Grind Style Calisthenics
Training Bible Month 12
Introduction
Welcome to the 12th and final month in the year-long Grind Style
Calisthenics Workout Program! Give yourself a pat on the back if you’ve
made it this far from month 1. Many will begin the GSC program but few
make it this far.
To celebrate I’ve saved one of my all-time favorite workout formats for
building muscle and strength with calisthenics. This is a format I created
with a buddy of mine with whom I used to do a lot of playground workouts.
It’s a simple plan, but it is guaranteed to smoke your muscles very quickly
to create a strong hypertrophy stimulus.
Workout Format
The workout combines the strength and hypertrophy phases together to
create a solid 1-2 punch to the muscles. Not only does this approach hit the
muscles hard, but it also does so within a short period of time so it’s sort of
like a Micro Workout which comes in handy for getting your workouts in at
this hectic time of year.
It works by starting off with the usual tension and stability phases to warm
up the tension chains. From there, you hit a heavy set of either pull-ups,
dips, or hard squats. That’s the “Strength phase” portion of the workout so
keep the reps relatively low (hopefully 10 or fewer).
But the real fun is what you do right after that hard push, pull, or squat set
where you immediately drop set to an easier variation for twice as many
reps!
For example, let’s say you do a strength set of dips and get 8 reps. Great,
as soon as you’re done immediately drop to the ground and bang out 16
push-ups.
Another popular example is to do pull-ups and then twice as many rows, or
shrimp squats with twice as many jump lunges.
It’s a great way to turn your muscles into lead really fast since you’re not
giving yourself a break between the harder and easier exercises. When my
buddy and I did this, we would hold each other’s feet up so we would do
the push-ups right on the dip bars, or the rows right off the pull-up bar
without even giving ourselves the transition time of going from one station
to the next. It was brutal!
I recommend saving a rep or two in the tank during the strength set since
getting twice as many reps in the hypertrophy set will surely smoke your
muscles.
Give yourself plenty of rest between each round of the two sets so you can
get a decent number of reps later. Just be mindful that you’ll fatigue the
muscles to a pretty high degree so you don’t need more than a few rounds.
Usually, 2-3 will suffice. You’ll probably also notice a big drop in your
endurance in later rounds as well. So maybe your first round will be 8:16
reps, but then 6:12 and then possibly 4:8.
Lastly, the support chains are going to follow something of a similar format
where you’ll complete a number of reps for each chain but then
immediately hold the most challenging position for a 10-second isometric
finisher right after you complete your reps for the strength phase.
Enjoy the pump!
Weekly Format
As with last month, the 3 movement chains (push, pull, squat) are the focus
of this workout and the support chains are the “active recovery days” in
between. Since the movement chains are so fatiguing, I recommend giving
yourself plenty of days in between workouts to recover.
It’s also recommended that you do your push and pull chains on one day
and then you can work your squat chain on another day with the support
chains. Or you can even push the squat chain on a separate day so you
can focus on really hitting your legs hard.
Examples:
Workout #1 Push / pull
Workout #2 Squat / Flexion / Extension / Lateral
Or
Workout #1 Push / Pull
Workout #2 Squat
Workout #3 Flexion / Extension / lateral
Here are some weekly routine templates you can use:
2-week ABA / BAB split:
As always, feel free to adjust these routine templates however you wish to
work with your schedule and preferences.
Training equipment resources:
You can use any sort of equipment you have on hand, rings, bars, yoga
straps, suspension straps etc. You can also find isometric trainers and
suspension straps through the two companies I highly recommend; Worldfit
and NOSSK. I also highly recommend the Duonamic Eleviia Doorway
pull-up handles which are a great quick setup option for small apartments.
Use promo code “Grindstyle” at checkout for 10% off!
