THE MAN IN THE BLUE SHORTS | Interview with El Eggs from Cali Move | Athlete Insider Podcast #58

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You really need that um repetition and you need to do it again and again and again of course it's  something about maximum strength but it's also about controlling your muscles and this needs timeyo gorillas welcome to the athlete insider podcast by GORNATION my name  is phil and today's guest is one of the best known faces in the calisthenics scene  somebody who teaches and gives input to millions of athletes out of there  out there in the whole world i'm extremely happy to welcome you to the show alex from kelly move  hello so we finally made it we made the interview and i'm extremely looking forward to this  interview which is a kind of special interview because we'll also announce a special project  that we've been working on but this is something for later to kick off who are you how old are you  uh all the the hard facts but first of all yeah like who are you how do you present yourself  i'm alex from calisthenic movement um also known as kelly move and at the moment i'm  36 years old and was there another question how heavy is always like how heavy and how yeah my  height is like about 172 centimeters um and my weight at the moment is about 68 kilograms and i  switch between 70 71 and 67 something like this okay so um yeah what's really interesting and  also a question that's uh coming later from the community is like concerning your age you're  performing like on a really high level since years when did you start with with calisthenics  i started in september 2012 and yeah started training uh from this day and before i did  different other types of um training and sports like parkour and tricking and yeah  martial arts for a long time and like so so that means that you already had like a really  good uh fitness level when you started with calisthenics i guess um but maybe  you can tell us more about your beginnings how was your beginning in in in the sport  um it started with a video of mine when where i did parkour and then the other guy of calisthenic  movement he saw this video and saw that i was from leipzig 2 which is our hometown  and yeah he wrote me back in the days via youtube because there were still messages available  and he asked if he could come to a training of us and give classes in calisthenics and i was new to  the term calisthenics so he came over we met and he told me something about it and i said yes of  course you can give classes that's no problem and at that time when we met i think it was in july  and after that i was on vacation in america and when i came back i started training with sven and  um yeah it took only a little time that we found out that we both like to do videos and so we uh  started to do videos and i think one of the first videos that we made together was the bench and  yeah we had very good feedback of it or about it and so we thought about doing further videos  and so everything started to grow for the people who don't know it what is the bench um the bench  it was a video where you saw sven doing some calisthenic exercises on a bench like in a park um  and i was coming by jogging and i stopped and then we had a small battle who can do the the nicest  skills and so on and yeah in the beginning i left with a side flip from the bench and  ran on and sven said what this was the story of the video okay yeah sounds really nice so  um sven was doing calisthenics already before you and was kind of um the the guy who introduced you  to calisthenics if i understood right um and i started in in january of the same year like 2012  and he had some background in training with weights and his physiotherapy background  and yeah he wanted to do something new because he was bored by the uh weight training and doing all  the time the same things in the in the gym and so he started with calisthenics that's cool and  uh tell us more about your beginning like uh how was the the first pull-up like uh how was your  beginning with with the basics i guess you started but uh like how how easy was it for  you or did you have like did you feel that you have difficulties coming into the sport  um the basics were pretty easy because i was trying training them already in parkour  you there was a a technique in parkour which is some kind of muscle up or climb up on a wall  and we trained that um pretty often so i it was in no time i learned the muscle up or i was already  able to do it um and yeah it was some something like more playing around a little bit and having  fun and we didn't do those strict workout routines back in the days um we had our training for the  group like i think two or three times a week and it was the same time that we trained for for  ourselves and yeah we we did a lot of challenges and some playing like i said already um so it was  pretty pretty easy in the beginning to to learn a few things and your ambition starting the  sport and also youtube uh was your goal ever to to become a professional athlete or like  was it was the goal always to be the the content content producers that you are today um  no not really in the beginning we just enjoyed doing it and when we find out or found out that  that we like to do videos we started doing them  and um i think in 2014 when i re remembered right we started creating training programs  and put them online and sold them and there was a time when we started recording videos  especially for teaching people um and beforehand we had different topics about calisthenics itself  you can just go on youtube and take a look at our channel and scroll all the way down um and you can  see which which videos we had in the beginning and um it was also the time when we started um giving  workshops and teaching people in person and um i think in in in late 2013 we had our first workshop  and yeah we had or we got a very good feedback and so we continued doing thatand with the time the youtube channel grew bigger and i'm not sure if there was  this this this time when we said oh now it maybe we can go on maybe it's getting something big um  