Training edition

Here's this week's round up of your questions! If you want to submit your question, you can do so here:

What are good beginner stretches?

Good ones kinda depend on what is tight for you and what your body needs, but some general ones based on where a lot of people are tight would be stretches for:

• Upper trap/levator - bring your ear to your shoulder, then look up toward the ceiling or down toward your armpit
• Pec - stand in a doorway with your arms out to the side at 90-120 degrees, stand tall, then lean forward to stretch out the front of the chest
• Back:
  • Prone press up/seal - lay on your stomach then press up onto the hands or elbows while keeping the hips on the ground
  • TFL/QL stretch - stand next to a wall and put the leg that's farther away from you back. Reach with the arm that's farther away from the wall overhead then to the wall
  • Child's pose
• Piriformis - lay on your back (or sit in a chair) and cross your ankle over your knee into a figure 4 position. If you're laying down, push the knee that's up away from you or if your sitting, sit up nice and tall then lean forward until you feel a stretch on the outside of the hip
• Hip flexor stretch - kneel with one foot up, tuck the hips under by squeezing the hip and then shift your hips forward keeping the ribs down, hips tucked, and hips facing forward
• Hamstring stretch - lay on your back with a strap hooked around one foot and lift the leg up using the strap. Make sure your knee is straight and toe is pointed away from you
• Gastroc stretch - go into a downward dog position or you can have your hands on a counter. Keep the toe facing forward and knee straight as you keep the heel on the ground to stretch the calf.

You can also find a few follow along resources over on my YouTube channel.

Or you can also get full programs (and my entire exercise library so you can look up what these stretches are) in my app!

Which calisthenics exercise is the easiest to learn?

Ahh this one is a tough one since it depends on your current training. For example, some people can do a push up already based on other training, others cannot. To make things easier, let's go a bit more with a skill and I'd say something like a crow pose or headstand are fairly easy for people to learn.

You can learn these and more in my calisthenics fundamentals program (or learn other skills with the skills programs that are also in the app)!

How much time do you recommend to spend/week to reach handstand?

It partly depends on how strong/comfy you are with putting a lot of weight through your wrists. This is the most common limiting factor when it comes to handstand training as it takes time for your wrists to adapt to the load.

Starting out with 2-3 days per week to build up strength can be a good place to start, but working up to 5 days per week at 30 minute sessions is a good thing to shoot for as you progress.

My handstand series (handstand prep, handstand strength, and handstand balance programs) will help progress you through this to get your free standing handstand!

Step by step muscle up guide

1. Be able to 8+ pull ups getting your chest to the bar
2. Be able to do 8 deep dips
3. Learn the false grip - you can find a video here on this
4. Practice the transition
5. Put everything together

But really, if you want to make it easier for you:

1. Get my app so you can have access to my muscle up program (and other skill programs)!

How do you recommend pairing skills with traditional weight lifting/hypertrophy training?

It partly depends on the skill and what specific components you're struggling with for that skill.

A good rule of thumb is to replace the weighted version of the movement pattern for the skilled version. So for example, if you're wanting to train a handstand push up, you'll replace the vertical pushing motion (ex. overhead press) with a skill progression/drill. Or if you're wanting to get your pull up, you'd replace the vertical pulling motion (ex. lat pull down) with a pull up progression (ex. band assist/squat assist, etc.)

Focus on 1-2 skills at a time (if 2, I'd recommend one upper and one lower), so you can still get in the weight training/hypertrophy training as well - granted, you can use bodyweight training for hypertrophy too!

I’m an ultimate Frisbee player and want to improve my agility and direction change sense. Any training tips?

Train power/speed of movements in your training, add in lateral movements and drills for direction changes (think cone drills and sprinting between the cones. Also check out @realgame.athletics cause he has a ton of fun exercises focused on developing power!

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That's it for this week! If you have any questions to clarify my answers or found it super helpful, go ahead and hit that reply button!

Don't forget you can ask your questions below to be featured in an upcoming email!

Best, Laura Kummerle No one is perfect, and that in itself, is perfect!

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