High Rep Strength Standards For Calisthenics

I love strength standards. I love seeing where I am. I constantly reassess them according to me experience and practice.

I am a big advocate of high rep bodyweight training. I believe people make stuff too hard too soon, lift too heavy too soon, specify in skills too soon and/or make training to complicated. Taking your time to conquer the basics will serve you right for strength and mass. Ditching any device, even the dip belt, for simple and accessible bodyweight workout is refreshing.

I have been doing high-rep bodyweight training more recently. After training for 1RMs for years - in gymnastics ring skills, street-lifts and barbell lifts - my body craved more reps. It happens from time to time - my body craves something. Does your body have cravings too? At this stage of my training, I try to listen. It brings up good stuff.

This style of training won't make you the strongest. You will get somewhat stronger taking your Pull-Ups from 10 to 20 reps. You will, though, get more conditioned and strength endurance. The body has a tendency to carve himself when doing higher-rep calisthenics. Have you ever noticed the calisthenics endurance bar athletes? 15 to 75 years old, all of them are shredded! The body responds in a meticulous fashion.

Strength standards are there to help trainees locate themselves within the sphere of strength more easily. 

Strength standards are general markers of strength, derived from the performance of the average athlete in a given sport. These markers give a sense of how well rounded you are in terms of the bodyweight exercises (in our case), what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses and what you should aim for.

A trainee can be considered advanced in the pushing department while being a beginner in some form of a pulling exercise. When this happens - it exposes a weakness.

Multiple factors ultimately contribute to your performance in a specific exercise other than simply the amount of work you put in. An example of that would be your anthropomorphics. A trainee with short arms (a wingspan shorter than the height) may struggle with the planche, as the shoulder joint angle becomes narrower when center of mass is above their hands (basically resembling a maltese). The long-armed athlete (a wingspan 5cm+ longer than the height) will find the iron-cross more challenging to achieve as lever-arm elongates.

Regardless of the reason, you can use the strength standards to evaluate any potential weaknesses in your game, whether that being a weak pattern or a weak muscle group. In some cases, bringing a weakness up can help minimize risk of injuries, round you up as an athlete and ultimately build a wider, stronger base of practice to push your athletic potential ceiling higher. You are only as strong as your weakest link!

I have used standards that are relative to the individual in the past. Though they are not incorrect, they are more vaguely assessed and leave a ton of room for interpretation - not a great plan of action when spreading information online. Relative strength standards such as:

• Beginners are those who are able to progress on a workout basis
• Intermediates are those who are able to progress on a weekly basis
• Advanced are those who are able to progress on a monthly basis

When assessed correctly - they are the best, most accurate and most relevant to practical training than any other standard. Rarely are they assessed correctly though, which is why I don’t use them anymore.

A beginner can train ineffectively enough to the point he hasn’t gained any muscle mass for months on end and is stuck in his lifting numbers. It doesn’t demonstrate the fact that his body isn’t capable of making progressive overload on a workout to workout basis, it just proves his ineffective training.

The general strength standards do a better job. I constantly reassess them according to my experience.

*The standards provided in this article can be also used as a roadmap. Goals you should aim for at any stage - your point A to point B. It is not a coincidence that the beginner standards, for example, are higher reps. I believe it is more effective for beginners than low rep training. It is also not a coincidence I chose only 1 exercise for each movement pattern. You must narrow your focus to a few, minimum amount of goals. 

Look at them as challenges. Conquer each level at a time. 

Beginner

3x10 Ring Rows

3x20 Push-Ups

3x30 Air Squats

Novice

3x10 Chin-Ups

3x10 Ring Push-Ups

3x50 Air Squats

Early Intermediate

3x10 Wide Grip Pull Ups

3x20 Parallel Bar Dips

3x100 Squats

Intermediate

3x10 Chest-to-Bar Pull Ups

3x10 HSPU, floor.

3x20 Bulgarian Split Squats

Intermediate +

3x15 Chest-to-Bar Pull Ups

3x5 Full Range HSPU 

3x15 Elevated Bulgarian Split Squats 

Advanced

3x20 Chest-to-Bar Pull Ups

3x10 Full Range HSPU

3x25 Elevated Bulgarian Split Squats each leg

The lower body standards are not extremely enthusiastic. Some would say they’re not up to par with the upper body. I can understand agree. They are challenging though and I wanted to keep it bodyweight only for the sake of the high-rep challenge. Any form of single-leg squatting has the balancing variable involved. The balance variable disrupts the intention of the high-rep, high-pace calisthenics session in my view. I left the fancy shrimps and pistols out of the equation today.

Let me tell you another thing regarding lower body training. It highly affects quality of life, especially as life goes on. At a certain level, taking your barbell back squat 1RM up does not contribute at all to higher quality of life. Contrary, being somewhat strong moving your bodyweight for moderate intensities but prolonged effort - does. This is a recent observation I had. I have noticed that old-school meatheads shift their training to moderate intensity and include cardio as they age. I have noticed that the most impressive 70 years olds are found at calisthenics outdoor training park around the world.

You must earn the right to add any external load to the body weight compounds - as the high-rep attest. You don’t have to complicate training as long as bodyweight only works. Gradually shifting towards sets of 5 reps which work great for more advanced trainees.

Let’s wrap it up at level 6. Because if you pump up these standards then you probably don’t need me at this stage! From here, you can choose whether you wish to take the streetlifts into the next stage, i.e. weighted dips and weighted chins, or take the foundation you have and master the straight arm skills.

Train hard,

Train smart,

Grow!

Refael.