Whenever you hear talking about Calisthenics endurance nowadays, I guess most of you will match the classic

Calisthenics bodyweight training with high intensity workouts.

The keys here are developing stamina, including high volume of sets and reps, hypertrophy and cardiovascular flow stimulation.

When you train endurance, you gotta think about adopting a short time range within which you should set up different goals usually identified as routines that should be completed within that time range or even under it.

As for the skills training, also here you have to train smart and you cannot think of achieving such goals, simply by trying, but you gotta use a systematic and yet very efficient periodization.

Only by doing so, you’ll be able to get results that in the longer period will eventually lead you to complete the routines in such incredible short time ranges.

Compared to the classical skills training, endurance provides you with adrenaline since it’s more dynamic and less static, unless of course you include in the routines also isometrics in order to develop more strength aiming to improve the form of the basics such as pull-ups and dips for instance.

At the same time, you also work in an aerobic way that, when you train skills, doesn’t surely apply.

When you train in endurance, there are a few main rules to follow in order to get always a clean form for all the basics involved that are pull-ups, push-ups, dips, muscles-ups and bodyweight squats:

• Pull-up execution: in order to perform a clean and valid rep you must start by hanging with elbows locked, not bent arms; you gotta pull yourself up until the chin is over the bar every rep

• Push-up execution: for this exercise you must always make sure to lower yourself until chest touches the floor or the bar, avoid bent back, elbows have to be in a 45° slightly out of your hips line during the eccentric phase

• Dip execution: once you are on parallettes keep your back straight, core activated and then lower yourself so that with shoulders you “break the parallel”, hence you lower your shoulders below the elbows’ line (under 90°) at every repPic.-34               Pic.-35
  • Muscle-up execution: you should always aim to learn muscle-ups avoiding involving a kip with your legs while pulling yourself up and above the bar. Most important suggestion is to develop enough strength and explosiveness in order to avoid kipping and then you should approach all the endurance routines that are including such element. The reason is that then you can perform every rep in cleaner way, with higher speed and control at the same time
  • Bodyweight Squats execution: as we often have emphasized, no matter how you perform a squat, bodyweight or weighted, the execution has to be clean. For this reason always consider to keep feet slightly wider than shoulder-width, turned out at 45° (more or less). When you start the eccentric phase, bring your hips backwards and lower your butt so to go slightly below the line of your knees while keeping back straight before coming up

   

MISCELLANEOUS ROUTINES

15 DIPS + 10 PULL-UPS + 20 PUSH-UPS (BEGINNERS): unbroken x 3-5 sets – 5-8 minutes rest in between sets

30 DIPS + 20 PULL-UPS + 40 PUSH-UPS (INTERMEDIATE-ADVANCED): unbroken x 3-5 sets – 5-8 minutes rest in between sets

Once you get stronger, you can go on and add at the beginning, as well as at the end of the circuit, one or more muscle-ups and of course increase the repetitions for each exercise.

The maximum goal would be to complete the whole circuit under 5’ since, if you include also the muscle ups, the whole routine becomes like a Bar-Barians requirements routine.

VERSION 1

5 DIPS + 5 PULL-UPS/CHIN-UPS + 5 PUSH-UPS all the way down to 1+1+1 (beginner)

X DIPS + X PULL-UPS/CHIN-UPS + X PUSH-UPS (intermediate-advanced) all the way down to X+X+

In this case, your goal is to complete a pyramidal superset of the three exercises showed above with no rest in between each, just and only between the sets.

This means that you have to perform 10 pull-ups or chin-ups, right after 10 dips and at the end 10 push-ups and in this way, you complete the first set.

The ones after are going to be decreased of one rep per each exercise until scoring 1+1+1.

You can also decide to setup a total time within which you might want to complete the whole pyramidal superset.

VERSION 2

5 DIPS + 5 PULL-UPS/CHIN-UPS + 5 PUSH-UPS all the way down to 1+1+1 and up again to 5+5+5 (beginner)

X DIPS + X PULL-UPS/CHIN-UPS + X PUSH-UPS all the way down and up again to X+X+X (intermediate-advanced)

In this case, the density of the workout definitely increases and brings it to a whole new level.

Make sure to keep always a very clean form and, of course, it’s up to you adding more reps to each exercise or decreasing the total time, if you have setup one

CALISTHENICS E.M.O.M.

E.M.O.M. (EACH MINUTE ON MINUTE) DENSITY SYSTEM

Training Mode E.M.O.M = X reps per minute with a total that is double the goal set

The system works in a way that every minute you have to perform the total amount of reps and minutes setup for each workout.

This means that, every minute you have X seconds that are representing the time you can rest before going for the next set.

