SIMON "SIMONSTER" ATA | Advice on Workout & Injuries | Interview | The Athlete Insider Podcast #36

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i've always had a lot of drive with this sort  of thing it's always been something that i've   very much enjoyed so i've put in a lot of hard  work but it has never felt like or generally   it hasn't felt like hard work it's just been a  hobby it's been something that i've wanted to do   and starting that quite young it became a  habit and it's just something that i did   consistently for a long period of time and  i think that's really the key to success yo gorillas welcome to the athlete insider podcast by gornation my name is phil   and today's guest is somebody who is well known  in the calisthenics scene somebody who inspires   hundreds of thousands even millions on  the internet with his superhuman power   with his superhuman skills i'm really happy to  welcome you from australia simon atta thanks   yes we finally made it we made the interview  possible that so many people were requesting   i'm really happy to welcome you to the show and  to kick off simon how do you present yourself   um i'm simon also known as simonster i'm a  physiotherapist and a calisthenics professional so   i've been doing calisthenics or some form of body  weight training for about 20 years i have a bit   of a diverse background and now mostly what i do  is teach calisthenics and and coach calisthenics   great and you're one of the the well-known  people who made it uh who made it to uh to make   calisthenics uh their their profession and uh who  is able to to live uh the sport let's say it and   i'm really looking forward to get to know you  better your life your training advice etc and   yeah um tell us more about your story  you're combining gymnastics you're   combining breakdance you have a as you said an  interesting background tell us more about it   yeah so i started um when i was quite young my  parents got me into gymnastics i never did that   for a very long time i did that for probably  about a year when i was about 10 years old   and a friend of mine who i went to school with  who also did gymnastics was taking break dancing   classes and he said you should come and try  break dancing and i thought what's that dancing   and he was like just come it's it's really  cool it's like spinning on your head and   all that all that kind of stuff so i went  along i really enjoyed it and thereafter i   stopped gymnastics and switched just to break  dancing but in gymnastics there's always a   strength and conditioning component um or  generally strength and conditioning is a big   component of gymnasts training so while i was  training gymnastics we trained some technique   and then at some point in the class there'd  usually be about 30 minutes or an hour of   body weight strength and conditioning  or what what we now call calisthenics   and as i was as i was trying to to learn some  power moves things like flares and air flares and   combine different moves i always thought if i was  a little bit stronger i could probably do this if   i if i just had the strength i could probably get  away with some technical areas and it would help   me you know learn the move and perfect the move so  i started taking some of the bodyweight strength   training or the capel aesthetics that i've learned  in gymnastics and applying that to my breakdancing   so it's always been a staple form of a form of  training that i've kept along the way um and   then with breakdancing there's a lot of freedom  i always liked the the spectacular moves and the   things that looked impossible so the flips the  tricks the hard balance moves so that's where the   the flipping comes in and the power moves and  combining a few different aspects okay and uh   definitely makes sense when i uh scroll to you on  your youtube channel to the bottom uh it's like   nine years ago uh you already makes made some i'm  not into breakdance but some air flares i think   that's called and like spinning really really fast  and on your hands um and like you said 20 years of   experience uh 20 years of sports now yes i'm  30 now and um started with gymnastics when   i was about 10 and switched to breakdancing at  about 11. so wow okay so i bet you can teach and   share some stuff from your experience to the  young generation because i bet there are quite a   few listeners who are like in calisthenics for two  years for one year even and somebody with 20 years   is i think you can share a lot about injury  prevention and stuff like that later on um   like what are the benefits yeah like  you you start with breakdowns you also   took a few things with from gymnastics  i guess uh what are the benefits that uh   these sports brought to your calisthenics career  let's call it yes um so i'm a bit unique when you   look at me with compared with other calisthenics  athletes um i think because i have such a diverse   background and what's what that's given me is the  freedom to express myself a little bit more um   diversely with my with my performances so you  know it's not just statics it's it's not just   dynamics it's not just hand balancing it's not  just flips it's kind of meshing these all together   and i really like that because it allows a lot of   artistic expression in calisthenics you can  join air flares into planche into hollow   backs into hand hops into whatever kind of  move you want so that's that's what i've um   