Powerlifter tries Calisthenics for the 1st time

Today we have a special guest

Domingo arrived in Rome to try Calisthenics.

I actually came to Rome to let you try powerlifting.

And I exploit it. I use you for a Calisthenics content.

Before starting, I remind you that he also made some content about me.

It’s live now on my channel by the way.

Yes, his channel is in the description, we'll post it here too.

What is my channel?

Domingo Poliandri.

If you want to visit my websites you’ll find my Calisthenics programs.

Okay, let’s start with an isometric on the bar, which I call Tuck L-Sit.

Basically an easier version of the L-Sit.

Tuck & Sit? Tuck L-Sit.

Tuck L-Sit.

I'll show it to you, you'll have no problem doing it.

Arms completely extended. Relax your lats and raise your knees, Boom.

Easy. I do sit-ups at the gym like this.

However, in isometry it is different. Domingo: Oh do you want me to stay still?

now a slightly more complex version, let's go down, leg straight, toe straight.

Wait I can't hang still, because I'm swinging too much.

Great, perfect. Can we hold it for 8 seconds?

I'll try.

OK Go. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

7 and 8.

Ok, great.

Every exercise will become harder and harder?

No, no, we are going to try different skills and exercise every time.

Now pull up hold.

You told me you have tried chin ups a few times in the past, so you're already able to them.

Let's do a Pull up hold.

Ok, I should be able to do it with no problems.

Top, here, hold. Do not support yourself with the chin

ok, perfect. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,

8, 9 and 10.

I feel a little discomfort on my forearms. Andrea: Probably due to the grip.

Yes, but I'm a little sore from the previous training sessions.

Now, pull-ups.

Let's do 5 or 6 quality pull-ups. Calisthenics pull-ups, are great to increase your basic pulling strength.

Ok, can I also do touch and go?

Yes, touch and go. Domingo: Perfect.

Domingo: How about the grip?

I suggest thumb under the bar,

it's better to always have a secure grip, especially when you need to do more advanced exercises like the muscle up.

Excellent.

Okay. Perfect.

You probably have 12-15 pull-ups.

Did you expect less? I’m not that weak.

Well, you don’t train much pull exercises, so you never know what to expect.

There's transfer on everything.

Okay. So, since there is transfer on everything, let's move on to a slightly more complex variant.

The simplest variant of a slightly more complex skill.

Front lever.

hanging at the bar, knees towards the chest, so that a lot of your legs weight will be neutralized and you hold the position.

Okay. I have to try to balance everything.

Lean back as you raise your waist.

Bring your wrist almost to the level of your pelvis. Excellent, perfect.

Now, if you feel like it, you can move your knees apart a little.

90 degrees.

Here, hold, hold here.

Okay. A little difficult though.

Yes, I feel it on the abs.

It’s not that bad, we can work on it.

There would be slightly more difficult variations. Let’s do a dynamic raise if you feel like.

So let's start by hanging on the bar with one leg extended, then raise yourself to horizontal position for a moment.

Go into front lever position for a moment and then go down.

Ok

We can work on that one. You don’t have to hold it.

This is too difficult.

If you make this a little more dynamic you can work on that with the assistance of a coach.

Slowly, slowly.

He has huge legs guys.

Go go.

Don’t be afraid, I’m holding you a little.

Down, down.

Keep going, here it is. Domingo: Should I touch the ground?

No, no, heels to the glutes. Oh, here it is.

Great, come back down.

You didn’t feel safe. It’s all in the mind.

Dom: I don’t like to be upside down. You feel strange, huh? Dom: Yes.

Now let’s use the parallettes, so we can try some push stuff.

Let's do a slightly more difficult variation of the Hanging Tuck L-sit.

The same as the 1st exercise of today, but we are going to do it on the parallettes now.

The goal is to hold the position with straight arms.

I'll make you do this first because then the final goal after that will be this.

If you lean back too much you’ll feel like falling, be careful.

Ok, this one is okay.

Now rest a few seconds.

Let's start like this.

Shoulder perfectly perpendicular to the wrist, then raise your legs.

Boom just hold the position.

I should push back a little bit to balance myself then.

But not too much because if you over do it you can fall.

Okay, great.

One, two, three, four, five and…Boom.

Here we can see some problems with the stabilization, that’s the same problem I had when I tried the bench press the first time.

