Al, you and Matt Schifferle are two of my main go to's when it comes to health and calisthenics. I am glad to see the shorter Ask Al's come back. I dig the style of format you're doing. I swear between your app, Get Strong, your books, and Matts content one could be calisthenics devotee for life and never get bored. Not to mention your wonderful wife Grace and Brother Danny. You all are the best! Thank you for what YOU do!
POWERFUL LESSON AL!! I LOVE YOUR WORDS AND THE MESSAGE YOU ARE SENDING TO THE CALISTHENICS COMMUNITY "TRY TO BE THE BEST YOU AS YOU CAN BE" Thanks for your words Al!! Kises for Grace and the doggy family!!!
Hey hey hey al I’m a 60 year old totally committed to your advice in England I’ve trained my whole life but this is the most fun I’ve ever had thanks your a legend. Mike
Hi al new to your channel, I'll keep watching it coz you seem a nice sincere chap. Have you heard of the long term convict in England called Charlie bronson (that's one of his pseudonyms). He has dedicated his life to mainly calisthenics (cell workouts mostly). Well, he uses a lot of old fashioned type exercises, bodyweight mainly. He isn't over muscular but is immensely strong, even at one time holding world records for sit ups, press ups etc too. Check him out. He uses the name Charles Salvador presently as he is an accomplished artist too.
Love all your videos very inspiring. I need some advice for a beginner routine. I'm 115kg and had shoulder surgery a couple of years ago so still getting the strength back. Any advice would be appreciated
Hi Al I really enjoyed the video. I have a question and concern for you. I weigh 105kg and I am 5 foot 6. I love the gym and I feel bodyweight exercises are better choice now to get back into the swing of things. I was wondering how long does it take for your joints to get stronger from bodyweight exercises before eventually getting back to external resistance training.
Hey hey hey Al. I have been doing you get strong program and got to phase 3 easily. I still progress in everything but chinups and pull-ups I'm stuck at 6 yet all my other workouts are getting easier to do for the phase 3 week 2.
Hey Al! On rings I can do 3x6-8 good tuck lever pull-ups as my horizontal pull movement should I still also do regular ring rows with feet on the ground for extra volume? Those regular rows on rings require 3x12-15 reps to hit 1-2 RIR. Or I just can focus on front lever pull progression and increase volume here?
Yo, yo, yo, Al! I was wondering, does bone density increase as you train more and more? Can the bones get bigger? (talking here about bredth, not length) Thanks, man!
Hi Al, I have some question. I have back pain (when I sit too long time for example), because I have scoliosis. Can I do bridge, hip bridge ( and another type of bridge) or I cannot do them? Can you give me advice How can I heal my back problem? Maybe do the bridge will help me? Thank you for your answer!
Competing against other people will almost always bring pain for both parties. Competing against your former self however, will always bring progress. Keep it real Al. See you in October. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
Hey al , just wanna take a second to thank you for being honest and saying the truth .. it s really really rare in the fitness and movement fields nowadays , either they nothing at all or they just come at you with lies that does not trick a 6 years old kid .
Very true! If you took the steroids out of bodybuilding it would be even more obvious. Most of the people I used to see in gyms were there to socialize more than workout. Calisthenics have enabled me to really develop a decent physique.
Thing is with calisthenics is that you're lifting your own bodyweight so your body realises the more muscle it builds the harder it is to lift your bodyweight so it finds a balance and makes a small amount very strong and efficient. Gymnasts can look jacked because they're constantly training a different stimulus and their training is very very intense
wawnton childd generally speaking, anything under rings (pulling) is close to the same difficulty as a bar, though more grip angles are at your disposal, anything over the rings (pushing) is much less stable and harder. Generally.
I think that as calisthenic practitioners, we more or less consciously know that we'd better make the weight that we lift as light as possible. Therefore, we tend to eat less. That's my theory. Certain people eat more and do build muscle, and as you proved, they do only calisthenics.
I maybe have a question for a future ask Al. I always wonder, if someone is training only bodyweight, how much can a well trained person like you lift? I hear a lot about relativ strenght ect. But at the bottom line, lifting some weight is a kind of strenght. So we all know people in the gym lifting a lot of external weight, but how much does bodyweight training allows you to lift external weight? Is there a big difference between someone who's training only calistenics and a typical weightlifter or can you say, if someone is very strong with calistenics he can also lift very heavy?