i think we just did it because it was fun to us and we we love to produce videos so  it was over the time that it became more realistic to create something big  i think it sounds exactly the the opposite from from many people today who want to who say yeah  i want to become an influencer and then they think about where yeah what what kind of content  can i produce uh how can i do that but you did it other way around as it seems that you just started  doing videos of something that you loved and and also the video production was fun to you so it  felt natural and not like a professional something right yeah um a milestone for me just pops into my  head when i was um i don't know like it has to be something between 2012 and 14 maybe 15 when i was  um watching television and i was already watching uh your videos and the the in my opinion the most  famous uh television uh channel for for our age uh posiem was uh like um showing uh uh uh a part  of your performance at um tifo total i guess it was um and like this was i was so proud i would  say less saying too much my to my grandpa uh grandfather yeah this is my sport this is what  i do so uh was this uh the big milestone awards is just one big step in in into the direction  where you are today um it was in late 2014 because i think he retired in uh 200 2015  and um it's pretty uh pretty crazy because everyone that i talked to saw this this uh show  um but at that time we didn't really have an impact on social media so we there were no no more  views or no more um subscribers neither on youtube nor on facebook um so yeah in the online world it  was had no real impact but like i said everyone knows it or everyone has seen this show yeah like  it's it's interesting that's i didn't expect that i expect like a big peak  around this time but i think it had a big impact on the sport um maybe like uh there were like  a few big players uh at this time uh there was uh rusty who was doing a really good  job in in germany especially um there was you um and um yeah i think like um  in my opinion it was like a an important step into the the mass like into uh getting calisthenics  more known um yeah i think um it didn't have that big of an impact because we started  doing everything in english and um like from the beginning we had a very big audience in america um  and this tv show is a german tv show and i think in america no one really knows it or watches it so  because it's in german of course and i think that's why we didn't really have an  or had an impact on on social media but of course everyone in germany have seen itokay uh yeah coming back to your um to your um position like to you as an athlete um what  people were asking how long did it take you to from the first calisthenics workout ever to your  first good straddle planche hold so um not after training straddle planche and then you achieve it  like after one month two months even because you have a good foundational strength but in general  first calisthenics workout to the first throttle planche um i did my first straddle planche  before i did my first calisthenics workout so um i didn't learn it through calisthenics but  um when i did tricking um we tried a lot of different uh types of exercises and um straddle  planche or com going down from the handstand into the straddle planche was one thing that i  um practiced and this was the exact same exercise that's then saw in this video um  because of which he wrote me that mail oh okay so yeah i'm lucky lucky that you already were  able to do this drill planche otherwise maybe kelly move wouldn't have been founded um but maybe  um starting with calisthenics what was your main goal and your main reason to switch was it um to  build a nice physique what were like is it the skills or what was it uh fun simply fun because  um at that time i think i did parkour for like seven years or so and it was a few months before  um i i had a small injury in the knee because i landed too too deep and i had to yeah go back  in intensity in the training of parkour so it was a good coincidence that sven just messaged me and  so i had something that really was fun to train and there was a reason why i started it doing it  regular on a regular basis i always have to smile if somebody tells me yeah i did this board and  then i hurt my legs and then i was doing i'm doing calisthenics as it's like as calisthenics is the  sport the way you don't need legs um but um yeah yeah but but it's not that i had injuries before  like um i think in 2009 i had a training and i trained backflips and it was on a small like wall  and i wanted to do 10 backflips and i did them and then a training partner told me oh you have  to do 11 you know always one more and so and then i did the 11th and um failed and i landed sideways  with the knee and so i snapped over and had a small injury in the on the inside of the knee  and i was not able to really train my legs for at least six or seven months  and then in that time i trained a lot of handstand stuff and jumping and um on the hands and then  walking upwards and downwards small obstacles on the hands and so on so um it was not like oh no i  have to find something where i can train my upper body but i always had that thinking okay when my  feet or legs are hurt i just train my upper body and vice versa okay makes sense  coming to today um you're still in an incredible shape uh which i would want to say like especially  uh like i don't want to say that you're old but uh 30 uh 36 years old for calisthenics athlete  you don't see that so often so um respect for that and people were interested in  how how do you keep the shape or like how does your workout routine look like today  um it's pretty different um i it's yeah it changes over time sometimes i have  a training workout routine where i say okay now i want to train with this method for like  eight weeks or ten weeks or maybe also six weeks or so um then i do that um then i switch  back to an open or free training where i just go in the gym and do some stuff that i think i should  do right now um i think it has to do with the ability to know your body because of