Yes, yes.

It’s okay, you are not used to straight arms work, also you do have a significant muscle mass on the legs.

If I were your Calisthenics coach I wouldn't let you start training the L-sit before mastering the Tuck L-sit.

Anyway, it's okay for your 1st time.

Let’s try a handstand with parallel bars.

Domingo extreme, he wanna try the handstand.

It's because with the parallettes like this you start with bent arms.

You should start with straight arms.

It’s easier because you only have to manage this part of the pelvis. Domingo: Like this?

You need to bring your pelvis to shoulder level.

Straight Arms, raise your pelvis as much as possible, here a little flexibility also comes into play.

And from here you do this.

Ah, beautiful.

More controlled.

Let's... let's put this here. You’ll need this just in case you fall…

I’d like it closer, because I don’t know how to fall safely.

You are heavy dude, so I don’t know if I’m able to hold all that muscle mass.

Remember to keep you arms straight.

Straight arms.

Oh, here it is. Here it is, well done.

Tighten your abdomen and glutes. Great, easy.

I was pushing you a little to improve the form..anyway not bad.

Obviously, there are a lot of steps to follow to learn the handstand.

Domingo: How much time a person needs to learn the handstand?

It depends, it could only need a few weeks if you work 2-3 times per week properly, especially if you start with a good shoulder mobility.

Someone told me since I have a short humerus I could have trouble holding it without leaning forward.

Not really, it all depends by your shoulder mobility.

Let's move onto something a little more technical.

We are talking about push exercises, this is your field since you are very good on the bench press exercise.

Let's do a planche lean.

From a plank position squeeze the glutes and lean forward as much as possible,

try to hold it without helping yourself with the feet too much.

Obviously the more you lean, the harder the exercise.

The goal would be to hold it for 6-7 seconds.

More protracted. Beautiful, like this. Perfect.

From a plank position squeeze the glutes and lean forward as much as possible,

Place the weight of the back of your foot on the ground. Can you feel it? Don't lose the scapula.

Great.

This is the basic for planche.

try to hold it without helping yourself too much with the feet.

Do you feel the sensation of falling forward? Go go. Domingo: Yes, here.

Here, exactly.

Domingo: I feel it here.

And that's a different type of work from what you are used to do.

We do a lot of straight arms exercises.

If you see the biceps of the ring specialized gymnasts are super developed.

Let's try one last thing. Planche lean push up.

When you feel difficulty stop leaning forward and start the push up.

Do not relax your abs and glutes.

Go go.

Okay, up up.

Push, push. Don't lose the scapula.

This is the complete opposite of the work you do during the bench press.

We call it “hollow position” when you have protracted scapula with posterior pelvic tilt.

You feel it?

Yes, I should focus on the complete opposite activation of the bench press. What’s the point in doing this?

This is useful for planche push ups

These are the planche push ups.

Domingo: Obviously with protracted scapula you have more lat activation. Andrea: Exactly.

By having a scapula retraction you risk hurting yourself and you don’t have the same muscle activation/stability.

If I relax during the planche my scapula will do like this.

It could lead to shoulder and scapula problems.

But if I do with adducted scapula I feel stronger.

You feel stronger because it is easier, but easier doesn’t mean safer and better.

The final goal is to lift your feet off the ground, staying horizontal, if you stay adducted you lose the horizontal form.

Why should I keep my scapula abducted?

if you stay adducted you lose the horizontal form

Oh that’s the final goal, got it. I didn’t know it.

Obviously if you manage to do the planche, it means that you have worked on it for months, or even for some years,

it means that the body is conditioned for that specific angle of work.

This is a purely strength complementary exercise that I use as “muscular work”.

The less you lean, the easier. The more you lean forward, the harder the exercise.

But since I have a lot of weight on my legs I have to lean more forward right?

Yes, but most important is to have a lot of shoulder strength. (That you already have)

A way to not lean too much forward is to use your fingertips.

When I'm doing a planche on the floor I always use my fingers,

because I haven't trained the planche on the ground during the last 6-7 years

so in order to not to have problems on my wrists I do increase the length of my arms just enough to not lean too much forward

Obviously you struggle more when you do it like this, because you must be able to hold all your weight on your fingertips.

From a powerlifting coach to a calisthenics coach I can safely say that you are very good at teaching calisthenics, you are a machine.