that's what i really enjoy about  having the diverse background that i do   makes sense and did you ever think about competing  in a profe in a professional uh like competition   so i used to compete with break dancing but  once i started focusing more and more with kel   on calisthenics i never really com competing  was never really something that i i wanted to do   i've always been very interested in anatomy  and the the kind of academic and sports science   side of training and i really enjoy teaching  so that's kind of where my focus has been   as i've as i've switched over to doing  more calisthenics as i've gotten older   makes sense people always ask this how uh heavy  and how tall are you it's i'm 179 centimeters   wow for people in the usa that's about five  ten and a half um between five ten and five   eleven um and i'm about 77 kilos i think some  i tend to be between about 76 and 80 kilos   wow okay i didn't expect that i i thought you were  smaller because uh like the performance that you   do we all know that uh let's say five centimeters  less would make it a lot easier for you   and um it's a benefit that a lot of calisthenics  athletes have like from the pros that they are a   little smaller um but yeah that that makes it even  more impressive that's uh that's good thanks yeah   i hope that um that motivates some people because  i found a lot of taller athletes especially um   a lot of younger less experienced athletes when  they're starting calisthenics um often here i'm   tall am i ever going to be able to do this and  there are some people taller than me who can do   you know amazing whole planche a lot longer than  i can hold front lever a lot longer than i can and   it is a benefit to be smaller but you  can't change your height all you can do is   is train and increase um what you know increase  your strength with the body that you're given   so if you are for the taller athletes out there  try not to be discouraged you can achieve a   great deal of um proficiency with calisthenics  and i think it's even more impressive seeing   somebody who's six foot holding the front lever  compared with somebody who's you know five five so   yeah um i know that like we often receive messages  or please interview a tall athlete and these are   often people who are like above two meters um so i  don't know the the the the american size but like   really really the tall people um and they often  laugh about uh when i say oh that's quite tall and   like i'm also 178 centimeters so nearly as tall  as you and they laugh about our size um because   they are like two meters and 20 centimeters  higher do you think it is it's possible to um   get to your performances with the with this height  i think if you're you know if you're two meters   tall or you're six foot seven or you're you know  you're the average height of somebody in the nba   i think it's very unlikely that you'll be  able to excel and be um you know one of   the best calisthenics athletes but i still  think you can achieve a lot more than what   than what people would expect from you um  you see a lot of people who are well above   six foot holding a front lever um there are  a few guys above six foot holding a planche   i think if you if you train and you you obviously  have to make a few more sacrifices and somebody's   a little bit younger it will be more  difficult for you to achieve that   than if you had been you know five five but  i think um a great deal can still be achieved   with that it's very difficult to answer that  because there's so much variation between people   somebody's genetic ability um you know at six  foot might be might be more than somebody else   who is five eight or you know five seven um so  it's yeah it's very difficult to say you know   will i ever be able to achieve this the answer  is i don't know um but why not give it a try sure   and that's where the mindset i think pops in that  um it's not my goal shouldn't be i want to be the   next simon sir um but my goal should be the best  version of myself you know and um exactly yeah but   uh it's it's good that you say that um when i look  from the outside of you out on you as an athlete   and i follow i personally follow your videos since  um uh what the first video that you did in this   boxing ring i think um i i think it's like six  years old or five years old something like that   um i always ask my dad myself how is it possible  to come to that kind of performance and um   that's the question that i wanted to ask you  what do you think is your secret your formula   to success how did you get the the athlete that  you are today is it genetics is it that you work   harder than everybody else is it your scientific  approach is it your background knowledge from   physiotherapy what what is it that makes  you uh succeed i honestly think it's a   large combination of all those things and a lot  of that has to do with luck as well um you know so   starting off with with as we spoke  about earlier with the background that i   have it's quite a unique background and i think  that gives me a lot of edge in the performances   that i do and makes my type of performance  quite unique um but then along the way   i've i i've always had a lot of drive with this  sort of thing it's always been something that i've   very much enjoyed so i've put in a lot of hard  work but it has never felt like or generally   it hasn't felt like hard work it's just been a  hobby it's been