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"Trained" beginners come to bodyweight training from weight training, various sports training, or other organized athletic activities. They will fall anywhere from Levels 2-6-some come in higher or lower, but this is where the vast majority will fall. If you enter in Levels 2-4, it is recommended you refer to the previous section for untrained beginners, as you will progress faster if you begin there. This section will specifically address Levels 5-6.
The needs of a trained beginner are simple:
This stage requires a shift in training philosophy. Since freestanding handstands are nearly mastered, focus must shift toward achieving press-to handstands, as well as rings, shoulder stands, and handstands. The charts indicate various other skills to begin working, such as forward roll to support and kip to support. Rings strength and associated skills are beginning to be more integrated, and you should begin to progress from some of the tuck and advanced tuck positions into straddle and layout positions for isometric exercises.
There is now a wider variety of skills to learn, so keeping your routine focused is a priority. You will progress faster overall if you keep exercises geared toward specifk goals. Limit yourself to two or three. It is better to focus and achieve a single goal than to attempt many goals at once and not obtain any of them. After you have reached a few of your goals, you can shift to working toward new goals while maintaining the skills you have already developed.
A full-body routine still works best at this stage. However, if you have time constraints or are simply looking for some variety, this is the first stage at which a split routine could work. If you choose the full-body approach, you should perform your routine three to four times a week. As for splits, most types that were recommended earlier are fine-push/pull, straight-arm/bent-arm, and upper/lower. Stay away from a threepart split like push/pull/legs. A dual push/pull works well integrating with leg exercises-squat and pistols are pushing exercises and deadlifts and deep step-ups are a pull. The split you choose (if you choose one at all) will depend on your schedule and any sports you practice. If you favor a sport or discipline that employs a lot of lower-bodyexercise, for example, an upper/lower split will be the most effective.
Do not neglect to work on straight-arm presses in conjunction with handstands and the L-sit/V-sit/ manna progression as skill work. At this level, this skill work is critical. Let us think back to our goals, and see how our routine may look at this point:
Sample Goals
Warm-up and skill work plus prehabilitation, isolation work, and flexibility work should be implemented as needed. Make adjustments as described in the untrained beginner section.
A routine focused on static exercises may look like this:
Alternatively, here is a dynamic-focused routine with three push and three pull exercises:
If you want to substitute exercises with specific handstand variations you can perform:
A four times per week push/pull pull routine may be structured M/Tue/Thur/F with push on M/Thur and pull on Tue/F. Below you will find an actual example of a routine that was constructed by an athlete from the previous edition to good effect.
Monday
Tuesday
Thursday
Friday
Athlete's comments about the above routine:
"My height is 5'8" and my weight is 215 lbs. I am around 8% bodyJat. I am also a type 1 diabetic in the 99th percentilefar blood sugar control and I eat a very strict Paleo diet. This routine template was basic push/pull cycle with handstand work, as well as afa.ir amount of pre-hab work.
My original template for pushing work had me using tuck planche, RTO ring support hold statics, as well as RTO pushups/handstand pushups. As the cycle went on, I began to drop the extra statics. On the pullingdays Iwas using advanced tuckfront lever, single legeccentrics (which eventually progressed to full front lever eccentrics),front lever rows, and some single-arm dumbbell rows,far which Iwas using about one-fourth of my bodyweight (roughly 55 lbs.)far a controlled tempo.
This is by no means a perfect program. I started doing L-sit work after handstands, but that was inconsistent. The core of the program stayed consistentfrom week to week, mygoal was to improve on the planche andfront lever. However, I experimented with different movements some weeks and cut out certain aspects if my energy level was low. Iexpect to keep a similarfarmat now that stresses are lower and my energy is a lot higher. Regarding the handstands, I would do stomach-to-wall holds, push off with my toes, and hold as long as possible. Toward the beginning of the cycle I could only holdfarfive seconds; toward the end Iwas banging out ten tofifteen-second holds.
