The TMA program is designed to be done anywhere, ANYTIME!
We have incorporated several features that allow you to conveniently adapt your equipment while on the move, and we'll demonstrate how to do so below.
While it's fantastic to have this flexibility when you're on the go, we strongly recommend a general guideline of keeping all available equipment options active at all times. Here's why:
Progressive bodyweight training revolves around manipulating your body's position in space to incrementally increase the difficulty of exercises. This method promotes strength gains and the development of lean muscle. Instead of adding weights, we alter body positioning and angles. This approach is highly beneficial for enhancing mobility and body control. (You can find more information on this topic here).
Many of the equipment items used in our program can be substituted with items commonly found around your home. We offer a comprehensive resource on alternative equipment options. However, a few essential pieces of equipment, such as gymnastic rings or a pull-up bar, are highly recommended for long-term use. This recommendation is primarily because pulling exercises are a critical movement pattern, and you need appropriate equipment to progress in this area.
Our program is structured to select exercises for your workouts based on the current skills you are working on. If you opt for no equipment, there's a possibility that the app may not be able to generate a suitable workout for you.
How to adjust equipment on the go
With that said, it's perfectly fine not to have equipment for a certain period, especially when traveling or working out in a park. That's why we've implemented multiple methods for you to adjust your equipment settings on the go, ensuring that whether you're in the gym, at home, or on the road, you can adapt your workouts accordingly.
When you navigate to your Workout Screen, you'll notice a small icon next to the equipment:
Yes, you will need a pull-up bar/ring if you want to progress through pulling progressions.
While you can make a lot of progress without ANY equipment, there are definitely some exercises that you won't be able to progress through without it, like pull-ups.
Hence, the biggest piece of equipment you will need sooner or later is something to perform pulling exercises.
Saying that, if on a particular day, you don't have, for example, a pull-up bar - you can tell our app, and it will change the workout, giving you only exercises without equipment.
Many folks inside the program use gymnastic rings - they are cheap and portable, and you can get them on Amazon, depending on your country.
So what about all this other equipment inside the app?
Building calisthenics strength is all about increasing your progressive resistance, slowly but surely. This is how we condition your nervous system and build strong joints.
To achieve that, in the Movement Athlete Academy, we use a number of ways of increasing resistance (you can read about them all here), and items/ props and some equipment are simply incredibly helpful in that.
A higher surface, a lower surface, sliders, and head pads (e.g., a towel) are all items in your environment - a chair, a bench, a couch - that can be used to change the position of a body in space and increase that resistance.
But there are some pieces that will simply make your progress faster and help us build micro progressions.
Rubber bans are very cheap and simple pieces of equipment, but they are extremely useful, and the only reason we implemented them is because they do help you progress and, in turn, make it safer to train and progress gradually.
Can you give me a list of all the equipment that is being used in TMA Academy?
Here is an article with a list of equipment and items we use in the TMA program as well as creative ways to replace them: