Understand the radically different advantages you’ll get from the two major types of resistance work, nervous system training and muscular system training.
If you really want to explode your muscle growth—if SIZE is your goal—you should train THIS way…
2. The Ten Commandments of Calisthenics Mass
Truly effective muscular training boils down into THESE Ten Commandments.
COMMANDMENT I: Embrace reps!
Why reps are key when you want to build massive stacks of jacked up muscle.
Understanding the biochemistry of building bigger muscles through reps…
COMMANDMENT II: Work Hard!
Want to turn from a twig into an ok tree? Why working demonically hard and employing brutal physical effort is essential to getting nasty big…
COMMANDMENT III: Use Simple, Compound Exercises!
Why—if you want to get swole—you need to toss out complex, high-skill exercises.
Why
dynamic exercises are generally far better than
static holds for massive muscle building.
These are the very best dynamic exercises—for bigger bang for your muscle buck.
How to ratchet up the heat with THIS kick-ass strategy and sprout new muscle at an eye-popping rate.
COMMANDMENT IV: Limit Sets!
What it takes to trigger explosive muscle growth—and why most folk foolishly and wastefully pull their "survival trigger" way too many futile times…
Why you need to void "volume creep" at all costs when size is what you’re all about.
COMMANDMENT V: Focus on Progress—and Utilize a Training Journal!
Why so few wannabe athletes ever achieve a good level of strength and muscle—let alone a
great level—and what it really takes to succeed.
Golden tip: how to take advantage of the
windows of opportunity your training presents you.
How to transform miniscule, incremental gains into long-range massive outcomes.
Forget those expensive supplements! Why keeping a training log can be the missing key to success or failure in the muscle-gain biz.
COMMANDMENT VI: You Grow When You Rest. So Rest!
If you really wanted to improve on your last workout—add that rep, tighten up your form—how would you want to approach that workout? The answer is right here…
Ignore THIS simple, ancient, muscle-building fact—and be prepared to go on spinning your muscle-building wheels for a VERY long time…
10 secrets to optimizing the magic rest-muscle growth formula…
Why you may never even come close to your full physical potential—but how to change that…
COMMANDMENT VII: Quit Eating "Clean" the Whole Time!
Warning—Politically incorrect statement: Why, if you are trying to pack on more muscle, eating junk now and again is not only okay, it can be positively
anabolic.
COMMANDMENT VIII: Sleep More!
How is it that prison athletes seem to gain and maintain so much dense muscle, when guys on the outside—who are taking supplements and working out in super-equipped gyms—can rarely gain muscle at all?
Discover the 3 main reasons why, sleep, the natural alternative to steroids, helps prison athletes grow so big…
COMMANDMENT IX: Train the Mind Along With the Body!
Why your mind is your most powerful supplement…
How 6 major training demons can destroy your bodybuilding dreams—and where to find the antidote…
COMMANDMENT X: Get Strong!
Understanding the relationship between the nervous system and the muscular system—and how to take full advantage of that relationship.
Why, if you wish to gain as much muscle as your genetic potential will allow, just training your
muscles won’t cut it—and what more you need to do…
The secret to mixing and matching for both growth AND strength…
3. "Coach" Wade’s Bodypart Tactics
Get the best bodyweight bodybuilding techniques for 11 major body areas.
1. Quadzilla! (…and Quadzookie.)
Why the Gold Standard quad developer is squatting—and why you absolutely need to master the Big Daddy, the
one-legged squat…
How to perform the Shrimp Squat, a wonderful quad and glute builder, which is comparable to the one-leg squat in terms of body-challenge.
Why you should employ THESE 7 jumping methods to put your quad gains through the roof…
How to perform the hyper-tough, man-making Sissy Squat—favorite of the Iron Guru, Vince Gironda—great bodybuilding ideologist of the Golden Era, and trainer of a young Mr. Schwarzenegger. He wouldn’t let anyone perform barbell squats in his gym!
2. Hamstrings: Stand Sideways With Pride
Enter
Lombard’s Paradox: how and why you can successfully brutalize your hammies with calisthenics.
Why bridging is a perfect exercise for strengthening the hamstrings.
How to correctly work your hamstrings and activate your entire posterior chain.
Why THIS workout of straight bridges and hill sprints could put muscle on a pencil.
How to employ the little-known secret of the
bridge curl to develop awesome strength and power in the your hammies.
