WORKOUT MYTHS, PROGRESS & COFFEE | Interview with Hybrid Calisthenics | Athlete Insider Podcast #67

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you know sometimes locking out for some exercises it turns out it's fine  you look at the reasoning for it and it's like well it puts pressure on your tendons  and that's one of the um it's one of the myths of the fitness industryyo gorillas welcome to the athlete insider podcast by GORNATION my name is phil and today's  guest is hampton from hybrid calisthenics i'm super looking forward to this interview  hampton is somebody who is sharing calisthenics advice to over 2.6 million subscribers on youtube  1.6 million on tick tock crazy numbers already and nearly 600 000 on instagram  i'm really looking forward to get to know you better hampton and to present and talk about  yourself in this podcast episode welcome to the show oh well thank you so much phil same to you  i'm really excited to be here awesome thanks again that you take the time and yeah i think in in our  community we have a few people who won't know your your name who won't know your face i think maybe  your face everybody saw it once uh popping up in his youtube shorts or a tick tock or whatever  but yeah still do you want to present yourself who are you who is hampton sure sure you know and i i  mean that's kind of the thing with um with doing internet content or even really just doing any  kind of content beforehand you know there's always always more people who will know you  than people who will like you or even like know you well right just like just like um people you  know that they might approach me on the street like hey i i know you i've seen before but those  are people who like you you know i always wonder how many people see me like oh yeah he's that guy  well so uh my name is hampton and my channel and brandel my brand and channel is uh hybrid  calisthenics and i do a lot of home workout stuff it's called hybrid calisthenics  uh and i was just talking to phil beforehand that you know while these things refer to  the same thing bodyweight exercise you know we we have slightly different communities actually very  different communities when you say street workout body weight fitness home workout you know like a  progressive calisthenics it's almost like i can name like different groups that belong to those uh  those categories um my thing was really right now is just to make fitness accessible to people so  right now i'm building the hybrid routine which is going to be based on progressive exercise so your  audience is already familiar with calisthenics and progressive counseling so i'll speed through this  but just for anyone just in case someone you know is watching just because of me and they  don't really know yet um so body weight exercise push-ups pull-ups leg raises bridges things like  that if it makes them progressive and regressive in some ways it means we can find a variation  of those exercises that work for you that's really what i focus on and i was and i was saying to phil  beforehand right before we were doing this uh recording that i never really intended to target  the demographic that i have now which i i would say it's fair to say sku's beginner nothing else  you know like we have some advanced lifters some people who aren't interested in calisthenics at  all but they just watch it just because they like the coffee vibe and you know they like watching  the videos you know and i love them for that but excuse beginner i think it's definitely fair  and that just really came from the content i was putting out at the very beginning when i had no  audience and the people who responded and the people that i that i answered to at the time andit was a surprise to me there was a surprise to me that there was this demand for this because before  i did hybrid calisthenics i was kind i i really wasn't i didn't spend a lot of time on social  media i had like like 200 facebook friends you know in in 2019 which is not a lot for someone  of my generation and age you know even someone who just randomly went to my school  has like a couple of thousands so it's like i didn't spend a lot of time on social media  so i thought based on my knowledge of it that it's going to be flashier stuff it's going like  yeah we're going to be like human flags we're going to do like one arm pull-ups which even  as you know in the upper echelon is almost standard it's not even considered advanced  but i thought like oh that'll get people's attention and then listen to what i have to say  um and that kind of worked but what really seemed to resonate was the stuff where it was like hey  if you can't do a push-up or if you can't do a deep squat yet um here's how you can build up and  that's what really seemed to resonate so that's who i am the basis of it and a general area of  what i cover nowadays this is general movement and making it progressive and accessible to everyone  wow well super interesting interesting stuff already because i mean like you you're doing the  the beginner um videos even though you can do a one-on-pull-up and like to give you some social  proof to our like uh elite uh listeners now you you are like a really strong guy like you can do  one-arm pull-ups like can you tell us a little bit about your level in in workout right now yeah i  mean look it really depends on who you're talking to and that's like that's the same thing with like  as you know through entrepreneurship and stuff right like if you're talking to someone you're  like yeah i had like you know a like a 500k a month the other day you know not not maybe like if  you say that you know like a regular person might be like whoa and then they might think that you're  you're flexing but you know that there's people out there who are just like you know i i made that  you know tuesday when i did literally nothing you know that for them that's nothing so that that's  you know so there's i always want to be aware of who i'm talking to and i i want to address  both of it a little bit um so yes i have spent a few years in calisthenics i can do you know  the hardest thing i do probably right now is like half range of motion one arm handstand push up  against the wall but that's because i pursued it intently for a while yeah one arm pull-ups  is something that i learned fairly early on and again you know i don't weigh that much so it's  a little bit easier for me you know human flags um uh came they probably come a lot easier to be than  the lever movements front lever and back lever um those are things that i can do but i'm still you  know like recently i was like well you know i'll look into that what i really built my foundation  on was um dynamic pressing which has really changed i've really changed my approach nowadays  so it was dynamic movement so you know i instead of working towards leverage right away  i want to work on different forms of one arm push-ups that's kind of where i spent my time  looking back there are probably better ways i could have spent my time so i would have more  diverse skills this is like really getting into the details of it but for example after you can do  a one-arm push-up which is something that it feels like everyone and their dog can do right everyone  their grandma can do a one-arm push-up you know but it's like just the simple idea of taking  of making a more triceps focused exercise and chest focused but just like moving your arm from  off to the side to underneath your sternum and going straight up and down it's something very  very few people can do you know even the upper echelon now do you want to argue that's because  they're pursuing levers and one-armed planches you know and maltese crosses and stuff and not this  yeah certainly definitely is and it definitely is part of it uh but that's why i was like you  know that's what appealed to me at first i thought that was more functional you know i pursued that  for a few years i got you know fairly far on that and then you know even just like it really was a  year ago when i'm like well i'm doing this now i would like to polish up um my other skills and  see so that's kind of where i'm at now my training right now is really um involves i would say mostly  isometrics uh both body weight and just like uh chain and spring isometrics and just re i really  retain calisthenics for mobility is where i am right now not super high once again it depends  on who i'm talking to because like you say like we we describe one arm push-ups or one on pearl  blah blah blah one on pull-ups as social proof but for some people it's just like well if you can't  do 20 of them you might as well go home because it's it's like you're still a beginner like go  back and train before you talk about we don't want to hear you talk until you do that right  i mean maybe not 20 like 10 you know like there are some people who it's just another level and i  definitely want to be aware of who i'm talking to and i i i really don't feel a need to hide who i  am you know it's like some people are way stronger than i am and congratulations to them you know and  some people they don't even want to that's why i think some people may be confused as to why i'm  spending some time on this but some people feel bad when i say that when i'm like well you know  like i want to be aware of myself but when i say yeah that's not really that high level  they feel bad about themselves because like well you know like i i just started working out at  you know age 35 you know i really haven't gotten anywhere i have been saying that i'm below novice  because he called himself a novice so it's not you know i'm not trying to make anyone feel bad  or worse i'm just trying to be honest to myself where it's just like here's where i am here's what  i'm working on and if you just started no worries don't worry you can you can wherever you're at  you can build up so just trying to address all people there yeah because it's an interesting  topic because there are so many levels and so many different um yeah approaches in calisthenics where  it's hard for somebody who is uh even in this podcast you know like i interview elite athletes  and they sometimes say yeah i learned the plans in nine months but uh like i took i took really  really long and like you can learn it in in three to five months so and i'm i'm also  thinking yeah what does somebody think who is like working on the plan since five years and not not  unlocking it which is not something completely unusual right right so yeah yeah you know andit's a different you know it's a world where you know there calisthenics is still underrated you  know i gotta say even as well known you know as some brands are you know like i think the biggest  counseling channel on youtube is still i think thenx right you know like there's other big ones  out there and then there's people like andrea larosa who i i don't you might have interviewed  i don't know if he speaks english uh but very very impressive athlete uh and if nothing else  but like the where they talk like obscure facebook forums or uh sometimes their app and you know and  it's like relatively smaller youtube videos where they talked about the technique of this stuff  i think it's still underrated because i think if the community really hasn't hit the stride where  it's like okay this is the stuff that definitely works now um and this is what this is what we can  spend our time on and this is what will work together and this is kind of what happened in  fitness in the 20th century you know people have to you know the importance of like knowing what  works and seeing it from yourself