Today, we bring another Ring Cage and Mat interview of Alex Cowling who managed to do a pull up with 75kg which is a new ISF Open World Street Lifting Championship 2022’s record for his category. Along with that, Alex also did a dip of 106kg and was awarded first place in his category. RDX Sports is proud to support such emerging athletes in their calisthenics journey.
- Any advice for up-comers in the sport?
My advice to people who are looking to get into calisthenics would be to focus on the basic movements like the pushups, pullups and dips. And also try to build a strong core. If you have a strong core, you’d be able to learn more advanced skills in no time. Every more complex calisthenics skills derives from these basic movements. So it’s important to master the basics first before anything else. Also I believe consistency is more important than the intensity when you’re starting out with your training. So focus more on the consistency of your training. Try to train more often, but less intensely, especially for things like handstands. I personally did 10-20 handstands every single day until my body got used to it. So yeah, consistency over intensity.
- What are your favorite calisthenics movements?
My favorite calisthenics movement is probably the muscle up, because I believe it’s my strongest movement. But I do like handstand as well, because for me it’s more of a challenging task as balancing has been the hardest thing for me. In terms of mental challenge, I’d say handstand is my favorite movement. But in terms of strength I’d say muscle up.
- What do you do when you don’t feel like working out?
There are definitely times when you don’t feel like working out. Everyone would feel that way at some point in their lives. Though it doesn’t happen that often, it will still happen. I believe the best thing to do in that situation is to just get yourself to the gym or to the location where you train without thinking about it too much. Because the more you think, the less likely you will be to end up going. You’ll start making excuses in your head. Just don’t think and get yourself there. And then even if you don’t have a plan for workout and you don’t know what you’re gonna do, just get yourself there. I promise you its a lot better than just sitting back and thinking like how am I gonna do this today? I have to do other stuff etc. Just go and see what happens.
- What do you think needs to be done to promote this sport further?
So I think to promote this sport further, it would be good to implement calisthenics in school curriculum. Like you see there are other sports played by students in school like football and basketball. So calisthenics can also be a wonderful sport and if you start it at a younger age, its a lot easier to progress in calisthenics. And the things you can then do are literally amazing. So it’ll be a nice thing to introduce this sport to a younger generation who carries this sport further. Also the benefits associated with calisthenics are incredible. And I feel its important for people to realize that. Apart from implementing it into the school curriculum, sponsoring this sport is also very important.
- Which exercise do you wish you could do but haven’t been able to yet?
The exercise that I do wish to achieve is the full planche without soul. This is something that I’ve always dreamed of being able to do. I mean full planche is such a challenging move.
- What does Move, Improve, Evolve mean to you?
So I believe our bodies are machines and humans desire to move. It’s important to be at a place in your life where you start seeing how strong you can get and visualize the things you can do with your body. I mean the strength anyone is able to obtain is amazing. And I feel like everyone should get the opportunity to experience that. Because it can change the way you think and will give you so much ambition and motivation for other aspects of your life as well. I believe that training your body and seeing what you can achieve from it is absolutely amazing.
One of the greatest feelings humans can get is the idea of journey, development and improvement. The idea of being a better version of yourself. With calisthenics, you start to feel visible changes of strength, aesthetics and mental discipline. for that reason, the sense of development is very important. Move, improve and evolve is about being better than yesterday, challenging yourself and getting out of your comfort zone to start something new. Also, the community of calisthenics is one of the best communities in the world, everyone is so friendly and supportive towards one another and that’s the best part of it.
We at RDX Sports are happy to be part of the calisthenics community and will continue to provide platforms and opportunities for such diligent and skilled youngsters. Helping these young athletes showcase their skills not just brings us joy but also provides us to do our part to motivate these rising stars to keep Moving, Improving and Evolving. Alex Cowling has made us all proud with his incredible performance at the ISF World Championship. We wish him all the very best for his future.