Why explosive work is essential for fully developed hamstrings—and the best explosive exercise to make your own…
3. Softball Biceps
THIS is the best biceps exercise in the world
bar none. But most bodybuilders never use it to build their biceps! Discover what you are missing out on and learn to do it right…
And then you can make dumbbell curls look like a redheaded stepchild with THIS superior bicep blower-upper…
Another great compound move for the biceps (and forearms) is
rope climbing. As with all bodyweight, this can be performed progressively. Get the details here on why and how…
Despite what some trainers may ignorantly tell you, you can also perform bodyweight biceps
isolation exercises—such as the classic (but-rarely-seen-in-gyms)
curl-up. Pure power! If you can build one, THIS old school piece of kit will give you biceps straight from Hades.
4. Titanic Triceps
Paul Wade has
never met a gym-trained bodybuilder who understands how the triceps work. Not one. Learn how the triceps REALLY work. This stuff is gold—pay attention. And discover the drills that are going to CRUCIFY those tris!
5. Farmer Forearms
Paul Wade wrote the calisthenics book, definitive mini-manual of calisthenics forearm and grip training in
Convict Conditioning 2. But HERE’S a reminder on the take-home message that the forearms are best built through THESE exercises, and you can build superhuman grip by utilizing intelligent THESE progressions.
Why crush-style grippers are a mistake and the better, safer alternative for a hand-pulping grip…
6. It’s Not "Abs", It’s "Midsection"
As a bodybuilder, your method should be to pick a big, tough midsection movement and work at it hard and progressively to thicken your six-pack. This work should be a cornerstone of your training, no different from pullups or squats. It’s a requirement. Which movements to pick? Discover the best drills here…
And the single greatest exercise for scorching your abs in the most effective manner possible is THIS…
How to best train your obliques and lateral chain…
The simplest and most effective way to train your transversus…
7. Maximum Chest
The roll call of classical bodyweight chest exercises is dynamic and impressive. It’s an ancient, effective, tactical buffet of super-moves. Get the list here…
THE best chest routine is THIS one…
If super-sturdy arms and shoulders mean your pecs barely get a look in when you press, then focus on THESE progressions instead—and your pecs will be burning with a welcome new pain…
Why Al Kavadlo has a lean, athletic physique, but his pecs are as thick as a bodybuilder’s…
THIS could be the ultimate bodyweight drill to get thick, imposing pectoral muscles…
And here’s the single finest exercise for enlarging your pec minor—yet hardly anyone has figured it out…
Why you need to master the art of deep breathing, strongman style, to truly develop a massive chest—and where to find unbeatable advice from proven champions…
8. Powerful, Healthy Shoulders
All die-hard bodybuilders need to know is that the deltoids have three heads. Here’s how they work…
If you want to give any of your shoulder heads an enhanced, specialist workout, a great tactic is THIS.
How to make your lateral deltoids scream for mercy—and thank you later when you ignore their pleas…
If you
really want to build your rear delts, THIS drill should be your number one exercise…
THESE kinds of drills can result in shoulder injury, rotator cuff tears, frozen shoulder and chronic pain—what to stick with instead…
THIS is a fantastic deltoid movement which will swell up those cannonballs fast…
Why old school hand balancing is so great for strength, size and coordination, while surprisingly easy on the shoulders, especially as you get a bit older…
The number one go-to guy in the whole world for hand-balancing is THIS calisthenics master…
9. Ah’ll be Back
THIS exercise is the finest lat-widener in the bodybuilding world and should be the absolute mainstay of your back training. This one’s a no-brainer—if adding maximum torso beef as fast and efficiently as possible appeals to you…
Are you an advanced bodyweight bodybuilder? Then you may wish to add THIS to your upper-back routine. Why? Well—THIS will blitz your rear delts, scapular muscles and the lower heads of the trapezius. These are the "detail" muscles of the back, so loved by bodybuilders when they grow and thicken, resembling serpents swirling around the shoulder-blades.
Paul Wade demands that all his students begin their personal training with a brutal regime of THIS punishing drill. Why? Find out here…
Real strength monsters can try THIS. But you gotta be real powerful to survive the attempt...
Many bodybuilders think only in terms of "low back" when working the spinal muscles, but this is a mistake: find out why…
How bridging fully works all the deep tissues of the spine and bulletproofs the discs.
The single most effective bridge technique for building massive back muscle…
Why back levers performed THIS way are particularly effective in building huge spinal strength and thickness.
Why
inverse hyperextensions are a superb lower-back and spine exercise which requires zero equipment.
10. Calving Season
THIS squat method will make your calves larger, way more supple, more powerful, and your ankles/Achilles’ tendon will be bulletproofed like a steel cable…
Whether you are an athlete, a strength trainer or a pure bodyweight bodybuilder, your first mission should be to gradually build to THIS. Until you get there, you don’t need to waste time on any specialist calf exercises.
If you DO want to add specific calf exercises to your program, then THESE are a good choice.