something that i've wanted to do   and starting that quite young it became a habit  and it's just something that i did consistently   for a long period of time and i think that's the  key to um i think that's really the key to success   when you look at athletes who've achieved a great  deal it's just consistent hard work over a really   long period um with that i've i've had a lot  of luck on my side with good training partners   good teachers being able to travel good work life  balance that have helped helped with that as well   yeah it's true because there are so many variants  um for example somebody who works in night shifts   somebody uh like who has a lot of pressure on  his body and not good work by life balance all   these things influence the the performance  right yeah and even even small things that i   that i was very lucky to to have um for example  i went to university very close to where i live   my commute time was was quite short so that that  gave me a lot of time for training so others had   to commute you know 90 minutes each way i had  a 10 minute bike ride to to um my university so   that that's um you know it can seem like a  a little very small thing but that amount of   time really adds up when you when you look  at that over the course of four or so years   that's true and it brings responsibility to  you as a person that you use this time right   these 50 minutes that you spare every day  that other people are sitting in the tram or   whatever that you invest this time in training  stretching preparing food whatever yeah one   one thing i'll say for um for the younger athletes  out there or the um less experienced athletes   is often when you look at really high  level people and you look at their training   schedules it can seem crazy so when you look at  these people who can do amazing things and they're   training for four hours a day if you're if you're  just starting and you're quite young and it's your   first year of calisthenics it's very unlikely that  you're going to be able to go from doing nothing   to doing four hours a day and these habits take  time to to build in the same way that strength   and technique takes time to build so all these  guys who are doing crazy things and training for   hours and hours on end probably didn't  start that way so it is okay to start small   build a habit find a style of training that  you enjoy and a habit that is sustainable   and build from there yeah because the interview  before you um is uh an interview with uh sergio   di pascuale from italy and he is an endurance  athlete and he like does crazy numbers in his   workouts like uh 2000 dips 2000 squats like  this this stuff you know and if i see this as   a beginner and i want to progress fast i might  have have the temptation to do the same reps   numbers but i just take a little longer a lot  longer let's say um but it's not good for the   joints etc so um i think the healthy way is  definitely what you said to build a habit yeah   and even even if um there's two downsides to that  one is that you might just get an overuse injury   your body hasn't acclimated to this style of  training you do too much too soon it can't   recover from it and you get an injury and then you  need to take you know three months off when you   could have just slowed down a little bit that's  one downside the other downside um that is less   i feel like people don't talk about as much is  just that you probably won't enjoy it if you   go from if you go from doing nothing to trying  2 000 dips a day you're probably not going to   have a lot of fun with that and you'll probably  just think why am i doing this calisthenics sucks   and there goes your um you know there goes your  drive and you might just stop there whereas if   you started with you know three sets of ten uh  you know a few times a week and built from there   you might really enjoy this style of  training build a habit and you might be   able to progress to the point where you  can do two thousand dips in a day true   how many hours do you put into training  currently per week yeah it's it's um   it's not very consistent it very much depends on  what my schedule is like and if i'm traveling or   if i'm teaching but generally i try to do  a couple of hours most days of the week so   maybe one to two hours four to five times a week  okay and how do you put so many disciplines so   many yeah let's call it skills in one schedule  in one week let's call it yeah so so i i don't   actually train um every skill in my skill set  every week so a lot of the skills that i've   learned um and i've mastered them to a level  that i'm happy with um i usually just put them   in the maintenance bin and i might come back  to them once every you know month or so just   to make sure that they're still crisp and i can  still do them well if they're getting sloppy i   might give them a little bit more attention but  things like air flares or head spins for me now   i could not do an airflow for six months and  still still be able to do them quite well um   so generally what i do is periodize  my training and what that means is is   generally manipulating what you do so you can  pick for different things at different times so   i might do blocks where i train a little bit  more with breakdancing blocks where i train a   little bit more with statics blocks where i train  a little bit more with dynamics depending on what   i'm trying to achieve at at that particular