So, I've been accused of lying.

Specifically, I've seen here on my

channel as well as elsewhere people

saying that I've lied about building my

physique using high rep calisthenics.

And to that, I say two things. Firstly,

I never claimed that I built this

physique using purely calisthenics. In

fact, the whole ethos of this channel

going back has always been to train

crossmodally. But with that said, it is

actually true that I built the majority

of my physique early on using

calisthenics. And it is true that I've

barely been to the gym for the past year

due to the demands of parenting and

running a business etc. I've had to

switch back to using the higher up

calisthenics that I predominantly used

at the start of my training journey. And

actually at the very start I saw gains.

I saw myself get bigger not smaller. And

I've maintained that extra size since

then. If you go back to the earliest

videos on my channel, they're almost all

about body weightight training and

usually high repetition body weight

training. Basically, this one, just go

lunge on each step. Um, if you don't

have anything to stand on, just tuck one

foot behind the other one and then go up

on your tip toes like so. And if you do

maybe 30 reps of that, I know it's a

lot, but it's not very heavy. Um, then

that will really start to burn your

calves as well. Do that for three sets.

>> So, when people say I didn't build my

physique using higher up calisthenics,

it's kind of doubly annoying because A,

I didn't say I did, and B, I've

maintained it this way and I sort of

could have done. The internet is so

annoying sometimes. [laughter]

I'm cool. I'm chill. But I do have a

little bit more sympathy for that angle

because I understand where they're

coming from. I saw comments saying

things like, "People have been doing the

One Punch Man workout for years and

seeing no results." And I get that. I

can imagine that happening. And it's

because it's not about specifically the

exercises you're doing or the type of

training you're doing. It's more about

the way you do it and how effective you

make it. And one of the key things about

body weightight training that I want to

focus on in today's video, if you're

doing it for building size is that you

want to be using partial reps or at

least something akin to partial reps.

We'll get into it more in a moment. This

is one of the keys to making this work.

I'm going to show you the exact

difference between, you know, high rep

push-ups that will build you muscle and

high rep push-ups that won't. I also

want to caveat this as always by saying

this isn't the only way to build muscle.

It's not some optimal secret method

that's going to build you more muscle

than anything else. It's actually

inferior to bodybuilding for putting on

muscle size, otherwise that's what

bodybuilders would do. It's inferior to

powerlifting for building strength. But

the reason that I'm sharing it and the

reason I think that this has really

taken off and lots of people want to

hear about it is because it's so

convenient and it builds you enough

strength and enough size. You can do it

in your front garden. You can do it in

your living room and you don't need to

buy lots of equipment. You don't need to

go to the gym and you can do it really,

really quickly. You're going to see that

it doesn't take much to get a really

good stimulus. So, come with me over to

the bio arena, which is the cool name

for the square of cold concrete over

here. And we're going to look at the

difference between doing push-ups with

partial rep ranges and full rep ranges

and why partials work well in this

instance. Because also, just to caveat

again, you have to be so careful these

days. To caveat again, full range of

motion is really important and useful

for things like mobility, for things

like strength through that full range of

motion. It's all about using the right

targeted system for the gains that for

the results that you want to get. So

anyways, come with me. Enough waffling.

Okay, so I'm going to show you now the

difference between higher up

calisthenics that work for building

muscle and higher up calisthenics that

won't. So this is what a lot of people

understandably think they should be

doing if they want to build, you know,

big pecs with push-ups. Proper form.

Arms closer together. Lowering down.

Pushing up. Locking out. Lowering down.

Pushing up. Locking out.

That's a proper push-up. That's the kind

of push-up that counts when you're

trying to set records and things. What

I'm recommending you do is widen your

grip slightly and then

bounce.

using far more momentum, using far more

elastic recoil, going much faster, and I

say spreading your arms out. Let's start

with spreading the arms out. The reason

I'm spreading my arms out here is

because I'm isolating my pecs a little

bit more by doing so, taking some of the

focus away from the triceps and slightly

increasing the stretch, getting into a

deeper stretch on the pecs. Some people

are going to tell you already that this

is a bad idea and that it's going to

cause you to uh injure your shoulders.