It surely will vary and eventually increase as long as you get stronger, hence faster in performing the reps established per minute, but always with very clean form, don’t cheat yourself!

It is very important to complete correctly each workout by performing the total amount of reps setup before going on to the next step.

It can happen indeed that, somedays, you might not be in your best shape; in that case keep sticking to the total you have setup as main goal and keep performing it week by week until you complete it correctly in each workout.

This means that, is not said that every week you are going to move on to the next step; it might take you up to a few weeks, a month or even more if you are a beginner.

Don’t rush, results will come in very effective way as long as you stick to the plan, maintain a clean form and be persistent.

You can decide to include this method together with a weighted Calisthenics routine or some skills work and, in this case go for it at least twice a week; if instead you plan on specializing yourself in Calisthenics endurance, then the best suggest is to dedicate even 3 times a week to it.

A short bracket is worth opening here to make clear the fact that such method is not strictly regarding only bodyweight trainings, where you can apply it to whichever basis such as dips, push-ups, pull-ups, chin-ups, but it can also actually be applied into bodybuilding and so to squats and many other exercises.

Let’s check more in detail how the programming looks like on a weekly/monthly basis:

Total amount of reps setup: 20 unbroken

Total amount of reps each workout: 40 (approximately)

Step 1/Week1: 10 minutes x 4 reps (each minute)

Step 2/Week2: 8 minutes x 5 reps (“)

Step 3/Week3: 7 minutes x 6 reps (“)

Step 4/Week4: 6 minutes x 7 reps (“)

Step 5/Week5: 5 minutes x 8 reps (“)

Step 6/Week6: 4 minutes x 10 reps (“)

Step 7/Week7: 3 minutes x 12 reps (“)

Step 8/Week8: 2 minutes x 15 reps (“)

After completing the whole process, you have to take a week off; rest and then, the one after, you will test your new maximal while being fresh.

The last two steps are not really following the previous goal of 40 reps total, but instead you are going to level up to a very short time range with some more reps

CALISTHENICS METABOLIC CIRCUIT TRAINING (FULL-BODY)

The purpose of this method is to let your metabolism work fast in order to burn fat and improve your stamina.

More specifically, since you aim to activate your metabolism faster and stimulate your cardio-vascular efficiency, you will have to work with a higher heart rate.

This way of working out leads to an oxygen deficit that will last longer after the workout.

It can be combined also with a hypertrophic training, this means that in between the weekdays where you rest from hypertrophy, you can work on it.

In order to build a successful metabolic circuit training you don’t need that much, if not planning which day of the week dedicating to it and how many exercises you wanna include in the routine.

In general we can say that you might wanna add up to 8 exercises targeting the whole body (upper/lower), if you feel like making it more challenging and most of all more variable in terms of types of movements.

Since it’s gonna be mainly bodyweight, I surely suggest including all the basics (statics/dynamics) of Calisthenics such as:

PULL: pull-ups/chin-ups (in all grip variations for both)

PUSH: dips/push-ups (same as above for push-ups)

CORE: hollow body elbow plank, planche lean,.bar leg raises (half/full ROM), bar knee raises, mountain climbers

LEGS: bodyweight squats (or weigthed ones with kettlebell/dumbbell/barbell), alternating lunges, jump squats, 180° jump squats, jumping split squats and so on

In terms of time required to complete a circuit, since it’s not for beginners, but for subjects with an already fair amount of total reps of all main basics, it can be between 20 and 45 minutes.

Considering the high intensity of the execution of each exercise with no rest in between them, remember to customize it according to your real capabilities in terms of strength and stamina.

First thing first DO NOT forget to perform a proper warm-up full-body of at least 10-15 ‘ prior to the circuit, so to get all the joints ready for the effort!

The rule is to begin with 4 simple exercises combined in the following order so to let the blood flow concentrating from top to bottom to central portion of the body, that’s what makes the metabolic circuit effective:

• Pushing exercise
• Legs “
• Pulling “
• Core “

For all the above exercises, I suggest choosing a range of reps between 5 and 10 and only for the core, one with 10 to 15 reps.

If you choose 5 reps, of course it means that you have chosen a more difficult exercise, rather than 10 where instead it’s a quite easy one to perform faster.

Once you have finished your circuit in the pre-established time range, DO NOT forget to perform also a proper cool down session of at least 15-20’!

So let’s sum up real quick how it looks like an example routine:

1 DAY A WEEK

WARM-UP FULL-BODY: 10-15’

• Dips x 10 reps Repeat for 15/20’
• Bodyweight squats (weighted) x 10repsNo rest between exercises
• Pull-ups x 8 reps1’ minute rest between circuits
• Bar Leg raises half ROM x 10reps

COOL DOWN: 15-20’

Repeat for 15-20”

No rest between exercises

1’ rest between circuits