time  but as a general rule i train skills before i   train strength so things like hand balancing flips  power moves or breakdancing moves they come first   after that i'll train my my strength exercises  generally for about an hour and then i might   finish off with some mobility work okay and do  you also train uh um reps on a consistent like   the basics pull-ups uh dips etc yeah so so when i  say strength um i i mean um all forms of strength   static dynamics so that will include things  like static planche holds static lever holds   dynamic things like lever raises and you know  planche negatives planche raises planche push-ups   and then i do a lot of the basics so things like  dips uh weighted chin-ups weighted pull-ups um   those sorts of exercises okay and are you stronger  and pull or and push generally definitely in push   um so yeah with with the my background i've done  basically exclusively pushing exercises most of my   life um starting with breakdancing i was always  doing handstand push-ups planche those sorts   of exercises to help with breakdancing  um there's no pulling in brake dancing   you can't pull on the floor so um i exclusively  worked on pushing exercises probably up   until about three years ago when i started  integrating more more pulling exercises okay   interesting and um if i want to take a shortcut  as a beginner or a as an intermediate or even   as an advanced athlete you also offer your  training programs and uh like uh you you   offer the shortcut you offer knowledge etc to  people like me um can you tell us more about it   yes i have a few training programs and i'm always  trying to develop more probably the the best known   one is uh project calisthenics which is a general  program that i've developed that has three levels   beginner intermediate and advanced so beginner  is for those of you who've done no training   whatsoever who are working towards your first  rep of dips or chin ups or can only do a few reps   intermediate is to build capacity with those  things so if you could do 10 chin ups 10 dips   and you just want to improve your capacity and get  an introduction into things like planche and lever   and advanced is for the more advanced athletes  who can hold a tuck flange hold a tuck lever or   even hold a full planche or full lever and want to  start improving their capacity and working towards   more advanced skills like lever raises planche  push-ups one arm chin-ups and those those sorts of   skills so these are general programs that include  pushing pulling as well as leg exercises i know   legs isn't a big component of calisthenics but  i've included it just to make it a comprehensive   program and then alongside the general  strengthening program which is there to   build strength and build a foundation in  a balanced manner there are tutorials for   skills like the handstand handstand push-up plant  lever where i give a technical breakdown of that   particular skill which muscles are working  what technical cues do you need to think about   and what are the progressions to to get there so  the reason i put this together is these kind of   tutorials for these skills you can find them all  over the place but it's very hard to find high   quality tutorials for all of these things  all in the same place that are curated   so i've tried to do that to take the guesswork  out of training where you can just say hey   what position should my hands be in the  planche okay click on the pledge tutorial   yeah and it makes such a big difference in the  head even uh just having a plan to follow and like   a program and really numbers and professional  advice then just as you said guessing or like   searching it together from youtube videos it's  definitely a good start to do that like this   but if you really want to go deep in and want  to take it serious uh it's it's uh definitely   something that people can profit from  like 20 years as you said uh yeah and um   like we also prepared a little bonus for everybody  who already sticked until here for the podcast   so everybody every all the listeners are getting  10 off with the code coronation 10 on your website   uh on the in the shop so everybody can check  the the bio the the description with the link   with the code etc and yeah profit from  10 off with the chord coordination 10.   great so if you see like you're in touch with  a lot of athletes i guess with your uh with you   your role as a coach as an athlete as an  influencer also uh what are the main three   things that people if uh if they improved these  three things in their workout they would get much   better results what are the main problems that you  see i think the main the main thing is consistency   i think that's by far the most important thing  training with consistency over a long period of   time that's what you need to get  to get good results you know that   that famous saying rome wasn't built in a day  neither was planche or front lever so um yeah   understand that these skills take a lot of  time progress won't won't happen every day   especially the the more advanced you  get progress tends to slow down um   but you need to stick at it over a really  long period of time another thing that i   um that i often see which kind of relates to the  same point is people chopping and changing their   routines too frequently and this is especially  true for beginners where there are so many skills   to learn i want to learn one arm chin up