For comparison, I was doing a Killroy70 template with less leg work and back lever included prior to this push/pull program. With your advice and simplifying my training, I am doing fantastic. I am leaner now that I am doing one extra workout a week with lower volume and higher intensity. I am also a lot stronger. Prehabilitation hasgone a long way toward keeping me healthy. I now have an easier time getting stronger, especially with the help of your intensity chart. As a side note to this new cycle and the benefits of bodyweight training: I regularly compete with the top-level CrossFit athletes I coach and I am simply stronger than any of them. I give them a run for their money even though I don't practice with them. Ivcan do a heavier weighted pull-up than most, and asidevfrom practicing technique with an empty bar, I was able to split-jerk 260 lbs. at a bodyweight of 215 lbs. a few weeks ago. I attribute this to my gymnastics training."
While the exercise selection that this athlete chose is perhaps not ideal, and the repetition ranges and volumes fluctuate significantly from exercise to exercise, the athlete in question made very good progress with a routine he constructed himself. Enough cannot be said about the importance of constructing your own routine over using the examples blindly. You can figure out what does and does not work far you as long as you follow
the general principles of routine construction. The basic structure this athlete used was a classic push/pull, modified for a heavier individual.
For individuals weighing 200 lbs., a program performed four times per week with two push and two pull workouts tends to work best. Upper/lower and straight-arm/bent-arm can be effective as well. Performing a full-body program three times a week may be too intense, especially if the workouts include exercises like the planche. If you choose to perform a straight-arm/bent-arm routine four times per week, it can be structured M/Tue/Thur/F with straight-arm work on M/Thur and bent-arm work on Tue/F.
Straight-Arm
Bent-Arm
An alternating straight-arm/bent-arm routine is, in a sense, a hybrid of static and dynamic exercises. It is not necessary to break these up into separare training days, but some people like emphasizing these two seemingly different modes of strength training; splitting them up allows for more intense focus on each. Upper-body and lower-body splits are self-explanatory.
The main thing to focus on at this stage is consistency. Hopefully you are past the stages of paralysis by analysis and routine mania. At this point, being able to stick to your workout schedule will be the biggest factor that will determine whether or not you progress. As you know: the best routine is the one you actually perform!
Consistency is now prized above all else. Hitting six out of six full-body routines in two weeks is more important than hitting only five out of six, even if those five are flawless. Likewise, going twelve for twelve in four weeks is more important than finding a better routine halfway through a four-week cycle and performing it for the remainder of the cycle.
Your consistent work builds positive habits you will use for training in the long run. Consistency means you will work out when you are exhausted and/or don't feel like it, just as you would when you are motivated. It means you will make time to work out between school and family obligations. You may have to modify
your routine and eliminate some mobility or flexibility work if you have time restraints, but it is important that you develop positive habits that will stick with you and help you reach your goals. The mental fortitude and strength you gain from consistency in training will stick with you beyond your workouts. It will give you strength to deal with tricky family situations. It will buffer when you are stressed due to deadlines at work. It will aid you when you are being pulled in multiple directions and have little time to rest. Consistency and discipline are life skills. Learn them through your workouts and these skills will pay dividends in every area of your life.
Repetitions: Bring your repetitions down into the 5-12 range and keep them there. You may still jump up to the 15-20 range here and there for connective tissue strength on some exercise progressions if they aggravate particular areas of your body. However, the 5-12 range will be paramount to building strength and hypertrophy. If you desire to bias more toward strength as you progress through this stage of training, start working in the 3-8 range.
Routine Balance: By now your posture and technique should look good. If this is not the case, continue to correct imbalances that you developed from previous exercise or sports. Let's review: If you have poor posture, add an additional horizontal rowing motion in order to bring up the strength and muscle mass of the back, especially if you have a desk job. Additional specific stretching can also correct posture. When 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 for most people since the most common poor posture involves the head and shoulders hunching forward. However, if your previous sport was a pulling instead of pushing activity (swimming, rock climbing, etc.), you may need an additional horizontal pushing exercise. Imbalances will show up when you perform exercises on the progression chart. Pushing tends to be a bit stronger than pulling, but if pushing is more than a progression ahead of pulling or if pulling is at a similar progression as pushing you may have an imbalance.
