Join the tribe of Movement & Calisthenics Athletes –
people just like you that are working with their own body weight to get strength, lose fat build muscle, recover from injuries and live their best lives!
The Movement Athlete is a tribe of people from all walks of life. We’ve developed a series to introduce athletes who were eager to share their journey with you.
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Atlas, a 28-year-old from Malaysia, has been frustrated to achieve a pull-up. It has been a long-time goal for her but didn’t come close to reaching her goal.🥺
🤔After thinking things through, Atlas realized that she needed to take action and unlock her goal of mastering the pull-up.
So she searched the internet for proper calisthenics guidance that can help her progress toward her goals. She found plenty of information and apps, but The Movement Athlete was the one remarkable for her.🤳
Upon trying out the app through its 7-day Free Trial, Atlas knew that she needs to continue her partnership with TMA, so she can master the elusive pull-ups.
🏆After a month of training, she finally unlocked the pull-ups and MORE! She now has a stronger core, learning more calisthenics skills, and getting much stronger even with bad days in her training sessions.
Here’s her story and how she became a Movement Athlete and a master of her body.👇
“…and one of those things that they made us test was the pull-up. And of course, I couldn’t do any. I think for the longest time that has been sort of like my goal, unlock the pull-ups, do more pull-ups.”
During her younger years, Atlas was in the scouts and one of their physical tests was bodyweight training. They did squats, push-ups, and pull-ups. 🔥
In their community, there wasn’t much recognition of calisthenics as a fitness approach (even though weirdly enough, used as a test of basic strength). Badminton, traditional weight training, and jogging were the usual training methods used to improve fitness levels.
Naturally, during her test, Atlas couldn’t get a single repetition of pull-ups. This experience got stuck in her for 10-years!😢
“I don’t know why I still wanted to do [pull-ups] because that was like ten years plus to go. Why do I still remember wanting to unlock the pull-up?”
Pull-ups are a good exercise to show a good amount of upper-body strength. It’s one of those basic movement patterns in which 📍many people still fail to do so.
Although there’s nothing shouldn’t be ashamed of if you can’t do a single rep. Even though pull-ups look simple and have a natural movement pattern, they are complex (biomechanically) exercise that requires special training and strength development.
Atlas didn’t forget about her experience during the scouts. It seemed like a small negligible experience, but it help her build a goal that she wanted to work towards.
Through various information on the internet, Atlas went on to build strength for pull-ups. Although she found herself in a rut and got stuck in mastering the movement pattern.🎯
“Halfway through unlocking the pull-up goals, that’s when I get to know this thing about TMA.”
Atlas decided that she needed some additional help. Her self-made training program only did enough and she soon hit a plateau that she couldn’t get out off.
After checking out a plethora of calisthenics training programs and content, she soon found out about The Movement Athlete.
She immediately tried out the 7-Day Free Trial and saw the potential for progress.💯
✨Personalized Coaching
“… I’m not very disciplined. So I was just looking around for an app that sort of like does this sort of like coaching for specifically Calisthenics.”
Atlas understands her weakness and that’s great! Knowing your weaknesses can help you realize what you can work on next.
For Atlas, it was her discipline to stick to her training and get the consistency needed for progress. As we all know, “consistency is the key”.
🏆With TMA, Atlas gets a structured training program that’s based on her current skill level. This means that her training program’s difficulty is perfect for her to challenge her without overtraining her. The perfect amount of workload and intensity implemented lets her stay committed to her training without getting bored or burning her out too soon.
✨Using progressions
“Having a very balanced set of progressions was also a good thing [to make progress].”
🏆The personalized program was made easy to adjust thanks to the proper progressions set by the TMA app.
📍Progressions are a set of exercises used to master a specific skill, in Atlas’s case, it’s the pull-ups.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or more experienced, calisthenics always have a proper pull-up progression that can suit your skill level.
For more pull-up progressions read here: 📍The Ultimate Pull-up Progression
✨Objective Progress Tracker
“…compared to a lot of other apps, it’s much more in detail and it keeps track of progression.”
If you want to progress in anything such as calisthenics, keeping track of your training or progress is a major factor to let you push towards your goal.
♥️Atlas fell in love with the tracking capability of the TMA app which helps her remind herself that she needs to exert more effort in her training session.
“Initially, I didn’t think much about it, but sometimes when I get stuck on a certain level for way too long, then it’s like something for me to remind myself, hey, you’ve been in this level for too long today. We need to push harder.”
Having a record of your previous training sessions like a diary helps you keep track if you’re making any progress in your journey. If you don’t track your progress, you can get lost in your training and don’t know what’s happening whether you’re still progressing or not.
Atlas wasn’t fond of keeping track of her training sessions manually so it was a lot convenient for her that she has the app do it for her.
✨Comprehensive Training Scope
“I like that it covers a lot more range than just hitting the basics.”
The TMA training scope puts heavy emphasis on the calisthenics fundamentals, but this doesn’t mean it ends there.
