You are currently exploring the Fundamentals Library , which is designed to provide a basic overview of the topics that are covered in other longer articles. This article is a part of the Exercise Selection section.
The Paradox of Choice
The process of choosing exercises can be one of the most overwhelming parts of designing a calisthenics program. The reason for this is that there are an immense number of variables to consider.
Unfortunately, the abundance of choices in the context of exercise is paradoxically the reason for its difficulty and often poor final decisions.
What helps is a set of principles that we can use to evaluate any decision. The system I use to select exercises and make most other training decisions is what I call the SIP Framework, which stands for:
- Specificity
- Individuality
- Practicality
SIP Framework
In this article, we will go through each of these decision modulators and explain them through some examples applicable to exercise selection in calisthenics.
It is important to note that the SIP framework is a general framework that we use in calisthenics programming and not ONLY in exercise selection. While it is most applicable to that aspect of the training program, we also use it when programming variables or even progression and periodization.
We will mention them when discussing other topics and refer back to this article for general understanding.
Note on SAID
Specificity is a well known principle in exercise science. In the literature it is often referred to as SAID - an acronym for Specific Adaptations to the Imposed Demands.
The word "adaptation" is probably the most important here, because what this principle says is that specificity alone doesn't explain training results, but specific adaptations do.
This is the point that Chris Beardsley made one of his articles. Essentially, the principle of specificity doesn't explain anything by itself, and is more of an observation (that if you train in a specific way, your body will get better at the specific thing you're training).
Underneath this phenomenon, however, are adaptations, which are the actual physiological responses to the stimulus we impose on our bodies.
Let's play with a hypothetical example. Let's imagine that there is an adaptation that occurs as a result of training with super light loads (50 reps +) that changes the structure of our muscles in a way that makes them twice as efficient at producing force when loads get heavier.
This adaptation would be clearly specific to 1RM strength testing. But the way to acquire this adaptation would be to train in a completely non-specific way.
Well, that is not how our bodies work. However, there are still certain mechanisms of getting stronger that can or are better trained with loads other than 1RM (such as hypertrophy). This is why it is important to look at adaptations when studying this topic. Strength gain is better viewed not as an adaptation, but as the result of many morphological and neurological adaptations.
Specificity
In the context of exercise selection, specificity will refer to movement patterns. If we have a particular skill in mind, the only exercise that is truly specific to that skill is the skill itself. This is why powerlifting training is so much simpler in this regard.
In calisthenics, any modification aimed at reducing the mechanical demands of an exercise will more or less reduce its specificity. The only exception to this would be a gravity chamber, the idea of which I already entertained in one of the long articles.
Exercise specificity can be determined on the basis of these points:
- Muscles used
- Range of motion
- Position of adjacent or main joints in different planes
- resistance profile
- Muscle action (isometric, eccentric, concentric)
- Velocity
- Coordination elements
First thing we need to ask ourselves is obviously, which muscles are involved in the exercise? For this assessment all we require is to classify exercise to one of the basic groups, based on the biomechanical classification of exercises. We want to see the very general components of this exercise and have a very general idea of the muscles that are working.
A bodyweight row will be much more specific to pull up than to dip. Even though it still differs substantially, there are at least somewhat similar muscles that will take part in both movement patterns.
The second thing we have to look at is the range of motion. This will refer both to the angle of hold when it comes to static exercises, as well as range of angles when it comes to dynamic exercises. Throughout the range of motion, different muscles and parts of muscles will be more or less active. If we perform an exercise in a specific range, it will mainly involve muscles responsible for these specific ranges.
The example here may be tuck planche and straddle planche. Apart from a bigger torque that straddle planche puts on our shoulders, it also is performed with a different shoulder flexion angle than tuck planche.
The next factor is the position of joints. There are a couple of things here. First of all apart from range of motion in a given joint, the position of this joint in different planes may differ. If I do shoulder flexion, dependent on the simultaneous level of rotation in that shoulder, slightly different muscles will be activated.
Apart from it, the position of neighboring joints will also have an influence. If I do shoulder flexion with a locked elbow, the movement is different than when it's performed with a flexed elbow. One of the reasons for that is the length of muscles responsible for the functions. Our delt will not be affected by bending the elbow, but our long head of the bicep will be affected, because it is also connected to the elbow joint.
So, here the obvious example apart from the straight arm strength and bent arm strength is chin up versus pull up. Whether you categorize the elbow as one joint or a couple of different joints, these two movements will be different from each other.
Another factor is the resistance profiles of the exercises that will be influenced by resistance force vectors direction relative to the body and type of resistance used. If I do the movement which gets the most resistance in a specific part of the exercise, this movement will mainly work the muscles mostly active in that specific range where the demand is the biggest.
Very similarly to the range of motion. If we are doing band assisted planche push up, the resistance profile of this exercise is much different from the one in unassisted planche push up. In the same way, weighted dip will challenge our shoulder flexion in a different range than push up, because of the force of resistance vectors. Finally, as already mentioned, there are differences between bands and weights or body weight due to overcoming inertia when accelerating (which alters the resistance profile).
The next obvious point to have in mind is the type of muscle action. Because as we mentioned, concentric, isometric and especially eccentric contractions differ from each other physiologically, we have to keep it in mind when selecting exercises.
The perfect example here is the one arm chin up eccentric, that is often treated as a very specific movement towards one arm chin up. The problem is that apart from the fact it can be different coordination wise, the exercise is based on eccentric contraction which is physiologically different from concentric contraction.
