What is Strength Rules?

So I've decided to start a blog to track my progress as I get (back) into calisthenics training.  I have done this a few times before, and always seemed to stop for one reason or another.  So this blog will hopefully give me some sort of accountability as I start from the very beginning and see if I can get somewhere with this.


Why am I doing this?  Well, to be truthful I really want to perform a strict muscle up.  For those of you that may not know what a muscle up is - picture yourself hanging from a pull-up bar, then you perform a pull up, but instead of just stopping with your chin above the bar, you explosively (though the coolest one I have ever seen was done by "Hannibal for King" and he did the whole movement slow and controlled) pull yourself up over the bar and proceed to push yourself up so that your arms are extended down and you are holding yourself over the bar.  Then lower slowly back down.  It is a hard, advanced calisthenics move, but I'm willing to start from the beginning and spend the time to get there - not expecting to do it tomorrow, but maybe a good goal is by the end of the year.


I've been to Crossfit classes and seen the kipping stuff but to me it just seemed like raw power to be able to do it without any aid from momentum.


My goal is to update this blog every day - even if I don't do a workout, just to keep the accountability up.


So then, what is "Strength Rules"?  It's a book written by Danny Kavadlo, which breaks calisthenics training down pretty simply - into squat exercises, push exercises and pull exercises.  He provides progressions for exercises to work all muscle groups as well as progressive workouts as well.  My plan is to start at the beginning - well almost the beginning.  I'm going to start at Starter Workout #1 and move on from there.  Each exercise in the workout has a repetition range that he recommends before moving on.  For the sake of my workouts, I will not move on until I have hit the top number in that range for each exercise. 


Tomorrow starts workout #1


Partial ROM Squat (3 sets of 10-20)
Knee Push-ups (3 sets of 10-20)
Australian Pull-up (3 sets of 5-10)
Bent knee raises (3 sets of 15-20)
Side Plank (30-60 seconds each side)
Table Top (30-60 seconds)


I think I will be good on the squats, plank and table top, but my fall short on pushup, pullup and knee raises in this workout.


More tomorrow after we see how this goes.  Wish me luck, I feel completely out of shape.