In this article, we will explain a shoulder routine that includes different exercises. From those that involve great complexity in their execution to the easiest to perform. You can find this routine on 

The dynamic will be as follows: we will start with one rep and we will add one more in each exercise. This routine will allow you to know all the shoulder exercises that you can use to strengthen the muscles and, in addition, it is a challenge to complete it.

As you may have noticed, we have not added planche progression exercises because in this case we are focusing on strengthening the shoulders. While it is true that progressions are important (learning how to place the scapulae correctly, advanced tucked, tucked lean planche), ultimately, if your goal is to do the planche, you need to strengthen your shoulders. Therefore, the purpose of this routine is to use reps exercises, whether they are difficult exercises with few reps or simpler exercises with more reps. Since the most difficult exercises are placed first, you may not be able to do any at first. In that case, start from the exercise that you are capable of executing and gradually add exercises until you reach the complete routine.

 from the Smart Progress section of the app.

18 effective exercises that target shoulder muscles (including a challenge)

In this article, we will explain how to bulk and cut with calisthenics, so that you can achieve your goals. This article will be based on the experience of Yerai Alonso. The idea is to carry out a contrastive analysis that reflects the consistency and the true physical change after the whole process.

From an aesthetic point of view, by having muscles, little fat and stay shredded, your physical appearance will be quite good. If what you want is to simply have an aesthetic body, the fastest way is to train so that you build muscle and keep your diet on track so that it is hypocaloric and you keep a low percentage of fat.

Of course, you can build muscle with calisthenics. The first thing to keep in mind is that to gain muscle mass the important thing is not the way you train, but giving the muscle an adequate growth stimulus. This can be achieved in different ways, including with calisthenics. If you want more detailed information on how to gain muscle mass with calisthenics, 

Another controversial topic is the importance of training related to the importance of diet. Many people want to improve their physical appearance and build muscle. However, they only focus on training, leaving the diet aside. This is unproductive because while training is a necessary requirement, diet is what regulates the effects of that training. With the diet, you control if what you are going to do is gain muscle, lose fat or stay as you are. If you do not track the diet, what will happen is that your results will be random: sometimes you will gain muscle mass, sometimes you will lose it, sometimes you will gain fat, sometimes you will lose it… However, you will not be able to have a clear idea of what aesthetic goals you are heading towards.

Many people bulk and cut without counting calories or they make a rough calculation. They focus on eating a lot when bulking and eating little when cutting. Nevertheless, this will not give you the results you are looking for.

The positive side of counting calories is that you can adjust how hypercaloric your diet is when bulking and how hypocaloric it is when cutting. In such a way that you can adjust how quickly you gain or lose weight. This is key to obtain better results, but also to maintain an aesthetic appearance during the bulking. Another advantage is that by losing weight in a controlled way, you avoid losing too much muscle mass.

To count calories, we recommend using a digital scale and an app (MyFitnessPal, for example), where you can add the food you eat and monitor your daily intake. At first, it may seem a bit tedious to be weighing and writing down everything you eat, but when you have done it for a few days it becomes part of your daily routine. You just have to get used to weighing the amounts that you put on your plate and then, write them down on the app. Just be careful with foods such as pasta, rice, or legumes, since it is different if you weigh them before cooking or after, so keep that in mind and use the correct option on the app.

Regarding the issue of macros and according to Yerai Alonso's experience, the important thing is that there is a daily protein intake, which in his case with his diet and the protein shake he takes every day; it is usually between 70g. to 120g. per day, which is equivalent to a range between 1g per kilo of weight to almost 2. Despite what is usually recommended in traditional bodybuilding, with those numbers it is more than enough to build muscle and take care of your health.

Regarding carbohydrates and fats, studies have shown that for weight gain or loss goals, the important thing is the total calories, while the distribution or percentage of carbohydrates and fats is not so relevant. For this reason, Yerai Alonso's diet is slightly higher in fat than is usually recommended. Normally the carbohydrates in his day to day fluctuate between 40 and 60%, while the fats vary from 30 to 40%. All this obviously within the context of a healthy diet, with an occasional cheat meal a week, which is also registered in the app.

