Author Archives: FormIsEverything

In April of 2022 things had gotten out of hand. Or rather, they’d been out of hand for some time, years, really. I’d had enough. I’m a personal trainer. Should I look like this? I weighed 199 lb. (90kg) with plenty of muscle mass from consistent calisthenics but no muscle definition and way too muchContinue reading “I Lost 20 Pounds in 10 Weeks and Have Kept It Off for 6 More. Here Is Exactly How.”

Most people who practice bodyweight squats, or “air” squats, do so briefly. They quickly “move on” to something more “advanced,” after impatiently having asked “how do I make bodyweight squats more difficult?” The expected answers to this question usually involve something like adding weights or working one leg at a time. But to the sameContinue reading “Bodyweight Squats Will Set You Free”

Recently I listened to an episode of the TED Radio Hour featuring Steven Johnson, whose TED Talk started from the premise that you publish a newspaper only every 100 years and it only has a single headline. So your headline must be about the most important thing that happened over the last 100 years, inContinue reading “Longevity and Health-Span”

If you’re young and serious about calisthenics, you’ve got fresh joints and a few decades ahead of you. It’s ok to take the slow road and work (wisely) on the money moves, such as handstand push-ups, the human flag, one-arm chin-ups and the back lever, after you’ve built a base level of strength and muscleContinue reading “Top 5 Most Important Rules for Building Strength and Muscle with Bodyweight Calisthenics After 50”

We need to talk about your New Year’s resolutions. The reason is that this time of year is when most people have abandoned theirs.  The extremely poor success rate of New Year’s resolutions is largely due to the fact that we choose unrealistic and/or non-specific ones, such as “I will quit eating sugar”, “I willContinue reading “Motivation for the New Year and the Problem With Resolutions”

The two best upper body calisthenics exercises for overall strength and muscle building are the pull-up and the dip. They’re best because of the range of motion allowed and the strength required to lift the weight of the entire body. Being vertical push and pull exercises (although some people do not consider the dip aContinue reading “Not Ready for Dips and Pull-Ups? Shooting for Higher Reps Per Set? Try the Jackknife Variation.”

I recently let myself off the hook, and it was probably one of the best decisions I have made for my health. I was coming off my umpteenth “failure” at trying to seriously tighten my eating window. A tight eating window is another term for “intermittent fasting”, which means some flavor of not eating forContinue reading “Do I Really Need to Do Intermittent Fasting?”

Here at Form Is Everything we are about basic calisthenics exercises and programs for building strength and muscle with minimal injury risk and for any age and experience level. Rather than progressing towards skills or more and more difficult versions of the exercises, we build strength by improving technique, adding manageable volume, and increasing frequencyContinue reading “Your One-Year Muscle Building Calisthenics Template to Go from Beginner to Advanced at Any Age”

Here are the undisputed truths that we face as we get older: we need more than ever to move frequently but actually move less frequently due to sedentary jobs, long commutes, fatigue, aches and pains, and demands on our time. We need strength training to improve health and counteract loss of muscle mass but oftenContinue reading “My Incredibly Simple and Effective Health and Fitness Template: The Rule of Twos”

I use basic calisthenics exercises to build strength and muscle and preserve and improve mobility, flexibility and joint health. The workout discussed here, and shown in the video linked below, is a complete intermediate workout for those who are interested in building strength and muscle with basic exercises rather than progressing towards skills, and forContinue reading “A Complete Intermediate Calisthenics Workout for People Over 40”