Calisthenics 3: Progression Charts and Real-Life RPG Skills
The following strength and skill progression charts I'll be showing you are based on the classifications made by FIG (Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique / International Gymnastics Federation). They are very similar to 'skill progressions' in most RPG games. By gamifying your progress in terms of strength, you'll be less discouraged by the plateau that you'll inevitably hit after the first few months of immense gains.
The charts are broken down into four basic categories: Basic Skills, A-level Skills, B-level Skills, C-level Skills. Each of these skill levels has four subcategories with the difficulty of the exercise increasing from level to level.
The Level System
- Beginner: Levels 1-5
- Intermediate: Levels 6-9
- Advanced: Levels 10-13
- Elite: Levels 14-16
Action Plan
First of all, try to determine your baseline by performing each exercise for a given level and write them down. I recommend you determine which level to start depending on your previous experiences. For instance, let's say you can do 50 regular pushups in one go. This means that you are quite comfortable doing them. You can easily try out Rings-Turned-Out (RTO) pushups and see how many you can do. Try not to skip any level and start from the lowest possible level (that you are comfortable with).
As a general rule of thumb, if you can do more than 30 reps to failure, it's time to move on to the next level. You can always move on earlier, but beware that you're much more likely to be injured if you don't properly develop the required strength for a progression.