course i know  like um day before yesterday i trained this this this and this so today i can train  some other things or maybe the same things because um recovery took place already um so it's not like  i i have a fixed workout routine that i do every day or like a big program it changes  very often and the same with the nutrition um we have phases where we  focus on shredding and trying to cut back and lose fat and then we of course also have phases where  we don't really care about about it that much um yeah because we are also humans only um so like  sometimes around christmas maybe if you sit down with the family and having social events it it  might happen that we also say okay now we don't have to count calories or something like this  we just eat like we want it and enjoy it and then maybe one month later we start shredding again and  we try to of course stay at a certain level all the time and we don't try to really get fat um but  yeah it changes like sometimes we might go above 10 percent body fat sometimes we go below it  first yeah it's this is really interesting because i think i also talked with uh sven about this  at the fibo 2004 17 18 something uh like uh that you have kind of seasons if i remember right um  like content production seasons where you take care that you are like really shredded and that  also the content uh looks good we used to yeah okay but now it's it's different because most  of the videos we shoot inside of our gym black gym and um of course sometimes we travel around and do  like nine days or ten days of shooting videos in a row and and of course we prepare for this event  like um in early 2020 we were in thailand and we started preparing like in october or 2019 or so so  that we come down with a fat percentage and yeah really use this this uh occasion to  do a lot of videos yeah um do you still like with what kind of mentality do you go into training is  it your goal to still hit prs and do you still hit prs and personal best or um is it like  maintenance work what is your mindset right now it also differs because of course you you cannot  hit the pr in every work that's not possible um sometimes you go to the training and you feel  not that good and think oh i don't really want to train right now but then in the training you  feel oh man it's it works better than i expected um and then it's it's pretty good and maybe you  you um do something that you haven't done in a while and um a lot of times it's only yeah  maintenance or i wouldn't call it maintenance i would call it a training focused to reach  an end goal or not not really end goal but it goes somewhere so you you train to reach that goal  and to reach that goal you cannot train the goal itself every time because it would be too much so  yeah you do your training with the method that you use at the time and go towards your goalis there a general formula if somebody asks you how many uh days per week should should we  train uh like somebody else how many days per week should we train can you generalize it or  is it no impossible it's it's not possible um one of the the most important things that i learned in  in university and when i studied sports science is it depends it's the best answer in sports science  or most things because there are so many factors that influence that so you you cannot say  um for everybody it's the right thing to train three times a week or two times or four times  it depends really because there is a lot of circumstances each individual has different  different stress levels different kinds of work different kinds of  nutrition different kinds of recovery like sleep and so on and it's it's not possible to say  you have to train like this and this and that's that's also um important to know if  there are different ways and a lot of methods to reach the same goal and for one person this  way works better and for the other person this way works better so it's it's a lot about um  trying um not maybe trying um what to do but trying which method is the best that fits for youyeah i have to understand and respect this this reply because i i  know like i i can imagine that there are so many factors that influence it  um still we have some some questions for example um somebody is stuck and this is  something that i see for a lot of people and also for myself for a long time to be stuck  at the tuck planche for a long time and some general advice uh to to come closer and to unlock  the straddle planche is there something like a common theme that you see um amongst athletesi think variation is key and sticking to training is key because  i also know a lot of people that want to train the planche or want to achieve the planche and  they train it and train it and then they think maybe after two or three months now the time  should come that i get better but sometimes it needs more time and um i think if you if you  train for a specific skill the same way over and over again you need change you need variation and  maybe try some different methods try some different exercises to increase your strength  um and the playing that i talked about in the beginning i think this is a pretty nice way  because you don't look at i have to hold it now for 20 seconds and then rest for three minutes  or four then i do it again and i do this five times after each other and then i have to rest  for two days and so on like playing around just do it and then do something else and do it again  and do something else and so on um i think it it gives your body a very high amount of  repetition in total and for skills especially it's it's very important that you repeat it over and  over again um you can compare it to playing the piano um have you played the piano already i tried  but i wouldn't play yeah okay and how how often did you try it uh five times in my life  all right and how did it sound it was good or awful yeah i think i don't know  the the the english word but alimony ancient sounded good but uh everything else was okay  um now if someone practices his entire entire life to uh really play a very nice piece of music it's  not because it's very easy to do but you