 We're going to kick off the final podcast of the year. Technically this will be episode 207, the final podcast of 2021. And we're going to go back to the most important conversation or discussion or thought that we can have in most areas of our life. And that is why. We're going to talk specifically about why calisthenics. And you know if you know who Simon Sinek is, you'll have probably come across is a very famous TED talk about knowing your why. So if we understand what our why is, then we can understand why we do what we do and we can probably get more enjoyment out of it. And when it gets hard, if we know what our why is, then we've got something really strong to lean on. So we're going to talk about why calisthenics today. And when we're talking about training, we're talking about calisthenics. We're talking about, you know, what do you want to be able to do with your body? And there will be, you know, a whole host of things that you'll have seen. If you're like us, we get like excited about, right, I'm going to try and do these, do these things. And then it's like, right, we then start to potentially get frustrated when we don't see results straight away. Or we see results on a few things and we think everything can happen really quickly. And the reality is if you want to do some, some cool things with your body, you want to make some changes for your training. What's important is the invest time in making that process happen. And also we believe it's very important that we are following a process that we can trust. And that's what everything we've got inside our online training programs for online members is all about. And the annual offer that we're running is 25% off either our standard membership or VIP membership. The standard one makes it less than 75 quid for an entire year of training, giving you the opportunity to go right. I'm leaving. It's not about quick fixes for me anymore. I understand what the guys are saying. I'm on board and I've got to commit to this for at least a year. The investment is in time, not in the money. It's 75 quid for a whole year of training is not the challenge. The challenge is make that commitment in terms of the time you're going to invest in understanding your training with us and actually getting in and doing the work with us. But no, you've got a whole year to get through it. And there's far more in our online classroom than just a number of workouts that you often going to find of just plug and play kind of things, do this workout today and have absolutely no idea why you're doing what you're doing. See, it's on point where I'm going to have this conversation today. But we're actually, we're a school, right? So we've been, we've put a lot of time and effort into creating... We're not an actual school just for people that don't. No, no, no. We're not an institution if someone wants to. We did used to get that actually. We would get, how do I get a scholarship to your school from people from abroad? Anyway, but we did put a lot of content and like just snippets and little bits of kind of like soundbites that you can take throughout our training program. So as you go through our program, you're actually going to learn and get loads of really important, useful like tip bits that you can then apply to other parts of training. So when you're not doing a human flag program, for example, you probably understand why time on detention or isometric strength is going to be important. And you can take that into whatever else it might be that you're going to go and train, whether that be deadlifts or like rack pools or bench press or whatever it might be. They are just, it's full of training science. So if you're the sort of person that wants to train, wants to get really high quality workouts by expert coaches, but also wants to know what you're doing, there is probably no better platform for you in bodyweight training. Say what, Tim? Not only 25% off, how about we give them seven days as part of a free trial so you can test it out? Yeah, it's a way, come on. Right, seven day free trials to test it out for a week and then, you know, then you're in for a year. Let's talk about the why and then people can go on and start taking some action. So sit back and enjoy this chatting about why it's going to get philosophical, philosophical people on the movement, strength and play podcast. Roll back jingle. Listen, players. You're listening to the movement, strength and play podcast by the School of Calisthenics. Here are your hosts, Tim and Jaco. Go on then, Jaco, kick us off. Why Calisthenics? Why Calisthenics? And I think it's a super interesting question. It's a, there's something I think I totally agree with you in that like the understanding why is important, but understanding like what is it about it that's important to you. And then also, and this is what I want, I'd really like our conversations to go in the line of like, not just why it's important to me, but what does, what's the like iteration of Calisthenics to me? Like what, you know, Calisthenics means it comes from two great ways. Calisthenics means beauty and strength. And it's like, okay, so it actually doesn't, you know, like if you say football, like you can, it has a set number of rules. You go CrossFit. Well, there's a CrossFit as these things. And like whatever, whereas Calisthenics, it actually, if it means beauty and strength or movement and strength, like, well, then it could be, and, you know, by sort of by, we can chuck in body weight as a bit of a depth into that definition in a way of like, it's body weight training go. Well, so actually that could look like a lot of