The Art of Manliness - #177： Homemade Muscle & Bodyweight Training

00:00:00.000 right mckay here and welcome to another edition of the art of manliness podcast so i'm a barbell

00:00:19.740 guy that's what i do for my strength training but i know a lot of you who are listening love

00:00:23.500 body weight training body weight exercise and i understand the appeal i appreciate it i mean

00:00:27.640 what i love about body weight training is that you can do it anywhere you do it from your house

00:00:31.100 so it's convenient it saves you money because you don't have to pay for a gym membership or

00:00:35.880 a lot of equipment so i definitely get the appeal and it's all there's also that functional aspect

00:00:40.680 of it like it's like how the body is supposed to move right doing pull-ups and push-ups and etc

00:00:44.220 problem i've had with body weight training because i've tried it a few times it's like i just don't

00:00:47.580 think there's like i've never been able to find good programming for particularly online it's just

00:00:51.660 a lot of it's just do as many push-ups as you can do as many air squats as you can etc etc

00:00:55.620 and there's really no progression i came across this book homemade muscle and the guy who wrote

00:01:00.200 his name is named anthony arvonitakis he has laid out programming that has periodization built in

00:01:06.420 that uses body weight training so you have consistent progression with the training and it uses the same

00:01:11.320 principles that you find in the barbell world and i love how detailed he gets with it not only

00:01:16.340 does this programming aspect impress me about anthony but his he's got an amazing story when he was in

00:01:21.060 his 20s he was in a terrible terrible accident and it ended up costing him his leg and he found

00:01:26.880 body weight training or used body weight training to get stronger not only physically but also

00:01:30.900 emotionally mentally spiritually to overcome this huge setback in his life and we're going to talk

00:01:37.180 about that story in the podcast as well as get into the nitty-gritty of body weight training so if

00:01:42.460 this is something that you've been interested in and you want to do or you do body weight exercises and

00:01:47.140 you're trying to figure out a way to get some sort of programming in it so it's more systematic

00:01:50.900 you're going to love this podcast so without further ado anthony arvonitakis and homemade muscle

00:01:56.540 anthony arvonitakis welcome to the show thank you very much brett it's an honor being on your show

00:02:11.940 well uh so you uh wrote a book called homemade muscle it's all about body weight training which

00:02:17.400 i think is going to interest a lot of our our podcast listeners uh but before we get to that

00:02:22.020 let's talk about how you developed this program how you got into body weight training because it's

00:02:27.280 it is a it's an incredible story um so it all started several years ago with a a life-changing

00:02:35.040 accident that happened in greece where you're from yes right yeah can you tell us about that that

00:02:41.200 accident and uh just what would happen what happened right that changed your life sure so i'm 23 years

00:02:49.340 old i'm uh studying in greece i'm studying in a sports science university in thessaloniki and during

00:02:56.660 that time i'm also working as a pizza delivery guy you know make some extra bucks aside from

00:03:02.340 bodies and that and one night uh one night i just i'm crossing this road and suddenly i crash with

00:03:10.540 this really big jeep and i just start flying into thin air so i was probably from what i was told i flew

00:03:19.040 in the air for about 25 meters uh i think that's something like uh uh 70 feet i think so i end up on the

00:03:30.500 pavement and well before i actually end the pavement the the fun thing is that time really goes slow in

00:03:37.120 this situation you know it's kind of as you see and so time goes really slow i have this like really

00:03:43.820 weird feeling of lack of uh weight of um feeling myself and i land on the ground i don't feel any pain

00:03:55.960 at first you know because of the whole like hormonal response of your body adrenaline and this and that

00:04:01.780 and i lift my head i look downwards and i see that my ankle is basically laying on my knee and you know

00:04:10.840 i'm wearing jeans so i can't see any blood or you know any trauma but you know i realize that that's not

00:04:17.060 a good sign so i freak out a little bit i don't feel any pain i'm like what the hell is happening

00:04:23.480 but you know after a few i would say half a minute i don't know uh you know the pain comes in

