 It's Q&A number four, it's week number four already. It's flying. Welcome back to the School of Calisthenics guys, we are here, I'm question master back again. The first question I'm asking this week is, when do I get to be question master? Just to be there to, you're not question master and therefore you can't ask a question. Just answer them. Right, okay. See there's a hierarchy somewhere here. Think on that note we should probably start with question one. In Q&A number two, we're gesticised, is that a right word, is that a mean joking? Have I made that like gesture-y, gesticised? I don't think that's a, that's a question. We made a joke about questions flooding in, but now they are actually flooding in. Overwhelmed. Not yet, but enjoying the number of questions. Anyway, that's genuinely like, first one. Want to be able to give out some good quality information so keep this question coming in. So, uh, Barrett, I don't know if that's his real name, but it looks like a proper scenic man. He might be like Swedish or something, but anyway, Barrett, on YouTube, there's hi guys, just found your YouTube channel. I'm going to add a little bit in from him. I'm assuming he thinks it's great. I have just started Calisthenics for about three weeks, so that's right, really early doors. It weighs £200, £90.7 kilos. So do you think I need to lose weight before I can do a lot of the tricks like Muscle-Ups as they gave? Thanks guys. They do say love the videos. Thanks for the question. Yeah, good question. Let's, uh, so we're going to talk about Calisthenics' strength-to-weight ratio, so it really doesn't matter how much you weigh if your strength is relative to that. So if you could be, like I've seen some stuff like, you may say some good or bad example, but Cali Muscle, like go on YouTube and see the size of that guy doing human flags, muscle ups, like this guy probably weighs 100 kilos maybe, I would say. Probably more. But like just freakishly strong in that sense, and he will stop there in terms of delving into how he got some training methods. However, the principle being that you can get big, you can be big, and you can be good at Calisthenics, it's just literally matter of training effectively, and I think it's really about optimising what your body composition is, so if you're carrying a little bit of excess body weight that you would like to get a little bit leaner, then certainly look at how you can use training methods to do that, look at your nutrition to do that. Ultimately, the less weight that we've got to shift in Calisthenics, the easier it's going to be, but you certainly don't need to weight into your optimised body composition before you start getting some muscle ups and stuff. Yeah, there isn't a number of reps of pull-ups you can do that then automatically means you can do a muscle up. There isn't a weight that you need to be to then be able to do a muscle up. You're three weeks in, in terms of a beginner, you need to get like nailed down your basic fundamental exercises, build up that basic strength. You're pulling, pushing, core strength, all that stuff's covered in our free beginner's guide, but equally, just touching on that like new tutor we've got here in Seth the Bear, he's like 90-odd kilos, but he's strong. Yeah. Like Tim said, it's strength to weight ratio. You could be my wife's 55 kilos, she can't do a muscle up. Even though she's very light, she's not strong enough, so it's... She'll kick your arse if she's there. Don't take money to running, Graves, but it's that, it's that strength to weight ratio. But the nice thing I like about Calisthenics is that it's about you just being strong for your weight, not being strong compared to someone else. And so that's... I think the point you make there about being three weeks in, when I first started Calisthenics, I blocked out three months. My big thing I was worried about losing muscle mass, because I was like always I just convinced myself over the years I needed to do all these dumbbell, barbell exercises to maintain a certain physique, and I said, right, three months I don't care, what happens in three months, I want to go on this journey and see what happens, and what I found was my body compasses changed for the better. And then just as a result of being Calisthenics and what that means around, we really don't have to talk about the natural way to train, and that filters into your diet, and you kind of want to, you know that eating healthily and all that sort of stuff kind of all fits into what Calisthenics is about. So give yourself some time, nail the basics, see where you're at in three months. I think also your body's not stupid. It knows that what you're trying to do when you're starting to train body weight in it, it's not necessarily trying to... It knows it's not trying to build excessive amounts of muscle because the jobs you're trying to give it to do, or the tasks you're giving it to do when you're training, don't help by being big and bulky. The body or the brain effectively is managing the body, it just wants to be efficient, that's why we adapt to exercise, it's why if you run or you train or whatever else, the body adapts because it wants to make the system more efficient and therefore come at what you're challenging with the exercise that you do come at a lower energy cost, so it's all about survival, you boil it all down to the bottom, bodybuilders have to work so hard to build muscle because they can't, it's not, having that amount of mass is actually not that efficient for the body. So Calisthenics is definitely about efficiency, strength to weight ratio and just have fun with it. I don't complicate those things, the tricks as you turn on the muscle ups and all that sort of stuff that comes in time, but it's part of this journey, just have fun with it, that's what I'd say. And we just finish here on the fact that something that's we've been passionate about and why we feel it's been so good for everybody and for us personally is, and we fall, we still fall out of this trap sometimes of like worrying about what we look like rather than like what we can do, Calisthenics has changed that in terms of you're trying to achieve a movement, a thing that you're trying to do, a hold, a muscle up, a lever, whatever that is, and you'll look a certain way