Marc!
you feel 100 percent authentic to me and it feels really pleasant
Thank you. I appreciate that very much.
Welcome back coach!!! I totally agree... rep chasing is a common mistake calisthenics athletes often make. love your stuff man. keep up the good work.
Thank you Abdul! Yeah it took me a LONG time to figure that out lol
"welcome back" I see what u did there
Clear, concise explanations. Clear, practicable tips. This series is excellent. It is obvious that you have done plenty of research and preparation for your videos. Just great.
Thank you, Miriami! I'm glad you enjoyed!
Super intelligent and wise stuff, man.
Thanks Stephen! I appreciate the feedback.
That Baki Demon-Faced-Back tho.
LOL that's awesome. Thank LuTzu
Thanks for entertaining my nonsense! Love the channel.
Best Calisthenic UA-cam Channel
This man is underrated. Subscribed at second video
Thank you!
Can you please do a lesson on Hollow Core Hold?
Form improvement + core conditioning + mind muscle connection
The body shapes exactly like a pullup when doing.
"No perseguir números, sino la conexión músculo-mente"...Gran enseñanza!! Excelente video, con muy valiosa información!!!!
Muchas Gracias!
Another good informative video. Less is more definitely when it comes to quality reps 💪🏿💪🏿💪🏿
Thanks man! Absolutely!
Beautiful back, I like your approach to calisthenics. I learn a lot from you.
I swear this guy lives in paradise
😂😂
Where he lives bro thats really awesme
great video
Thanks, Rush!
Man this video is amazing. Clean, easy to understand format from a veteran himself. Thank you
Your content is gold 👌
Thank you, Stanley. I appreciate it!
Love this channel
So much info. Thanks
what i noticed when i started doing this is not focusing on reps and counting but focusing on breathing like yoga. if you do good powerful reps you will get to a point where you start breathing really heavily. thats the time to take a break. i hate counting. it takes me out of it.. the first time i did it i was really sore for a few days and really felt the change. then later i didnt feel much and thought the reps werent doing anything. then i just did a few sets and then i felt it again. just do the sets and it will make progress.
Enfin des vidéos de qualités pour une qualité des mouvements. Un grand bravo Monsieur pour votre expériences et savoir. 💪😄
Excellent context, thank you for another great video.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed!
Hey Kyle you inspire me. You convey succinct knowledge, and your videos prove that you've developed an absolutely shredded physique via clear mastery of these movements. It's time I start doing pullups instead of chinups. When I train I always remind myself to slow the reps and expand the range of motion. Thank you for that knowledge Sir. The rings intrigue me, too. Have never considered them until I watched your videos. Bearcrawls are absolute torture and I am amazed to see you championing them. What a great movement though I shudder to think of doing them.
I currently avg. 400 chinups and 800 pushups per week. Do you think this is a healthy ratio?
Hahaha I love it, Michael!
I think your ratio of chin ups to pull ups is excellent. As long as you are making steady improvement in form, movement quality, and proficiency, feeling recovered, and motivated, you are doing it right! Well done, brother! Keep it up and let me know if you ever have any questions.
I’m new to your channel. I love this "aesthetics" conversation. Nice calisthenics motivation. Thanks for your video. 🔥🔥🔥 Let’s stay connected.
Thank you. I appreciate the feedback. Sounds good!
woah. he got the batman logo popping out on his back with the shoulder width pullups
😂😂
This guy is a mixture of a professional athlete and Albert Einstein, damn it...
😂 you are too kind, Mea!🙏
Although you explain that rows can be beneficial, can pull-ups(or any similar vertical pulling pattern like lat-pulldowns) be enough to build both the lats and traps? If yes, would you also say that only doing vertical pulls could be enough to balance both horizontal and vertical pressing, to prevent muscle imbalances?
Thanks again!
quality over quantity
good job my man , short vid and straight to the point
Epic advice.
tremendous value
Amazing
Thank you!
Any set rep scheme recommendations for Pull ups and Rows. Amazing content though!
Thank you!
A lot of it depends on your training experience. For beginners, I recommending staying higher reps of rows (generally 8+) so that they get more time to build motor patterns while building muscle. For experienced people who have a good level of strength, all rep ranges can be useful, but I still like to do the majority of my training with high reps.
@@Kboges Thank you good Sir.
@@AbhishekSingh-ip3xe My Pleasure!