not just through scientific study but through like  the popularization of like what people are talking about is super important because think about this  i believe and someone can fact check me on this and correct me which is very open but i i believe  i recently read that people thought a bench press beyond a certain amount was impossible guess what  that amount was it was 400 pounds you know they thought a 400 pound bench press was impossible  i think until doug hepburn did it uh again feel free to fact-check me on that and then after he  did it a year later i think he did like 500. so it's like you know after first so we've hit that  stage where it's like can these things be done imagine if you didn't have the internet and you're  like wow you know and you in your vine you would envision the plants you're like well it's probably  impossible right it's probably impossible let's say you have some talent and you got to like what  was basically a advanced tough planche and you're like okay you know i i i might be the strong like  you're you're like this small village you know in america you're like yeah i might be the strongest  person in the world you know and to your knowledge that might be true right that might be true um  but i think first we have to see people who are doing that you know and then it's like you talk  to the right ones the ones who don't just have natural talent but build up in a progressive way  and they say oh this is what works because i think that's the key that's why i'm talking about this  yes of course there's foundational strength then there's your proportions you know like how your  limb length you know this you know then there's technique um and there's some genetics but i think  the reason why there's such a big difference in ability sometimes where someone's like i  i take like 10 years time learning plans and some people are like yeah i spent like um  but like five you know some people get in a couple months just because you know of the  stuff that they do and i think it depends on how they train you know their genetics but it's also  technique and how they train you know i mean if you think about it it makes perfect sense like  you know some people are training for isometric of things through mostly dynamic movement which  helps but then it's like well then what about like principle of specificity and everything and  it's just like you know imagine a day without the internet where someone's working towards a bench  press that's why i brought up that example and they're like well maybe the best way to train is  to do like best way to train for a 400 pound bench press is like 135 but perfect for him for many  many reps turns out you know not really the case you know and then it's like well no it's five sets  of five you know doing half your max and then some people think that but it's not really the case so  i think first we have to see we have to have the social proof you know and the community of seeing  people do this which is where we are now and right now we are currently in the midst of like  okay okay okay so this is the best way to do it you know everyone everyone has a tutorial on the  planche you know but you know i think soon it'll become very apparent when we look back in 20 30  years you know or maybe shorter i don't want to blow anyone's mind like um maybe less time  than that where people look back and be like oh okay like this guy was very talented you know he  could do multiple levels of you know and flags and stuff but his advice wasn't necessarily the best  um just being he and that's not his fault you know he worked with what he had now um and i  think that's will that's what we'll experience and you see that through lifters nowadays full respect  to eugene sandow uh sorry for mispronouncing his name but like considered the father of modern  bodybuilding because he was the first person to build the who the first famous person to build  his proportions based on fixed proportions he measured greek statues but in his book  strengthen strength and how to obtain it i think he talks about like self-resistant techniques and  in his mind he's like yeah you can use dumbbells to work your muscles but you could also sit here  and just tense your muscles and it'll be the same effect turns out no not at all that's like  debbie that'd be cool if that was the case and he's like for him for him you know and i  mean back then he had the social proof right you know some of his stuff might have been lionized  a little bit still a very strong guy it's like so if someone says yeah this is how you get strength  you know i wouldn't disagree with him you know it's like that since the idea he he's a he's a  strong man he knows what he's doing but as we look back with the modern information it's like well  that was not correct he basically stated that dumb bells were there just for entertainment um which  is not the case right so i think that's what we're talking about by the way in case you and your  listeners have noticed or you have noticed i give very lengthy answers so if you want me to do uh  like i think this is the that's the product byproduct of both my personality and doing  coffee with hampton so if you want me to do shortage stuff um i can and if you want me to  elaborate that's that's fine as well it's perfect i think like it's super interesting to talk to you  uh like to to listen to you um yeah i i like it um yeah maybe we can uh we can go back a few years um  can you tell us about your beginnings in the sport like um i guess in the beginning you also didn't  have all the information that you have today all the knowledge all the uh the books read uh the  the videos watched whatever um how did your beginning in in calisthenics look like okay um so  in the very uh so in the very beginning i was a very very active kid you know like i i was  i was born relatively athletic you know i could i could run a little like  based on a playground i could run a little faster i go a little bit longer  a lot of i was better at explosive movement i was better at sprints than i was long distance running  loved recess dude like that's the very very beginning um i i was raised by my father and a lot  of his friends by men and some women who were very interested in martial arts you know they did a lot  like karate they did some wrestling jiu-jitsu all kinds of things like and you know as you know  a lot of these martial arts disciplines uh they really focused on calisthenics what was it like  like push-ups basic calisthenics push-ups sit-ups things like that uh more than weightlifting and  possibly because of this like you know again it's hard to get rid of a belief i think there's like a  there used to be a belief that weightlifting would make you slow and you know and inefficient  in combat um which is why why i think a lot of martial artists even now knowing that  there's there's there are definitely ways where you can strength train without getting slower  and you can actually get faster uh even because of that i think just because it's been passed  down it's in like the culture of martial arts to have calisthenics so that's really where i started  and you know back then it was it was very simple stuff like push-ups and sit-ups you know and it  was really numbers as you know uh like that's how a lot of people first learn about calisthenics as  increasing numbers you know that like there's no difference there's only one kind of push-up  there's only you know there's only one setup what are you talking about and it's like well no  there's like what what there's like push-ups and one arm for sure you know that's that's that's how  it is you know and people are like wow this guy he once could do like like 500 push-ups and i'm like  wow 500 push-ups that's incredible i want to get there you know and it turns out you know that's  like you know that's you know if you're where if you put your putting some working you don't weigh  that much it's not that hard to do especially if you're breaking up with multiple sets  uh and this is like like i'm giving i'm thinking from the beginning beginning i'm gonna kind of  rush through so we don't spend too much time um you know around like age 17 uh i didn't have to  drop out of school that's it's minorly related to this um uh i dropped out of school in eighth grade  um because my my mom got sick and i had to help run the family business so that's minorly related  to what i'm about to say but i did go back later and finish i got so i didn't didn't go to high  school but i graduated from college um but at age 17 i didn't go to school and i worked full-time  and that we usually didn't go get home until like 9 10 p.m and we would watch tv um  you know whenever we watch tv um and i you know i i don't know what the catalyst was but i remember  i was like you know i'm gonna start doing some push-ups regularly because i you know like i i  was active but i didn't have a regular routine so um for me the idea of like okay i'll do push-ups  every commercial break so for an hour-long program you know every time i i would see uh a  commercial it'd be three minutes on okay well i'm gonna do push-ups yeah so i started doing about  about like 100 a day you know and i'm like oh this actually got a lot easier so i you know my first  you know entering adulthood you know age 18 and so i was doing about 500 push-ups a day  you know and that's like you know not really any other exercise you know when i saw a pull-up bar  i'd be like ooh pull-up bars you know but that you know i was doing that for no reason other  than just because i thought that's what fitness was right it's like no one really sets you down  and gives you a handbook even in pe not really not really much um but a few years in i was like  i should probably do other exercises too okay um well what you know it's like you know muscular  imbalance all these things like i knew these terms but it's not something you it's just really in the  forefront of your mind right you don't you know i don't i didn't follow those channels i you know i  really wasn't you know i almost hate to say this but i wasn't inspired by a youtube fitness person  really to work out it really it really just wasn't what resonated with me you know full respect to  these people who are doing you know your former guests you know yourself all these people who  are doing awesome things congratulations it's just not it's not really what best name is me  um because i never watched it i might have liked it had i really got into it  um and i was like well like i i'm gonna start doing some other exercises um and this is  see this is how fast things go by because some of your viewers will listen to this and just laugh  because i think it's ridiculous but there was a time period where um a book called convict  conditioning came out and that was a lot that was a lot of people's introduction to calisthenics  because i remember my friends talking about it and they're not in  this world they they got the books because they it was popular it was probably like  it was trending at a time uh so this so they got it and they introduced me to it i'm like oh so  i looked at the progressions and everything and just like it or not you know i know the book is  you know the method is controversial amongst like some of the bodyweight fitness community  i understand that but that was my introduction to the idea of progressive calisthenics so the idea  that you could break this down into it um and i studied abroad in at age 22 in germany um is where  where are you located are you in germany germany okay yeah okay great great so i was near um  i was near