The Truth About High Volume Calisthenics

The key to training with high-volume calisthenics is in simple, somewhat monotonous, but cyclic exercises. Use compound and basic bodyweight exercises, as well as some variations (different grips and body positions) to train the whole body.

This training method is suitable for all fitness levels and, with the right variations, is also effective for calisthenics beginners. The entire workload comes from the sets and reps you do. You don't have to use progressively harder progressions or change an exercise to make it progressively harder. You can also do this if you feel it's better, it will work, but you still need to add enough reps and sets to build a great physique. In practice, you can do more with less. I think this is the best calisthenics approach to building shredded muscle.

This strenuous workload naturally results from prolonged physical exertion, intensity and frequency. It makes your muscles burn, cry out for mercy, and ache for days to come. So yes, the soreness that ensues as a by-product of volume training is a sign that you're headed in a good direction. This calisthenics training method will push you to your limits. Your muscles and nervous system can't handle hundreds of repetitions unless you're doing simple, light, compound exercises. Also, you can't do high volume workouts either.

Hence, it relies more on exercises like dips, push-ups, pull-ups, squats and some other full body movements like burpees, plyometrics, sprints and hill sprints. As said, you will also be required to train on the green more easily, including periods of relief with less volume or a different, more relaxing workout.

The idea of ​​high volume training is to starve your muscles of energy by working them to failure or exhaustion. This requires lots of sets and reps and relatively short rest periods between sets. Ultimately, it all comes down to fitness and you'll need weeks to adjust. For you, doing 50 push-ups in one workout can provide similar results in terms of progression as others doing 150 push-ups. It's not something fixed and nailed down, but a definition of hard work.

As simple as push-ups are, doing hundreds of them becomes difficult. Do they provide results in terms of hypertrophy and strength? It certainly has for many others. See how many devotees of calisthenics have strong physiques.

These moderate bodyweight exercises primarily train general or relative strength. Bulking theoretically focuses heavily on endurance, but with proper rest, calories, and nutrition, you can build bigger muscle and, indirectly, maximum strength.

It's exhausting work and doesn't suit everyone because it takes a lot of mental toughness and you can't do more than 2-3 hard workouts in a week, but it definitely forces the body to change shape.

A compound bodyweight exercise does not isolate muscle groups that must work together as a unit. The aesthetic part is a by-product of hard work, it comes when you master the basics, and high reps stimulate neuromuscular adaptations.

The best part is that you don't need any exercises other than the basic and easy ones. So the weekly training structure looks simple and clean, as bodyweight training in general should be.

Trust me when I say complicated doesn't mean advanced and simple doesn't mean easy. After several years of training in this method, I can say that no matter how trained I am, it never gets easier. So I keep it simple and progression or keep what I built in the same training methods. I also mix calisthenics with a lot of cardio, specifically road and trail running, track and field, and swimming. I come and go depending on my goals, how I feel in my body and the weather.

The hardest part is keeping track of your calisthenics workout progress. If you continually drain energy from your muscles, you get sore. Some days you don't feel able to perform at your usual level. There's a greater need for sleep and calories when you're constantly overloading and working too hard. But it is a normal and natural reaction; just eat more and better. It just means that if you recover quickly and properly, your body will continue to evolve. That's why I build in relaxation phases or focus on multiple training sessions like aerobics.

To train high-volume calisthenics, you need to:

1

Uncomplicated and quite simple exercises, compound but essential exercises and their variants. For example, the

Regular pull-up is the main exercise. Changing the grip wider or tighter modifies the bar

normal, which works the same muscles differently.

two

Total workload, which means more sets and reps than usual or before. However,

don't turn up the volume every time or every week. Be natural and let it be a by-product.

3

There is less rest time between sets or cycles than the typical rest time needed for

maximal strength training (1-2 minutes from one set to the next).

4

A higher frequency. Train the same muscle groups over and over again. As soon as they

recover, hit them again. Train 4-5 times a week! That means a calisthenics workout from

high volume!

