Have you ever watched someone perform a bodyweight exercise and gasped in awe at their level of skill? I’ll be the first to confess that I have been amazed more than once at the body’s ability to maneuver effortlessly and the strength it takes to accomplish it. My amazement has only fueled my own desire to be able to attain the same distinction of greatness. So, I decided that I needed to create my own bodyweight exercise bucket list. That’s right! The only way to take a dream and make it a reality is to create a game plan. Creating your bodyweight bucket list is not difficult. Keep your list ..read more

So many bodyweight fitness enthusiasts skip leg day like it was the plague. After all, you hide them under your jeans, right? Who needs to work them out? Haha! Legs are obviously just as important to work out. Thankfully, you can use bodyweight exercises to build muscle and strength in your legs. Here are 3 bodyweight leg workouts to help you build stronger, leaner legs without the need for weights. Say yes to leg day! Bodyweight Leg Workout 1: The Leg Murder Workout Here’s a fantastic bodyweight leg workout to help you build strength and lean muscle in your quads, hamstrings and glutes.  ..read more

There are a tendency among beginner and aspiring calisthenics trainees to skip bodyweight leg exercises completely and focus exclusively on achieving upper body strength feats. I used to be like that in the beginning too. When I started training with calisthenics my biggest aspiration was to achieve the unbelievable calisthenics skills that I saw on Youtube. Almost all of these skills were related to upper body strength. The few skills that were related to lower body strength (like pistol squats) didn’t seem as exciting. And, for this reason, I pushed leg calisthenics training a ..read more

I want to debunk a myth with this post and that is the myth that you can only really develop extremely strong leg muscles using weights. Bodyweight leg exercises are extremely effective for muscle growth in the legs, you simply have to know how to do it. Bodyweight leg exercises have been used by millions of people to add size and definition to their legs. These hardest bodyweight leg exercises are sure to leave you crying. All of the below leg exercises develop massive strength and coordination without using weights. Though there are also many different types of leg exerc ..read more

If you are a bodyweight exercise freak like me, at some point you have reached a time period where you have plateaued and wondered if bodyweight exercises were really the best way to develop your body. I think this is especially true with advanced bodyweight leg exercises. I mean, with the upper body, it almost seems like there are endless exercises you can perform. There are so many different variations of the basic pushup, for example, that you can perform: wide pushup, clap pushups, condensed pushup, handstand pushup, etc. Yet with bodyweight leg exercises, what else can you do other than t ..read more

“It is better to live one day like a lion, than a thousand days as a lamb.” – Roman proverb As a child, my mom and I would argue about the above saying. The argument would usually come as a result of her telling me that I needed to relax more and enjoy life. I remember one particular sunny Saturday morning when I was fifteen years old. I was locked away in my room practicing Jimi Hendrix (my favorite Jimi song) and Stevie Ray Vaughan (favorite SRV song) songs on my electric guitar. My mom opened the door and said that everyone was headed to the cottage in thirty minutes. I told her that I wasn ..read more

In this article, you’ll learn the pros and cons of calisthenics. If you have been following SOA for a while then you must be aware that SOA is completely dedicated to bodyweight training. But I want to be honest with you. As I mentioned in the article “How To Choose The Right Bodyweight Training Plan”, there is no perfect training plan. Similarly to this, I could say that there is no ultimate training tool or form of exercising. In short, that means that calisthenics might not be the best training methodology for you. Huh? What are you talking about Todd? Let me explain myself ..read more

A few weeks ago, I was doing some hanging leg lifts. This is where you hang from a chin-up bar with your arms straight and lift your legs up until your toes touch the ceiling. I did a bunch of them and noticed that I was losing my grip. My abs hadn’t reached full fatigue but I had to stop. I thought to myself, “Dang! I never realized before how important grip strength is.” In order to perform hanging leg lifts or any calisthenic exercise from the bar you have to have a strong grip. The muscles in your hand and forearm work in tandem to keep your body suspended in the air. If you lose your grip ..read more

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas! We just got back from spending a weekend at the cottage with my wife’s extended family. There was TONS of food. I think the reason that New Years’ Resolutions are especially powerful is that it is just after a 1-2 week binge of eating things we wouldn’t normally eat… or at least not the portion that we would normally eat them. Over the last 2 days, I went overboard. Not to the degree that I used to go overboard. But still… I went overboard. How do you get back on track after you fell off the bandwagon? I use challenging workouts. Today’s Mad Monday worko ..read more

This is a guest post written by Tyler Bramlett creator of CT-50. (Note from Todd: When I was working on my handstand I met Tyler out in California for a fitness event. I mentioned to him that I was struggling with my handstand and that my form was off. He shared with me a technique that has helped immensely. He said that posture is critical when doing a handstand and that I should practice facing the wall with my hands as close to the wall as possible. This technique alone accelerated my results. Today, he is sharing with us his process for achieving the perfect handstand!) The freestanding ha ..read more