copeland's i was in valindar i was at a school called beijau um and great time  beautiful area if you have a chance please visit germany please visit the area um but what was  different from me as an exchange student and different for me living my life here in the us  um once again something that's gonna make people laugh and this time you know full on i agree with  you laughing i was used to having not wi-fi but like almost unlimited data everywhere i went okay  it was like and like we had like i i could go anywhere and i could look up facebook i could  go through youtube and everything i didn't spend a lot of time at home  turns out you know like whatever phone plan i had in germany i had like 200 megabytes  and then the rest was i was being charged like like ten dollars per hundred megabytes i'm like  i liked it well uh i better turn off that so that that's something i did a lot well turns out  you know when you are because i'm someone who likes to go out and walk walk a lot i like to go  out coffee shops i don't like i don't like to sit at home where you have wi-fi um i like to go out  um turns out when you don't scroll through facebook or social media  when you're eating it out you read you know so i was like ah so that's really when i read  it but then and then i read a lot of texts um on calisthenics that's what i mean it's like i really  for someone who did who does video now i was really more inspired by authors  um and if anyone's ever read the book comic conditioning most people just look at your  exercises and like well this is this is not optimum um because of this a lot of the  you know a lot of the cool stuff that i got from it was uh paul wade's writing style um because  you know for someone who's writing from the perspective of a prisoner and we can go more into  this if you want just because it's something that the calisthenics community does kind of know about  and i spent a lot of time reading i've talked with i've emailed with paul wade before  and he has a very inspiring writing style you know i i would i find that hard to deny like he he gets  people pumped and gets people going and that's part of where i got um how i teach calisthenics  nowadays from because you know again someone you know it's written with it's written for men you  know you know it's written for men very masculine environment where it's like you you you have to umyou have to get strong and muscular so you so bad things don't happen to you in prison  um but for that you know he he's actually very kind to beginners you know he's just like well you  start off with wall push-ups and then you build up to these inclines no good job this is already  quite strong let's keep let's let's keep you going and a big part of it and this is like tying back  to what we were talking about before the missing piece of you know where training is you know  most people they said well if you want to build strength you want to stay low uh one of the keys  that that really seemed to work well for myself and for others why i think like the content that i  spread resonates is some of the higher repetitions earlier on you know when you spend higher  repetitions and you don't just jump into a harder exercise he's like yeah spend some time building  these repetitions he spends chapters explaining why it is which sadly is ignored because everyone  just screenshotted you know the exercises page um and he went into that and that thing that that  really helped a lot of people unfortunately so two things people don't really some people don't like  reading you know no judgment they don't really like reading and i mean i don't have as much  time to read nowadays as i would like um and also some people they they don't like the prison aspect  so sadly this um this inspiring author with a good method really wasn't lost so like when i started  um sharing this i used that as a foundation and i made my own thing and like i'm like hmm this  thing works a little bit better at something but i use that as a foundation to really start spreading  calisthenics because that's really what i when i first got into you know and obviously as you grow  you know first of all like for example there's probably one reason why i focus more on dynamics  and one-arm pressing and one-on-one pulling and not so much on aesthetics just because i  was inspired from from this start and it probably would have been very different had i been inspired  by a youtube channel where they put you know front levers and like what are front levers and planches  i probably would have like explored that way beforehand just because that's what i was exposed  to um but that's really the beginning of it um and a lot of it was also just personal experimentation  uh when and then there's another level when you start doing it for a living  um and once again this is already a long story so i'm trying to convince it um you know and you  start thinking about and then really the question that i approach nowadays is why not it's like like  like all these things that we take for granted i'm like  why not you know it's like well this move is impossible i'm like well why isn't it you know  so like that's really where i'm at right now um where i try to experiment a lot in my training  and you know and i hope to get um i hope to find both new things i can accomplish but  also document a journey and teach people how to get there so i can help others do that well  that's uh like yeah the long long story which is which is super interesting interesting  do you get a lot of um knowledge even nowadays from from books and like what books would you  recommend to to people listening like is there another calisthenics book that you would recommend  more nowadays nowadays uh to be honest for most people i just like because of people who are  probably watching this and listening to this you're probably gonna resonate more with video  content or uh social content um so that that's what i would look into um i would just find  a youtube channel or even an instagram channel um again once again these these people there are some  people who are very good at teaching and very good at calisthenics and they're not great at social  media um so like you don't don't look for that's like the highest subscriber ones look for one that  works for you looks for one that breaks breaks it down the way that you like um first of all  because you can also ask that person questions you know when they have like 10k and fewer subscribers  but they're very good at what they do uh there's a good chance they'll answer your question much  more than like um you know full respect and love to him chris heria because like he gets  a lot of just as an example of someone who gets a lot of comments um so find someone that you  like and you resonate with it doesn't have to be someone who's famous because you might be able to  get what's essentially tutoring because you know they're like oh fine i finally got a comment i'm  going to answer all of them so uh that's that's what i would recommend and just personalize  your journey from there and it really depends on where you are really depends on where you are  like you might already be you know again it might be like me like not that big and fairly lean so  you might be able to do a bunch of uh relatively advanced moves um but not uh some of this harder  stuff so find something you like cool you're you already talked about your weight two times  um like uh these are the questions that we always get uh from the people if i don't ask them in the  interview they will always be in the comments section uh how old how old are you right now  i'm 28 years old 28 and like how heavy and how tall uh right now i'm about um uhbecause i'm trying to think of it i'm about 154 pounds that would be uh 70 kilograms more or less  and my height is about 5 8 or 173 centimeters not a very big person and like the reason i paused is  because i wanted to give both measurements that's that's perfect i was like already taking my mobile  phone i have to to uh to how to say like yeah truth's late uh but anyways yeah you already  have it in your head that's cool and i i bounce a lot um in between the weights sometimes um my  my heaviest that you know i haven't really been that heavy on social media yet is about 165 i'll  probably experiment with going to like oh sorry 165. so like heavier than 70 kilograms you know  i'll probably experiment with being uh like 80 kilograms is probably the heaviest i'll go  that i can see right now why is that why what do you want to try oh i mean just just  for fun you know like again once again why not right you know and this is not something that  you know there's no way to dock it there's no study on this there's no way you can document this  um but seeing how a lot of like these old-time strong men wrote you know people when once you  like who train with calisthenics um this is really before the modern gym existed the way it does  to where you can go almost anywhere you have these fully stocked gyms seeing the way they talk about  calisthenics makes me think that you know you know some people say well i don't want to get  too heavy because then it's too hard for me to do like these like you know these levers or whatever  um these old-time people i almost think the way they thought was i want to get strong  and heavy as possible both in muscle and fat so because like if all you have is a one-arm  push-up but you don't really know like a harder variation uh or one leg squat it's like well  i'm 150 pounds the the only way to make this harder is if i'm 250 pounds so it's right  so it's the idea is like you want to get very big so it's just like you know i want to see like how  my body functions at a heavier weight if it does really well then which i suspect that it'll do  okay but i think that if i push myself to like 190 190 or 200 pounds uh which would be like  like 90 kilograms that'd be a little heavy for my frame which is really not that big  yeah interesting uh because i i feel that you're also somebody who is focused on on health in  general um because i saw like a few months ago i i saw some some habits that you have like  uh with with the salt like um i'm missing the the english word but after like uh just  brushing no like um how's it called like um um oh gargle gurgle yeah yeah yeah with with with  the salty water so like i i experience you as somebody who is also focused on health and um  i can imagine that kg or 90 is not the the weight that your body is naturally made for you know like  so it would be something that you have to force yourself to or how do you think about it  yeah uh but you know i'm also nowadays you know i i'm just um for me i'm sorry i'm gonna try it and  then and then see how things go yeah i'm hesitant to be the person who turned down something  couldn't really answer why he turned it down and later on you know in my lit like if if  i'm older i'm like well now i wonder what would have happened if i did this right and you know  theoretically if i put on it if not enough muscle and you know i do it intelligently and i don't  just get i think you'll get fat that that'd be weird you're getting a hampton getting fat  you know because i mean like almost daily videos so you're like someone would make it like just  like well the progression of hampton from like regular hampton to fat hampton you know in 2025and i was like oh well um you know you know just knowing just some people know my personality that  wouldn't really offend me i think that's funny i'm like wow you know i i did get kind of fat um  but i can still i can still do all this stuff so anyway um it is