Mandatory individual exercises

Family of pull-ups:

Largo, Regular, Close-Grip, Pull-Ups, Close-Grip Pull-Ups, Commando, Body Rows, L-Sit Pull-Ups, Towel Pull - Ups, Alavancas, Desigual, Ponderado.

Push-up family:

Regular, Incline, Decline, Wide Grip, Diamonds, Irregular, One Arm Pushups, Levers, Triceps Extensions, Pushup Plank, Handstands, Pike, Skull Crushers.

Dips family:

Bench dips, regular dips, front bar dips.

Leg raise family:

Regular Leg Raises, V-Lifts, Toe-to-Barbell (Full Leg Raises), L-sits, Float Kicks, Knee Raises, Mountain Climbers, etc.

Squat family:

Burpees, full burpees, squats, sumo, close, one-leg, pistols, jump squats, frog jumps, crouch walks, lunges, bulgarian splits, etc.

Other variations: jumping jacks, jumping rope, sprints, runs, hill sprints, bridges, planks, etc. I have not trained with anything else in recent years and I am more than satisfied with the results achieved, not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also from a performance point of view.

Frequency

Your weekly consistency says a lot about your commitment, determination, desire and work ethic. You have to persevere here. It's one thing to train for athletics and feel good, and quite another to transform your body.

I know that many train 3 times a week and are happy with their results. If not, I recommend 4 to 5 workouts a week. For many who are genetically gifted, training with the bare minimum is sufficient. For everyone else, it not only means more time, but also more work.

You need a serious exercise regimen, my friend. You need to establish a routine for exercising. But don't think for a second that that means killing yourself every workout. Train hard, but not like you're going to be out for a week.

Train large muscle groups twice a week when they seem underdeveloped. You build up the total workload at the end of the week by training the same muscles more often and adding more workouts. And this is especially important for someone whose fitness level is low. If you can't do hundreds of reps, you can make up for it by exercising more often.

What matters is working hard most days and making sure the volume is recorded in a calisthenics exercise diary. I counted how many pull-ups, pull-ups, dips, sprints, miles, and squats I did each week. That was the only way to measure progress over time. Gradually, I transformed my body from fat to lean and muscular, slowly and with steady steps, because I consistently followed a routine. I kept switching, going from high volume to low volume and back to cardio and running depending on recovery needs. However, once I got in tune with my exercise, eating habits and sleeping pattern, my muscles started to grow.

volume and intensity

There is no specific volume or reference that defines the necessary number of repetitions and sets for gains in hypertrophy, endurance or strength.

This “know how” comes with experience. However, many suggest including difficult variations and progressive gymnastics as the main training method. On the other hand, I believe volume calisthenics training is ultimately a progressive type of training method. One focuses on exercise variations and their intensity or difficulty building strength and muscle, the other increases intensity through repetitions and sets.

For my training method you don't need a lot of variations and complexity. But I also do hard exercises and progressive workouts. But more often I focus on light and moderate intensity exercises to get more reps.

For example, lever pull-ups are still compound and simple. Still, it's harder to do 100 lever push-ups than 100 regular push-ups. Lever push-ups or other similar variations create more tension in the muscles. They feel harder and more intense. So if you're planning on doing a workout just for lever pull-ups, it won't be long before your strength starts to wane. But you can do more if you add some lighter variants later.

Intensity, short breaks and strong variations reduce the overall workload. The key is to balance the intensity to do more mechanical work. Do these difficult variations and drain your muscles with them, as long as you focus on working as hard as you can that day.

In your quest to exercise more, I suggest you find ways to regulate the intensity and tension created by these exercises.

That said, I have suggestions for the volume and number of exercises you need in your routine:

1.

Four to five workouts a week and hit the major muscle groups twice. Do 2 push ups, 2 pull ups, 2 leg workouts and so on.

two.

Choose at least 4-5 basic variations: wide pull-ups, pull-ups, horizontal pull-ups, command pull-ups and Australian pull-ups. Do the same with other exercise groups: sumo squats, regular squats, squat walks, lunges, and jump squats. You have the idea!

