In this article, we will explain a shoulder routine that includes different exercises. From those that involve great complexity in their execution to the easiest to perform. You can find this routine on 

The dynamic will be as follows: we will start with one rep and we will add one more in each exercise. This routine will allow you to know all the shoulder exercises that you can use to strengthen the muscles and, in addition, it is a challenge to complete it.

As you may have noticed, we have not added planche progression exercises because in this case we are focusing on strengthening the shoulders. While it is true that progressions are important (learning how to place the scapulae correctly, advanced tucked, tucked lean planche), ultimately, if your goal is to do the planche, you need to strengthen your shoulders. Therefore, the purpose of this routine is to use reps exercises, whether they are difficult exercises with few reps or simpler exercises with more reps. Since the most difficult exercises are placed first, you may not be able to do any at first. In that case, start from the exercise that you are capable of executing and gradually add exercises until you reach the complete routine.

 from the Smart Progress section of the app.

18 effective exercises that target shoulder muscles (including a challenge)

I recently analized a lot of scientific studies for the article I wrote about 

.

And I found some information that was tremendously shocking to me and that I can't help but share because it reveals things about calisthenics that perhaps are not taken into account today. So let's see what this information tells us, let's get started.

I would like to warn you that we are going to talk about training, but remember that a very important part of gaining muscle mass is diet, which we will cover in other articles.

 published by The International Universities Strength and Conditioning Association (IUSCA) that compiles a tremendous amount of papers that specifically deal with muscle hypertrophy and analyzes and summarizes the findings found in them.

Therefore we are talking about quite powerful scientific evidence. Despite there being a large number of studies, they were filtered to eliminate those that were not well designed or rigorous.

Specifically, the part that caught my attention was the loads recommendations, in which it tells us about how much load is optimal for hypertrophy according to different studies, comparing the results of using heavy loads, light loads and intermediate loads.



What science says about how to gain muscle mass



After analyzing the results of those studies, the conclusion they reach and the recommendation they give is that the best thing for a hypertrophy result is to use intermediate loads, at an intermediate repetition range that classifies between 6 and 20 repetitions, instead of using very heavy loads at low repetitions or very light loads at very high repetitions.

To clarify, they explain that good results can be achieved with all types of loads, but that it is more advantageous to use intermediate loads, since for practical purposes it is more efficient, less exhausting for the nervous system and gentler on the joints.

Let's always remember that this is in the context that with that number of repetitions you reach, or get close, to failure (80 - 90% of your capacity).



This is actually something that most of you would already know, it is something that has been done for hypertrophy for many years, maybe with a more limited range of between 8 and 12 repetitions, but today it is already known that up to 20 repetitions is also perfectly valid.

But, as I said, this is nothing new. What I found revealing and what made me want to write this article is the following question: how do these results relate to calisthenics?



You see, we all know that in calisthenics the basic exercises are push-ups, dips, pull-ups, reaching the point that there are well-known routines that basically consist of these exercises repeated over and over again. How would these exercises be rated in terms of load? That's the key.

For an average person who has some strength but is not an advanced athlete, pull-ups are a medium-load exercise: with 8, 10, 12 or maybe 15 repetitions they reach failure or very close to it. Even push-ups and dips are usually a medium load exercise for a person who has not been training for long.



What conclusion does this lead us to regarding what science says? For a beginner or intermediate person, typical calisthenics routines full of dips, pull-ups and push-ups are optimal for hypertrophy, and that is why such good aesthetic results are usually seen in the first months.

Without knowing it, they are training in the most appropriate way to gain muscle mass while gaining enough strength to continue advancing.

And this leads us to encounter a problem. When that person gains strength, adapts and gains resistance, push-ups immediately become a light load exercise, since they are quickly able to do more than 20 repetitions without too much effort, the dips may take a little longer but also relatively quickly you can do more than 20 without problems.

The ideal would be that from that point on, you would continue advancing but… What happens in practice? That the majority of calisthenics athletes continue to use these exercises non-stop in all their routines, going from the optimal stimulus they had before, to a light load that is no longer effective enough to continue gaining muscle mass.