it it's interesting it's something  i want to try and that's really how i approach my training now as i try different things and but  i mean i will say this uh weight gain is not my priority right now um right now is mostly probably  through isometric isometric strength uh i'm still relatively new as in like several months to a year  into my experimentation of that uh but i think it has a lot of potential and it's something that  we can talk about later if you like yeah like um are you are you in general somebody who is  uh is it easier for you to lose weight or to gain weight um lose weight lose weight yeah  it is definitely easier for me to lose weight if i if i don't pay attention  i'll lose like 10 15 20 pounds yeah so you also forget to eat  or like you just have to eat so much that that it's sometimes hard to keep up rightyou know i hate to admit this but that used to be the case but i think my metabolism has  slowed down as i'm getting older um yeah no i still eat like several you know like like  i can pack away like 3 000 calories and you know like i had to hit that that general area before  before i started losing um to maintain weight um but i don't really necessarily forget to eat  as much anymore just because i think because i'm used to it i am someone who you know if i get to  working uh we're both working and working out but especially like doing any content related stuff  if i'm here or i'm filming or i'm doing stuff you know i'll i'll go like 24 hours without eating you  know not on purpose i'm just like oh well 24 hours you know because you know and like for me it was  just like it like out you know i thought you know because i wouldn't eat it like until 8 or 9 p.m  at night sometimes and i'm like well like why am i so hungry that was only a 15 hour i was only like  a 12-hour fast i'm like no no it's like no it's not it was like it was like a 20 it's like a 23  hour fast no wonder i'm hungry so there's that so i i don't forget to eat but i certainly could just  because of my lifestyle i'm very uh productive uh production driven so i like doing that um but  it is it i had to consciously decide to gain weight i had i do have that's something i've  always had you know and you know depending on who's listening right now some people are like man  i hate you for saying that you have to consciously put on weight whereas it's like well it's not it's  also not great either because i mean we're not i'm not always drop like you know if you don't  eat you're not just dropping fat you know you're losing strength you're living you're losing muscle  this stuff that takes a while to put on um and when i was sick last november you know  and like i didn't really feel like eating for a couple of weeks i i dropped like 15 pounds it was  fairly quickly um probably not definitely not healthy because i was sick at the time  um so this is something that i this is how my body is yeah and you always think that everybody else  has it like it's easier for everybody else like i can imagine a lot of skinny guys wish  they would have like uh more mass that they they that they can turn into muscle like i can remember  myself uh as a as a young guy like thinking uh damn it like i have these friends who are like  massive and for them they just have to train to birth like to transform the  fat into muscle it's so easy you know like and today everybody everybody has his uh challenges  and um yeah for us it takes longer to build muscle uh because we we we need to eat a lot and we need  to give something to the muscle to be able to grow right right so that's where you that's where you  started too like you were in the summer bro i got you definitely like super super skinny uh  super like i thought i could eat as much and like i always thought i eat already a lot like  because if you don't have the comparison to somebody who is like eating double like  two times the the plates that you are eating and for you it's already a lot what you use  yeah like it's it's all about standards yeah of course um this is something i think will help some  viewers what was the game changer for you when you were like well i i think i'm eating a lot like why  am i not gaining weight what was the game changer where you're like that's what i needed to do  yeah like the the one thing mentally was definitely seeing friends eating double my portion  uh like for them this was a lot like i thought eating i don't know half a kebab like with friends  i thought that's that's a lot like a big big bread with everything and then there was this one friend  who ate like two of them and for him it was like oh now i'm full so um yeah but but the the thing  like the that really got me gaining weight was definitely like um i'm not talking about because  you also said a lot of gaining weight things are not healthy i was definitely drinking a big shake  with oats and milk and like almonds and all this stuff before sleeping so another 2000 calories  before sleeping um this one wasn't healthy so um but this got me got me like a lot of weight uh  yeah well what got me uh see like i it would be interesting if i had that experience but growing  up i was always the guy you know people are like how are you eating so much food when you are not  that big okay so you know and part of it might be because of what i was saying because like i i in  my mind like i i naturally go longer without food for a while but when it's time to eat i'll eat  a lot of food all right so there is that um so i had my portions were bigger but i think it  was the regularities like it's bigger now but are you getting more overall maybe not so the  game changer for me and the reason i brought it up in case i could help anyone uh was tracking  where like i you know like i used an app called myfitnesspal but it's like you know there's a  bunch of them out there my fitness pal has some controversy over not being the most accurate i  guess which i you know i cannot really argue with it it helped me establish a standard where there  was like i could see whether it's accurate or not i was going lower i was going higher i'm like well  i need to maintain it a little bit and having that that standard like okay now i can put on  you know and anytime bring it up someone's like well if you so like like tracking gives them like  eating disorders it might you know that doesn't work for everyone that that was a game changer for  me uh to regularly be able to lose weight and gain weight as i wanted to true tracking is really like  looking at the numbers uh because you also already drew the comparison to uh to entrepreneurship and  to business and to social media like looking at the numbers the numbers never never lie basically  um and if you track and you see uh throughout the day i only ate 1800 calories even though i had  this extremely big meal um which was like 1400 if i only ate an apple in the morning and uh like a  small uh i don't know yogurt in in the evening that's that's still like 1 800. right exactly  yeah interesting um uh now i forgot the question uh oh i'm sorry man it's like i i i i imagine  i'm a difficult person to interview sometimes oh it's it's it's super nice but you're like  you're bringing up so many uh like topics and now i have it uh like talking about a diet in general  like uh you you said that you wanna gain weight healthy but overall how does your diet look like  are you somebody who is uh eating really healthy do you have cheat meals cheat days sometimes  um how does it look like okay so and this it probably wouldn't surprise someone because i'm  not a bodybuilder but then you know it's a body a strict bodybuilder probably have a stricter diet  i don't really think of like cheat meals or cheat days you know in my mind  i i think i naturally eat relatively healthy to where i i don't really stop myself from eating  what i want you know but that works for me because what i want isn't just milkshakes and candy  that that doesn't work for everyone um for gaining weight you know from where i am now so like  because i've been been through this path before from like 150 to 160  so like from 70 kilograms sorry like 68 kilograms to like 75 kilograms i i can just like increase  my uh meal frequency because i naturally want to eat like one meal a day you know one or two  meal like it it's not it's not a lot it's not a lot um just because it's you know i feel better  if i get up and i have some water and i i i start working and then at the end of the day i  i like that feeling that's what i naturally want to do um adding in a second meal really helps me  gain some weight okay adding a third meal event it takes a while for my body to get used to it  because at first i'm like i don't want to eat this you know that helps me gain some weight  um not saying that's the healthiest way to do it you know definitely don't force feed yourself  um you increasing meal size would also help and for again because i'm trying to make  this as valuable as possible for others and if you're if you're listening intently to this you  likely struggle with this what really helped me with nutrient dense foods um you know even just  a snack like a pack of macadamias like if you're looking to put on some weight a pack of macadamias  will help you meet your caloric goals uh because the pack of them is like a thousand calories and  they're like you know you can get you put them all in the palm of your hand and you can get that  um again that's not all that is protein so you know be careful how much you eat  and they're also like 10 bucks literally like a handful is like 10 10 bucks so 10 10 us dollars so  it might damage your profit book more than your health but that that's that's something that  helped me meet my caloric needs and but um from beyond that then i have to start a scaling portion  size then i have to be like well i'm gonna eat a little bit more or i'm gonna eat some um  some snacks with that uh really diet really diet uh diet but also training training is like  when i hit a point where it's just like i feel like i'm overeating like this was like several  years ago like i'm overeating but i'm not gaining weight like i used to it's like i just wasn't  going as hard as i needed to during my exercises right you know because you know in calisthenics  especially if you're someone who wants to pursue levers you know and flags and stuff stuff where  you know having some meat on your bones or the at the end of your bones actually makes it harder um  you're not really thinking about this you think about strength so you want to stay fresh um but  you know and once again as you know if you want to put on good muscle a lava involves  pushing yourself there's actually there's a study um which surprises some people uh and it  surprises me and i like we can get into details of how that study was done where it shows that  the weight you use wasn't as important for muscle growth as going to failure or going  to near failure as you know like actual failure is very difficult um and going near failure on  it and they had someone using ninety percent that there's some people using ninety percent of their  one rep max and training to near failure and they had someone using thirty percent of the wonder max  and going near failure and they had very similar amounts of muscle growth over i believe a two  month period so the the the the the the another factor for me that i know nowadays is you gotta  push hard you gotta push hard and you can't you can't do that as easily you can't do that at all  with like just a regular oh you scared me uh i had someone walk in with regular front lever trainingnice i saw you i i thought you