That's not correct. The problem is when

you do your arms up here [music] when

it's further than a tea, as long as it's

slightly an arrow, as long as your arms

are slightly pointing down, you're not

going [music] to injure your shoulders

even with super high repetition. But by

slightly widening my grip, which people

tell me not to do in the comments who

don't know what I'm trying to

accomplish, I'm putting more focus on my

chest and getting more of a stretch.

What's even more important here is those

partial reps going.

So, I'm kind of It looks almost like a

full rep, but this is all momentum. I'm

throwing myself up. And this does so

many potential things. We've seen this

kind of training work anecdotally for

loads of people across YouTube.

There's lots of videos on this. We've

seen it work for loads of people, you

know, in prison settings. That's the big

anecdote. Now, I don't want to base my

claims just on anecdotes. Obviously,

it's worked great for me. I've trained

other people in the same way. And we can

also hypothesize as to why this works so

well.

So, you see, when I'm doing those really

full ranges of motion, a few things are

happening. Firstly, the slow cadence

combined with my lighter body weight

compared to say a bench press means that

I'm not recruiting my largest, fastest

muscle fibers. You'll start with these

smaller motor units, the slower twitch

muscle fibers, because your body weight

isn't that heavy. And because you're not

pushing that hard or that fast, you just

don't need that much force. and your

nervous system will always recruit these

smallest motor units first and only add

the bigger ones as they're needed. That

means not building that maximum strength

and you're not going to get as much

growth. And I've discussed using high

rep ranges in order to fatigue those

slower smaller motor units so that you

then need the bigger motor units.

They'll kick in when there's nothing

else left even with a lighter load. But

only if you're sending the neural drive

to go quickly and powerfully. It's kind

of like pushing really lightly against

the wall and expecting that to

eventually engage your fastest motor

units. it won't. And there's loads of

other functional reasons I like this

kind of training, too. There's so many

good reasons to be moving quickly to

maintain that kind of elastic recoil,

especially as we get older, as we become

slower, this is the kind of training

that's going to keep youthful, springy,

and athletic. If you want to start

moving slowly and doy,

then uh stop moving quickly. I set my

glass down for like a minute and it

froze to the table. That's how cold it

is.

In many ways, it's actually working

similar to a plyometric.

Obviously, doing these fast push-ups

makes me very good at plyometrics.

It's working kind of like a plyometric,

but a plyometric doesn't build muscle

because the amount of time you're

actually contracting the muscle is so

small in the exercise, it doesn't

provide enough opportunity for cross

bridging. However, when you do it like

this, it's kind of still explosive, but

there's not really enough time

for it to disengage. I'm maintaining

that tension on the muscle and moving

explosively, which of course is going to

produce some kind of beneficial result

compared to these really nice, slow,

careful, do it properly push-ups.

But we can also hypothesize lots of

other reasons that the shorter rep

ranges might be good for building

muscle. The uh most obvious and commonly

pointed to explanation is that if I'm

doing a push-up like this, then I'm

actually locking out at the top. I'm not

using any muscle at this point in the

exercise. What I'm doing is resting on

my joints and my bones. So, this isn't

doing anything. But actually, it gets a

bit worse than that even because when I

do this, this also isn't doing much.

This is a really easy range of motion. I

can probably do a billion of these. This

is the hard part.

So, by focusing more on the hard part,

you're going to grow more muscle.

There's another reason that maintaining

tension on the muscle like this can

produce superior results as well, and

that's to do with occlusion. Basically,

what happens is that when you're

contracting the muscle over and over

again, you're sending blood to that

muscle. Because it's staying contracted

for such a long time, because there's so

much continuous time under tension, not

just time under tension, that means that

you're pooling that area with blood. It

can't escape. This has a bunch of

effects. For one, it causes hypoxia

because new oxygen isn't able to get to

the muscles in the same way. This means

that you're forced to use the fast

twitch muscle fibers even more so

because they're not as reliant on

oxygen. At the same time, this also

means that you're going to encourage

your body to learn to deliver more blood

and oxygen to the muscles. You're going

to improve your strength endurance this

way, which is a really nice functional

benefit, but you're also going to get

improved blood supply to the muscle,

which encourages further hypertrophy and

growth at rest when you're recovering.