Thank you!
Back is shredded👍💪
Though rows don’t put the lats through full range of motion, I agree with your point and think it’s still important to do them as a way to target the lats at different angles,
if you look at anatomical pictures of the latisimus, you can see that not all of them align with the vertial pulling movement of the pullup. Especially those higher up on the back.
One argument that’s for completely forsaking rows altogether is that when you can do 20+ pullups, why bother with rows anymore, I think they should still be performed regardless of how “easy” they become. Do they completely forsake the pushup for the dip when the pushup gets too easy?
I agree 100%. I think rows are tremendously aludel for what they do- they are the perfect light day pulling exercise (less ROM and poor strength curve = easy recovery), they hit the lats differently, and are excellent for scap retractors. My issue with rows is really with how people train them in the calisthenics world- often times trying to overload them to the point where the ROM is reduced further, they get "arm pulled" with no scap retraction, and heavily cheated. I look at it like a great assistance move for the pull up and as an assistance exercise, I'm not really into pushing it at the expense of losing it's delicate form.
weaker rear delts and rotary cuffs and bad posture; that's why you still need to do them. it's like saying; "I can do 20+ handstand pushups, why bother doing pushups?"
🔥landed, hiii spirit, thanks🔥⚡⚡
Hello! I’m a big fan of your videos. I recently started working out two months ago. But full pullups is still kind of difficult for me, and I can only do around 2-3 before I fail. Do you have any recommendations for what I can do to build myself up for a wide grip pullup?
Thanks!
Back muscles look 👌 great vid
Hey man been watching your videos for a while, really enjoying the content simple and straight to the point, I am currently deloading and I am considering trying out the full body approach after years of doing pull, push legs or upperbody / lowerbody. I have purchased weight plates from 2. 5 lbs 5 lbs and 10 lbs and I have total of 50lbs when combined, I want to start weighted calisthenics but I will start with 5 lbs and stay there for a set period ( saw this in Dominik Sky on his vid about weighted calisthenics ) I will focus on time under tension really squeezing the muscle group I am training, with that said could I train with this method daily or should I do days wherein I just do bodyweight and how often to you change the exercise variations to ensure that each plain is well trained ( vertical / horizontal push and pull as well as legs ) as I really want to focus on some lagging areas in my upperbody like my arms and traps ?
Thank you!
These are excellent questions and I could probably make a video addressing these in the future...
1) Yes you can train weighted calisthenics daily, but just like all daily training, I would suggest making sure you are not doing too much volume, too much intensity, or training to failure excessively.
2) You can definitely vary the training load daily to allow for more recovery, since different intensities are fatiguing in different way. This is a strong point of Daily Undulating Periodization models, and something I have played around with in the past. It can work super well! For instance, you can have an unweighted pull up day, a weighted pull up day, and then an unweighted row day, and repeat this cycle.
3) I'm less concerned about training planes than many other people. I'm primarily interested in looking at exercises, the muscles they train, and the strength curve/resistance curve of the exercise. I find vertical pulling, done as I often describe it, to be incredibly productive for mid/lower trap development. Rows, I much prefer to treat as an accessory movement, since it is less stressful (moves through less ROM), has a poor resistance curve for strength development, but can be useful for additional volume for the traps without hammering the lats as hard. I never train rows for strength, but just use them as an opportunity to further strength mind/muscle connection in the scap retractors/depressors.
4) Hammer chins (supinated grip) for the biceps, making sure you get a good squeeze in them. For traps, upper traps specifically, high hip bear crawls have done wonders for me, as have shallow pike push ups (I'll be showing these in a future video). Rows with your feet above your hands will also recruit upper traps to a significant degree.
K boges thanks for the reply man, really helpful stuff, it really good if you scale the exercise and not really work to failure on somedays but you are strict when it comes to the execution, but on somedays you go all out and maybe let a few reps be hard grinders a hard rep where to struggle to finish the end range of motion. This is good since I was had golfers elbow for doing the 100 pullups for 30 days as well as shoulder and sternum from doing dips, I am happy to say that the elbow pain is healed , but the shoulder and sternum pain is still lingering which is why with your approach I can ease in my way to do dips. I do want to ask three final questions, when you had shoulder issues how did you train your vertical pushing, did you only do straight bar dips, pike pushups, half rom dips etc and what are mobility drills you did to strengthen the weak links? And lastly do you include direct hamstring work on your training like glute ham raises ( like the ones from fitness faqs ) as well as glute bridges ( like the ones from Red Delta Project ) or deadlifts because the thing with BW training is that quad dominance is a real thing and not training the posterior chain really exposes the bodies weaknesses as well as having a higher risk for injury when doing sports which involve heavy movement of the legs ( like the NFL, NBA etc ) ? It would be nice to have a day dedicated to those parts to for better training longevity.