saw a ghost or something it was like it was actually my wife  um you know and it's just i didn't expect her to be here this is my office it's not where i  i i live and sleep so and i'm usually alone by myself i turn around so much walking towards me  through the grocery bags okay it's just like it's it's food and groceries are like oh it's kind of  dark so it's like it's like a dark hallway so you see someone walking towards you okay all right  thank you thank you nice uh well while phil is thinking about his next question uh i was really  i'll talk a little bit about um my channel and how i've built it and just like the stuff other  than calisthenics that i explored that i've become known for um not even on purpose and  i think i started doing coffee with hampton because people asked me questions uh about mental  health and more of like a a mental emotional and spiritual approach to training because once again  as i've talked about before fitness doesn't exist in a vacuum it  you it'd be cool it'd be interesting it'd be interesting  if you know we could separate our physical fitness yeah i do this many reps i do this many um  you know i do this exercise you know with our emotional health but no you know like all that  is tied in you know when you're going through a bout of depression it's much harder if not it's  outright impossible to keep the same training or train at all you know even finances if you're  going bankrupt you probably won't be the focus on training as well as you can or at least you  shouldn't you have more pressing issues um and so i talk about these things as a way to try to bring  everything together and also to share what's on my mind because we do have a lot of younger members  in our community and i think this is one of the things i wanted to do and one of the things that i  that fortunately has happened uh where we bring a lot of people who aren't even interested in  calisthenics or are interested in calisthenics but are at my level or beyond you know that's  that's i i don't you know the the hitler they're very kind to me they're like well they never say  that i'm like no dude you're wait you've done this for a decade longer you you're advanced  my feelings are never hurt by that but we have a community of people where we can talk about things  that are affecting all of us no matter our level um whereas in it whether it's you know anxiety or  just dealing with a fear which is something people deal with at all levels the fear of failure where  you think well you know like what about what i'm going for this goal but what if i fail  uh what if i have family and friends who are bringing me down uh what if i'm very lonely  all these all these things can apply to athletes and people of all levels you know whether or not  you're into fitness at all so that's my little riff uh while phil was uh thinking because i think  i'm off track i'll take accountability for that it's i'm i haven't i i throw people off track nice  um yeah thanks for thanks for sharing and i think that's a super super nice thing that uh  yeah people can really like need in the days of social media in the days of uh yeah like  um also all these things uh social media putting a lot of pressure on people a lot of um yeahinput um that wasn't there a few years ago so um yeah i i'm i'm thinking that's super super  nice for the people um we've been on uh like you you talked about training until failure  and um my like what's your opinion in general about training until failures would you would you  recommend it to everyone because this is something also athletes in the interviews are always like  it's it's the ones say yeah you have to go until 100 every training the others say stay at 70  so you don't get sore like what's your opinion on on this topic okay so interesting because i  you're right i have been asked this before and i have to quote my friend son um saunder i believe  is because i i follow him on social media we've talked but i don't remember he is a um he's also a  street workout athlete and the interviewer i think talked to me first and at the time i was like yeah  i'm a fan of going there sometimes but you know there are risks associated with that and you don't  you don't want to injure yourself and i think he talked to me first and then he talked to saunder  and he might have quoted that maybe he didn't tell them it was for me  and because the video started out with saunders saying yeah there are risks of of not training the  failure and he says well what's that he said well there's the risk of not improving you know that  so i was like huh you know that that doesn't make sense for me uh if you want to summarize  it yeah i think almost everyone can benefit from training failure at some point especially if your  goal is hypertrophy you know i think the research and anecdotal evidence you know that's the thing  is like when everyone when people are feeling it and that there's research behind it that's  something you really need to pay attention to um is that if you're if you're looking for muscle  growth uh going near failure is something that's going to help a lot if you're doing it um if again  if you're doing it safely you don't want like you don't want to use too much momentum and if you're  kipping a lot towards the end of your reps where you have no control just because you are near  failure and you fall down and hurt yourself then you are by definition not making as much progress  as you could if you stayed healthy and didn't go to failure because your arm wouldn't be broken  so there are things like that there are some people who don't care about hypertrophy really  or it's like it's a very it's a very tangential i would say for skill work you'd probably you could  theoretically never go to failure for skill work i'm talking like planches front levers  back levers things like that um and again it's not going to hurt your training um or it's not really  it's not going to destroy your training um but still work you don't really have to just because  you want to be operating near your maximum potential at the time of doing this you want  you want all your muscle fibers to be that you can to fire and well and have to balance all  these things that happen that collapse way before failure handstands things like that you don't have  to go to failure for regular strength training sometimes it's a failure you know i i think i  think almost everyone agrees sometimes failure you know you can experiment and for muscle training  um fairly often right um and now soreness interesting thing you know we've associated  failure with soreness and you know and doms and just like not being able to exercise as much  uh because you know hypertrophy training by nature is draining you know your  all the things happen there's a bunch of things that have to happen for your muscles to grow  but one of the things is we have to have the metabolic fatigue you know and we have to deplete  our energy stores to the point where our muscles basically just say that was really bad what if  that happens again we better put on some more you know they're like they're survival prepping you  know they're putting on more stores um so in order to do that you do have to drain and as a result  consider this if you do that every time you train you won't be able to train as often at your peak  right you know that i mean and once again this is something someone can feel like i i don't i don't  believe that and they try it and then the next day you you won't be the train on your peak is  this how it is if you properly bring yourself to failure it's gonna take some time for your body to  to um to build back up and as a result you won't be able to train as often as you do if you don't  go to failure right um however you know we've taken a look at some things like that's really  anecdotal evidence from uh dynamic movement or lifting whether it's body weight or weights  when you're talking about isometrics um and something like overcoming isometrics which  some people prefer to call pin isometrics i like to call it overcoming isometrics because  pins aren't always involved when you're doing this you can do it on a rope you can do it on a chain  you can do it against a tree when you're doing overcoming isometrics which is basically pushing  or pulling against something that you can't put that you can't budge or you can barely budge  like a small tree they can just push a little bit to the side when you're doing that there's very  little muscle damage which is um the primary cause of soreness you know micro trauma you know people  um people usually attribute that to lactic acid um the micro trauma to your muscles is a big part  of the soreness that you feel however you can bring yourself to near failure or actual failure  near failures is where i'm going to go with this and once you're acclimated to that because you  don't have the muscle damage you might not feel much soreness the next day however you know you're  still like for lack of better terminology you're still drained from it so you might need to take  a day longer to heal still uh much less recovery time than you would if you did it through lifting  so there's some different things that we're exploring as the industry is expanding we're  always growing and learning uh as as the people um in our community our wonderful community  grow and learn so this is something that people can explore like you can go to failure and  train more often than we thought oh that's cool talking about exploring um one question that i  have to ask um because it's it was the the uh the most like uh the most requested question and the  uh story sticker uh for for this interview was um will we ever see you doing a straddle  planche like is it is it on your list ever like uh or is it something that you  i i could probably bust out a pretty shotty looking straddle pants right now but uh  you know that's something that i um it is on my list it is on my list and at some point i i'll  probably make a tutorial on it i would like to brush up on it um these are you know as  a lot of your audience might know um the pledge is something that so i'll put it i'll start with this  the human flag is something that i kind of got just through other training you know like i like  i i would try it every time i saw a poll which you know when i first heard about human flags  i'm like why would i try that and i was like huh there are no polls around here you know it's um  or like there i used a street pole once i got yelled at by this big german guy  sounds like rules and he said but just up to me in german that i didn't understand um so like that's  something i kind of got you know even before i really explore technique i i i could just like i  could kind of sort of do it it was it was kind of um it wasn't as as nice as it is now um and i was  like okay so i thought that's how everything else would come i'd be like oh well the next time i try  a friendly try a back flip it's gonna be better however because of how like our scapular strengths  and our straight arm strength work you know it doesn't really seem to apply as much to  um the levers and the planche um so that's something where i like i i went for a year i'm  like i don't really think it's progressing so and then i was like well it's not really something i'm  not interested in um but then about a few months ago i started exploring a little bit more i i  could probably bust out a shoddy looking straight straddle plants right now um but i i don't want i  don't want that right now because i mean people there's plenty examples of that out there uh  if i do it you know i want