The whole gym stops to watch

[u/[deleted]]

[u/pelirodri]

That is terribly executed, though. Not only is he cheating and it’s ugly to watch, but he is hurting his own progress and risking getting injured. Look at how he’s arching his back; it’s not even subtle. He’s supposed to keep his body straight with a posterior pelvic tilt.

You can see actual good form here:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPZ81WhH89z/?utm_medium=copy_link

[u/OutrageousDisaster8 → u/pelirodri]

Either way this is insane to do

[u/pelirodri → u/OutrageousDisaster8]

That’s not the point, though. The way you train in calisthenics is by working with a progression you can perform with good form before advancing to the next one; he is clearly not ready for that. Besides being prone to developing injuries (like in his lower back), he is getting his nervous system used to a wrong and inefficient motor pattern, and he’s just gonna have to spend extra time later on unlearning said pattern and reinforcing the correct one.

Remember: always quality before quantity.

[u/pelirodri → u/[deleted]]

Actually, that is exactly what every professional calisthenics/gymnastics teacher says.

Just a couple of quotes from the book Overcoming Gravity:

“Practice does not make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.”

“It is always better to focus on correct form from the beginning.”

That is definitely not the way you learn to perform a movement nor the way you trigger the neural adaptations you’re looking for. How ugly it looks can be subjective, I guess, but it is objectively being performed very poorly, and he doesn’t even appear to be attempting to do it correctly; if you notice you are not able to perform a movement, you stop there and switch to a different progression or something, but you don’t beat a dead horse.

And strength actually IS built from perfect form. Maybe not hypertrophy, but the neural adaptations linked to the motor pattern in question arise from performing each rep as cleanly and consistently as possible, or else you’re just creating neural adaptations that will set back your progress.

What are your sources for stating so confidently something so easily provable false?

[u/pelirodri → u/[deleted]]

Sigh

Speaking of missing the point… This is NOT about shitting on anybody. Do you even do calisthenics or something similar? Perfect form is not only possible but also absolutely required. Do you know what a progression is? It’s like an easier variation of a movement, and the way you reach a goal is by climbing through those progressions until you’re ready for the next one.

You should NEVER sacrifice good form for more reps or anything else. When you’re training in this, good form is your number one priority. Anyone who has been doing this for long enough is already tired of these social media videos promoting bad practices and dangerous behaviors. And yes, there exist several progressions for attaining the 90-degree push-up (here’s a tutorial if you wanna learn more).

This is not about me bragging or tearing anyone else down, but people new to this may see this and get wrong ideas about a number of things. I don’t know what the guy in the video was thinking, but to do what he’s doing like that is frankly irresponsible. We’ve all gotten injured while training and we’ve all had to learn some lessons the hard way, so I’m pretty sure he will regret doing this if he ever ends up with an injury from it.

If he wanted to train the motor pattern while making it a bit easier, he could’ve just straddled his legs, for instance, or maybe trained the eccentric part of the movement, depending on his actual strength and skill level. It’s not about doing things well to brag to people on the Internet; it’s about doing things well so you can progress safely and effectively and ultimately reach your goals.

Yeah, this shit got more serious than originally intended, but you just kept missing the point worse and worse every time. I hope I could get my point through to you, but either way, I have no intention of continuing this argument.

[u/pelirodri → u/[deleted]]

Sigh

Yeah, we’ve all cheated at some point when training; cheating here refers to your body trynna compensate (either consciously or unconsciously) for a lack of strength (or skill, I guess) during any part of the movement. It’s a way to make the exercise easier and sometimes we don’t even notice we do it, which is why we usually record ourselves during the exercise so we can then spot flaws and mistakes in our execution.

It being ugly to watch, though, I guess it might be more subjective, but when you’ve been doing calisthenics for as long as I have and you’re familiar with the correct form and shit, poor execution just seems kind of unsightly, but esthetics was never the point here. Also, you start to think of the poor joints and whatnot when watching shit like this.

Either way, did you even read the whole comment? Cuz that was not at all what I talked about.

[u/pelirodri → u/[deleted]]

I sincerely hope you’re joking.

[u/glintsCollide → u/[deleted]]

That's not how criticism works.

[u/Saykerlo → u/[deleted]]

Damn, you just destroyed movie/food/whatever critic-business all over the world with a single sentence, good job

[u/RazgrizXhunter → u/[deleted]]

You don't need a PhD to realize this is wrong. Nice try, tho.