Reviews

It looks like the team of Dragon Door, Coach Paul Wade and John Du Cane have done it again! Take your bodyweight training to a new level with these EXPLOSIVE movements! I've been doing many of the exercises, some at the highest levels, for many years. However, the way the movements are broken down into stages of progressions is nothing short of fantastic. Back in the day, we would see a move and attempt to emulate it. This was often met with failure and sometimes injury. You no longer need to subject yourself to these pitfalls. CC3 gives you the steps to achieve new levels of explosive fitness!
The Explosive movements will also yield more muscle mass than standard bodyweight training. Explosiveness is also necessary for developing striking and throwing power used in combat. This type of training is a prerequisite for fighters, martial artists or self defense experts.
This book, like its predecessors CC1 & CC2 will be used as reference guides not only for my training, but for the training of my clients as well. The progressions are easy to understand and are set with logical steps leading the reader to the highest levels. Even if you have no desire to perform back flips, the training leading you toward them will result in increasing your strength and flexibility.
If people adhere to the training regiments advocated in these books, the days of the machine laden, strength and fitness limiting gyms are numbered!

Coach Wade has brought us CC1 and CC2 which needed the newest edition "Explosive Calisthenics" in order to sum up the perfect completion to his book series! I have so many people looking at me while I do my body-weight exercises saying, "Dude, that's not going to help you build muscle. You need more intensity! You need weights! You need to make it more challenging, more explosive, more powerful, etc. blah, blah!"

Well, when you read this book you can see why you really don't need weights to build intensity and that's even if you can get to this point of body-weight exercising. The power you build, the feeling you get when you achieve your first muscle up, the body-weight plyometrics, the way you will look!

Trust me on this after following Coach Wade's methods here it will make everything worth while and it will pay off! This is the book of the year and Al and Danny Kavadlo were the best choice of models for this. Thanks to all these guys for confirming why I truly believe in calisthenics and why I have no need to work out on a machine and why I don't need dumbbells anymore!

Words can't express how great of a read this was for me and what it'll do for my training in the future. Coach Paul Wade made this book very easy to absorb mentally providing wonderful detail, not only in his writing but with images as well to help with the process of becoming an explosive athlete. Being certified through NASM as a MMA Conditioning Specialist, NESTA as a Muay Fintess Specialist, Onnit Lvl 1 soon to be KB Lvl 2 coach this book has inspired me to take on the PCC certification to learn more about calisthenics and to challenge myself to do better. If you have CC1 and 2 then its a must to add this to your library. Being coaches in the world of fitness I will say that this book got me excited to elevate my training to another level but for you as the future reader of this book, when you purchase this and say to yourself that its missing something then add it to your training. We will always continue to be students in the fitness world and this CC3 edition just proved that the human body is capable of doing so much more than we thought to believe. Have fun with it and watch yourself fly!

Tyler "The Iron Ronin" Perez

Having been an end user of the first two volumes for some time now, I was incredibly excited to hear about the upcoming release of this volume. When the article appeared in the PCC blog back in December the exhilaration I experienced was quite palpable, and ever since then I have been scrutinizing every Dragon Door product update email that finds its way to my inbox. So, when I came to understand earlier today that the thing had finally dropped, I was very, very anxious to leave work and get home.
After firing up my Mac, I went straight to the product page here on Dragon Door and ordered a physical and a digital copy. I have spent the last couple of hours going through the contents and looking at the pics, and all I can say is- IT WAS WELL WORTH THE WAIT.
Are you an experienced CC person? Have you read through CC I and II? If so, you will be thoroughly familiar with the layout, starting with the advance praises given by many different people, through to the table of contents, the dedication, the forward, the disclaimer talking about the primary importance of health over strength, and the contents of the book, with the first section covering history and theory, and then on through the big six power moves and the programming, etc...
As always, the pictures and layout are stunning, the editing is great, and the sum total of it just makes you want to get up off your backside and train.
If you are at all experienced with this system of bodyweight training, you need this book. Like me, you might not be quite ready to start tackling the progressions, but the shot of inspiration and increased determination you will receive from absorbing this information will be well worth the price. Look at Danny Kavadlo busting a full on superman, or in mid flight over the broomstick at the apex of the suicide jump with that really intense look in his face. Danny, Al, Grace, and Adrienne are all there, along with a guy I don't know with a very developed physique busting out backflips.
Anyway, the long and short of it is that this book is a must have if you are part of the CC tribe. With this volume, the training system that Coach started laying down in Volume 1 becomes a little more complete. Explosive training work is the logical next step for everyone as they move progressively forward in their march through the big six, and again, the sheer amount of impetus one will receive from looking at what is possible down the road should make anyone want to pick up a copy of this book.
According to what Coach wrote in CC II, the whole system is complete in four parts, so now that CC III has dropped, I want to step up and say that we all definitely want to see the thing in its entirety. Please Coach, bestow on us CC IV. While you're busy putting it together, we will be busy pushing ourselves to master the big six, along with the neck, grip, calf and flag techniques, and then adding in the explosive stuff from the new volume. We are hungry for all that you have to offer us. Thanks for bestowing all of your hard-earned experience on us. We will repay you in sweat and hard work. My hat's off to you, El Entrenador. Cheers.

Explosive movement and training is what I was missing! Going slow and gaining serious strength using Get Strong and Convict Conditioning has been great for me and my physique (at now 52 years old). It has helped me gain flexibility and strength and helped me work through injuries from 35 years ago that had progressively lost strength and range of motion from years of running and biking. But I was missing the fun factor and also my power is pitiful! I used to be able to do clapping pushups when I was younger, but now I'm starting over. I love adding explosive pushups and jumps, rolls and kips. It is a blast. Takes very little time but adds an important element. I am expecting it will help my sports as well - dynamic movements in climbing, etc.
If you want to add some serious fun and serious challenge to your workouts, this is it. While I started convict conditioning well along in each series, I am at the very beginning in these series for sure. Talk about a challenge!