In video one of this series, 10-20 sets of chin ups a week are recommended for bicep growth. Could you also do an additional 10-20 sets of pull ups in that week to train your back or would those interfere too much? How would you program it? Thanks for the video.
Awesome video as always! What are your thoughts on crossing the legs while doing pull-ups? My legs naturally cross and I feel more comfortable that way but I see some people are against it because it rotates the pelvis and causes muscular imbalances. I see you are doing it as well.
Hey Kerem! This is a great question and one I've gotten a few times.
Your experience is fairly common. I'm not totally convinced that this is as problematic as some claim. I do a mix of both crossed legs and straight legs, and haven't found an issue with it for myself or my clients. That being said, I'm open to hearing arguments supporting the claim. I haven't heard a convincing explanation yet, or seen accompanying proof, detailing the mechanisms for how this would have a significant impact on muscular imbalances. If you think about whats going on there though, the only real difference between the legs when crossed is a few degrees of knee flexion, and this shouldn't affect the load on the upper body because the legs are stacked in line with the pull of gravity.
Without getting into the merits and limitations of EMG, I would be very surprised if the leg crossed position had any detectable difference on muscle activation of the prime movers, and if it did, I would be even more surprised if this was significant. I could totally be wrong though- I'm just speculating, and I would actually really like to see this investigated. Again, I have no proof for this. Just going by gut here.
Plus, even assuming it does result in significant asymmetrical loading, simply switching legs each set would conceivably resolve the issue. Right?
What are your thoughts?
@@Kboges I agree with you and I haven't seen any effects because of crossing legs. But I'm not knowledgeable in muscle anatomy like you and I try to be safe than sorry later. So I'm trying to fix it.
@@keremkaya6915 That makes sense! Let me know how it goes and if you experience any impact form the change.
@@Kboges Will do! Keep up the good work.
@@keremkaya6915 Thank you. You as well!
Hey mate, I’m new to all of this and I’m struggling to understand when to breath during these exercises, both push-ups and pull ups. I find I keep holding my breath out the whole time, as per Wim Hof Method exercises.
Kind regards,
Nicko
I absolutely love pull-ups but for this reason I've often neglected rows, actually I've done mostly vertical pulling throughout my calisthenics journey. And I feel as a consequence of this, I have very underdeveloped rear delts and back thickness in general.
So would you recommend me focussing more on rows for the time being, or should I do a little bit of them every session?
Yes, that would be a great application. Don't neglect continuing to strengthen your pull ups, but add in additional row volume to target your scap retractors. You can also use them to develop the arched back pull up, which might be the best overall calisthenics back exercise.
@@Kboges thanks man, appreciate that a lot!
Low adipose tissue percentage is key and thats what you are blessed with
Yeah that's a great point. Low body fat, or a genetically favorable distribution makes you look significantly bigger than you really are.
that's a demon back right there !
Thank you, Cooldev!
What if I can’t do a single pull-up?
Amazing back 🫡
Wow.top notch content. You've literally made me want to forget everything i've known about training. Your approach seems so sustainable. However am. Lost concerning the daily scheduling of the number of sets and reps and how to structure an exercise protocol. Any help about this
Love the pullup! I only do neutral grip. It is just easier on my shoulders. I do reverse bent-over flies to kind of supplement the rear delts. I am thinking about getting into the rings. That way I can just kinda glide into the best hand position for my shoulders. I guess my question would be....am I leaving much on the table by only doing neutral grip pulls?
I also started doing neutral grip because of same reason. I think it’s all about proper technique , because regardless of grip, they will always work your full back
Yes, I agree with that. I do believe that wide grip palms forward is a better back exercise but, any pullup or chinup will engage the back. Maybe with neutral or chin-up you leave 5% on the table. I am just guessing on the percent after all 5 out 4 people have trouble with fractions😂 @@brookswashere3400
@@UncleDanBand64 yeah, and I’m willing to trade that small percentage for better shoulder health . My outlook is to be strong till old age without any deformities .