really need that um repetition and you need to do it  again and again and again and yeah learn how to do it right and it's the same way and training skills  you have to learn it right or you have to learn to do it right and it's maybe of course it's  something about maximum strength but it's also about controlling your muscles and controlling the  interaction between different muscles and this is this needs time so yeah  that's why my advice would be variation try to get some variation and keep on training  the i think it's interesting that you say variation because it's um in my opinion a  thing where the the people's opinions differ in the calisthenics scene uh one coach has a lot  of accessory work like a lot of uh small muscle uh like in in uh for calisthenics small muscle  and bodybuilding you have like you train really small muscles but in like in calisthenics you  have also have the face pulls or um i don't know um stuff that is accessory work and then there  are the other the other party which uh mostly focuses on basics and the the main exercises  so when you say um variations do you are you also a big fan of accessory exercise for for  small muscles or like focusing on smaller muscle combinations of course because um your body works  as a whole and not only the shoulders or only the pecs um and so you have to train everything and  you have to train the stability of your joints and um working on those small muscles is nothing else  than improving um the stability of joints so that you really are balanced between all those  muscles like you never have a muscle like only one muscle that is affecting a joint  you always have several muscles like agonists and antagonists and they have to be in some kind  of balance so that you don't hurt yourself so i think that's very very important herealso talking about different muscle groups questions also appeared how to combine  for example planche and front lever training the the the over um watching question is how  to combine different skills in in one training split like um is there for especially for skills  for statics um is there like a training split that you would recommend um yeah  um it's it's similar to the other question uh where i answered that it depends  because um of course we have also training programs in which we um included those  pro those exercises and um we tried to combine different methods in those training programs  like maybe in in one phase you train for four weeks in one specific way and in next um  next phase you train in another method so um it's the same like um try what works good for you um  and then uh yeah try as many methods as possible and see what fits the best for you  and maybe it's also this variation and that gives you some some improvement itself so  you can try to do antagonistic sets for example but you can also try to only work um push  exercises one day then pull exercise the other day you can vary the training and frequency you can  vary in volume and so on as there are many things that you can do and it's pretty hard to to give a  exact answer do this and that and then it works okay so your general advice is really to build  a connection to your own body and to uh start feeling your own body and then changing and trying  different things until you have the proven method for you yeah definitely and um it also depends  on on where you are at when you start training because some people are weak like in in the in  the lats some people are weak in the core or maybe in the i don't know the shoulders some people are  weak in other parts so yeah it's hard to say um everyone should do this in our training programs  we still use different things because we brought people there over a long time like um we start uh  training front lever uh and and planche like in level four of our complete calisthenics program  um and before they should do like three other levels and and one level is 19 weeks of training  so they have a lot of time to build up the strength and build like like the foundation for  it and in the other levels we have three exercises for that like maybe a planche lean or so that you  start giving the body some kind of distress that a planche gives and so that you can adapt to the  to the exercise on the long term and i think this is very very important like look look at olympic  gymnasts they don't train like they don't start like at 20 and then they are like with 25 at the  olympics they start with five years four years six years something like this or maybe even earlier  and they built their way up step by step in a slow manner and this is important interesting for you  um what was personally the the hardest skill for you to to unlock and to learn um did you have any  anything that was really difficult for you or where you had a lot of challengesum for me in general pull exercises are harder to do than push exercises  so i had some struggle with the front lever and right now i'm not really able to do it  um because i didn't train it for a long time because i had other prioritiesyeah but there was a time when i was able to do it like for a few seconds but i always struggle with  pulling exercises and this falls down to genetics and the the um focus on pull or push or what is  your opinion on that i don't know i think it it also um plays a role how you moved in the in the  past like if you did a lot of maybe more pushing stuff and less pulling stuff it might be an factor  that influenced that um but i can't give you an answer what the exact reason for that is it might  also be that like like the the levers of your arms and the biomechanics of your body are maybe  better in one person and worse than another person but i'm not sure if that's completely everything  maybe it's like a synergy of both because if something is easy for you you make progress  quicker if you make progress quicker it's more fun and then you focus on it absolutely yeah yeah and  might be sure as it sounds like you and your uh pakora history also did a lot of groundwork like  handstands and uh jumping on and this builds like extreme shoulder and push strength so but with the  climb up we also