Calisthenics - How to get fit with bodyweight training

Calisthenics originates from Greece and is composed of the Greek words kallos(beauty) and sthenos(strength).

The bodyweight exercises date back to prehistoric times. In the early 2000s, however, they were rediscovered and further developed in New York. The street workout scene combined bodyweight exercises with elements from other sports such as breakdance. This is how the so-called calisthenics workouts came into being. Calisthenics has been growing in popularity worldwide and has been in the top 20 of the Worldwide Survey of Fitness Trends since 2013.

Calisthenics has become a trend for a reason. It offers a lot of benefits.

There are simple exercises for beginners as well as more advanced exercises for those with more experience, and you can adjust the difficulty level individually (e.g. doing push-ups on your knees instead of on your feet). The resistance is also perfectly suited to you, as you’re working with your own body weight.

The risk of injury in calisthenics is very low because you’re training without additional weights and won’t run the risk of performing exercises that are too difficult for you. Too much extra weight or exercises which are too demanding often lead to injuries if done incorrectly.

Training with your own weight promotes using all your muscles together. This means that you can train less whilst still building muscle and strengthening your body effectively. Furthermore, this process stretches the fascia too.

A study from 2017 shows that after 8 weeks of calisthenics training, posture and strength improved in untrained individuals. In addition, fat mass was also reduced. Overall, through calisthenics, the body becomes firmer, fitter and coordination improves.

To get started with calisthenics, all you need is the drive and maybe a few tools, meaning you’ll save on an expensive gym membership and get to do your workout in the fresh air in the park around the corner.

As with any sport, there is a certain risk of injury. This of course includes calisthenics.

If you do the exercises incorrectly, you could potentially tear a muscle or overstretch a ligament. You may also slip on the pull-up bar or the dip bar. As a beginner, you should train with more experienced people and listen to your body.

Staying motivated and exercising steadily is important in calisthenics as that’s the only way you will see success. At the beginning, the most important thing is to get into a good routine for training and also to give your body enough breaks to allow your muscles to recover.

So that you can finally get started, here’s an example of what your training plan could look like:

Push-ups can be super varied and work the whole body depending on how you do them.

Here’s how to do them: First lie on your stomach with your body stretched out. Then lift your body off the floor so that only the tips of your toes and hands are on the floor. Your hands should be at shoulder height. Now bend your arms and lower your upper body until your face and chest almost touch the floor.

Important: Keep your elbows close to your body. Your body should be in a straight line.

Squats are perfect for strengthening the legs and buttocks.

For classic squats stand with your feet hip-width apart. Then push the buttocks back and squat down. Imagine that you are sitting on an invisible chair. Your knees should not go over the tops of your feet. Keep your heels firmly on the ground. Then come up in a controlled manner to the starting position.

For the plank, the position is the same as the push-up position. Support yourself with your forearms on the floor. Form a fist with your hands. Your head should be facing your hands and is an extension of your back. Overall, form a straight line with your head and back.

For this exercise you will need a dip bar. First, stand between the two dip bars. Then hold a dip bar from above with each hand. Next straighten out your arms by jumping a little. The weight on the arms should be distributed evenly over the two bars. Your feet should not touch the floor and your elbows should be close to your body. Your arms and upper body now form a vertical line. Now bend your arms so that your upper body comes down as far as possible. Then push through the arms again and come back to the starting position.

This is an ideal way to strengthen your core and legs. Either hang from a pull-up bar and slowly lift your stretched legs upwards, or lie on your back on the floor and lift your outstretched legs upwards. Your back should always touch the floor.

For this exercise you need a pull-up bar. To begin, start by gripping the pull-up bar slightly more than shoulder-width apart. Now lift your feet off the floor and try not to swing back and forth too much. Then actively pull your shoulder blades and elbows down behind you. Tighten your abdomen and pull yourself up through your arms until the bar is in front of your sternum. Pause there briefly and then return to the starting position in a controlled manner.

In principle, you don’t need any equipment and can do calisthenics both in the park and at home. As you improve, you can also use a pull-up bar for training. Don’t worry, you’ll find all the equipment you need at a calisthenics park. Whether alone, in a group, as a beginner or as a sports professional, calisthenics is suitable for everyone.

You can build muscles with both calisthenics and bodybuilding, but is calisthenics better than bodybuilding and how can you combine the two?

The two methods of training are different, however they are fundamentally both methods with which you can build muscles and improve your fitness. How strong the muscles built up become depends on the load applied in training. This can be set by adding more weight or by using more leverage. As soon as the muscle becomes accustomed to the exertion, it can no longer grow without an increase in load or leverage.

Taking this into account, bodybuilding is better suited to train individual parts of the body in a targeted way. For pure muscle building, bodybuilding achieves faster results than calisthenics. Calisthenics focuses on the whole body and also trains coordination and stability, as well as control and mobility.

The method that’s better for you depends on your individual goals. However, calisthenics is also perfect as a supplement to classic bodybuilding. Certain calisthenics exercises such as push-ups can easily become a part of bodybuilding training and so the two training methods can be perfectly combined.

No matter if you are a beginner or a professional: With calisthenics you can get even more out of your training. Calisthenics is perfect for you if you want to not only build strength, but also your endurance, coordination and body stability at the same time.

It’s also easy to incorporate a few exercises into your existing routine. Of course, as with all sports, the same applies:

Calisthenics is a cheap way to get fit quickly, regardless of location. So there’s no reason not to give it a try and take your fitness to a new level.