Everything you need to get the body you want, without wasting time or effort.

No Gym, Perfect Body Program

NoGym.net
1st Edition

Note: This is a dynamic document and will be evolving steadily, both in growth & quality. If you have suggestions please let me know on the blog through the contact page. Hopefully this book serves as a good resource for you in your fitness journey.

Copyright 2012 by Christopher Walker Cover design by Christopher Walker Book design by Urna Sempter All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review. Printed in the United States of America First Printing: October 2012 ISBN-12 345-6-7898765-4-3

DEDICATION
This book is for everyone who has ever wasted their hard-earned money on poorly-produced, trash fitness products and books or on fad diets or supplements that promise so much, yet deliver so little. This book is for all of those individuals who refuse to settle for mediocrity; for all those who know they can be happy with their physique but just need to educate themselves on the best way to reach their goal. This book is for those individuals who have very little free time, or who want to free themselves from the obsessive fitness and dieting cycle that entraps countless millions. This book is for everyone who understands that 90% of your fitness results are going to come from 10% of your actions. This book is dedicated to everyone who knows they deserve a healthy, happy, fit existence. This book is for you.

Foreword 7 The Endocrine System

Why Your Hormones Are So Important

1
1
2

Hormones Are The Bodys Fundamental Movers & Shakers

Balancing Your Endocrine System

For Fat Loss 4 For Muscularity 5

3 1

How To Eat For A Perfect Body

The Importance of A Healthy Gut 1 Fat, Weak, Tired, Unfocused, & Sexless
Caught In The Bear Trap 3 5

Brain/Gut Interplay: And Why What You Eat Is So Important

The Solution

Drop The Weights & Cancel Your Gym Membership

Why I Prefer Calisthenics To Weights
Head To The Playground 2

Mental Tips, Tricks, & Considerations The Food & Eating Strategies 7 Conclusion 10

Calisthenics Are King

True Power Training

The Best Workout Regimen Is No Regimen At All

Why Power-Based Training Will Make You Look & Feel Amazing

The Muscle Up The Pistol Squat Sprinting

Explode 6

2 4
5

The Ultimate Leg Power Movement

6 7

Why training for power is optimal

Body Sculpting On The Bar

Bodyweight Is Back The Breakdown 2 1
The Compound Movements 2 Movements with Muscle Group Focus Isolation Holds 17 Explosive Power 22

Heres the problem... Train for power 8

The Workout Programs

Program #1: Program #2: Program #3: 27 29 33

26
26

For Those Who Love To Train

Foreword
Hello everyone and welcome to NoGym.nets No Gym, Perfect Body Program . If you downloaded it off the website I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support and for being a part of such an amazing community. Hopefully you enjoy all of my free material on the blog as well. No matter how you got ahold of this book, I sincerely hope it makes you think. I hope you consider my recommendations because, you know what, they work. You will save so much time and effort and, not to mention, money by following the principles in this book. I can guarantee you that you will not regret reading this material. Taking a minimalist approach to diet and fitness wasnt a deliberate decision of mine; it was the result of years of trial and error. The pruning that took place eventually led me to my core belief system that I act upon to this day. The approach I take is one that focuses on fundamentals. In every aspect of life, it is super important to pay close attention to the principles upon which systems operate. These principles always facilitate and give rise to the system. Therefore, if you understand the principles, you understand the system. And you also understand how to manipulate the system at the point where it is simplest - its core. A small change to the core of a system will often times lead to large scale changes as the complexity of the system increases. For example, if you know how to effectively optimize your hormones, you will experience sweeping improvements in many areas - fat loss, muscularity, strength gain, sleep quality - to name a few. This book will teach you how to do things such as optimize your hormonal environment. It will also hopefully work to shift your mindset away from focusing on the surface and obsessing over trivial minutiae and instead lead you to pay more attention to the things that really matter. The problem with the fitness industry today is that it is almost entirely focused on the minutiae - and its understandable why - very few people actually understand the fundamentals. Its not that they are difficult to understand, especially with a good resource, its more that most people are too lazy to care: the health and happiness of millions of people suffers as a consequence. So lets take a step away from mediocrity. Lets head back in the right direction. Lets educate ourselves about what really matters so we can make the simple changes to our routines that will reap the biggest rewards. Lets focus only on the things that matter. Be Strong, Be Lean, Be Happy Christopher Walker | NoGym.net

Chapter 1

The Endocrine System

HORMONES ARE THE BODYS FUNDAMENTAL MOVERS & SHAKERS
Maybe its because people dont generally know very much about them, but I am constantly perplexed with how little play hormones get in the role of bringing you to your ideal physique. Note: I am talking about your natural endogenous hormones here, not hormone supplements commonly used by bodybuilders and athletes much of the time illegally as performance enhancing drugs. Though . . . at least they understand the power behind manipulating your hormonal environment. When your hormonal environment is in balance, your body does all the work for you. It finds your ideal physique. It is a gentle give-and-take between what you give to your body (i.e. nutrition, mental stimulation, and exercise) and what it gives back to you (i.e. muscular development, functional power, mental well-being, etc.). Your body is an amazing thing: it knows what it wants to look and behave and feel like. Do you really believe your body wants you to be skinny and weak? Or fat and distended? Do you really believe it is natural for you to experience GI problems on a daily basis or to be depressed or experience anxiety?

Why Your Hormones Are So Important

They literally have a role in almost every major cascading action or reaction in your body, usually at or near the source of said action or reaction. Hormones are arguably the most powerful substances in your body. To mess with them by overtraining, subjecting yourself to overly stressful environments or situations, eating crap food, and not sleeping, or some combination of all of these, is to be messing with your life. Instead, live your life based on sound principles - dont sweat the small stuff - and reap the rewards of a balanced endocrine system. Im not going to get into too much detail here in this program because, quite frankly, it is unnecessary. All you need to know is the correct steps to take to balance your hormones and the rest will follow.

