Raising the Bar: The Definitive Guide to Pull-up Bar Calisthenics

250 Pages·2012·18.58 MB·English

by  Al Kavadlo

RAISING THE BAR
THE DEFINiTIVE GUIDE TO
PULL-UP BAR CALiSTHENICS
By
AL KAVADLO, CSCS
RAISING THE BAR
THE DEFINiTIVE GUIDE TO
PULL-UP BAR CALiSTHENICS
By
AL KAVADLO, CSCS
RAISING THE BAR
By
AL KAVADLO, CSCS
Copyright 2012, Al Kavadlo
A Dragon Door Publications, Inc production
All rights under International and Pan-American Copyright conventions.
Published in the United States by: Dragon Door Publications, Inc
5 East County Rd B, #3 • Little Canada, MN 55117
Tel: [phone] • Fax: [phone]
Credit card orders: 1-800-899-5111 • Email:
Seedman, Lord Vital, Synkwan “Syn” Yam. Additional models provided by
Barstarzz (www.Barstarzz.com): Shaun “Swiss” Bryant, Eduard Checo, Jason
“Sick With It” Fernandez, John Hendricks, Jose “Vertical” Jimenez, Juan
Rosario.
Additional photos: Al Kavadlo, Danny Kavadlo, Tamar Kaye, Abdiel Munoz,
Billy Lee Silva
DISCLAIMER: The author and publisher of this material are not responsible
in any manner whatsoever for any injury that may occur through following the
instructions contained in this material. The activities, physical and otherwise,
described herein for informational purposes only, may be too strenuous or
dangerous for some people and the reader(s) should consult a physician before
engaging in them.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction - The Truth Hurts
Chapter 1 - Pull-up or Shut-up
Chapter 2 - Oh Dip!
Chapter 3 - Hard Core Training
Chapter 4 - Advanced Pullups
Chapter 5 - Enter The Muscleup
Chapter 6 - Handstands and Shoulder Health
Chapter 7 - Lever or Leave ‘er
Chapter 8 - Zen and The One Arm Pull-up
Chapter 9 - The Bar Brotherhood
Chapter 10 - Beyond the Bar
Appendix: Sample Routines
Acknowledgements
About The Author
FOREWORD
By Paul “COACH” WADE
A heavily muscled urban athlete lines up under the high bar and looks up at it
grimly. He’s oblivious to his surroundings; the cars streaming past, the kids
playing and shouting all around, the noise of the city. All he sees is that bar—he
knows it’s the key to the extra muscle and power he needs to build.
A lean, tattooed convict queues up in the yard to work out on the rusty pull-up
unit—he may only be able to use it twice this week, and he’s got to get his
workout done fast and efficiently if he wants to stay on top of his game.
An elite gymnast arrives at the gym for her early morning session. After a
brief warm-up, she heads to her second home—the horizontal bars. The true
training is about to begin.
Some icy rain begins to spit as a tough, grizzled marine hops up to grip the
iron chinning bar left outside the barracks. Like endless generations of warriors
and soldiers before him, he’s mastering his bodyweight. Pullups, pullups, and
more pullups for this wily vet.
What do all these fearsome athletes have in common? They’re using that
damn bar! And with pretty good reason, too: the simple horizontal bar is the
most important piece of strength and conditioning equipment there is—bar none.
(‘Scuze the pun.) My mentor, Joe Hartigen—one of the great “unsung heroes” of
physical culture—always used to say that a horizontal bar was the only essential
piece of training equipment. He believed that you could replace the barbell with
floor calisthenics (one-arm pushups, bridges, one-leg squats, etc.) but there was
no way to replace the value of a horizontal bar. You’ve just gotta work that bar!
Joe was right. Bar training is indispensable for strength athletes. Even if you
are a hardcore lifter, you still need to train with a horizontal bar to unlock your
maximum potential. Why? Physics. I learnt at least one fact back in school—on
earth, gravity only ever pulls things downwards. (I didn’t stick around to find out
why; something to do with apples, I think.) This means that when you lift
weights, or perform floor calisthenics, you are only ever moving things up.
Deadlifts, curls, pushups, squats, cleans—you’re lifting things up, right? As
great as these exercises may be, if you are only ever lifting up, you are building
your body in an asymmetrical way. You need to pull down as well—and this
requires a fixed bar.
The immortal Jasper Benincasa performs the CTI lever back in the
40’s. Try it, and you’ll see why they call it the “Close To Impossible”!
Working with the fixed bar unleashes ferocious functional strength. A lot of
coaches talk about “functional” strength, and give different definitions. For me,
functional strength is the ability to move your own body through space. Other
types of strength may be useful, but they all proceed from functional strength.
This is the strength you need to escape an emergency—climb a wall, ramp over a
fence, etc. Bar athletics is the ultimate “tester” of functional strength. It’s totally
unforgiving. I know a lot of big, fat power-lifters who can pull huge amounts of
iron in the gym. But can they do a muscleup? A front lever? Five rollovers? No
way!
Sadly, very few athletes devote enough time and energy to the bar. When they
do, they see bar training as “pullups”. This is a damn shame. Just as an expert
lifter can use a barbell to perform a wide number of exercises, so a bar athlete
can perform many different types of productive technique. Apart from the
extensive family of pull-up techniques (archer pullups, anyone?), you can also
perform an equally huge range of dips, presses, grip and ab exercises. The bar is
also a great place for incredible total-body moves like muscleups and skinning
the cat.
Why is the bar so misunderstood and underused? Part of the problem is that
there has never been a definitive high-quality training manual on working with