DENTON CONTEH | Why You Should Lift Heavy | Interview | The Athlete Insider Podcast #52 Pt. II
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Welcome to the second part of this crazy interview with denton conte who shares a lot about his workout advice for aesthetics and for leg training and how both together can improve your aesthetics you already learned a lot about his planche advice in the first part and now the second part is here to give you even more knowledge to get a really good form he needs to be able to like have strong glutes have strong legs so what i do when i plunge i literally put my legs together i squeeze them as always all the topics all the bookmarks that we talk about are in the description so you can pick the topic that is interesting for you enjoy this interview and keep growing gorillas and it takes like a good um self-discipline i would say to not do 100 in every training exactly exactly it definitely because you got to think look at it as the bigger picture so you basically live to fight another day you know and it's just about being yeah being patient is discipline here because you think oh man i need to go hard i need to kill myself so i can't move my arms the next day that's cool you're doing that but then you're more risky you're more proud to get injured you're more and then you can't plunge again for like another five days and i find that your body is like obviously it's not gonna forget but it's not it needs to be reminded frequently like what i was doing before like i literally so every day i planched yeah or friday for example so monday would be 60 to 80 tuesday 20 to 40 yeah and same thing wednesday 60 to 80 thursday 20 to 40 and so on so one high one high ish but not max and one low so that that monday could be like five five heavy sets heaviest sets five heavy combos of just regular holds like timed hold so i always time my hopes if i'm just doing holes i time them so that way i can track what i'm doing because if you just hold and just wait till you feel tired it's you have to be able to track your so i've got like an app i use called interval timer i just put the app on i have like so i put like 10 seconds on five sets of 10 seconds with like two minutes or three minutes rest in between the next day for example i would do something similar i'll do i'll do three sets and that will be of like five seconds just to feel what i'm doing it could even be straddles there could even be struggles but as long as i'm feeling the movement i'm satisfied and wednesday back again same thing same kind of thing and that's kind of my method of like planching every day but progressing but not regressing not like losing the progress so yeah there's so many different ways so many different ways you can you know do it but that's kind of i did that for a good few months my plans got so strong and the form got so strong like the form was so clean and the seconds became so like every week or two i'll up the second so like it'll be from 10 seconds and 11. just up it slowly there's nothing wrong with even doing the same same time it's fine but it's just about making the move just feel effortless you know and then you progress it that way because people want to progress every week i want to add a second or two weeks sometimes it's not about adding that second just it's about feeling the move and trying to master the 10 seconds before you move on to mastering 11 seconds and so on so yeah that's that's one method i actually followed a lot like last the the first look down that we that that we had i was just going to just plant every day and try this and my plants got so strong my endurance became crazy strong as well like yeah it helps a lot for the endurance and just the skill itself so that's my recommendation for like trying to up your planche like if you want to take your plunge to the next level you do that you know oh cool um switching back to uh wait kelly uh does it help to like do generally recommend to somebody wanting to improve his static form aesthetics uh power uh to uh do weighted kelly weighted calisthenics to be fair i don't really think it's it's important because i literally dropped away calisthenics i mean i'm back on it now but i dropped it for two years i didn't do no weight calisthenics i just only dysstatics and power lifting um because i think it could help like i guess it could help but i don't think it's really important i don't think it's really important like you see a lot of the guys they've got heavy dips heavy pull-ups but they can't really do much planche in front leave us with that maybe because they're big dudes i don't know but i don't think it's i mean you can implement it it's not going to hurt to implement it i don't think it's needed to progress your aesthetics i don't think it's needed because most people that this statics they did only their body weight and progress seem to progress i think waited it's not really a must if you're a static athlete i don't think it's really important in my opinion it's not um because there was a time where i did waited only and i didn't do as much statics and my statics actually got worse uh crazy like dips like 80 here for 10 dips hundred kilo dips pull ups you know heavy pull-ups but i didn't do as much statics and my statics were kind of going i was like oh no okay time to bring my statics back so um i kind of dropped the weight because i missed doing statics because yeah i had like i had a period of two years where i didn't do um statics that much i focused more on the weighted and the weight calisthenics and i think i probably just put on lots of weight and um yeah my stats i mean they were there i mean they were still there but not as strong as they were before because i literally put all my like independence it's about where you put your focus if you put your focus on one thing and lose it and lose the other then you're gonna you know not progress in the other thing but right now for example my progress is everything or mainly powerlifting and statics so i do those two hand in hand and they both progress equally so it's about prioritizing what you want to do if you just want to do statics and just focus on that weight calisthenics is not really going to help too much in my opinion it might help for some basic strength of pushing but the skill itself is what needs to be done to learn the planche not not don't go off and just do weighted dips and get to 100 weighted dips oh why can't i plant it because you didn't really focus on the plants yourself maybe you can put as accessory muscle in your car and you can maybe add it as an accessory but i just think that they're completely different movements i mean personally i statics help weighted calisthenics in my opinion i did because when i transitioned