planche  front lever back lever handstand handstand push   up one arm handstand human flag how do i do all of  this at once and the truth is you can't really do   all of this at once um if you try to include  exercises for each of those skills in your   program you do flag on monday you do bench press  on wednesday you squat on a friday and do chin ups   you're not getting repeated exposure to the same  exercises which is very important to progressively   overload and to make progress with them you need  repeated exposure to the same stimulus to optimize   results so what i encourage people to do is  pick a program focus on a few skills at this   at a time stick at that for a period of time  you know at least six to eight weeks so that   you can make progress when you plateau or  when you get bored or when your goals change   that's when you can switch up your your program  to focus on other things one thing that um that   might not be intuitive for beginners is that a lot  of these skills help each other so a great example   of this is if i really want to unlock the planche  the handstand push-up and the the planche push-up   the handstand push-up and the 90-degree push-up  i can think oh there's three skills that i that   i want to learn i need to include exercises  from each of them but that's not really true   if i improve my planche push-up i guarantee  that my handstand push-up will improve as well   if i improve my handstand push-up capacity my  90-degree push-up capacity should improve as well   if you think of a planche and a back lever they're  essentially the same move they use the exact same   muscles the only difference is the shoulder  angle in a planche your shoulders flexed about   30 degrees in a back lever your shoulders extended  about 30 45 degrees so by improving your planche   you will also get some transfer to your back lever  so if you focus on planche for a period of six to   eight weeks and then focus on your back lever for  a period of six to eight weeks and improve your   capacity with planche then improve your capacity  with back lever you'll probably get a much better   outcome than chopping and changing every week and  not getting repeated exposure to the same thing   so those are two points that make consistency  over a long period of time consistency with   your training program not chopping and changing  exercises the final thing is to listen to your   body and not train into pain the the saying  no pain no gain is you know very motivating   it's a very sexy saying but it can do a lot of  harm i think the intention with that saying is   really good but without effort there's no  gain so you need to be challenging yourself   to to make adaptations and to change yourself  and that's true but your training should never   be painful in the sense that something is hurting  and you're concerned that you're injuring a tissue   if that happens you should back off rest  or modify the the exercise so that you can   do it without pain you're much better off  taking a few days rest than being forced   to take three months rest because you've torn your  bicep tendon okay it seems that you prepared these   three things because they they definitely make  sense and it's it's impressive how they come like   from your spirit like that that quickly but i can  definitely relate i can definitely uh see this um   because there are like hundreds of exercises  that you could do as a calisthenics athlete   because calisthenics means freedom of movement  you can do everything it's not like bench pressing   curling and that's it but you can do everything so  it's definitely a temptation to to want to learn   too many things at once um and about the the no  pain no gain do you think it is um beneficial if   you work really hard and next day you have like  muscle pain and feel sore is it is it a good pain   or is it a bad pain is it a sign that you went  too far yeah no i think muscle soreness delayed   onset muscle soreness what people call doms is  is absolutely fine um it's not necessary it's it   doesn't have to happen so if you're not getting  sore that's absolutely fine you can make good   strength gains without getting sore but getting  sore can be a good sign that you've had a good   workout and that um you know you've fatigued your  muscles and they need a bit of time to recover   um but i i would differentiate that strongly from  pain because if you speak to any trained athlete   they can very well tell the difference between  doms and the onset of an injury or or a different   type of pain okay um how did you have any  injuries in your uh career hundreds which   you can talk about yeah tell us more about some of  them or just to go back to the the point about um   about doms sorry for jumping around it's a bit  jet lagged just landed in hotel quarantine um   um just to go back to the point about delayed  onset muscle soreness like i said it's not   essential so if you're not getting sore that's  that's okay some people get tend to get quite sore   other people don't tend to get as sore and that  tends to happen when you do unaccustomed activity   so if you want to get really sore just do  something that you never do you never do   bench press do it you'll get sore if you run up  a hill backwards you will be sore the next day um   but um but like i said you need repeated exposure  to the same thing to make strength gains and to   overload and the more you do something the less  sore you'll get