Previous Chapter ... ... Next Chapter
The programs included in this book are examples to give you an idea of what your created routine could look like. Don't use these routines verbatim; instead follow them as guidelines and modify them to fit your own goals, recovery factors, and to allow room for other activities you enjoy. The goal of Overcoming Gravity is to teach you how to construct effective routines to progress you toward your personal goals. If you use the examples offered verbatim, you are missing the point-you must learn to schedule your own routines to fit your own life. Never take advice blindly-there may be something that works better for you!
It is common for some athletes to come in with a flexibility or skill deficit despite having the strength to execute some high-level strength movements (especially in the context of handstands). Athletes with a weight-lifting background and those who participare in sports at a competitive level will find this to be the case. Not everyone has developed their strength and flexibility to be uniform across the board on the provided strength and progression charts. This is normal.
The area(s) where you are lacking could be the place where you make the most progress, provided that comparable amounts of time are invested on all aspects of development. Working your strengths is good, but it is also important to bring up weaknesses, work on flexibility, and ensure your skills are uniform between push and pull exercises. This will help you remain injury-free. The ambition for developing higher-level straight-arm isometrics routed through the skill and strength-skill movements like handstands and straightarm press handstands will pay dividends later in your training.
You may find that you progress with certain techniques or exercises much more quickly than with others, given your own abilities and anthropometry (limb lengths). You can approach this either by decreasing the overall volume of these exercises or playing to your strengths. Make sure that you keep yourself structurally balanced.
The material in this chapter will show you how to modify material that was presented earlier into a coherent routine that works for you. The focus will be on helping you select proper exercises, frequency, volume,
and repetition schemes for your own workouts. Think of the earlier chapters as puzzle pieces and these next four chapters as those pieces coming together to form a clear picture.
Regarding notation-example routines will be written in several different notations. You must develop the ability to read various routine notations, since different coaches and athletes use different types of notations. Sometimes the notation will read exercise: sets x reps; other times, sets x reps of exercise. There are many variations.
To review, here are general needs of the rank or untrained beginner:
At the lowest levels of ability, your aim should be to develop basic strength, prepare the joints for upcoming levels of ability, and gain mobility, especially in the shoulder girdle, back, and hips. Most untrained beginners are new to the world of exercise or have not exercised in some time. Other populations that may fit into this category are athletes of advanced age, those who have previous injuries, or those with such busy schedules they cannot dedicate much time to exercise.
If you are new to organized exercise, you will need a plan that starts you off slowly so your body can prepare for the rigors of exercise. Here is a list of goals from the sample routine in Chapter 5. These are arbitrary goals, selected as hypothetical examples to show you how to progress using a routine. You will select your own list of goals.
Sample Goals
These are target goals; a beginner must work their way up to them. At this stage, upper-level goals like back levers, front levers, planches, and other isometrics should not be part of your routine. You must first develop strength in the basics and perform high-repetition work coupled with mobility in order to prepare your joints and connective tissues adequately.
Practice the exercises and next progressions at this skill level on the strength and skill progression charts. In the range of Level 1-4, you will notice that there are only a few exercises that go down to Level 1-2. At these levels, you will focus primarily on fundamental upper-body exercises like wall handstands, lower-level L-sit progressions, pushups, pull-ups, dips, and rows. The rest of your routine will reflect this. (see strength work)
Warm-Up
Let's talk about the bloodflow portion of the warm-up first. For untrained beginners, burpees with a pushup (start standing, squat down, pushup position, pushup, squat position, end with a jump) may actually take away from your workout if they are too intense. Squat thrusts might be a better option to increase your heart rate and kick-start blood flow. If you are very new to exercise or out of shape and have not yet reached Level 1, I recommend employing a different exercise, such as jumping rope, jumping jacks, or light jogging.