over to weight calisthenics i had pretty strong dips already because i had a strong blanch my weight pull ups are pretty decent because i had a strong uh strong front lever so in that case it does help but the other way around i don't really think so i could be wrong but in my experience that's what happened like my weight went up my statics went down maybe because i didn't really keep the statics up as well but it just shows that you can have a crazy big dip it doesn't mean you're gonna have a plunge because it's not specific enough to train for the plant but yeah you can still i mean if you love doing what your dibs add in of course add it in that's fine you can add it in but don't go in and think oh i'm just gonna wait it dips and or have weird pull-ups and get a friendly for a plunge it doesn't really it might help strength-wise but it's not going to give you the skill yeah i don't think it i don't think it helps too much um i think everyone's got a different opinion on that but that's just my experience anyway all right wrist conditioning um something that we received some questions about uh how do you condition your wrists um do you sometimes have wrist pain or if not how do you always strong i think it's because i love plants and so i like my plants on the floor and i think that's what helped my wrist get strong so before obviously before i had a planche like i used to always do like handstand push-ups on against the wall and just handstands in general and also probably from the flips that i do as well like you know with the flips you've got to have like a lot of wrist flexion if you're doing tumbling so i think that helped a lot um because i find that people say oh man i can't full plant because my wrist hurts too much but i think it's definitely to do with mobility because all of that stuff helped my wrist get flexible the more you can flex your wrist the more you can lean forward in your plant right if your wrist can't flex properly then you can't lean forward then you go it's like it's like squats people have very um tight ankles so they can't squat so you've got increase your dorsiflexion so yeah i think it's just about doing like just working on basic wrist stretches and just trying to increase the range of motion during those stretches and uh yeah just keep trying to do like planche leans on the floor and just stick to that but i have my wrists like so straight but to the side of it because having your is fully straight is painful so add it to the side a little bit like a 45 degree angle okay and that kind of helps a lot um for pain um but yeah i never actually experienced i never ever once experienced risk pain myself but i find that you need to really like spend like even when you stretch generally like any kind of any any stretch you do you've got to spend about 10 minutes to ease your weight into the stretch like if you do like if you're supposed to go and do splits right now the first split attempt you do because you feel crazy bad you feel like but then when you get into it 10 minutes in you feel a lot more mobile like it starts to open up a bit more so same thing for the wrist spend about 10 minutes stretching them before you plunge and they're lift through a lot more mobile if you just go in straight away just doing a planche then without stretching it's going to hurt it's going to tell even me how what i do for my warm up for my platform i do i still have a plunge lean first because i actually do my wrist does click like the first lean or holder do i get a little click and that click means it's loosening up so i do like a planche length first a few tuck planches advanced tucks then i do my planche if i just go in into a planche without warming up without doing the stretches and and then the holds then yeah it's gonna hurt it's gonna be painful so i always like ease my way into the planche by doing the refreshes first then doing like the regression so the planche lean just to kind of get everything warmed but i do yes it's also mobility so literally spend like 10 minutes every day just doing like uh just stretching out your wrists like kind of like putting your wrists on the floor and pushing your weight forward onto your wrists and do that for 10 minutes so do like 10 seconds have like a little rest and keep just keep doing that and eventually you're just going to be able to lean a lot more forward and handle a lot more stress on the wrists so and same thing wrist turn backwards and then lean in back and then do that before each plant session and that should definitely help definitely that would help so you do this in front of every session and not in the morning or something but in front of every session 10 minutes yeah well personally i don't do 10 minutes anymore i did before in the past i did but right now i was like i just do like a quick plant lean then a tuck a few tucks like a few tuck advanced suckers and go straight into it but if you are like if you're new to like floor planches or if you get pain 10 minutes do that for 10 minutes and then i know it's like a oh wow i know it's boring but trust me 10 minutes in your wrists are going to feel so much more but you'll have so much flexibility in your wrist and then that should help i hope it does anyway but it's like anything i do in general like if i'm trying to do like like back when i was doing my struggle plant training back in the day i spent 10 minutes doing middle splits training just so i can open my legs up comfortably in a handstand going in down because i've done it before where i just went straight into it and my hips will cramp up my hips didn't feel good i couldn't open up as much so it's like anything even if i'm school and i always like to stretch my ankles up first so i can so i can get good dorsiflexion so yeah i recommend being patient and even outside your session just just stretch them outside your sessions like before you bend like and now i actually stretch like every night like every night when i'm relaxed i just do like a little stretch for my because since i power lift as well now um being tight is the last thing you want because it's going to lead to injuries so i always like stretch my hips out my glutes my spine out my back and same thing i do like wrist stretches as well just to keep everything healthy so my main thing is is keeping yourself mobile so yeah doing the stretches before your session and maybe outside your session as well maybe like a time when you're like relaxing at night you're watching netflix or youtube just stretch your wrist out and just yeah the more you and then keep increasing range of motion and in the long term you're gonna be fine there'll be no issues like i've actually had no issues at all with wrist pain like even from doing one arm punches or whatever