Post: #26

Truly, all you need is a bar. And where I live there are these outdoor courses with pull up bars and other stations around.

If you can do 20 dead hang pull ups, lots of dips, a few hand stand push ups and rep out some pistols - you'll be in better physical condition than 99% of the country.

Post: #27

(12-02-2014 02:11 PM)Downtown Wrote:  To be "fit" and "Strong" you really dont need to be able to do much more than a set of ten of pistols on each side. if you're 200 lbs thats like squatting (close to) 400 lbs with both legs.

how so?

Post: #28

How do you mean?

I mean, one leg squatting your entire body weight, whereas with two legs each does half the load...?

Post: #29

Lol. When it said that someone is squatting X amount of weight, it is referring to the external load added on top of their body.

Post: #30

I may be wrong about this let me try and work this out in a rough manner.

In a squat, with the legs as the moving/functional bodypart, the dead weight that it is bearing is the Upper Body + Whatever External Load.

So in an unweighted or "bodyweight" squat, each leg is by default/normally carrying "half" the upper body.

When you lift one leg into the air and make it a pistol squat, the working leg is now bearing more than it normally carries. What else does it now carry? First, the other "half" of the upper body. Second, the other leg. So the external load that the working leg has to carry is half bodyweight. Framing it as a two-legged squat, that's like barbell squatting your bodyweight.

Again it's not completely exact, as the back muscles involved are not "halved" in a pistol squat the way the legs are. But a rough guide is: a 200 lbs man doing an unweighted pistol squat is working that leg about the same as it would be in a 200 lbs barbell squat.

Post: #31

I think using your logic its actually normal load+half body weight. which would make the cumulative total greater than 1. probably more like 5/4 or 6/4 (1.25 or 1.5)

Post: #32

Squatting with two legs 200 bw + 400 load is 300 per leg

A bw pistol squat is 200 for one leg. So yup it be like sqatting 200 load

Difficulty comes from the balancing act

Post: #33

(11-30-2014 08:10 PM)civpro Wrote:  ^^ Yes that's true. They're hard as fuck to progress to though, they require crazy flexibility & coordination.

There are plenty of great progressions to get you there, though. The crazy flexibility and coordination is something you work towards. It's not something you "need" so much as a goal.

Start with bodyweight squats, then closed leg squats. Once you get strong there, you can start moving to one-leg versions. For example, start out sitting in a chair and stand on to one leg. Then when you can do sets of 20 with that (nice and controlled), you start in a standing position, sit down, and stand up again for a rep. Then maybe move to assisted pistols, where you hold on to a bar or something as you raise and lower yourself. And so on...

I'm sure there are plenty of other in-between progressions you can work on - it has been a while since I looked them up. Plenty searchable by Google. I think with working towards pistols it's important to aim for the 20-30 rep range before you move to a harder movement because that gives you plenty of time to build up some good technique and balance in that movement before making it harder. You really don't want to take it too fast once you're on one leg or it can be a little hard on the knee.

You can also throw in jump rope, box jumps, and sprints for more leg work without weights.

Personally, I do both weighted movements and bodyweight movements, depending on the day and how I feel, as another poster suggested above. I still stick around 20-rep range even weighted, though I sometimes finish off with a heavier set or two. High reps might not be ideal in many cases, but I'm more worried about getting to pistols than I am about pushing big weight at the moment, and I feel like sticking to lighter weights and higher reps will allow me to practice the movement and build up the muscle endurance I need to maneuver my body like that.

I like to think of my visits to the gym as practice rather than a time to accomplish particular feats (like lifting a certain amount of weight a certain number of times). So everything I do is more about the future than the moment. That said, I still get a damn good workout from my approach.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #34

Eh, better to just do barbell squats.

Post: #35

I have no doubt pistol squats are great, but they always give me pain in my knee and lower back when I use the full range of motion [ass to ground].

I have found shrimp squats to be a good alternative. They're basically one legged body squats with the non active leg held behind you. If you're doing them on your right leg, you would curl your left foot to your butt and hold your left ankle with you left hand. Here's a good demonstration.