It is very common to see intermediate and advanced athletes who, when it comes to their basic routine for hypertrophy, continue doing the same simple push-ups and dips that no longer cost them anything, so they would be working with light loads.

In the case of pull-ups it is different because there are very few people who reach the level of being able to do sets of more than 20 repetitions without problem, so the pull-ups do tend to maintain their effectiveness as a muscle growth stimulus.



Perhaps this is one of the reasons why the muscle group that usually stands out the most in calisthenics is the back. Even so, I have seen that many people seem to be afraid of doing sets of more than 10 repetitions of pull-ups, as if there were a law that prohibits it or some type of mental barrier that prevents them from trying to do sets of 12 or 14. or 15 reps.

This also means that it is not an effective exercise to continue gaining muscle mass, in this case not because of the exercise itself, but because we are not getting closer to our true capacity and therefore we are not getting closer to muscle failure.



How to gain muscle mass efficiently with Calisthenics



What I want you to understand is that we have it there, these exercises give us great results when we are starting and then all we have to do is look for more challenging variations to continue within what current science considers optimal for hypertrophy. .


But there is something that we have not mentioned and that I am sure many of you are thinking... The time has come to talk about the legs.


A different situation occurs with the legs, as the typical leg exercises with body weight are very easy almost as soon as you start as a beginner. Therefore, it would be a light load and we would not be doing an effective job.



There are very few people who cannot do 20 bodyweight squats or 20 lunges without problem. Therefore, these exercises would only be valid during the adaptation period of the first weeks or at most the first months. But we would quickly have to look for more difficult variants that allow us to give our legs the intensity they require.

And what usually happens in practice? First, there are many people who do not directly train their legs or do the typical thing of thinking that going for a run from time to time or playing soccer already counts as leg training. 

And those who do train them, stay with the typical exercises such as bodyweight squats, lunges, Bulgarians and others and do not advance from there. At most we have the exception of people who do variations of the pistol squat, which can be effective at the appropriate repetition range. But if in a complete leg workout the only difficult exercise you use is the pistol and then the rest of the exercises are the typical simple ones, the training will not be optimal for hypertrophy because only the first exercise was intense enough.

I still think that with Calisthenics you can train your legs well and we are even seeing that in an optimal way according to the latest knowledge. But it is true that you have to know what you are doing and it is not as intuitive as with the upper body. In the article on 

 we already saw that the legs require much more volume of work and now in this one we see that we must look for exercises that represent a medium load and not a light load. But if you take these concepts into account, you can train your legs effectively.

If you need examples of specific exercises that are difficult, without being the pistol squat, in Calisteniapp you have the list of exercises in the legs category, where you have a lot of examples of all the difficulties. In addition, you have 

, training programs and smart routines for legs that will make sure you give them a good workout. You can also take a look at 

 where I explain how to turn simple exercises into much more challenging exercises.



Also emphasize that scientific results recommend, in addition to focusing on moderate loads, occasionally combining with heavy and light loads, which could give extra results. Therefore, the approach we often take in calisthenics of doing some difficult exercises and strength progressions at the beginning of the routine and adding some easy exercises at the end to finish the routine can be beneficial as well.

Personally, since I started training with a specific hypertrophy goal and doing a bulking diet, I have gained 5 kg. (11 lbs) while maintaining a low fat percentage. During this time my training has been mainly Calisthenics, Weighted Calisthenics and some complementary exercises with gym exercises.



With this article I do not intend to create sides and make this a battle of Calisthenics against gym, or to try to see which is better, in fact we know that there are many people who combine both disciplines and do very well.

But I would like to put a little more value on calisthenics and not underestimate it, since for many people it is a training method that they love and they simply have to learn to apply a couple of concepts to give them great results.

Obviously, each person has their goals, and there are those who are not so interested in hypertrophy but rather what they want is to gain strength, do certain tricks, and so on. But for those who are interested in gaining muscle mass, keep this in mind, review these latest articles that I have published carefully and work hard. It's time for the image of Calisthenics to change.