it's like my wrists are fine as long as i warm up properly if i if i went into a one on planche or that warming up then maybe one risk will hurt but i always kind of prepare it first so yeah like anything warm up warming up joints mobilize then start cool when you say middle split is it the same as a side split is it the same just like we stand we stand and just like open your legs as wide as you can but having your body like oh right or you can like lean forward as well but like yeah having like just literally so open up your legs like that yeah um yeah that's the one yeah because obviously that's basis that's what you're doing when you're doing a shoulder plunge your legs are open so you're basically doing middle splits while you're planting right so if you do that on the floor beforehand it should help a lot for your um hips to open up and that will that will allow easier progress for your sort of plunge awesome uh we also received some questions about diet and the full planche so um how important is your nutrition your diet uh for maintaining your aesthetics and uh yeah my diet i'm i'm not too fast on diet but personally i don't think i eat a lot throughout the day i think i eat enough just to um recover and survive but i'm a really big foodie especially now that i'm back to work i don't really like i've had i've had no food today wow so i've been up for so i've been up for like 6 a.m and right now what time is it it's like what it's like two i've had no food yet i've had a bit of water but yeah i don't really always get breakfast i have like maybe two like meat like two meals like medium-sized meals and i have like a epiphany or something i have like a little cafe or something or a smoothie before bed but i don't really eat crazy amounts i mean maybe on the weekend i do because i've got time to eat but throughout the week i don't really eat much because i'm always working or just i'm just up i'm in the gym and just training people training myself i don't really eat much and yeah i don't i've never really tracked my calories or anything so i'm not really sure but i don't overeat so i think it's enough for me to just keep my weight the same because i've always got like a good consistent weight and maybe that's what gives me the edge to be able to start and lift because i'm not getting myself heavier i'm not eating more i'm just people oh but how are you getting stronger then it's because i mean i mean i'm recovering enough but i'm not trying to gain mass i'm just training for strength but yeah i don't know i still managed to get stronger even at like a maintaining like a lightweight because i remember two years ago when i was power lifting i was 81 kilos and i did crazy big lifts at 81 kilos last year uh at 74 kilos i managed to surpass my big lifts from when i was eight kilos and that was all beltless as well without a belt too and yeah i managed to do that so i think you can get stronger without adding muscle so maybe that's what they maybe that's how i stay uh light because i don't eat crazy amounts um i feel like people overeat people just ov people eat like i don't think you need to be eating so much throughout the day i think that's just like like an overhyped thing because i'm just so used to like working a lot long hours and not eating because before when i was working like as a fitness coach and doing hours for the gym i'd work nine hours a day right and i'd have an hour break and in that break guess what i'm doing i'm training i didn't even eat i just trained in that hour and then i just quickly had like a though i could feel like i said like a litre of kefir just to keep me going then i'd finish late at night and have a meal like at night like a late afternoon like a late meal late night meal and then um that just kept me going and don't you get hungry but i think over time you kind of it's like anything your body adapts to anything you do training or just in general in life so if you don't eat as much eventually you don't get hungry as much you don't get thirsty as much so yeah my diet is not the best it's not great but it's enough to keep me going and i still get and i'm still getting stronger week by week so yeah i just literally have two meals two meals a day they're not even that they're not crazy big they're just average sized meals and i have like either one liter of kefir or like a smoothie like a banana peanut butter cottage cheese um milk oats try seeds i blend that up quite a nasty smoothie so maybe that's what keeps me going keeps me i have that before bed anyway so i think it helps because the cottage cheese has got like the casein protein the slow release throughout the night so i think that's probably what helps me to look however i don't know if i have it like every every night i have that but yeah i don't really eat crazy amounts throughout the day um i just eat because i kind of have to eat but i don't really get hungry that much i mean i do a little bit but my body's just so used to just not eating frequently so i just eat one at a time but yeah i think diet is of course it's important but i don't know i'm not really i've never been a big fan of tracking calories or you know got they got the app myfitnesspal track this track that i just i've been too lazy i'm reading i'm not reading everything i'm i'm just i'm lazy i'm just i admit i'm lazy i do not track nothing i'm just i just eat and then i finish eating okay i'm i'm good i'm good for the next couple hours i don't need to be eating meal one or two meals i mean every every hour every two hours i don't think i need to be eating that much because i just end up overeating and feeling bloated especially that i train twice a day as well i like to train when my stomach is empty as well you know so like especially in the morning like i love to like get my lift something in the morning or my statistics in the morning because it's like i'm empty so that way i feel maybe i'm lighter i don't know but yeah i just don't i don't focus on diet too much okay sorry sorry for that sorry forever answer whoever asked that question it's probably a very bad response but that's just that's me personally i do not overeat too much i think you just i think you just eat enough and that should be okay but it also correlates with an article that i read a few days ago which said that the healthiest thing in nutrition is that you can do is to just eat to 70 percent and not uh to uh not to eat right yeah to overeat yes so maybe that's maybe that's what maybe that's what i'm doing because yeah i think yeah that's i think that's definitely right because you see a lot of guys just over they've over eaten they've got a bulking phase a kitten phase i don't have any of those phases i'm just i i never have a balkan or a cotton face i'm just