did a lot of pulling exercises so parkour was pretty pretty balanced i think  but of course with the climb up you always had your legs that also push you up  and you never had that pulling only from your arms and back so true  um are you interested in ever learning like extreme advanced skills like uh maltese  and hefesto or like the the the i would call them fancy uh street workout moves  um in the beginning i was kind of um but at the moment right now i'm not anymore because of course  we are getting older all the time and it doesn't get easier i wouldn't say it's impossible but  um for us it's also right now not anymore this kind of playing and fun it's it's a job like  we have to produce our videos and we want to we want to give new uh new material to the people and  if we get hurt by training too hard or too extreme skills um  it wouldn't be that good because we were not able to continue doing these videos all the timeit's more important for us to produce videos and teach people about yeah how they should  use their bodies and that's extremely important to understand i think because there was also like i  also read one or two question uh comments under the video with daniel from fitness of iqs where  people were also saying that he's not the strongest athletes and yeah i'm stronger than him  and it's really about focus and i think people can imagine the the day and the  the um challenges that come with being like a professional content producer um and sure that  this is your main focus it's not your main focus to win the fibo competition next year um but to to  be the best in in your profession in your area and um you can't do everything in life this is  also something that uh maybe as a as a adolescent or young young person we we don't understand that  we can't do everything but i think the the older we get the more we have to decide in  which direction we want to go and where we want to folk put our focus in because  you also have your family you have like your other stuff um and this is um it also takes time  absolutely so yeah um what what i connect with you is also extreme like mobility on  the one hand but also lack leg strength so what is your opinion about leg training  there's always the question does it slow down my aesthetics aesthetics progress your opinion  in general about leg training and calisthenics um if you take a look at biomechanics i would say yes  it it can make it harder for you to do several skills like of course planche and  front levers and so on are harder to do if you have bigger muscles in your legs and glutes  um i wouldn't say it's it's impossible but it gives you a harder time  and my strength mainly comes from my martial arts background because we trained a lot of  legs back then i did taekwondo for like 14 years wow and it it's it's mostly about kicking  and it was also the start of my tricking career i would if you can call it like this  and it was a lot of about jumping and uh yeah standing on legs and like on one leg and  raising your your legs pretty high and so on and i think this this has a big influence on my mobility  on the on one hand and on the leg strength on the other hand as well and you never train like  with extreme heavy weights uh your your legs right you do mostly body weight if i'm right  yeah it depends on what extreme body weight or extreme weights are for you yeah but um i think  my my 1rm in squats is like 140 kilo or something like this so it's not  very very high like there are people that are doing like two times the amount or even more um  yeah but i think my connective tissue is also not the the hardest one it's like very  very mobile and that makes that i'm pretty mobile in general  and so maxing out the weights in total wouldn't be the best option for me like for my body  so i was not able to do it and i never had the goal to do something like this do you ever  feel in some exercise that you are that your legs uh and is are you too heavy and too big  um i think you don't feel it but if you think about it it might be the case yeah i think  some some things would be easier like front lever for example um if my legs were thinner  okay um if somebody wants to build strong legs but not big legs is the explosive work um that you do  like with a lot of uh jumping and uh like oh of course your your um how's it called like fighting  uh combat sports um background is this the right way or um what would you recommend to somebody who  still wants to have like a healthy strong legs but not still want to progress quick at front  lever and full planche and whatever i think the best way is to train for strength and controllike not maybe doing heavy squats and so on um but doing stuff like like pistols or  um yeah things like that maybe jumping jumping on one leg and so on um  i think that would be a good way but i think especially the um the legs are also some kind of  um yeah given from your genetics like if you're a very skinny person you will tend to have skinnier  legs if you are a athletic person or maybe a bigger person and you will tend to have  bigger legs you genetically you have bigger legs i think so yeah i i was i never had any kind of  very skinny legs so i can't remember okay um yeah speaking of lex uh you are also wearing  uh your blue shirts which you are known for um and we also had a lot of questions uh before  it's uh for the for the blue shirts uh what is the story behind the blue shirts shorts sorry umit came from youtube comments i think um i like the the the blue shorts when i got it  first um because i like the color and i always wore the the blue shorts in in all of the videos  and it um became something like a yeah like a how do you say that like something  where you can recognize people with yeah so um and then in the beginning in the beginning  it started with the comments on youtube and uh which said uh he's only strong because of those  shorts and so on and then he's mobile because of the shorts and so on because i always wore them  in the videos and i never changed and i think this is the way that it started okay so um yeah  everybody who wears this short these shorts can