Chapter 2

Balancing Your Endocrine System

Time, Positive Reinforcement, & Patience
The endocrine system is a network of glands responsible for secreting hormones into the bloodstream. It consists of several important organs: a. Adrenal Glands b. Pancreas c. Thyroid d. Reproductive Organs However, many other organs in the body, for example the kidneys, liver, heart, and gonads, have secondary endocrine functions. It is intricately tied to the nervous system [for more information on this subject see http://www.NoGym.net/hpa-axis/ ], involved an enormously complex interplay between your brain, blood, and tissues - a system so complex, in fact, that the material covered in this chapter will probably not do it justice. However, I would just like to help you get the basics down. An important distinction between the endocrine system and the nervous system must be made: the endocrine system is chemical in nature and therefore slow-moving compared the nervous system, which relies heavily on ridiculously fast electrical impulses to propagate information.

That being said, balancing an out-of-whack endocrine system requires a couple things: 1. Time 2. Positive reinforcement 3. Patience Once in balance, youll experience myriad benefits. However, two of the bigger ones that I will touch on here - are fat loss and muscularity.

FOR FAT LOSS

Several years ago a study came out implicating excess cortisol in the accumulation of body fat. The hype was huge and the supplement industry subsequently took the cue and began pumping out cortisol suppressants, touting them as the cure for obesity and other nonsense. Its true, excess cortisol in your system (i.e. chronically elevated stress response) will cause you to store body fat. But at the same time, cortisol itself, at healthy levels, has also been proven to play a role in lipolysis (breakdown of adipose/fat tissue). So what does that mean? When you find the balance, and your endocrine system is functioning properly with a healthy amount of cortisol pumping through your bloodstream, you will not have any problems burning fat. Cortisol itself is not inherently a bad thing. An excess of it is. Sound like anything else in life? A balanced, healthy testosterone level is known to decrease visceral fat mass, increase lean muscle tissue (increase in metabolic rate), and aid in glycemic control, all things that directly affect your level of body fat.

Another interesting study found that in postmenopausal women , an increase in testosterone helped treat depression & low energy, help mitigate loss of bone density and muscle mass, and decrease body fat while increasing amount of lean tissue. These are just a few of great effects of a balanced endocrine system on fat loss, and only a few of the hormones involved. If are interested in further resources, contact me and I can point you in the right direction and help any way possible.

FOR MUSCULARITY
In the same vein as earlier, a healthy level of testosterone will naturally allow your body to maintain substantial lean muscle tissue. As an androgen with anabolic effects, testosterone will also help you gain muscle easily. Do it naturally though, because an excess of T is horrible for you and will turn you into a red-faced, veiny, hairy, raging grump. All of the exercises and nutrition suggestions in this program are specifically designed to help you optimize your hormonal environment.

Chapter 3

How To Eat For A Perfect Body

Fool-Proof Strategies For Getting A Lean, Healthy Physique THE IMPORTANCE OF A HEALTHY GUT
A basic understanding of the role your gut, or enteric nervous system, plays in the big scheme of things is vital to our principle-based approach to fitness and nutrition. Your gut is how you absorb nutrients. Without a healthy flora of bacteria, you will not be able to absorb certain nutrients, which may lead to GI distress and nutrient deficiencies many of which affect your hormonal balance and your behavior, and usually cause serious fatigue and focus issues that will almost definitely affect your workouts, not to mention your everyday life.

Brain/Gut Interplay: And Why What You Eat Is So Important

We have more bacterial DNA in our guts than our own DNA in our entire body. The role of good bacteria is to initiate processes that help us balance pH levels, digest our food, detoxify, and even produce ATP (energy). Inflammation in your gut can wreak havoc on your brain. There are between 200-600 million neurons in your enteric nervous system, a number comparable to the number in your spinal cord. These neurons communicate with your brain regularly many times every second. Many people overlook the fact that your second brain, as it is sometimes referred to, needs the same amount of care as you would give your real brain.

Now, our bodies can handle detoxification at normal to low levels just fine. They are amazing at restoring homeostasis. I love eating a couple donuts or an order of hot wings as much as the next guy. I just dont do it all the time. And guess what when you do feel the need to stop and grab a value meal at McDonalds, your body will handle it just fine - provided it is in balance. As long as you dont overload it all the time your healthy gut flora can handle the detox pretty easily. All you might feel in the meantime is a little gas or some indigestion.

Your brain is the most amazing super computer in the world. For real. If you are taking care of your gut and focusing on living in hormonal balance, your brain will run like a well-oiled machine. You will be sharp and focused (especially when using a dieting technique that I am going to talk about later) and you will sleep like a baby at night. Your body will be running well and therefore your brain will not have to react to a constant onslaught of warning signals from your muscles, gut, and endocrine system. Everything is connected in your body. Too often doctors and researchers make the mistake of focusing intensely on one area of the body while neglecting how it affects other areas, or vice versa. Since we are focusing on principles here, just remember that everything you put into your body activates countless enzymatic reactions, downstream from which many other parts of your body, including your brain, can be either positively or negatively affected.

FAT, WEAK, TIRED, UNFOCUSED, & SEXLESS

It is incredibly rare nowadays to find an individual who doesnt have something ailing or troubling them. You know those seemingly small and inconsequential things that bug you and, over time, grow to much larger, more troubling proportions because you didnt pay attention to them: lack of focus when it matters, that tire thats been growing around your middle, the general feeling of weakness and exhaustion even when you havent exerted yourself, even the fact that you may be experiencing some(clears throat) performance troubles.

Its easy to assume that these are the real problem. However, its a little more complicated than that. You see, these are merely symptoms of a bigger issue that each of us need to address.

