What Are The 3 Ways To Revitalize Your Calisthenics Training?

 Bodyweight Training has a lot of advantages and one of those is making the training training fun and interesting. It's far better than feeling stiff as a board and acting like the Zombies that died from boredom in traditional or conventional style training. Whenever I do my suspension training, I do my best to not only focus on what muscles are being worked but also feeling like I can make a game out of it with the exercises whether it's with rows, push-ups, squats or whatever. Here are some ideas to help with your training....

1. Totaling Up Reps or Timed Sets

With Bodyweight Training, totaling up the numbers can be an ideal strategy to keep things afloat when things start to feel dull, tedious and/or boring. Sometimes you may hit numbers you didn't expect or you can pick a number and progressively make the workout journey to that number. Do as many sets and reps as you need to reach that goal. Say you want to do 50 of something, you won't want to necessarily do them in a row unless you want to or you want to build a set and rep scheme that helps you build up to that number and it could be 10 sets of 5 or do a high/low thing, whatever makes you comfortable to reach that 50. It could be 50 Push-ups, Rows, Swings, Slams or whatever. The standard isn't relevant here or as important, just getting the total amount is the key thing here. 

When it comes to timed sets, you just mainly work on the technique of an exercise and not worry so much about counting reps. Say you want to get better at doing rows, set a time for say, 2 minutes and do what you can in that time getting the most out of the exercise itself. Rep counts isn't necessary here, focus more on the muscle groups, the pulling, the pinpoint of the contraction at the end of the movement and just playing with it until you have solid technique. It doesn't have to be perfect, just enough that it's efficient for your training. This can be done with other bodyweight movements. 

2. Solidifying Circuit Style Training With Animal Crawls & Other Athletic Movements

Circuit Training or Superset Style training are a treat when it comes to conditioning and forming a level of fitness that can be done in a variety of ways. When you incorporate crawls and other animal moves like in Movement 20XX in addition to say the Jump Rope, Squats, Step Ups or other Bodyweight Moves, you're strategically exposing the body to great stimuli and you're adding variety to create a "comforting" idea to workout without it feeling like a chore. You can even throw in some Mobility work or certain stretches into the mix. I've always said, training is about discovery and having an imagination to incite results.

3. Go For Variety

There are multiple variations of various movements from the main three components of Bodyweight Training; pushing, pulling and squatting. Personally for me, it gets a little boring like a bad party seeing and doing the same shit. Why limit yourself? Change a technique or increase/decrease the speed of a movement and you got yourself something to make training worthwhile. Have the mindset of an explorer, it'll amplify the potential to creating benefits for your exercises. Don't live in fear of mixing it up, be bold and break out of the fucking norms of fitness. Normal has always been way overrated, everybody is different and normal for the most part means you're willing to settle for less. You're more than that, you're unique and you got something that will make you successful. When you throw out normalcy in your training and add some fun and exciting things, you'll be surprised at what will come of it. 

Be amazingly awesome, see the potential in these strategies and have some fun guys. 

Absorbing Energy Both Positive And Negative

          Like Obiwan says in Star Wars “The force surrounds us, it penetrates us and binds the galaxy together”, the force in reality is surrounding energy. Some look at the force as some blasphemous evil and it’s not even real but yet it very much is. We absorb energy from the moment we were born to the day we die, day in and day out we surround ourselves with some form of energy. The energy that surrounds us has both positive and negative effects. The positive as an example would by energy that has happiness, warmth from within, the negative would be the surrounding energy of gloominess, sadness, fear, anxiety.

            Why do we absorb it? Sometimes it just happens whether we ant it to or not. Think of it this way, you wake up one day feeling happy and gitty, then you turn on the morning news and you watch it for a bit then all of a sudden you start to feel sad and stressed, it’s because you absorbed the negative energy coming from the news and your feelings change. Now I hate the news and prevent myself from watching it because I don’t want to feel those negative effects. Another look at how energy is around us is when you walk into a place and you sense something is up and you can't quite put your finger on it, you’re aware of it but you can't figure out whether it’s good or bad. At times you can sense something great or bad but its all how you absorb it. Sometimes we don't always feel it but also we absorb so much its overwhelming and can have an explosive effect so like anything else, if you do something too much, it’s going to come back and bite you in the ass.