00:04:30.580 i feel this like really fiery burning feeling uh through my leg and you know after that people

00:04:38.280 came around i wait for the ambulance they took me to the hospital where i stayed for six weeks i had

00:04:45.100 about uh i think i had seven operations during those first six weeks and yeah they were basically

00:04:52.060 trying to reconstruct my leg which was severely broken smashed a lot of skin missing so you know

00:04:59.140 a lot of plastic surgery a lot of surgery in general and that kind of summarizes the accident

00:05:06.820 i don't know if you want to learn more yeah so that was the accident but i mean what's i mean that's

00:05:10.920 which is traumatic but it seems like the really hard part uh emotionally mentally was after the accident

00:05:18.540 for the next few years so i mean tell us about that i didn't know about this device that they put

00:05:22.280 on your leg i didn't know this existed um so part of the reconstruction process uh they had to affix

00:05:28.960 a device around your leg can you tell us a little bit about that like what how what effect it had on your

00:05:34.820 life yeah so what happened after the accident was that i was told uh i would have to basically uh not

00:05:45.160 walk on my leg for a year and you know for me that was quite traumatic because i was always used to

00:05:50.740 exercising in my life i was always a big fan of uh i was a rower i was a canoe kayaker and you know i grew

00:05:57.620 up doing sports so that was really frightening for me and they had this devices as you said on my leg which

00:06:04.380 are called external fixators and what they do basically is they put pins through your leg and so

00:06:10.920 these pins go in your leg and out of your leg so you basically have like open little wounds um

00:06:16.700 and the reason they do this is because these pins are attached to like a greater metallic device that

00:06:23.540 keeps the bone steady and it allows it to heal but also because i was missing six centimeters

00:06:29.540 two and a half inches of bone this also helps regenerate bone tissue and lengthen the leg so every

00:06:36.800 time the bone heals a little bit the device pulls the bone away and it creates more uh calcium between

00:06:43.640 the wound so that helps elongate the leg and anyway i had like all kinds of weird operations like they took

00:06:50.440 bone marrow from my hip and to put it in my leg to help speed the recovery which didn't work

00:06:56.460 i had a lot of plastic surgeries i had in total 13 surgeries over the next five years so you know that

00:07:05.120 one year basically end up becoming five years because my healing wasn't um

00:07:10.360 progressing as fast as they thought so you know it was that that was the real part you know waiting and

00:07:18.760 like never um having any progress and you know having your doctors telling you that okay you have to wait

00:07:26.060 another three months and those three months become half a year and so like oh i'm 23 years old all my

00:07:31.800 friends are moving on with their lives like they're finishing their studies they're finding jobs and i'm

00:07:37.040 basically doing nothing and of course i ended up really depressed it was like it was a really dark time

00:07:43.880 for me those five years were probably the darkest uh time i'll ever have in my life because you were

00:07:49.140 just basically bed bound you just had to sit up lay down all day and that was it yeah i was basically

00:07:55.520 either recovering from a surgery or waiting for a new one so yeah i couldn't do a lot right and then

00:08:01.380 even you ended up moving from greece to the netherlands right just yeah yeah to continue see if you can

00:08:07.640 actually improve this yeah i came to the netherlands for a second try but you know they did their best

00:08:12.900 here really good doctors but we we couldn't actually fix the up so at some point uh i took the decision i

00:08:20.660 told my my doctors that you know i want my leg amputated i want a prosthetic leg so move on with

00:08:27.600 my life because you know like for me continuing my life with a cane and you know not being able to do

00:08:33.440 basically anything of the things i like to do wasn't an option that you know seemed functional for me

00:08:39.800 so i mean tell us about that i mean what

00:08:42.640 at what point it seems like when you made the decision to amputate your leg which is a really

00:08:51.160 big decision right i mean you're losing a part of yourself um it seems like that was the point where

00:08:56.360 body weight training came into play and started i kind of prepared you for your amputation can you

00:09:03.160 tell us a little about that yeah so the moment i took the decision to have my leg amputated uh first