Another "Big Six" moves with excellent progressions from "anyone can do that" to "can anyone DO that?!?", in Coach's usual clear style. A bunch of useful extra stuff at the end, too. If you've read the other CC books, you'll know what to expect.

I've been following the CC progressions for about a year and a half now. When I began I was starting from square one due to a long period of forced inactivity due to a broken shoulder and severe whiplash. Courtesy of the Big Six and CC2's trifecta, I'm stronger and more flexible than I ever have been in my life, and have no reason to think I won't continue getting more so as I carry on with the progressions. I don't doubt that the explosive Big Six detailed in here will prove every bit as effective as the strength Big Six in CC. I'm certainly looking forward to mixing them in.

The only reason I can't give it 10/10 is the occasional serious proofreading failures: The catch tuck jump's first bullet point is "This bullet-point description is wrong"; Super-speed tactic #2 has the line "Most people are too used to instinctively 6 than 6 making rapid predictions"; etc. These really detract from the quality of an otherwise excellent book. I hope they can get these fixed before too many copies make it out.

Detailed, concise and easy to follow. Although they were a hard act to follow, this book is even better than its predecessors in the Convict Conditioning series.

Even though I decided that I needed to cut back on the exercises described in this book and spend more time developing the basics from CC1, the progressions are easy to understand. I look forward to revisiting this book once I have worked up to it again - if anything, it's given me even more motivation to work on the basics.

This is a great addition to the series and really puts all the foundation that CC1+2 built to good use. Gaining strength is great, but actually putting it to use in these techniques is amazing. Highly recommend.

I gave it a 9 as 10 is elusive and I'd like to think always to be worked on.

First off, I'm not famous. I am in my 40s and generally out of shape but working to turn that around. So why did I buy these CC books? Simple. Each book can be done and take time. No promises were made of instant results or that it would be easy. The pictures and statements are straight and to the point. Get working. Get working hard. And keep working hard. For the rest of your life. Seems real to me.
The breakdown of each exercise is simple and logical and most people can start on step one of almost any exercise and if they can't then they can work up to step one. I'm cool with that in any task. The images are quite inspirational but there is a bit of history sprinkled around.
Lastly, I can go do these things in a park and my city, Ottawa (Canada) has two calisthenics parks and the closest one to has kids parks and soccer fields. So my daughter can be there and see me doing stuff. So she won't just have a dad who does exercise but she will see him and maybe join in; no chance of that at a big box gym. And calisthenics was the gym class standard when I went to school in the 70s so any kids can join in.
What could be better? Cities make these parks and these books show you what you can do in them. Love it. Sorry, it went from a book review to a lifestyle review which is probably how it should be. Good books aren't just books.

Luc

I think it's the best Explosive Calisthenics book I've ever read.
With a great content about to train your power with bodyweight exercises progressions. Them explain very well in a easy form any kind of exercise. You should read it!!!

As with all Paul Wades books this is a great resource. But only providing a pdf doesn't cut it - I would prefer to have an epub so I can keep it on my reader with my growing library of Pavel, Dan John, Paul Wade, Gray Cook, etc.

While the progressions and exercises are good to think that the end stages or progressions are achievable by any other than young elite athletes is unrealistic IMO.
While I agree that power is the missing ingredient for many in their training the drills illustrated in this book are going to be beyond the capacity of most people esp. "mature" athletes.
All that being said the first couple of progressions for each drill could be all that is necessary for many to get some benefit from the concepts.
And I don't think I'm setting the bar too low but just realistic about the state of most people's fitness, power and resiliency esp. those past their 20's.

This book is the done deal. Coach Wade and Dragon Door have another winner and a soon to be a favorite of all calisthenics people the world over. Keep it coming guys.

This book like all of Paul Wades books, was a great read, very imformative and interesting. I love the no-nonsense style of writing and how it goes along with the progressive training. Book is also very nicely designed with great pictures.

Coach Wade has done another masterful job of explaining the history of the explosive movements and why you should do them. Each movement is broken down into thoroughly explained steps.Book has a lot of color pictures for motivation.

Let's start with an obvious fact for those who know me - I've never pursued speed. Long distance & struggling against gravity (sometimes with weights) has always been my thing. I've never been explosive in my movements, nor have I ever attempted to do anything about it. I like slow brute force sort of training. Isometrics. I'll be honest Coach, I'm not really planning to start being explosive now.

So why buy Explosive Calisthenics? I guess I'm a sucker for the style. I stand by my earlier contention that CMASS is the best book on exercise I've ever read. He wrote that one for me. Coach Wade has a depth of knowledge & a way of delivering that is delightful to read .Owning the other Convict Conditioning books, it would be remiss not to have the third in the series.

So I read it, enjoying the banter. It's me he's chiding to not get stuck in the thinking that I'm too old to improve my speed. I know, Coach, I know. But I'm working on other things at the moment...Coach, I've read the book. I took it in. I'll make a few adjustments. Okay, I'll tell the truth. I'm enjoying the discomfort of my comfort zone of CMASS too much to want to trade up. I'll meet others though, who want to be explosive & I'll tell them all about it.

With best wishes,

Dan

Paul Wade has done it again. Read it cover to cover in a couple hours, and loved every page. Applied this to my workouts and have seen amazing and consistent improvement in explosiveness, in just a matter of a few weeks. Get this book, or stay a sluggish bum.

I gave this book to a friend and he is very grateful to me for this gift.