Another aspect is the speed of contraction. Calisthenics is not a discipline where speed plays as big of a role as strength.
However, it is worth to note that speed has its own unique underlying adaptations that get developed through moving fast. This is why the back squat is different from the box jump. Despite pretty similar joint angles and essentially the same musculature used, speed makes these exercises different and not fully specific to each other.
The last factor is coordination. This one is very important from the standpoint of calisthenics exercises, because each one of the movements we do has their specific coordination requirements. On its own, coordination is an umbrella term.
The plane, width and stability of the support base, the degrees of freedom, the altitude of center of mass and the speed as well as magnitude of its migration or number of limbs used in exercise will all determine the coordination demand that exercise offers.
To give you some examples, consider the differences between the wall handstand push up and freestanding handstand push ups, bar dips and rings dips or one arm pull up vs two arms pull up.
Specificity in Calisthenics
The prevalent problem in calisthenics appears when one of the elements must be sacrificed in order to match the other one. If we want to be specific to one arm pull up in terms of muscle action then one arm pull up negative won’t be a good choice. On the other hand, that could be the only exercise we can do that is fully specific towards relative resistance force vectors and resistance profile, done fully unilaterally.
Some exercises will be naturally harder to replicate, and we need to accept that it is the case. For example handstand push up, due to its coordination component, is impossible to recreate unless someone is already able to perform handstand push up. And we are often forced to undermine specificity until we achieve the skill.
That’s one of the reasons why in such exercises, sometimes building up to a single repetition can take years, while building up to 5 reps of the same exercise can take half a year. The training becomes more specific, as we get stronger.
When this is the case, we must often split exercises to target multiple aspects of specificity. For example Partial ROM HSPU will target the coordination component and force vector component, while chest to wall handstand push up or pike push up will cover the range of motion component.
The good news however is that specificity is likely the easiest thing to apply that can single handedly make a successful program (especially in the short term) without any sophisticated programming interventions. If you are specific, you are on a safe side and you are rather not wasting time.
Individuality
The next principle we have to take into consideration is individuality. Specificity is related to the outcome, individuality on the other hand is related to the individual that aims to achieve this outcome. In other sense, applying individuality is about being specific to the person.
In the context of exercise selection, there are 4 main aspects that make people different and that will influence our exercise selection:
- Level of skill
- Strengths & weaknesses
- Structure (anthropometry & flexibility)
- Injuries
As we described in the specificity section, coordination is a very important aspect to think about because the level of coordination will cause different demands on us for this exercise.
However, what must be added is that it will have a different effect on a person who is very skilled at this exercise than it will on a person who is doing it for the first time. For someone who is not very skilled, handstand push ups can be a coordination exercise. For someone with much more skill, it may be a strength exercise. This will vary greatly based on people's specific experience with a particular exercise or piece of equipment.
The next thing is an athlete's individual weakness. In the resistance profile and range of motion section, I explained that different parts of the body can be responsible for performing certain movements, depending on the angle at which the exercise is performed. However, people have different proportions of strength at different angles due to a variety of factors that come from training history or genetics.
One person's bench press will be mostly dependent on delts, another's on chest, and another's on triceps. One person may be failing at the top of the pull-up, another person may be failing at the bottom of the pull-up. So we need to keep this in mind when manipulating the range of motion or resistance profile of the exercise. This will probably not vary as much from person to person as the previous point, but it is an important aspect of individuality to consider.
The next aspect is individual structure. People differ in their anthropometry and flexibility. Height, length of body segments and their proportions, as well as body weight distribution will all affect the exercises in terms of angles and ranges of motion. The degree of flexibility will obviously also have an influence.
When we design an exercise and name it specifically for a certain movement pattern, we must remember that the movement pattern will differ from person to person. The perfect example to illustrate this is the squat, where we can see massive differences in form between people for these two reasons alone.
Finally, if we want to be individual to the person, we need to consider the injuries or problems that the person is currently dealing with. Depending on the situation, we may need to either address that problem directly with proper loading, or take certain areas of the body out of the equation. On the other hand, sometimes we have to sacrifice specificity in order not to aggravate a certain specific area that a person should not be loading in that time frame.
An example of this might be skipping a certain range of motion or having a slightly different positioning of joints and adjacent joints. Instead of full ROM pushups, programming partial range of motion push ups. Instead of planche lean, programming bent arm planche lean.
Individuality is an element that doesn't have to be consciously applied to a program. Typically, more important changes are made intuitively, while more sophisticated individualized alterations are reserved for more advanced athletes in the post-novice stage of development.
Practicality
The last thing we need to follow in our decision making process is practicality. Practicality differs from individuality and specificity in that it is reactive rather than proactive.
Simply put, it is about any other constraints we have to consider when making certain decisions that will undermine its specificity and/or individuality. In the context of exercise selection, practicality is related to the equipment and space available to perform certain exercises, as well as the time it takes to set them up.
If I can't do one arm pull ups on the ring (which is my goal, let's say) because I don't have access to the rings equipment, I will undermine specificity and choose one arm pull ups on the bar on a given day based on practicality. This will undermine specificity, but not to such an extent that the workout becomes ineffective.
In an ideal world, practicality would not be our consideration when it comes to decision making. In reality however, based on my own experience of working with people, it is usually an important aspect that is present in almost every training program I've written.
