Calisthenics 101

If you are thinking about getting into shape, or just toning up, you may be thinking that you can’t afford to visit the gym or purchase any special equipment, but the great news is that you really don’t need to. If you want to improve your physique, strength and muscle tone, all you need is your own body weight and the basic expertise and in no time, you could be training anywhere, at any time without the need for any special facilities.

What Are Calisthenics

Calisthenics are gymnastic types of exercises that help you to achieve fitness, coordination, and grace of movement, but really, they are much more.  In this form of exercise, you use your own body weight for resistance and to build muscle.  Calisthenics make you lean, trim, fit, stronger, more agile, and improve your endurance.

Examples Of Calisthenics Exercises

There are many different great moves that fall under this category of workout, in fact, body-weight exercises are wide and varied and help you train every muscle group in your body and teach the body to use these muscles together, and here are some examples: 

• Push-ups
• Pull-ups
• Squats
• Sit-ups

Getting Started With Calisthenics

Check Out The Internet

If you don’t know where to start to learn the ropes, remember that YouTube is your friend. You can find a whole host of people who can show you how to perform calisthenic exercises at home with routines for all abilities.  You’ll find people on YouTube who have been training for months or even years, who will impress you with their strength and ability, but remember those people started out as beginners, just like you.  Most online calisthenic material is free, so make sure that you have a good look around.  We have provided some of these videos for some amazing at-home workouts.  Just Click Here to become a member to access them – no ads or commercials! 

Get More Space

Even if you try to do calisthenics at the gym, you’ll probably find that eventually, you will run out of enough space to practice your calisthenics.  Pull-ups on the equipment at the gym may be easier, but too much space is taken up with equipment at many gyms.  Try to find a large area of your home, garden or even a quiet parking lot and you’ll find that you have much more freedom.

Cancel Your Gym Membership

You will quickly find that having a gym membership is one of the most pointless things when it comes to calisthenics. If you do use any equipment at the gym, it’s likely to be the pull up bars and a few weights, but in the grand scheme of things, it’s your body weight that you rely on most when it comes to calisthenics.  For the cost of a couple of months of gym membership, you could probably purchase all the equipment that you’d need for all your calisthenics routines at home.

Expect To Feel The Effects

When you do calisthenics, you will quickly notice that you ache after every session, probably more than any exercise routine that you’ve ever tried before. There is a lot of strain on your muscles, even though you are mainly using your own body weight.  You will feel as though you have had a thorough workout. Remember to fit in between 12 and 15 sets of each 15 to 20 reps of each movement and your muscles will tell you how hard you’ve worked.

Commit Yourself 

Calisthenics is not something that can be perfected overnight. You will find that at first, it is difficult and even painful, but don’t give up. You should make sure that you have a good routine that you can stick to.  If you want to stay on top with your calisthenics, you will need to do the exercises regularly, remembering to constantly increase the intensity of the workout session too.  Be passionate about it, and remember to tell others why it’s so good for them, as it will help you to reinforce the benefits of calisthenics in your own mind.

Be Creative

Copying other people’s routines is fine at first, but the beauty with calisthenics is that the exercises are completely flexible and easy to modify to meet your own needs.  Once you’ve learned and mastered the basics, you’ll be able to put your own creative routine together. If you want to make the most out of your workout, concentrate on making several muscle groups work together.

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