5 MOST COMMON
MISTAKES
CALISTHENICS
IAN BARSEAGLE
HOW THIS 24-PAGE GUIDE WILL HELP
YOU CRUSH LIFE (& YOUR BICEPS)
What’s up bro, this is Ian,
Firstly, congrats on picking up this guide! It’s free
so why not?
Plus, I was excited to share this, because this
brief “5 mistakes” guide is going to impact your
life more than any paid calisthenics course you
could have bought anywhere else (except for
mine of course ;)
Maybe you think I’m exaggerating, but I’m not.
The reason I’m so confident is that this guide
here talks about the ACTUAL stupid mistakes
you’re making. Not the BS ones everyone already
knows or that are simply not true.
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Because when the average fitness influencer
makes a program or workout, they just look at
themselves and their "own experience". They
don’t look at what their audience needs, and if
you don’t really know your people, then how can
you help them?
This guide is created from watching you guys,
seeing what you are posting on your profiles, and
taking into account all the questions you guys ask
me in my DM’s and in real life.
Out of all those sources, these are the 5 mistakes
I see happening A LOT which are terrible if you
want to become as skilled and strong as possible
in a matter of months, not years.
Don’t take this lightly… You might think oh yeah
some “simple tips”, YES simple tips indeed, so
IMPLEMENT them, because you don’t realize how
this can change your entire life.
But before your mind goes to:
“Oh yea, so: sleep 8h, eat enough protein, focus
on “volume”, etc.” that’s not what this is about.
You already know this stuff.
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Plus… It may start with some muscles and crazy
strength, sure, but you have no idea where those
muscles and skills can take you.
Yeah, it’s cool to look good in the gym, and make
people next to you stare at you in amazement
while you’re picking up 4x 20 kg plates for dips…
but that’s only one part of being a Barseagle
Beast.
When you’re a REAL calisthenics beast, you are
not only as strong and skilled as you can possibly
be, but you look more built; you look older and
more mature, which the girls in your gym will find
hard to ignore.
Haha, it’s gonna be funny bro, you’ll see how you
finish a 20 kg set of pull-ups and see a cute girl
staring at you, and then quickly look away.
They’ve got their eyes on you lol
Even the girls you went to school with that didn’t
even know you existed.
After your “Barseagle Transformation”, you don’t
look like a "young, ignorant kid" anymore...
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Now, you look like an adult that knows what the
fuck he’s doing. A man that’s disciplined,
hardworking, and has a vision for himself.
That’s what people see when they look at me,
and if you avoid the 5 mistakes I’m about to share
in this guide and follow the advice I give you in my
program (if you have access to that), then that’s
what people will see when they look at you.
You may even have heard of the
“triangle of life”, which is: health,
wealth and relationships.
This guide will help you with all three. You will not
only become healthier, bigger, and stronger, but
you will also become more disciplined, get more
opportunities, and you will have a WAY easier
time with girls than the average teenager who is
playing video games all day, drinking Red Bull, and
has never challenged himself beyond trying to
drink more beers than all his friends until he’s in a
ditch somewhere.
So, with all this being said, I hope you realize the
importance of these 5 super simple, but lifechanging pieces of advice.
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I didn’t make this guide super long, because why
make it long when it can be short? But trust me
when I tell you, that the advice I give you here
will impact your life a lot.
Let’s get into them.
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YOU ARE OBSESSED WITH
TRAINING STATICS
One of the biggest mistakes I see calisthenics
newbies make is that they do too much static
training. I’m talking about: handstands, front
levers, planche etc.
Of course, these are amazing skills. It’s part of
calisthenics and I completely understand that
you’re excited to make your body float in the air
like superman – making people pull out their
phones and start filming when they see you
train…
And I also understand you can build muscle by
training skills, sure, but it will be the lowest
amount possible, and this is especially important
when you’re a beginner and you don’t have strong
fundamentals yet.
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If you’re trying to build REAL MUSCLE as fast as
humanly possible, then your main focus can’t be
skills, because for optimal muscle growth you
need:
Muscle contraction.
Maybe you’re a well studied gymbro and you
think, “But Ian, isometric contraction is ALSO
contraction!”, yes that is factually correct, but it
will give you the slowest progress possible
because it is the lowest intensity.
It’s not for nothing that isometric holds are
commonly used by physiotherapists to help old
people rebuild their strength from 0 after falling
down the stairs…
So, take my advice and focus on REAL eccentric
and concentric contraction, or in bro terms: all
the way up, all the way down.
Also, even if you want to learn skills as fast as
possible. You don't get there by training skills
first. First you train STRENGTH, because the
stronger you are, the easier you will learn skills
(one of the crucial principles from the program).
