Monk’s Approach to Calisthenics & Strength Training

Mind, Body, and Personal Finance – the trinity of MonkWealth. Although in some of my monthly updates I mentioned that I keep a certain standard in regards to my physical condition, I never dedicated a full post about it. Until now.

This post will cover some of my knowledge, experience, and findings about calisthenics and strength training in general.

Note: many of the things will be abstract & high level – this post will not include a specific workout routine or recommend specific exercises. My goal is to cover as much ground and share my approach to the common strength training concepts.

A quote that can summarize my reasoning is:

As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.

That being said, if there is interest for sample routines or other specifics, I’ll write more on the topic in the future.

Creating a training program

The beautiful thing about strength training is that once you get a grip on the fundamentals, implementing them in any routine shouldn’t be a challenge. For example, understanding the importance of improving the athlete’s overall fitness tells us that we need to look at compound movements to cover all body parts. On a highest level, it would mean: legs, back, abs, chest, shoulders, and arms. So, an example bodyweight routine would consist of the following exercises:

• Squats
• Reverse hyperextentions
• Leg raises
• Push-ups
• Decline push-ups or Handstand
• Pull-ups

Especially as a beginner, all you need is a single exercise per category done in a good form. Of course, these can be complemented with isolation / non-compound exercises, but not necessarily right away.

The key point of starting to train is simplicity. Trying to balance every variation of every exercise can lead to lack of consistency and thus no progress. That’s right, as a beginner you don’t need a routine that includes wide, close, normal, diamond, decline, and explosive push-ups every session. A single variation will do just fine. And in regards to sets and reps, programming, progressions, and “I can’t do X” type of concerns, just keep reading.

As an intermediate to advanced athlete, although you can still make gains with higher progressions of the basics, it’s usually best to add more specific movements, based on your goals. As a rule of thumb, having a good balance between horizontal pushing, horizontal pulling, vertical pushing, and vertical pulling is a great way to approach the upper body training.

Goals

Setting smart goals is the most key element when it comes to fitness. And when I say smart, I actually mean SMART – specific, measurable, action-oriented, realistic, time constrained. For example “do a one arm pull-up in 3 months” (with a routine to support it) is a better goal than “run“.

You can always switch to a more casual routine if you need a break, but doing the same training over and over again is a recipe for inconsistency. While we’re at it, writing down your goals as well as keeping a journal of your training sessions can help you be more consistent.

Note that not everything you work on has to be a goal. For example, while I was still learning to hold a handstand, I just trained for it before my workouts or in separate sessions. The goal “Do a handstand” would be an underachievement (because sometimes I got lucky), but “Always be able to hold a handstand for a minute” would be quite a stretch. Once I got closer, I set the goal and put more structured focus into the movement.

Lastly, the specificity of the goals is also something that increases with experience. As a person who is just starting out, just sticking to a good full-body balanced routine for half a year is a great goal.

Sets & Reps

Strength training and endurance training can’t be trained simultaneously. Of course, there will be some carry-over, especially in early stages of training, but being able to do 150 squats in a set (endurance) is not likely to make you squat 150kg once (strength). The opposite is also true. Strength and endurance both need specific training for serious gains.

So, why did I open the sets & reps section with this? Because strength and endurance are on the opposite sides of the rep spectrum – maximum strength meaning the ability to do a movement once, while maximum endurance meaning the ability to do a movement as many times as possible.

There are also types of training in between these two. For example:

• Strength – 1-5 reps
• Conditioning – 8-10 reps
• Hypertrophy – 12-15 reps
• Endurance – 20 or above

These are not written in stone and the ranges can be extended depending on the athlete (body type, genetics, priorities), the exercise, and, most importantly, the goals. And there is an overlap between each, especially for easier movements and early in an athlete’s journey.

So, if your goal is to become stronger and you’re able to do more than 20 reps of a certain exercise, you should consider stepping up your game and trying a harder progression of it. For example, once you’re able to do (a maximum of) 10 pull-ups with good form, you can either go to the hypertrophy spectrum by increasing your rep range, or the strength spectrum, by switching to a one arm assisted pull-up (such as using a towel hanging from the bar to assist with one arm). And you’ll see both strength and hypertrophy gains with either, but being specific can help you target it better.

Another approach is doing the strength training first and following up with a couple of exhausting sets of lower impact movements to focus on hypertrophy. In the pull-up example, this can mean adding horizontal pulls after you’re done with the strength training.

So, sets & reps – what are the actual numbers? Well, instead of saying “you should do 40 push-ups“, again, I want to give you the concepts and let you implement them in a routine. The sets should be in the 2-5 range, while the reps depend on the athlete’s level, goals, and the difficulty of the movement.

Progressions

Good progressions are the foundation of a quality strength training routine. Actually, of any routine where the athlete expects improvement.

If a person who is just starting out is struggling to do a single push-up, just pushing for it will lead to no progress, bad form, and thus a high risk of injury. He should start with easier variations of the movement – go near a table, put his hands on it, and start with incline push-ups instead. Since this exercise is objectively not that difficult, the rep range can be higher. For example 3 sets of 30 reps would be enough to condition the nervous system and strengthen the muscles required for this person to hit the ground later. And if he can’t reach 30 reps, it’s fine. Doing as much as possible without going to failure or sacrificing the form will do the trick. On the next training session, try to increase the number.