00:09:10.020 of all i started meditating at that time so i've never i've never meditated in my life and that

00:09:16.060 helped me a lot to like deal with all my emotions and after i got like my mind a little bit settled

00:09:23.580 down i started training again because i thought you know i have to train in order to be prepared for this

00:09:29.860 surgery so i had six months to prepare for the surgery and i thought what the hell i'll get like in

00:09:34.940 my best shape of my life and you know prepare my body prepare my mind so i can go through this last

00:09:40.560 surgery as prepared as d so at that point the gym was far away from me i didn't have any means of

00:09:48.480 transportation and i realized that you know i can i should find a solution to train at home so

00:09:54.320 i basically started doing some pull-ups on this door frame i didn't even have like a pull-up bar

00:09:59.380 um i had a long cast on my leg but i still you know hopped around on my good leg and just started

00:10:06.380 doing some pull-ups on the door frame and after that i started adding some push-ups i started adding

00:10:11.300 some ab exercises you know all that combined with nutrition and you know meditation every day to keep

00:10:19.020 my mind healthy as well uh led to a really for me a really remarkable transformation because like i went

00:10:27.320 from completely depressed and unhealthy like i had lost all my muscle um prior that i had prior to my

00:10:34.700 accident i had i wasn't in shape you know i was pretty unhealthy i was i wasn't eating any more

00:10:40.240 healthy and within a few months i basically got into great shape my body got started looking really good

00:10:48.880 again and i started feeling amazing and you know i i'd never expect that i'd feel so good again in my

00:10:54.840 life and for me that was like remarkable i couldn't believe that i was feeling so good again and all

00:11:01.500 that helped me go through the amputation uh really calmfully it was basically the easiest uh operation i

00:11:09.200 had and because of course it was also a permanent solution finally and i don't know due to all my

00:11:16.360 positive habits due to that mindset i was building for six months through meditation through nutrition and

00:11:22.100 through exercise uh the operation was remarkably easy i didn't expect it to be that easy right and i mean

00:11:30.160 what what insights i mean what was it like after you amputated legs i mean that's a big deal right you lose

00:11:35.100 part of you i mean were there what insights about life did you get from that experience or was there anything

00:11:40.900 that surprised you about amputating your leg that you thought i wasn't expecting to feel that you know or you

00:11:49.100 have that emotional response uh tell us a little bit about that well when people ask me nowadays about

00:11:55.740 this uh my response is that my my losing a leg was basically the best thing that happened to me

00:12:02.000 because it changed me completely as a person and it changed me towards the good and you know there are a

00:12:09.440 lot of like psychological studies on this on how you know people deal with trauma and there seems that

00:12:14.520 there is truth in that old saying that you know what doesn't kill you makes you stronger it's not in

00:12:20.220 old people but people who used to deal problems like that tend to uh do that so for me it changed

00:12:28.680 everything because like for example prior to my uh accident i was generally a really negative person

00:12:35.480 uh low self-esteem um low i never had self-belief uh i never took care of my mind i was always

00:12:43.580 training all my life and avoiding emotions and people through exercise so you know whenever like

00:12:49.460 i got frustrated i just went and run like 15 kilometers and you know that tends to calm you

00:12:55.480 down for a little bit but it basically asks the problem you don't deal with it so i discovered that

00:13:01.860 after spending five years in bed that you know we have to also train our minds it's uh training your body

00:13:09.380 is really good really important but you also have to train your mind so for example prior to my

00:13:14.840 accident i was a person that never read any books like i've probably read maybe five books outside

00:13:20.340 school um now a person who reads a book a week like for me that's remarkable uh if i told my old self

00:13:28.260 that i wouldn't believe it and through my accident i basically realized that there's no such thing

00:13:34.520 or at least there are very few things one can't get over you know like my one of my favorite authors

00:13:41.800 robert green calls it the ultimate uh alchemy in life transforming bad stuff into good

00:13:47.940 so once you realize that losing a leg is something you can deal with and you know it's not that difficult

00:13:55.300 to overcome that basically spreads into your life that it becomes a mindset and you know