Mobility should be tailored for the individual based on their needs and goals. The mobility section of the sample routine currently lists wrist circles, shoulder circles, bodyweight squats, sixty seconds of support hold work, and five German hangs. This may not be enough mobility work for an individual who is untrained or out of shape. If you have any range of motion issues or previous injuries, you need to perform more mobility work for those areas. Wrist circles usually work great for warming up your wrists. However, individuals who regularly use computers and/or those with tight wrists from a previous injury might need an extensive wrist warm-up that could include:
This is just mobility work for the wrist. There are plenty of other mobility exercises for the elbows, shoulders, scapular, back, and legs that can be used depending on which parts of your body feel tight. As a beginner, it can be very helpful to have a light mobility or stretching routine to perform on rest days. Mobility work can be time-consuming; if the amount of mobility work your joints need is too much to perform with a workout, put it all in a single routine for your rest day. This will enable you to work less mobility on your workout days so that you have more time with skill building.
Keep in mind that mobility work will be beneficial in the long run. Lower-level flexibility and joint work will get your joints used to moving to end range of motion without a lot of weight on them and this will
prepare them to handle heavier loads down the road. This will be essential when you progress with your exercises. (such as when moving from standard handstands to one-arm handstands).
Positional drills will also be quite useful in the long run, as they will help you maintain correct body positioning while performing more difficult exercises. You should perform positional drills now, at this low skill level, so you have time to get used to maincaining body tension when connecting the exercises, critical for performing more advanced bodyweight exercises correctly. You can phase out positional drills as you become stronger and more versed in correct technique, but they are vital in the beginning. The plank, side planks, reverse (stomach up) plank, and hollow/arch holds are good for learning proper body positioning. If you are learning a sports discipline that requires specific body positioning training (like martial arts or dance) this is a good place in your workout to practice those positions as well.
Skill Work
This is the only skill work that I recommend for untrained beginners unless you are specifically training for a sport or discipline that requires more. The time above includes rest times. You may only be inverted for five to ten seconds during the first few sets. With a minute or two of rest between sets, your total accumulation of handstand time may only end up being thirty to forty-five seconds. As you become stronger, this number may increase to sixty seconds or longer.
Handstand work is tough on the wrists, especially if you do not have much practice supporting your bodyweight on your wrists. Counteract this by performing additional mobility work, but if your wrists still feel weak, it is likely that handstand work may have to be decreased. You may end up only practicing handstands for thirty seconds each workout for your first few months of training until your wrists are conditioned enough to allow you to practice more. This is fine. Do not be worry if you have to take handstands or any other exercises slower if your wrists or any other joint(s) are limiting you. It is better to build up slowly and stay healthy than aggravate your joints and end up performing prehabilitation or rehabilitation work. In the long run, you will progress faster by starting slower.
Strength Work
This is an example of a basic routine focused on improving strength in the categories of vertical pushing, horizontal pushing, vertical pulling, and horizontal pulling. This routine also facilitates balance between the muscles of the shoulder girdle and focuses on improving overall strength. You will notice several changes were made to the routine above from the example presented in Chapter 5. This is to better facilitate the needs of an untrained beginner. The changes made are as follows:
Prehabilitation, Isolation Work, Flexibility Work, and Cool Down
Finally, we have prehabilitation. As an untrained beginner, you can add or subtract the amount of work performed based on your needs. This is the time to do additional wrist work (aside from mobility) if you are having issues with your wrists from putting weight on them during handstands. Wall slides or shoulder stretching could be added if you cannot get your arms directly overhead for a handstand. You can do specific scapular work like retractions or depressions plus rotator cuffwork to keep your shoulders healthy. Back and leg flexibility work may be needed. Yoga or Pilates may be good options if you need an extensive amount of mobility and/or flexibility in your lower body.
