One of the biggest breakthroughs most athletes miss is how much leverage changes a skill. Almost every advanced movement involves your legs comes down to controlling leverage. Planche, human flag, hollow body, front lever, back lever, etc... Think about it this way: when you’re doing a push-up, you’re pressing around 70% of your bodyweight. Move your shoulder forward to move into a planche lean, and suddenly you’re shifting more weight forward, massively increasing the load on your shoulders and core. That’s why progressions exist: tucked, advanced tuck, one leg, straddle, full. Each one shortens or lengthens the lever, giving you a way to control the load without needing weights. Sometimes progress is obvious (you unlock straddle). Other times it’s subtle, one inch or centimeter at a time in your lean or your leg extension. This is why patience matters. You can be “strong enough” for a skill, but if your body isn’t adapted to that exact lever change, you’ll slip out. That’s physics. 👉 Drop PROGRESSIONS in the comments if you want me to break down the exact path for the skill you’re working on right now.

How many seconds should I aim for negative exercises like negative pull-ups, negative pistol squats, and negative dips? How long should each rep last?

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.

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?

Most people who want to start calisthenics make the same mistake: they try to do everything at once. Handstands. Muscle-ups. Front levers. Planche. Flows. They build a 2-hour program filled with advanced skills, only to burn out in a week. Here’s the hidden truth: simple scales beat complex plans every time. All you need is to work on the foundations and that will help with everything you want to achieve. There are NO masters without the basics. Your real “Day 1” is about mastering control of your own body with basics. That would Be: 1 Push (push up, dips or pike push ups) 1 Pull (pull ups, inverted rows) 1 Squat/Hinge (Squat, Glute Bridge, Nordic Curl or Sissy Squat) 1 Core (Hollow Body or Leg Raises) That's it, there is your workout. Do as many as possible 1 after the other, takes about 5 minutes. Now you have no excuse that there is no time to get your workout in. These aren’t “beginner” moves, they’re the foundation athletes never stop training. The only different is they get harder progressions or more focused on their goals. Consistency is the real breakthrough. One minute of hollow hold every day builds more momentum than a 3-hour grind once a week. Micro-wins like holding a crow pose, or kicking up to the wall for 3 seconds, stack up faster than you think. That’s why in the Masterbook we give you all the skill timelines and the progressions for all the biggest movement patterns. Start smaller. Build momentum. Celebrate every rep of progress. 👉 Comment SIMPLE if you want me to share a simple starter plan with you personally.