The calves are naturally explosive muscles, and explosive bodyweight work is very good for calf-building. So add THESE six explosive drills into your mix…
Methods like THIS are so brutal (and effective) that they can put an inch or more on stubborn calves in just weeks. If you can train like this just once a week for a few months, you better get ready to outgrow your socks…
11. TNT: Total Neck and Traps
Do bodybuilders even need to do neck work? Here’s the answer…
The best neck exercises for beginners.
HERE is an elite-level technique for developing the upper trapezius muscles between the neck and shoulders..
THIS is another wonderful exercise for the traps, developing them from all angles.
By the time you can perform two sets of twenty deep, slow reps of THIS move, your traps will look like hardcore cans of beans.
If you want more neck, and filling out your collar is something you want to explore, forget those decapitation machines in the gym, or those headache-inducing head straps. The safest, most natural and most productive techniques for building a bull-nape are THESE.
4. Okay. Now Gimme a Program
If you want to pack on muscle using bodyweight, it’s no good training like a gymnast or a martial artist or a dancer or a yoga expert, no matter how impressive those skill-based practitioners might be at performing advanced calisthenics. You need a different mindset. You need to train like a bodybuilder!
Learn the essential C-Mass Paul Wade principles behind programming, so you can master your own programming…
The most important thing to understand about bodybuilding routines…
Simple programs with minimum complexity have THESE features
By contrast, programs with maximum complexity have THESE features
Why Simple Beats Complex, For THESE 3 Very Important Reasons…
When to Move up the Programming Line
If simpler, more basic routines are always the best, why do advanced bodybuilders tend to follow more complex routines? Programs with different sessions for different bodyparts, with dozens of exercises? Several points to consider…
The best reason is to move up the programming line is THIS
Fundamental Program Templates
Total Body 1, Total Body 2
Upper/Lower-Body Split 1, Upper/Lower-Body Split 2
3-Way Split 1, 3-Way Split 2
4-Way Split 1, 4-Way Split 1
5. Troubleshooting Muscle-Growth: The FAQ
Q. Why bodyweight? Why can’t I use weights and machines to build muscle?
Q. I understand that pull-ups and chin-ups are superior exercises for building muscle in the lats and biceps. Unfortunately I cannot yet perform pull-ups. Should I use assistance bands instead?
Q. Looking at gymnasts, I have no doubt that progressive calisthenics methods can build a huge upper body. But what about the legs? Won’t it leave me with stick legs?
Q. Coach, can you name the exercises that belong into an abbreviated routine for a total beginner? Which are the most essential without leaving gaps in my ability?
Q. "Big" bodyweight exercises such as push-ups and pull-ups may target the larger muscles of the body (pecs, lats, biceps, etc.), but what about the smaller muscles which are still so important to the bodybuilder? Things like forearms, the calves, the neck?
Q. I have been told I need to use a weighted vest on my push-ups and pull-ups if I want to get stronger and gain muscle. Is this true?
Q. Is bodyweight training suitable for women? Do you know of any women who achieved the "Master Steps" laid out in Convict Conditioning?
Q. I am very interested in gaining size—not just muscle mass, but also height. Is it possible that calisthenics can increase my height?
Q. You have said that moving exercises are superior to isometrics when it comes to mass gain. I am interested in getting huge shoulders, but Convict Conditioning gives several static (isometric) exercises early on in the handstand pushup chain. Can you give me any moving exercises I can use instead, to work up to handstand pushups?
Q. I have heard that the teenage years are the ideal age for building muscle. Is there any point in trying to build muscle after the age of forty?
Q. I have had some knee problems in the past; any tips for keeping my knee joints healthy so I can build more leg mass?
Q. I‘m pretty skinny and I have always had a huge amount of trouble putting on weight—any weight, even fat. Building muscle is virtually impossible for me. What program should I be on?
Q. I’ve read in several bodybuilding magazines that I need to change my exercises frequently in order to "confuse" my muscles into growth. Is that true?
Q. I read in several bodybuilding magazines that I need to eat protein every 2-3 hours to have a hope in hell of growing. They also say that I need a huge amount of protein, like two grams per pound of bodyweight. Why don’t your Commandments mention the need for protein?
Q. I have heard that whey is the "perfect" food for building muscle. Is this true?
6. The Democratic Alternative…how to get as powerful as possible without gaining a pound
There is a whole bunch of folks who either want (or need) massive strength and power, but without the attendant muscle bulk. Competitive athletes who compete in weight limits are one example; wrestlers, MMA athletes, boxers, etc. Females are another group who, as a rule, want to get stronger when they train, but without adding much (or any) size. Some men desire steely, whip-like power but see the sheer weight of mass as non-functional—many martial artists fall into this category; perhaps Bruce Lee was the archetype.
