Training

Fall Pull Up Challenge: Week 4

We’ve made it to the last week of the 12 Minute Athlete Fall Pull Up Challenge!

If you haven’t started yet or haven’t seen our announcement post for the challenge, be sure to go back and read it here, and make sure to check out Week 1, Week 2, and Week 3 of the challenge. This challenge is mostly meant for absolute beginners who can’t do pull ups yet—if you can already do a few and have plateaued or need ideas on how to keep progressing, you’ll find our pull up course helpful.

During the next four weeks, we’ll be focusing specifically on upper body and core strength. Both are crucial for getting your first pull up or chin up.

Work hard and have fun!

During week four, we’re going to work on activating the shoulder blades and continuing to build strength.

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Fall Pull Up Challenge: Week 3

We’ve made it to the third week of the 12 Minute Athlete Fall Pull Up Challenge!

If you didn’t see our announcement post for the challenge, be sure to go back and read it here, and make sure to check out Week 1 and Week 2 of the challenge. This challenge is mostly meant for absolute beginners who can’t do pull ups yet—if you can already do a few and have plateaued or need ideas on how to keep progressing, you’ll find our pull up course helpful.

During the next four weeks, we’ll be focusing specifically on upper body and core strength. Both are crucial for getting your first pull up or chin up.

Work hard and have fun!

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Fall Pull Up Challenge: Week 2

The second week of the 12 Minute Athlete Fall Pull Up Challenge is here!

If you didn’t see our announcement post for the challenge, be sure to go back and read it here, and go here for Week 1 of the challenge. This challenge is mostly meant for absolute beginners who can’t do pull ups yet. If you can already do a few and have plateaued or need ideas on how to keep progressing, you’ll find our pull up course helpful.

During the next four weeks, we’ll be focusing specifically on upper body and core strength. Both are crucial for getting your first pull up or chin up.

Work hard and have fun!

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Fall Pull Up Challenge: Week 1

The first week of the 12 Minute Athlete Fall Pull Up Challenge is about to begin!

If you didn’t see our announcement post for the challenge, be sure to go back and read it here. This challenge is mostly meant for absolute beginners who can’t do pull ups yet. If you can already do a few and have plateaued or need ideas on how to keep progressing, you’ll find our pull up course helpful.

During the next four weeks, we’ll be focusing specifically on upper body and core strength. Both are crucial for getting your first pull up or chin up.

Read more

Get Ready for the Fall Pull Up Challenge

Pull ups are one of the most functional bodyweight exercises you can do.

We know that you want to be able to do them (or do more of them!), which is why we’re super excited to bring you the Fall Pull Up Challenge!

As cool as pull ups and chin ups are, they can also be quite intimidating. We can’t tell you how many people, and especially women, we have met who are convinced that they can never do a pull up. Throughout the month of October, we’re here to break this myth. You absolutely can do a pull up, no matter what you’ve been told or what you may have always believed. It just takes a lot of consistent work!

This 4-week Fall Pull Up Challenge is meant for beginner and intermediate athletes to help you:

1. Build strength to work towards your first pull up or chin up
2. Break past plateaus if you can already do one or a few pull ups

Get ready to work hard and have fun!

Note: This is not a specific training program. If you’re already very close to doing a pull up or a chin up or you can already do a few and you want to take your training to the next level, check out our Pull Up Mastery program instead or to do along with the challenge.

No matter where you are at in your pull up journey, you are of course welcome to take this challenge and use it as a great way to strengthen your upper body and core!

Read on for all the challenge details:

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Video Tutorial: 5 Exercises for a Stronger Handstand

There’s no doubt that building a solid, strong handstand takes a lot of work.

Not only do you need a lot of patience and practice upside down, you also need to make sure your upper body and core muscles are strong and stable to be able to hold you inverted for extended periods of time, and today’s video focuses on just that.

Some of these are slightly advanced exercises, so you should already be able to hold a handstand against a wall for at least 30 seconds before trying them.

If you’re not there just yet or you haven’t started working on handstands yet, make sure to check out our Beginner Handstands course to get started with your handstands today!

Watch the short video above for a demo of each of the exercises, then find a wall and get working!

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Challenge Yourself With this Full Body Sprint Workout

This post is sponsored by Zappos.

Sprinting is one of the absolute best equipment-free ways to break a sweat and get fitter and faster in a hurry.

This workout combines sprints with a few other select bodyweight exercises for an incredibly efficient full body workout you can do nearly anywhere. All you’ll need is a bench or a plyo box, some comfy workout clothes and shoes, and you’ll be good to go!

Gear up with some awesome Brooks running shoes and clothes and challenge yourself with this sprint workout:

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Simple Front Splits Tutorial (Video)

Today I want to take you guys through the method I learned how to do the front splits.

Even if you think you’ll never ever be able to do the splits because you’re way too inflexible, stick with me! I used to be one of the most inflexible people ever but consistent practice helped me get full splits on both sides in just six months.

First, aside from looking cool, there are some really good reasons to work towards your front splits:

  • They help you open up and increase the flexibility in your hips and hamstrings
  • The reduce the possibility that you’ll get injured due to extreme tightness
  • They make cool exercises like handstands, l-sits, and pistol squats way easier and cleaner and open up possibilities for more challenging skills

Ok, now that we know why we should work on them, here are the stretches to get started:

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Work Out on the Beach to Build Powerful Legs (Video)

Since we’re in the middle of summer in much of the world, there’s no better time to take your leg workout outside, and no better place to build super strong, powerful legs than the beach.

Check out today’s video above for some of my favorite leg exercises that you can do to get strong and explosive with zero equipment. Give them a try next time you’re at the beach and get ready to feel the burn!

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Burpees: Push Up or No Push Up? (Video)

Today we’re going to talk about burpees.

Though burpees are a pretty simple exercise, they’re also one that people get really opinionated about.

Because while some people do burpees with a plank, others do a Crossfit-style chest to floor burpee, and another group does them with a full push up at the bottom.

So which one is correct?

Check out today’s short video above for more on different burpee types and benefits:

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