Once there, start with the next progression. And it may not necessarily be a push-up – it can be a knee push-up. The athlete can get in push-up position, but support himself with his knees instead of his feet. This makes the amount of weight he needs to push smaller and hence the exercise easier. 3×20 of these and he can move up to regular push-ups. Only this time, he is guaranteed to be able to do them – the easier progressions conditioned his body for this movement.

All progressions depend on the current level of the athlete. A person who can rep out more than 10 one arm push-ups has no business doing knee push-ups. Or a weight training example: a 60kg bench press can be strength training for some, but also a warm-up for some.

Here’s a summary of the above mentioned push-up progression for someone who is looking for both strength and muscle gains:

• Incline push-ups 3×30 (as described with the example with a table)
• Knee push-ups 3×20
• Push-ups 3×20
• Diamond push-ups 3×20
• Archer push-ups 2×20 (one arm push-ups assisted with a straight arm on the side)
• One arm push-ups…

On the other hand, a person who is interested in doing 100 push-ups shouldn’t climb the progressions ladder, but do the exercise directly contributing to his goal – focus on high volume and do more push-ups.

Programming

Programming can mean the order of the exercises you do per day, but also the order of the workouts you do per week. Let’s cover both.

Intra-day Programming

The order of the exercises during a day should follow this structure:

• Warm-up
• Skill training
• Strength training
• Conditioning or endurance training
• Flexibility or mobility training

The main goal of programming is maximizing your (daily) potential and preventing injuries. Let’s briefly explain why is that so.

Warm-up

Starting with a warm-up is a no-brainer – if you want to maintain injury free, your body needs to be warm before attempting harder exercises. However, unlike other resources, I don’t recommend 30 minute warm-ups that include running, stretching, and other random movements. The warm-up should be short and specific to the training you will do. This is done by doing light movements and easier progressions of the movements that will follow.

For example, if your training includes working on pistol squats (one leg squats), you can warm up with a couple of sets of 10 squats. It’s important to pick exercises that don’t exhaust your body anymore, but just alert the muscles that tougher training will follow.

Skill training

The reason that skill work comes before strength work is because it’s best done while you’re fresh. It’s not likely that you’ll be able to do a quality handstand balance work (skill) after exhausting your shoulders with sets of decline push-ups and/or dips (strength). From the other side, training for a backflip (skill) is not likely to affect your strength training that would follow. The skill work can also be coupled with a warm-up. A few sets of handstands (and some push-ups) are great warm-up for handstand push-ups.

Strength training

The strength training part can also be broken down in multiple categories. The toughest exercises should be done first and the easier later. This uses your energy to the fullest where it’s most needed and prevents injury.

Conditioning / endurance training

Conditioning or endurance work follows, as these are not movements that you’d have problem doing reps of even with fatigued muscles. This part is best used for supplementing your main workout and adding hypertrophy work. An example would be doing pull-ups after one arm pull-up training, or even doing curls after pull-up training.

Flexibility / mobility training

Lastly, we have the flexibility and mobility training. Lengthening the muscles is best done when they’re warm and mobility training requires no effort, so doing this at the end (even as a cooldown) is the best way to maximize results and lower the risk of injury.

That being said, remember that not every routine is required to have all categories. If someone doesn’t care about acquiring any skill, he can completely skip skill work.

Inter-day programming

How many times per week do you work out is athlete specific. In general, the optimal time between two workouts targeting the same muscles is 2-4 days, depending on difficulty of the movements. Skill work can be done every day, as these movements shouldn’t exhaust the muscles.

A strength training program ideally should last 2-3 months, followed by a recovery week (where you rest the body by doing easier variations of the movements you’re working on), and wrapping it up with testing your maximal strength. After that, you can either continue with the program or restructure it, based on your achievements, goals, and priorities.

Beginners can expect to experience linear progression – each training being an improvement from the previous one, while intermediate / advanced athletes might need a few weeks to a full cycle to see any progress.

Rest

Rest between sets is a topic that is often misunderstood. As a rule of thumb, you should rest as much as you need in order to do the next set, without overdoing it (i.e. cooling down between sets). For strength intensive movements, this would mean 3-5 minutes, while for hypertrophy work it would mean less than 2 minutes. Measuring the time between sets is only beneficial if your program is structured around burning calories (losing weight) or endurance / time constrained / speed goals.

Wrap up

Congratulations on sticking until the end. Long posts may be overwhelming, especially if the reader is new to a field. But since I frequently mention strength training during my monthly updates, I decided to give the basic blueprint behind my approach to strength training.

As I said in the beginning, the goal of this post is not giving a full beginner routine, but teach the reader about the fundamentals of strength training, understanding progressions, and approaching sets and reps. If there is interest, I’ll write a specific post targeted to help beginners start without doubting their program. Comment if you’re interested and subscribe below to get a mail each time I publish a new post.

There are tons of things we didn’t cover: straight arm vs bent arm movements, periodization, mobility, flexibility, skill training, GTG (greasing the groove), shoulder health & position for balancing exercises (hyperextension vs flexion), weighted calisthenics, isometric holds, eccentric movements, the Prilepin chart, muscle length and levers, CNS adaptation, muscle fibers & motor units, specifics in terms of frequency / intensity / reps, how to pick exercises, microcycles / mesocycles / macrocycles, prehabilitation, overtraining, etc., etc., etc. So make sure to stick around and comment if you want to learn more.

To wrap it up, I’ll leave you with something in context of this blog: the future value of the price of neglecting proper care of our bodies today can be pretty expensive.