Anthony Mychal is a master of building the X physique and tricking – a sport that mixes gymnastics and acrobatics to coordinate unbelievable moves in mid-air. After stumbling upon tricking and working on developing some of the basic tricks, he disappeared into the gym, resolving to improve his physique and break free of his skinny-fat body. He’s since worked with some of the top names in the strength training business and helped many guys build the body they want. His background in tricking and experience with bodyweight training made him the perfect candidate to talk with ConFITdent about using your body as a training tool.
Anthony, your sport of tricking seems to require a ton of body control and coordination. Is this something you’ve been able to train in the gym?
Absolutely not. This is something a lot of people get hung up on with sports outside of tricking too. While progressive strength is great for preparing the body, you have to get somewhat specific when it comes to training for a certain activity.
A lot of people say they’re going to do x, y, and z and then start training for tricking. This is the wrong mindset. You need to build a solid layer for tricking, which is different than building a solid layer in general. No amount of squats or deadlifts is going to prepare you for losing momentary spatial consciousness as your body is suspended in the air.
You can train for this “in the gym,” but it isn’t what people traditionally think of as “in the gym” work. Cartwheels and basic tumbling rolls are a good start. Hijack your yoga area.
From your posts, I know much of your training relies on basic barbell moves and what not. Can you describe how you breakdown your own training program?
My training is guided by one principle: I don’t owe anybody anything. I think people get caught up in this idea that they need to train like a powerlifter, Olympic lifter, or some other kind of strength athlete.
I have my goals of continuing to build an x physique and increasing some select strength and power athletic markers, so they guide every decision I make in the gym. Not an arbitrary sport I never plan on participating in.
I have eight exercises that are my guideposts. I do more than that, but eight exercises are really the meat of my gym work. Everything is a progression from those eight, so I consider them rather important.
You can get a free PDF I made for those that honestly sign-up for my newsletter here. It’s called “Eight Essential Exercises for the X Physique.” It’s really the bottom layer of my aesthetic framework. Athletic veers in its own direction down the line, but if I wanted to give someone a solid start, this is where I’d point them.
For guys looking to get into more gymnastics-based movements, where’s the best place to start?
I really like what Gold Medal Bodies does. They recently released their Floor Two product and I created a tricking primer for that specific course. You can see the details here. Of course it might be better to start with Floor One though.
Outside of that, I owe every fiber of my body to Jon Call and his website, Tricks Tutorials. He motivated me to do everything I’m involved with today.
There’s certainly some incredible strength that goes along with performing bodyweight movements. Do you have any bodyweight standards for being a bodyweight badass to pass along to our readers?
Not really, because I don’t see myself as a bodyweight badass hah. I think bodyweight stuff is fun and that’s why I do it.
If I had to deliver one nugget of information to people out there, it would be to do a lot of pull-ups. If you can do more than ten, consider doing them every day. Maybe one set until you feel loose and lubricated. Maybe one set of 75% max reps. Maybe it’s doing 20 reps as a warm-up before your training session no matter what “day” it is.
There are a lot of ways to go about it, but doing pull-ups at a high frequency is one the best tips I have for improving body composition.
In terms of core training, what are your best core moves you rely on to help build strength?
My core strength sucks because I neglected it for so long. I think a lot of people do the same because it’s boring. They feel like a sellout doing crunches or whatever.
Squats, deadlifts, and whatever else you can do with a barbell is fun because you can always see your progress in plates. Bodyweight skills are fun because you can always see your progress in more time, more reps, or some other tangible marker.
I feel most people attack core training without having something to shoot for, which is why I think most everyone should set their sights on doing a manna.
Honestly, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to do one. But it at least motivates me to do some dense hip flexor training on a regular basis.