It gives you more performance in the

gym, a better work capacity, so you can

do more and get better results, and it

gives you better blood supply

subsequently. But you're not getting

this effect if you use those really slow

full range of motion repetitions the way

that most people do it. And of course,

it's not just push-ups that this works

for. You can apply it to pretty much any

exercise. This is how I do my dips.

They're bouncy. They're fast. This is

how I do my squats. I use a full range

of motion on the squats, actually, but

again, it's mostly momentum most of the

way.

The actual power at the bottom is

occurring very quickly and repeatedly.

You can, of course, use a shorter range

of motion for your squats. Just squat in

the bottom. But this is actually in some

ways counterproductive because now

you're going to have to intentionally

use less power so as not to send

yourself all the way up. You just need

to focus on doing it quickly. I find if

you want to get the best results, the

goblet curls I've talked about so much

that I like so much for building muscle.

They work great because they have that

short range of motion. Your body

actually stops the weight and allows you

to very quickly and easily pull it

straight back up without needing to

swing your body into it. It's just

really conducive to this kind of

training. So again, this doesn't even

only apply to body weight training. It's

just particularly effective with things

that aren't your max lift or close to

it. Things where you're doing 10, 20, or

30 repetitions. So that's why and how

you can use body weightight training to

build muscle. That's why it works. It's

why it also gives you functionality in

the form of strength, endurance, and

explosiveness. And it's something that

you can do anywhere relatively easily

with minimum fatigue. And that's why I

love it. And that's why I've returned to

it because the current demands of my

lifestyle mean that it's harder for me

to get into the gym. Of course, we're

all different. Different people are

going to get different results based on

their distribution of muscle fiber types

based on even limb length and muscle

insertions. I think that if you have

shorter arms, you're going to get better

results from this than if you have

longer arms. And the same for your legs.

So, there's lots of different factors.

All I'm saying is that there's a good

reason this works. And if you're not

getting the results you want, it's

probably because you're not feeling the

tension. And that's what it really comes

down to. And that's the important thing

because that's what's also going to

allow you to get the best results from

whatever other kind of training you do.

When you learn to feel the tension, you

can feel the same results from this as

you do from a bench press. And you'll

know when you're done. It comes with

practice and time. So stick at it. Don't

get too worried about what other people

are saying is correct form or the only

way to do things. Listen to your body.

Let me know if this makes sense to you.

Let me know if you use shorter rep

ranges when you're doing your high rip

calisthenics. And of course, if you're

looking for a training program that's

based around this style of training,

then look no further than my ebook and

training program, Superfunctional

Training 3, Super Mover. It's currently

on discount for January. Link in the

description down below. It comes with

full workouts based on body weight

movements, functional exercises, cool

and fun, explosive movements, balancing,

but it's all adaptable to any level.

Doesn't require any equipment. Comes

with a 200 plus page ebook, 26

instructional videos, lots of

alternative exercises and workouts that

you can do. So yeah, link in the

description down below. Either way,

thank you so much for watching this one

guys and I'll see you next time. Bye for

now.

By the way guys, this video was

sponsored by Squarespace. For those who

aren't familiar, Squarespace is a

website building platform that makes it

extremely easy for anybody to get

started with their own website. You can

do this in literally a matter of minutes

by using either their AI tools to have

something built for you bespoke very

quickly or by selecting from one of

their ready-made templates and then

customizing them to your heart's

content. This way you'll have something

looks modern that has all of the

features you could want. And you can add

more features from a huge variety that

are available through Squarespace.

Things like a fully integrated

commenting system with threaded

comments, replies, and likes. Things

like e-commerce with inventory

management and tracking. things like

appointment scheduling for booking

appointments with clients and selling

your services online, gated members only

content if you want to make money that

way, search engine optimization for

making sure that your website is visible

in Google, analytics for seeing who's

coming to your website and for how long,

what's working, and so much more. So, if

you want to find out more, then go to

squarespace.com and when you're ready to

launch, go to squarespace.com/bioner

and you get 10% off a domain or website.

Thanks again to Squarespace for

sponsoring this video. Thank you so much

to you guys who stick around till the

end and I'll see you next time. Bye for

now.