00:14:01.000 it sort of became turned into a game for me like every time something bad happened after that

00:14:06.440 i always thought so how can i use this you know how can i turn it into something good because

00:14:11.440 eventually losing my leg turned into me creating my fitness project and motivating people all around

00:14:18.760 the world which is pretty awesome it's my today it's my passion it's my work and you know

00:14:23.800 it's something that basically makes me wake up when i wake up in the morning so

00:14:28.220 um you know you don't have to always react negatively to problems because if you look hard

00:14:35.820 enough you'll always find an opportunity behind them that's my mindset in life and it seems to be

00:14:41.860 working every time nowadays gotcha so after your amputation i mean how did you i mean i imagine you

00:14:49.500 continued the body weight training uh at what point did you decide this is something i could do for a

00:14:55.080 living or i could share with other people um how body training can be an effective way to get

00:15:00.960 stronger and more physically fit well when i realized that i can get in a really great shape

00:15:07.580 without even going to the gym just training at home i thought of like making a video about you know

00:15:13.540 my transformation and all that on youtube and see if people like it so people liked it they got shared

00:15:18.820 from some popular guys online and that's when i realized that this is pretty cool like all the

00:15:24.720 feedback i'm getting from people saying you know that they got motivated by my story that it made

00:15:30.100 their day to help them emotionally that's when i realized that this this is really awesome and i

00:15:36.060 should do something more with it so you know i started my website the youtube channel i continued

00:15:41.240 making videos and then i realized that i should write a book about all this so i wrote my book

00:15:46.820 and it it did pretty well people seemed to like it a lot and you know that's when i realized that

00:15:52.780 this is my personal calling in life this is great we've talked about how we talked about your backstory

00:15:57.540 of how you came to this point where you were showing others how to do use body weight training for

00:16:02.140 strength programming uh let's get into the nitty-gritty of body weight training um because

00:16:07.500 this is interesting because i'm a barbell guy i love barbells um but what i loved about your book

00:16:12.080 is that compared to a lot of other body weight books or articles i've read like it actually fall

00:16:17.800 actually there's some programming there's a method to the madness i feel like with a lot of body weight

00:16:21.800 training it's just like you wake up and do 25 push-ups and then do 25 air squats and pull-ups

00:16:28.520 um i just feel like there's no progression with it uh so before we get into the programming of body

00:16:33.700 weight training uh let's talk about what are the benefits of body weight training and i know you're a

00:16:38.580 body training body weight training guy but i'm curious if you think there are any downsides to

00:16:42.860 it as well well um so the thing that you said um yeah let's start with the benefits so first of all

00:16:51.680 it's functional i mean how much functional does it get then body weight exercise because you're

00:16:56.640 you're learning to use your body in all kinds of different uh exercises and you know one of the

00:17:02.780 most typical reasons that uh old people old people's health declines is you know after falling

00:17:09.900 so when old people fall and break a bone or something their health tends to decline a lot

00:17:15.940 that's how my grandfather uh died he was this extremely healthy guy and you know he broke his

00:17:21.260 leg and after that he's health just started decreasing until you know i lost him so i realized that

00:17:29.380 building your strength through body weight exercise helps you build not only strength but your strength

00:17:35.980 in symmetry with your balance it helps you master your own body and um it increases your kinesthetic

00:17:44.840 awareness which is basically your body's uh knowledge of your surroundings through uh receptors you have

00:17:50.760 in your joints muscles and skins and it also uh works your muscles in symmetry with your connective

00:17:58.660 tissue so you know uh you can't over load your muscles without loading the connective tissue so

00:18:04.160 um you know tendon um trauma doesn't occur that much injuries in the tendons which is pretty

00:18:10.620 often the case doesn't occur that much and it's a safer way to train and it can be done everywhere which

00:18:18.340 means that for me it's in the long term it's a more functional of way of training in life in general

00:18:24.720 you know because with the gym you're always you always need a place to go but with body weight

00:18:30.900 exercise doesn't matter you know wherever you are you can always keep on getting stronger

