Don’t program calisthenics, play, and practice instead.
I trained with a buddy and his friend, a 2½ to 3½ hour calisthenic fest.
Before they arrived I was supersetting freestanding handstand practice, and sets of 10 pushups.
Freestanding handstand ability is (re)learned fast.
The holds are getting more frequent, and more consistent at a handful of seconds.
Once they arrived ; first it was a brief amount of 2 pump burpees with 2 bw squat chasers.
We spent a good deal of time doing weighted pushups, and weighted pushup position planks.
My standard weight was my 160lb buddy, though I did one set with his 145lb friend.
I went for four weighted pushups with the 160lber standing on my upper back as the first weighted thing, getting a triple again.
Two days in a row of tripling him standing on my back for weighted pushups.
Without much rest I doubled the 145lber, deciding with that “enough of weighted pushups” for me, onto…
160lb live weight/human weighted pushup position planks – throughout the time I did five :45 sets.
A set of 35 dips to beat their counts in the 20-30 range, and told the story where at 22yo 235lbs I out dipped a 28yo 135lber, in addition to how at 20/21 on an improvised v angle did over 100 dips.
Then there were some weighted dips for me, and them both.
I got up to 1 rep at +135, failed a single at +180, and soon after doubled +130.
While during the dips they two did pullups and weighted pullups, I wasn’t in the mood.
I haven’t done dips much for a long while, and these aren’t far from summer/fall 2019’s PRs.
I did 5 x +135 in 2019, a double a couple hours of volume in isn’t far off.
As they were getting ready to leave I went back to the freestanding handstand practice superset with 10 (or more) pushups.
Got three sets of mantra reps in there.
Probably an extra half hour of that after they left.
The 145lber near them leaving asked me if I just do calisthenics.
I told him that I will lift when I have access to and the mood to use weights, told him my pushup daily philosophy, and can easily be thought to be calisthenics only because it can appear that way.
It’s not purposeful, calisthenic only just happens, and weights may still end up thrown in.
You never lose access to calisthenics. They’re with you everyday, everywhere.
You can find a tree or something to chin from.
Pushups, bw squats, burpees, all done anywhere with very little floor space.
100yd lunging (swamp lunges) can be done anywhere with reasonable space to do so.
A section of wall for handstand work, and wall sits.
I don’t see any purpose in programming calisthenics.
Lots of pushups gave me the ability to hit some solid weighted pushups without much specifity.
Ditto to dips and weighted dips.
A skill like handstands requires practice, and practice is something you just do.
With calisthenics you play, and you practice.
Volume will get you far.
It’s calisthenics, do some daily.
No need to program.
Playing around you find abilities volume gave you, then you can continue the volume just a little heavier to continue to build the high end strength.
A bit of increasing my wall handstand pushups saw me able to human flag.
I discovered that I could do one arm pushups in a hotel room after my buddy hit his face on the floor attempting.
You get strong off of high reps.
High reps feed into moderate reps which feed into low reps.
Going just a plate or two (45 or 90lb) on the weighted pushups and dips for moderate reps and high volume pushes the low rep ability up.
A human is very simple for adding weight to the pushups and pushup position planks.
It’s more visually striking than plates.
I’ll get video of girl(s), even heavier guys as the live weight for the two exercises.
The weighted pushup position planks carry over to standing ab wheel.
I may try one soon.
Weighted pushup position planks are the best ab exercise I’ve found.
Not only is it abs, it is serious full body stimulus.
The value of planks is when the core shakes working hard as fatigue sets in.
Adding weight makes it more of an ab thickening strength stimuli, while saving a lot of time.
With forearms down it’s easy to cheat.
Pushup position is superior.
It’s becoming my favorite exercise.
Though I need to be doing more wrestler’s bridge work!
I contemplate how to make a video of weighted pushup position planks even more visually striking.