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YOU DON’T GIVE “THE GYM” THE
CREDIT IT DESERVES
When I talk about “gym”, I am not talking about
chasing the pump like the average juiced-up
fitness influencer who gets jacked from lifting
some grocery bags off the ground, that’s not
what I mean.
To be clear, by “gym” I mean:
COMPOUND MOVEMENTS.
Maybe you look at me or other calisthenics
athletes who have built elite level physiques or
you see videos of me doing 90° push-ups with
long legs, 188 cm tall and 90 kg heavy, but don’t
be mistaken…
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I did not get the muscle or the strength
by doing planche push-ups.
THE TRUTH is that I got most of this muscle by
focussing on strength through compound
movements or “gym” movements. I’m talking
dips, pull-ups, hack squats, etc.
These are the movements that will help you build
a monstrous physique and in the end will also
give you the strength to make your body float in
the air, doing explosive muscle ups.
Calisthenics moves like archer push-ups, pistol
squats or bar curls are cool, but don’t be fooled…
Compound movements are and will always be
KING in helping you become as BIG and STRONG
as fast as possible.
Of course, there are more nuances to this which
other people get completely wrong, which is why
their progress is very, very slow, but we will talk
about that later… because bro…
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Lifting compound movements is great, training
hard is great, but it does not matter if you don’t
give yourself the proper energy and nutrition to
help your body turn all that hard work into:
MUSCLE.
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YOU EXPECT A BEAST PHYSIQUE
WITH AN ANT DIET
I must have talked to DOZENS of guys who say,
“Bro I eat a lot, I train a lot bro”, but they still don’t
gain any weight or mass… and the simple reason
is that you’re not eating enough bro.
Maybe you FEEL like you eat a lot. Heck, maybe
you DO eat a lot, but if you look at the results in
the mirror, it is clearly not enough.
If that is the case, then you probably have a
Sonic-fast metabolism like me.
Maybe you thought I gained muscle easily but
nah, it was actually very hard for me to gain
muscle.
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Sure, I may have good genetics for how my body
looks aesthetically, I will admit that, but that does
not mean that the muscle just “magically”
appeared on my body.
Bro, I can remember the days when I did not even
want to look at my pasta with tuna anymore
because I had to eat so much food, and even
though stuffing your body with enough food to
build muscle OUTRAGEOUSLY quickly is not
going to be “easy”...
There are 4 things I did that made it 100 times
easier for me to keep eating 3.500-4,000
calories consistently for years (that’s how much
my body needs at 90 kg).
This was not part of the outline for this guide, but
why not:
1. LEARN HOW LONG IT TAKES FOR
DIFFERENT FOODS TO DIGEST.
This way you know when you need to eat again
even though you may not be hungry. Simply the
fact of knowing that the food should already be
digested makes you wanna eat. Knowledge is
important.
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2. THE BEST FOODS ARE BASIC FOODS.
Eggs, pasta, meat, beans, basic stuff. The
problem is… people get tired of them quickly
because you’ll eat the same thing every day.
To make this better, use seasoning or different
ways of cooking the food. This will make the
eating part more enjoyable.
3. MINDSET IS THE MAIN THING.
Whenever you don’t want to eat but you have to,
just do it. No one else gives a shit apart from you.
Think deep and let that get to you, use your
reason for working out to be the motivation for
you to eat more.
4. ALWAYS BLAME YOURSELF.
Whenever you skip a meal, if you don’t eat
enough or if you eat too much, blame yourself.
This will make you feel like you disrespected
yourself by not doing what you were supposed to
do. Feeling guilty and admitting you fucked up is
important, this will force you to change internally,
believe me.
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There you go bro. These methods might sound a
little weird at first but they work very well.
Maybe you’re thinking; “Bro, why are you spilling
all these secrets in this book for free?” and it’s
true I’m being generous here, but I genuinely just
want to help you guys out. I can’t share
everything for free because people would never
value it for what it’s worth…
You know those free goodie bags you get at
events? What’s the first thing you think when you
get one of those?
“BULLSHIT. “
Just some cheap BS, and you end up not even
looking what’s inside. It would be a shame if that
happened to the Soviet Strength Secrets I
discovered from talking to numerous Russian &
Ukrainian pro strength and calisthenics athletes
(& the tens of thousands I spent for plane tickets
and consultation fees lol).
Still, I know people may come inside, steal my
stuff, and claim it’s theirs, but I don’t care.
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I have faith the Barseagle Community will find
liars and set the record straight where the
information REALLY comes from.
Anyway, got a bit sidetracked there.
BACK TO THE GUIDE.
Now you’re focusing on compound lifts and
eating more (probably even more than you think
right now), but there is one mistake nobody
thinks about which is a stupid, stupid mistake and
it happens a lot because of the big ego’s people
have in the fitness industry which is the fact…
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YOU ONLY SEE THE “SMALL
INJURY”, NOT THE POTENTIAL
END OF YOUR CAREER
Guys will notice injuries, and think, “Oh it’s fine”
because they can still train, but what they don’t
realize is that the even smallest injury can
become a BIG injury that prevents you from
training for months.