so just because you're not getting   a sore anymore as you were a few weeks ago does  not mean that your workouts aren't as effective   what i what i tend to try to aim for with my  workouts is to be a bit fatigued the next day   so if let's say i train a pushing day i do  handstand push-ups planche planche push-ups   the next day i want to feel like i've worked out  i want my muscles to be fatigued or slightly sore   i want to feel like the next day i can't  do the same workout at the same intensity   but a day after or day or two after you should  feel recovered enough that you can do that again   so if you're feeling so sore that you know you've  done a workout and you're sore for a week that's   probably not an ideal place to be you should feel  that you know in a couple of days you can repeat   that same same workout again and through that  method you get repeated exposure to the same   stimulus at a high intensity and over time you can  overload and build on on your current intensity yeah definitely makes sense because it's a it's  a mistake that you can easily run into just uh   going all in no pain no gain as you said this  mentality and then being sore uh for for one week okay let's uh go come to  your injuries to your injury   um so i've had a ton of injuries i can um i  can name a bunch i've had a i did a few years   of martial arts i did a lot of jiu-jitsu and i  had a left shoulder dislocation tore my labrum   so i had a reconstruction on my left shoulder  in 2009 i've had a meniscal tears on both knees   also jiu jitsu injuries which i've had  knee scopes for i tore my abductor longus   tendon or tendon in my groin i ripped that  off the bone in i think um 2015 or 2016 i slipped and tore that completely off the bone so that pulled  me out for about about three months um and then   i've had all the little injuries you can imagine  ganglions in the wrist i've had golfer's elbow   training you know one arm chin ups um rotator cuff  tears and tendinopathies and yeah you name it okay   cool sounds sounds good no but what are the the  takeaways that you can give to the listeners   yeah so um injuries can be very discouraging not  only do you have physical pain but if calisthenics   is what you love to do and you can't do it at the  same ability or you can't train the skills that   you want to train it can be really discouraging  and it can be really um it can be really harmful   to your mental health so what i tend to do is  do your best to stay positive and try to focus   on what you can do so i've always found generally  when you have an injury it provides an avenue to   train something that you don't normally train so  if your right wrist hurts you might practice um   hand balancing on your left hand and improve your  weaker side um if your the front of your shoulder   hurts with planche you might take that that next  six eight weeks while you're resting to really   work on front lever and work on chin ups and work  on exercises that don't cause pain so when you   have an injury there's generally something you can  do that won't aggravate it that still allows you   to rest that area while you can make improvements  in other areas that would be my biggest takeaway   and don't push into pain and how to prevent them  definitely makes sense to work around then once   once you have it uh but what what are the uh the  things that you do today to not get injured again   yeah unfortunately injuries are an inevitable  part of training they they almost everybody at   a high level will get an injury some people say  things like this means that you are training wrong   this means that you know you did this wrong but  if you look at every sport at the highest level   people are getting injured and in the mba  people have access to the best nutrition   the best physical therapists the best sports  doctors the best surgeons and they still get   injured so there is nothing no matter what anyone  tells you there's nothing that you can do to   bullet proof yourself and make yourself completely  immune to injury however there are some things   you can do to reduce your risk of injury a  few things that you can do through training   one thing i would say before training is to just  be smart with your training progress gradually   overuse injuries tend to happen when you do  too much too soon so if you go from you know   you take a handstand workshop with your favorite  hand balancer you go from doing no handstands to   now doing three hours a day on your hands your  wrists aren't used to that that's a good way to   give yourself an overused injury of the wrist or  the shoulder or the elbow so progress gradually   allow you your body time to acclimate listen  to your body if your body's consistently sore   if things are increasing if pain is increasing  in joints that's probably a sign that you're   going too fast or doing too much too soon so go  slow listen to your body don't try stupid things   if you can just reduce your your  risk by not trying things that are   way out of your ability level you will  significantly reduce your risk of injury   um so that's the probably the most important  thing be smart with your training beyond that   a few things that you can do to help mitigate  your risk of injury warming up is very important   so doing a very solid warm-up if you want some  details about warming up and the science of it and   what to do i have a video on youtube about that  the other two things that that