Caught In The Bear Trap

Understandably, many of us fall into destructive thought traps. These traps are perpetuated (and constructed) by the health & fitness industry as a whole. A few examples are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Believing certain foods are healthy when they arent Not knowing the difference between the truth and a myth Getting addicted to sugar Getting addicted to food additives & other chemicals Using food as a reward

There are several causes to these problems. Information overload is one of them. Everywhere you turn nutrition and fitness advice is being thrown in your face. Heck, Im throwing some in your face right now. The problem that most of us run into is whether or not we can effectively wade through the bullshit and disseminate what is high quality advice and what is garbage. Ill give you a hint: most of it is garbage.

Another culprit causing these issues is psychological dependencies and habits. Many people, including myself, are raised with food commonly used a reward for good behavior. In turn, we tend to go to it for comfort and to make ourselves feel good. This can be okay at times, but for most of us, the foods we turn to and the times at which we turn to them end up being completely counterproductive to achieving the goals weve set for ourselves. This behavior only reinforces bad habits. Remember, we are not dogs. The last culprit is physical dependencies. A lot of us are addicted to sugar or food additives, or have been at one time or another throughout our lifetimes. Its hard not to be. Additives are in almost everything. Period. Even fresh produce is waxed or sprayed with chemicals. This = the reason the United States and many other countries around the world are experiencing a drastic rise in obesity right now. Humans are addicted to sugar. And overeating, heck eating the garbage food in general, just tends to perpetuate and even compound the addiction. There is a lot of research that indicates that we become sensitized (the opposite of desensitized) to sugar. I wrote an exhaustive post on the blog about overeating as a classifiable addiction disorder. Check it out if you have some time. Its also incredibly difficult to discern between fact and fiction nowadays. Gurus are popping out of the woodwork, touting their magical fat loss solutions. But big companies are just as guilty of lying. I firmly believe that supplement companies have scared an entire generation of gym-goers into unquestionably believing that they need to be sucking down protein shakes every couple hours or risk losing all of their muscle, gaining pounds of flabby fat instantly. Many of us falter, not necessarily because of lack of willpower, but because we are overloaded with misleading information and it becomes difficult, even paralyzing, to make healthy and well-informed decisions every day.

THE SOLUTION
So how do you wade through all the garbage and discern truth from lie? Well Ive got a couple tips that I use in my own life that I would like to share with you. Please focus on these. Implementing them could mean a world of difference in your everyday happiness...and your waistline. These tips and strategies will also help you to balance your bodys endocrine system over time. Just follow these guidelines, both mental and nutritional, and eventually your body will be in great shape, both internally and externally.

Mental Tips, Tricks, & Considerations

1. Food is not a reward. You are not a dog who needs positive reinforcement with a treat every time you do something great. Reward yourself in other ways: max out your credit cards on shopping sprees, do club drugs, have a party in your living room with just you and two (or three) bottles of wine... Im kidding of course! You had a good day? Give yourself a little pat on the back, watch your favorite tv show, treat yourself to that movie youve been wanting to see in theatres, go for a refreshing walk in the woods, go start up a conversation with a stranger and give them a compliment, seriously there are a million things you can do to keep it going! Instead of indulging then ruining a good day because you feel that little (or huge) tinge of guilt, opt instead to try and make your day even better, or try and help someone else have a good day. 2. Recognize the role of certain types of exercise in creating hunger and cravings. In my own experience as a serious athlete in numerous sports, I can tell you: some types of exercise make me ravenous.

Swimming, steady state cardio of almost any type, and extended sessions of sprinting to the point of exhaustion are all culprits. These types of exercise are basically forms of overexertion. And while they may be great for burning calories right now, more often than not they will make you so hungry afterwards that you end up eating your way into the deficit you created (and many time past it). This is one of the reasons that so many runners and swimmers you see are still fat or skinny fat. On the other hand, some great exercise that I have no problem doing even while restricting calories are: short wind sprints (enough to get the heart rate up, but not exhaust ones self), bar training, weight lifting, bodyweight exercises, jumping and plyometrics, and walks of all kinds, both long and short. These activities are great for creating a steady, prolonged metabolic burn that lasts for hours after the activity. And the best part is that they wont cause blood sugar swings or crazy glycogen depletion that could lead to overeating or negating the calorie deficit you created. They have hormonal benefits as well (part of why they control satiety so well) that increase growth and muscle synthesis, so they are useful exercises in many respects. 3. Dont become orthorexic. Take an approach in moderation. When you are obsessing over everything, becoming an orthorexic nightmare, you arent doing yourself or your loved ones any favors. Really, the amount of stress you cause yourself overeating a perfectly clean diet negates the positive effects from your food. You are also likely limiting yourself from eating awesome, nutritious foods because of some preconceived falsehoods youve been perpetuating anyways, meaning: your squeaky clean diet probably isnt even all that healthy for you; you are probably missing out on key nutrients and vitamins. So relax. Remind yourself that this journey isnt actually about the food itself: it is about creating a lifestyle for yourself that you enjoy living day-in-day-out and that keeps your body looking bombshell and feeling great all the time.

Its all about your mindset. This applies to any other pursuit in life as well. Remember to always approach a goal with the big picture in mind. That way you wont get lost in the details. 4. Challenge conventional wisdom and prosper. Much has been written on blogs all across the Internet by now about challenging conventional fitness and nutrition wisdom. [See MarksDailyApple.com and LeanGains.com for examples] But when I was going through my rough times and trying to figure this all out, not so much information was out there. I used a lot of intuition and personal failure (experience) with one way of exercising (what people now call Chronic Cardio) to inform me of its shortcomings in terms of health. 5. Use principle-based eating instead of counting. The most important thing that I learned in my transformation was that if you stick to solid principles, you no longer need to sweat the small stuff. I guarantee you that if you eat naturally 80% of the time, and fast regularly, perhaps skipping breakfast daily, you will lose body fat and retain muscle like no bodys business. In no time you will be looking leaner and stronger. For real, 12 weeks would be all you would need to see some DRASTIC changes in the mirror and in your blood work. And if you follow these simple principles for 12 weeks the rest of your everyday life will appear much more manageable, even if it didnt change at all.