I am not Al obviously but I think it will come down to the technique and efficiency of the movement...let´s take bench press and overhead press for example. If you train up to really hard progressions in bodyweight movments like full ROM handstand push ups and one arm push ups and planche push ups and combine that with some more higher rep schemes like diamond push ups and dips and pike push ups that would translate to bench press and overhead press BUT not right away. you must also learn the correct technique of the bench press and overhead press and get efficient with the movement that alone so you don´t injure youself but once you got it your bench and overhead press will go up very fast. you body needs to adapt to the new stimulus of extrenal load. I mean really fast like after a few sessions depending on your own weight of course up to 225 lbs and more for bench and close to your own bodyweight for overhead press...You will not get powerlifting totals of course, if you want that you must train specifically for it...but hey more that 225 on bench is already awesome, most of the average joes don´t get there plus calisthenics has some other benefits too...hope this was helpful
Hey Al, just wanna ask some questions about OAP/OAC. I can do a OAC one full rep without perfect form. I've already seen different types of OAP/OAC training such as negatives and assisted OAC, i've seen your tutorials too. I just wanna ask you if practicing with a resistance band like doing a one arm chin up with the resistance band under one foot or knee is effective? For getting that second rep or mastering the OAC? Or is it just really doing negatives better for training OAC? What routine do you suggest i'd be doing? how many sets and reps? I really wanna tire out and wanna feel the burn training OAC. Like i just do 3x1 full rep each arm with kipping, not perfect form.
I am at the same level as you, I can get 2 OAC but I struggle through them and don't focus much on form. Not seeing improvement over the last month. I will now focus on negatives (top locked position and eccentric portion), increasing time under tension. The beginning and final portion of the concentric are usually the most difficult, so the assistence should be constant through all the motion - using a resistence band the way you are describing may not be optimal. Try to apply constant and minimal force through all the movement (assistence hand). I use a red band attached to the bar, the lower you grab it, the harder it should be. Finally, never do kipping, that's not gonna bring you anywhere, here we are training maximal force. Well, unless you are into crossfit...
Thanks for the advice, you're 2 steps ahead of me haha! I can only do one full rep only by my first attempt/set not perfect form in an active hang. By the next sets my eyes only pass the bar or even barely pass the bar in a bad day, 3rd set comes the kipping just trying to finish the rep but mostly fail. I'm not into crossfit, i'm just too obsessed in mastering the OAC, think we all are haha!
Maybe try some Hip thrust type work where you only lift with your legs to gain some lower body strength you may be missing for the proper movement. One huge tip for bridges is to try pulling your heels to your shoulders rather than just pushing off of the ground, your whole posterior chain is designed to pull together. performing a bridge this way helped me improve my posture like nothing else!
Everybody seems to care exclusively about getting jacked when talking Calisthenics.Does anybody really care about being functional, joints and connective tissue health and having fun in the process?.Al, I'd add.... relying on external loads to further challenge muscle growth is compromising to say the least as long as you don't stick to proper form and full ROM, not a big issue at all compared to finding creative ways to challenge yourself with varying levers and points of contact such as Calisthenics preach.
Russell Harris he's not small if you look back to the pre steroid era, which is before 1940. He looks like most of those guys did from that era. Some were bigger, some were smaller. Depends on genetics.
Russell Harris I doubt he has a strict bodybuilding diet eating the right amount of protien carbs and fats every single for years. Which is more important for mass then training.
In my opinion everyone should lift weights, including barbell, dumbbell and odd shaped objects, and do bodyweight training as well. It's not the same moving your own body than moving a heavy object. We need to train both.
The more weight you can lift for a given amount of reps, the more jacked you will be. Now it's true that with even the hardest variations, your bodyweight is limited, so what do you do when you can do one arm pull ups and one arm straight bar dips? You load up a suitcase with sand filled duct taped trash bags, hang it with the non working arm, and do your reps.... That simple.
so what do you do when you can do one arm pull ups and one arm straight bar dip? easy... You go slow with reps for more time under tension You increase the reps. How many do you know can do more than 2 reps 1arm pull-up? You flex your muscles for more tension, and believe me there's 0 differences between weight lifting and bodyweight training.
As jacked as you can get with weights, and here is MY explanation... Lets say you can do 100 strict dips, 50 strict pull ups, 150 strict squats. Okay, you are doing that weighing 160-180lbs.. That's good relative strength level. Close to or already elite level.... Now what happens when you eat yourself to be ,250-270lbs but you can still keep doing the same dips, pull ups, squats? Sane form, same numbers? You will be one of the strongest and most jacked people on earth. Because regardless of their bodyweight, no one that can do those numbers, WONT BE JACKED IN THEIR UPPERBODY. So yeah, get elite level relative strength, and then just keep getting heavier and heavier while maintaining the same relative strength. Your absolute strength will go up, which means more muscle.