are really useful   the the three things that you can change through  training to reduce your risk of injury one is   strength the stronger you are the less chance you  have of injuring that particular area so getting   nice and strong you can do that lots of ways you  can do your traditional rehab prehab exercises   with a band wrist push-ups those sorts of things  but your tissues will adapt with training anyway   so just oh just be gradual over time things will  get stronger things will get more flexible if you   pay attention to that and you stretch and you  do mobility work and your neuromuscular control   will get better so if you're practicing things  like hand balancing handstand alignment that   will improve your technique and if you have good  strength good flexibility or mobility and good   neuromuscular control you're in the best position  that your body can be to be resilient against   stresses against it so the stronger  you are the less chance you have of um   getting injured when you're when you're a lot of  force goes through that particular joint or muscle   the more mobile you are the less chance you have  of getting injured when you're contracting in a   length in the position or when your body goes to  a position that um that is at the end of its range   the more control you have the more ability you  have to keep your joints stable and prevent them   from going to places that you don't want to go  going to positions that are potentially injurious   yeah so just to summarize be smart  don't do don't do dumb things   progress gradually get strong get  mobile and develop neuromuscular control   okay and sleep that's also a question that we  received how does your sleep schedule look like   apart from from the jet lag yeah i try to sleep  as much as possible there's a lot of evidence   that sleep is a really good thing and getting  as much sleep as you can or what is known as   a literal sleep extension can actually be  really beneficial in terms of performance   i try to sleep as much as i can so i try to get  eight eight or more hours a night um one thing   that you can do to improve um improve performance  or improve recovery what's known in the literature   is sleep extension is trying to sleep as  much as you can so let's say you wake up in   the morning you think you can sleep another hour  go back to sleep get that hour if you can do it   okay okay yeah um so there is no limit so because  i know the phenomena phenomenon from where i was   uh like uh i don't know six seven years old ago  when i uh slept like when i as a student i slept   in the weekend maybe 10 maybe 11 hours and i felt  so tired afterwards yeah i i often feel like that   if it's not something that i do consistently or  if it's you know if it's a change to my sleeping   habit okay i i think that's often the case that  you see with um especially you know when you're   young and you're studying and that you've got this  week where you might be sleep deprived and then on   the weekends you sleep for a really long time at  a strange hour um but if you can have a consistent   sleeping pattern good sleep hygiene and try to  maximize the amount of sleep you get that's a   really good thing you can do for your recovery  okay good because that's that makes sense   somebody who sleeps six hours the week and then  on the weekend he thinks oh now i can get back   some sleep and then he sleeps like 10 11 12 hours  makes sense that his body is not in a habit in a   flow let's call it yeah nice um yeah we're closely  coming to an end um i would be interested in what   are your goals for 2021 for this year we just  started we kicked off in a new year uh did you   make some plans what can people expect from you um  yeah so this year i just want to make a lot more   content and tutorials so i'm planning to get  a handstand push-up specific tutorial out   in the first half of the year basically i just  want to make the best quality most detailed   tutorials that i can for a particular topic so  if you want to learn about the handstand push-up   you can get project handstand push-up and  you will learn absolutely every little thing   um that you could need to about that skill so  that's the the goal this year is to focus on um   focus on tutorials i hope to get maybe two  out within the year of a high quality great   that's uh sounds good um something that i had  uh as a question because you're the first guy   from australia that i interview um a few years  ago i made some research about calisthenics and   uh in australia it seemed like that calisthenics  also means a dance a kind of uh yeah yes   what's up with that yeah so when when i started  hearing about when calisthenics started getting   popular you know five ten years ago um the word  started getting thrown around a little bit more   i never used it because in australia calisthenics  is synonymous with rhythmic gymnastics   so you when you think about calisthenics in  australia or when you say that people think   about girls in leotards with ribbons playing with  ribbons and when people ask me what i train now   even in australia sometimes i say oh i do  calisthenics and they just look at me like   um so yeah i think it's becoming a little bit  um calisthenics referring to bodyweight training   is becoming a little bit more mainstream people  really know what you're talking about now   but yeah the past five years or so when you say  calisthenics in australia some people might