#05 - How to Build Big Strength Using Only Your Bodyweight

Building strength is crucial for anyone in fitness.

Strength is the ability of our muscles to generate force.

However, we don’t always have access to the barbells and machines that we would find in a gym.

Sometimes, we will have no equipment and need to improvise.

That’s where The Naked Warrior protocol comes in. This system was devised by Russian strength coach and kettlebell pioneer Pavel Tsatsouline.

A system to develop big strength using just your body weight - and only 2 exercises!

Strength is arguably one of the most important physical attributes to build. Here are a few reasons why:

• Freedom of movement

• Firm connection between the brain and the muscles

• Keeps the muscles, bones, ligaments and tendons robust - reducing the risk of injury

However, strength training needs to be specific and focused. Many miss the mark. Let’s dive into why.

Don’t confuse strength with gaining muscle.

Strength is a specific adaptation. Unless we train it properly, we won’t get the results we’re after.

Here are some common mistakes:

• Not contracting the muscles hard enough

• Not bracing the core muscles before a movement

• Doing more than 5 repetitions per set

• Not giving the body enough time to recover between sets

• Forgetting that strength is a skill and should be practised often

However, the principles of strength can be easily understood.

We are going to explore things through the lens of The Naked Warrior protocol.

Its 2 exercises are:

• Single-Arm Push Up

• Pistol Squat (A One-Legged Squat)

  We are going to break down how to build strength using just these exercises.

1 - Tension is key.

As I mentioned earlier, strength is our muscles’ ability to generate force.

The way force is translated to produce movement is through tension in the muscles.

Therefore, muscular tension is one of our main areas of focus when training for strength.

Some general principles to keep in mind:

• Tension can be created using the breath. Breathing in and holding our breath creates tension around our core, allowing us to produce more force through the arms and legs.

• Aim to contract the muscles needed for a movement before and throughout the exercise

For the Single-Arm Press-Up:

• Activate your lats by imagining screwing your working arm into the floor

• Tense your core, glutes and quads before starting the lowering phase

• Breathe in through the nose and hold the breath until you near the end of the upward phase

For the Pistol Squat:

• Imagine screwing the foot of your working leg into the floor

• Activate all the muscles in your working leg and core

• Breathe in before you start the lowering phase and breathe out as you near the top of the upward phase

2 - Strength is a skill.

Pavel says that strength is a skill and should therefore be practised often.

He also outlines that specificity + frequent practice = success.

In the case of The Naked Warrior, specificity relates to the choice of exercises - the Single-Arm Push-Up and the Pistol Squat.

These are arguably among the best bodyweight exercises to improve raw strength.

When it comes to frequent practice, this protocol has something else to offer.

Grease the Groove or GTG.

In a nutshell, this involves doing the exercises for around half the number of repetitions that you can do.

For example, if you can do 6 Pistol Squats, don’t do more than 3 at a time.

You then do this many times throughout the day on most days of the week, sometimes with hours in between sets.

Few systems can increase the number of reps you can do on an exercise better than this.

GTG can be applied to other movements too. Pull-Ups, regular Push-Ups, bodyweight squats etc.

3 - Repetitions and rest matter.

We have just touched on rest times but this, along with the number of repetitions is crucial when it comes to pure strength training.

Pavel says, “Anything over 5 reps is bodybuilding”.

If you want to improve your maximum strength, keep your repetitions to 5 or fewer per set.

As we said before, strength is a skill. Fatigue makes skill worse. Thus, we want to keep fatigue to a minimum in this case.

When it comes to rest times, we need to consider fatigue also.

If we don’t rest long enough between sets (including GTG) we are too fatigued to execute the movements properly.

This means we cannot produce as much force or tension, meaning we don’t get as strong.

Aim to rest for 3-5 minutes between sets. Allow at least 15 minutes if going for the GTG approach.

That’s it for today.

If you want to dive into this further, I highly recommended the book on this protocol - The Naked Warrior by Pavel Tsatsouline.

Have a good one!

• Adam.