Athlete Spotlight: Joe Maddocks
GRAVITY FITNESS: Hi Joe, thanks for talking to us. Can you start by introducing yourself?
JOE MADDOCKS:
I’m Joe Maddocks, a Personal Trainer, online coach, and heavily into the sport of calisthenics.
GF: How did you get into calisthenics?
JM:
Through a mate I went to the gym with when we were 18. He suggested we try this new training style, and it was actually me who wasn’t keen! I just wanted to do weights. But we did try it, and it ended up being me who stuck with it.
Then lockdown pushed me to calisthenics because it was hard to use other gym equipment. So from 2020 I really got into it for myself and started pushing it towards clients.
I’ve done my fair share in calisthenics in the last few years. The biggest was the National UK Streetlifting in 2023 where I came 1st in the u73 category. My dip was 102.5kg, muscle up 32.5kg, pull up 77.5kg and squat 160kg at 67.6kg bodyweight.
That’s probably some of my most impressive lifts, but I’ve moved more into training for longevity and functionality now.
GF: What's a typical training week for you?
JM:
In a typical training week I’ll do 3 x calisthenics sessions.
One will be a heavy duty session with heavy pull ups, muscle ups, and dips and some skills around that.
One will be fine-tuning, with less weight, more reps, and variations of skills using bands.
The final upper body day is just working on skills.
I have one lower body day, and I run twice a week, intervals and endurance.
I have one rest day a week where I focus on mobility, making myself strong where I’m weak. I’ll do things like Jefferson curls, L-sit compressions, and skin the cats.
But I don’t always get all of this done every week. Work has made it difficult to be perfect. At worst I’ll make sure two upper body and one leg session get done, a run gets in, then I can work from that.
GF: What are your training goals at the moment?
JM:
My goal overall is to be “strong in every room”.
I don’t want to be restricted by not being able to do something. Running was my biggest weakness, so I’ve focused on it. I hit my sub-20 minute 5k goal last year.
In calisthenics I want to get a hefesto on the bar, that’s much harder than hefesto on rings, and hold a full planche for 5 seconds.
I also want to do an L-sit press to handstand on the small Gravity parallettes. I can do it on the Gravity medium parallettes so this is the next goal!
GF: Take us through a day in the life, including training and nutrition
JM:
I wish I was a morning person but that snooze button gets pressed! My first client is 7:30am so I need to be up by 6:45am.
I don’t have clients on Wednesday mornings so I protect that time, have a slower start, and have scrambled eggs instead of my usual protein oats.
I train throughout the day and between clients, I’ll have yoghurt and dates to fuel me for training.
I get home pretty late after my last client and edit content, do online client check-ins and onboarding.
On Fridays I take the evening off to spend time with my girlfriend.
Sundays we run a calisthenics training session called Sunday Service and people come from all over to attend.
So I don’t really have a day off but I love what I do. And I reward myself with holidays!
GF: How do you balance strength, skills, and recovery in training?
JM:
I’ve got lots going on so recovery is important. I have sports massage once a month, for me that’s like a body MOT, and I like learning about what’s going on with my body.
For me mobility can prevent injury, and my body feels more comfortable at those end ranges.
It took me a while to find a training split that balances strength and muscle, but I think I’ve cracked the code with heavy days and fine tuning days to balance reps, intensity, volume, and skills.
GF: What's the worst mistake you've made or biggest lesson you've learned?
JM:
Injuries have taught me a lot of lessons!
After I won the Colosseum comp in 2023, I did something stupid. My friends wanted to race round the track next door and I was on such a high from winning that I sprinted off.
My legs weren’t warm at all so the explosive movement was a terrible idea. It felt like I’d been shot in the back of my leg. I fell to the floor and couldn’t even get to the car without help.
That was a big lesson.
Mind you I didn’t learn the lesson straight away. I’ve pulled my hamstring three times since then, always from doing something explosive on tired legs without warming up.
One time it was rounders!
GF: What are 3 non-negotiable habits you'll always do all year round?
JM:
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I’m very routine driven. I can’t deal with things that don’t have order. I need to know what I’m doing and when I’m doing it.
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Training. Always a non-negotiable wherever I am.
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Plan out my day. I have blocks for work, clients, messaging, editing, and programming.
GF: What are your 3 top tips for getting started in calisthenics?
JM:
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Focus on building foundational strength. Push, pull, and learn how to strengthen and move your scapula.
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Don’t be intimidated, be inspired. We’ve all been on our first day, and everyone is looking ahead at someone else. As you move through your journey, the distance you look ahead doesn’t change.
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Get structure. Find a programme or a coach so you know how you’ll get to where you’re going. Every goal will be completed more efficiently when you have clarity.
GF: What do you think are the most under-rated and over-rated calisthenics exercises?
JM:
Under rated: planche.
People send me planche challenges as if they’re super easy to get once you reach a certain level, but people don’t understand how difficult things can be.
Over rated: core strength!
It’s important for sure, but some people think an exercise is all core when there’s a lot more going on. Not everything in calisthenics is because of core strength.
GF: What's the biggest myth in calisthenics?
JM:
It’s got to be that you can’t build muscle with calisthenics, so people go on a bulk then come over.
You can build leg muscle doing reverse Nordics and shrimp squats. They’re killer exercises.
If you want more you can add in weighted cali or traditional weight exercises.
GF: Alright! What are your goals for 2026?
JM:
In calisthenics I want that bar hefesto and to hold a full planche.
I also want to do a G.O.D. set which is 50 pull ups, 1 muscle up, and 50 dips on top of the bar, unbroken.
In my personal life I want to prioritise health. It’s easy to confuse fitness and training with health, but they’re different things.
In business, I’m very grateful where I’m at with PT and online coaching.
The next step is to scale Calibre World which is our Sunday Service sessions, community events, friendly competitions and challenges. The next event is 30th May in London.
Our biggest goal is to build a facility for calisthenics.
We’re close to finding a space then it will be full steam ahead!
You can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel here!
Find Joe on socials and show him some love!