think   you're talking about rhythmic gymnastics so  if you encounter that that's that's why okay   okay yeah that's that was something that's on my  mind since a few years so i finally have it thank   you um yeah we're coming to some quick questions  quick answers um first question pizza or burger   burger okay do you have to to eat i'll have to  do do you eat uh some some delivered food in   the next uh time due to your quarantine or i i  don't know if i'm allowed but i i probably will   and if not i will when i get out of quarantine  okay yeah it's very it's really strict here   i'm in this room for 14 days i can't leave  the room i can't open the door um without a   without a reason so i can only open the door  when they when they knock to deliver my meals   oh sounds crazy because you just returned from the  us you said right yeah all all overseas travelers   except from new zealand have to quarantine for  14 days interesting um so good luck in quarantine   um yeah some some home workouts uh some hotel  work hotel room workouts in coming i guess but   yeah i think you know the best how to  stay stay motivated and stay working out   yeah are you a dog or a cat person yeah cat  i know that's the very unpopular answer but   yeah i like cats uh do you have  a favorite location for holidays um i love bali okay cool um what would  you work or what would change for you if   social media just disappeared  every youtube every instagram i probably wouldn't have a job  i'd probably go back to being a   physiotherapist because i don't think many people  would have access to to my programs or at least   be aware of them yeah i think that would be the  biggest change okay yeah maybe you have to um   maybe we see you in in the newspapers then but  um it's true that uh such a change which would   mean a lot for for for you and also for us yeah  yeah i might i might have to write a book yeah   old school yeah but it's not a good  it's not a bad thing i think uh   yeah book is still a cool thing to do but  yeah that's a different topic um do you   have a favorite calisthenics athlete somebody  that you follow somebody uh that inspires you   oh there are there are so many that um none  i really like larosa he's he's awesome um   yeah there are too many though okay okay i can  relate because there are some like when you see   planche i when i when you think of plans there is  one athlete when you think of dynamics there is   one athlete there are so many yeah and then  i think of you know i i i can think of like   there are so many good guys out there now that  are just unbelievable and some of these guys i you   know i've never heard of and someone sends me a  video on i think who's this guy yeah yuri someone   he's amazing yeah but yeah it's too hard to think  of people off the top of my head right now sure   okay i'll have to get back to when i'm not jet  lagged okay great uh do you have a favorite book   um free will by sam harris okay what is it about  uh whether or not you have free will and the moral   implications of that okay philosophical book  okay um do you have a favorite song right now   um i i don't right now um but my spotify  playlist is public if you type in my name   you can see what type of songs i like that's  good we will also link it in the description and favorite movie do you have a favorite movie   um i like tarantino movies so  things like kill bill yeah okay the most difficult question i guess uh  if you could only follow one person on   instagram who would it be they'll be  it'd be go nation oh no no but usually i'm not sure i'll probably have to save my  my girlfriend or get in trouble okay okay   then we will just cut away the coronation  thing and uh it will be good and then the   thing that you have to say it um do you have a  favorite calisthenics event that you've visited um i i really enjoyed teaching a workshop it's  not a calisthenics event but i really enjoyed   teaching a workshop in guadalajara i think that  was that was one of my favorite experiences   i can guess okay um yeah we're coming to an  end the question at the end is always how can   people get in touch with you how can they ask you  questions um yes how where do they find you yep so   my website is signmonsterstrength.com my youtube  and instagram um are under the same name as well   you can go to my contact page on my website  to send me an email that's probably the   the best option alternatively you could um send  me a message on instagram or a comment on youtube   but it's probably not as reliable as email cool  and so yeah everything is in the description   all the links to your socials to your website and  also to the programs and again the hint with the   code coronation 10 you get 10 percent of all the  programs and you can enjoy making progress and   profiting from your experience and yeah simon  i want to say thank you for your time uh for   for your time just landing in in australia again  with jet lag i'm really happy that we we made it   possible i think people will appreciate and uh  big big thank you also to everyone listening to   this till the end it's been nearly an hour and  uh yeah thanks for your support if you want to   share this to your friends who could be interested  in if you want to comment it like it do whatever   you want and simon you can have the last word  thanks for your time i say goodbye thanks for   listening guys all the best happy new year  and thanks for having me phil you're welcome