Finally, let me tell you that this issue of scientific evidence does not have to be categorical, since over time new studies may appear that qualify, modify or discover new aspects that change our perspective. But at the moment it is the most advanced knowledge we have and the smartest thing is to take advantage of it.

There are also obviously specific cases for each person and personal experience must always be taken into account.

That said, I hope you find the article useful.


Calisthenics IS effective for muscle building (Science confirms ✅)

In this article I would like to make it clear to you once and for all and in a simple way how many sets to do for each muscle group for maximum hypertrophy, whether for calisthenics training, weighted calisthenics, weights or a combination of these.

What I want is for you not to be left with doubts about whether your training has a low volume of work or too much, but rather to find the optimal point based on the most advanced knowledge today, both scientific papers and empirical knowledge from the most prestigious trainers. (Scientific references at the end of the article)

For those who have already planned their training, it will help them check if they have an adequate number of sets, and for those who have not yet planned it, it will help them do it correctly and that from the beginning their training meets the requirements to effective. So let's get to it.


Optimal training division for hypertrophy in Calisthenics



Regarding the division of the training, to make it easier and more effective for you to calculate how many series you perform per muscle group, I recommend a push-pull-legs division as I believe it is the simplest and most effective way to divide a hypertrophy workout. where you will be clear that most of the exercises work the same muscles and therefore it will be easier to count how many sets you dedicate to each of them.



However, if they do torso-leg type routines or full body routines, it is a little more complex, although not impossible, to calculate the volume of work.

Another valid way would be a more specific Weider-type division in which each day you work a specific muscle group, instead of a group of muscles. For example, a chest day, a shoulder day, a back day, a quadriceps day, a femoral day, etc. But current knowledge tells us that it is probably simpler and more effective to do push-pull-legs.

That said, we are now going to specify the number of series recommended for each group, and we will do so depending on the experience and ability of the athlete.



How many sets to do per muscle group in your Calisthenics training: beginners



We will start with beginners for whom we recommend a minimum of 10 sets per muscle group per week.

This will be valid for all muscle groups but we must take into account a detail in the case of the legs, since we cannot count the whole legs as a single muscle group, but rather we will have to divide them at least into quadriceps on one side and femoral and glutes on the other.

Therefore, for the legs to get effective work, we should take into account a minimum of 10 series of exercises more focused on quadriceps and 10 series of exercises more focused on the femoral and glutes. And if we do exercises that involve both zones, such as squats or split squats, they would count as half a series for each group.

If this seems very confusing or complicated for you, we can simplify it by saying that the legs require twice as many sets as the rest of the muscle groups and with that you could design your routine effectively.

Also clarify that when I say series I mean effective series, series in which you really feel the work at the appropriate intensity, which in this case would be between 80 and 90% of your capacity. Warm-up sets or sets where you are calibrating intensity do not count.




How many sets to do per muscle group in your Calisthenics training: intermediates



Now let's go to the intermediate athletes, in which we are going to recommend a minimum of 15 effective series per muscle group and taking into account the same considerations with respect to the legs.



How many sets to do per muscle group in your Calisthenics training: advanced



And finally the advanced ones, for whom we recommend a minimum of 20 effective sets per muscle group, again with the considerations mentioned above.

There is another category that is considered elite, which would be athletes who have been training for many years and are very close to their natural limit, in which it has been seen that progress can be made with 25 effective series per muscle group, but it has not been investigated with more sets than that, so if you are an elite athlete with many years of experience I will leave it up to you.


If you already had your routine planned and divided before reading this article, I recommend that you do a count to check if you are in these ranges that I have mentioned, and you can make the necessary adjustments. If you are about to plan your routine, just keep it in mind and you will be able to plan a really effective workout.

As you can imagine, the number of series is not the only variable that affects the intensity of our training and the hypertrophy stimulus, although it is one of the most important. For the rest of the variables we have the cadence of movement, which I recently 

, and we will work on the rest of the variables in future articles, so stay tuned.

Also keep in mind that in Calisteniapp we have training programs, free routines and smart routines designed by me taking these factors into account, and every month we update it by adding more content of all kinds, reviewing previous content and implementing new functions. So download it If you haven't and stay tuned for news.



1. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Brad J Schoenfeld, Dan Ogborn, James W Krieger

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27102172/

2. A Systematic Review of the Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy
Eneko Baz-Valle, Carlos Balsalobre-Fernández, Carlos Alix-Fages and Jordan Santos-Concejero


https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/hukin-2022-0017

3. Schoenfeld, B., Fisher, J., Grgic, J., Haun, C., Helms, E., Phillips, S., Steele, J., & Vigotsky, A. (2021). Resistance Training Recommendations to Maximize Muscle Hypertrophy in an Athletic Population: Position Stand of the IUSCA. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning,

https://journal.iusca.org/index.php/Journal/article/view/81

How many sets per muscle group in your Calisthenics training

One of the most repeated doubts in terms of training is regarding the cadence of movement. Is it better to make the movement slow and controlled? Is it better to do the slow negative and the explosive concentric? Is there a difference if you want to train strength or hypertrophy? Is it necessary to make a stop at the end of the negative, at the end of the concentric? How many seconds should each cadence last?

In today's article we are going to solve these doubts so that it is very clear to you how to optimize the cadence according to your objective, be it strength or hypertrophy and stop having these doubts, with practical examples so that you can apply them to your training right now.

I would like to let you know that in this article I will be showing examples with calisthenics exercises but what we are going to explain is perfectly applicable to gym exercises, weighted calisthenics exercises, elastic band exercises and others.

 discount code in case you want to buy supplements, sports equipment or healthy eating, keep in mind that with my YERAI code you have a 10% discount plus direct gifts plus points that can be accumulated and exchanged for more gifts. The code is entered at the bottom when you go to confirm the order. It is one of the best ways you have to support me to continue creating content so I thank you very much.

During my career as a calisthenics athlete I had never trained with a goal of pure strength, nor pure hypertrophy, since I had always had other goals such as learning different tricks, competing and so on. But now I've been training for a few months with a clear goal of strength and hypertrophy and I've been learning, testing and applying different concepts that are giving me quite good results, and that I think will soon be reflected in my physical appearance and my ability, stay tuned so you don't miss it. One of these important concepts is the cadence of movement.

Before we dive into cadence itself, let's explain the general differences between strength training and hypertrophy training.


Strength training is based on moving more mass, specifically strength is defined as mass times acceleration. This mass can be our body weight, an external weight, or the sum of both.

Normally for strength you train with a low repetition range, between 1 and 5, and therefore using a load, or in the case of calisthenics, a difficulty of the exercise, according to that number of repetitions.


Hypertrophy training is based on increasing muscle mass as much as possible. To do this, we simply seek to give the muscle the amount of work volume it needs with a stimulus of mechanical tension according to that volume. Normally in hypertrophy you train between 6 and 20 repetitions with a weight or difficulty of the exercise adapted to that number of repetitions.

So with this in mind, what role does movement cadence play in these types of training?



Movement cadence for strength in Calisthenics



Let's start with strength, as we mentioned, it is mass times acceleration, therefore, in order to have the greatest possible strength, we are interested in having the greatest possible acceleration, it would not make sense to do a slow concentric, it would be counterproductive.

Although the technical and safety aspects must also be taken into account, because doing the repetition as quickly as possible without good control of the movement can be dangerous and cause an injury. But within a controlled and safe movement, it is in your best interest to do it as quickly as possible.

Therefore, knowing all this, what I am going to recommend for strength is:

- A relatively slow refusal or eccentric to prepare for the movement and maintain control of the weight or exercise without losing balance.

- A very small stop just before the concentric, which is enough to make sure that we do not take advantage of any inertia or rebound that worsens the technique.

- And a concentric as fast as possible but in which we do not lose control of the movement.

This could be summed up as a 3-1-1:


- 3” negative
- 1” stop
- 1” concentric


Although these numbers are just a reference to make it easier for you to memorize, because in real life it may not be exact, especially the stop, which is usually shorter than 1" and the concentric, which depending on the difficulty of lifting the weight or performing the exercise may be effectively 1" or even less, or if the exercise is difficult for us or it is too much weight for our capacity, the fastest we can move can be 2" or 3".