Yes sir. I am already old but, in the best health of my life or at least the best I remember.@@brookswashere3400
Do pullups hit the rear delts enough for growth or are they more of a stabilizer during the movement?
I think if they are performed with good scap retraction, they will hither rear delts just fine. If done in the hollow body position and with protracted shoulders, I don't think so.
good question Cain, was wondering the same thing myself
It probably depends on your individual genetics and leverages, as well as your form. There is research showing strong EMG amplitudes in the posterior Deltoids from pull ups and chin ups; enough to suggest a pretty good growth response. Personally, I feel like my rear delts are fine from pull ups/chin ups and some rows for assistance work.
If your pullup bar is short (I'm using a power tower), for the arched back pullups would you recommending bending knees behind you? I'm trying to make sure I don't load the lower back to much when doing these.
I've noticed that I am not really getting that close to the bar when I try arching -- will just doing more attempts of arched back pullups get me there eventually, or should I add in some rows?
Hey D T! Yeah keep the knees bench and the hips extended. How much your arch the low back is going to be individual. The main thing is to make sure the thoracic spine is in extension, and how much lumbar extension it takes to facilitate that will vary.
Yes. More attempts AND rows will help get you there. I really suggest lightening up the row intensity so that you develop the mind/muscle connection in the scap retractors. This made a big difference for me.
@@Kboges Thanks! I'll try and work in some thoracic extension and rotation drills in addition to rows with scap retraction.
@@tvboxify Sounds good! Let me know how it goes!
Can you get the timestamps in every video,would be easy btw appreciate the content
I cannot pull up yet. What else can I do for my back for now
Find a bar (or similar - the average park/public playground will have something) that's low enough to sit or crouch under with your arms fully extended and do the various pull-ups like that, until you get stronger.
Very nice back design 🌹
Thank you!
@@Kboges you're welcome man 💪
When I fully stretch at the bottom I always injur my left shoulder. I used to enjoy doing these now can only do bands
Hey boges, will supermans create enough of a stimulus for hypertrophy for an aesthetic lower back and like actually look decently impressive or will they just help/prevent back pain instead and not do much for hypertrophy
Hey I only have a pair of dip bars and some resistance bands. I can do push-up variations for chest and triceps, and then squats, lunges and calf raises for legs, but I try to do inverted rows for my back and I do bicep curls using resistance bands. Is this okay? I don’t have access to a Pull-up bar working out from home.
Boges what do you recommend for revealing the last 2 lower abs. Also thanks for letting me know the proper form my reps cut down by 4
Yeah this is hard. Definitely lower body fat seems to be key but it's genetic how low you have to go. Some guys got a great genes and can keep higher levels of body fat and show the lower abs. Personally, I store all my fat in my midsection, and I have to be pretty lean to show them. You can see in my latest thumbnail I'm higher body fat and I lose that lower ab definition. Working on getting it back. Should have it shortly. To get there I upped my steps and dropped the desserts I was eating.
Hi K Boges, I am love love loving the content. I picked out a few things and that made a huge huge huge difference in my training from this channel. Thank you so much! When I first found this channel I made sure to watch all the videos and like them all and comment a little bit to help channel grow. It was at I think 30 something thousand subscribers at the time.
I have a question for you. Do you have any tips on getting my lats to contract as well as yours?. I can get a great contraction if I round my thoracic however not so much in the position that shown in the thumbnail of this video with a straight spine. Looks to me like you're getting 100% lat contraction here.
I hear all the guidance you say in this video that's all very helpful. Using all of this I seem to get a great contraction in rear delts, mid to lower trapezius, Teres, etc. however still could be better with lats.
Hey Kai! Thanks for the support and happy the content has resonated with you!
Paused reps, chest up, with a wide grip. When I first tried these, I got a lat cramp the activation was so high. With my in-person clients, I will have them do these once their pull ups get strong, and frequently people will get lat cramps. If you aren't quite strong enough to do them, just keep building your pull ups strength and row (for scap retraction strength) and when they become accessible for you, your mind/muscle connection in the lats will develop tremendously.
@@Kboges Ok thank you!!!
@@Kboges Wow it worked! Full Lat activation, thank you !!!! Now my back look like Michael Phelps!!