Most of the time, isolation work for weak links is not needed at this point, unless you want to add particular isolation work to increase strength and hypertrophy in specific muscles like your biceps. The most attention should be paid to the compound exercises in the routine in order to improve gross motor movement. If you are an untrained beginner coming in with a high level of strength, you could consider integrating some basic static holds into your routine. Your workouts at this point will be focused on improving wall and freestanding handstands, L-sits, and possibly moving toward elbow levers (if that is one of your goals). Skill work used for other activities and disciplines may be integrated in here as well. As you move into Levels 3-4, the recommended exercises branch out into a varied set of movements and static positions as denoted by the exercises listed in the charts:
Choose your direction based on both short-term and long-term goals. You may ultimately want to learn all of the skills listed above, but it is not a good idea to work toward all of them at once, as spreading yourself too thin will set you back. Instead, pick two pushing and two pulling goals and build a routine around them. It is best to select an overarching "theme" for your routine. Many people want to obtain the static holds as their primary goal. If that is your goal, build a routine around those strength isometrics. On the other hand, if your goal is to train for a sport, your routine should be more biased toward getting strong at movements and only adding static positions later as you improve in strength at many different ranges of motions. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers here; you need to decide what you want to learn and prioritize that.
Select these movements if you want to focus on isometric exercises:
Select these if want to focus on overall strength:
The warm-up, skill work, and prehabilitation/flexibility/cool down portions of your routine remain the same; the only difference is in the strength work portion. Here are two examples of what you could use for the strength work portion of your routine:
You should refer to the isometric charts to get how many Y sets of X second holds you need dependingon your maximal holds. A purely dynamic-focused routine could look like this:
Other exercises that may be substituted into your routine:
At this level, you may not need to get to the point where you perform fifteen to twenty repetitions. If you have been working this many previously, it may be helpful to stop at twelve instead. However, if you are experiencing any connective tissue soreness or are at risk of a potential overuse injury, stick with the higher repetitions to train your connective tissue without overloading.
Your completed routine should look something like this: Warm-Up
Skill Work
Strength Work
Prehabilitation, Isolation Work, Flexibility Work, and Cool Down
There are certain areas where untrained beginners commonly run into difficulties.
Routine Balance: If you have poor posture, add an additional horizontal rowing motion in order to bring up the strength and muscle mass of the back. This will help balance things out, especially important if you have a desk job and your posture has been affected by prolonged sitting. There is also specific stretching to correct posture. Poor posture may not directly cause injuries, but if you improve your posture you will look better, feel better, have better proficiency in your technique, and increased ability to move through your range of motion without limitations or discomfort.
Adding an extra horizontal pulling exercise is helpful, since the most common poor posture involves the head and shoulders hunching forward.However, if you come from a background of pulling instead of pushing (such as swimming, rowing, or rock climbing), and your posture is imbalanced in the opposlte direction, you may need to add an additional horizontal pushing exercise. Imbalances will become visible when performing exercises on the progression chart. If your pushing exercises are more than a progression or two ahead of pulling or if pulling is at a similar progression or above as pushing you may have an imbalance that should be corrected. Pushing tends to be a bit stronger than pulling.
Length of the Routine: It may take a beginner a decent amount of time to perform this routine, as there is so much that goes into a routine of this nature. The full-body routine is strongly recommended for this level, because it includes off days. A full-body routine can be shortened by moving any of the non-strength components to your rest days.
Your routine will include a quick warm-up, skill work, and strength work. Use your off days to perform additional mobility work, prehabilitation work, isolation work, and flexibility work. This is a great alcernative for those who want to do something every day.
Tempo Modifications: If you are having trouble executing proper technique on the X portion (acceleration) of the 10x0 tempo, it may be effective to modify it to a 1010 tempo instead. Perfecting technique by practicing uniform movement is better than compromising form with a 10x0 tempo.
Strength Progression: Linear repetition progression (5-5-5 ➔6-6-6 ➔7-7-7) will typically be the best way to progress at this level. You can expect this to help you move through most of the beginner levels up to Level 5. However, it may be necessary to use repeticion addition (5-5-5 ➔6-5-5 ➔6-6-5 ➔6-6-6) or some of the other method of progression if you get stuck after a workout or two. In particular, you may be progressing effectively with one exercise like pushups, but get stuck on dips. If this is the case, continue to progress with the linear repetition progression with pushups and change the progression with the dips. Here's an example of what this could look like:
This is completely normal and may even occur with exercises that involve the same muscle group. There could be multiple factors at play. Some exercises progress fascer than others. Fatigue from performingpushups could slow your progression with dips. The key at this stage is not to get hung up on the lack of progress you are making (whecher real or perceived) as long as you are making progress.