I have met quite a few calisthenics coaches but among those guys you are the most prepared one.

I'm happy to hear it! This makes me very happy.

My knowledge has accumulated over the years by doing many workshops, I have had many calisthenics classes.

When I start talking about calisthenics, I have so much information here that I start talking too fast,

But you never made a mistake today, that’s good.

Let's finish the video with dips.

Perfect.

They taught me to stay with depressed scapula.

This is the type of execution that I would consider a “calisthenics dip”.

Almost like a “Hollow position”, squeezing the abs and glutes for a better stabilization of the movement.

This is easy work, for someone who does a lot of bench press.. How much do you bench press? What’s the peak you have reached?

Domingo: 190kgs. So, guys, we're talking about a crazy pushing strength.

I also have done a street drifting competition, but without ever having trained dips.

I have done 80kgs, but I stopped there because I didn’t know how much more to add.

I hate to use the belt, put the weighted discs on the chain etc etc.

That’s why I don’t like to train weighted exercises. I think there are a lot of good bodyweight variations.

Domingo: You like to add an hold at the bottom?

There are a lot of different solutions that I like more than adding extra weight, like supersets.

I like to destroy my shoulders with handstand push ups and then add some bodyweight dips for the pump.

Obviously, it's not pure strength work. I mean, if your goal is to do heavy load, then you have to train with extra weight.

However, I have found a good compromise with bodyweight exercises that if done properly will give you a good strength and also aesthetic too,

especially if you follow a good diet.

So, do you recommend to train calisthenics basics for someone who wanna learn calisthenics skills?

Dips, pullups, yes.

I always recommend to train the basics, especially during the first few months of training.

This is why I suggested to try these exercises today, even if “easy”, you can improve safely before moving towards the most advanced exercises.

Many calisthenics athletes tends to be a little kyphotic with “flat” chest...

That’s due to all the planches.

Why nobody adds the bench press? It would help a lot for the posture.

Because many like to train with their own bodyweight at the parks or don’t have a good powerlifting coach to learn the proper bench press pattern.

Now that I have tried the bench press, I will probably start doing it once a week...

During the bench press I see you doing the exercise almost like a plank. You rely a lot on your shoulders and arms.

If you stay with better position you can push better. So your arms would no longer tremble.

The calisthenics weak points are the chest and legs in my opinion.

While in my opinion the strong points are biceps, triceps, front deltoids and lats.

Anyway, I'm happy with your result today.

You could easily work on the basics and make a quick progress.

Is there someone who is able to do advanced calisthenics/gymnastic skills with big legs?

There is an Italian gymnast, Andrea Russo, have you seen him?

He is a very strong Italian gymnast, with great legs and a good flexibility too!

He is able to do Iron Cross, Planche and Maltese and much more.

Would it be easier to learn skills with skinny legs and then add some muscle mass than the opposite, right?

Yes, it would be easier, this is exactly what I’d like to do in the near future.

to add some muscle mass on my legs even though I would notice more difficulty in doing the most extreme skills.

Domingo: You already have the skills, so it’s probably easier to maintain them while working on your legs.

it will be a little harder to keep doing skills, especially for the most advanced ones, but I think I could still perform pretty good anyway.

I’m sure that everything is possible when you have the right work ethic.

The exercises that I liked the most today are the L-sit on the bar and on the parallettes. Andrea: These are the basics

About the planche exercises I feel like those are too specific for calisthenics.

This is why I have added just a couple planche exercises, just to see what your feeling would be.

In my opinion these were the most important basic exercises for calisthenics.

Anyway, I think that every elite athlete could reach a good level in every other sport, especially if we talk about “strength” sports.

Like crossfit, powerlifting, calisthenics and similar. If you have the right mindset you can do great things with some years of patience.

Thanks to Domingo. Thanks to you.

He came all the way here just for the video. We've been in this gym for 6 hours.

It's 8pm now. We arrived at 2pm. Dom: Yes, time goes fast, especially when you record so many contents like we did today.

We did a lot of content.

Remember to visit my websites for my calisthenics programs.

You’ll find some of the basics you have seen today, in my opinion is a must have for every calisthenics athlete who wanna understand how to program basic bodyweight strength.

Thank you again. Thanks to you.

Ah you are more serious, more professional.