Any Other Bar Athletes?

It seems to be a lot of guys here who are only interested in lifting weights and trying to get huge af, BUT are there any bar athletes here? I find myself slowly gravitating towards the pull up/ parallel bars rather than the bench press.

Already got muscle ups, walking pull ups, and back lever. Currently working on front levers :muscle::muscle:

1 Like

Im too fat to do those and even when I was thin I was still heavy for my height so they were not my favorite thing to do. Id rather lift a keg over my head, throw it, pound my chest, then grab my woman and bring her home over my shoulder like the good old days.

Such a shame we dont live in caves

I plan on mixing calisthenics with weight training to get benefits of both, but I have recently looked at incorporating more in and have just bought some parallel bars for my garage.

What progressions did you do to get to a stage you could do a back lever and muscle up. I feel like I am getting close, but can’t seem to quite get there.

Bar artist? Is that an actual thing? Why aren’t then olympic weighlifters called “barbell artists”?

On a serious note, after almost 20 years of lifting weights, I’ve been doing only bodyweight stuff for the last 4 years.

The staple of almost every workout I do is a ladder superset of pullups/dips/hanging leg raises or pushups. After that, usually some different types of pushups, inverted rows and finally legs. I usually end it with rope skipping or burpees if I feel like it.

I train every second day - 45 mins to an hour. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever been leaner.

I don’t.know if I’ll return to weights, I’m pretty satisfied right now.

Honestly back levers and muscle ups are mostly about technique. It took me a month the get muscle ups down. First time I actually did I did 3 consecutively. When your chest get high enough above the bar just throw your chest over to transition into the dip.

Back levers it took me about 2 months to hold it for a good 5secs then my shoulder starts hurting. I used

I watched George Workout V on YouTube for muscle ups

And this guy name Fortress on YouTube for the back lever/progression

I love calisthenics! They make feel limber, athletic, and strength to weight ratio is important I feel. I don’t do muscle ups or levers but I do a ton of the basics. I follow 531 so I do the main lift with whatever variation I’m doing at the time then pump out on pull ups( which I use as super set between main lifts as well) dips, ab work, back raises, push-ups and sometimes single leg work. I usually pick 3 exercises, one push, one pull, then abs. The variations are endless. I’ll never stop. I’m in for life!

1 Like

I think this guy qualifies as a bar artist.

2 Likes

I thought bar artist was a polite name for a porn star.

1 Like

One issue I’ve always had with these types of workout is the limited leg work. If we’re training bodyweight only, the most challenging lower body progress will be, what, pistol squats? The exercise variety just isn’t there like it is for the upper body, unless I’m missing something.

For sure, you can play with tempo, pauses, and plyometrics with squats, lunges, or calf raises, but it just seems like an unspoken understanding that “bar work” means upper body-only training with legs getting a token treatment at best. If that’s your thing, go for it, but a built/shredded upper body with tiny legs will still end up looking silly to most people.

Chris, that is what I thought too, but…

First, there are numerous ranges of motion that bodyweight is more than enough for most adults when they first start out (especially if they have done a lot of traditional lower body strength work, which is very linear in nature).

These for example:

Second, no argument that if leg size is your primary concern that adding additional resistance will be necessary at some point. But a lot of (well designed anyways) bodyweight strength routines are more about building strength in 3 dimensions, improving mobility, improving balance and “body control,” explosiveness, and other athletic functions more so than just maximizing leg size or competing in a physique competition.

Different methods for different purposes.

I’m a bar athlete I guess, I started lifting at 16 I’m 32 now. For awhile I didn’t have access to weights so ended doing calisthenics. I was inspired a guy named king on YouTube. Believe it or not I got jacked just from Cali’s, people thought I was on roids when all I was using was creatine.

My routine was push ups 1000 push up by 50 reps.
I would do this in pyramids in different variations.

Sit-ups about 100 too many would cramp my abs.

Pulls up 12 - 15 to 20 in variations such as 12 knuckles in 3 sets ( close grip, standard grip, wide grip).

Dips 100 , triceps dips 100, sqauts

And I can’t forget muscle ups.

When I finally got back into the gym my body blew up of course over time but I noticed striations which I never had before flexibility and muscle stamina.

So conditionion IMO is exactly what it is and should be tool added to any BB’s arsenal. But did start to lack in my bar performance after focusing primarily on the weights. I think it was because of the added muscle weight.

Peace!