How long until i can move to the next step?

How long until i can move to the next step?

Nine out of ten of the dudes I’ve trained all seem to ask the wrong question: how long until I can move to the next step? Avoid this attitude. Try to be that one, rare trainee who asks the right question: how much longer can I keep working on the step I’m already doing, and keep gaining something from it?

Remember: moving up a step doesn’t build strength. It demonstrates strength—the strength you actually built by knuckling down and working hard on earlier steps!

A point I always try to drill into newbies is that the earlier exercises are the key to success in the later steps. They are not the enemy—not something to rush. Take your time on each step. Don’t be in a hurry. Slow down, and get everything you can from your exercises. Enjoy them. Master them, inside and out. When you can say to yourself that you’ve honestly done this, and providing you can meet the progression standard for each exercise, using textbook form, then it’s probably time to move on up to the next step.
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This focus on slow, methodical progress is particularly important as you approach harder Master Steps like prison pushups and one-arm handstand pushups. I’ve known some highly advanced, terrifyingly powerful bodyweight men who will spend maybe two months just working on improving a small nuance of a bodyweight exercise; hand position, speed, leverage. They might
do this several times before they are able to move up a “step”!

When you’re getting more involved in bodyweight training, it’s very easy to start thinking in numbers. You become single-minded about hitting the progression standard, to move up to another step. But your body doesn’t understand numbers. It doesn’t care if you move up a step. All it understands is effort. If—by focusing on tempo, control, and cadence—you can make an earlier step seem harder, that’s exactly what you should do. Those later steps aren’t going anywhere, and the more growth and strength you can eke out of the earlier steps, the easier the later steps will be. This is what I mean when I talk about “putting strength in the bank”.

Paul Coach Wade
Convict Conditioning Super FAQ