By the way, a good resource for bodyweight exercises is 'Never Gymless' by Ross Enamait. Ross trains boxers for a living and he knows what he is talking about. Some of the exercises are more hardcore than you can probably imagine - can any of you do clapping one hand pushups?

Post: #36

I just rocked my first muscle ups yesterday. So psyched. This fall I've checked off squats and hand stand push ups along with the muscle ups - whats next?!

Post: #37

(12-05-2014 04:56 AM)civpro Wrote:  Eh, better to just do barbell squats.

You may prefer them, and that's fine, of course, but "better" is pretty subjective. In this particular instance, I'd say it's quite a stretch and very arguable on multiple fronts.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #38

After years of lifting, I find weights boring.

I now do 100 pull ups and 100 push ups in every session, followed by a few other routines.

The pull-up/push-up routine consists of doing 10 pull-ups and then 10 push-ups, I do this non stop 4 reps. I take a break and do the same with a different grip, overhand usually. Then I will finish with the remaining 20.

I am delighted how my body has responded to this workout, my arms get jacked right away. My upper body is looking solid, even better than when I am on Test.

Post: #39

I used to do a lot of field geology and we'd live in temporary work camps with no gym. I bought a TRX suspension trainer and used that with decent results. It's no replacement for a gym but it's better than nothing.

TRX

Post: #40

(12-04-2014 07:34 PM)Downtown Wrote:  How do you mean?

I mean, one leg squatting your entire body weight, whereas with two legs each does half the load...?

The pistol squatting 'math' is faulty. It's a lot more like if you can do 10 pistols, you can probably 1 rep 125% of body weight, no where near 200% body weight.

For the record I can do eight or nine pistols at 195# (have not really trained them as I don't much care for rep work) but cannot do anywhere near a 200% body weight back squat. I've been slacking off in the gym for months.

My third day going to the gym I could squat only 85% body weight but could do two pistols no problem.

If you can do 20 on each leg, maybe you can do closer to double bodyweight. If you want to achieve a double bodyweight back squat through lots of bodyweight accessory work (like you can only make it to the gym once a week, but you can hit pistols every other day), you must work some kind of leaping or weighted (or both) variation in there.

The best way to get to do pistol squats, IMO, is through assistols (or assist pistols). Just grab a doorframe and start squatting. So what if you're cheating. I can guarantee that if you can do a set of twenty assisted pistols you can do at least five or more regular pistols. Here's a video of a girl using a resistance band for assistance.

(12-01-2014 07:08 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(12-01-2014 06:16 PM)SlickyBoy Wrote:  Impressive! Funny, in the first video I could already tell that wasn't an American's house - there's way too many big books in the background. BTW, if you have access to a lot of big books that may or may not get read, they make excellent stands for elevated push ups.

A statement like that makes it clear that Canadians are far less ignorant...

Canadians are too broke paying for universal healthcare to afford Kindles.

(11-28-2014 06:54 PM)Sensei Creation Wrote:  So I'm basically in a very precarious financial position . One that makes even going out on dates / to the gym unfeasible .

Now I use a lot of my own bodyweight for exercising : Push ups , Curls , Planks and I possess a 10 KG weights that I use regularly , I also possess an Ab Toning belt which I wear when I'm working on my abs ( Or when I'm doing a long and tedious activity which still kinda requires some form of focus ( Such as cooking )

I've noticed some results , I'm still skinny but a bit more defined . Is it actually feasible to substantially build muscle using ones own bodyweight ? Or must I wait until my first pay check ?

Money is sort of a luxury that need not determine what kind of shape you are in.

If you want weights to work out with, you can't beat the cost per pound of sandbags. The hardest part about it is finding a container to put it in. Lower body is very easy to work out with sandbags. Upper body is a little harder. If you want more information I can send you a PDF or two.

Otherwise I would just pick a few calisthenics moves to work on and figure out how to add weight to them. For instance you can do pushups, then weighted pushups (throw some books into a backpack on your back). Or pullups, then wear a backpack and do pullups. There are also more difficult variations of the same moves.

Post: #41

Oh hell yeah, sandbags are a great choice for high intensity training.