            The energy surrounding our bodies can be our best friend or our worst enemy and from experience I've had both and one or the other has hit me hard, to use the energy to our advantage we ought to use a strategy for both offensive and defensive. The offense is like having an all-star team that just seems like they're unbeatable and can score and power through obstacles like it’s nothing; the defensive is when you have another all-star team that just seems like whatever crosses their path nobody can get passed them, like your own version of Fort Knox with the highest level of security. Picture in your mind what you want for your all-star squads and they can be anyone you want or you can choose to put up barriers it’s up to you. You can use the energy to block out anxiety and stress and you can use energy for how you move and creating powerful spheres that can help you with your strength.

            Use your energy strategy wisely. Sometimes energy whether good or bad can come at us without being aware of it and it can hit us harder and hurt or feel good more than anything physical. Learn to be aware of certain energy and use your imagination to create a powerful team or barrier and use them to your own endeavor. Whether you're an office worker, athlete, fitness enthusiast or whoever you choose to be and going through life in general, you have powerful energy and you can absorb its strength but how you do it is up to you and developing awareness is a key. 

Developing Meditative Power

           

               Exercising doesn't always have to be physical or moving. A lot of people firmly believe if you go hardcore, that’s all you need but in reality the opposite is true. In meditation practices, the most powerful ways to gain inner strength is just by not moving and by relaxing (not loose and lazy) and strengthening the power of your mind and strengthening your organs. Shaolin Monks are one of the prime examples of developing super power in a meditative state. We've all seen how great they are with jumping abilities, breaking bricks and they’re crazy endurance but where do you think all that power comes from? Sure from practicing those things but it’s the power of chi or life force that brings all of those things together.

            A great meditation practice especially if you’re going after a goal or want to be better at something is to think, see, and feel as if you’re in a movie theater, just you watching a movie on the big screen. You’re watching your accomplishments unfold in front of your eyes, your past and future goals come alive and with love and celebration you’re starting to see it as if it was your favorite movie. You’re the hero vanquishing the villains (aka negative and dark energies) that want you to fail but you don’t give in. Each time you watch that movie, it becomes more powerful, clearer, more alive and before you know it, it jumps right out of the screen and that movie becomes your reality. You’re excited, invigorated and far stronger than you ever were before. Something within you becomes something Superhuman and there’s nothing anybody can do about it.

            Powerful meditation usually pits you in an offensive strategy but not so much in a defensive position. Ever heard the expression a great defense is a great offense? That’s like teaching people to swing the bat and hit a homerun but where’s the pitcher, the catcher and the outfield? That batter might be your dark energy and you don’t want him on base or having him soar that ball over the fence. Your team is on the defense and you can’t let the other team score. Sometimes you throw a fastball or a curve ball and they might get on base but they haven’t scored yet. If you learn to feel and know it, you realize you still have the best defensive team on that field, picture having the greatest players at their position on your team like a bunch of all-stars working together. See guys like Satchel Paige as your pitcher, Josh Gibson at Catcher, Lou Gehrig at First, Rogers Hornsby at Second, Cal Ripken Jr. at Shortstop, Brooks Robinson at Third and your Outfielders are second to none with names like Willie Mays, Roberto Clemente and Rickey Henderson. Its one hell of a strategy don’t you think?

            This is just an example and you can name other players of your choice but the principle stays the same and there are other ways to use defensive strategies in meditation. It’s like building a giant bubble over you and no one can get to it, or in this case using Baseball analogy you cover the wall of the field as one massive bubble so there’s no way they can hit it out of the park and your players get an out more than a good number of times, hell you can make the batter strike out cause the moment you throw that ball, it’s so fast he can’t see it and it’s right in the catcher’s glove before he knows what hit him. Make it work for you.

            The physical side to meditation is a useful tool more than you think. In Qi Gong; you learn to harness your energy through movements that flow with energy and smooth harmony. Tai Chi is the same thing just in a different format of energy flow but yet it’s still there and the more you harness that energy, the more powerful you become. Another look at physical meditation is through the use of CoreForce Energy; the ability to harness strength and speed using sound, torquing points and cutting edge power with the mind and body working together. It is used in any situation whether it’s through exercise, talking, writing, playing an instrument or whatever it is you want to do, it’s harnessing that inner power that generates strength in all its aspects.

            There are more ways to develop meditative powers so learn and find what works best for you, make it a habit to meditate the best way possible and be less resistant as possible. This world does have it’s beautiful side but it’s up to us how we see things and how we can our lives richer in health and well being. See what you can find, it’s a great way to make life that much sweeter.