rise

of the
bar

PHOTO

Hit Richards does a true

human flag in Miami.

?? \\ REPS \\ JUL AUG 2013

PHOTO COURTESY OF HIT RICHARDS

athlete

A new breed of
athlete may be
taking over the
jungle gym at your
local schoolyard,
but their extreme
form of calisthenics
isnt kid's play.
Bodyweight training
can help you muscle
your way to a lean
and shredded
physique
BY ADAM W. CHASE
JUL AUG 2013 \\ REPS \\ 97

(Clockwise from top) Hit

Richards does the human
flag; Zef Zakaveli works
the bars in New York City;
athletes preform triple
front lever at the L.A.
FitExpo.

Daddy, Daddy!
Cirque du
Soleil is on the
jungle gym!
These athletes have walked away from weight machines, dumbbells and barbells in favor of bodyweight training, putting themselves through punishing workouts of pull-ups, dips, push-ups,
handstands, balance moves, the human flag, muscle-ups, levers and
break dance-like maneuvers and gymnastics exercises to build up
incredible strength-to-weight ratios and shredded physiques. Their
training has also evolved into a full-scale sport, with various forms
of judged competitions. Even if youre not ready to give up on traditional strength training just yet, you can learn a lot about developing
a functional physique from these stars of the bars.
My idol was Bruce Lee, says New York City-based trainer
George Hit (hardcore intense trainer) Richards, one of the
pioneers of the sport, who left the weight room for the playground in
1996. The things he could do and the strength he had his whole
fitness regimen was based on calisthenics. I found it to be more challenging using just my bodyweight.
The current crop of bar athletics trailblazers also includes Zef
Zakaveli, Hannibal 4 King, James Jedi Jackson, Dan Kalosthenos
Attanasio, Gavin ABS Mcbean and Andy Ninja Man. Theyve
formed teams like Calisthenics Kingz, Bar-Barians, BeastMode and
BarStarzz, training in their neighborhood parks where they inspire
onlookers young and old. The bodyweight athletes are intent on
growing the sport through YouTube videos and DVDs, training
celebrities and athletes from other sports, and competing in meets.
What began with a small group of guys in the New York City area
has now exploded into a worldwide fitness trend that promises
body-transforming results, Richards says.

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(TOP) HIT RICHARDS, (L TO R) WORLD CALISTHENICS ORGANIZATION (HIVO GONZALEZ,

PHOTO
JENNETH GALLARXO, JUAN ROSIARIO), COURTESY OF BAR-BARIANS

Parents may be alarmed to hear those words, but gym

membership salespeople should really be the ones
concerned. An emerging fitness phenomenon, known
variously as extreme calisthenics, bar battling, street
workouts and jungle gymnastics, has taken over
neighborhood playgrounds around the world.

17
Number of years
Hit Richards
has been training exclusively
with extreme
calisthenics.

JUL AUG 2013 \\ REPS \\ 99

100 \\ REPS \\ JUL AUG 2013

AL KAVADLO (TOP), (BOTTOM LEFT) GREGORY JAMES (HIT RICHARDS), (BOTTOM RIGHT) COURTESY OF WORLD CALISTHENICS ORGANIZATION

Bar athlete Travis Brewer

training in Santa Monica, California

COURTESY OF WORLD CALISTHENICS ORGANIZATION

(Clockwise from
top) Al Kavadlo
in New York City;
Kenneth Gallarzo
in Los Angeles;
Hit Richards in
Buffalo, N.Y.

Bar Culture

Calisthenics traces its roots to ancient Greece and

has long been used as the building block for Army,
Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force and law enforcement academy training camps. But over the last few
years, the bodyweight-training subculture has grown
rapidly, with calisthenics competitions and hundreds
of (friendly) rival groups all over the world. One of
the original teams, the Bar-Barians, founded in 2004
by Brooklyners Zef Zakaveli and Jay Planche, now
has chapters in the Ukraine, Russia, Lithuania, Israel,
Australia and the U.K.
I have positive energy around me and friends with
the same goals. Zakaveli says. It was only natural to
start a workout organization.
After noticing a growing obesity problem in his
Bronx neighborhood, Hit Richards launched Calisthenics Kingz in 2007 to promote fitness through
natural bodyweight exercises. Another training group,
Barmasters Xtreme, was founded in 2008 by Hassan
A. Salaam, and shares a similar goal with Calisthenics
Kingz in that they were both established to inspire
young adults to be all they can be. Within a short
time, the New York City area seemed to be teeming
with bar-hopping collectives.

Calisthenics For All

The word
calisthenics
is derived
from the
Greek
kallos,
meaning
beauty,
and sthnos,
meaning
strength.

Because it requires no investment in equipment or

monthly memberships, more people are venturing out
of their usual gym routines to give calisthenics a shot.
Richards says he became fascinated with the variety of
exercises he could perform. I could really push without getting injured, and I didnt need a gym, he says.
It just took my body to a totally different level.
Al Kavadlo, author of the calisthenics training book
Raising the Bar, says you can get in the best shape of
your life with just a pull-up bar. His book breaks down
every type of bar exercise, from basic arm hangs to
muscle-ups and even single-arm pull-ups. Richards is
quick to emphasize that he also does a lot of lowerbody work, and the reason bar athletes wear pants isnt
to hide chicken legs, but rather because shorts are not
very flattering when you're doing handstands.
Richards is helping to spread the popularity of the
training style with a growing list of celebrity clients,
including NFL wide receiver Chad Ochocinco Johnson and rapper Busta Rhymes. And hes confident that
calisthenics broad appeal goes far beyond pro athletes. Anyone who comes across calisthenics can get
in shape to do it even though it doesnt seem humanly
possible, he maintains.

JUL
MAYAUG
JUN 2013
2012 \\
\\ REPS
REPS \\\\ 101
29

Calisthenics Kingz
Basic Requirements
Perform the following exercises in less than 3
minutes. All moves must be done in strict form
and in the order listed.

Pulling Your Weight

102 \\ REPS \\ JUL AUG 2013

Pull-up

10

Front lever 1

Freestanding handstand,
straight legs

30 sec.

Dip

20

Push-up

20

The Bar-Barian Workout

Are you ready to be a Bar-Barian? Try this
Bar-Barians standard physical requirement to
join the training group (you also need to pass a
personality test). All exercises must be executed
one complete set at a time with strict form.
Perform the following exercises in
less than 6 minutes.

A BarStarzz
athlete in New York
City. (Below) Los
Angeles-based
bar athlete Travis
Brewer goes
airborne in Santa
Monica, California.

The Weight-to-Strength Myth

Exercise

Reps

Muscle-up

Pull-up

30

Dip

45

Push-up

55

Muscle-up

bar battles

A brief tour of top calisthenics competitions around the world

PARIS

CONEY ISLAND

At a contest in Paris,
athletes were judged
on numbers of properly
executed reps of pushups, pull-ups or dips.

The International
Calisthenics Federation
(ICF) put on an event
on Coney Island over
the July 4 weekend.

KAZAKHSTAN

This April event,

Bar Bars, in Astana,
Kazakhstan featured
freestyle and basic
competitions.

UKRAINE

LOS ANGELES

PHOTO

When hauling your body up down and around, it definitely helps to

have a cut physique, Richards says. On recent trips to Russia and the
Ukraine, where he was invited as a celebrity judge for calisthenics
competitions, he noticed that the athletes he met there were leaner
than he was, but were able to perform high reps, seemingly with ease.
That inspired Richards, who weighs in at 185 pounds, to consider
dropping 10 pounds for a better strength-to-weight ratio.
Weight to strength is a myth, he says. You can drop weight and
still increase strength. But if I drop too much it wouldnt look right.
The looks count, given that hes well known for his feats of strength
seen on YouTube, such as his slow-motion human flag push-ups and
handstand variations.
Richards current workout consists of strictly calisthenics, using only
natural bodyweight exercises and movement. I work my entire body
upper and lower through such exercises with a proper range of
motion while doing the exercise. This helps him to increase his inner
strength and muscle symmetry. The key factors when Im training
are mental focus and physical focus on form and the specific muscles
I'm targeting. I also push myself to achieve new personal fitness goals,
which motivates me because I will not stop until I meet the goal.

For a front lever tutorial, see Bodywork on pg. 30.

(TOP) COURTESY OF HIT RICHARDS, (BOTTOM) COURTESY OF

Standard pull-ups in
calisthenics require strict
form locking elbows at
the bottom.

Reps

Muscle-up

WORLD CALISTHENICS ORGANIZATION, SHUTTERSTOCK

Richards trains about two and a half hours a day, sometimes twice a
day, and includes aerobic activities like running, stair climbing and
jump rope. In the warmer months he trains outside in local parks,
where kids often gather to watch his eye-popping feats of strength and
balance. Always careful to train progressively, Richards masters all
aspects of a move before he executes it. I saw a guy split his shin down
to the bone because he tried a handstand move when the cameras were
rolling, even though he wasnt prepared to do it properly, he says.
Oakland, California, calisthenics promoter Dan Kalosthenos Attanasio teaches people the healthiest and most effective way to train
their body for strength, muscle endurance and postural integrity. By
following a basic calisthenics program in a progressive manner, one
can enhance their physique as well as their functional capacity up to
their genetic potential, Attanasio says. With his more than 25 years
experience in the fitness industry, Attanasio decided in 2009 to focus
exclusively on bodyweight calisthenics to gain functional strength
and flexibility, which he refers to as beautiful strength, borrowing
from the meaning of the word calisthenics, derived from the Greek
kallos, meaning beauty and sthnos, meaning strength.

Exercise

The World Calisthenics Organization put

on a Battle of the Bars
competition at the L.A.
FitExpo in January.

LONG ISLAND

A Long Island
calisthenics competition followed the
freestyle mode.

A competition held in
the Ukraine last year
was more about style,
scored by a panel of
judges based on freestyle form, strength
and transitions.

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