@@kaisnow7661 Crazy, right? You can build an incredible min/muscle connection with that.
@@Kbogeshonest question, just for the sake of numbers how would you start the rep x set count and till what rep X set count would you advise to go till after which it might start being counteractive?
Do you wrap your thumb under the bar or over the bar?
what your opinion about scapular pullups?
How many pullup reps x sets would you recommend hitting per week? Great content as always 👍🏻
do you have your thumbs over the bar? is there any difference compared to the regular grip?
When doing pull ups, I can feel more of the right side of my back working more, than the left side. What can I do to fix this?
New to your channel , did you build your physique with calisthenics?
Most of my training over my life has been calisthenics, but I have definitely lifted weights too. Hard to say what has built what, but pull ups have been probably 90% of my back gains. Deadlift never did anything for my back, unfortunately.
What to do if one have shoulder impingement? Is dead hang good for fixing the shoulders?
Personally, I found dead hangs to be magic for my shoulder. I would recommend looking into Dr. John Kirsch and the "Kauai Study" to see if it is applicable to you.
Greetings coach. I found your channel by luck and glad I did; your advices make sense to me unlike almost everything I heard about back development, for a start. Yeah that's my main priority "building my back", so.. what do you think about using resistance bands to get the first successful pullup?
I ask because a year ago I used to pullup from zero to around 4 in 4 weeks. I was consistent but due to personal life changes I stopped training. Now Im trying again but struggling at 2nd rep no matter what I do, and I don't wanna give up.
Bands can be a good idea. I remember I did a lot of negative reps. Jump up and slowly lower yourself down. Even before I could do one pullup I would do sets of 10 negatives. Also do a few bounce pullups(that's what I call them. You hang off the bar and do an explosive calf raise to start you out of the bottom.
How does deadlift build you back? Isn’t it a hip-dominant movement? You are only pulling your shoulders downs for stability which engages the lats, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you are working the lats.
Yeah great points here! Deadlift is probably not the best lat builder; I would have a hard time thinking of an argument making that case. However it will train your spinal erectors, and a lot of the para-scapular muscles. But to return to the lats, they are going to get worked in the dead, but they are in the shortened position and the ROM is very small. However, the lats assist the spinal erectors in maintaining back extension, so they aren’t just acting on the bar to stabilizing it front to back, but also to keep the back in extension.
Towel and rings pullup is the best ...
For back
How do you train your lateral shoulder head and traps?
Usually with bear crawls. High hip bear crawls (forward and backward for 3-5 minutes straight) are one few exercises that gets both my traps and lateral dents very sore. It fires my traps so hard I've actually gotten cramps from them.
I've heard that the superman can be bad for the lower back as it creates a lot of compression in the spine. Thoughts?
Superman exercise: you train for time or just hold the position till close to failure like the rest of exercises?
What about Training back after biceps get fatigue??
Kyle, for someone who is at a level where they can only do assisted pullups (via band or machine), how many sets/reps do you reccomend to get them to eventually do unassisted pullups?
How do you split body parts? Do you do full body every day? Or do you use a push pull legs or bro split type of routine ? Thanks love the content
Thank you!
I do full body daily. This is my favorite approach and what has worked the best for me.
I miss pull ups, I live in Mexico and there is literally no gyms no where to work out its so annoying lol
Ahh sorry to hear that. Maybe get a pair of rings?
@@Kboges there are gyms bro but very far away and its dangerous to walk to them, I used to live in the States all my life I was raised there but I had to move to Mexico and I miss how there used to be a gym in every corner down there haha
I have trouble with bodyweight rows. It's really difficult for me to not feel my biceps overworking during my sets. I've changed the grip, the thumb position, and so on, yet I still have difficulty
You could try doing them slower and focusing more on the mind muscle connection or doing them at the beginning of your workout so that your back muscles aren't fatigued and they are able to do most of the work. Hope this helps😊
Focus on pulling your elbows down instead of curling. Make sure your forearm stays in line with the strap
Keep your chest high and forward. Cueing is to squeeze the scapula toward the spine (retraction).
Duck
Thanks man
I really want to get good at pull ups just can't get the technique. Down
While i dont necessarily chase reps and i start with the best form possible to me, i usually get so close to failure that the last 2 or 3 reps are done with poor form cuz I'm just hanging on. Is that a bad thing?
