All right, welcome to the Q&A! There are three main things I want to cover today—topics that came from weekly posts, questions I’ve gotten from athletes, and general things I see people struggle with. We’ll talk about: 1. Handstands—what’s the hardest and best part of learning them. 2. How to know when it’s time to make your workouts harder. 3. How and when to optimize your training. Handstands: From Crow to Crane to Balance Someone asked about moving from crow pose to crane pose. - Crow pose: balancing on your hands with bent arms and knees on your shoulders. - Crane pose: the same shape, but with straight arms. Crane is harder, especially on your wrists, because you have to lean much further forward. Here’s the good news: if you can do crane, it’s actually harder than holding a handstand, at least in terms of shoulder and wrist demand. I’ll soon be teaching a masterclass on handstands, but here’s the big picture: The 3 Stages of Handstand Training: 1. Beginners – Start with crow pose to learn hand balance, then tripod headstands to practice balancing legs in the air. 2. Wall Work – Practice chest-to-wall handstands. This is more effective than back-to-wall because it puts you in proper alignment. Aim to have only your nose and toes touch the wall. 3. Falling & Recovery – Learn how to fall safely, usually by turning into a cartwheel. This builds confidence and helps you commit to a full kick-up. From there, you progress to handstand bounces (small kick-ups and holds). The goal is to get more “time on hands,” so you can practice correcting balance instead of just falling. Spotting or partner assistance can also help. Knowing When to Progress Your Workouts How do you know when it’s time to make your workout harder? - If your goal is skill or technique: Move up when your form is clean and it no longer feels draining. - If your goal is strength: Use this test—if you could repeat the exact same workout in the evening after doing it in the morning, it’s too easy.

Most people overcomplicate calisthenics. They think they need 20 different drills, 3-hour workouts, or advanced progressions before they can even start making progress. But the truth? If you only mastered pull-ups, push-ups, hollow body hold, and the bodyweight squat, really mastered them, you’d unlock a ridiculous number of skills and set the foundation for almost everything else. Why? Because each of these basics is a “gateway” movement. - Pull-ups → lead to muscle-ups, front lever, back lever, human flag, climbing strength. - Push-ups → progress to dips, handstands, planche, push-up variations, even press handstands. - Hollow body hold → core integration for EVERYTHING: L-sits, levers, handstands, planche, flips. - Bodyweight squat → pistol squats, explosive jumps, flows, obstacle landings, mobility for acrobatics. Now here’s the kicker: you don’t even need to change the exercise. If all you did was push these to their limit. Full range of motion, weighted variations, longer holds, slower tempos, you’d still build insane strength, mobility, and control. I’ve seen athletes who only did weighted pull-ups and push-ups for years… step into Ninja Warrior, and instantly adapt to skills most people grind for. That’s the compounding effect of real basics. Obviously, when you get into specific skills, there are specific exercises in Israel that will get you there faster. Pike push-ups will get you to handstand push-ups faster than regular push-ups. However, consistency beats complexity. And mastering these four moves will unlock more than you think. 👉 Which of these four basics do you feel is your strongest right now — and which one needs the most work?

Hey team, this is looking fantastic. I just want to share some feedback based on the workout program you’ve been putting together. First things first: consistency is everything. No matter what plan you follow, it can always be optimized—whether that’s choosing the “perfect” list of exercises or tailoring it to your schedule, goals, injuries, and preferences. But none of that matters if you’re not consistent. Showing up is the real win. A few quick notes on the exercises I saw: - Jumping jacks → Better as a warm-up or cardio, not a main strength move. - Knee push-ups into child’s pose → Great for core, just clarify if the focus is push-ups or core. - Sumo rows → Love these. Great for your back and hip mobility. - Single-leg squats → Perfect step toward pistol squats (check the Masterbook for progressions). - RDLs → Excellent, just stay controlled. Use a counterbalance if needed. Now, here’s the key idea: every workout session should have a specific goal. If you want to build strength, train strength. If you want cardio, train cardio. If you want mobility and flow, then structure the workout around that. Mixing things randomly (like burpees into pull-ups) looks “cool” on social media but usually doesn’t build targeted progress. For core training especially: don’t just treat it like endless endurance. Your core is a muscle group, just like biceps or shoulders. That means reps should be hard enough that 6–30 feels challenging. If you breeze through 20 and could easily do 50, it’s not building strength. So, to optimize any session: 1. Decide the goal. (Strength? Mobility? Recovery? Just moving?) 2. Build around that goal. Choose push/pull/legs/core or combine upper-lower, but align it with your purpose. 3. Stay consistent. Even a “basic” workout done consistently beats a fancy one done once. Think of it like traveling in an airport: walking will get you to your gate, the moving walkway gets you there faster, and the little carts or trains are even faster. But no matter what, if you keep moving forward, you’ll arrive.

Recently switched my training to calisthenics + kettlebells from bodybuilding and have dropped over 70lbs in the last year. I look forward to learning and improving!

Final practice for the day. Longest I’ve held the crow so far. Excited to look back on these posts and see where I started. Any tips are welcome!