The tips are good, but you smiling, like, all the time, makes it a bit awkward to be honest. Specially the final smile on the "we are working out", I laughed. Not hating or anything, but I think that at the ending a "sly smile" would be better.
I figured someone who went to prison for 20 years would be a little more real than this. You are so different from the personality you have in your book - it's not even funny how scripted this is.
Al, you and Matt Schifferle are two of my main go to's when it comes to health and calisthenics. I am glad to see the shorter Ask Al's come back. I dig the style of format you're doing. I swear between your app, Get Strong, your books, and Matts content one could be calisthenics devotee for life and never get bored. Not to mention your wonderful wife Grace and Brother Danny. You all are the best! Thank you for what YOU do!
Thanks, Tony! We're Working Out! :)
Seconded. 👍
Al, you have to be the nicest most homest guy in fitness.
compare myself only with my old self.. if I'm progressing, then I'm good.
Awesome info as always, thanks for being an inspiration!
POWERFUL LESSON AL!! I LOVE YOUR WORDS AND THE MESSAGE YOU ARE SENDING TO THE CALISTHENICS COMMUNITY "TRY TO BE THE BEST YOU AS YOU CAN BE" Thanks for your words Al!! Kises for Grace and the doggy family!!!
Love this video Al! :) something I've been struggling with for a while is body image but you put it and muscle building into awesome perspective!
Awesome video Al!! Thanks!!
very positive message Al. thank you
Such a sympathetic human👍🏽
Every young man needs to see that video. Simple, to the point, and it throws away some of their insecurities about their muscles.
Man I love you channel !
Thanks Al. You are a terrific teacher.
Excellent video. Very clear and concise.
Hey hey hey al I’m a 60 year old totally committed to your advice in England I’ve trained my whole life but this is the most fun I’ve ever had thanks your a legend. Mike
I dig your videos and books Al. I just wish you would put out more videos more often. Also, can you add a 'custom workout' option in your workout app?
I purchased Get Strong a couple months back. Solid book.
You’re the best Al. You look amazing!
Very cool. I like your straight talk. Keep it up
Very clearly explained. And all true. Great stuff.
you words are powerful.
very informative,
positive,
and hopeful.
thank you for your great work
Hi al new to your channel, I'll keep watching it coz you seem a nice sincere chap. Have you heard of the long term convict in England called Charlie bronson (that's one of his pseudonyms). He has dedicated his life to mainly calisthenics (cell workouts mostly). Well, he uses a lot of old fashioned type exercises, bodyweight mainly. He isn't over muscular but is immensely strong, even at one time holding world records for sit ups, press ups etc too. Check him out. He uses the name Charles Salvador presently as he is an accomplished artist too.
Love all your videos very inspiring. I need some advice for a beginner routine. I'm 115kg and had shoulder surgery a couple of years ago so still getting the strength back. Any advice would be appreciated
Good Vid. Short. To the point and good info.
Nice one Al
This is so interesting. Great 👍
Love the Enzo and Cass reference!
Sweet! "Ask Al" is back!
Hi Al I really enjoyed the video. I have a question and concern for you. I weigh 105kg and I am 5 foot 6. I love the gym and I feel bodyweight exercises are better choice now to get back into the swing of things. I was wondering how long does it take for your joints to get stronger from bodyweight exercises before eventually getting back to external resistance training.
Hey hey hey Al. I have been doing you get strong program and got to phase 3 easily. I still progress in everything but chinups and pull-ups I'm stuck at 6 yet all my other workouts are getting easier to do for the phase 3 week 2.
You are the best Al
Hey hey hey, Al! What about diet? I don't see enough info on that. Pre work out, post work out, rest periods... what's your word on that? Cheers
Thanks Al, you're a legend
Hey Al! On rings I can do 3x6-8 good tuck lever pull-ups as my horizontal pull movement should I still also do regular ring rows with feet on the ground for extra volume? Those regular rows on rings require 3x12-15 reps to hit 1-2 RIR. Or I just can focus on front lever pull progression and increase volume here?
Yo, yo, yo, Al! I was wondering, does bone density increase as you train more and more? Can the bones get bigger? (talking here about bredth, not length) Thanks, man!
How do you balance calisthenics workouts with cardio? Especially when you were training for the marathon or triathlon?
Hey hey hey Al, love the beard...