training my only phase of my only phase is to increase my strength and my training that's all i don't really care about bulking cutting whatever like no it's for me it's not important if your performance athlete then you shouldn't be too fussed about diet i mean if you know if i'm trying to size if you're trying to precise then yeah then maybe you've got to track what you're doing you've got a track to increase your size but for me i don't really care about size just only care about performance as long as i'm eating enough to recover and to train then i'm happy then i'm happy if i then have no energy then yeah maybe i need to eat more but i've always got enough energy to train so yeah you just got to listen to your body yeah that's what it is cool but do you have like some standards like uh that you eat uh like a lot of protein in that you avoid fat like some some i don't know some standards i have a lot of carbs and protein i have lots of rice and chicken i love i love meat i love beef i love um lamb so my general like for example today i'm gonna have rice and chicken maybe have that meal again maybe yeah rice and chicken i also have like a like an african based diet as well like um i have like a lot of okra spinach um yeah lots of rice because we have a lot of rice and you know african diets are lots of rice so yeah i think i've got very rich in protein and carbs maybe fats as well i'm maybe fats but like i said i do not care i don't track nothing i just eat good food i loved i mean there is days where i have takeaway days where i get chinese days where i get mcdonald's doesn't affect me it's fine but generally i don't really eat too much fast food anyway like here and there for fancy chinese i want to get it like if i want a takeaway i'm going to go get the takeaway even if it's after workout or whatever you know but it's not like i have it like everyday takeaways just like maybe once twice a week and friday for the week is like yeah rice chicken or like spaghetti bolognese or something it's just it's just general food like but it's the food that i eat is definitely rich in protein and carbs for sure i would definitely say that um so yeah i love my meat i love my carbs love my spaghetti i love my rice chicken lamb burgers yeah nice your opinion on on supplements don't take them at all i did not take them i have tried supplements before like i'm always like i always go into things with open mind i'm not going to say oh it doesn't work i i always try things out first and see if it makes a difference right now i don't take nothing i don't i never taste supplements like i i've never been a fan of taking supplements because i prefer natural food natural stuff but um i did a few years ago i tried protein shakes to see if it's gonna make any change in my recovery or not it didn't do nothing i think it's all a lot of it is just placebo i think people thought oh yeah there's protein i mean i don't know what kind of protein that is inside that tub whey protein i'm not sure i'd rather just eat natural food but i've tried it just to see if it does work and i did it for i got a whole big tub like a crazy big tub and i took it every day and i'll just see if it will make a difference in recovery or not and i just felt the same as it before so that's up i took it and never took it again i also tried uh supplements for joints the animal pack for joints it's this little packet of pills about nine pills in it and i was like okay let me try i took it every day to see if it's gonna help my joints nothing it was the same so even when i came off it i was still the same so for me in my opinion um i don't take them i never will take them i've got nothing against people taking them but i think you don't really need them i think it's just a big whole fitness hype where people need to take this take that i think you don't really need them how many people get strong before supplements were created people were already strong back in the day and they never really needed that stuff so yeah i just don't take them i just eat food and drink affair and have lots of milk yeah that's yeah that's my opinion on it sounds like a kefir uh advertisement here yes it sounds like yeah i used to always put it on my instagram people who's make fun of me saying this guy and he drinks cafe doesn't eat i said yeah like i don't know just i was just mom like i said that was my meal replacement just something quick to get something in my system anyway yeah but i'm a big fan of dairy i love dairy man i have so much dairy like if you've seen one i used that one needs a fear a day some days you know people send us a lot but for me it's like this is a similar replacement so it's enough cool great we're slowly coming to an end um do you want to tell us more about your current goals that's also a frequent question oh yes all right so my current goals is to yeah keep smashing the power lifting so um increase the weights in that um that's my main one of my main goals as well as increasing my statics so yeah like my static goals here just keep increasing my planche my plant strength my push-ups my perfecting my two finger planche that's one thing i want to get i want to get out of because i've got i've been doing straddle now so i want to get up to full a full two finger planche yeah just getting my maltese i mean it's there already but i want to keep getting just basically getting everything better just increasing everything um yeah just having a strong having a strong bench press strong deadlift strong squat having a strong strong statics those are my main two goals and yeah i'm still keep working towards them um because like i said i'm able to mix them both together and it's working it's working for me it's been a few months i've been doing this program and this everything's going up at the same time so all i need to do is keep up the work and yeah we'll see what happens in the end i would love to um be that guy that can just do everything do flips yeah do flips lift heavy and plunge front lever so that's my aim uh but no not nothing particular it's just just getting stronger as a whole you know there is a few moves in looking towards which i'll be posting soon anyway but you guys will see on my instagram and you guys will see if you see my instagram on youtube i might even start like you know like vlogging like my workouts because um because i don't really do i've got youtube but i don't use it much but i might actually start to like start like like a power lifting calisthenics youtube because people like i said people are very curious of how i mix them together so i start doing videos of how i mix how of each session for example like a you know squat day squat and plants day a bench press friendly bidet kind of thing i'll start doing vlogs of how