different things to different people. And I think that's one of the beauties of it and one of the whys of it for me as a, as a coach, because it's not like, okay, this is, this is, this is Calisthenics. And like you need to do it to the, to our members or the clients. It's like, no, this is Calisthenics. It's wide and like, okay, for you, it's these elements that you really like and you really need. And for someone else, it's these other elements. And then you can, you know, it's not, that's one of the things I love about it. It's so, it's so malleable. It's so, it's so wide that it really can let everybody find which bits of it resonate most with them, which bits of it their body needs the most. And it's not going to constrict us to stay in one, stay down one path. And I think for my own learning over, not just the last year, since we started trying to do some Calisthenics in like 2014, which started for me as like seeing Frank Madrano looking ridiculously rips doing like insane things that you're like, where's gravity gone? Why is this dude not playing by the rest of the rules that the rest of us believe by in science of like gravity? And that like just captured my imagination of like what the body could do. And it's probably been a bit of a ever growing iteration of that, but it's changed over the years from, and for me now it dows much more into like, what does my body need? And listening to my body and like Calisthenics for me doesn't have to be the same as what Calisthenics is for Frank Madrano. But there might be elements that we're the same and we're going to, there's going to be certain bits that we, that we all love the same and joins us all together. But understanding what it can give my body and how it's such a usable training method is where I've got to. And that's one of the things that I would encourage people to do is like think about not just the why is it important or why do I like doing it, but like what elements of it are going to serve me the most. And sometimes what serves me the most is not what I really want to do because I find it hard, but my body is telling me like you need to sort this area out because it is restricting you and then it's going to let you have more freedom, enjoy whatever other things you go on and do. I'm going to go a level deeper with this one. There's the process of the five whys isn't there? So like if you say why do you like Calisthenics? You go, okay, because it makes me feel pretty good and it gives my body what it needs. You go like, well, why? And then you keep asking five times and then they say that you're going to probably get down to the crux of what it actually is. So I'm just thinking about some people, what is the attraction of Calisthenics? So if I think things I like, I like the flexibility of it like why? So I don't have to go somewhere all the time. I'm worried about a gym. I can take my gymnastics rings and I go, well, why? And you keep trying to drill it down. And I think that's the thing like if it gets down to a lot, I want more time. Okay, well time is a precious resource. Why do you want more time? Because I've got family and kids and I've got a business. Okay, why is that important? Well, those things need more time. I want to grow them. Like it's that whole thing is sometimes people are like, why do you want to go to a gym to train? Well, because it just gets me out of the way from those things. I need space for myself. So I think like just asking yourself what it is about why you do what you do. And if you say, well, I do Calisthenics because it makes me look a certain way. Or you like, I do Calisthenics because when I'm around people at a barbecue, I can do a handstand. Like, why is that important? Because you like attention. It's okay if you do. Like there's no, Jaco is perfectly on board with doing things for attention. Right, so. Why learn human play? Exactly. So I just kind of like reflect on why do I do Calisthenics? Well, it is a massively accessible. I love the fact that you can give me a set of gymnastics rings and I'll get as good a workout as anybody in a fully equipped gym. And then my rings cost me 30 quid. And the why behind that is not that I'm tight. It's just, it's like, we all like things that are good value. Like, and if you, and I really like the idea that I can just go and find a tree to hang on. Like that for me is like, it brings it into the what kind of physique and body do I want. What I want one, which is, it is functional. I was chatting to Andrew Tracy about this actually recently. We like going, the most functional thing that you can do is not being pain. Like, so when people kind of go, I'm doing functional training, but my knee hurts. Well, that's not that functional. Is it because what you're doing is now making you more dysfunctional in life. So I think the flexibility of what you get with Calisthenics, the management of your own body weight, particularly around the upper body. It's just like you are only ever able to play in the field or to a level of which you are able to play. So your body is going to tell you when you are strong enough to do something the next level. And you really have to earn that. And people will argue that you can do that in weightlifting as well. That you can only go and do the next weight when you've built the strength. But the thing that's different about Calisthenics is it respects the whole chain. There is a movement component to it. You can bench more weight and you can still have a horrible shoulder range of motion, inflection patterns. Or you could, you could squat more, but your knees are going to kind of like be a little bit bendy in and