00:18:34.580 and it's free right yeah and it's free that's the one of the main reasons i got into it but you know

00:18:40.920 then i realized all these other benefits right and any downsides mean to it i mean i mean it sounds

00:18:45.920 like it's awesome but are there any things that it's body weight training is limited in

00:18:50.120 yeah well the one thing i would say that it's not for me it's not a limit but for some people it

00:18:56.640 might be it's that uh it's a little bit more difficult to build a lot of uh to build a lot of

00:19:02.700 bulk in your legs so like if you're looking to build really bulky legs like i'm pretty honest you know

00:19:09.080 you're it's not easy to do it with body weight exercises uh that's why i use uh weighted sandbags

00:19:14.700 for example um for uh and i do weighted lunges but you know um i would say that barbell squats

00:19:23.000 is one of the elements missing in body weight exercise and if you can combine barbell squats with

00:19:28.300 upper body body weight exercises uh i don't see like there's no limit after that you know you can

00:19:34.180 become extremely strong and like be the strongest you ever was right and i mean what are some of the

00:19:41.600 mistakes because a lot of people like like the idea of body weight exercises like i like the idea

00:19:45.820 of body weight training um there's a lot of content online about body weight training um but what are

00:19:51.160 the biggest mistakes that people make when they start a body weight strength program yeah so number

00:19:57.400 one is what you said basically there's no programming so people just you know go um wherever they go to

00:20:03.820 train uh and they just keep on banging you know uh exercises and reps and sets without like any

00:20:10.400 programming in the long term uh that's one thing i do and you know the more time goes the more i

00:20:17.020 develop uh my own uh programming and you know i i basically use a lot of uh so i started sports science so

00:20:24.420 you know my basis and comes from strength training but you know everything applied in strength training

00:20:29.080 in barbells can be applied in body weight exercise if you learn to adopt a few things

00:20:33.800 so programming is number one number two is people usually do too much reps so let's say you can do

00:20:41.100 25 push-ups you know um if you keep on adding reps after that and like some people do 50 some people

00:20:49.300 even do 100 push-ups it's not going to build a lot of strength after a certain point so just like

00:20:55.420 every kind of strength training you have to work in that uh spectrum of uh strength which is between

00:21:03.180 one and i would say like 20 repetitions 20 to 15 it depends with the exercise but you have to stick

00:21:11.340 to lower rep ranges and the way you do that with body weight exercise is you adapt the exercises so you

00:21:17.140 know after push-ups you can do you can learn to do one-arm push-ups which you know might sound

00:21:22.280 difficult for some people but i never thought i would be able to do one-arm push-ups and i'm

00:21:26.840 i managed to do them in a few months with the appropriate progressions i can even do one-arm

00:21:31.280 pull-ups nowadays which i never thought in my life i would be able to do so you know learning to uh

00:21:37.820 progress the exercises in order to keep the reps low is another key element and this sounds like this

00:21:44.600 is how this is how you increase in intensity with body weight training because that's the the question

00:21:48.900 i've always had is like okay great i can do you know 25 push-ups well uh you know with barbell training

00:21:55.540 like you can add more weight or more intensity just by throwing more plates on the barbell so i guess the

00:22:00.620 way you increase intensity with body weight training is modifying the exercise yeah modifying the exercise

00:22:06.580 the the angle like you can put your legs higher but another very important aspect i've been

00:22:12.940 studying a lot and i've been uh talking a lot about in my channel lately is the appropriate

00:22:19.000 mind to muscle connection so what i realized after a certain point was that a lot of people just you

00:22:25.000 know keep on banging reps without uh basically focusing on the muscle tension and you can do a lot

00:22:32.320 of reps you know if your form is a little bit bad and if you're not training with awareness but if you

00:22:37.920 learn to manipulate mind to muscle connection it's crazy how much more difficult you can make an

00:22:44.100 exercise and like i wrote i wrote a book a few weeks ago on how to do push-ups with the right

00:22:50.180 mind to muscle connection like you know so many people mailed me back that you know i was never