because of your training rather than trying to be a specific way, trying to be a specific body competition. That mentally is a much more positive way to look at your training and to focus your training on and that's a bit fluffy, but it's not BS, like that is genuine, that's how I feel. So that is a huge benefit to Calisthenics from my point of view, it's definitely. I hope that helps. Cool. So. Number two. I'm actually gonna stop calling you. You're a professional. No. I don't, I feel like- This isn't what, this isn't the form we've already got to that point. Yeah, but I feel like you're stabbing yourself as a slightly higher rank in the Q and A realm is that I'm not even allowed to- No. I'm not allowed to be question master. And the answer is also the one that answers the questions. And have to call you question master. I feel very even. Well, if you wanted to seem to be question master, you're not doing anything to help your argument. Right, next question is Anton Haddad. He says, hi guys, I love the video. He was commenting from the muscle up one. I like the science you, the science touch you've added to the equation. Nice. I like the word you've used there in your sentence equation. Yeah. And Tim will like that. Because Tim likes being scientific. That's what he's been up to. I'm just, the last word which is in there. Masters of exercise science, research masters. Anyway, let's talk about you more about this question. My max pull ups is 10 in a row. Do you think I'm ready to start training for muscle ups? Do you think weighted pull ups can help as well with the explosiveness? And one more question beside being an impressive move. What is so great about muscle ups? As in what are the benefits? Thank you, you are indeed underrated. I will be sharing all your videos on Facebook. It's a quick fire way to get your question right out. It's quite a compliment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The table will definitely question master. Definitely pit the ones that make him boost our egos a little bit. Excuse me. Can you just say that the most important or the most interesting part of that question that I thought I'd like you to touch on first is what is the, like, why bother trying, why are people trying to do muscle ups? What are the benefits of a muscle up or why do it? I thought that was a great question. Yeah, yeah, it is good. We're writing our muscle up ebook at the moment and I've put my introduction to that that we've put down kind of touched on this. I think there's probably two or two angles from this. The muscle up is something that when you see someone do it, there's something inside. If you kind of got appreciation for training movement, you go, actually, I just want to go to do that. It's just a very simple feeling that it's just a cool move. It shows that you've got quite a lot of athletic ability, some strength, some speed in the locker, which you can go from underneath the bar to above it, link all that sort of stuff to get. It's a very complete body movement for me. We've got explosive pulling, we've got speed. We've got a push and a pull. And we sometimes, from an athletic performance perspective, we do a lot with athletes and we use Olympic lifting techniques like cleans and snatches and that kind of thing. And for us, we've talked before about the muscle being an upper body version of that same thing. We're going from a high-speed tension movement or high-speed creating a lot of tension, creating a lot of strength and transitioning into something else to create the movement. I think when you see it, when you can't do it yet, you see the first part and you're like, yeah, I could have a pull-up and you're like, how the hell does somebody get then above the bar? I remember seeing that and even now, like still, when you see a nice muscle-up, you can appreciate that it looks it. And what I also really appreciate is it's a great challenge. If someone's doing 10, 15 muscle-ups and they're still looking clean, that's hard. So I think it's a massive challenge, but I think if I was to pick, if you said to me, like, you can only pick one exercise to do to maintain something. Like, if I've got five minutes of training three times a week, what are you going to do to maintain upper body strength? I'd just do muscle-ups, I reckon. Just because it ticks, pulling, pushing, all those boxes. Yeah, I would try to maintain a bit of everything with just from doing muscle-ups and variations. Even if you were just taking a progression of pull-ups or straight bar dips, like you're still going to get a lot of ticks in those boxes. So that's why it's great. It's just it does everything and it looks flipping cool as well. But just there's a couple of other points about you can do 10 pull-ups, well, yeah. Like, are you ready to go for muscle-ups? But again, the video that we put up there is all about speed. If you can just get each and above the bar, but you're not really getting the height on the bar, you're not getting that high pull position, that's where you need to start to spend some time. You can do that using weighted pull-ups. It may not be a strength issue, maybe a speed component. There is some transitional kind of specifics that we're talking about in the e-book as well, which is going to help you get a sort of shoulder range of movement and that sort of thing in there. I think it's to fit that whole movement together. Yeah, I think it's likely that, like, power-being elements of strength and speed, and you're probably going to have to work, if you can do 10 pull-ups, you're probably going to have to work on both of them. So working speed, like we showed with some band-assisted high pulls, but then strength-wise, working like three to five reps, again long. Now, honestly, question master, I think, should be recommended. It's actually the headmaster. Just have to put him on silent. The... Sorry. I'm telling. Tomo, we're just doing a Q&A. You're live. You're live. Nero. Are you coming? Oh, headmaster's coming. Let's better behave. See you in a bit. Silent? Yes, I'm silent. Right, so the strength part of it, drop the reps down, three to five reps, good rest in between, and start working some weighty pull-ups so you're building up your strength, building up your speed, and you put them together for that part. Perfect. I haven't had a last complete train of what we were talking about. That was my fault. That was the end of the question. But thanks for the question, Anthony. Right, the last one, third question. Jamie, where is he? Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie, Jamie. Jamie Nicholson. He, again, starts his question very well. Hello. Common thread. Hello. Good, hello. Hi, Jamie. I enjoyed the video and found it helpful. I have a question for you at Q&A sessions. My flexibility is rubbish. Sounds a bit harsh on himself. And I find pike push-ups hard. Whilst I'm working on that, can you recommend any shoulder exercises that can be done using rings? I'm currently using rings to work on triceps and biceps. Thanks for your time and hard work. You guys are doing an amazing job. I wish you were based down here in West Sussex. Is it sunny in West Sussex? I don't know. If it's warmer than here, we might move. Yeah. It's cold this morning. We did have two lessons outside this morning. It's just about feeling back in my fingertips. Anyway, Jamie. Yeah? We spoke about this a little bit before we started to start the camera rolling about using rings for your bice and trice, but then not having utilised rings for anything else. And Tim's a massive fan of using the rings. Yeah, I love it. Lots of shoulder health and shoulder robustness. Yeah, I think that the rings expose everything that you've potentially got going on that's weak. So you really can't hide from yourself when you use your rings. Even if you're just doing dips and we find that we're just rolling the shoulders in, like that's just the shoulders telling you that it's not stable enough or strong enough to be in a more neutral position. So whereas in a bar, the bars fix, you can hide a whole manner of kind of weaknesses in your shoulders or you can have to chain whatever it might be. But the rings expose those. You can't hide. That's what I love about it. It's a really pure way of training and it's massively challenging. So many exercises you could do. I joke since there's, if you've got rings and you're using them for bison charts, excuse me, that's great. It's a nice little accessory exercise to do with the rings, but you could just get all that sort of stuff in, like using them for different pull-ups, using different grips, different dip positions, ring flies, chest flies on the rings, using the planche push-ups with your feet in, it's such a versatile tool. Skinning the cap, just talking about shoulder flexibility, the skinning cap is a great one. You're gonna be taking that shoulder for its full range all the way around, but you're also building up the strength through that range of motion, which... Take it into a popular kind of gym piece of kit now. They've always got suspension trains in TRX. Well, they are just rings. For me, people say, which is better? Is the TRX better than this? I'm like, no, the ring is the perfect one. It's people have tried to make something better which actually didn't even prove it. So all of the things that you do on a bar, pretty much, whether it's muscle-ups, dips, pull-ups, whatever that might be, you can do on rings, but you get the added instability challenge. And then all the things that you would use in TRX for, that's even supportive pistol squats for the lower body. They're just holding the ring and being able to do single squats with the pistols. As you say, I'm a real big fan of putting feet into the rings and then starting to play around with push-up positions and challenging the core. Walk back handstands with feet in the rings. There's like so much stuff on that. Actually, somebody sent us an email saying, are we gonna do a ring-specific book or something? I think it could be quite a series for YouTube. Yeah, yeah. Talking through it now. Yeah, we'll do one, I think. I put my rings on Amazon for 15 quid. It's half a gym membership for a month. I could go and hang them on a tree or a beam at home, or I've got a pull-up bar at home, stick them on there, and I don't need anything else. Yeah, it's great. And like, I wanna go on holiday. Yeah, yeah. I'll take any, hardly ever have a space in your bag, you take them and then we'll waste them my time. We're gonna wait next week, and I think I might wanna do a bit of training while I'm away, and the first thing I put in my bag was my rings. And it's such a, I'm like, I'm set, that's what I need. So, yeah, in terms of a load of exercises there, there's some of the exercises, like the beginner's guide, you can use the rings for, and we'll be putting together, I'm keen to do it, certainly whether we put together like a full program, that's like a paid for product on the website, I don't know, but certainly put together some free tutorials and content for a nice little ring series on YouTube. So, I've already written down some stuff in my little playbook, so some ideas around that, but keep an eye out for that. We're just gonna go back just on the pike push-ups around that there's the flexibility's hardly, and it's interesting that you use the term rubbish on that one, so just, we talk a lot about longer term progression about identifying your weaknesses, so definitely prioritize that, just understand what you're trying to do, and it's probably around the hamstring flexibility, potentially for the pike push-ups, and the shoulders a little bit, but be able to get that position. So, yeah, just stick that as a priority and training as well. I'm just portioning out the time, because if you can get that flexibility right, then it's gonna make a big difference for a lot of other things. Whereas if you don't sort that out and just try and get it strong at some point, you're either gonna break down and get injured, or you're gonna have to go back and re-sort out some of that joint alignment and mobility. Yeah, perfect. So if you have any more questions that you want us to answer for next time in the comments below. I feel like I need to apologize, one for the phone ringing, but then two for answering it, but it was the headmaster. I was hoping you'd be here by now, so you could actually meet him, but when the headmaster calls, you know, see what I'm about to do. Yes, yes, yeah. But yeah, comment below if you've got any more. Thanks for listening, and we will see you next time. Class dismissed.