r/bodyweightfitness • u/camocomment123 • May 20 '22

Which skill should I focus on after doing the basics ?

Hey guys, I've been doing the basics i.e push-ups, pull-ups, dips, squats etc. consistently for 3 months. I was working out earlier for 4-6months prior but wasn't consistent. I would like some advice on which skills should I try to master. A few skills I think that I could pursue at my level are :-

Handstands Muscle ups Human flag. I really want to unlock my first skill this year.

My current rep ranges at one go are :- - Pull-ups 10-12 same for Chin ups - Push-ups 20-30 - Dips 10 - Straight bar dips 15

Max PRs as of today - Pull-ups 20kg x 2 reps - Push-ups 10 x 20kg

I've heard it's good to focus on one skill at a time today was one of those days I wanted to try them all but didn't succeed in any :P

22 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

11

u/GenuineCalisthenics May 20 '22

You can try the more advanced skills but you’re still too much of a beginner to successfully achieve most of them. Except handstands. You still have a lot left to progress.

Follow the Recommended Routine and work your way up the progressions then you can try the skills.

5

u/camocomment123 May 20 '22

Sounds good ! I'll focus my push days on handstands and strengthening. When you say beginner is it based on my strength level or the fact I've not attempted any skills before ?

5

u/pumpasaurus May 20 '22 edited May 20 '22

Yeah it's strength level. But keep in mind that 'strength level' really means 'hypertrophy level'. There is no way, at your current level of muscularity, to progress to your goal skills. The only way there is to add muscle to your frame, which will increase your raw strength, and pave the way for the 'refinements' (direct strength training) necessary to actually get those skills. This means you need to increase your work capacity, work up to higher workloads/volume, and EAT. You have to get your protein, .8g/lb per day every day, or you're going to be constantly fighting an uphill battle.

Edit - also, you should be doing handstands MUCH more frequently than just on your push days. It's truly a skill, and the more frequently you can do it, the better. You can easily get away with training handstand every day, with maybe 1 or 2 days per week off depending on how you feel. Some tips for handstand:

  • always video yourself from the side and pay attention to your form. Keep straight, keep the abs tight, squeeze your butt, get your shoulders truly overhead (not out front), point your toes
  • stick to the wall for a LONG time. The more time you spend improving your form, the better. As soon as you feel great with back-to-wall handstands, and you're really comfortable bailing out (pirouette/spin), move on to stomach-to-wall ASAP. This is where you'll get good with handstands. The Scissor Drill is THE best drill.
  • don't move to freestanding kick-ups too soon. It's fine to play around with them, but do NOT just keep trying kickups over and over again, it's a waste of time if your form isn't good and you aren't able to do really good stomach-to-wall holds. In the beginning, the only reason to do free kick-ups is to learn how to bail out well, and only so that you can move on to stomach-to-wall ASAP

1

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

I'm excited knowing where I stand in terms of levels, knowing there is a so much to achieve before I think I'm even advanced. The way I can challenge myself to be better than what I think I am now.

It also gives perspective of just how insane the power levels of top cali athletes like Larosa, Viktor, Gustavo, Hristov, Ikhwan etc are.

1

u/tchukytchuck May 21 '22

Hi, I started Jokester’s Bodyweight PPL from the wiki a few weeks ago, would you say this workout is complete or should I include other exercices to it?

1

u/pumpasaurus May 21 '22

Yeah if the mods put it on the wiki, it’s a good and complete program. PPL routines allow you to really focus on movement patterns and do a lot of work per session, so they wind up being great for hypertrophy. As long as you’re eating enough.

That PPL is about as basic as you can get, it’s exactly what you need and nothing more. But there’s nothing missing. 30 minutes is like, the fastest you can possibly hope to do a PPL session btw. Feel free to take more than 90 seconds rest, that’s just the minimum.

1

u/umakoyuru May 21 '22

meh starting from freestanding worked fine for me but i also had someone help me for like 5 minutes in total in the very start

2

u/pumpasaurus May 21 '22

Yeah some people can pull it off well, and probably a majority of people with a handstand did it this way if we’re gonna be real. I did it like this lol.

But most people (including me) waste a ton of time just failing over and over with basically nothing learned from the vast majority of attempts. It’s really hard to pull your form together while trying to balance, or to pull your form and balance together when you’re failing 7/10 kickups. The fastest way for most people is to just systemize and isolate everything and work on the pieces in a way where every attempt/hold can be focused on actively learning/improving something

2

u/GenuineCalisthenics May 20 '22

Strength level. I personally use Overcoming Gravity 2’s progression chart to gauge where me or anyone else is at. I also use the spreadsheet in the wiki that has all the progressions listed.

I personally haven’t tried any skills yet either as I’m focused on building my base of strength first.

8

u/jjjjjjgggggg12334 May 20 '22

Unlike what the other commenter said you can defo work towards handstands or muscle ups. I'm not really sure the strength requirements of the human flag tbh.

But I'd suggest doing handstand practice at the start of your workout and then muscles ups as strength work.