00:22:54.960 feeling any difference in my strength for push-ups and you know suddenly i'm doing like half the reps i

00:23:00.240 could do but i'm gaining more muscle so mind to muscle connection is extremely important and it's

00:23:06.680 something i'm talking a lot about lately in my youtube channel and i've seen incredible increases

00:23:13.460 in my only not only in my physique but also in my strength from using this yeah um so let's talk about

00:23:19.560 the main exercises in bodyweight training because there's a there's a ton of them out there right

00:23:23.060 you can find just a bunch but you just focus on uh just a few of them so what are the main exercises

00:23:28.620 in your bodyweight training program yeah so my main exercises are that's another typical mistake

00:23:35.060 people you know focus try to find like all those secret kind of variations for this muscle and dot

00:23:42.140 muscle when in essence it's pretty simple you have to pull and push on a vertical angle that means you

00:23:50.500 have to do handstand push-ups and pull-ups and you know handstand push-ups for example are pretty

00:23:56.500 difficult but there are also progressions for that you have to pull and push in a horizontal

00:24:01.140 angle that means doing inverted rows and push-ups and you have to squat of course i do

00:24:09.140 single leg squats i do weighted lunges with a sandbag on my shoulder and you have to do some kind of

00:24:16.040 exercise for your core ideally an exercise that uses your core as a total so for example i do a lot of

00:24:24.740 rotational training nowadays with uh elastic bands um you can also do leg raises which is another

00:24:30.860 great exercise for the abs so those are the basic exercises people should focus on and you know if you

00:24:38.280 focus on just keeping on getting stronger on those basic exercises uh that's when you'll see the most

00:24:45.060 results okay so it sounds very similar to like a barbell programming there's a push yeah exactly i've kind

00:24:52.300 of like stolen my philosophy from people like you know like the people you like from the the barbell

00:24:58.040 world because it works pretty well in bodyweight exercise as well okay that's awesome so let's talk

00:25:03.720 about bodyweight training program for beginners right so what does that look like i mean how many days

00:25:09.080 is a beginner going to work out because i think a lot of times when people imagine bodyweight

00:25:12.720 exercises like it's something you do every day but it seems like that's not what you're advocating

00:25:17.980 you're actually you want rest periods in between so let's kind of lay out a beginner programming for

00:25:23.820 a bodyweight training like how many days they're working out what kind of set scheme rep scheme are

00:25:29.640 they are they doing yeah so ideally i like to start beginners with training three times a week

00:25:36.640 a typical mistake people beginners do is you know they train like sort of in the bodybuilding type of

00:25:42.100 training so they do like one day they do chest the other day they do back which doesn't work at all

00:25:47.260 with bodyweight exercises what i advocate is full body workouts three times a week and you know

00:25:53.840 hitting all those major muscle groups and doing all those basic exercises so with beginners i'll start

00:26:00.340 them always with pull-ups push-ups uh leg raises um uh legs squats single leg squats and you know

00:26:11.040 that's basically it in the beginning i need people to get stronger at pull-ups and push-ups because

00:26:15.560 if if you're not good at those there's no way you'll progress to other stuff later on

00:26:19.880 so after that i'll add some dips you know i'll start adding some pike push-ups which are a progression

00:26:25.880 for the handstand push-up and slowly we'll build it up up to the exercises we were talking about

00:26:31.420 previously and you know if you're hitting these exercises hard you do need a resting day especially

00:26:37.600 if you're a beginner and also if you're a beginner you know you don't need that extreme amount of

00:26:42.720 training volume if you focus on all the stuff i just said it's going to be enough to get stronger

00:26:49.100 okay um one question i mean is it i'm guessing it's possible to over train with bodyweight training

00:26:55.540 um if you're just cranking out reps all the time you're trying to do 100 push-ups a day

00:27:00.040 but i imagine there's ways to deload with bodyweight training because that happens in barbell training you

00:27:05.100 get to a point where there's like so much fatigue in your body that it can't adapt and recover so you