i train so people can see more in depth because it's easy for me to say but it's hard for people to understand it so people need to see what i do so i'm gonna start to definitely push that out there because i think it's like i said it's very looked down upon people like oh he trains legs but then how does he do it i think i need to try to educate people on how to do it together and that made me inspire like start my own little thing of blanching with 200 kilo squats and stuff like that so i'll definitely start putting content out there very soon like i'll start vlogging i've got like a new phone i've got like a gimbal i want to get like a stand so i can actually vlog and train at the same time and put it out there so people can actually see you know how it's done and do like tutorials and everything so yeah i'm gonna definitely push push down there's people to see it's not like it's not even a secret it's not my own big secret it's like it's no secret behind trying to mix them together it's just you do or you don't do it you know but yeah i'm just gonna try to put it out there and be trying to be unique and inspire others to to train to be complete don't have to be complete you can stick to do what you love to do but for me it's like i just love to lift heavy it's satisfying and i love to plunge and static so why don't mix why not mix both together you know simple as that and if you really want something you make it happen you don't set limitations on yourself if you start saying oh but then i want to be tired well then that doesn't need to work on your mindset but for me it's like discipline is everything so have the discipline and take it take it from there and just believe in yourself and hopefully with smart training it will happen yeah that's that's that's all i can say wow i've got one more question uh because i think i i'm quite interested in goal setting how different people set goals differently you said that you want to improve your um your squad etc etc um but you didn't say like um precise numbers do you set goals okay like this uh like yeah yeah so my cake so because it's been a long time no i'm just interested in in your mindset you know like do you set precise numbers um when you set goals for yourself yeah i'm like um for example i'll say so my lifting goals right now so where are we we're in march may sorry may march we're in may we're in may because i literally um have been back onto the squad for like six weeks now i've been squat for a long time because it locked down but before lockdown i had a 180 speltless squat for a comfortable single like an easy single i even did like a video i did a 180 squat into a plunge 10 second full planche so i want to basically get i want to get that to 200 kilos and hopefully six months it's a nice 200 kilo squat uh in six months um deadlift i want to get my 260 end of the year 250 deadlift because pre previously before lockdown when i was like my strongest i did the i did a 240 beltless really easily like it was like a rp7 so i think a 260 will be we'll be there with smart training bench press is something new for me i've never i was never really into bench press before so i would love to bench press like 140 plus maybe that would probably take me like another six months or something but yeah those are like my lifting goals um but yeah i always set like realistic goals anyway because i don't really want to aim too high so each month it's like i don't really like go crazy so it's a thing where each month is just about not maxing up but doing like a top single that's like 80 percent doing a top single every month working towards that walking towards those goals uh yeah for plant and for my calisthenics it's like i've learned a few new moves so like a dead planche push up and learnt that recently so just about trying to perfect that get that nice and deep uh two finger planche that's one of my main goals as well i want to get that in four in full two finger plunge in full and um multis i want to keep yeah i mean i've now got that one now got that secure now i want to just be able to press that like maltese clean press the handstand and back down because i've not tried to press it so i want to get like maltese press and yeah there's my main and for front lever as well for front lever i want to get uh really like i want to improve my front level pull-ups i've got a strong friendly behold now strong in front of the presses i can do two front even pull-ups of touch and the rest just goes down and down so i want to be able to get at least three to five running for pull up touch in in the end of the year so those are like my top priority goals anyway so yeah sort of work towards those anyway awesome yeah good luck for that but i know that you have your smart smart uh programming so it's all about programming it's all about being small but yeah that's how it is awesome we always have some quick questions quick answers uh at the end um yeah of course what's your favorite food my favorite food like chicken chicken chicken and rice okay chicken and rice i love i can live off i can eat that every day and not get bored that's my favorite food chicken and rice definitely nice yup are you a dog or a cat person cat person do you do your own ones i haven't got one but there's a cat that i think is homeless i think but she always comes and i always feed her wow so i look after the cat i might even take her sitting there with your chicken yeah literally like i've got like a i've got like a i've got like a little snap of me like on the windowsill with the cat and i'm just like stroking it so i love cats i'm not really a fan of dogs i mean dogs are okay but i love cats i like cats uh do you have a favorite color blue blue or black blue or black those two are my favorite colors yeah okay uh what athletes inspire you oh i've got um netko is one of my favorite athletes ned konetkov everyone knows him he's another guy that's pretty tall that guy he's serious um yeah he's one of my favorite athletes because because of his height he's like also the same as me he's like 100 and he's like one i think six foot six six foot tall i think and he's kind of heavy as well so i respect him because at that height he's got the craziest maltese and crazy planters and he's super clean so he's one guy respect i love the bulgarian athletes as well like victor kaminov um ristof uh all them guys in bulgaria man they're serious man they've got they're just so clean and strong so i look up to the guys a lot in terms of my statics and i've got a few few of my friends that i train with like over here like that inspire me like i've got a friend called obi he's also like he trains kind of the way i do he does the tricking gymnastics power lifting aesthetics so seeing him do what i do as