This is one of the first questions that usually arise: how many calories should I take to start? The app itself (MyFitnessPal) asks you some questions the first time you use it about whether you want to gain or lose weight, your personal data and then, it gives you an estimated amount of calories. The important thing is not how many calories you start with, the important thing is that over time you adjust them to achieve your goals, so do not worry too much about this issue.

One of the keys for this process to be successful is to keep it slow. In bulking phase, we are interested in gaining weight, but without being too abrupt, since this would mean accumulating too much fat, which is self-defeating for us calisthenics athletes since we train with our own body weight.

In the case of cutting phase, if the weight loss is very fast, it will make us lose more muscle than desired. Therefore, it is advisable to adjust the calories as much as possible so that the weight gain and loss are very progressive, with the follow-up method that we will explain below. This is the best way to maintain an aesthetic look throughout the entire process.

Now let's talk about how to track your weight and calories. The key is to weigh yourself frequently, and if you can monitor the percentage of fat, even better. Today there are bioimpedance scales at affordable prices, which will help you have a reference to evaluate your progress.

Obviously, bioimpedance is not the most exact method to measure body fat, but it is a good reference to know your evolution, since, although the absolute value is not reliable, the changes of this value are reliable.

We recommend that you weigh yourself and measure your fat just before starting, and then weigh yourself again every 2 weeks, to evaluate if the calories you are consuming are correct. To obtain more reliable data, it is best to always weigh yourself first thing in the morning and on an empty stomach. One possible method is to write down everything in Excel (weighing date, weight and percentage of fat and calories consumed). This way you can easily control your evolution.

Another key for this process to be successful is that the bulking phase needs to last a long time, at least 6 months. In Yerai's case, his first bulking phase lasts almost a year. The problem with making bulking of 2 or 3 months is that the weight that you are going to gain is going to be practically the same that you are going to lose later in the cutting phase, with so little time it is difficult to build an amount of muscle mass that can later be appreciated. Making a longer bulking phase ensures that later when you cut you will have new muscles and you will have satisfactory results.

Regarding the duration of the cutting phase, it will normally be shorter than the bulking phase, and it will last as long as necessary for you to reach a percentage of fat as low as seems ideal (normally be between 8 and 12%). Once we have reached that point, we recommend raising your calories a little, so that you do not starve and stay a few weeks the same, with your most epic physical appearance. Then start over with the next bulking phase.

Regarding the issue of whether to do cardio in cutting phase, Yerai's opinion is negative in this regard: «My method is based on gradually modifying the calories to achieve the different objectives, while the training remains practically the same. Those who watched my video on my workout planning will know that there is a bit of cardio in different forms in my routines, but I do not worry about there being more when I'm in cutting phase. What I do is to lower the calories and let that decrease be the one that makes me shredded, while I continue to train hard towards my goals of strength, endurance, health and so on».

As you can see, the bulking and cutting phase is a cycle that is repeated continuously, and with which it is pursued to gain muscle in the bulking phase and then eliminate fat in the cutting phase, but the key is that you weigh more and more in your best moment of cutting. This will mean that you have more and more muscle each time.

THE CONS OF BULKING AND CUTTING (HUNGER AND SATIETY)

We are now going to talk about some of the negative parts of this process.

Eating without hunger: there are times in the bulking phase when you are completely full, without any hunger at all, and maybe you still have to take 500 or 600 calories, so you have to eat without wanting and without hunger to complete daily calories. In these cases, many foods such as nuts, nut creams or avocado are very helpful because they are quite caloric and have a nice flavour.

Hungry: in the cutting phase, it usually varies a lot depending on the peculiarities of each person. Although it is true that you go hungry sometimes and you cannot allow yourself many "treats", the hunger that you get to experience in this phase is just a feeling in the belly, it is not extreme suffering or something that will kill you, so it can be overcome. In this part of the process, dishes like vegetable creams and roasted vegetables are quite convenient, since they have very few calories in fairly large quantities.

Regarding the effect of these stages in training, the truth is that it is quite offset by the fact that in calisthenics we work with our body weight. In bulking, you will notice more energy, but you will also feel a little heavier; while in cutting, you will not have as much energy, but you will feel lighter.