00:27:09.220 back off and kind of lower weight lower volume is there something similar in your bodyweight training

00:27:13.480 programming yes that's something i also do so basically if you're training properly if you have

00:27:19.040 like a good program uh and you're pushing yourself you're going to need a deload week if you're training

00:27:24.920 like for months or how long you're training and like you never feel tired that means that you

00:27:30.720 not actually pushing yourself hard enough so if you push yourself hard enough you're going to need

00:27:35.480 deload weeks the way i do that is i simply decrease the training volume so i do less sets and i also

00:27:42.400 decrease the reps so like if you were doing 10 reps the previous week you know take it a little bit

00:27:47.400 easier do about eight reps so like that's like 20 percent less and you know those deload weeks are

00:27:53.980 essential for giving your neuromuscular system a break because you know it's not only your muscles that

00:27:59.320 get tired it's also those connections that your body always uses uh through the from your mind to

00:28:06.600 your muscles uh and in general you know you need a break you need to reduce stuff taking a whole week

00:28:11.920 off is always bad for me because you'll you're going to lose strength so deload weeks are great

00:28:17.760 these in a in a way they're like you know sort of slingshotting you uh towards uh more strength in

00:28:25.640 the next week if you learn to apply them correctly yeah uh this is great i love this um and in your

00:28:31.700 book you lay out you can people can check it out and they can see the very specific programming

00:28:35.260 and if you're interested in this stuff i highly recommend you go get the book uh really great

00:28:39.620 stuff um you you mentioned earlier one of the benefits of body weight training is that there's

00:28:43.980 fewer injuries uh than other types of training but injuries can happen um what are the most common

00:28:49.920 ones you see uh during body weight training well the most common ones i would say are wrist pain

00:28:57.420 because you'll you're using a lot of hyper extension in the wrist so you know that

00:29:01.880 tends to take a toll on your body uh the way i deal with that is i have a lot of conditioning exercises i

00:29:08.800 do wrist push-ups which is basically doing push-ups on the opposite side of your palm on the wrist

00:29:14.140 i have some progressions on that on my youtube channel uh those seem to really work good for

00:29:20.320 strengthening the wrist uh using your knuckles for example instead of doing push-ups on your hands

00:29:25.940 and you know changing little stuff like that always helps and of course you know taking it easier for a

00:29:31.220 little while other problems are elbow pain that occur usually from chin-ups because if you go all the

00:29:37.740 way down in chin-ups that creates a lot of torsion in your elbow and in your wrists because you know

00:29:43.780 that's not a comfortable position anatomically for your upper body so uh really fast tip would be 0.94

00:29:51.400 you know don't completely unlock your elbows when you're doing chin-ups you can unlock if you're

00:29:56.100 doing pull-ups but with chin-ups always keep a little bit of a bent elbow other problems then are

00:30:02.340 knees and back and this is something i researched a lot for the last year and i realized that pistol

00:30:09.420 squats which i was doing uh i do have videos on my channel i was i also included them in my previous

00:30:15.140 in my older uh books and stuff uh but i realized that pistol squats tend to create problems for a lot

00:30:22.560 of people and you know they're kind of the holy grail uh they're kind of the holy grail in bodyweight

00:30:27.940 exercise when it comes to leg training but after a lot of research i realized that they do cause problems

00:30:33.800 in most people um problems in the back specifically and problems in the knees that is why i nowadays

00:30:40.720 only do weighted lunges so can you explain what a pistol squat is for those who aren't familiar with

00:30:45.820 it yeah so basically a pistol squat is a squat on one leg uh you know from a standing position you go

00:30:53.100 all the way down on one leg and go all the way up right like the leg you're not using like shoots out

00:30:59.100 in front of you so you kind of look like a pistol yeah yeah yeah i've it's really hard to do and it's

00:31:05.740 really uncomfortable and i don't like doing them because i can only do like one yeah it's so hard to

00:31:14.260 do okay so maybe avoid those because they can cause stress on your knees and your back um besides the