The Food & Eating Strategies

1. Eat whole, natural foods as much as possible. This matter is simple. Seriously. So many people over complicate things and worry too much about the minutiae. Is corn

primal? Because this steak rub has trace amounts of corn and if I eat it I wont be primal. This might sound ridiculous but then again it might be you. Get a grip. The point is to keep the base of your nutrition centered in whole foods that are as close to nature as possible in any situation. This is a realistic approach to eating which often gets overlooked. Eating has as much to do with convenience as it does with nutrition for many people. With that in mind, just try and make the best decisions possible in a given situation. And plan ahead if possible. A really important thing to remember when eating to get a rockin body is to focus on eating foods that are satiating. A combination of protein and fats in general are great for filling you up and keeping hunger at bay for hours at a time. A diet high in protein and fat and low in sugar, over time, will allow the body to become fat-adapted, meaning it shifts to burning fat for fuel instead of sugars in your bloodstream. When youre fat adapted, your blood sugar remains even; it doesnt fluctuate madly every couple hours inciting false hunger to restabilize it. However, I generally disagree with anyone who claims that carbohydrates are the devil. Carbs are also satiating and very necessary in many situations. And you can still become fat-adapted while eating moderate amounts of carbs. Just try and stick to natural fruits and tubers and grains such as oats, along with nuts and peanut butter as your carb sources and youll be eating awesome food all the time and losing fat easily and effortlessly. 2. Use intermittent fasting to your advantage. Fasting is ridiculously great. There are many ways to implement a fasting routine. Personally I just skip breakfast, opting for a cup or two of black coffee instead, then resume my regular eating at lunch time (only I eat two HUGE meals at lunch and dinner - Im not trying to lose weight right now) which I love. It is more my style. And sometimes Ill even eat both of my meals within a couple hours. Its great. Im so full I dont feel like eating again until the next day.

There are other, more structured ways, of fasting however. The most popular is the LeanGains protocol, made popular by Martin Berkhan. He advocates 16 hours fasting then an 8 hour feeding window. For women he suggests a 14/10 split. Eat Stop Eat is Brad Pilons program. He recommends you eat regularly throughout the week but fast for 24 hours two times during the week, whenever is most convenient. The point is to be flexible and do what works for you. The hormonal benefits are amazing with fasting. Your satiety levels go up, contrary to popular belief, which means you actually keep hunger away fairly effortlessly. After the first couple weeks of daily fasting, you may even find that the thought of eating food right after waking is repulsive (this happened to me) which makes it even easier. 3. The ideal human diet is deceptively simple but it may take you a decent amount of time to get used to it, depending on your current diet. Its as easy as eating natural foods, foods that you can hunt & kill (meat, fish, eggs) and foods that grow naturally (vegetables & fruits) . I generally say to limit grain intake while you are getting adjusted if you can. Grains are not inherently natural: they began as a cultivated crop (unlike fruits and vegetables which are now, for the most part, cultivated as well). And they are processed as foreign substances within many peoples guts, causing inflammation. Avoid them if you can, or just slowly cut them out. Once your body is adjusted to eating this way, you can get away with some cheating because your gut flora will be so much healthier than when you were constantly bombarding it with donuts, cereals, and ice cream. Now you can eat these things in small amounts when you feel the need and your body will likely 1. Only be able to handle a small amount and therefore limit itself and 2. Be able to effectively detoxify what it considers poisonous.

Conclusion
Eating for a perfect body entails much more than just food or nutrition. Creating a sustainable, healthy lifestyle for yourself that will not only help you get to that great body, but also help you effortlessly maintain it, takes time. But it is not difficult. Just be patient, follow the recommendations above, and youll reach your goal. Guaranteed.

Chapter 4

Drop The Weights & Cancel Your Gym Membership

You Do Not Need Any Fancy Equipment To Get The Body Of Your Dreams WHY I PREFER CALISTHENICS TO WEIGHTS
Weightlifting is by far a healthier form of exercise than pure cardio, especially if you are trying to build an aesthetic look for both men and women. In no way, shape, or form am I anti-weights. I would never want to appear as one of those ignorant pricks on the internet who thinks only their way is correct and no one elses opinions mattered or had any merit. Do what works for you and makes you happy. Im merely trying to tell you what makes me happy and why I recommend you give it a serious shot. However, I like to advocate that people consider putting the weights down and trying out bar & other bodyweight workouts for a period of time for several reasons.

1.

Your risk of injury and/or overtraining with weights is just as high as when you do lots of cardio. Many people use horrible form when lifting and try to lift either too heavy or too lightly. They get inconsistencies between muscle groups because they tend to favor certain movements over others (i.e. glamour muscles). Many people end up with back and shoulder injuries because they dont lift correctly.

Its also really easy to go to the gym and workout out every day of the week with weights if you use isolation lifts. This chronic stress on your system over long periods of time leads to an unhealthy influx of cortisol into your system. It definitely feels great to exercise everyday, and I am not saying you shouldnt, I just dont think constant lifting day-in day-out is healthy. On the surface you might look good. But any form of chronic stress is bad for your endocrine balance.

2.

It is expensive. Seriously, think about what you could spend that extra $30$100/mo thats going toward your gym membership (depending on where you live) on. You could buy a new wardrobe, for example.

3.

Unless you are meticulous about your movements, it often leads to disproportionate looks. The only useful (my opinion) weightlifting movements are compound ones: the big traditional barbell lifts. They generally keep your whole body working together. People run into problems when they start isolating body parts. The big-biceped chicken-legged guy walking around every gym on the planet is a prime example of what I am talking about.