Regarding cheat meals, it is up to you. In the case of Yerai Alonso, it was balanced: “I don't like to go to extremes in which to achieve your goals you stop having a social life. I prefer something more practical, so I tried to eat a strict and healthy diet most days of the week, and then at some weekend meal I would cheat if the occasion required it." It is advisable to write down the cheat meals in the app and balance them with the calories of the day, so that it does not affect your goals too much. Luckily, the app has practically all the foods and meals you can imagine, so you can usually put this cheat meal without problem, either exactly or by making a rough estimate.

To have an aesthetic appearance and gain muscle mass, it is best to do a bulking and cutting process.

To do this process correctly you must count the calories, and adjust these calories according to the part of the process in which you are.

Both weight gain and loss should be moderate and gradual so that we do not get unwanted effects.

 you can access different routines of different levels 

. In addition, the Smart Progress section of the app offers you a 

 that adapts to your progress. Moreover, it should be added that all this is complementary and that, of course, strength or hypertrophy routines are also valid.

Bulking and cutting with Calisthenics

, @ferranarnau99 has been the winner of this month.

My story with calisthenics begins on February 26, in which after being encouraged by some friends and later by my girlfriend, I decided to go to the park to train, because due to a urine infection, I lost 13 kg in three weeks, and with it the little muscle I had.

The first day I went to the park it was horrible. I couldn't do a pull-up and it was even hard for me to do assisted pull-ups with a 35kg elastic band. I could do one or two dips and a maximum of 8 push-ups in a row, so I ended up very unmotivated since my ability within calisthenics at that time, was null. I was training for 3 weeks going 2 days to the park, with the bad luck that the coronavirus arises and they confine us at home. But instead of seeing it as a disadvantage, I saw it as an advantage to be able to train more constantly. Therefore, I started doing chin-up refusals on an old door frame and, from there, learning about it and trying to improve day by day. I was hooked on the world of calisthenics.

When the confinement was finished, I could already do several repetitions with 10 kg of ballast, series of 8 reps of dips and more than 200 push-ups, that was when 4 friends decided to do the Camino del Guerrero, which we spent 2 and a half months to complete. And, from there, with what I considered a good base, I started training with Calisteniapp, which is where I have really noticed my greatest progress.

Right now, what motivates me the most is being able to improve day by day, being able to acquire more strength to be able to do the different calisthenics tricks more easily, in order to compete in 2/3 years, since it is one of my goals in the medium term.

What are you waiting for to start calisthenics? We can all achieve it with effort and dedication.

Today, it's him. Tomorrow, it can be you!

March 2021 most voted progress

In this article, we propose 6 calisthenics skills in order of increasing difficulty that you can easily practice at home. From beginner skills to more advanced moves without equipment and without leaving your home.

First, we will see the push up 360 that, although it may seem difficult, we will learn it in such a way that, regardless of your level, you will be able to do it and it will look very eye-catching.

To begin with, we get into push-up position, and the first thing we have to do is cross one leg over the other to the side that is most comfortable to you. Then, we raise our hand and put our feet on the ground, we take a little jump bringing our feet towards our back and we get up taking advantage of the fact that we are in a more comfortable position. Once we are up, we follow the inertia of the movement and complete the turn until we reach the ground again.

Once we have repeated this several times and have internalized the movement, we try to make it smoother. The idea is not to stand up, but that we will stay halfway and fall a little faster.

To make the move even more attractive we can do it within a sequence. For example, we can do two slap push-ups and then do a 360 push-up and then another slap push-up.

Many people do not dare to try it because they think that they are going to fall forward, but we are going to do it in a controlled way so that there is no risk. We squat down, on tiptoe with our legs spread, bend forward a little, bend the elbows and place them on the inner thighs. We gradually lean forward until our feet naturally lift a little off the ground and then we try to keep it balanced. The key is to find a comfortable position of the elbows on the thighs and then we lean forward, without jumping.

This move is a slightly more advanced version of the frog. We place ourselves in the same position as in the frog: squatting and legs spread. We place the palm of our hand outwards on the ground in front of our feet and the other hand further forward and we lean forward. We flex the hand that is near our feet and we try to place the elbow on the belly. Once we have noticed that we have placed our elbow correctly, we open our legs outwards, not backwards, seeking balance parallel to the ground. Once we have fully stretched them and we have pointed our feet, we hold the position for as long as we can.