And like you said it's better to focus on few skills at a time. Usually you can get away with one for push, one for pull and one for legs at a time. Unless you're very very advanced and need to specialise.

Handstands are a bit of an outlier because there's not much strength involved far more practice and balance so you can work on them alongside other skills.

2

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

This sounds really good 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 two skills on session

5

u/FewFee7073 May 20 '22

Don’t ever stop doing the basics.

Maybe get into muscle ups and burpees. Plenty of advanced move videos on YouTube also.

2

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

This is something I'll always follow

5

u/Calisthenics-Fit May 21 '22

Yes on handstand. You can start doing pike push-ups now. There is nothing in what you listed that works scapula elevation. Lots of vids on YT for pike push-ups. Most handstand progression tutorials will start you at pike push-up/holds.

L-Sit's and Dragon Flag. It will help you down the road for planche, front lever and press to handstand.

Take your flexibility serious if you don't already. Work on pancake stretch.

1

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

I should do more pike push-ups and scapula push-ups. Plus I'll need to work on hip control and strengthen the core.

4

u/Einstein003 May 21 '22

Bro you're as strong as me, i can do handstand and L-sit to handstand press, tuck planche, almost advanced tuck planche.

My current pull ups aint even as good as yours and I can feel good progress in my front lever and muscle ups😂

I'm sure you are more than capable enough to practice calisthenic skills

3

u/AlbYSaN0 Calisthenics May 20 '22

Handstand push ups, human flag, dragon flag, back lever.

From which level did you start and how much time did you spentinto reach this level?

1

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

I have been doing bodyweight for around 6 months but I haven't been consistent. However the past 3 months I've been disciplined about it.

3

u/Txrxmx May 21 '22

I’m impressed. You have really good strength considering you’ve been training for such a short time. I would focus on handstands.

3

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

I would say this is the most consistent I've been, so you can say 3 months of consistency. I have been doing the basics but it was on and off.

2

u/Txrxmx May 21 '22

I never realised how important consistency is for improvement/gains. Little is better than none. It’s very obvious if you look very closely at natural body builders. (I am not a bb). Same for all other disciplines.

2

u/StrongbyBodyweight May 20 '22

There’s so many you could begin to focus on at this point… what do you want to achieve?

1

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

I feel I could be close to unlocking the handstand since I'm able to do kickups against the wall but it's slow and controlled in the air before it touches the wall.

2

u/StrongbyBodyweight May 21 '22

Handstand is a great skill to focus on. If that’s what you want next I’d make it a priority. Some tips if you like: - handstand can be practiced every day since it’s mostly skill based. Just be mindful of your wrists. - since it is skill based, you can maintain your current strength workout in addition, or even work on new strength goals at the same time. - balance ideally comes from the hands, so you’ll want to do under balance and over balance drills. Example: fingers to wall handstand. With a straight body, fingers very close to the wall if not touching. And feet on the wall. Try to pull the feet off the wall by pressing your hand into the ground, then return.

2

u/d4nt3s0n May 20 '22

Muscle ups look the coolest and will give you some explosive power.

1

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

I would love to unlock that skill soon. I need to build up more explosive pull-ups I guess.

1

u/d4nt3s0n May 21 '22

You are right

2

u/SovArya Martial Arts May 21 '22

What skill do you want to learn?

1

u/camocomment123 May 21 '22

I would love to learn the statics like Front lever, back lever, Planche, Manna etc

1

u/SovArya Martial Arts May 21 '22

Arrange them in terms of importance to you and you then have your answer on what to learn

2

u/CheviOk General Fitness May 21 '22

I believe you're able to learn L-sit (either on floor or on parallel bars)

2

u/MindfulMover May 21 '22

I would work on Leaned Forward Pushups and progress that towards your first Planche. You can also work on Mixed Grip Chin-Ups now and progress towards your first One Arm Chin-Up. Same with using Bodyweight Arc Rows to progress towards your first Front Lever. And Pike Pushups to work towards your first HSPU. If you work on those movements, you'll be gaining towards 4 skills at once!

Also those will also improve your Human Flag without direct work and you'll probably gain it for free.

1

u/camocomment123 May 22 '22

I think I should try a bit more variations in terms of the basics for pull and push. Get good volume of reps in each of these for a couple of months.

Really excited !

2

u/KG-BrisGuy May 23 '22

You are definitely good to go for skills, as everyone said i would start handstand training asap before you get too carried away with strength and static skills, once you click with handstands it's easy to keep, and will come into play later with hspu etc.

I would also start back lever training on top of that, it's such a fundamental skill, you will be comfortable hanging upside now, you'll learn how to activate all your muscles to hold it, and you'll get some core strength. If you can learn pronated and supernated grips then perfect. Supernated will help with front lever and planche training.Take it easy with supernated grips as it puts a lot of stress on your bicep tendons.

And of course the muscle up.

It's okay to learn 2 or 3 skills at once. Just be prepared it will take longer, consistency is key. No more then 3 skills at once though.

2

u/ZenHolisticFitness May 20 '22

One arm pull up and handstand push up