4.

It encourages detail obsessions. Should you lift 3x10 at 75% 1RM? Or 5x5 at 85% 1RM? Or any of the countless other sets vs. reps variations that fitness experts tout as the best way to lift. Just take a spin through any bodybuilding forum and youll see an insane amount of arguing over the correct way to train. Its all ridiculous if you ask me. Why? Because the quickest, most effective way to get full body explosive power and an optimally aesthetic physique is to . . .

Head To The Playground

Your average schoolyard playground has every piece of training equipment you need to get your Perfect Body. You just have to know how to use it and enjoy being a little creative. The best part about the playground is that it is free. And you can usually find one within jogging distance from your house so you can jog or walk over for a nice little warmup and cool down.

And if you live in a city and can find one of the many outdoor gyms equipped with pullup and dips bars then you are in an even better situation (Tompkins Square Park in NYC, for example).

CALISTHENICS ARE KING

Take a look at an Olympic gymnast for a second.

Now take a look at these guys in the picture above. What do they all have in common? Answer: None of them train with anything but their own body weight. They focus primarily on bar-centered training, which adds the element of significant gravity working to add extra resistance. Coupled with sufficient leg training through pistol squatting and sprinting, bar training creates a full-body aesthetic that looks amazing. The big reason that most people dont train on the bar is because it is DIFFICULT. It is not fun to face the reality of how weak you really are. You may be able to curl 40 lb dumbbells but what good does that do you besides being decent at curling dumbbells? I guarantee you that if you walk into your local gym and ask every person there to do a muscle, up not one of them will be able to do it. Heck, I rarely ever even see people in the weight room using the pull-up bar if there even is a pull-up bar. If you dont know

what a muscle up is, it is merely pulling yourself up over top of the pull-up bar in one motion. I find it perplexing how people are content not being able to manipulate their own body weight, especially when learning to support your own body actually ends up giving you the most appealing aesthetic. Trust me, after spending a little time working out on the bar you will feel great. You will start becoming more aware of your own body and as you develop true power and are able to do more complex movements such as muscle ups and planks you will have a lot of fun not to mention your entire body will be transforming right in front of your eyes. You will be working muscles that youve never challenged before and youll be sore in places you didnt know existed. Bar workouts work your muscles DEEP. You will be very sore for the first month. But the result after you acclimate will be rock hard, dense muscle.

The Best Workout Regimen Is No Regimen At All

The beauty of bar and bodyweight workouts is that if you are constantly challenging yourself and getting creative with your workouts, a couple things happen:

1.

Its almost impossible to overtrain. Since a full body bar workout with dips, pull-ups, muscle ups, and levers works your muscles so deep, I can guarantee you that you will be feeling it the next day, especially when you first begin training this way. The self-limiting nature of this type of training is a beautiful thing. I highly recommend just listening to your body. If you feel recovered after two days then go back and do another full body bar workout. If it takes a full week to recover, then wait the full week before going back. Just do some sprinting or hiking in the meantime to stay active while you recover. You start having fun! Its almost like playing. Throwing yourself around a bunch of monkey bars is awesome; its like when you were a kid on the playground. Your confidence goes way up. Knowing that you are a master of your own body is a great feeling. The back-intensive nature of bar training also builds up a

2. 3.

strong, straight-postured back which will lead to you standing up a straighter and taller. As your physique improves people will start taking notice. And it always feels great when you know you are good at something most other people cant do. Just flow with it: listen to your bodys needs and push it when you get the chance. You dont necessarily need to stick to a strict regimen. Just get creative and challenge yourself often and youll be rewarded with a balanced approach to everyday life. However, some people just need a starting point: a jump off to work from. Others love working from a regimen. Because of this, Ive made some great schedules at the end of this program.

Chapter 5

True Power Training

Stop Wasting Your Time On Worthless Training WHY POWER-BASED TRAINING WILL MAKE YOU LOOK & FEEL AMAZING
I like to say that bodyweight and bar training are true power training. If you can master the most explosive movements possible with your body then you are truly powerful. Just think of someone like Usain Bolt. He has mastered the powerful muscle contractions associated with propelling the human body forward. He possesses true power. There are endless, and ever-increasingly difficult, movements you can do on the bar and with your own bodyweight. However, to keep things simple I want to show you my favorite three. If you did nothing else but these three movements every week you would still be able to develop a jawdropping physique and powerful body.

THE MUSCLE UP

Photo credit: Al Kavadlo

This is by far my favorite movement, and it is very impressive to watch. The first time I saw someone do a muscle up was at Tompkins Square Park in New York. It was the coolest move Id ever since and judging from the impressive physiques of the guys who were doing muscle ups I figured there was probably some sort of correlation. By this point I had worked my way up to being able to do over 40 consecutive pull-ups which, to be honest, was kind of boring. So when I saw a group of guys doing muscle ups I knew I had met my new challenge. It took me two weeks of constantly trying the movement several times a day. Then I rested for a few days. I was out for an easy jog one day when I decided to stop at a pull up bar and try again.

And I did one. Ive never looked back. Nowadays the muscle up is the staple of my workout routine. I mostly just do them because they work my entire upper body, back and front, and keep me explosive. Search Muscle up tutorial on YouTube if you are interested in learning how to do one. I highly recommend learning; there are very few other movements that hit so many muscle groups in one motion. They are not easy so be ready to work at it for a while. Remember the big trick is to keep your center of gravity right beneath your hands in order to make the transition over the bar possible.

Thats my muscle-up face.

THE PISTOL SQUAT

The pistol squat is an awesome movement that engages not only your legs, but also your entire core, including your stabilizer muscles (they help keep you from falling over to the side).