well definitely inspires me and yeah yeah those are the main guys that that inspire me to to train so the bulgarian guys has inspired me to just to stack to move tease like crazy like nedco this guy's maltese is crazy so yeah he's he's like one of my number one inspirations and yeah just my friend my friend obie and i've got another friend called ash actually i thought i forgot to mention him but he's also a power lifter himself who can full plunge wow he can full plunge and he's a powerlifter and he skipped throttle plunge because his hips are tight he just went straight to a full planche and that just shows how having a strong leg can still help your aesthetics all he did he let the full planche in like four months from having a tuck he was already quite strong you know so um i just said look try a travel plan he's actually one that got me started on publishing anyway because we both started to work together and i was like okay i'll do calisthenics what do you do oh perfect and we start training together and then he kind of just got me into the whole thing i said yeah try to learn a planche and he had a punch in literally four months that's insane he's ukrainian right no no he's not even he's asian he's like he's asian he's an asian dude and he's actually quite he's asian dude he's like um thinks in bangladesh i think um but yeah he's also like he's not really he's not a little guy he's quite but he's a bit shorter than me just a little bit he's like probably like one seven five centimeters maybe a bit higher he's a big dude he's like 70 75 76 kilos he learned a full plunge in three months from having a tuck from a tuck three months wow guess what he told me he told me he learned a full punch because all he did was stick his legs out he squeezed his bum so hard and his legs together so hard it stayed there so he's he's another reason why yeah that i believe that that power lifting can help your statics i'm not trying to say every political learner planche but he's like not big i mean he's not crazy big he's like quite he's built he's like he's got music he's like he's bigger than mine definitely he's a muslim guy but he is surprising like he's got rage like in terms of statistics he can learn he can do a front even a plunge he's skipped shadow he just went straight to him from tuck advanced tuck one leg and full in a space of a few months but that's because he's also himself had a background in like just basic calisthenics so i think that helped him a lot anyway but yeah having a strong having strong legs i think it helps so i hope this interview will inspire people to train their legs and also not be afraid to train their legs because i know a lot of people are afraid afraid of training their legs because they think it's going to make your plants worse or whatever that's what i i just say to everyone just train your legs for strength for performance don't train for sight i mean you can still have a plant for bigger legs but even still as a static athlete we all aim to be as light as possible to perform good you know like i don't really care about putting on weight anyway i just want to be stronger and and train so yeah my advice to everyone is just don't be afraid to give it a go and it won't harm you i mean the first week or two will be hard because your legs will be killing but once you adapt to it i think you'll be fine and i think you'll just benefit like you ain't i'm not saying that do squats you can do like um just basic like not saying do heavy squats keep it light just focus on the leg tension focus on getting your glutes strong and i think it will help to maintain to get better form in your statics to lock your legs out better and to have a better like hit position in blue positioning as well pelvis positioning so yeah i hope this inspires others to actually try and give it a go and not to down talk you know leg training on statics because i see a lot of guys that they they they all say this but have you tried it do you know if it's gonna i mean it does seem logical yeah okay he's got big legs it's not gonna stop but there's a few guys that have naturally got big legs i can still plant so i think um yeah just going with a better mindset and let's not have this oh yeah he's he's lifting weight he's squat so he can't plant oh it's gonna make harmless blunt um like i said i've progressed my planche even more while training legs so just don't make any excuses for yourself and just go hard test it out give it a go if it's not for you at least you tried but give it a go see weapons it won't harm you and also leg growth does not happen over one squat session allegro happens in yet many the guys you see that power lift they've been powerlifting for about 10 years that's why their legs are like this big if you just train your legs for a couple of months they won't grow that quickly like again i get guys deeming me saying oh like my legs were really fast um i'm scared to do it but do they i'm looking at you and you're not really a big a big dude so i don't think it looks gonna grow that big just from doing a little squat so i'm not trying to say you have to squat times two body weight times for everybody obviously my aim is to squat times for your body weight in your daily times full body weight but you can just squat just for general health and fitness and just to be like not complete but like just to do it for you like how do i say it it's to be proportionate with yourself to be you know not be in like i don't know i'm saying it completely wrong being proportioned fortunate you know don't want to be a guy that's got bigger body but no legs but they can just be at least strong they used to do something with them and like i said it's that the stronger they are the better you can squeeze your body in those positions so if you've got a strong bum guess what you squeeze it in your planche it's going to be tighter you won't banana much like if you see most of my plastic videos even my plunge press people always say what a very clean planche press i believe it's from the lecturing i've done i know to brace my core and squeeze my bum and not be able to banana on my back because i never ever banana like i try my best not to banana i never ever like it's very rare to see dent and banana you know i'm so like you know i always feel that it's people that bananas because they lack body tightness they lack leg tightness in their body so i think that if you have a stronger legs stronger glutes you can focus on not not um arching your back backwards and then that way you create that curve i think that comes a lot from obviously core strength but i believe that leg training has helped me to keep my form straight so yeah that's that's my take on that anyway so i hope this inspires others to just give it a