00:31:21.860 the body weight exercise like the pull-ups the push-ups uh you advocate some other things to help

00:31:27.640 with uh your development of strength and fitness like for example mobility training

00:31:32.340 uh what sorts of things do you recommend people do or incorporate throughout the day to become more

00:31:37.980 mobile and how is mobility different from say flexibility yeah well uh one thing i'm a big

00:31:45.500 advocate of are mobility drills and mobility drills are most people feel that they're those exercises old

00:31:53.080 people do because you're basically just moving your joints um in circular motions for example you know

00:32:01.000 just rolling your wrists around or uh rolling your uh arms into your shoulder in and out so these are

00:32:09.640 mobility drills and what they do is they increase circulation of synovial fluid in your joints

00:32:16.200 synovial fluid is basically your body's natural uh lubricant you know it's like the grease that you put

00:32:23.060 on hinges on door hinges like that's our natural lubricant and this uh when you're doing mobility

00:32:30.400 drills you're basically smoothing out adhesions that might be from old injuries you're removing waste

00:32:36.620 products and i've seen at some point i started experiencing a little bit of pain in my joints

00:32:43.380 and i realized you know that first of all things change in your body as you reach your 30s i'm 30 now

00:32:49.700 uh and the moment i started doing mobility drills on a daily basis like i felt like a like i was 20

00:32:57.140 years old again like no pain no nothing so that's why that's a reason i am a brick big uh advocate of

00:33:03.720 mobility drills and the difference with flexibility is that um flexibility flexibility is basically

00:33:11.520 sitting in a uh passive position like in a static position and you know just stretching a muscle out

00:33:19.340 mobility drills are basically using uh movement through your joints in order to uh you know get

00:33:28.740 some movement in your joint in those joints and move those fluids that help them get healthier and

00:33:34.540 you know a lot of people do stretches but we've nowadays realized that there are not a lot of benefits

00:33:40.860 with stretching like it doesn't help with warming up actually most studies show that they increase your

00:33:47.200 risk of injury if you do them before uh as a warm-up and they don't even uh increase recovery rates

00:33:54.040 so much i'm not saying that stretching is bad but i still do stretching but the reason i do it is

00:34:01.160 because it just calms me down so you know at late at night i might do some stretching i like it it relaxes

00:34:07.160 me and you know the feeling is also just it's just nuts it's sort of like uh scratching an itch in

00:34:13.100 your body so that's the main reason i use stretching but nowadays not that much only just to chill a

00:34:19.940 little bit yeah that's how i stretch just because it feels i don't stretch when i before i work out or

00:34:24.440 after i work out just i do it when i'm maybe watching tv because it feels good yeah well hey

00:34:30.280 anthony this has been a fascinating conversation um i know we could get more into detail

00:34:34.200 but um where can people learn more about your work well i'm pretty active on youtube i upload

00:34:41.880 videos almost on a daily basis so on youtube you can find me as homemade muscles with an s my website

00:34:49.160 is homemade muscle with no s in the end dot com uh and over there you can find everything else my

00:34:55.660 my facebook group i have also have an instagram account uh but you can pretty much uh find everything

00:35:02.140 else over there awesome well anthony thank you so much for your time it's been a pleasure

00:35:05.700 thank you so much as well have a great day my guest today was anthony arvon atakis he's the author of

00:35:10.440 the book homemade muscle all you need is a pull-up bar you can find that on amazon.com you can also

00:35:14.960 find out more information about anthony's work at homemade muscle.com well that wraps up another edition

00:35:23.040 of the art of manliness podcast for more manly tips and advice make sure to check out the art of

00:35:26.980 manliness website at artofmanliness.com and if you enjoy this podcast i'd really appreciate it if you

00:35:31.280 give us a review on itunes or stitcher that'd help get the word out about the podcast as always i

00:35:35.880 appreciate your continued support and until next time this is brett mckay telling you to stay manly

00:35:39.660 you

00:36:01.280 you

00:36:14.100 you

The Art of Manliness - February 12, 2016

#177： Homemade Muscle & Bodyweight Training

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