Hi Al,
I have some question. I have back pain (when I sit too long time for example), because I have scoliosis. Can I do bridge, hip bridge ( and another type of bridge) or I cannot do them? Can you give me advice How can I heal my back problem? Maybe do the bridge will help me?
Thank you for your answer!
Competing against other people will almost always bring pain for both parties. Competing against your former self however, will always bring progress. Keep it real Al. See you in October. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
AWESOME!!!
What park are u at in NYC with the orange bars
heyee Al, I am new to calisthenics and want proper training routine plan. Can I?
Hey al , just wanna take a second to thank you for being honest and saying the truth .. it s really really rare in the fitness and movement fields nowadays , either they nothing at all or they just come at you with lies that does not trick a 6 years old kid .
Very true! If you took the steroids out of bodybuilding it would be even more obvious. Most of the people I used to see in gyms were there to socialize more than workout. Calisthenics have enabled me to really develop a decent physique.
Hey hey hey Al, what is the location of the park at 0.55 sec of this video? Thanks.
Hi Al, i look like Flander what can i do
Thumbs up for Ned Flanders!!!
Thing is with calisthenics is that you're lifting your own bodyweight so your body realises the more muscle it builds the harder it is to lift your bodyweight so it finds a balance and makes a small amount very strong and efficient. Gymnasts can look jacked because they're constantly training a different stimulus and their training is very very intense
Hey hey hey Al! I was wondering if their was a certain advantage to using bars over rings or rings over bars. Thanks in advance
wawnton childd generally speaking, anything under rings (pulling) is close to the same difficulty as a bar, though more grip angles are at your disposal, anything over the rings (pushing) is much less stable and harder. Generally.
you're the best
I think that as calisthenic practitioners, we more or less consciously know that we'd better make the weight that we lift as light as possible. Therefore, we tend to eat less. That's my theory.
Certain people eat more and do build muscle, and as you proved, they do only calisthenics.
I maybe have a question for a future ask Al. I always wonder, if someone is training only bodyweight, how much can a well trained person like you lift? I hear a lot about relativ strenght ect. But at the bottom line, lifting some weight is a kind of strenght. So we all know people in the gym lifting a lot of external weight, but how much does bodyweight training allows you to lift external weight? Is there a big difference between someone who's training only calistenics and a typical weightlifter or can you say, if someone is very strong with calistenics he can also lift very heavy?
I am not Al obviously but I think it will come down to the technique and efficiency of the movement...let´s take bench press and overhead press for example. If you train up to really hard progressions in bodyweight movments like full ROM handstand push ups and one arm push ups and planche push ups and combine that with some more higher rep schemes like diamond push ups and dips and pike push ups that would translate to bench press and overhead press BUT not right away. you must also learn the correct technique of the bench press and overhead press and get efficient with the movement that alone so you don´t injure youself but once you got it your bench and overhead press will go up very fast. you body needs to adapt to the new stimulus of extrenal load. I mean really fast like after a few sessions depending on your own weight of course up to 225 lbs and more for bench and close to your own bodyweight for overhead press...You will not get powerlifting totals of course, if you want that you must train specifically for it...but hey more that 225 on bench is already awesome, most of the average joes don´t get there plus calisthenics has some other benefits too...hope this was helpful
Can you make a day by day workout video (workout i need to do on each day of the week)
I already have! It's called Universal Strength and the link is in the description of this video. :)
Hey Al, just wanna ask some questions about OAP/OAC. I can do a OAC one full rep without perfect form. I've already seen different types of OAP/OAC training such as negatives and assisted OAC, i've seen your tutorials too. I just wanna ask you if practicing with a resistance band like doing a one arm chin up with the resistance band under one foot or knee is effective? For getting that second rep or mastering the OAC? Or is it just really doing negatives better for training OAC? What routine do you suggest i'd be doing? how many sets and reps? I really wanna tire out and wanna feel the burn training OAC. Like i just do 3x1 full rep each arm with kipping, not perfect form.
I am at the same level as you, I can get 2 OAC but I struggle through them and don't focus much on form. Not seeing improvement over the last month. I will now focus on negatives (top locked position and eccentric portion), increasing time under tension. The beginning and final portion of the concentric are usually the most difficult, so the assistence should be constant through all the motion - using a resistence band the way you are describing may not be optimal. Try to apply constant and minimal force through all the movement (assistence hand). I use a red band attached to the bar, the lower you grab it, the harder it should be. Finally, never do kipping, that's not gonna bring you anywhere, here we are training maximal force. Well, unless you are into crossfit...