Some people stall on pushups while others do not stall until they reach one-arm pushups or high-level planche work. Every individual is different. What works for another person may not work for you. There are no "one size fits all" rules in bodyweight training. This is why it is so important to learn how your own body works in relation to training. Don't push yourself trying to keep up with someone else's progress.
Paralysis by Analysis: Most people who are new to exercise are eager to find the perfect routine. Let's disabuse you of that notion right now. There is no perfect routine. In fact, as the saying goes: "The best routine is the one you are accually doing." Some people spend weeks thinking about how to construct the perfect routine, perhaps even contacting seasoned achleces and coaches for advice, while others dive straight into training. The person who does the laccer will be that many weeks ahead in their training. Their routine may be imperfect, but it is actually being performed. Get moving now and make adjustments asyougo. Pare of learning how to properly construct a solid routine is figuring out how your body responds to different exercises, and you cannot learn this from the advice of others. Once your routine is off the ground, that is the time to potentially begin seeking advice on how you can modify it lacer.
Routine Mania: On the other end of the spectrum are the achletes who have a tendency to construct a routine, try it out, and immediately abandon it. These people pop up on forums talking about their new routines and asking for critiques. A few weeks later, they have a different "new routine." This is extremely counterproductive, as both strength and hypertrophy are predicated on progressive overload, which assumes you are performing the same exercises over and over and actually progressing with them. You will make better progress sticking with your original routine than you will by switching to a "new and improved" routine after only two weeks. In the beginning, the minimum a routine should last is four weeks because you will naturally
see progress if you stick with exercises for that period of time. Mesocycles should last about four to eight weeks. Untrained beginners may see some progress in as little as two or three workouts, but it typically takes three to four weeks to see significant progress in terms of physique or strength. Sticking to the program you created is important because it will teach you about yourself and how your body responds to exercise in the latter weeks of the program.
Overuse Modifications: Untrained beginners are likely to have to substantially modify their routines based on what issues appear. One common issue is discovering that too fast progression is too difficult on your connective tissues. In this case, increasing the repetitions from fifteen to twenty may be useful. Additionally, integrating more prehabilitation and mobility work is should be readily considered for untrained beginners.
It is impossible to recommend set amounts of prehabilitation, mobility, and flexibility work because everyone is different. You must learn the underlying concepts for implementing this type of work into your routine. For example, if you feel your wrists are being overworked, follow this two-step process:
Eliminating, reducing volume, or substituting exercises is fairly straightforward. If your wrists are being aggravated while performing handstands, eliminate handstands until your wrists are better prepared to handle them. In the meantime, work on other wrist-supported exercises like supports or planks that will condition your wrists without aggravating them. Add additional prehabilitation, isolation, mobility, or flexibility work for the particular area as needed. Some of the extensive wrist exercises mentioned earlier in this chapter may be particularly useful. You can add in some dumbbell wrist curls or rice bucket exercises. If you feel unsure, or this is all too complicated, you can always ask a medical professional, such as an orthopedic sports doctor or physical therapist. You can also consult coaches, athletes who are more advanced than yourself, or even people with more extensive experience than you on the Internet. I recommend these Reddit threads: www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness and www.reddit.com/r/overcominggravity.
Avoiding Injuries: In the long run, learning how to modify your routine based on how your body responds-especially in the context of potential overuse injuries-is going to be THE most important thing you can learn when it comes to training. The number one predictor of an injury is a previous injury. Knowing when you need to back down and modify your routine is valuable information that will stick with you for decades in both coaching and training.
Previous Chapter ... ... Next Chapter