to i want to help people get to it i have my own thoughts on like  as i'm doing this i like i'm journaling what's working for me so i can share that with others  and hopefully it's not it's like a my it's very low on my priority list i'm doing that um  but i you know because other people are interested i hope i can help them out at some point but first  i had to get a perfect plan to myself sure and it's super interesting because the the  the human flag is really like a move where when like a lot of people ask me when i'm on the on  the calisthenics park like how do you learn this the the um the human flag and it's really a skill  that i would say if you continue your training with with dips with push-ups with like all the  basics um and you have like a really really good fundamental strength it's it's a skill that comes  quite easily without specific training but that's totally different for the planche i think yeah  um why do you think that is no you're involved in this too what's your opinion on that that's  a really good question like for me the the planche feels so unnatural that's  what's what's my first thought but if i see a human flag it's not the the most natural move  of a human being as well so uh that's that's not maybe maybe not the the right answer hmm  for whatever reason i i think you can build up to a human flag with somewhat shoddy technique  and iron out your technique over time like you can like your arms are completely straight all  this stuff but for um for whatever reason i think it's like a scapular strength um and the straight  arm strength that you have for the planche um is so important that you aren't really gonna get it  until you really take it seriously um and that was the thing is like i you know i really didn't like  locking out my arms that that seemed unnatural to me at first just because i didn't do that  while i'm pressing it felt like it felt like it was in danger of snapping and not because  of how it felt but it's just like you know like even when i was doing push-ups or pull-ups it's  like well you want to maintain i learned it as you want to maintain tension on your muscles right and  and not go to full lockout and then but every plant tutorial was like go to lockout i'm like  you know i'm not gonna do that and i was like turns out yeah i had i had the freedom to not  do that but i also had the freedom to not get better at it uh so uh that is  something that i've been exploring recently it's fun it's fun what a you know i thinkthis wasi think it really has to do with like what you were inspired by and how you wanted to  get into calisthenics because as you know there are very strong individuals in the world who are  not interested in doing a planche you know or and can't do one right i don't know it's like maybe  eddie hall could but not a planche i'd be very i'd be very impressed you know at like like i  think he's like what 400 pounds 45 that might be a world record uh but he but he has world records so  there's that um for me i always just thought the point of training  was to improve my overall life you know my my quality of living in general and  while like planche and lever stuff and even human flag stuff i thought that was cool  i thought that was nice but it's really more for the sake of doing it in my opinion even  nowadays i think it's really you learn it for the sake of doing a planche you know a sake of  doing a lever um and there is transfer to other calisthenic skills it does make you stronger it  does increase your core strength it is strength um but i think that's why i wasn't as drawn to them  uh and also i'm just not as advanced in them i like anyone listening to this i don't want  uh you to feel like i'm making excuses for it but this is like what's why i haven't really  started exploring it until this year it's just i i felt like there was other stuff that wasum not that was more interesting to me but once again in this year one of the things that i really  started to work with with experimentation and just kind of like not being as dogmatic about it  and this is something that you just have to be dogmatic about and then be like okay you have to  choose like well i don't want to do this anymore it's kind of how it is um because you know like  let's say you built your entire life on like bench press squat deadlift you know and things like that  and then someone's like well can you do a deep squat and then he's like no and he's like but  they're like well i i don't want to do it though it's not it's not important but then at some point  you're just like why not you know like why don't i do that you know like fitness is part of my life  it's not going to hurt me it's not going to hurt me it's not going to make me weaker to learn that  you know i'm not like by the way it's like if you're lifting heavy i'm not saying lift  the same amount in a deep squat you know you can lift a little bit start with your body weight you  know even if you're very very strong and then build up with um some lighter weight and then  heavier weight and you know this is one of those things where i'm like well why don't i try that  and there's kind of fear i think and this is something that i've learned recently and doesn't  really go against um scientific study even though it's one of those things that people think will  where i change up my training every couple of months or so like i at least change up how i do  the exercise like if i'm doing isometrics i might try a different angle i might try a different  grip position um but but it's but like i allow my curiosity to to expand um and to kind of run wild  as it naturally wants to um in the past i told myself not to do that you know when i did push-ups  i was like well i'm kind of interested in in seeing what i could bench i'm kind of interested  in seeing a shoulder press all right and i like a lot of these things i've mentioned i haven't even  really gotten into yet and like well i can't because i'm really working towards like this  this version of like a harder one-arm push-up or something and i want to spend all my time doing  that i don't want to be the guy who's like chasing different things and doesn't reach all of them  well turns out that thing you're chasing is going to take five six seven years of dedicated training  and also here's the kicker here's the kicker that you know like i feel like we need to research moreas you as everyone listening to this knows as you train more and more in any kind of  movement or exercise or even discipline you know results in your gains they come very fast at first  and they slow down and eventually it's almost like it's a crawl and then you have to do something to  break that plateau you know some people they change their eating if they do something else  sometimes they scale back these are all different things that involve changing your current routine  and what i found is that when you do change your routine and you allow your  curiosity to do different you do like let's say you're doing um you're doing weighted push-ups  and you're like well i want to explore weighted dips okay and then you do that  and then you come back you know a month or two later and turns out you know it refreshes  you wouldn't think that you know your progress you know it starts it gets kick-started again you're  like oh i'm actually better at this now than i was before oh i'm making faster progress again um and  people are very quick to write it off you know and i was very quick to write it off you know because  you know one of the things they'll they'll cite is like well that's muscle confusion theory  and that's been largely debunked as far as as far as i can tell yes muscle confusion theory has been  largely debunked in the sense that we're confusing our muscles to make them grow for hypertrophy but  for overall strength and for making ourselves strong overall stronger which you know you can't  really deny that you know like downwards pressing force all pressing upwards pressing different  kinds of strength different things that we can we can get stronger in um are useful um it does seem  to um balance off each other like if you're doing a lot of horizontal pressing you're like well i  want to try you know overhead pressing for a little while and you do that and you come back  and it's so good you're actually stronger here and you've actually renewed your progress here why  that is is still being researched like i some some people say no it's not but i think it is because  like you look at joint angle specificity a very very simple part of changing a routine where um  you're let's say uh because one of the arguments against um muscle confusion  theory a very good argument in my opinion is that uh muscle fibers follow the all or none law  uh they either fire or they don't you can't fire a muscle fiber part ways it's either on or it's off  um and it doesn't it doesn't really know like if it's if you're going up if you're going down or if  you're if you're pushing um a dumbbell or barbell or pushing on body weight muscles or muscles you  know they're not neurons but um one of while that is true one of the things that researchers  were confused about it's like well if that's the case why does joint angle specificity seem  to apply somewhat to isometrics let's let's say a an isometric bicep curl that someone's doing um  you know if if they train that for a few months you know with overcoming isometrics pulling on  something they can they can't move just just above well they can move but they can't move um they get  very stronger at a 90 degree angle stronger than they were before in the other angles and you know  there is transfer to other angles it's not just that one degree but it seems to apply strongest  at that one angle so it's joining with specificity and you know you look at some of these research  papers and he studies and like one of them said researchers are not sure why this occurs but  they suspect or like they they found something like this this leads us to believe that the  reasoning for this the reason behind this is neurological there's some reason because  the same muscle you know similar muscle fibers are being recruited so why is it stronger at an angle  why is stronger at that one angle you know and that's something that i think more research will  emerge upon as people continue to explore this or as people are more open to ex to  trying different parts of their training or trying different things in the trainingoh again so much input really reallyreally interesting um you talked about straight arm and like bent arm which is something that i  also remember in the early days in the gym like they always told you not to stretch your arms  completely not to stretch the legs completely like why is that where does that come from and does it  still is it still like something common and uh spread today um you're you're asking why i think  that's uh like some people are saying don't lock out et cetera like why did did they tell us this  like years ago and uh like do you think today it's still like the same thing that i like because of  bodybuilding yeah it depends like yeah um to some extent i think um but you look at things like what  the knees over toes guy is doing and i think it's getting people to uh revisit ideas they thought  were already established um because like these are not like internet profess professors uh these are  like trained industry professionals or sometimes telling you don't lock out people who do this  literally for a living sometimes famously for a living you know i don't want to name any names but  you know they're out there and they're like