3.

I always recommend doing at least 4 sets per variation. But that also depends on how many variations you want to include in a workout. I usually do 100 pull-ups, including 50 pull-ups and 50 wide-grip pull-ups. Or I do more variations and less phrases, but the overall volume remains the same!

Training example #1:

Wide Bars: 5 sets x 7-10 reps

Pull-ups: 5 sets x 7-10 reps

Close Grip Pull-ups: 5 sets x 7-10 reps

Pull-ups: 5 sets x 7-10 reps

Horizontal Bars: 4 sets x 5-10 reps

Handstand pushups: 4 sets x 5-10 reps

Diamond Pushups: 5 sets x 20 reps

Dips: 5 sets x 20 reps

Push-ups: 5 sets x 20 reps.

Training example #2:

1.

10 push-ups, followed by 20 dips, followed by 20 push-ups. Repeat the circuit 7-10 times and you will have a

high volume training with only 3 exercises but a higher number of sets compared to the

training example 1.

Adjust the repetitions according to your endurance and muscle strength. I always put my maximum effort and energy into every workout. Sometimes I can barely train and other days I manage to finish training.

If you don't know how much is enough, callused palms, clogged ears, yawning, muscle spasms, tremors, or even a drop in blood sugar are all symptoms of strenuous exercise. Burnt muscles are also a good sign of extreme exhaustion. You don't have to go that far, but somewhere nearby!

Recovery and rest periods

Don't buy into the myth that overtraining will hurt your ultimate fitness goals. Try not to train too much, because that's bad. So don't overwhelm yourself and take the time to adjust to a workout. If a workout is too hard, make it easier the second time around.

You will often feel muscle soreness associated with deep soreness, no matter how good your recovery is. This happens in the beginning because your body is still adjusting. It took me months to get better.

You can also participate in some deep tissue or sports massage sessions. Icy, icy showers also help. At home I use a foam roller. Overtraining occurs because you are not focusing on the right things that will fully heal your body. In addition to what I said above, I have many active rest days and I also have deload weeks or an alternative to cardio or HIIT.

A complete recovery is just as important as exercise. For example, a tired brain caused by poor sleep greatly affects performance.

Regarding rest time during training, here it is:



• 45 seconds to 90 seconds between sets

• 1-2 minutes between exercises

• 2 rest days per week

• 1 week break every 2-3 months

That's how I do it. It may be slightly different for each individual; Therefore, you must adapt this to your goals and abilities.

Don't be afraid to add reps

For most of us, our childhood was largely physically inactive. So you have more reason to start exercising than the always fit and active men.

The way high-volume calisthenics affects our behavior is interesting, as our response to hard training is to sleep and eat more, which means we consume more calories and nutrients. As a result, the body begins to adapt to keep up.

Readjusting means gaining more strength and creating more powerful neuro-muscular connections. Ultimately, your ability to train harder will move you into a higher rep range where the hypertrophy response is triggered, allowing you to build muscle mass sequentially.

Once you've put a decent amount of meat on your frame, your strength will reach new heights, like what happened to me, and take you completely by surprise. I got the one-arm pushups, although I never specifically trained for them:

I've only trained with slightly different volumes since I realized its potential regarding advanced calisthenics as well. I don't do specific training for advanced elements and whenever I want to improve my form or performance, be it stamina, stamina or strength, I always work on the basics.

progression and plateaus

Unfortunately, there are plateaus. The progression is not a continuous linear fitness curve, regardless of the chosen method. That's why I like to mix things up. I'm still doing basic training, but I might go swimming or trail running as a break from my rigorous gym session.

I also incorporate some strength training with weights and lots of stair running. That way, I can eliminate boredom and give my muscles a decent amount of time to recover. I overcome plateaus by changing my mood, state of mind and energy levels. Therefore, try to adopt a positive attitude that will help you overcome obstacles. The rest is just patience and work ethic.