become strong and mobile that's what's uh  nice and uh yeah i'm uh like at this point we can we can announce the the project  uh which we've been working on in the past month and even like over a year i think it is  because we've uh we've been working on on these blue shirts to to make them accessible and make  the the strength accessible to everyone out there we've been working on the blue shirts as  a collaboration between kelly move and coronation and yeah from today on people can i can get it  the link is in the bio and people can can unlock their their full potential with the  with the blue shores shorts um and uh yeah that's uh that's something that i'm really happy to do  um with you and i think it's a really cool project yeah absolutely i really like it  sure um yeah another question um i was i had to smile when i saw this uh why are you bold  this was also a question that some of you uh asked in the in the instagram survey um what is your  your response to that um because i shaved my head every time and and i started shaving my head  with about 16 or 17 something like this when i was in school and um i had longer hair before but  even as a kid i always had the most of the time very short hair um and i think it's the  the kind of hair that fits the best to me and i also think it's pretty easy to handle  when i had longer hair it was like until here or something like this and yeah you have to care more  about your hair and it's an additional task you have to do on a regular basis so um i wouldn't uh  want to grow hair again right now um and yeah like from then i i had the bold the bold uh yeah  like head and um with the time i also lost some hair on top here so it fits pretty pretty good  um but it was not a reason because i or why i started shaving my hair okay um yeah like i would  i would love to see the the the picture of you with long hair i can't imagine at all at all um  maybe this will be one one viral pose um of kelly moves instagram uh in a in a few days uh i'm not  i'm not sure if there are any existing pictures out there okay yeah i would say the same if i  would be you but um yeah we all know that there is a picture and maybe we can go uh search it on the  on the internet um yeah one question that i had uh also um is um yeah uh did you lose your hair  because of steroids and um do you have an opinion on that do you get asked that frequently or yeah  um we don't get asked that frequently but um especially in the beginning we had a lot  of comments of people that said they have to use steroids and so on but we never used any steroids  if we did we would also save because i think it's nothing about it especially in today's world  and it's personal opinion like um for me it's not worth it to take it because on one hand  i won't be that proud of myself if i use steroids because it's much easier to achieve  a good physique of course you have to still have to train and train very hard but you can  unlock some some a way to train harder or much harder and more frequent than you would  be able to do without it and um yeah i i also don't want to live with the consequences so  there are a lot of known consequences of the use of steroids so  it's not worth it to me of course i respect if anyone out there says he wants to use it or she  but yeah it's not it's not for me i understand and also with your uh maltese and injury  uh question you also show that you are really looking long-term and uh also for health and  um respecting your um yeah your longevity and career of cali move and yeah steroids wouldn't  fit into into this theme i think i think it's not worth it to have a few short moments where you  can really live up um and to pay for that with a very long time that you are down so i i um  prefer having a very long time where you are healthy and feel good naturally um and  yeah really can be proud of yourself because you you achieved uh some special or specific results  and it's also nothing that is impossible to do like it's it's a lot of a lot about  nutrition and some training and if you mix that together in the right way  almost everyone would be able to achieve similar looksum i think also connected to your uh to your hairstyle i think the the name lx um uh was  created or maybe you can tell us the story behind it uh maybe it doesn't even have to do something  with it and i completely miss misinterpret it but yeah what's the what's the history and  the background it has nothing to do with it okay um i think i um came up with the name in like 2013  something like this um when or maybe even early i'm not sure um when i started uh with or being on  facebook um and i thought there are so many alex's in the world it's it's it's not something special  if you if you will call yourself alex and that's why i was looking for another way to write it  and in the beginning i had another way of writing lx like l and x like the the x to cut trees and um  yeah then someday i switch to lx like it's written now i'm not sure why i'm just i don't know it was  just the time for it i'm not sure and then later people came up with or it's it's it's x which is  called like it means balls and so on and yeah but that's totally fine for me um there's only one  alex in the world and that's that's more important to me um than yeah people not laughing about it or  saying things about it okay because like subconsciously i always thought alex is because um  of your hairstyle like because it looks uh not too offensive but uh like because of it looks like an  egg a little bit this is why i was thinking l egg like i don't know um but um yeah never mind it's  it's not it's totally fine and it's not the true story and yeah there were other people before that  also said said the same thing that you say um yeah but it shows that people think about you and  that people make their thoughts and uh that you uh yeah they gave some uh yeah that you take some up  some some how to say some uh interest from people so yeah yeah um people ask somebody asked from the  community where did you get all your knowledge about calisthenics how did you become the  knowledgeable teacher uh person coach uh