yeah don't lock out don't do this so it leads to a lot  of confusion and then you look at the reasoning for it sometimes now on some exercises you might  you might not want to lock out i'm not saying definitely do that but i mean you know sometimes  locking out for some exercises it turns out it's fine um you look at the reasoning for it and  it's like well it puts pressure on your tendons and that's one of the um it's one of the myths  of the fitness industry which i'm very comfortable saying just because it's gotten to the point where  you know even though industry professionals are still saying it you can do a google search and  you can get some studies you can get some some good backing on like why it's no longer the case  but knees over toes um you know even as i was learning calisthenics back in like this was  before i started doing progressive calisthenics when i had some information on it i remember  watching a youtube video and there was this very buff looking guy who looked very credible saying  yeah when you squat you don't want to have your knees go over your toes okay and then i was like  huh you know i was like oh puts pressure on your knee and it's like okay that makes sense well it  turns out you know progressive pressure on your knee actually strengthens it you know and then  when you think of that it's like well what and then again once again this this is nice because  we're towards the end of the podcast it's time back to what i was talking about at the beginning  it's like well why can't we do that why not and and it's like if it can strengthen uh your tendons  why don't we do it and it's like saying the same with like putting pressure on your bones like  well but strings your bones why don't we do it it's one of those things to where it's just like  this is how growth happens to where people already know this stuff if you really press on it and they  just have to like put it in their mind and start thinking about it like oh so there's  really no reason why we can't do this uh why don't we start exploring a little bit more um so i think  that was the reasoning kind of was like that they were worried that it would lead to injury or um  you know like ten like torn ligaments and stuff which is very very real if you didn't build up  to that if you didn't build up to that with that technique right like no one's do to my knowledge  no one's doing a jefferson curl at the same way they do their deadlift you know and they're like  but when you're dead lifts like well you never round your back you know that's something around  the back but you know you never excessively round your your lower back that's that's horrible you  know but turns out that's the goal during a jefferson curl you know it turns out you know  like being more mobile in that range actually um uh reduces the chance of industry of of an  injury you know and strengthens you in that range imagine that you being stronger in a movement  that you practice you know again this is one of those things where people are very resistant to  you at first you know but you talk to them and if they're open-minded enough they're like huh  that actually makes sense i don't and then they're like but why does no one else do this  and it's like well no one's really you know it's one of those things that's there it's there but  people aren't really talking about it yet um another perfect example i can talk about this the  people will resonate with is doing a back lever using and um you know often taught with hang onyeah uh often taught sometimes with uh and um man i i i i i can show it right now but it's like  when you're upside down like there's that grip to where you you are um okay yeah often taught  with an overhand grip right so when you're so when you're upside down you know it's your your palms  are facing up often taught like that and one of the arguments was like well you know i remember  seeing this comment it was on this guy's youtube channel and the guy was teaching with overhand  and there was a comment underneath he's like yeah i'm in gymnastics and you shouldn't do it with  overhand you deal with underhand uh so you can put more pressure on your biceps attendant okay  and and then i remember the the commenter the the the youtube um uh guy who was a trained industry  professional both in calisthenics and also i think he was like a certified strength and conditioning  coach you know he had credentials um he said well okay i don't know by putting more pressure on my  biceps tendon would be a good thing but i'll try it out you know and you know and i don't know like  like what his journey was but nowadays i see him 10 years later and he's teaching it  you know with that with that grip so it turns out yes you can strengthen that but you know both  what's considered um common knowledge that was actually a myth stuff like the knees over toe  stuff and just anecdotal stuff uh of people like well i i went to lock out and i tore a  biceps tendon or i i tore you know i tore my knee um is why people have that fear of it  um and they don't want to do it um but again they didn't build up to that progressively they build  up in a certain technique and then they suddenly change their technique so imagine like you build  up the 400 pounds in deadlift it's like well now i'm going to rub my back it's like ah  hampton you're going around my back you know i was like well i didn't do it 400 pounds okay so it's  uh again that's why that's why it's one of those things where it um there was a myth and then some  people are trying to try to like well there's no reason the myth should exist and then they  they pass on that knowledge without that warning of like build up progressively and that's why  led to injury and that's why some people are like well it doesn't work so that's my thought on why  really good example also with the back lever that's like such a myth and like just such such a  a topic that a lot of people talk about with uh tiered uh tor biceps tendon etcetera is such a  big fear in the killer's next scene so um yeah super super interesting uh yeah we are slowly  coming to an end of the the interview um i still have the question also out of personal interest  uh like what are what are the the three habits like your three habits that you would recommend  to more people doing out there even if you don't know too much about the audience um  and who's listening and even i don't know it um but like what are three habits that you find  yours valuable really for yourself and in your own life doesn't have to be workout related only  okay um so i'm gonna try and give you some um offbeat ones because you know i feel like most  people have already heard you know stay consistent you know like it's gonna sleep before 9 p.m  i'm going to try to give you some ones that you haven't heard before but are also working  really well for me uh one a lot of workout people you know drink coffee or some kind of stimulant  right not even just workout people it's people in general drink coffee if you do if you rely on some  kind of stimulant to keep you going whether it's coffee or tea or meth i don't know it was like i  don't know you know don't i don't think you should do that but you know if you do i can't stop you  um i i recommend cycling like one of the things that really worked well for me or really like  impacted my life to the point where this is why people know me and one of the reasons why we're  doing this is cycling my coffee um i don't drink it every day i drink it every other day now you  can drink it less if you want but i think it's important to have something on you know to where  you can feel the effects of it um and if you don't want if you don't drink coffee i'm not saying to  start i'm saying if you do um but also having some time to not to to kind of break your addiction and  not get used to it because as most people who have drink before now first time you have you're like  oh this is great i have so much energy i'm going to clean the house you know i'm not done stuff and  then you know a couple days in they're drinking more and more it's like well now i need two cups  to feel normal now i need three cups to feel normal you know when i started getting to that  point where i like i don't need a cup of coffee to wake up and feel normal i'm like well what's the  point of this when i felt perfectly normal without drinking coffee right you then now we're you know  now we're we're now we're in the red no now we're in debt you know this is like i need coffee just  to get to the normal point and even more to feel special so why don't you scale it back to where  i you know it's just the point where coffee is always special for me and the point of that the  for me it's every other day if that happens every other day i i that works well i still feel the  creativity which is interesting like in my podcast with bioneer he's like that's interesting because  you would think you know the adrenaline you get from that would reduce creativity i'm like you  know what that makes sense but i don't know why it's like i feel more creative and i feel  more motivated uh after i drink light coffee maybe because i sip so lightly to where i don't  it's not to the point where i i feel the the adrenaline rush i don't know but i feel like  but i'm not exhausted i don't know i don't know i'll i'll i'll get back to people when i find out  why that is um but yeah i like that you know so if you drink coffee cycle it number twoyou know introduce change to your life and introduce i'll put this way have a steady stream  of information going to your life because that's how we make changes whether it's books listening  to youtube videos i know a lot of you a lot of you right now are not even watching this  you know phil's putting all this in i'm sure he's making a controlled effort to make it  look nice and we're not even watching it you know we're just listening to it so you know but i mean  no judgment i do that too that's how a lot of us listen to stuff so we listen to videos  we listen to podcasts so books podcasts youtube videos speakers changing up who you hang around  um this is how we get positive change in our lives you know like i would never have started pursuing  calisthenics or you know like doing stuff i do now you know if i didn't read you know or if i  didn't you know and i i don't read as much as i like nowadays but you know i you know i still i  listen to different people speak even if you don't think they're you don't have to like  worship them you don't have to think they're your idol you know just get that new perspective and it  helps change our mind on things it's like hey you know this guy's talking about his gardening and  he did he did like changes in his gardening and it changed his life why don't i change you know  my photography routine you know i don't know why making people sound stupid it's it's a smart thing  um you know when you do that i think that's how we get changed in our life  that's how we get new ideas it's harder to get new ideas as trying to think of new ideas  um when we have new stuff it inspires us you know and by all means um keep it in something that's  that's positive it keeps you motivated and keeps you going right because  there's plenty of other things in the world that can bring us down um that we want to voluntarily  if we can choose it uh pick hang around people uh that bring us up that bring us up and third is you  know it kind of goes hand in hand to this but be comfortable with introducing change to your life  um i know there's probably a lot of listeners to this who are um who are probably more advanced  than i am