whatever. But the thing with that thing around it is you just, it really is, you have to have, you have to move well. You have to be stable and you have to be strong. And when you can do those things, then you get to kind of go and do more. And I think like, I just see a point around like what it looks like for each individual person. Calisthenics for me over the last year particularly has not been about skills. Like I don't have a burning desire at the moment to learn new skills. I like playing around with the skills that I've got. But the focus for me has just been, and it's probably to do with just the pandemic and being training at home and the kind of the repetition of it. Whereas I just, skill training for me has become hard because I need to apply so much mental energy to it. So the level that I'm at now, like it's, and it's the same for people when you just started out, but you don't get those quick wins like you do when you're a beginner. So for me to go and learn something, I've really got to dial into that process because what I'm trying to do is actually like pushing, pushing my physical capabilities and limitations. Whereas just getting away with some relatively more basic volume training. Like I like how it makes you feel. I like how it makes me look at the book and Bendy program. And that for me is like that's ticking the boxes at the moment for me because I don't have the bandwidth for it. Why I don't have the bandwidth? Because life has been pretty mental for the last two years. So I think it's just interesting points and I like that. There'll be some really good comments on the community recently of people just going, yeah, I've also just taking a step away from smashing myself with plans training or muscle training because it's just feel like I need to break from it. That's perfectly okay. There was a time when my identity was completely wrapped up around calisthenics at least of being able to do certain things. It's not like that anymore. Yeah, there was a forget the forget the traps name. Certainly a message this week about it. Been working on the frog to handstand for quite a while. Sort of identified that needs probably a little bit more thinking to listen to the mastering the basics podcast around like a kind of get maybe I think I need to build my foundation strength a little bit more like just dial back. He was Nick or Dave have a little break from like the the specificity of the frog to handstand and is looking forward to the six week. But a basic program in in January to just have a like, okay, make a commitment or I'm going to do those six weeks build a base and then I'm going to come back to and use that basic strength back in towards the thing that I'm quite excited about doing. And it's my sort of like goal that I've set of the of the frog to handstand. And that's that's that's a process we've been through multiple times. I've had stuff where I've not done something for agents left it alone. And then like you come back to it and it's like, oh, it feels better. So long as we've in this periodization, right? We talk about that. We say that's periodization different phases of training to accumulate together to achieve something. Yeah, yeah. And it's and that's one of the things where even just for some people, even just having like a little bit more regulation around like D load weeks or rest weeks. You know, hence why in the periodization that the programs inside from my members that we've got where we have this like these modules that are four weeks long that build up progressively and then you know week week four is a D load or sort of like can be of could be a table rest week if you want to. But having that little bit of structure for us when we're trying to do some of these things is just massively helpful. Otherwise, it's far too easy. If you haven't got a coach or a trainer or you're not working as part of like a team within a system where it's like you could train every day if you had time and and never have a week off. And what you'll find is that the body just needs these sort of like peaks and troughs in terms of being able to then actually recover in and then perform again. That's an interesting question because we've had that a lot over the years of people who don't want to take weeks off. They don't want a damn week. D load week or rest week or whatever it is and ask yourself why you don't want to take a D load week. Well, because you've got an addiction to training, you don't feel good unless you train. We all have that. We need to learn to accept that rest is part of that. You go, why on that? And then that then you go, why am I okay? Because there's some, I don't know. You go, why am I addicted to training? Then then then you start asking yourself some some quite challenging questions. Yeah, for me, because I've talked about this before, I have this issue because I have a body with dysmorphia problem. If I don't train, I don't think I feel like I look good. Like that's why I often will keep training and keep pushing because that's where the root kind of comes from. I've got mental health. Basically, No, no, no, you're being honest. It can be lots of people out there the same and then you also go, if you don't, if you want to take a rest week, your why is that you don't understand training principles that well. So you need to educate yourself better because you cannot progressively overload and continue to get better. It is a physiological fact. You have to allow the body to recover. That's how it works. So if you don't D load, you're just grinding yourself down and actually you're stunting your own potential you're not allowing the