go maybe get into it if they want like have some kind of powerlifting i think it's cool i mean going to a gym they're lifting 200 kilos it's satisfying it's so satisfying like how would you not want to do that like i just i just for me i just lift i just think that's just manly just picking up something heavy squatting heavy i just think it's and also i mean the studies show that they boost testosterone um um maybe it does but i think you know so it's going to do more more good than harm for your body you know just give it time people like the first lecture session is always the worst one like even for me like someone that's advancing legs you know like if i didn't train legs for a good few months guess what i can't walk the next day but it's just about getting getting legs used to it and eventually you'll be fine so yeah hopefully this makes everyone want to try legs don't have to i don't have to but just know that it won't harm your legs in any way if you train for performance and not for growth i mean your legs will grow of course but they won't grow they won't grow like that it will take a long time for them to grow like i've been powerlifting for a couple years my legs aren't that big i mean they've gone bigger but normally when you train you do gain some sort of weight and as you as you keep training your body's going to follow that cycle so if i gain weight in my legs but i've kept training my aesthetics you won't even feel it you don't even notice like i've never noticed anything i've never done a leg session one day oh my planche is slanting because my legs feel heavy they're not going to feel heavy if you that's that's only going to change if you have ankle weights you want ankle weights that's like a big dramatic change for your body but after a month of these narco waste is going to feel normal same thing for that legroom if your legs do grow but you're still maintaining your statics you won't feel it certainly if you didn't train your statics for a month and then you let it grow then you tried it it's going to feel like weighted calisthenics however if you then go back to training it again it's going to be fine your body's going to eventually adapt to that size and you'll be you'll progress again so yeah just like i said be positive go in with a good mindset and just give things a try before you then talk down talking because i see a lot of guys saying this that but i look at their page they haven't tried lifting themselves so i'm like well how do you know how do you know it's gonna affect your statics maybe you're generalizing it but give it a go and see you know i always try to stay open-minded about everything you know i mean even me when i first tried it i thought damn is my senses gonna go down let's give it a try let me see what's gonna happen nothing happened in fact my statics went up and they're still going up you know so yeah no harm awesome it's it's like really it's really nice and fascinating to listen to you because you really speak with passion and you're it's really uh convincing yeah yeah i've got someone it says i've got so much passion for legs i just i just i just love training legs so yeah i mean like i said people could oh he's because he's biased he does it himself always because he doesn't grow as much muscle but i think i don't know like everyone's different but like i said there's no harm in trying you try it out and see and if it doesn't work okay cool if it works then you can affect me you know i'm there to inspire i'm not there to put others down you know if someone tries something new like i remember when i first started training links everyone in my inbox saying what are you doing then and you're gonna lose your plants then don't train your legs and i was like man just let me do my thing man don't judge me if you support me then you know then support me and what i do well i used to always get dms of everyone saying why are you trying to be a powerlifter this and that i don't know i just want to try something new not even just for my body but for my mind as well to be able to learn how to try new things because i'm as a personal trainer i believe it's good to know different aspects of training not everyone wants to come and do calisthenics with you people might want to try something else like people will be intimidated by kind of things people want to try different things people just want general weight training so if you take yourself and try something new it's going to help you as a person to grow because you'll be able to apply that knowledge to others so i did that mainly i did that just because of my work but then i fell in love with training legs so i started doing it and i mean now i've been doing it for years as well aesthetics no harm no harm whatsoever nice yeah i think this was the longest reply to uh the quick quench questions quick answer yeah right i got carried away no but it's as i said like it's really fascinating to listen to you and you really speak with passion which is uh really cool and i honestly think this is one of the the episodes or maybe the episode with the most content and the most valuable uh insights and like um in-depth um training advice here um and it's like a super interesting topic and um somebody who listens to this until this moment like one and a half hours yeah this person will a take a lot with him but be like it shows that he's like really interested in the topic and that you carried him uh with you so um yeah that's it it's been my pleasure and i can't thank you enough for including me in this podcast so it's my pleasure so me being here like i said i took a passion and yeah i'm thankful that's great um yeah let's go through the the last quick questions uh favorite skill lunch bunch the the regular full planche or i mean planche itself yeah of course now like i've taken a big love to maltese now like i like yeah maltese is like my latest learnt static skill i mean i've always kind of had a maltese but i spent six months mastering it and it's really paid off so i think maltese may overtake my uh my planche uh my planche favoritism you know so yeah i think maltese planche multi just those two like i love those two definitely awesome uh pull or push if you have to decide for the rest of your life push push push okay push i mean yeah i mean as people see as you see i'm i'm mainly a push-up and my planche is way stronger than my front lever but i'm trying to change that i want my friend to also be strong and be equal so i am training foreign i don't really show it that much but it's behind the scenes that i'm doing like i want like i said having that balance being equal i don't want to be just a plunger that can't do a friendly or friendly pull-up so yeah definitely but push definitely i prefer push but pull