Once you have achieved good posture, your next goal is to maintain the balance between pushing and pulling. The easiest way at this stage is to keep pushing and pulling exercises numerically equal. If you are performing two upper-body pushing exercises, perform two upper-body pulling exercises and so forth. This is useful not only for your health, but for revealing specific weaknesses you may need to correct later on.
Regarding the Length of a Routine: Recommendations for the untrained beginner apply to the trained beginner. At this point, you should know how to modify your routine as needed. If you have time constraints, you can move skill work, flexibility work, isolation work, or prehabilitation work to your rest days. This is the benefit of having all of your strength work on full-body days.
Additional Skill Work: It may be a good idea to add additional skill work on rest days (as well as workout days) at this point. For untrained beginners, performing handstands six to seven days per week may be too much for the wrists; progressing to the trained beginner stage may take anywhere from three to twelve months. By this time you should have a good idea how much skill and strength work your wrists, shoulders, and other connective tissues can handle. It is often the case that you increase your work capacity to perform more skill work as you continue to practice wrist and shoulder mobility and prehabilitation. You can perform this additional skill work on your rest days.
If you choose to add skill work, start with one extra day per week. Do this far at least two weeks. At this point, you can add another extra day of skill work if you wish. Continue this pattern if you want to keep adding skill work. It is important to allow your body that two-week buffer or more so it can adjust to the new workload before you add more. If you try to do too much at once, you will be sore or find yourself in real pain. That said, if you go slow and steady in two-week increments, you will notice your proficiency increase very quickly once you start to add additional skill work; the extra practice pays off immediately.
Strength Progression: As you move into the trained beginner range, you will likely begin to fail with linear progression (5-5-5 with 5 lbs., with 10 lbs., with 15 lbs.) or linear repetition progression (5-5-5 ➔ 6-6-6 ➔ 7-7-7). Set addition or last set to failure methods work very well as replacements.
Other methods like repetition addition, tempo changes, and density modiflcations can be useful, but set addition and last set to failure are the best methods far success in trained beginners. Once you stop progressing using these two methods, learn how to manipulare density and implement accumulation/intensification as your new methods of progression. These methods will work well as you transition from the trained beginner range to the intermediate range.
Although, you should be using simple inter-exercise progressions at this point, you are likely to find that you stall with them. While weight addition using ankle weights to increase the difficulty of an exercise of the previous progression or assistance using bands to decrease the difficulty of an exercise of the next progression are the most intuitive practices far beginners to learn, hybrid sets will be the most effective way far most people to bridge the gap. Here is an example:
You can even use hybrid sets with weight addition far the easier exercises if you want to go from a difficult exercise and get volume with a slightly harder exercise. At this stage in your training, learn to use these types of progressions effectively. If you get stuck and need to use a different progression, make sure you note the progression you are going to use in your training lag and chart your progress. This will allow you to see what works well far your body. Some progressions will work better than others.
Overuse Modifications: Overuse in untrained beginners and trained beginners is similar. After training far a while, overuse modiflcations will be spaced further apare until you reach some of the intermediate and advanced exercises. If you have soreness, discomfort, or pain in your connective tissues, be sure to continue mobility and prehabilitation work. Remember these two useful modiflcations:
Eliminating, reducing volume, or substituting exercises is straightforward and was well-discussed previously. When seeking prehabilitation, isolation, mobility, or flexibility exercises to add, look at some of the excensive exercises mencioned in chose sections. Remember to consulc a medical professional, such as an orchopedic sports doctor or physical therapist if you feel overwhelmed or confused. Ask for advice from coaches, advanced achleces, or the Internet. These Reddit threads have useful discussions: www.reddit.com/r/bodyweightfitness and www.reddit.com/r/overcominggravity.
Avoiding Injuries: It pays to reiterate information on avoiding injuries. 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 chingyou learn when it comes to training. The number one predictor of an injury is a previous injury. Know the signs, back down, and modify your routine whenever necessary.
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