You're just scrolling through your Facebook reels, and you see someone who can walk in the air like they don't have gravity or someone who can elevate themselves using their two hands. Amazing right? After you watch that, you feel motivated and inspired, and you want to do the same. But before you proceed to that, you should first learn what calisthenics is and the basics of exercise.
What is Calisthenics?
Calisthenics derives from the Greek words kalos (beautiful) and sthenos (power, strength) and basically describes the ability to move your body beautifully and efficiently without the use of any additional weight but your own body weight.
Calisthenics is exercises, that can be done without using dedicated gym equipment or weights. Muscle development without dumbbells, kettlebells, or jump ropes. Calisthenics uses only your own body weight as resistance. You can think of calisthenics as CrossFit without equipment. Squats, Push-Ups, or Pull-ups are the major exercises. Calisthenics furthers your motor skills, muscle growth, and endurance. More challenging workouts are known as Freestyle or Extreme Calisthenics.
3 Basic Calisthenics Exercises
Calisthenics are a few basic exercises that train especially large muscle groups. With incorporating variations the athlete can train specific muscles.
1. Squats
If you want to train your thigh muscles, there is no way you could avoid Squats. Squats are a great exercise since they train your whole leg. Even the back is challenged! How awesome is that? There are moderate and deep squats which differ in the depth of the squat. It is important to always keep your sight straight ahead. A straight sight means a straight back and better balance. You should always keep your knees behind your toes. There is a myth concerning lowering your thighs below parallel to floor level. The saying goes that this will result in high and unnecessary strain on your knees. Instead, quite the opposite is true. If you stop when your thighs are parallel to the floor you stop a natural movement.
This is the part where your knees will experience a lot of strain. Gravity will pull you down while your muscles try to straighten the leg. You should try to go as deep as you can, without losing form. If your back starts to round you should stop.
2. Push-ups
Push-ups are the upper-body exercises. They train the deltoid muscle, as well as your pectoral muscles (major and minor). As always, you should take care that your form is correct. Start lying on your belly, your hands a bit more than shoulder weight apart. Your fingertips point forward. Extend your legs to lift your body up and carry the weight of your upper body with your hands. The head, back, buttocks, and legs form a line. Tense your abdominal muscles to hold your body tension. If your core muscles aren’t strong enough, your back will start to sag. Work your way up with easier variants, until your core is strong enough. By bending your arms you lower your body to the floor until you almost touch it with your nose. Keep your elbow near your torso and keep your body tension.
Easier variants include doing push-ups on the knees or on elevated surfaces. More difficult variants include doing push-ups using only one arm.
3. Pull-Ups
Pull-ups are one of the most challenging exercises in calisthenics. They work your biceps, triceps, and the deltoid muscles. But the most important muscle groups are the latissimus dorsi and trapezius. To start a pull-up grab a pull-up bar above you with your arms extended.
There are two kinds of grips you can use. If you grip the bar while your palms face away from you, you’ll do pull-ups. If they face towards you, you’ll do a chin-up. The second variant is a bit easier since your biceps can move even more weight). After that, you raise yourself until your chin is over the pull-up bar. Try not to hang passively on the bar but instead keep your shoulders tense and in line. Keep your tension by pushing your chest forward while pulling back your shoulders. Look upward while performing the exercise. Your aim is to lift your chin above the bar. After reaching this position, lower yourself slowly back into the starting position.
Read Also: Unlock Your First Pull-Up with 3 Easy Variations
In the future post, we will cover the harder variation of the exercise that I mentioned above and how to do it properly, so stay tuned!
Conclusion
With calisthenics, you are free to work out when and where you want. You are no longer in need of expensive gyms with inconvenient opening hours. Calisthenics have a bad rap for not being as effective as weight training. This is not true. Consistent use of the exercises above will challenge you as hard as any workout. Even if an exercise becomes too easy, you can switch to a harder variant. Maybe you should even switch to a harder exercise. This will not only train your muscles. You will train stability, motor skills, and body control as well.
I would like to know your opinion on this post. Do you train only calisthenics or do you incorporate other means of training? If you have any questions, please leave us a comment and let me know! Have a nice day King!