Gymless Training Blog

Power describes your ability to express strength in minimum time and is an important attribute to develop, particularly for athletes. Greater power means you can produce more force in less time which translates to greater speed, superior acceleration, harder hits, quicker deceleration, higher jumps etc. Even if you are not an athlete, training for power will help you to maintain/build muscle and enhance your longevity (we lose power before we lose muscle mass) so don’t discount this form of training if your athletic days are behind you.

Power = Work/Time

Using the above equation you can quickly see that power output is increased if either work goes up or time goes down. Obviously an even better outcome would be for both to occur simultaneously!

To successfully train for power it helps to first of all get strong. It is all very well being able to express a decent % of your maximum strength in minimum time, but as the above equation demonstrates if your maximum strength is pitiful then your maximal power output is always going to be limited.

Once you have built up a decent level of strength you must learn to express that strength in the shortest time possible....enter power training. In power training the basic aim is to produce as much force as possible in the shortest time possible.

Olympic Weight Lifting is probably the most obvious example of a sport/activity where power is king. Perform a lift too slowly and you will miss it. Perform a lift quickly but with a light weight and you will rank poorly at the end of a competition. Here is a great example of an athlete producing awesome levels of power.

Whilst Olympic Lifting is undeniably a tremendous activity to help you generate power, mobility and co-ordination it does have a steep learning curve and would not be a suitable fit for those amongst us who through choice or circumstance do not have access to olympic barbells, heavy weight plates and lifting platforms!

Two bodyweight exercises stand out for me as ideal gymless alternatives for power training.

1. Box Jumps

Simple and effective this great exercise will help you to develop lower body power and with simple tweaks can be tailored to almost anyone. To make the move harder you can use any combination of the following factors:

2. Explosive Push Ups

The explosive push up is the calisthenic equivalent to the box jump for the upper body. Great for developing explosive pushing power.

It is not quite as easy to manipulate the variables of this exercise when compared to the box jump but certainly not impossible. Of course you can still add resistance in the form of a weighted vest, alternatively if you wanted to make the exercise easier you could change the angle of your body so your hands are pushing off a fixed object above the height of your feet just like in an incline push up.

Whilst one arm explosive push ups are certainly possible I don’t feel they offer a great trade-off between performance gains and risk of injury. Better to keep adding weight to the two handed version or focus on getting higher and higher with your reps. In addition you should be a bit more mindful of the impact forces the explosive push up has on your joints...it may not be the perfect fit for everyone!

Of course these are not the only bodyweight exercises you can use to train for power, just two that jump out at me as being particularly effective. If you feel you are not quite ready for either exercise, fear not...by simply performing the concentric phase of an exercise at a faster tempo you will be increasing power production so the options are pretty limitless. Get creative and make the attainment  of greater power a part of your training!

In the world of strength & conditioning frequency and volume have an inverse relationship. In other words when one goes up the other should come down.

Respecting this relationship is important to the health and longevity of your body, shooting for high frequency, high volume workouts is a good way to grind your body into the ground, deplete yourself of energy and eventually end up sitting on the side line. At the other end of the scale low frequency, low volume workouts will not get you anywhere fast.

 High Frequency, Low Volume Example

This is a good formula to build strength, particularly gymnastic/calisthenic strength skills. It works well because the demanding nature of the more advanced bodyweight exercises means completing a high volume of reps per workout without technique breaking down is tricky. Instead, try practicing the moves using low reps, low sets and long rests. This formula ensure you will retain better form when practising the gymnastic strength skills and means you will have little to no muscle soreness the next day allowing you to jump straight back into another training session.

Pavel Tsatsouline has written an excellent book called ‘The Naked Warrior’  which is devoted entirely to this style of high frequency training, he even takes it a step further and suggests practising multiple times per day always at a sub-maximal volume. The basic theory is the more you practice something the better you get (or the stronger you get!)

Low Frequency, High Volume Example

When looking to enhance body composition, stimulate lean muscle development and burn fat I recommend increasing the volume (more reps, more sets and shorter rest periods.) These requirements will force you to use less demanding exercises/training loads during your workouts in order to maintain quality of movement. Depending on the muscles being worked 8-20 repetitions per set is a good fit. After completing a high volume workout using moderately heavy resistances you will almost certainly need a few days to recover. Trying to do this type of training day after day (i.e. high frequency) is a really bad idea for your health and longevity.

 Take Home Message

Work out what you training for and what your time schedule allows for and adjust the frequency/volume of your training accordingly! Remember, when one goes up, the other should come down.

"I have purchased almost every major bodyweight exercise program out there. I have viewed hundreds of online videos and read dozens of articles, all devoted to bodyweight training. So, when I happened upon this program called the "Gymless Training System" I wasn't expecting much. My first assumption is that it would be a small 50-60 page ebook containing pictures of standard exercises like push-ups, squats, and jumping jacks which would be thrown together for a few circuit routines. However, I am glad to say that my assumption was wrong.

To begin with, Alistair offers a free preview of his program with no strings attached. You can download the basic edition without even having to provide an e-mail address. This preview includes 80+ pages of content taken directly from the full edition of the Gymless Training System. It provides the reader with a solid overview of what the GTS program is all about.

The GTS is divided into three parts. The first part is the full foundation of the Gymless Training System and is over 200 pages long. It's a comprehensive bodyweight training program that includes exercises, workout templates, and training guidelines. Of course, warm-ups, cool-downs, cardio and nutrition are also covered. Alistair does a great job on the exercises. Not only does he include quality pictures of each exercise but he provides performance tips and common faults as well. For visual learners, Alistair provides video clips of the exercises on his website. The workout templates are really solid. These aren't the typical circuit or interval routines commonly found in bodyweight training programs. Overall, it's a well though-out program that anyone can use to improve health and fitness without the cost or inconvenience of a gym membership.

Parts 2 & 3 of GTS expand on the guidelines by showing readers how to use low-cost tools to enhance the workouts. Part 2 focuses on the use of resistance bands which compliment bodyweight exercises rather well. Part 3 emphasizes the use of a suspension trainer. Both of these tools are becoming more popular these days, for good reason. Both bands and suspension trainers can be used to make exercises harder or easier, as long as you know how. The good news is that Alistair has laid it out for the you so there is no guess-work involved. These parts include the same high quality exercise pics and descriptions as the first part. They also include details for integrating the tools into the bodyweight workouts. For those so inclined, Alistair also includes stand-alone workouts for each tool.

Since using components of the GTS program I have noticed improved strength and endurance. Most importantly, the various templates have increased my enthusiasm for my "gymless" workouts.

If my review of the Gymless Training System was based on a star rating, I would give it a 5 out of 5 stars."

Steve Zorn (www.personalsafetyunlimited.com)