Basic Exercise Progressions

[Samson Knight]

(Handstands are a great gateway to other exercises, as well as an excellent test of balance and strength.)

There are a number of bw exercises that are common--pushups, pullups, situps, squats--these I consider to be the Four Horsemen, or the gold standard for basic bw exercises. Together, these four exercises work your entire body.

But they can get boring. Or easy. When they start to get too easy, the natural progression is to just do a lot of them. But sometimes you don't want to do more, you want something new, something more challenging. That's what this tutorial is all about. I want to give you some more options that you can use to saturate your ptoss runs with verve and more difficulty. This makes it more fun for freestyling also.

Pushups

We all know that the easiest pushups are done on the knees or at an incline, such as while leaning against a counter or a wall. Next in difficulty comes the regular, plain-jane pushup. Back and legs stiff, head up or in line with the spine, arms breaking 90 on the descent. But what about after that? Here are some progressions:

Exercise	Description
elevated pushups	pushups with the legs elevated, propped up on something.
single leg pushups	a standard pushup with one leg off the ground. Extra bonus: hold that leg out to the side.
divebombers	assume a pushup position with your butt in the air (like an inverted V). Lower down by "swooping," ending up in a "cobra stretch" position. Reverse the swoop back into the inverted V position.
diamond pushups	pushups with the hands together instead of shoulder-width apart
alternated grip	pushups with one arm out to the front and one arm back by the hip.
chinese pushups	assume the inverted V position like in the divebombers, but instead of swooping, just lower yourself like a normal pushup, remaining in the inverted V.
plyo pushups	explosive "clapping pushups"
handstand pushups	pushups from a handstand position
planche pushups	most advanced pushup; your body will be taut in a pushup position but your feet will be suspended in the air.

Situps

Situps are a great ab exercise, when done correctly. Here are a few more situp-like exercises you can do to break up the monotony.

Exercise	Description
unassisted situps	situps done with nothing holding the feet.
decline situps	situps done on an incline, with the feet positioned above; example: hanging upside-down from a bar
russian crunches	lay down with one leg straight out and elevated 6 inches, the other leg is bent, off the ground with that foot near the straight leg's knee. Perform and "oblique" crunch--touch the opposite elbow to the bent leg's knee.
atomic situp	lay down with both legs straight out and elevated 6 inches. Perform a crunch while simultaneously bringing your knees up to your elbows to "meet in the middle"
V-ups	lay down with both legs straight out and elevated 6 inches, hands straight out above your head. Bring straight arms and straight legs together above you, like a V that closes up.
dragon flags	most advanced core exercise. for this you can use a pole. lay down with the legs straight out and elevated 6 inches, hands behind your head gripping the pole. hoist your legs and body straight up parallel to the pole; your shoulder blades will be the only thing touching the ground. lower your whole body as one--straight--down to 6 inches and raise it back up.

Pullups

Pullups are hands-down the greatest back and bicep exercise. They are challenging enough as-is, but here are a few more versions you can add to your "ptarsenal."

Exercise	Description
alternating grip	grab the bar with your hands facing opposite directions (one facing away, one facing in). the bar will now be running parallel to you instead of perpindicular. pull yourself up so the bar goes on one side of your head, then repeat with the other side.
L-sit pullups	pullups with the legs straight out in front of you, held at 90 degrees
kipping pullups	pullups while using specific momentum (this is actually a whole new, total body exercise) see the video.
muscle ups	grip the bar with a false grip (wrists above the bar instead of below it). Pullup yourself up high above the bar, then transition into a dip. see link for more.
lever pullups	the most advanced pullup. for these, your entire body will be straight, parallel to the ground. do pullups. see link for more.

Squats

The standard, weighted back squat is probably the single most important exercise out of all of them. It is king, but since we're only using bodyweight exercises, we need to make the standard squat a little more difficult. Here are a few ways you can do this.

Exercise	Description
single leg squat	"hover" one leg off the ground and squat down.
single leg touchdowns	the same as the Sleg squat, but you're touching the ground with your opposite hand. see link.
pistols	the granddaddy of all bw squats. this one requires that you go "ass to floor" (ass to calf actually). hold both arms straight out front and sit back on your contact heel until your butt touches your calf. raise back up, driving through the heel. see link.

So those are a few progressions to the basic exercises we all known and love. Your now have a few more tricks in your bag to make your ptoss runs more productive and exciting. Get out that and utilize them!