When most people think about getting in shape they immediately think of weight training and cardio, however the truth is that there's no better way to get your training started than a well designed beginner calisthenics workout routine. I know this because I spent several years training hard with … [Read more...] about Beginner Calisthenics Workout Routine for Muscle Gains
Being skinny-fat means that you lack upper body muscle mass while having excess body-fat in the lower waist, chest and hips. Compared to other guys, skinny-fat guys gain muscle mass at a much slower rate and we gain fat just by "looking at food". It's not uncommon for skinny-fat guys to train … [Read more...] about Bodyweight Training for the Skinny-Fat Guy [2020]
I often get asked about why I recommend weighted bodyweight exercises for skinny-fat guys rather than weight training? Shouldn’t weight training exercises produce a superior result since most guys at the gym do weight training? In my experience, no, and in this post I will explain why weighted … [Read more...] about Why Weighted Bodyweight Exercises Are Superior To Their Weight Training Equivalents
Several years ago, a young guy named Harshit Godha emailed me to join my 1 year physique transformation program. He started out skinny-fat and wanted to build a summer body like the one pictured below, in just 50 days. After making a comprehensive assessment of Harshit Godha's physique, I … [Read more...] about Skinny-Fat Success Story: They Didn’t Think I Could Get A Summer Body, But I Did!
When you start your fitness journey it's easy to get the idea that you need weight training to build a muscular physique. But that is wrong. Plenty of people have built muscular physiques with the use of basic calisthenics exercises such as chin ups and diamond push ups. The main benefit of … [Read more...] about How to Get Muscular with Calisthenics: 6 Proven Strategies to Accelerate Your Gains
Most of you can perform sets of 20+ regular push ups with ease and this makes the push up useless for strength and muscle building, since it's too easy. 20+ reps will mostly build endurance since the upper body responds best to 8-20 reps for muscle building. In contrast, the diamond push up … [Read more...] about How to Build the Beach Muscles with Diamond Push Ups
Note: Mike Joplin has sadly passed away on 29 November 2017 at age 72. (Full details here). I'm sending my condolences to his family and loved ones. In the mid 1960's a young US NAVY medic named Mike Joplin was stationed in Puerto Rico (Roosevelt Roads: aka - Roosey Roads). Like most young … [Read more...] about 50 Years of Pull Ups: A Story About Mike Joplin
One day I went to a calisthenics facility near my apartment and met two guys who were doing handstand push ups, muscle ups and levers. I was impressed by their strength, so I chatted them up. They had a calisthenics group here in Copenhagen and invited me for their training sessions. During … [Read more...] about How To Get Your First Muscle Up