workshop giver inspiration uh that you are today  so where did you get that knowledge from i studied sports science here in leipzig in my hometown  and you learn a lot about the the general or the basics about training and you can apply  those basics of course to each sport like you think about the biomechanics you think about  um how it would make sense in a training methodology to reach specific goals and  then you simply simply apply it to the sport you want to apply to so um i did exactly that um my umhow do you call it the the xm maxims like the the final the final work that you do for your studies  um i wrote about parkour and i did the same thing like there was nothing back then about parkour  whatsoever and i just made up my mind and thought about how would it make sense to  train specific techniques in parkour and then i created ways to split up the techniques like  the final product splitted in part movements and yeah bring a practitioner step by step to the goal  and it's it's nothing else in in calisthenics like you think about the biomechanics and combine it  with the training methodology and then you have the product of course it's not that simple but  yeah and it's it's the the basic way to go uh you would do the same again right if you would uh  have that the end goal of becoming a coach um you would recommend it to someone of course sir cool  um did you have any severe injuries in your careerum nothing severe like um a few pains here and a few paints there butlike in in 2015 i was out of training because i overused my brachioradialis  i guess from doing too many pull-ups and it took me very long to really recover it  and finally in the beginning of 2016 i started doing mobility andonly did that like only mobility training for like three or four months and that was  the final thing that really worked for me like i did everything else before like massage like  stopping training for a few weeks like even months getting back slowly into training  and so on doing some physiotherapy but finally mobility training was the key for me okay so  your advice for injury prevention also for the people out there would be mobility anything elseyeah trying to not create imbalances i think this is pretty important and i think mobility  is a very good way to achieve that when you speak of imbalances do you speak about  left and right or like pull and push what kind of imbalance every kind of imbalance like it's it's  not good if you have an a lower left a weaker left side than your right one or a weaker antagonist  than the agonist of course there are always um differences like it's not that every um  agonist is as strong as the antagonist but it has to be in the in the right balance  so yeah i think you shouldn't train in a specific way that you only uh train for pull strength or  only for push strength or never train legs or never train like rotation in your torso and so on  there are it's i think it makes sense to really have everything in your workout if possible  like if the time allows you to do that sure okay um your opinion on supplements  like do you take any creatine way way protein whatever um it's like our nutrition um it  changes um so when we cut down we of course take supplements and and we try to  not take too many like i mean there is there's a supplement for almost everything right  um if you really want to do it correct you should do a blood test and and see what the levels of the  specific things that you want to take are and if you have a very low level it would make sense to  supplement it but i think for a regular healthy fit person it's not  not necessary it makes things easier in my opinion especially if you talk about whey protein  because if you have a specific goal and you need a very high protein intake it can be difficult  to eat that much and like in chicken for example you have about 22 grams of protein in 100 grams of  chicken and of course to reach like two grams of protein per  per kilogram of your body you really have to eat a lot so and in in protein you have like 90  of the weight as proteins so it's much easier to reach the values umyeah so i think it's it makes things easier and i still think you  should not rely only on supplements like fix your nutrition so that you eat healthy andas good as possible without any non-processed foods it's not totally possible but like try to  cut them out as good as possible and if necessary and if you want to have it a little bit easier  then of course you can use supplements cool what are your goals right now with kelly move and also  uh personal um to to sum up this interview a little bit uh what can we expect in the next  weeks and month from you um yeah um of course we focus on uh continuing without our youtube channel  right now we started trying youtube shorts and i think it's a very good way to present  small and easy topics in an easy way um so we will experiment with that a little bit  then we are working on new programs like right now we are working on a new mobility program  we cannot say it definitely when it will be done but we try to finish it until the early 20th 2022.  um yeah but sometimes of course you know how it is there are things that come in in the way andthat make you need some more time um other than that i work on improving my  editing skills and yeah learning new things about filming and editing and yeah we want to  keep our level or like our level of editing and video content or even improve it yeah and i think  you're doing an awesome job in improving it just uh five minutes before the interview i  saw the the graphic that you did the video that you just posted with the um mobility level that  uh for in the back which was a really nice uh with a really nice graphic so um yeah good job on that  and in general there is a big big progress in the in the past years um small story that  i want to tell um in 2013 i was starting with calisthenics and i had like um i did always did  the the matte bars routines which was back then the go-to to uh to start and um i had some some  shoulder pain doing um knee raises and leg raises and stuff like that and i was writing to