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
Recently, a young guy named Harshit Godha emailed me to join my 1 year physique transformation program. He 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 told him that it will take about 6 … [Read more...] about They Didn’t Think I Could Get A Summer Body, But I Did! (Indian Skinny-Fat Success Story)
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 for … [Read more...] about Bodyweight Training for the Skinny-Fat Guy
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
At the end of 2011 I made the switch to bodyweight training. My first routine consisted of chin ups, diamond push ups and single legged squats. However, after doing diamond push ups for over 8 months my body stopped responding to it, therefore I had to find a way to progress. At the time I … [Read more...] about How to Learn Handstand Push Ups in 6 steps (and a routine)
The picture above shows Skinny-Fat Transformation reader, Ron. He looks proud in that picture, and that's not without reason. Today, Ron turned 62 years old (happy birthday!), and recently he performed a personal best of 17 chin-ups. That's a feat most men never accomplish, yet Ron did it at age 62 … [Read more...] about 17 Chin-Ups at Age 62 – What’s Your Excuse?