The Ultimate Leg Power Movement

Whether you have chicken legs or chubby legs, building up to doing pistol squats will change that.

A properly executed pistol squat is indicative of power in a range of your leg muscles. And as opposed to heavy squats in the gym pistol squats dont bulk your legs up to the point where you have to wear dad jeans or sweat pants.

They give you a nice lean shape and work your abs pretty hard too. If you cant do one just work on it over time using body weight squats and sprinting to build strength in the correct muscles.

SPRINTING
Whether you are trying to learn to dunk a basketball or trying to shed a considerable amount of body fat in the best manner possible, sprinting is a kick-ass workout that will get you to your goal.

Explode
Sprinting is one of the most explosive movements you can do with your body. It also works EVERYTHING. For real, even your arms get an awesome workout. And the GH flush is amazing. I recommend not sprinting distances over 200m though. When you get into the 300-600m range you stand to either induce a considerable amount of stress on your system, or youre not sprinting, youre running hard but steadily (unless you are a trained long sprinter). Elect instead to go HARD, like I cant move my legs any faster hard for 50-100m at a time. Between sprints rest completely. Heck, take 10 minutes if you want. The point is to rest enough to be able to do the same thing your next time around: sprint your ass off again.

Sprinting will indirectly increase your testosterone as well as your growth hormone (GH) levels leading to better muscular potential.

It is one of the most rewarding, exhilarating ways to naturally increase your testosterone, lose body fat, and feel great. Just look at the typical body of a sprinter. Most of them, from the high school level all the way up to Olympic champions, have some ridiculously well-proportioned, highly muscular bodies.

WHY TRAINING FOR POWER IS OPTIMAL

Sifting through the mountains of information on the internet is not an easy task. It can be absolutely exhausting at times. It can also be overwhelming. One of the practices I preach here is that sticking to the fundamentals and practicing an approach to both fitness and life that is centered around simplicity is the best way to achieve a higher percentage of your goals, in less time. That being said, how can we know exactly how to train our bodies to get what we want out of fitness? I mean, everywhere we turn someone is spouting off some new way to get fit or some complicated set of rules that we must follow. Should we lift heavy all the time? Or light with high reps? Or not at all and focus on cardio? Should we jog? Run? Do lots of steady state cardio? Or sprint? Or should we do a combination of all these things? If so, what would a sample program look like?

Heres the problem...

This information overload causes the vast majority of us to lose focus. We completely forget why we have the desire to train in the first place and instead get caught up in the whirlwind of craziness around reps, sets, broscience, etc. We lose our way by getting caught up in the details. Lets bring it back to the basics. In my experience, there are three reasons people train their bodies: 1. To look good.

2. To improve athleticism. 3. To eat. Not everyone is trying to run a world record marathon or qualify for the Olympics. If you are, hats off: youre awesome. Most people want to improve the way they look by losing fat or weight in general, and by gaining or shaping lean muscle. They want to improve their athleticism so they can excel in their favorite sports, whether as a serious amateur or a weekend warrior. And to be honest, many people just love to eat a lot but dont like the ramifications inherent with doing so and not exercising. Understandable. We tend to lose focus because many of us lead incredibly busy lives in general which makes it difficult to sift through and process any additional information. At the same time we all have a comfort zone. And sometimes, the best thing for us lies slightly outside that zone, making it that much more difficult to bring ourselves to do it regularly. We workout a couple times a week, with no real aim, just because its what we should do. And most of the time, our physiques and athleticism never improves. Some people may not care, but for those who do, I have a solution.

Train for power

Focus your training entirely on movements that generate power in your muscles. You dont even need a gym membership or access to a weight room to do this. In fact, its preferable, in my opinion, to use only your bodyweight because the power you gain is entirely functional and athletic.

A few examples of moves you can do:

Example of Clap Pull-Up for advanced training.

For the beginner... a. Standing broad jumps b. High jumps c. Knee tucks d. Jump rope (at high turnover) e. Box jumps (or use curbs, stumps, steps) f. Wind sprints g. Partial burpees For the advanced trainer... a. Plyometric push-ups

b. Plyometric pull-ups c. Burpees d. Clap pull-ups e. High pulls f. Muscle-ups g. Accelerating wind sprints (speed up steady all the way through your destination) h. Bounding into wind sprints i. Burpee-to-pull-ups (then repeat) j. Basketball dunk training k. Pistol squats

This just a list to start from. However, if you did only these movements, consistently, youd be powerful, fast, and very athletic. You would also be facilitating some awesome endocrine improvements in your body that would up-regulate certain hormones known to improve your fat-burning potential as well as muscle synthesis. Another benefit to focusing your training around power-based movements is time. I honestly workout two, maybe three, times per week, for no more than 30-45 minutes per session. I focus my workout around these movements and two things happen: 1. I get tired quickly, so I feel satisfied when Im done. 2. I get a great workout in a very small window of time. Now, you do not necessarily need to go balls-to-the-wall either, going non-stop for the thirty minutes. Ive found that youll get the best results by taking plenty of rest between sets, allowing your body adequate time to recover which will let you get the full benefit from your next set because you can push just as hard as the first time around. Remember: focus on your reasons for working out.

If you are not looking to break a world record any time soon and just want an enjoyable way to lose fat, gain or shape muscle, and have fun doing so, then I highly recommend basing your training around power movements from now on. Youll save time, youll get lean & strong, and youll be happy.

Chapter 6

Body Sculpting On The Bar

Build A Ridiculously Aesthetic, Functional, & Athletic Physique On The Bar
BODYWEIGHT IS BACK
Bodyweight training is in the middle of a resurgence. Gone are the days of gym bros thinking you can only get an awesome physique by lifting weights. And for women, bodyweight training has always been a good idea. However, most people do it all wrong. The most common approach to training with your own weight is to stick with the standard movements (push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups) and do them until failure for a couple sets then finish. That approach is not only really boring, but it also greatly limiting your potential for both building strength as well as shaping your ideal body. Lets get a little more creative with it. In this chapter I am going to recommend the most effective movements, by muscle group, for shaping the ideal body. You can use these recommendations to develop your own custom workout program that focuses on exactly what you need. For example, it you have narrow shoulders and want to work on widening them, focus your efforts on those movements. Then, in the workout programs at the end of the book I will outline several super useful program recommendations for you to follow. Each serves a certain purpose and will help

you reach certain goals. All of the programs will use the movements in the following pages. So use this chapter as a reference later if you forget how to do a certain movement.

THE BREAKDOWN The Compound Movements

The Pistol Squat

The Muscle-Up

Beneath-Bar L-Hold Body Raise

The Burpee

Movements with Muscle Group Focus

CHEST: Military Push-Up

Wide Push-Up

Diamond Push-Up

Incline Push-Up

Decline Push-Up

Front Dip

BACK: Standard Pull-Up

Wide Pull-Up

ARMS: Chin-Up (+Slow Chins)

Finger Gripped Pull/Chin-Up

Basketball Grip

CORE: Hanging Leg Raise

Windshield Wiper

Front Lever Raises

SHOULDERS: Behind-Neck Pull-Up

Handstand Push-Up

Behind-Neck Push-Up

Sideways Pull-Up

LEGS: Standard Squat

Calf Raises
Stand with your feet shoulder width apart and raise your heels off the ground, engaging your calf muscles, Lower, repeat.

Isolation Holds
L-Sit Abdominal Hold

Front Lever Hold

Mid-way Dip

L-Sit to Open-V Hold

Standard Width Pull-Up Hold

Wide Pull-Up Hold

Behind The Neck Pull-Up Hold

Sideways Pull-Up Hold

Half-Pistol Hold

Explosive Power
Box Jump

Knee Tuck

Long Jump Jump Rope Sprinting Bounding Plyometric Pull-Up

Clap Pull-Up

High Pull-Up

Plyometric Push-Up

Clap Push-Up

Chapter 7

The Workout Programs

The Good Stuff!
FOR THOSE WHO LOVE TO TRAIN
The No Gym, Perfect Body Program contains three separate workout programs. Each of them serves a different purpose and will therefore appeal to different personalities and will be applicable for individuals at different times in their fitness lives. The great thing is that these are not fad workouts, theyre simple, solid programs. You may want to use one of them for the next couple months then switch to another after that for the following three months. Its completely up to you. You can also do them for a week at a time and cycle between each program week-by-week. Anything goes, depending on your goals. Please keep in mind that I do not like to give set/rep recommendations, mainly because I put absolutely no focus on them whatsoever in my own workouts. I like to stick to the practice of doing enough reps and enough sets to feel like I put in a solid days work, but I NEVER work to failure (exception: bodyweight squats and calf raises) and I always take plenty of rest between sets of the same exercise. Its okay to move onto an exercise that use completely unrelated muscle groups rather quickly. But if you are working the same muscles in your next movement, please give yourself a little time to rest. If you are constantly challenging yourself with new movements and by upping the ante then you will have no need to hit a wall or get stale or bored with these. You also will

likely not feel the need to do a ton of reps because your muscles will be sore and exhausted from trying the new moves.

Program #1: The Compound Movement Schedule

The Compound Movement Schedule is designed for those of you who are looking to spend only an hour or two per week working out. You still want to be challenged but you like to be efficient with your time. This schedule gives you the most bang for your buck, so to speak. It is very similar to the one I personally use to maintain a male model worthy physique and gain strength week after week. It is set up with a Day 1 workout and a Day 2 workout. If you elect to workout 2x per week then just do these two workouts at some point during the week, whenever its most convenient for you, and youll be set. If you would like to do three workouts per week, then do Days 1 & 2, then use Day 1s workout as your third workout. The following week, do the exact opposite, starting on Day 2 then doing 1 & 2 again to finish up the week. And if you are feeling saucy and want to do four workouts, just do Days 1 & 2, rest, then repeat. However, I dont necessarily recommend this because we want to give the body plenty of time to recover between sessions or you will compromise the quality of your workouts. Rotate through the following cycles between 1 and 4 times for a complete workout depending on your fitness level as well as your motivation for the day.

Day 1: Compound Movements with Upper Body Focus

a. Front Lever Raises (advanced) | Hanging Knee/Leg Raises (beginner/intermediate) b. Muscle-Ups (advanced) | Standard Pull-ups (beginners/intermediate) c. Beneath-Bar L-Raises (advanced) |

d. Burpees e. Chest Dips

Advanced
Front Lever Raises Muscle-Ups Beneath-Bar L-Raises Burpees Chest Dips

Intermediate
Hanging Leg Raises Standard Pull-Ups L-Sit Abdominal Hold Burpees Chest Dips

Beginner
Hanging Knee Raises Assisted Pull-Ups Bodyweight Squats Burpees Chest Dips

Follow this up by finishing with 3 of the holds from the Body Sculpting On The Bar chapter. Challenge yourself.

Day 2: Compound Movements with Lower Body and Shoulder/Back Focus

a. Muscle-Ups (advanced) | Chin-Ups (intermediate/beginner) b. Behind-Neck Pull-Ups (advanced/intermediate) | Behind-Neck Push-Ups (beginner) c. Pistol Squats (advanced) | Knee Tucks (intermediate/beginner) d. Windshield Wipers (advanced) | Hanging Leg Raises (intermediate) | Knee Raises (beginner)

Advanced
Muscle-Ups Behind Neck Pull-Ups Pistol Squats Windshield Wipers

Intermediate
Chin-Ups Behind Neck Pull-Ups Knee Tucks Hanging Leg Raises

Beginner
Chin-Ups Behind Neck Push-Ups Knee Tucks Hanging Knee Raises

Follow this up by finishing with 3 of the holds from the Body Sculpting On The Bar chapter. Challenge yourself.

Program #2: The Bodyweight Bodybuilders Schedule

This schedule is outstanding for those of you looking to add lean mass and functional strength to your frame. Followed for 12 weeks consistently, along with a sound diet you will see some major changes. Both fat loss & sculpting as well as mass gain can be achieved on this schedule. The difference between the two will depend completely upon whether you are maintaining a weekly caloric deficit (shed & shape) or surplus (mass gain). On this schedule, you will be training 5 days per week, splitting muscle groups in a more traditional bodybuilder fashion. However, all movements will be focused on using your own bodyweight, so as opposed to many high rep bodybuilding schedules, you will not get puffy or rounded muscles, instead opting for dense, chiseled, rock-hard muscle. I give rep and set recommendations on this schedule as well. For rep recommendations I prefer to use a percentage of your maximum reps for that movement, so you will need to do a baseline week where you determine and record all of your maximums. Repeat this measurement workout every couple weeks. You will improve, guaranteed.

For example: Your max reps of push-ups is 40. If I recommend 70% of your max reps (MR) then use the following equation. If your answer is not an even number just round up to the nearest rep. 40 * 0.7 = 28 For the holds I use MT - Max Time. And make sure you give yourself plenty of rest between sets!

Monday: Chest/Biceps

Sets
4 3 3 3 3 3

Exercises
Front Dips Military Push-Ups Chin-Ups Incline Push-Ups Parallel Bar Dips Plyometric Push-Ups

Reps
70% MR 70% MR 70% MR 70% MR 70% MR 70% MR

Tuesday: Legs/Core

Sets
4 3 3 3 3

Exercises
Hanging Leg Raises Calf Raises Knee Tucks Squats Front Lever Raises (L-Sit Hold for time if not able)

Reps
70% MR To Failure 70% MR To Failure 70% MR

Follow this workout by walking for 10 minutes, shaking out your legs with some dynamic stretching/drills, then perform 5-10 x 50m wind sprints.

Wednesday: Back

Sets
3 4 3 3 3

Exercises
Wide Pull-Ups Standard Pull-Ups Slow Military Push-Ups Wide Pull-Up Hold Standard Pull-Up Hold

Reps
70% MR 70% MR 70% MR 70% MT (time) 70% MT (time)

Thursday: Shoulders/Triceps

Sets
4 3 3

Exercises
Behind Neck Pull-Ups Behind Neck Push-Ups Sideways Pull-Ups (3 sets each side) Handstand Push-Ups Triceps Dips Finger Grip Pull-Ups

Reps
70% MR 70% MR 70% MR

3 3 3

70% MR 70% MR 70% MR

Saturday: Full Body

Sets
3 3

Exercises
Muscle-Ups cant do MU) (Burpees if Pistol Squats (Assisted if not able - hold onto something with hand) Beneath-Bar L-Raises Knee Tucks

Reps
70% MR 70% MR

3 3

70% MR 70% MR

Program #3: The Explosive Power Program

This schedule will consist of three training days per week. You can train solely on this program to great effect, improving your vertical leap and explosive power over a period of weeks to months, or you can use this schedule in conjunction with one of the schedules above. Ive found that it works especially well when paired with Program #1. But it could definitely work with #2 as well. Just be wary of over training if you decide to take that route. Rotate through the sequence of movements between 2 and 4 times throughout the workout. Do as many reps as you feel challenges you enough to work up a solid sweat and get a burn in your muscles. And make sure to take plenty of rest between movements, especially with the explosive program. Rested muscles are imperative so you can generate maximum force every time, giving you more improvement than youd get otherwise trying to do the movements with half-recovered, tired muscles and half-assed efforts. Day 1: Lower Body Explosive Training

Advanced
Knee Tucks Pistol Squats Box Jumps Burpees Vertical Leap Max Height

Intermediate
Knee Tucks Assisted Pistol Squats Box Jumps Burpees Vertical Leap Max Height

Beginner
Knee Tucks Squat-to-Jump Box Jumps Burpees Vertical Leap Max Height

Cool down with several minutes of bounding and/or jump roping.

Day 2: Upper Body Explosive Training

Advanced
High Pull-Ups Clap Pull-Ups

Intermediate
High Pull-Ups

Beginner
Pull-Ups

Pull-Ups (As forceful as Pull-Ups (As forceful as possible) possible) Medicine Ball Slams Burpees Plyo Push-Ups Medicine Ball Slams Burpees Slow Push-Ups (very slow & controlled)

Plyo Pull-Ups Plyo Push-Ups Clap Push-Ups

Day 3: Sprint Day! Head to the track or your favorite big hill (hills give an even better workout in less time because of the added resistance). Switch between these workouts depending on how you feel that day: #1: 5-10 x 50m #2: 5-10 x 100m #3: 5-10 x 150m #4: 5-10 x 200m (start slower and accelerate all the way through the end) Another variation you can do is to pick one of the sprint workouts and bound into the sprint. This will help train your explosiveness; bound easily (flow with it) then explode into the sprint.

Thank You So Much For Reading!

If you enjoyed this book and learned something from it, please share it with your friends and family - spread the word! I would love to run into some of you working out at the park. There are tons of free public parks full of bars just waiting to be used, but right now theyre ghost towns. If you have any questions or comments either send me an email at christopher@nogym.net or leave me a comment on the blog NoGym.net. Im super curious about your feedback so dont be a stranger - let me know what you think! You can check me out on Twitter @CTheFlow And on Facebook at facebook.com/CTheFlow Cheers, Christopher Walker Heres to you and your healthy, happy life.