the  instagram page from kelly move 2013-14 and i was so happy that i received a reply which was really  um helping my my problem which was the active hang that i didn't hang an active hang back then and  this is why i had pain so yeah big thanks for that and i really um think it's extremely respectable  and um important for the sport with the work that you do you influence like really deeply and you  influence people deeply around the world and this is something that um yeah you're doing extremely  well and i want to say thank you in the name of the sport that you do this yeah you're welcome  nice um yeah we're close to the end of the interview we always have some quick  questions quick answers at the end of the video um first question what is your favorite foodi like a lot of foods so  there's nothing popping up in my mind right now to say that's the most important thing  that i really like um there are a few things okay maybe we should call this interview it depends  uh because this this seems to be the the the answer to everything are you a dog or a cat personneither okay yeah i had cats when i was younger um but i wouldn't get a dog and i  wouldn't also get a cat right now okay uh what is your favorite color blue  blue okay i was expecting that uh do you have athletes that inspire you out there um  i was a huge fan of bruce lee when i did martial arts and i think he's still a very very  uh yeah good athlete um other than that i think there are so many good athletes it's  it's hard to say there's only one that's really good i i respect a lot of uh good uh athletes and  i like that people always try to do something on top of the last like records so people try to push  the limits further and further and yeah that's that's really nice true i just have to think of  the interview with daniel from fitness faqs where i also asked him that and he said a reply that i  never would have expected and he said like an athlete that really inspires him the athlete  is vitaly feshook and this was like uh such a like he's the the complete opposite with his  training method etc than daniel so um yeah i was expecting some something crazy but um yeah it's  okay bruce lee is cool um what would you prefer if you have to choose a good body and or great skillshard to tell umoh i think um the look is is pretty important too um  because of course you you look in the mirror every now and then and it's it's very nice to see that  you have success with the things that you do of course on the other side you are also pretty proud  if you can do very good skills i think it's it's both important on different levels okay  so in other words it depends but yeah i didn't uh do you have a favorite skillskill um yeah planche i would say or handstand pushups is also pretty nice okay cool uh yeah pull  or push push you already said it and like with planche and handstand push-up it's quite obvious  or would it be better for you if i say legsno can we skip this um then do you have a favorite book that you want to maybe recommend umi really don't read that much when i read something it's like papers science papers ori listen a lot to to audiobooks but um to me reading i i never really liked it and and  to me it's a waste of time and when i listen to audiobooks i also always do it when i drive with a  car and try to combine two things at the same time maybe sometimes it's not that good of a quality  the things that you repeat but or remember but i said um yeah but  there's no no book in my mind right now that i would say and that's  absolutely great okay can we maybe expect one day a book from you from youtubewe already had different offers for writing a book um but  until now it was not the right time and we had too many other things that we would or that we  said are more important than writing a book um so right now i would say no but i would never say no  on the other end it depends yeah um favorite uh favorite music genre um rap rap and hip-hop cool  but i also like dubstep sometimes okay uh best calisthenics event so fari don't really have an a good overview of which  calisthenics events are out there because i'm not very interested in those things i remember  back in the days in like 2013 or 14 there were a few competitions and um  i when when i was training parkour i started to not like competitions too much  because in in parkour it was always thelike the idea to not compete with others but compete with yourself and you don't need a  competition to do that so try to compare your your performance to your younger you and not  to the other guys sitting next to you makes sense um yeah the final question of the day uh what's  your message to the calisthenics community what's maybe something that you want to  tell the listeners um yeah um yeah stay active all the time stay safe and train or think about  a long term training and not because you want to reach something that you want to reach it  like in the next two weeks or so but um yeah train slowly and progress step by step  cool alex thanks a lot uh for your time i know you're you're a busy person and i'm really happy  that we made this possible i think it delivered a lot of insights and value um to the people  and um yeah i think it's quite obvious but i still want to ask the question where can  people find you where can they get in touch with you and so yeah if you like our videos  you can find our programs on kellymove.com yes so we will put all the links in the description  to the youtube channel of kelly move uh to the the the uh the online shop and the the  homepage with the plans and uh yeah big thank you again uh before you can end the episode  and say goodbye to everyone i want to say thank you to everyone listening to this till the end  it's been a long interview again i'm extremely happy for everyone listening to this till the  end i'm extremely happy for your time alex it was really a pleasure and if you want to support this  series give it a thumbs up it helps a lot and yeah alex you can end the episode thanks again  all right then thanks as well and stay strong all the time bye.

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