Also keep in mind that depending on the exercise, the order may change as we may start directly with the concentric or with the eccentric. But hey, we can say that the reference would be 3-1-1 and we understand each other.


Cadence of movement for hypertrophy in Calisthenics



Now let's go with hypertrophy, and here I am going to tell you that you have a free hand.

As we mentioned before in hypertrophy, the important thing is that the muscle receives a sufficient volume of work with an intensity in terms of sufficient mechanical tension, therefore as long as the targeted muscles are given that stimulus, the cadence of movement can be the one you like the most.

But it is true that we can be smart and use the cadence to our advantage for the hypertrophy stimulus. I think the clearest example is with the exercises that are easy for us.

Imagine that you want to train the pectoral doing push-ups or dips in parallel, but your level is already good in those exercises and you can do more than 30 repetitions without problem. In this case, doing sets of 12 or 15 repetitions would not be a good hypertrophy stimulus, so you would not be training optimally. However, if you modify the cadence and do very slow and controlled repetitions, it is possible that with 12 or 15 repetitions you will already be at 80 or 90% of your capacity.

The same is true the other way around, if an exercise is difficult or intense enough to give you that good kick in 10 reps, you can do it with normal cadence no problem, you don't have to be looking for ways to play with the tempos to make it more difficult. .


In order to make a general summary, we would say that for strength we should use a controlled cadence in the eccentric, a short stop and a fast concentric, which we symbolize with a 3-1-1.

And for hypertrophy we summarize by saying that you can do the cadence you want, as long as you receive a stimulus around 80% of your capacity between 6 and 20 repetitions.

Regarding Calisteniapp, let me tell you about the news, which is that we have just launched a new update with 10 new free routines, some of which have been asking for for a long time. And regarding the subject of this video,  in Calisteniapp we have a section of free sessions specific to mouscle groups and another specific section for strength, as well as smart routines and specific training programs in the pro version.



I hope this article has helped you and see you in the next ones.

Cadence in Calisthenics training for Hypertrophy and/or Strength

Calisthenics and climbing are two disciplines that have a lot in common, as in both you must have the ability to control your bodyweight. Therefore it is a very good idea to combine them and take advantage of the characteristics of each one to improve on the other.

In this article we are going to see which Calisthenics exercises are the ones that can help you the most to improve your climbing performance.


One of the decisive factors in being a good climber is the strength of your fingers, so exercises that focus on this aspect will help you a lot. Specifically, we have two examples:



In this exercise you must support the weight of your body with your fingers extended, so it will help you strengthen their connective tissue and make them much more capable. If you find it too difficult, you can start by doing variations for beginners such as kneeling push ups or inclined.


One of the classic exercises for climbers is to do pull-ups, or simply hang on the bar, with your fingers. You can vary and progress by changing the number of fingers you use. If you find them very complicated, you can do isometric, negative or Australian pull-ups. You have more information about the variants for beginners 

Another of the muscle groups that we are going to need the most in climbing is the entire area of the forearms. To work them we can use the following exercises:




They consist of hanging from the bar for a certain time, you can do it with two hands, one hand or varying between both arms.


For forearms we have specific exercises on the floor and with an elastic band, I leave you some examples in 

Another of the important sections is to have a good capacity in abdominals and hip flexors, to be able to lift your legs while hanging. For this we can use 3 main progressions:


Obviously for climbing you need to have a good strength in pull-ups, it is also convenient for you to master different types of grip to adapt to any situation, for example:




Once you master pull-ups you can try advanced versions, which will give you extra strength, for example:


The flag is an element that combines pulling and pushing strength, and that can be similar to some situations that you find yourself climbing, so it will be very useful for you to practice it. Here some examples:



I hope this article helps you. Soon we will add specific routines with these exercises for different levels in our Calistheniapp app, so stay tuned and subscribe to our Newsletter to receive the latest news.

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18 effective exercises that target shoulder muscles (including a challenge)

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