This move can also be performed on parallels bars and is slightly more comfortable not only because of the position of the wrists, but because there is more room to move. A slightly more advanced version would be to do it with both hands at the same height and both elbows resting on the belly.

The key to executing this move correctly is not to have your feet fixed on the ground, but to jump back a little when you go down and a little jump forward when you return to the starting position. In such a way that we move our hips, but we avoid arching the back. We get into push-up position and perform four moves: a push-up, go backwards, go forwards and then finish the push-up.


The idea is to be able to do a free handstand hold, without a wall, using our body control. The first thing we must do to learn in order to do a handstand without a wall is to learn how to fall properly. For this, it is essential to know how to rectify the movement, in such a way that, if we lose our balance, we do not fall on our back and hurt ourselves.

To learn how to fall from a handstand position, it is convenient to know how to do the cartwheel. The next step is to try free handstand hold, with your hands resting on the ground and giving small impulses with your feet. If you have never done it before, the first few attempts take small jumps to feel the weight of your body on your arms. Little by little, we try to look for the vertical and always taking into account the technique of the cartwheel if we are going to fall on our back.

At first, do not try to fully stretch your arms, instead rectify with your elbows and wrists. In addition, it is not advisable to put your head in because you will lose the reference and it is more likely to fall. It is better to learn to handstand by looking at the ground. The key to handstand is perseverance in practice and never give up.

This last move requires a more advanced level and it is necessary to master the handstand. It is closely related to Russian push-ups, as far as the procedure is concerned, but in a handstand position: push-up, go back, forward, and raise push-up. The dynamics would be: do a handstand, go down flexing elbows, go backwards, then forward and go up again. Do not try to jump back from the handstand directly, but go down by bending elbows instead.

Another important detail is that every time you go back down, when you come back forward, you have to give an impulse that, in the Russian push-ups we do it with our feet on the ground, but now that we are in a handstand position we will replace it with a kick to the air to get the inertia.

The last thing to take into account is that when we move to the elbows we must maintain our balance. Although there are people who can keep it completely straight, it can also happen that your feet fall to the ground. In this case, what you have to do is arch your body enough to compensate and then be able to come back.

If you want to know how to integrate some of these skills into your routine, 

 and the handstand Smart Progress routine that includes, in addition to the handstand, both the frog and different progressions.

Easy calisthenics skills you can train at home

In this article, we will explain a very complete and easy-to-perform calisthenics exercise, since it does not require equipment or external elements, so you can easily incorporate it into your home workouts. We are talking about burpees, a multi-joint exercise that generates a lot of energy expenditure in a short time, so it can be especially useful for those who want to lose weight and burn fat, combined with a hypocaloric diet.

Although the burpee is an easy exercise to perform on a technical level, it is very complete, since it targets both the upper and lower body. In addition, it helps you to increase explosive strength, coordination and cardiovascular endurance. The structure of the movement basically consists of a combination of a jump, a squat, a push-up position, perform a push-up, return and rise.

However, in order to make the exercise really effective, it is necessary to increase the number of reps until it creates a real stimulus for the muscles involved. The speed at which the exercise is carried out will depend on the technical mastery of each one. If we want to perform a high number of reps, it is crucial to maintain a moderate and constant speed throughout the exercise.

There are slight variations of this movement. There are those who prefer to pat during the jump as a soundproof that the rep is well done and to facilitate the counting of reps. However, this is not decisive. If we are beginners and we still cannot perform push-ups correctly, we can adapt the exercise by resting our body on the ground instead of doing the push-up and stand up with the help of our knees.

An example for an intermediate level person might be to perform 100 burpees in 10 minutes. The idea would be to progressively increase the reps (150, 200, etc.) as we reduce the rest time to increase cardiovascular endurance. In conclusion, burpees are a very complete exercise, but that does not mean that we should exclusively train burpees. Burpees do not specifically target the back of the body, for example, the back muscles. Therefore, it is important to combine burpees with other exercises such as push-ups, dips, pull-ups, etc.

If you want to incorporate burpees into your home routines, 

 offers you several free routines like this 

 you will find both this and other similar exercises that will help you achieve your goals in a progressive way.

2021-05-31

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