Don’t think I can do or tolerate pull ups due to everything especially overtraining 7 days a week for several years. Able to do full Asian squats everyday.
How many sets/reps ? And should i do only pull ups in the back day ?
Depends on how many days you are training and how many sets you are shooting for each week.
Hey man. I noticed that I have shoulder pain when doing pull ups or even chin ups. I think this is possibly due to me attempting a tucked planche and failed, and after I did this, I had some shoulder pain. What should I do? The pain won't even allow me to do scapular pull ups
Stop doing pull-ups and Rehab your shoulder until you can do them without pain
Man what is your body fat percentage in this video
About 10%
👍💪💯🏋♀️
Es la espalda del tunometecabra
Sir with all due respect do you only train cal? Or do you add weight to body weight exercises?
Mostly BW, but occasionally weighted calisthenics.
How many times a week should i do these?
On pull ups - do you go chin above bar or chest touching? I find I can only do chest touching if I use explosive strength
I go chest touch ideally, but will stop my set if my chin fails to clear the bar.
Does the super man actually build muscle in the erectors
hey k boges i cannot do more than 3 rep in pull ups.any tips?
Check out pull up:unlocked on my website. It's free and will get you to where you need to go!
I do backrows because i am too overweight to be able to do a pullup. What alternative exercise can I do to train the Lats?
I think rows are a great place to start. I recommend getting really good at them, leaning out, and pull ups will come all on their own!
@@Kboges thanks!
please, what do you mean by it's not for max bodybuilding ? do you mean competition levels ?like,that bulky looking ? what results can I expect ? thanks in advance!
You can get in great physical shape, but it's not Bodybuilding. That's a separate discipline seeking to maximize muscle growth in particular proportions.
So you say you developed a 500lb deadlift, unless that was hyperbole; wouldn’t that affect your back development forever (since as long that you stay active, muscle is very easy to maintain)?
Particularly in the spinal erector region, i have doubts that you would be able to develop an impressive back with only calisthenics, and I wonder if your previous weight training experience combined with calisthenics is why your back is so aesthetic
Yeah it’s a good question. I’ve always had a strong back- did 21 pull ups the first time I tried in middle school. I could deadlift 3 plates very shortly after learning the lift. However, when I trained the deadlift, I trained it for very low volume (a single set per week) and did not gain much back size from it at all. My glutes and hamstrings definitely developed but my back didn’t blow up. I remember thinking that when I could deadlift 500, I would be totally jacked, and I really wasn’t; I was just fatter from a constant calorie surplus to drive my bw up. I do think my spinal erectors were bigger then for sure, but my lats, traps etc were not. I just wasn’t training them with enough ROM and volume to drive good hypertrophy gains. I do think I could develop a very aesthetic back without ever lifting though. But for erectors, you really need some dedicated work, but back extensions on a glute ham developer could do that safely and without a barbell.
When doing pronated pullups, are you always a thumb on top of the bar guy?
Not always but usually.
Slow negative and slow positive has done me wonders! I avoided pronated grip be cause I wanted big Bis buttt you make a great point.
Do you think Biceps are in a dangerous position when at the bottom of the pull up. A respected author commented that it puts them in a precarious position where they could rip.
Great vid!
Totally agree! Even if tempo has no effect on muscle growth as some claim (and I'm not sure the current state of the literature reflects the whole picture), this misses how changing tempo can positively impact mind muscle connection, which we know can result in more growth. And yeah, for bigger biceps, the supinated grip is key!!
Great question! I think "dangerous" is relative and the risks will almost certainly be higher for some than others . In all of my years training, I have never seen a biceps injury from chin ups, and I have only heard of 1 in all my life (sustained from heavy weighted chins, and I only heard about this on the internet). I consider straight arm work (like planches and back levers) significantly more dangerous and risky for most folks, and require special prep before training these. I'm not gonna say chin ups don't carry any risk to the biceps, because I think every exercises carries some risk with it, but I think in the real world, legitimate biceps tears from chin ups are exceptionally rare, especially when compared to biceps injuries from deadlifting and straight arm calisthenics/gymnastics training. However, if someone had a history of biceps tendon injuries, I would approach weighted chin ups cautiously and back of if I felt any soreness or pain that didn't feel muscular in nature.
Thanks for the feedback and the thoughtful question!
2:21
you look like a hero from anime