Google Ross Enamait and Sandbag.

Post: #42

I don't think pistols and bb squats are that tightly correlated. I mean clearly they both hit your legs pretty hard but the leverage is different. I can squat 1.5 my bodyweight but I can barely do a pistol (still working on the progressions). Currently my bb squat failure is in my abs and my pistol squat failure is driving out of the hole - which is much deeper than I typically bb squat. So I don't think you can say x amounts of pistol squats = x % bw on a barbell. Probably a little different for everyone.

Post: #43

Pistol squatting is even less than the equivalent of a barbell back squat.

You're not lifting the leg that's doing the squatting any more than you would with a barbell back squat. According to this website

http://www.exrx.net/Kinesiology/Segments.html

a well proportioned leg will weight about 17% of your bodyweight. So that means that for a 200 lb guy, he's doing something like a 166 lb back squat, and that's without all the benefits of loading your back with external weight. So it's even less effective than an 83% bodyweight back squat.

The real benefits of pistol squatting is that they're the only non-equipment way to exercise your legs. The only way to get any gains with them is to do them for mass reps (we're talking sets of 10-20 for 5 sets minimum) or to do them explosively, with a leap for height and distance. That's exactly the way gymnasts do them.

The one legged squat is not hard to work up to, either. Back when I lived overseas for 6 months, I worked up to an easy set of 5 in my apartment in 2 months of fairly dedicated work. I started with the ability to do something like 30 bodyweight squats a set (I'm a smoker so my conditioning is and always has been horseshit).

Step 1
Work up to at least 50 bodyweight squats, if not 100 consecutive. Look up form for these, since they're lightweight you might as well use picture perfect form to get the most benefit out of these.

Step 2
Open a door so that you can hold onto the doorknob or the edges of the door for assistance, lowering yourself down on one leg. Work up to 5-10 easy reps.

Step 3
Lower yourself on one leg, and raise yourself on two. This will teach you the balance of it, and teach your one leg to work on it's own in the eccentric portion. I did these alternating on each leg for sets of 10. If you're still shaky "in the hole", I recommend doing a pause at the bottom for a count of 5-10 seconds. That would be the picture furthest to the right.



Step 4
When you're comfortable with step 3, attempt a pistol. You should have enough strength to perform at least one. For bodyweight exercises I tend to make a rep goal (let's say it's 20 per leg) and I time myself how long it takes to do them. The next time, I try to beat that number. Once 20 gets too easy, increase the reps, attempt explosive reps for height and/or distance, or add weight with whatever weight you have.

Post: #44

(12-05-2014 12:33 PM)rudebwoy Wrote:  After years of lifting, I find weights boring.

I now do 100 pull ups and 100 push ups in every session, followed by a few other routines.

The pull-up/push-up routine consists of doing 10 pull-ups and then 10 push-ups, I do this non stop 4 reps. I take a break and do the same with a different grip, overhand usually. Then I will finish with the remaining 20.

I am delighted how my body has responded to this workout, my arms get jacked right away. My upper body is looking solid, even better than when I am on Test.

I'm bumping this thread as I have recently started doing this 3/4 times a week. I do 40 push ups and 40 pull ups back to back in alternating sets of 10.

Though it's only been a few weeks, it's slowly getting easier and I have noticed that my physique is slowly improving

Post: #45

Try a kettle bell, you can get a 24kg one for around $70, takes up no space and you can do a full body work out. Ive been able to maintain a pretty good physique without going to the gym. I add in pushups and park pull ups. Just got tired of going to the gym, the smell, the pop music, the monotonous work outs I was doing year in year out. As for legs I just do sprints and trail running (strengthens ankles and all the mobility muscles). Our legs weren't really made for squatting 300lbs, and if you do sprints they will be big enough. The guys in the gym with the classic chicken legs get no leg work outs period. I credit one of the dumbest periods in my life when I was obsessed with getting my squat up. What a waste. Granted without hitting the barbell you will never really look huge with clothes on unless you are naturally built like that, but if its fitted or a tank top you will stand out.

Post: #46

A sangbag is near on free...

Post: #47

Try this and report back: