“I think they [calisthenics and weight training] complement each other, and I think people would do well to practice both.”

- Jim Bathurst, acrobat, hand balancing expert, and all-around strong mofo

At some point in the not-so-distant past – for reasons unknown to quite literally anybody – people in the strength world collectively decided to “pick sides” – like a child reluctantly forced to choose to live with either mom or dad after an ugly divorce.

“Are you a kettlebell guy/gal?”

“Are you a powerlifter?”

“Are you a weightlifter?”

“Are you a bodyweight/gymnastics person?”

With the exception of maybe dabbling now and again with one of the other disciplines just for the heck of it, most people subconsciously (and needlessly, I might add) pigeon hole themselves into one category or another.  They treat their training discipline of choice as though they’re married to it: faithful to a fault, never so much as glancing at another training discipline, and professing their undying loyalty “’til death do us part”.

What a damn shame.

A cursory glance back into the golden days of strongmen and weightlifting gives you a much, much different picture of the way things once were – and WHY they earned the title “golden age”.

The strongest men and women in history treated their training NOT as a spouse to whom they were eternally devoted, but rather like an Ottoman sultan adding a new gal pal to his harem: “the more, the merrier!”

Now, here’s the thing:

While I would NOT recommend applying this “Ottoman sultan” approach to your marriage (unless you like donating 50% of your hard-earned belongings to your soon-to-be ex-wife and giving her ½ your paycheck in child support payments), taking a “libertine” approach to your workouts is a damn-near sure fire way to smash your old PRs, forge bold new levels of physical might, and stave off the all-too-common aches, stiffness, tweaks, discomfort, and all around “staleness” wrought from doing the same exercises in the same way all the freakin’ time.

Case in point: Paul Anderson.

Known as “The Wonder of Nature” by the notoriously hard-to-impress Russians, Paul Anderson is widely considered to be the strongest man who ever lived.

Say what you will about his physique, the dude knew how to pick up chicks.

Who was he?

Oh, just some hillbilly from the backwoods of Tennessee, USA who turned the strength world on its head with his innovative, intuitive, and ingenious approaches to building eye-popping levels of strength.

A few of his accomplishments:

• 540 kg raw squat

• 370 kg raw deadlift

• 285 kg raw bench press

• 220 kg clean and press

• Gold medal in the 90+ kg weight class at the Olympic lifting world championships in Munich (1955)

• Gold medal in the 90+ kg weight class in Olympic lifting at the Olympics in Melbourne (1956)

And his crowning achievement

• 2,840 kg back lift (yeah, you read that right) – a record that stands unbroken to this day

In other words, he was no slouch.

It should come as no surprise, then, that in his very frequent – and very creative – training routines, he reserved a special place for calisthenics work to help him smash the wide variety of lifts that he dominated – a common theme in the training of quite nearly all of the greatest and most powerful weightlifters and strongmen of the olden days.

What MIGHT surprise you, however, is that he even relied on bodyweight-only squatting variations to help build his prodigious raw squatting strength.

In an article he wrote nearly 50 years ago, one of the several advanced routines he recommended for squatting greatness featured none other than full-on, butt-to-calves one legged squats. 

The routine in brief looks like this:

• Full squat – 10 reps

• Quarter squats (heavy) – 3 reps

• Full squats – 3 reps

• One-legged squats – 20 reps per leg

Repeat x3 and call it a day (maybe even a week)

A far cry from the oft crowed-about, mind-numbingly boring “lift a static weight for 5x5” routines that litter the internet.  It was that was so good it got a rare and enthusiastic blessing from a man so incomparably strong that many of his achievements haven’t been touched (drug free, that is) to this very day – and may never be bested.

If you’re new to calisthenics – even if you’re an experienced barbell or kettlebell devotee – don’t jump into full one-legged squats all willy-nilly.  Take your time, learn the proper technique, and prepare to suck wind like none other; even with a big squat these are tough!

Toss in some one-legged “pistol” squats into your lower body training and watch as your thighs and glutes burst with new and attractive levels strength, muscle, and unbridled power.

You may not get Paul Anderson strong, but I’ll bet you’ll still build enough strength to pick up some chicks.

“But I’m nowhere close to doing one-legged squats!”  you lament, crying out to the heavens.

Fear not, my friend.  There is good news.

There are a variety of “pre-requisite” bodyweight leg exercises that – upon learning how to do them properly – not only clear your path toward the all-powerful ‘pistol squat’, but improve your natural athleticism, can help ‘bulletproof’ your joints, and yes – increase your overall lower body strength.

The same holds true for the rest of the ‘Big 6’ foundational moves for bodyweight brute strength – one-arm pushups, handstand pushups, L-sit pullups, hanging leg raise, and full back bridges.

As daunting as they all may seem, each of them can be achieved by following a tried-and-true path that methodically and reliably takes you from ‘chump’ to ‘champ’ in all of them – no “gifted genetics” or “chemical enhancement” required.

I’ve laid out these old-school ways in my 1-day Bodyweight Mastery Workshop, which covers how to go from Square 1 to the finish line in each move by following the time-honored principles and practices for brutish levels of bodyweight strength for your iron practice, sport practice, and day-to-day life.

My next workshop is in Brisbane, Queensland.

Click here for details

Have fun and happy training!

Aleks “The Hebrew Hammer” Salkin is a Level II StrongFirst Certified kettlebell instructor (SFG II) and an Original Strength Instructor.

He grew up scrawny, unathletic, weak, and goofy until he was exposed in his early 20s to kettlebells and the teachings and methodology of Pavel Tsatsouline.

Currently based out of Omaha, Nebraska, USA, he routinely travels the US and the world teaching workshops on Original Strength, kettlebells, and his unique and potent system of calisthenics for brute strength in your iron practice, sports training, and day-to-day life using old-school, time-honored principles and practices that produce results.