isn't porn but yeah push if i to choose push all the way push all the way definitely cool do you have a favorite book um i did read the book recently um but come in a subtle leopard that's my favorite book is it from mark manson the no yeah ah no no no no no becoming a support leopard that's something different totally different that uh thought about uh uh how is he called uh uh yeah yeah but it's about mobility right uh yeah school yeah so becoming a supple leopard by glenn uh by glenn cordoza and kelly yeah yeah yeah so i read a book like a few years ago and it really helped me in my knowledge about yeah just mobility and just body positioning and everything and that helps a lot for my powerlifting progress as well because it teaches you how to it teaches your form teaches you how to like be correct and be safe in your training so when i read that book um yeah it it really helped me a lot in my knowledge too especially for clients too as well so yeah that's i've read a book yeah a couple yeah three years ago when i started like strength training because yeah even me like when you first go into something you go in not know nothing so you need to educate yourself by reading books or training getting trained by someone or just you know so i started to read books and um yeah i was like let me um get myself knowledge enough wow this book is amazing so yeah that's my favorite fitness book anyway cool we'll also put it in the description for somebody if he wants to check it favorite music genre gen general um i like rock music and i like hip-hop music for powerlifting i need rock music for statics i need like hip-hop trap kind of beats so yeah those two those two um yeah those are my favorite genres yeah definitely do you have a best uh the favorite calisthenics event you've visited the best event i went to was in 2015 uh i went to the world cup in barcelona with boss battle it was like a team competition so he came second place that was my that was that was actually my last freestyle competition before i transitioned over to waited but that was my favorite event because that was amazing that was like bahrain was amazing place the competition was really good like it was a crazy comment like a team comp also individual as well that was the best event i've ever been to that was yeah that was good memories i can't imagine yeah that was back yes back in 2015 yeah cool and to finish off uh you already said one or two things but your message to the calisthenics community yes our message is um stay consistent stay disciplined and just never give up also yeah train smart it's not about going it's not about killing yourself every session it's about stimulating feeling the movement and being able to train the next day without being too tired you know um yeah and also not being afraid to train legs that's my message to everyone you know just yeah stick to the program allow yourself to adapt and be patient and progress slowly you know and focus on focus on form try to um not let the ego take over i see a lot of guys they try to chase like they go to shuttle planche and they think yeah let me try a full plant right now you need to spend a few months on straddle plunge first before you go to full planche and so on so don't don't rush the process in any progression always master the progression itself and then move forward and yeah i mean it's a long journey kirsten this is a long journey like i've been doing i've been training all my life you know audio training for my life calisthenics for like advanced kind of things eight years you have to just dedicate your life to it so um don't be in the rush to get any skill because even if you get the skill it takes you about another 10 years to master it anyway so just uh enjoy the process of it and learn and just yeah explore and learn new things and yeah don't be afraid to train your legs it's a it's a good thing for you and yeah that's my um that's my main top tip for everyone and advice cool thank you um yeah we're as i said we're we're coming to an end how can people get in touch with you how can they reach out to you you also offer um coaching right yes i do online coaching yeah you can just get get me get me on uh denton kante on instagram if you think it's denton underscore conte11 on instagram yeah you can um follow me there dm me there ask me questions there get in touch with me there cool we will put all the youtube as well yeah youtube and instagram will put the links in the description and the show notes so people can reach out to you and uh you're responsive on instagram that's what i can say so to everybody having questions concerning coaching etc denton is somebody who who replies to you to the director i do reply to messages people ask me help i i i offer him help you know i think it's kind of cool to you know get help from someone that you look up to you know so that's my best to respond to everyone you know yeah as a family man i know it's uh it's or i can imagine that it's not easy always but uh yeah yeah yeah exactly so imagine i'm balancing everything out with a little two-year-old so there's no excuses there's no excuses when you find the time well my time is my family and my training i've got nothing else so i've got no social life i don't go out much i just literally i train i come home that's it i train i come home i train again and my son watches me training and he trains with me that's that's my life right now and i'm and yeah i think it's the best kind of life this is training and family what else do you mean there's nothing else more than that that's true so yeah i'm insanely thankful for your time because i know it's very valuable and that uh yeah your family wants it as well so big big thank you for sharing so much from your from your trainings etc i'm really thankful and i know that people can take a lot from it and before denton you can end the episode and say goodbye to the people i want to say thank you to all the listeners everybody to stick who stick until now like 1 hour 40 minutes it's it's insane so big respect to you big thank you to you uh for listening to this till the end if you liked it give it a thumbs up check up check out uh dance and socials and uh yeah i hope to see you next time again and thank you thank you thank you very much thank you very much guys and yeah goodbye everyone hope you guys enjoyed you know the podcast hope you learned some things from it because i'm obviously i was here to help everyone so i hope you guys got the help you needed and if you want more questions just come to me ask me on my dm and yeah look out for youtube content cause i'm gonna start to actually vlog my training so look out for that and yeah thank you so much and philip thank you very much for having me today it was a pleasure you.