Name: Every Calisthenics Skill to Learn in Order for your First Year
Uploaded: 2025-07-12T00:38:55.000Z
Duration: 16 min 5 s
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Welcome to your first year of calisthenics, let's go over every calisthenics skill in order and the perfect way to train them.

Starting off with skill number one, hollow body hangs.

I chose this skill to start with first because hanging has many benefits.

From back pain alleviation, spine decompression, and strengthening your grip, hanging is the perfect way to start.

When you draw your shoulders down and back, you switch from a dead hang to an active hang.

Simply find a bar, block, or rings that you can hang off of.

As long as you're just hanging, you're in a dead hang position.

But if you activate your core muscles and squeeze your thighs together, you're going to be classified as an active hang.

Squeezing your core and thighs together is perfect for mastering stillness while hanging from the bar.

The best way to train this exercise is by alleviating your weight and joints.

So tie a resistance band around the bar and hang from it.

As you get stronger, I want you to lower the resistance band you're using.

I obviously chose the frog stand because I want us to start hand balancing as early as possible.

I'm a firm believer that the earlier we do this, the better it's going to be later on when we're doing handstands.

As far as the perfect form setup, you want to think about sticking your elbows into your  This is how you're going to balance.

Turn them slightly outwards to alleviate wrist pain.

There's going to be three balance points.

First is your fingertips, the inside of your knuckles where your calluses are, and the palm.

In this frog stand position, you'll feel most of the weight on the outside of your hand.

Training for the frog stand is all about getting comfortable in this inverted position.

Start off with rocks so you can get the feeling right.

Next, I want you to move on to simple holds.

You're going to do each of these exercises until you can hold them for at least 20 seconds.

The objective of these regressions is to get you more comfortable with balancing on your  Leg taps or leg switches is going to be the next best thing when it comes to progressions.

Again, once you can hold this position for 20 seconds, no problem, you're ready to move on to the next one.

Some people would prefer a pillow or some kind of cushion for your head.

It's possible to overbalance and have your head bonk on the ground, so hopefully adding a pillow or some sort of cushion there helps protect you from that.

Last but not least, we're going to utilize elevation.

Look how I'm basically holding the perfect frog stand and all I had to do was lean into it.

Now moving on to number three, hollow body holds.

Hollow body holds is an anti-extension exercise.

It's one of the first core exercises I recommend doing.

As you lay down, you'll notice the lower part of your back comes up.

Actively focus on pressing that into the ground.

To do that, your shoulders will come off the ground naturally.

Next, you want to lift your legs off the ground and extend them.

Spread out as if you were holding a sideways handstand.

This is going to teach you about pelvic tilt.

If the full hold is too much, simply bring your legs closer to your body and that should alleviate some of the stress.

As it gets easier, experiment with certain positions like one leg holds or even straddle holds to get you going for the full thing.

Moving on to number four, the pseudo planche lean.

The pseudo planche lean is a prerequisite for the full planche.

It's extremely heavy on your front delts.

Protract your scapula or push your shoulder blades away from you.

Make sure you're not struggling your shoulders up.

When it comes to the hand position, turn your hand slightly outwards to alleviate any wrist pain.

Conquering this position means perfect form with straight arms.

You can set up for it like a regular plank.

Leaning forward classifies you as a pseudo planche lean.

This looks like a regular plank, but I promise you it's more intense than you can even imagine.

Make sure you apply attention to your abdominal muscles.

Again, avoid struggling up towards your ears.

Squeeze those thighs and apply tension to those glute muscles.

And push out with your shoulders the entire time.

Mastery means having your hips stacked over your wrist.

The best way to train this is by having a wall or block in front of you.

Measure how far you're leaning forward by your hand position.

Moving on to number five, the pseudo planche pushup.

Obviously incorporating the last skill that we learned, we're simply adding a pushup to that maneuver while we're maintaining that forward lean.

You don't understand it yet, but getting strong in this position is going to be essential for mastering advanced skills in the future.

Front delt strength is truly king when it comes to calisthenics.

If it's too hard to maintain the forward lean, I want you to simply lean into it when you're pushing up and then push all the way back to a regular pushup position.

Eventually, you will want to focus on having that forward lean maintained throughout the entire exercise.

Moving on to number six, the tuck front lever.

You might be suspicious of this skill, but trust me, it's more difficult than it looks.

And it takes a significant amount of straight arm strength and back strength.

Thankfully, training for this movement is actually pretty simple.

Get on the bar and stick your knees towards your chest.

While maintaining straight arms, you want to raise your body until your ankles touch the bar and gently lean yourself back to neutral position.

Over time, you'll be able to hold that horizontal static position.

Most people will end up bending their arms or shaking uncontrollably when lifting themselves up.

Moving on to number seven, the elbow lever.

The elbow lever is one of the first cool skills you actually get to learn.

Form setup is all about weight distribution.

Stick your hands out in front of you and turn them slightly outwards or even completely all the way around.

You'll want to stick both of your elbows into your abdominals.

Trust me, I know it looks weird, but this is exactly what we need to transfer onto the ground.

Although this is considered hand balancing, training it is not as simple as it seems.

You'll notice as I'm leaning into my hands, I'm gently starting to lift my legs up.

If I want to progress even further, I'm going to lean even further into my hands and squeeze my glutes into the straddle position.

And lastly, I'm going to lean a little bit further, squeezing my legs together, which gives me that straight line.

Stomach pain where your elbows are is completely normal.

If you want to talk about increasing your shoulder mobility to superhuman limits, the German hang is where you need to be.

I know this looks crazy and scary, but you can train with this by putting a block or bench below you.

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Every Calisthenics Skill to Learn in Order for your First Year

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