How to Manage Rest Intervals to Improve Military Calisthenics Scores

A combination of strength and muscle stamina (conditioning) improves calisthenics scores. The first pull-up you ever do will be a strength exercise. Your 20^th pull-up will be a muscle stamina or strength-endurance exercise. Here is a question about rest intervals during typical workouts to improve calisthenics:

Stew, when doing the PT pyramid (1-10-1), what do you believe yields better results? Is it better to train with less volume but use active rest (running between sets), or take the extra rest needed and accumulate the volume? I aim to improve my calisthenics scores and build muscle stamina and endurance. Thanks, G.

Increasing the volume of each workout will improve your overall calisthenics scores, along with rest days between high-volume workouts. The rest between sets matters, but both options you suggested work well. In fact, you can adjust the rest time between sets in multiple ways in a single workout.

For instance, you may not need much rest in the pyramid's beginning sets, which essentially act as a warm-up. Sets 1-5 will look like this:

• 1 pull-up, 2 push-ups, 3 sit-ups, 1 dip, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 2 pull-ups, 4 push-ups, 6 sit-ups, 2 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 3 pull-ups, 6 push-ups, 9 sit-ups, 3 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 4 pull-ups, 8 push-ups, 12 sit-ups, 4 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 5 pull-ups, 10 push-ups, 15 sit-ups, 5 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)

For these sets, keep moving through them with minimal rest unless you are failing at anything. Another option is to take out the active rest cardio session and just do the calisthenics one set after the other with minimal rest. Eventually, the active rest of doing other exercises (working different muscle groups) and cardio will be your rest.

Sets 6-10 now will get tougher as you progress with higher reps of the exercises and runs:

• 6 pull-ups, 12 push-ups, 18 sit-ups, 6 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 7 pull-ups, 14 push-ups, 21 sit-ups, 7 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 8 pull-ups, 16 push-ups, 24 sit-ups, 8 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 9 pull-ups, 18 push-ups, 27 sit-ups, 9 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)
• 10 pull-ups, 20 push-ups, 30 sit-ups, 10 dips, run 400 meters (or bike 2 minutes)

These sets, where most people fail with the PT Pyramid, may require more rest time. You may also need to break up the sets into two attempts. For instance, say you fail at eight pull-ups on the eighth set and only do four. Continue with the push-ups, sit-ups and dips, then go back to the four pull-ups you owed to that set and see whether you can complete it with the active rest of the other exercises. If not, change grips to reverse grip (chin-up) to see whether you can complete the set. If you succeed, do your active rest jog and similarly attempt the next set until you fail at any of the reps (in that second attempt per set). Once you fail, you must repeat everything you accomplished in reverse order to complete the entire pyramid.

Another option that may help with more volume and less failure is to start over at one and work your way back up to where you failed. This way, you get a "halftime" break and fewer failing attempts, but all the volume you need to see improvements in these exercises. This is called the double-ladder approach versus the PT Pyramid, but both work well to build volume.

The other option to build conditioning is learning to recover quickly between sets, which requires higher intensity. If you can develop your conditioning so you can jog and recover for the next exercise, then you are starting to build the work capacity you need for these workouts and the military training they prepare you for. On good days, push this method. On days you would instead focus on perfect reps, recovery and total volume, add rest between sets as needed.

Related articles:

• A Conversation with Pavel Tsatsouline About Improving Calisthenic Performance and Failure
• Workout of the Week: Pyramid, Super Set and Max Reps All in One
• Stew's Favorites: Pull-ups, Push-ups and Sit-ups

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