But bodybuilders should also fall under this banner. All athletes who want to become as huge as possible need to spend some portion of their time focusing on pure strength. Without a high (and increasing) level of strength, it’s impossible to use enough load to stress your muscles into getting bigger. This is even truer once you get past a certain basic point.
So: You want to build power like a Humvee, with the sleek lines of a classic Porsche? The following Ten Commandments have got you covered. Follow them, and we promise you cannot fail, even if you had trouble getting stronger in the past. Your days of weakness are done, my friend…
Enter the "Bullzelle"
There are guys who train for pure mass and want to look like bulls, and guys who only train for athleticism without mass, and are more like gazelles. Al Kavadlo has been described as a "bullzelle"—someone who trains mainly for strength, and has some muscle too, but without looking like a bulked-up bodybuilder. And guess what? It seems like many of the new generation of athletes want to be bullzelles! With Paul Wade’s C-Mass program, you’ll have what you need to achieve bullzelle looks and functionality should you want it…
COMMANDMENT I: Use low reps while keeping "fresh"!
If you want to generate huge strength without building muscle, here is the precise formula...
COMMANDMENT II: Utilize Hebb’s Law—drill movements as often as possible!
How pure strength training works, in a nutshell…
Why frequency—how often you train—is often so radically different for pure strength trainers and for bodybuilders…
Training recipe for the perfect bodybuilder—and for the perfect strength trainer…
Why training for pure strength and training to master a skill are virtually identical methods.
COMMANDMENT III: Master muscle synergy!
If there is a "trick" to being supremely strong, THIS is it...
As a bodybuilder, are you making this huge mistake? If you want to get super-powerful, unlearn these ideas and employ THIS strategy instead…
Another great way to learn muscular coordination and control is to explore THESE drills...
COMMANDMENT IV: Brace Yourself!
If there is a single tactic that’s guaranteed to maximize your body-power in short order, it’s bracing. Bracing is both an art-form and a science. Here’s how to do it and why it works so well.
COMMANDMENT V: Learn old-school breath control!
If there is an instant "trick" to increasing your strength, it’s learning the art of the breath. Learn the details here…
Why inhalation is so important for strength and how to make it work most efficiently while lifting…
How the correctly-employed, controlled, forceful exhalation activates the muscles of the trunk, core and ribcage…
COMMANDMENT VI: Train your tendons!
When the old-time strongmen talked about strength, they rarely talked about muscle power—they typically focused on the integrity of the tendons. THIS is why…
The concept of "supple strength" and how to really train the tendons for optimal resilience and steely, real-life strength…
Why focusing on "peak contraction" can be devastating to your long-term strength-health goals…
COMMANDMENT VII: Focus on weak links!
THIS is the essential difference between a mere bodybuilder and a truly powerful human being…
Why focusing all your attention on the biggest, strongest muscle groups is counterproductive for developing your true strength potential…
Pay extra attention to your weakest areas by including THESE 4 sets of drills as a mandatory part of your monster strength program…
COMMANDMENT VIII: Exploit Neural Facilitation!
The nervous system—like most sophisticated biological systems—possesses different sets of gears. Learn how to safely and effectively shift to high gear in a hurry using THESE strategies…
COMMANDMENT IX: Apply Plyometric Patterns to Hack Neural Inhibition
Why it is fatal for a bodyweight master to focus only on tension-generating techniques and what to do instead…
How very fast movements can hugely increase your strength—the light bulb analogy.
The difference between "voluntary" and "involuntary" strength—and how to work on both for greater gains…
COMMANDMENT X: Master the power of the mind!
How to train the mind to make the body achieve incredible levels of strength and ferocity—as if it was tweaking on PCP…
5 fundamental ways to harness mental power and optimize your strength…
BONUS CHAPTER:
7. Supercharging Your Hormonal Profile
Why you should never, ever, ever take steroids to enhance your strength…
Hormones and muscle growth
Your
hormones are what build your muscle. All your training is pretty secondary. You can work out hard as possible as often as possible, but if your hormonal levels aren’t good, your gains will be close to nil. Learn what it takes to naturally optimize a cascade of powerful strength-generating hormones and to minimize the strength-sappers from sabotaging your gains…
Studies and simple experience have demonstrated that, far from being some esoteric practice, some men have increased their diminished total testosterone levels by
over a thousand percent! How? Just by following a few basic rules.
What rules? Listen up. THIS is the most important bodybuilding advice anyone will ever give you.
The 6 Rules of Testosterone Building
THESE rules are the most powerful and long-lasting, for massive testosterone generation. Follow them if you want to get diesel.
The iron-clad case against steroid use and exogenous testosterone in general…