and just athletics in general and that's fine but you know a lot of them are also younger  younger and and i've talked i spent a lot of time talking with members in our community um of all  athletic levels and one of the things that i've said that i've noticed really seems to help them  is to be comfortable making change in your life but the way you go about that as you grow  you know if you're in your teens 20s or some people are going through this in their 50s  there's not really an age thing but as you want to improve as a person you really have to figure out  like the balance between pushing yourself out of your comfort zone slightly  um and knowing what you were right on knowing what you know like when you're learning a new skill and  you're like well everyone's teaching it this way and some and sometimes you're like okay turns out  i was wrong you know i like again straight arm strength perfect example it's like that's one  of the things that i was resistant to it's like oh turns out you know after i do it right you  know it's like okay this helped a lot you're like that's the change so some of the things  that you were wrong in but where your talent and your genius and what you can do to help the world  uh reside in is some of the stuff that you think is right and everyone else is telling you it's  wrong okay it turns out after you master it and after you're into it you're like no no  turns out actually they were wrong and i was right and i i don't mean that with any kind of ego right  i don't mean that with any kind of ego i mean like this is how um we improve as a society right it's  like one of the things we're like we're very at the very like through your entire life you're like  that that just doesn't seem that just doesn't seem right and turns out you know it wasn't right um  i think a fitness example of this man there are so many uh but because i use  the phoenix example like for straight arm strength another one might be  spending more time on the basics right i i think is like one no no let this one here's here's  something um spending more time on the basics for sure but i wanted something that i had personal  experience in one of the things that you know it felt natural to me like if i've been spending a  lot of time trying to work on push-ups trying to spend my time working on this to like well i  want to take a break i'm going to try you know i i see someone doing this thing i i want to try that  and you know you don't want to be so scattered brained that you never make any progress anywhere  um but if you put in like two or three months of hard progress and you're making your progress  slowing down and you want to explore something else you know i was always taught not to do that  but it turns out when you do that and you come back you're like oh  okay it actually helped that's one of the things i felt very natural nice um yeah we're as i said  coming to an end of the interview always at the end of every interview we have some quick  questions quick answers and the first question is what's your favorite food uh depends on the day um  i i like i like beef i like beef um stew pasta you know if i had to give one i would say pasta  not for health just for preference nice uh are you a dog or a cat person dog person i i have  both but i prefer dogs cool and what's the animal that's hanging behind you is it is it a fox like  uh at the wall i i believe that's a let's see if i move my head out of the frame yeah uh i think that  is a wolf yeah it came with the people who sold us the house um i thought it was nicenow i saw that it's wolf so um yeah cool uh what's your favorite exercise if you have to choose only  one walking yeah yeah walking is what really uh walking after a full night's rest is how i really  align myself and plan out my day and i think of so many good ideas from that um and like strength  and exercise for me that's relatively simple you can there's so many exercises you can choose from  the walking is what aligns all of it it's the central nervous system uh compared to muscles  and stuff wow do you track your steps uh each day like no no okay i don't yeah because i i actually  tried not to have my phone sometimes i try to spend some time not being with an electronic  device on me at some point just because i i i feel but even if there's no like physiological reason  for it i feel better mentally i understand and you don't count it in your hands like one step choose  no i'm joking sometimes you know i'm so used to counting that i like i find myself counting the  steps and i'm like 593 i'm like oh i don't why am i doing this i'm not writing it down so yeah  so sometimes i do but not not regularly okay good for you um yeah what athletes inspire youoh i mean i mean this is hard to say because a lot of calisthenics athletes  um i know their faces not necessarily their names and i don't want to mispronounce them  it's a you know to be honest it's a lot of the non-american ones you know it's like  i i love american athletes but there's so many out there you know from like russia um  yugoslavia different places that are just so strong if i had to choose onei don't know i don't know like again i'm not really inspired by athletes  in that sense uh not because i'm not inspired by them but i'm not inspired by a particular one  so anyone who's really making an efforts change it's really the ones who make a big change to  where they might not have had the greatest natural ability and then they came back and  they broke out in a big way those inspire me oh cool um pull or push if you would have to decidebetter at pushing like most people are but i prefer pulling  okay uh yeah do you have a favorite book overall uh i wouldn't say that i've learned i i wouldn't  say i have a favorite book but i will say uh just to give an off maybe a little bit more  of an offbeat answer that i've recently learned a lot from the bible i think even if you're not  um of a particular religion uh it can be worthwhile to explore religious texts  and at least know how people are thinking and if you're looking at through the lens of trying  to learn uh you can agree and disagree but there are some lessons in there for all of us to learn  cool i also saw that this was the first youtube video on your channel even though at least the  one being active like calisthenics no fitness versus uh christianity is it is it right yeah  i think as a second one the first one was the thumbnail doesn't even have me on it so that  i can i can understand how people missed it uh it was about like like very gentle  exercises like i went through like like uh waffle shops knee tucks um assisted squats  things like that but it's one of the first videos that i put out and that back then i only had um  like 15 minutes a day to make a video so had to be single take it had to be like one or two clips so  that's what was on my mind at that time wow nice um yeah what's your favorite favorite music genre  oh man that's hard to say if you if you had asked me uh even 10 years ago i would have been like  rock and roll uh but but then eventually like explore r b i like r b soul blues  uh i really like all genres almost all genres you know almost all genres  there are some that are might be not quite for me um but i spent a lot of time listening to soul um  i like r b blues still like some rock and roll um but i used to like 80s rock a lot more than  i do now i still like it nowadays um but yeah like i really got more into the sole aspect of things  well yeah and the last uh question what's your message to the calisthenics community and what's  your message to the listeners in general let's all get better together that's the thing it's like  like i feel like um we we are already a niche community calisthenics has made major strides  in the past decade or so and and in the sense of like we're spreading into the world and we're not  we're still considered alternative but you know like being able to uh get to a spot where people  understand this tremendous thing that again something they know but don't really really  know is that we all of us have the ability to get healthy fit and strong with just our  body and gravity and maybe a pull-up bar you know something to hang from you know it's like  again it's like debatable that there's like different things you can work around there  but our body and gravity mostly we can get so fit and strong from that yes i mean like you  spend money on gym membership you know spend money on a home gym buy barbells because all this stuff  but it's like don't forget that we have this ability you know we have we to get strong with  just our body and everything that's already around us and we have the time we have for that you know  and just like being able to spread that knowledge as a community and share it sure we spend a lot of  time arguing you know there's a you know like any kind of fitness community there's arguing  but just being able to spread that to the world i think i really look forward to that i hope it  gets to the point where people understand that that's a big part of my goal in life right now  and building the hybrid counseling routine which will be free um is showing people how they can  get fitness strong with their body and yeah explore you know power lifting yeah explore you  know olympic weightlifting if you want but just keep in mind you you can already get very fit  and strong using just your body and gravity sure great thanks for taking the time uh for the people  who want to get in touch with you where can they reach you best where do they find you uh well um iam known as hybrid calisthenics everywhere on the internet uh you can you can find me  on whatever social platform that you like youtube it's probably the most prominent one  i spent a lot of time on instagram it's been a long time spent some time on tiktok um facebook  um the platform not now called met up i spend you know i spend time on facebook um just  anywhere that short videos short form videos are welcomed and distributed and videos in general  i'm usually on including podcast stuff most notably on youtube um but you know  i say this to everyone it may not apply to as much to your following because they are  um they're probably already involved in fitness um but you know it's a dangerous thing for content  creators say that they have enough subscribers at the time but i feel like i i'm okay i i don't  need to ask people to follow me um i think do that if you think you can benefit but if  it's a choice between that and if you learn anything during this podcast and making it  a choice to improve yourself or help others improve then please go do that instead wow that's  super super nice we will put all the links in the description so um yeah we don't say you have to to  check out hampton but if you want to you can do that if that inspires you to and gives you even  more um knowledge how you can continue helping other people that's uh that's super cool um  yeah basically that's it thanks again uh like we're so much bill we're coming to an end before  and before you can end the episode hampton uh i want to say thank you to everyone listening  to this till the end uh one hour 30 super nice interview a lot of input a lot a lot of you useful  advice and insights into your life into your into your head i'm super grateful for that and yeah if  you enjoyed the episode you the dear listener you can give it a thumbs up that helps a lot  to to spread the the knowledge and yeah hampton thanks again to you you can end the episode and  have a have a great day thank you so much phil i hope everyone um has a great day listening to this.