🌟The focus on fundamentals helps build a solid foundation of functional strength, muscle, mobility, endurance, and body control. It’s about HOLISTIC DEVELOPMENT. So TMA placed focused on these basic movement patterns that do exactly that:
Having a holistic approach to fitness helps you eliminate weaknesses to get a more balanced and healthier body in the long run. No aches and pains and movement restriction.
After experiencing these features of The Movement Athlete App, here’s what Atlas is now enjoying with her ADAPTIVE and PERSONALIZED Calisthenics training program.
Benefits Atlas gained from joining The Movement Athlete
Practice Discipline & Consistency
“I just clicked on the progressive training button. And I just said, okay, I don’t care what you turn off. I just want to do something for 15 minutes. And I thought that feature was a lifesaver because there are days when you just know that you should do some exercise, but you are not that motivated to do some exercise. You start to have this decision kicking in and you’re like, no, I don’t want to do exercise, but I think I should do something .”
One of the BIGGEST reasons why most people aren’t making any progress with calisthenics (or any other discipline) is because they lack enough consistency to train.
Consistently training one a week? That’s not enough. Consistently training four times a week for 3 weeks then having two months off? You’ll only lose the progress you made!
Consistency is having a sustainable training program that keeps you challenged for several months, years, or FOR LIFE.
The Movement Athlete takes advantage of the Autoregulation principle so it can keep you challenged on your off days. Auto-regulation is basically adjustments made on the program so you can maintain a level of difficulty on your workout even if you’re not feeling it that day.
Let’s face it. We can’t really always give our 100% to your workout. Our everyday life responsibilities will also drain some of our physical and mental energy.
Having an adaptive workout will keep you training and lets you stay disciplined on your down days so you can keep making progress even if you don’t feel like working out.
Convenient Training Platform
“Why I decided to join TMA was because, yes, it is more about calisthenics, so I don’t have to worry about equipment and stuff.”
One of the major advantages of calisthenics is that you can train with minimal to zero equipment. You don’t need fancy training gear or expensive workout devices, or gym memberships.
“I become a bit more resourceful at looking for places to train because now whenever I go into a room or I see a corner or I see a playground, I’ll say, oh, I can do this exercise here, I can do this exercise there.”
To be fair, to get the most out of calisthenics, you will need a minimal set of equipment. Usually, you will just need three things:
✅ Dip station
✅ Pull-up bar
✅ A wall
That’s all! Nothing fancy and all are accessible and very affordable. In fact, Atlas uses her environment to get her workout done.
For more assistance on calisthenics equipment, check this out: 📍The Ultimate Guide to Calisthenics Equipment and Cheap Ways to Replace It
Build Confidence and Body Control
“What I find is that in this one month of TMA, I find that I am less afraid to fall.I have no idea that the body will find different ways of maintaining balance.”
When Atlas tried out the handstand, she was surprised that her body was able to find ways to maintain control and exit out of the handstand.
This is actually thanks to the STRONG CORE she developed in her fundamentals training. The strong core helps her stabilize her handstand position and lets her feel confident in any other position.
Core training is usually associated with just having a six-pack and doing a ton of crunches but this is a very poor understanding of the function of the core. The core plays a major role any many other movements even as simple as walking or standing up.
With Atlas’ stronger core, she now feels she’s capable of so much more movement.
Saved money from expensive gym memberships
“For me, I came to the conclusion that actually getting the TMA was cheaper than for me to step into the gym.”
Gym memberships have now been so expensive. On top of that, with the current pandemic situation, opting for a home-training approach is a safer approach.
A year of TMA subscription was more cost-effective for Atlas since she can do it anywhere, anytime, and easier to commit to rather than going to a gym.
Free Trial!
“The seven-day trial really helped because I was still undecided at first.”
On paper, a ton of programs can look good and effective. However, this doesn’t give a clear picture of how it can actually materialize when you start training with that program.
With TMA, Atlas gets to experience the FULL training approach of TMA for a full week. She was able to see what it feels like to actually use the program for a full week. After experiencing it first hand, she was sure to become a Movement Athlete.
📌SUMMARY
After her training with The Movement Athlete, Atlas has been enjoying these benefits:
- Built a strong sense of discipline and consistency
- Enjoying a convenient training approach and platform
- Achieved a strong core, balance, control, and confidence
- Saved money instead of training in a gym
- Experienced a free trial
- NOW learns pull-ups and MASTERING HER GOAL
📌FINAL ADVICE
“There are only so much of products that actually make you want to give a damn and give a review. But I felt that at this point, this point in my life, TMA was very helpful. Thanks so much!”
Atlas found value in TMA and helped her achieve her goals. If you’re wondering if you should also get into the calisthenics journey, then you can also check out the calisthenics advantages to now if it will fit you.
For calisthenics PROs and CONs: 📍Is Calisthenics Really A Better Way to Train?
🔥Calisthenics is generally overshadowed by the traditional weight lifting approach. While I can say that neither is actually better overall, Calisthenics does offer a TON of BENEFITS that you would want to take advantage of.
🔥Calisthenics isn’t just specific training like mastering pull-ups. It’s an approach to the holistic and general development of the body and mind.