Thanks for the advice, you're 2 steps ahead of me haha! I can only do one full rep only by my first attempt/set not perfect form in an active hang. By the next sets my eyes only pass the bar or even barely pass the bar in a bad day, 3rd set comes the kipping just trying to finish the rep but mostly fail. I'm not into crossfit, i'm just too obsessed in mastering the OAC, think we all are haha!
Hey Hey Hey! Al! When i do the bridge i feel it mostly on my lower back, is that the main muscle its supposed to work on?
Yes, bridging works the lumbar section especially
Maybe try some Hip thrust type work where you only lift with your legs to gain some lower body strength you may be missing for the proper movement. One huge tip for bridges is to try pulling your heels to your shoulders rather than just pushing off of the ground, your whole posterior chain is designed to pull together. performing a bridge this way helped me improve my posture like nothing else!
Когда перевод на русский язык будет, или придется английский учить?
Who are your calisthenics buddies at 2:36?
Nev'e bak be albüm arasında neler yapıyor helal olsun.
Can calisthenics can get you jacked and buff like Arnold Schwarzenegger's type of body when he was a bodybuilder?
Everybody seems to care exclusively about getting jacked when talking Calisthenics.Does anybody really care about being functional, joints and connective tissue health and having fun in the process?.Al, I'd add.... relying on external loads to further challenge muscle growth is compromising to say the least as long as you don't stick to proper form and full ROM, not a big issue at all compared to finding creative ways to challenge yourself with varying levers and points of contact such as Calisthenics preach.
i won't get pussy if i won't get jacked
do you choose to be that small? or you can change it with your diet but you just don't want to?
Russell Harris he's not small if you look back to the pre steroid era, which is before 1940. He looks like most of those guys did from that era. Some were bigger, some were smaller. Depends on genetics.
Russell Harris I doubt he has a strict bodybuilding diet eating the right amount of protien carbs and fats every single for years. Which is more important for mass then training.
Love From India🇮🇳👌👍
Calisthenics it's not about being jacked but damn If u train and eat you ll be, get strong!
So no amount of calisthenics will get me that sweet nose?! BTW the app is great, animations are really good/helpful!
In my opinion everyone should lift weights, including barbell, dumbbell and odd shaped objects, and do bodyweight training as well. It's not the same moving your own body than moving a heavy object. We need to train both.
I agree. I think it's great to mix both as they seem to compliment each other.
💪👍👍👍
The more weight you can lift for a given amount of reps, the more jacked you will be.
Now it's true that with even the hardest variations, your bodyweight is limited, so what do you do when you can do one arm pull ups and one arm straight bar dips?
You load up a suitcase with sand filled duct taped trash bags, hang it with the non working arm, and do your reps.... That simple.
so what do you do when you can do one arm pull ups and one arm straight bar dip?
easy...
You go slow with reps for more time under tension
You increase the reps. How many do you know can do more than 2 reps 1arm pull-up?
You flex your muscles for more tension, and believe me there's 0 differences between weight lifting and bodyweight training.
As jacked as you can get with weights, and here is MY explanation...
Lets say you can do 100 strict dips, 50 strict pull ups, 150 strict squats.
Okay, you are doing that weighing 160-180lbs..
That's good relative strength level. Close to or already elite level....
Now what happens when you eat yourself to be ,250-270lbs but you can still keep doing the same dips, pull ups, squats? Sane form, same numbers?
You will be one of the strongest and most jacked people on earth.
Because regardless of their bodyweight, no one that can do those numbers, WONT BE JACKED IN THEIR UPPERBODY.
So yeah, get elite level relative strength, and then just keep getting heavier and heavier while maintaining the same relative strength.
Your absolute strength will go up, which means more muscle.
I'd rather be as big as you than Arnold. At least you didn't have to tear a pec trying to get a bigger chest
if you train on splits to failure lots of reps and eat enough calories and protein its possible same as bodybuilder
im sure that this guy are high in all his videos
You'll get more functional muscles , Roman god looking physiques !
The tips are good, but you smiling, like, all the time, makes it a bit awkward to be honest. Specially the final smile on the "we are working out", I laughed.
Not hating or anything, but I think that at the ending a "sly smile" would be better.
Jaaaacked?
Al Kavadlo, is he Jewish?
I figured someone who went to prison for 20 years would be a little more real than this. You are so different from the personality you have in your book - it's not even funny how scripted this is.
DavePazz True. I assumed he was Paul Wade. My bad. Still, he is fake af :/
no need to go into genetic pseudoscience.