opportunity for the body to adapt to stimulus and therefore move you forward. So there's so much within this. I've just spent a bit of time when I've been quiet since down a little bit and gyms are closed and you have a rest week and you're probably now sat here worrying it because you've eaten too much chocolate over the last thing you're like and feel terrible. I'm probably one of those people. But just I think there's a real value in just sometimes going why do I do what I do right now and you why can change right a little bit sometimes doesn't have to be the same all the time. That's there's there's I've got my I've got my two takeaways from today's podcast. One, understand your training enough as to why you need to have deloads and why that's actually going to help you progress. And then and what you said the ask ask why ask why five times or maybe I'm almost thinking actually ask why enough times until you start to feel uncomfortable because I think when you ask it you ask it enough times you'll get to a why of like now I feel uncomfortable myself that question of why because it's actually it's making me think far deeper than I previously thought about myself in the drama I've gone way below it becomes hard to answer like if I did that with you now to five things you probably get to two or three but I don't know I need to and then you're gonna do some work so you take an example you go why do you want to do calisthenics because I want to learn a handstand why do you want to learn a handstand because I think it looks cool okay so why is that important to you well I kind of want to feel what I can do with my body I want to teach myself something new and I probably quite like it when other people look at me and think I can do something cool and okay so like where's that coming from and that's okay to socially have that and to be different and to be able to do these things like that's that's not a problem it's just it's well for me you go like calisthenics. It's a point when you get back to stage you go where you're having that blip in your handstand training you hit that plateau which will happen where you have to grind through it knowing why you started to do a handstand in the first place will probably go a long way to serving you through to actually finishing the process we talk about that athletes all the time why do you swim because it's hard right you're in that mid-cycle point it's gruesome it's five o'clock in the morning when you're going to pull why do you do this and it's that which they got to lean on when things get hard to get you through to the end which when you can do a handstand for the first time or on request or you can do it as a showboat you are going to be absolutely loving it and thankful that you saw that process through in all terms from knowing why you started you just maybe think I didn't I wasn't going to make another point but just you made a really good point there that I want to just highlight of like Calis we've talked a lot about calisthenics being a great tool for like teaching you about your body you know what can you do with it what can't you do with it and why and then when you were talking when you were going through that series of like asking those questions why and you got down to like a point with that like handstand example of like like someone potentially I feel nice when people I'm perceiving that people think it's cool that why I can do this thing that I also think is cool and it's like why is that and it's it's then sort of teaching us something about our that process of asking those questions of why it's like teaching us something about ourselves and our sort of psychology if you dare go that deep of going like so what why is that why is my self confidence like that and what's what yeah you may not get to the actual bottom of that but I think it's it's useful to be vulnerable enough with yourself to like to at least go there and entertain it yeah yeah did the many dimensions let's leave that next yeah let's go and show I'm gonna keep it short this week because it's why I'm gonna go and think about why I yeah somebody we're gonna write why do I do well that's you that's cool go and find something else that fulfills you in and brings you that joy and excitement and happiness that's what it's all about right that's it when you get down to it like what do you enjoy yeah that's a pretty good thing to that why do I why did you do that because I enjoy it okay well what why do you enjoy it really annoying with it go and do enough work to a place where you feel a little bit uncomfortable and you've just found out something about yourself and and then just hold on to that when you go and when times get tough it will see you through and we just want to sign off by saying if if you're why it brings you down the roots are going like okay the thing I'm the thing I'm gonna try and do is probably gonna take me more than just a few weeks having that annual membership with us for all of our online programs for just less than 75 quid on the standard membership with that 25% off you can bag that with the code for the discount code for that is new year 25 so new year 25 all in capitals and the link is in the show notes so you can just click straight through to grab that offer and we look forward to seeing you online within the online community of amazing fate people that are part of our memberships and we look forward to seeing you in there perfect enjoy new year I believe this is going up between Christmas and new year so until we speak to you again keep exploring your physical potential with movement strength and play class dismissed until 2022