[L to R: Sai Ngo (UK), Mark Leitz (US), Jay Anthony (UK), Lee Wade-Turner (UK) and Rick Seedman (US)]
This time last week our muscles were recovering from a wake up call courtesy of The Bar-barians Bodyweight Seminar.
On their final leg of a whistle stop European tour US Bar-barians Rick Seedman and Mark Leitz joined their UK brothers Sai Ngo, Jay Anthony and Lee Wade Turner to host the seminar at the impressive Bull Arena aka CrossFit Northampton in the UK's East Midlands.
Ever passionate about calisthenics and the bar and still on a high from the Street Workout World Festival in Ukraine earlier this month the Bar-barians were on top tutoring form.
Saturday, 16th June, day one of the workshop covered the bodyweight fundamentals like the push-up, pull-up and dip, and later touched on conditioning drills for strength and endurance.
Because of time more so than ability we had to skip day one and headed on up for the advanced session held on the sunday.
Seeing our eager and extremely fit fellow attendees rolling up we kinda felt we'd picked the wrong day. The Bar-barians however did a great job of breaking all the advanced moves down and illustrating with memorable anecdotes how they'd achieved some impossible looking moves.
The new feats that they'd taught us couldn't have been tackled without a thorough warm-up consisting of jogs, jumping jacks and a rather challenging shoulder warm-up that made us a little worried about how the rest of the day would pan out.
[Lee teaching the front lever]
Our group started with a front and back lever tutorial led by Lee, Jay and Sai. When in the lever you hold yourself parallel to the floor with just your hands holding onto a bar. If you face the ceiling you're in front lever and if you face the floor you're in back.
Already acquainted with the front level it seemed odd that we started the move lying on the floor. But there was Mr Miyagi type method to the madness. Lying on the floor helped us get a better feel for all muscles that needed to be engaged when doing the move properly.
[Learning the handstand]
Handstands followed next, led by Rick and Mark who taught that it's not simply a case of balancing yourself on your hands but finding that sweet spot where the body is completely straight and aligned in such away that it feels effortless (we'll need a bit more work on this).
[Jay teaching the muscle up]
If there is one exercise that everyone wanted to master it was the muscle up. A staple of the bar world the muscle up is the big daddy of the pull-up and requires you to pull yourself high above the bar (or rings) and push up until the bar (or rings) is at thigh level. Ours have been a little rough around the edges for too long now but thanks to Mark who led our group we are now the owners of some near clean muscle ups. Just a touch more practice and Mark's stern voice ringing in our ears and we'll be the envy of our Primrose Hill Workout Park pals.
[Sai teaching the planche]
The planche is another popular exercise that lots want to conquer. A gravity defying hold that can be best described as the top of a push up position with only your hands touching the ground and feet suspended in the air. Who better to have introduced it than Jay 'KillinGravity' Anthony who armed us with a series of progressions and illustrated his journey from doing basic static holds at home to more advanced holds on park parallel bars. We're yet to master the planche but we're now no longer intimidated by it.
[Rick demonstrating the v-sit]
Power house moves the human flag and the v-sit followed. Lee and Rick broke down the former then Rick displayed the ridiculous flexibility and strength needed for the later. The closest that we were able to get to a v-sit was an L-sit but we'll keep working at it.
To finish things off and to make sure we weren't faking exhaustion the Bar-barians had us doing a knackering pyramid push-up set.
In the short time since the workshop much has already improved in our bodyweight and calis repitoire and we are more motivated now than ever before to stick at it and keep improving. A big THANKS goes out to the fellas and we hope the workshop will be a regular happening.
For more information on the Bar-barians and advanced calisthenics training make sure to join their facebook page.
Here's the promo vid from this month's event:
[photos by MNL]