You think, “But I don’t want to skip my workout, I’ll
lose all my gains!!”, so you keep training with a
little pain, but then 2–3 workouts later you tear
your bicep doing a muscle up and you can’t even
do a single push up for the rest of the year.
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Now… while you are forced to sit on your ass only
doing legs, someone else who follows my advice
and takes maybe 1-2 days rest when he felt some
pain, is doing 50 kg dips, handstand push-ups
and has the numbers of all the girls at his gym.
Yes, this is EXACTLY what
would happen.
Oh, and most of the time this doesn’t happen
“just once”. In most cases, you lose a couple
weeks here, a couple weeks there, and in the end
you’re ONE year later and your arms are still the
same size, your weights haven’t changed and
your Instagram DMs are still empty.
That’s a waste of time, and that’s not even the
worst part…
Because if you’re REALLY unlucky ‘(which
sometimes happens) one minor injury can
DESTROY your entire career. I know of many
athletes personally, which have had to stop
competing due to injuries which is horrible
because they’re not only unable to train…
They’re unable to practice the passion that gives
them POWER.
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So please, when you are injured or feel constant
pain, take a rest day or 2, sleep well, eat well, and
if the pain does not go away, go to a doctor or
physiotherapist.
Don't be stupid.
Okay bro, we are approaching the LAST mistake
of this guide, which is one you have never heard
of before. It is sneaky, and the entire fitness
industry KEEPS making this mistake, even the
fitness influencers and bodybuilders you look up
to so much, which is the fact that…
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YOU’RE DOING TOO MANY BS
EXERCISES
If you don’t know… the whole fitness industry is
juiced up. They’re all on steroids. Maybe a small
percentage of them are natural, but most guys
are taking something, so… when you take this
into account, then you must realize that for
them, it does not matter what they do to build
muscle.
Bro, their T-levels are reaching for the moon,
they’re already building muscle by moving a
chair…
But this is a big problem, because there are so
many gym and calisthenics newbies who see
these guys do “Bicep Curls”, “Prayer Curls”,
“Spider-Man Curls” and 20 other different type of
Curls so all the young guys think that’s what you
need to do, but it’s bullshit.
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BUT… Watch out…
Just doing exercises of 3x10 is not what I mean.
You FIRSTLY need to perform the exercises with
proper form, full ROM (range of motion), and
SECONDLY, you need to know how to properly
progressive overload the muscle.
This is where the fitness industry is LYING their
asses off.
Because sure bro, you can focus on "increasing
volume" & "muscle-mind connection" and stuff,
but I'll be honest... These are all super slow and
super ineffective methods.
You need to focus more on INTENSITY instead.
Now, I do not mean you need to go for a “one rep
max” every training session, but there is a specific
progressive overload method which is actually
one of the most important secrets I discovered
from the Russian and Ukrainian Strength athletes,
which is the main driver for why people inside
Soviet Strength Secrets are building muscle and
strength so quickly like these guys:
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The method comes along with many small
details, so I can’t explain it in a single paragraph.
That’s why I turned it into an entire program in
the first place, but if you take your calisthenics
journey serious and want to progress like crazy,
become a LEGENDARY ATHLETE in the next
couple months & years, and you are not afraid to
invest in yourself and your future…
Then just click here to get the Soviet Strength
Secrets, because like I said in the beginning, this
is not just about "muscle", this is about your life
bro.
The journey that you are starting right now, is not
just a "body transformation" journey.
You are becoming a man and
setting yourself up for success in
all areas of life.
Do you remember the triangle? Health, wealth
and relationships. This is how I achieved so much
and will continue to achieve even more, and if
you resonate with me and agree that partying
every weekend and smoking weed is bullshit,
then this journey is for you.
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If you aren't that serious about becoming a
respected and admired calisthenics athlete, and
you want normal progress and a normal life that is
completely fine, we have different goals. I know
not everyone is as ambitious, that is okay. I’m
glad I could at least open your eyes and add value
to your life.
Now lastly, if you reached the end of
this entire guide:
CONGRATULATIONS bro, amazing.
I’m excited for you to try this out, and please do
share with me in the DMs what YOU thought was
most valuable in this guide. Every week I take
some time to answer my DMs.
Sometimes I don’t reach everyone, but I really,
really try to.
To get the highest chance of me seeing your
message, take a screenshot of this plan and send
the picture to me, or even tag me in your story or
something, spam me a little bit, it’s okay. It would
be awesome to see how this has helped you.
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If you’re becoming a real Barseagle Bro and
starting out with the Soviet Strength Secrets,
then I will talk to you inside the community.
See you bro!
Ian
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