So for a long time it has been known that the Bar-barian requirements were going to change for 2013 although no exact specifics were mentioned.  A few days ago I heard the change was going to be bumping the amount of pull ups from 25 to 30 reps but keeping the same time limit of 6 minutes.

That was going to be a tough change. Doing 5 more pull ups would be a challenge and in turn will make getting the 5 muscle ups at the tail end even more difficult.

So yesterday I see that Zef OFFICIALLY announced the new reqs.  I was a bit dumbfounded.

The 2013 Bar-barian requirements were posted as:

6 muscle ups
60 dips
30 pull ups
60 push ups
6 muscle ups

6 minutes of time

This was close to a 20% increase in the total amount of reps.  The 33% increase in dip reps seemed the most extreme of all.

The announcement was linked to Deny’s video where he does the new req’s, barely.

Deny is a a tiny guy.  He has a video where he does 75 muscle ups.  Yet even he could barely scratch out the reqs. Hell he had to kip out the last few pull up reps.

To be honest, I just don’t get it.  It would be one thing if we had dozens of new Bar-barians each year but that is hardly the case.  Doing the current reqs with good form is a feat very few can accomplish.

By raising the reqs so dramatically I think you are in danger of making them too far out of reach,  only obtainable by the rare gifted individual or the professional gymnast and few others. If the carrot is held too far out in front of you, you lose sight of it and lose interest.  I am afraid this will have that affect, discouraging overall participation in the Bar-barian movement.

I also think that adding so many reps is going to make clean form throughout extremely difficult to maintain.  Form over numbers has always been the Bar-barian motto, this change seems to work against that a bit.

Of course my thoughts on the matter are simply that, just my thoughts.   The decision doesn’t affect me personally as I will be thrilled if someday I can manage to pull off the old, old requirements before my body breaks down too far.

If this is the trend the group wants to follow, maybe they need to establish some ranking within the class of Bar-barians as someone that qualified under the original reqs is miles away from the rare few that can hang with the new ones.

Pushing the numbers this high is definitely going to slant new BB status towards shorter, lighter athletes since it will focus primarily on endurance.